#676 - Charlie Worsham on His Opry Invitation, the Hardest Part of Having Kids & Growing Up a Prodigy

Singer-songwriter and musician Charlie Worsham sits down with Bobby to talk about growing up with a gift for music, finding his place in Nashville, and the early career moments that shaped him. He opens up about becoming a dad, the unexpected challenges of raising kids, and the ways fatherhood has changed his perspective. Charlie also shares what it meant to receive an invitation to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry and reflects on just how far he’s come.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I mean, I tried t-ball and I struck out. I
tried karate. I chickened out when it was time to
break the boards. And then there was piano lessons and
then a banjo and then guitar and bluegrass festivals and
playing in bars. And it just never stopped. It just
kept going. Hey, everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm talking with one of Nashville's most talented artists and musicians,
Charlie Worsham. He's put out wonderful albums. He's played guitar
for Dierks Bentley. I mean, you don't even know, but
you've probably heard him on some of country music's biggest
records with some of the biggest stars. He's an award-winning
solo artist and songwriter. And all that to say he's

(00:46):
got a brand new album that's out called Once Upon
a Second Time Around. It just came out. And there's
a pretty big reason this release is extra special. He
was just invited to become the newest member of the
Grand Ole Opry. That's crazy. That's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
He deserves it.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
And he was invited by Vince Gill. So we'll talk
about that. We'll talk about the new album. We'll talk
about being a dad. I love this guy. But here's
the thing. I don't know if there's anyone as beloved
in this town, also as talented as Charlie Worsham. So
here he is. I love to have people bring music
that they love and to show it, which is why

(01:23):
we do vinyl too, so people on Netflix can see it.
Will you hold up a record and tell me why
you love it and what it is?

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yes. I brought a trifecta of records. This is Nitty
Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? It was
actually recorded, I just found this out, 55 years to
the weekend that I got invited to become a member
of the Opry. And it was recorded at Woodland Sound
Studio in East Nashville. I live in East. And Woodland
Studio is right across from like Five Points Pizza. So

(01:51):
if you're coming to Nashville, be sure to see Woodland Studio.
It's a very famous old studio. And basically, Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band had a hit with a song called Mr. Bojangles.
But they loved and revered all the old Opry stars
and like Earl Scruggs, the Bluegrassers and stuff. And they
played a show where they crossed paths with Earl and
they just were scared to death. They were nervous. Would
you consider recording with us? And he said yes. So

(02:14):
then they asked another person. They asked another. Next thing
you know, they had all these people, Mother Maybel Carter,
Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, and this fiddle player, Vassar Clements,
who's legendary. Anyway, they posted up and they recorded all
these amazing old tunes. And this was a record I
learned to play banjo to. And long before I knew
where it was recorded and the details. This is my

(02:35):
personal little addition. It's the new Mississippi flag. Thank you,
by the way, for the phone call and interview back
when Mississippi changed its flag. Anybody who wants to do
research can find out why that sticker is there. But
this is an amazing record and piece of country music
history right there. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle
Be Unbroken.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
What else you got over there?

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Everybody knows I'm a huge Vince Gill fan, huge Marty
Stewart fan. But when I was a teenager, this dude
and this record in particular helped me connect the dots that, oh,
That's a torch that gets passed down.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
You have to say what it is in case people
are just listening.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yes, in case they are just listening, we are looking
at a beautiful young Keith Urban debut solo record, self-titled.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Beautiful and young.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Features It's a Love Thing, Where the Blacktop Ends, But
for the Grace of God. One of the guys in
King Billy would always, when we'd jam, that was his
song to try and impress the girls, was But for
the Grace of God. I've played that song a lot.
You're Everything, I thought all these songs were like multi-week
number ones in my mind. But my favorite tune on
here is the next to the last song. It's called

(03:37):
Roller Coaster. It's an instrumental. And what this unlocked for
me was I actually saw Keith play. I had a
banjo gig at a festival in Jackson, Mississippi, played for
20 people. Well, this record was out and my dad
figured out, oh, Keith Urban's playing at three o'clock around
the corner. So we walk around the corner and he's
playing to 40 people and he's ripping it, man. Just

(03:59):
small band. He's carrying the whole thing. Just All the licks,
all the singing, all the moves, great songs. And it
was Roller Coaster, this instrumental that was his big finale thing.
And I was just like, oh, my gosh. You can
be famous and successful and just rip nerdy guitar. I
am in. So I studied this record. It was a

(04:19):
big part of my high school years.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Ever have that soul patch?

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Never really could. I wasn't brave enough. No.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Like the five o'clock shadows, like I can like blanket,
and this is about as much as I ever get,
but I'm not as brave as that man right there.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
What a great looking guy.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
He's a good looking dude. Yeah, what a great looking guy.
And he's a cool dude too. I had a record
release show at Station Inn, and he had reached out
when I posted a particular thing on social media, just
kind of a mental health thing, and he reached out,
and I thought that was so cool of him. He
ended up... we've messaged a couple of times since, and
he showed up at the station and he brought Brian

(04:58):
Adams with him. Like, I'm like looking at these two guys, like,
do you two guys understand how many hours I have
spent covering your music? It's, it was unreal. Really, really
cool dude. Great record. Keith Urban, debut project, self-titled. Here's
the third, the trifecta. Eric Church, Sinners Like Me. This
is Eric's debut record. Um, This record was out a

(05:20):
couple months before I drove to Nashville. I was in
a coffee shop in Boston. One of my classmates, actually,
we split a Penske truck rental, drove to Nashville together
with all our stuff in the back. He was listening
on headphones and he was like jamming out and he
saw me, took his headphones off. He's like, dude, you
got to check out this guy, Eric Church, Sinners Like Me.
And so I did. And the lesson here was the

(05:41):
song Lightning because it only has Eric's name as a songwriter.
He wrote it by himself. And That was a note
for me of like, okay, you can be big time
and write a song by yourself. That's a move. That's possible.
And then our son, Gabe, was born to Sinners Like
Me playing in the background, kind of orchestrated that on purpose.

(06:02):
And Sinners Like Me, co-written by Jeremy Spillman, I wrote
a bunch of my songs with Jeremy, How I Learned
to Pray, a song called Old Time's Sake. And then
it wasn't long after this, I was playing on Eric's records.
The first number one I played on was off of Chief,
two records after this. like Jesus does. And I've always
loved Eric's songwriting and the way he and Keith both,

(06:24):
the way that they bring rock and roll influence into country.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
That's good stuff.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Are those new?

Speaker 1 (06:32):
These are new. I have copies at home.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Oh, so we donate these records. So that's so nice.
They're actually going to get good stuff. Sometimes people bring crap.
I know, and I'm like, no one's going to like this.
But it means a lot to them. That's good stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
No, these are good. These are not even played yet.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
That's like, you're the house at Halloween that gets to
full candy bars. Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
So when we donate those, they're going to be like.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Oh, this is actual good music.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, because sometimes kids don't give a crap. But that's
good stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
No, I care about it.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
You have massive Snickers. Knock, knock. Yes.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
How do you feel about the word prodigy?

Speaker 1 (07:09):
You know, now that I'm a parent... It's a word
you got to be really careful with because it can
come with a lot of expectation. And since I'm in
the business of trying to raise a tiny human, the
first thought I have is not of being, and that
might not have been what you meant by it, but
not of being the recipient of that word, but being

(07:29):
the one who would hand it off with an unknowing
sense of everything that would come with that.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
What was your relationship with the word before you had
a kid?

Speaker 1 (07:40):
I always thought if it was ever thrown around, I'd
be like, not me. What are you talking about? I
just love to pick.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
How did you really feel, though?

Speaker 1 (07:51):
I've always known I had a gift, and being the
right size has been an ongoing struggle that I feel
like here recently I'm finally getting the hang of.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
What do you mean the right size?

Speaker 1 (08:06):
And for a long time, it was hard to be
anything in between. I'm the greatest thing ever. You know,
even if I'm outwardly, I'm super humble, which of course,
when you do that, you swing to the other end,
which is imposter syndrome. And I don't know how I
fooled everybody. They're going to find out any day now
and it's all going to be over. And now I'm

(08:27):
just kind of like, yeah, I'm good at what I do.
And I love to get to hear recordings I made
10 years ago. Be proud of them still and cringe
a little bit too. Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
I'm glad you said the last part. There's nothing I
did 10 years ago that I'm proud of. Maybe a
book I wrote, but I had an editor go through
that like three times. Yeah. But anything that I did
five years ago and I listened to it or watch it,
like I hate it. And hopefully I always hate it.
And this may not be healthy. Hopefully I always hate

(08:59):
it because hopefully I feel like I've grown since.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
That's my whole point. That's how I hope I always am.
But I think, and I would hope for you too,
because you should be proud of the things you've done.
But I mean, it's what you said, growth. It's the
sign of growth. And boy, if I were back in
that position now with everything I've learned, I would knock
it out of the park more. But I'm also proud
of younger me because I was doing the best I could.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
When I said you were coming to do this, a
friend of mine said, he was a prodigy, right? That's
why I asked about that word. It's a weird word.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
It's a weird one.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Because what exactly does it mean except you're a little
too good and a little too young? You're way more
proficient than you should be, but is that because your
brain is different or is it because you loved it so...
This could be anybody. Or because you loved it so
much so early, you actually focused and most kids don't
focus on anything because we don't have to. What do

(09:58):
you think your version of that was?

Speaker 1 (09:59):
I think it was that I was focused. And I
think it was because the part of the gift for
me was I understood pretty early on, oh, this is
what I want to do. And then I had the,
I also had the gift of having an environment in
which I grew up where that was always supported. So

(10:19):
it's not lost on me that that's very fortunate. But yeah,
I mean, I tried t-ball and I struck out. I
tried karate. I chickened out when it was time to
break the boards. And then there was piano lessons and
then a banjo and then guitar and bluegrass festivals and
playing in bars. And it just never stopped. It just
kept going.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
I feel so lucky to have always known what I
wanted to do. But as a kid, I didn't understand
why people didn't know what they wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, I can struggle with that myself, actually.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
I would be five years old. And I was living
with my grandma. She was raising me when I was five.
And she kept, before she died, she kept this thing.
It was like, what do you want to be when
you grow up? And I wanted to be on TV,
on the radio, and a stand-up comedian at five years old.
And so I always knew. And I thought it was
so bizarre that the other kids didn't know what they
wanted to be. And I wasn't judging them. But how

(11:10):
do you guys not know? It was just so a
part of what I wanted to do. I feel so
fortunate that I've always known. I mean, I have friends
now that will go, I still don't know. But now
I get it. You don't have to know. And sometimes
it changes.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
But I feel like when you say that, you always knew.
And so was it weird when the kids around you
didn't know what they wanted to do, yet you knew
exactly what you did?

Speaker 1 (11:35):
I was so excited to get home and grab the
banjo or play along to a Vince Gill record that
I wouldn't really... Thinking or worried about them.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Did you have friends?

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
I was in a nice kind of middle space between
being super cool and being an outcast. And I think
looking back, that was a good thing. And my mom,
being a teacher, I was also the kid that was
hanging out at school after everybody left. And if I
had an instrument, it made the time pass more quickly.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Did you ever almost have an alternative band? Ooh.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Ooh. I mean, I think country music was always at
my core through the bluegrass lens. I mean, you know,
I took those piano lessons and I had a great
teacher who really instilled in me the discipline, the delayed gratification,
which I think is a key. I mean, no matter
what you end up doing like that is such an

(12:31):
important lesson to grasp. And so I got my technique.
I knew how to hold my hands right. And I
learned how to read music. But she also didn't. reprimand
me when I heard something on the radio and tried
to pick it out by ear. And once I got
that basis, you know, the foundation laid and got a
banjo and could just learn by ear, that was, that

(12:53):
was it. And everything around me was just country. I mean,
the guitar, when I first got a guitar, the record
I learned to play to was a George Jones record
that all the nineties country stars guessed it on. It's
called Bradley Barnes sessions. And, uh, My parents took me
to all these great Vince concerts and Marty Stewart concerts. And, dude,
I went through a Def Leppard phase. I'm still a

(13:14):
massive Aerosmith fan. My favorite song to play in the
bar band I played in in high school was Hash
Pipe by Weezer, which is behind you. And so, I mean,
I loved it all, but I always came home to
country in my heart.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
You never had a year of Charlie and the Slashers
and you guys were just out with a flying V?

Speaker 1 (13:32):
I mean, we played a little bit of everything. When
I was in high school, we'd do four 45-minute sets
every night, and we played stuff to make people dance.
It's interesting how it's not unlike what the radio gig is.
I mean, your job is to keep people engaged, and
that was maybe the most valuable part of that piece

(13:53):
of my journey was realizing, okay, Doesn't matter how much
fun we're having up on the stage if the dance
floor is empty all night. And so whatever means necessary
to fill up the dance floor and bluegrass alone, country
music alone was never enough to engage all of my curiosity.
It just is what always felt like home.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Delayed gratification. It's so important. I haven't watched these videos
on TikTok and There will be like a baby or
maybe like a two-year-old and they'll be like, don't eat
the M & M. And if you don't eat the
M & M and I come back and it's not eaten,
I'll give you two. Yeah. And it's fun to see
the kids that it clicks in right away. And they go, oh,
I'll get two. So I'm going to delay this. Yeah.

(14:36):
And then also the two-year-old brain isn't super developed. So
most of them just gobble it up. But I mean,
that's like the earliest version of delayed gratification, like being
a child and going, if you don't eat this right now,
you can have a little more later, like an understanding
of it. But, I mean, I think that is such
a big part of success in anything, understanding– and it's

(14:57):
weird delayed gratification, but it's all the work that it
takes before you actually get the payout. I mean, that's
delayed gratification. That's it. Like putting in the time. And
were you someone who put in all the time in
the bedroom? Like did you go in and just– would
you just stay if you could for hours and hours
and hours?

Speaker 1 (15:16):
I was dreaming constantly. I had a Walkman, a Sony Walkman,
the little CD player with the foam headphones and a
lot of woods around the house. And before I had
a guitar, I would go walk around in the woods
with the foam headphones on and a Marty Stewart CD playing.

(15:36):
And I'd grab a stick and I was on stage
with Marty. And the further in to the journey I got,
the more I was actually practicing it. And I would
learn as much as I could from a record. get
to a point where I just, I was completely stuck,
walk away, go to something else. And then some weeks
or months later, come back to it. But yeah, I mean,

(15:58):
that was, that was my happy place was getting to
be in the, in the room, uh, and just making
music and learning, figuring something out. That was the most
exciting feeling in the world.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Can you tell when people are full of crap when they,
they like reference an artist and you go, there's no
way they'd actually know about that artist.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
In terms of how so?

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Well, I'll sit across from an artist. And right now,
the very cool person to say you're a fan of,
and he was great, but everybody now is on Keith Whitley.
And I'll go, all right, who are your favorite artists? Well,
Keith Whitley, and I know for a fact, they know
three songs. And I've been in a couple cycles here

(16:39):
in Nashville at this point where it's been Waylon and
Merle and then it shifted and now it's Keith Whitley
and everybody needs to say that because that's what they
that's what you have to say to prove that you're
country right I just feel like you can see right
through that crap because you're actually it and when you're
it you can tell when people aren't it and they're
lying and they're being kind of fake about it it's

(16:59):
true that's true it's funny though I.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
I'm more I more want to go into professor mode
or nerd mode maybe and just whether or not they
really know about Keith Whitley, just be like, oh, man,
did you know? Like, he kind of got his start
in bluegrass. Like, he actually backed up a guy named
Ralph Stanley. And Ralph Stanley's band is going to go
on the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year. And,
you know, like, and next thing you know, like, I'm

(17:26):
talking to a wall.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Who had all that music at your house?

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Both my parents had great. They do have vinyl that
I have now become the caretaker of. But CDs, I
was in a CD household. and the local radio station.
Funny enough, mine would be Joe Diffie because I didn't
really know a ton about Joe Diffie. I just loved
when his song came on the radio. He had great songs,
and they sounded rocking to me. But they had a

(17:56):
great collection. My dad grew up in the 60s, so
a lot of Beatles, a lot of Stones. And, of course,
when I got into bluegrass, they got into bluegrass, and
my banjo teacher became another musical influence. Check out these CDs.
Get this box set. sing live music, a lot of country.
You know, they had, I remember counting how many CDs
they had of each artist once. And the most, they

(18:19):
had the most George Strait and Vince Gill records. And
for whatever reason, I never really dove into the George
Strait records. I think it was because he didn't play.
He wasn't like a player. And I was, and I
ended up singing out of necessity, really. I kind of
just was a player until those four hour gigs came
up and everybody in the band needed to chip in.
And boy, I'm glad that happened because- I love to

(18:40):
sing now. But yeah, we had a great collection, a
lot of different things. And then an interesting thing, I
was a little bit of a... I was judgy as
a young person about music. Like if my parents didn't
think it was cool, I wouldn't think it was cool.
And now I've gone back on a lot of that
and thought to myself, well, that's really interesting and gotten

(19:01):
to sort of own the music and become a fan
of different artists now as an adult.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Can you hear... how complicated some of these artists are.
You say the Beatles, and I've watched videos of their
stuff being broken down into different parts, and I'm like, oh,
I had no idea that this was so complicated because
all I hear, I'm just a normal dude that hears
a song, and it's like, it's a fun little catchy
Beatles song, but when you start to peel it back,

(19:31):
the layers are seemingly so different until they're put together
and it works.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
What other artists do you know of that maybe we
underestimate just how skilled they are as composers or writers
or musicians? There are a lot.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
I was going to say Prince, but I think everybody
kind of understands.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Oh, I think you should say Prince. Because I don't
think they understand that he's one of the greatest guitar
players to ever live in the whole world.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Well, and how much of that he was just, I'm
going to stay up for three days and play everything
on this record. But he definitely... And like with the Beatles,
sometimes it's accidental. Like I don't think that they were, well,
I'm going to do this seventh chord here and put
that against a minor flat five or whatever. I think
they were just kind of experimenting until it sounded and

(20:20):
felt right. But I mean, even some of the old
bluegrass stuff, even old Merle Haggard records and Buck Owens records,
there's complexity in there. I actually had this crazy opportunity–
to drive to Georgia and record Patti Loveless singing on
a project that I can't talk about yet, but I'm
really excited about. And for people that don't know, she's

(20:42):
married to a legendary musician named Emery Gordy Jr.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Who was there.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
And in the 20 minutes I sat with him that day,
he started unpacking the harmony parts on a Lester Flatt
and Earl Scruggs song. And that was his whole thing was, man,
they were doing complex harmony and it's a bluegrass song.
You would never think that. So I'd have to put
them in that category too.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
And we're back on the Bobbycast.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
What if I said, man, Charlie's music, it just accidentally
was good. Like you said that about the Beatles. Like
he didn't even know. All of a sudden, it's just
Charlie putting stuff together.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
I'd say that's sometimes true. I see you're too humble.
You're too humble now.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
No, no.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I mean, not always. I know what I'm doing sometimes
with stuff like that. But sometimes it is a happy accident.
And that comes from being a studio rat, man. To me,
one of the coolest instruments that I play is recording
software because I can take what I know on banjo,
put it down on a track, then grab the mandolin

(21:50):
and see what happens against that. And so many of
my favorite music happy accidents– happen that way. If there
weren't a way to record myself and then sort of
take that hat off and put a different one on,
I don't think I'd have ever been able to come
up with certain parts of my catalog, I.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Guess you could say. You ever see the clip of
Jim Morrison when he's talking about computers being the instrument
of the future?

Speaker 1 (22:13):
No.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
It's crazy. It's in the 70s, obviously before he died.
And they were like, hey, what do you think is
going to be the instrument that a lot of these...
It's the computer. He's like, they're going to be making...
And at that time, I mean, Oregon Trail wasn't even
out yet. You know what that is, Oregon Trail? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
I played some Oregon Trail. Dude, I've had a few
wagons turn over in the river.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah. And he was so ahead of it. And he said,
it's going to be used, and not in a bad way,
but it will be as normal as grabbing that there
with six strings in the 70s.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
And when you talk about that, and you're talking about
grabbing that and switching the hat, like, Is there a
different brain that you have to go into if you're
producing your own music or a record more so than
when you're just playing?

Speaker 1 (23:05):
For sure. When I'm making my own music, it is
much more difficult to maintain perspective because I am inside
the song. I'm thinking about what is this going to
be like on stage? Where is it going to fit
into a set? How is it going to work in
telling the story of this collection of songs? Is this

(23:26):
the right key for me? And anytime I'm thinking about that,
I'm not listening to the whole band. Whereas if it's
someone else, whether I'm a session player in the room
or producing, or even if I'm just a fly on
the wall and maybe was a co-writer on the song,
it's so easy to just sit back and sort of
take it all in and be more educated than the average,

(23:50):
but still a fan and listen and go, oh, that's
really cool, except that part sticks out. So that's the
hardest thing about it when it's my record is I'm
so inside of my own part in the song, in
the recording that it's just hard to keep perspective.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
What about the computer as an instrument? Was that easy
for you to learn?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, I had the great benefit of in my hometown,
a guy who lived there had married a woman from
my hometown. His name is Norbert Putnam and he Came
up to Nashville. He played on a bunch of Elvis
Presley records. He produced Joan Baez and Margaritaville and a
bunch of Jimmy Buffett records. Legendary dude. And he had

(24:31):
a project studio. And basically with all that gig money,
he let me buy his gear. And so all of
a sudden, halfway through high school, I had a recording
studio in my bedroom. And I just got to learning
the language. And then studied it in college. Got a
little more knowledge. Got on to Pro Tools specifically. which
is sort of like the English language of recording software.

(24:53):
It's the most commonly used format, I would guess still.
And it felt pretty natural, I think because I had
this setup in high school.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
I feel lucky that when my career started and I
was a little young, that I was able to bring
in things from my life into my career. And some
people thought, man, this guy's got it figured out. But really,
I was just young. Like I was podcasting in 2004, 2005,
and I was dedicated to it and nobody was podcasting
and I wasn't doing it because I was ahead of
the curve. I was doing it because I was 23
years old and there was a big difference. And most

(25:26):
other people weren't 23 doing what I was doing. Yeah.
And so, but I was young and I learned it.
So then when I got older, I was in it.
It feels like that's a bit of what that was.
Like you had in your bedroom and you were able
to be young and do what you do as a
young artist and musician. And by the time you moved here,
you were so proficient in it already that that you
were able to learn even greater things from people that

(25:48):
had done it even greater than what you had done.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yes. I am a firm believer in trying to always
be surrounded by people that you're going to glean wisdom from,
that you have a lot to learn from, people that
are farther along than you, whether it's your touring band
or your recording band or wherever I might be. I mean,
sitting across from you, I mean, I do a bit
of the podcasting stuff. realm, work these days. And when

(26:16):
I listen to... I'm a fan of In the Weeds.
And when I listen to it, I am. Because most
of the stuff I do, I'm interviewing people. And a
lot of times, I just want to.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Okay, they told you to say that.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
No, they didn't. They did not. I am genuinely a fan.
Because I am intrigued by the format of just a
person and a microphone in front of a camera. A
lot of the work I've done to date just The
nature of the gig is that I interview, which I
love doing too. I'm a huge fan of late night,
always have been. And the skill of interviewing, I just

(26:48):
think it's fascinating. But I'm eager to find a place
in my life where I can exercise that muscle, where
it's just me talking. Especially this Mississippi podcast I do
because I've read like a dozen books on Mississippi and
I thought I knew a lot about Mississippi. And I
just want to get in front of a camera and
tell people these crazy, amazing stories about Mississippi. Yet right now,

(27:13):
the only avenue I have because of the nature of
that gig is to interview somebody. And that's cool, too.
I know I'm derailing our conversation. The one thing I
would say, though, about the question that you posed is
all of these things, learning mandolin, learning banjo, being a
side musician, being an artist, being a songwriter, being a
session musician, being a producer, knowing Pro Tools. To me,

(27:35):
it's all multilingual. It's the more languages I can learn
to speak, whether some of them I only know a
handful of words or some of them I'm super fluent at.
It just helps me get my ideas across and understand
other people's ideas so that we can get on down
the road to the fun part and make something creative.
And if we hit a snag, we know how to

(27:57):
talk through it. So to me, it's like I don't
speak other languages. I wish I did, but I feel
like I speak all the music languages pretty well.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
You got to learn Pro Tools as a teenager in
your bedroom. And then you get here, you're so advanced,
not because, and you are, your brain obviously works in
different ways, but you're so advanced because you had already
spent time doing it because you wanted to do it
because you're already playing music young. Like that's such an
advantage that you created for yourself and being able to

(28:27):
do that young, like set you up when you got here.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
You did all the work. So I'm not saying that's
not the case, but how about that? You get to
be a teenager whenever, Pro Tools starts to really be
the standard. And you're also a kid, and this was
my point, and it's computers for us. I mean, we
were just getting into computers. Like a little bit of that,
like I was fortunate. I was fortunate to be young

(28:52):
in my business when computers were popping because I used it.
I think you were fortunate because you were already really
good at what you're doing in computers, and you had one,
and you got to come here and already know all
of that. So you just like showed up at high school,
but you got to go in 11th grade immediately. When
you get here, do you start, like, what do you
do in Nashville when you get here and you're already good?
Because most people I know, they're like, well, I wasn't

(29:13):
even good when I got here.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Join a band and learn all the other stuff that
isn't in books. Get in a van, go across the country,
get in a squabble with one of my bandmates because
he never does the dishes in the house that we're
all roommates in.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
The human stuff, huh? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
That was my first three years. And I'm so glad
for it. It was also, we were a really good band.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (29:35):
King Billy. So John Osborne was in the band and
all the folks in the band were super talented. But
like any new artist, we had stumbles and situations that
didn't turn out the way you might have hoped. And
I now look back and think to myself, wow, like
I sure avoided a lot of potholes. By the time

(29:57):
I was making my own records under my own name,
I'd already made a lot of the dumb mistakes and
gotten those out of the way. So that, too, was
kind of a gift in a way. But also, being
an only child, it was the gift of all the
big brothers I never had.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
A lot of artists come in and they go, I
grew up, I loved Keith Whitley, King Billy. Wait, what
was the name of the band again?

Speaker 1 (30:20):
King Billy.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was right. I sort of second-guessed myself.
King and Keith mixed me up.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, they all.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Do you find people who go, I'm a massive fan.
I was a massive fan of King Billy. And you're like,
you don't know crap. You don't know a single song.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Usually if they know King Billy, they actually came to
the King Billy's Your Friend show. And I still, every
once in a while, will see people who have, we
had these great shirts. I knew King Billy before they
were famous. And they'll have the shirt. There are a
couple people, God bless them, they got King Billy tattoos. And,
you know, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
They have King Billy tattoos? Oh, yeah. How close were
you guys to making it?

Speaker 1 (30:56):
We had an offer from a serious player label. We
actually had a showcase for them at Fontanelle, the Barbara
Mandrell house. And our lawyer came back with some ideas
for revisions and they kind of pulled the deal. But,

(31:16):
you know, oddly enough, our outgoing president of the CMA,
Sarah Trahearn, at the time was running GAC, which was
at the time a big It was like the VH1
to the MTV that CMT is. And we had these
things called GAC shorts that were like 30 or 60
second ads with product placement. But it was the story
of our band, you know, reality show micro-dosed, you know.

(31:40):
And so, I mean, we had a real shot. As
a matter of fact, the last gig I ever played
with King Billy was at 12th and Porter. This new
guy was coming to town from New York to run Warner.
His name was John Esposito, but he went by Espo.
And it was Halloween. I knew at this point that
I was going to be out of the band. I

(32:03):
loved the band, but we had a contract coming up
and I didn't want to sign the contract. And there
wasn't a way for me to be in the band
without signing the contract. And so there I was and
we played the early show so that we could showcase
for Espo. And there John Osborne and Espo were at
the bar after our showcase talking about Telecasters. And I
remember going, I got one more gig with these guys

(32:25):
because we had the regular gig later. And it's Halloween.
And by God, I'm going to go get dressed up
as a Ninja Turtle because I'm going to enjoy my
last show with this band. And I left to dress
up as a Ninja Turtle. And probably a year later,
I played a showcase in the same building. And Espo
called me that night and invited me to join Warner.

(32:46):
And I was off to the races.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
As a solo artist?

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, I remember that because I'd see your face at
the airport. Yeah. Remember the wall?

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Boy, I was proud of that. Of course. I'd stand
there long after my bags had arrived.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, that was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
It was a big deal.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
And so if you're watching or you're listening, you'd walk
through the terminal, the biggest terminal, and on the wall,
if you're walking back towards where all the planes were
on the left side, Warner had a massive buy, and
it was all their artists. And I remember one time
they switched somebody out with Big Smoe. I don't know
who it was, but that's why I knew Big Smo

(33:21):
was from that wall. And I don't even know what
happened to Big Smo. I didn't even know Big Smo,
but I knew him from that wall. But it was,
I remember you on the wall. I remember Brett Eldridge
on the wall.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Probably Hunter Hayes and Frankie Ballard.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Was Rihanna on the wall?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Uh, so I, like, I remember that vividly about, that's
my first five years in this town is that wall
and seeing who was on Warner. And then when someone
would get pulled, I'd be like, Oh.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
You know, you're, I'm now remembering that there would be
a little slight panic every time I'd round that corner.
Cause like, am I still in the photo?

Speaker 2 (33:55):
But yeah, you were on the wall. When I moved
to town, like we were friends, we're not, not friends now,
but obviously life has taken us in different directions, but
we were friends. I didn't hang out with anybody, but
you and I would try to hang out. And then
you had a baby and got your dad and, you know,
and then I watched you like turn from a caterpillar
to a butterfly and fly away. And I'm still lonely.

(34:16):
And you're like living life. It's awesome for you. Good
for you.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
I remember you invited me to a pool party once
and I couldn't make it. It was either a gig
or a parent thing at that point. And. I still,
to this day, I think about it every once in
a while. I wonder if I would have made it
to that pool party if we'd be closer now.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
No, no. I think we probably stopped communicating as much.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
You had a baby. That was literally it. That's the
big one.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
And I remember we went to lunch somewhere after the baby. Yep,
after the baby. And you were like, oh, my God,
this is crazy. And I remember you being so happy
about it, but also very wide-eyed about it. And I
was like, I'm never going.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
To have a kid.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Good for Charlie. And now I'm wide-eyed. Now I'm a
little later in life than you were at the time,
but I'm wide-eyed and like so happy about it. And
like I finally get it now. It's weird. It's awesome.
It's hard all at the same time. Yeah. But yeah,
you know what? Your kid broke us up.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
I'm going to say it.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
I'm going to have to take that into the next.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Therapy session, Bobby. What has being a dad taught you
about you?

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Everything.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Everything. I, uh, Gabe, our son is five now and
going to kindergarten.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
That's crazy. It's nuts.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
It's absolutely wild. And, uh, the lesson I learned this summer, uh,
and I knew this cause, and you talked about this
with Billy, with Billy's room recently, and I'd been told
this and then just, it followed away in my memory
or whatever. But, uh, as your kid gets to each age,
each stage, you're going back and reliving that same stage. And, uh,

(35:55):
I had a good childhood. And also, I was sort
of sent outside to play until the sun was down.
And then, you know, I'd usually be so muddy, I'd
have to just like strip down and get in the
bath immediately because I was just covered in mud and
dog hair and been out in the woods exploring. And
a couple of times this summer, Gabe just had a

(36:16):
lazy day and was on the couch watching TV. And
I got so triggered and anxious. And I think it's
because young me, that would have not been a smart move.
And it was not at all about Gabe. And there's
nothing at all wrong about just taking a chill day.
As a matter of fact, that's been a gift of

(36:36):
being a parent and co-parenting with my wife, Kristen, is
like learning new moves in life, like slowing down, for instance,
and the value of that. And so I'm constantly... having
to check myself because I see something with my child
that reminds me of younger me. And it's just this

(36:57):
moment of, I have to take the deep breath and
literally tell myself, okay, this is not you. This is
your kid. You were the parent. You can think about
this however you want to think about it. And you
don't have to figure it out right this second. But
I love it, man. I just, I love, and it's
different with Gabe. And with Harper, she's a girl. She's

(37:20):
my daughter. She's younger now. She's about to be two.
And I'm, you know, they say you never step into
the same river twice. And I don't think that any
two kids are raised by the same two parents, even
though it's me and Kristen, same mom, same dad, couple
years difference. We're totally different than we were when Gabe
was approaching two. And I love that. It's this sort

(37:42):
of miracle grow for life development and growing up and–
And then there's also the beautiful parts of my childhood
I get to recreate. One of my favorite things I
do with them is I've been journaling to each of
our children since we found out Kristen was pregnant. And
sometimes it's like with Harper six months ago, like, you've

(38:05):
been throwing the passies out of the crib. And there's
45 minutes every night where I've said some things under
my breath I really regret. I know you don't understand
those words yet, but when you read this at 20,
just Ask me and I'll talk to you about this
and apologize properly. And sometimes it's like, you got to
go to soundcheck at the Ryman today. Oh, my gosh.

(38:26):
When I was a kid, I got to go. But
now it's like, and you met Vince Gilley, patted you
on the back. So it's like really fun to sort
of get to journal to them knowing that when they're
young adults, they'll have this story of their life.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
My wife emails our daughter. Obviously, my daughter doesn't know
the password or doesn't know what a password is. Or
a computer or typing or just anything. Yeah, yeah. But
she emails her quite frequently with the point of one
day giving her access to all of that. And some
days she'll say, do you want to email her? And

(38:58):
I'm like, oh, I've got my own email address. I'm
sending her stuff. So probably in like 15 years, I
got to write like 10,000 emails real quick and send
them all to her. But I like that. I like
that you're so aware that today matters tomorrow. Mm-hmm. And
all the little things that are happening today are going
to matter tomorrow. Do you and your wife have similar

(39:21):
models as parents?

Speaker 1 (39:23):
I think we have a good bit of similarity. And
then we have our own places where we branch off
in different directions. But side note, you do this all
the time. You literally have a microphone in front of you.
You could just give them audio voice memos. And then
they get the benefit of your voice.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
I hate my voice.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, but they're going to love it. That's their dad's voice. Anyway, yeah,
so my wife had a sister growing up. So her
mom's family grew up all around here. So we actually
were both Opryland kids. We'd come to Nashville and go
to Opryland and ride the rides. And one of my
favorite things is sometimes at night, Gabe will have to
use the bathroom. And we have a map of Opryland

(40:04):
in the kids' bathroom. And so we'll play I Spy
on the Opryland bathroom. I'm like, dude, there's no way
you're going to get this because, like, I've known this
map since I was a kid. You could blindfold me,
recreate Opryland, and I could take you to all the rides,
you know.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Because my wife and I have such different parental models,
I feel like I'm learning a lot from her. I
didn't have parents, so I didn't only have the model.
She has amazing, very present parents. Yeah. And that made
me very uncomfortable at first. It made me very uncomfortable
before we even had a kid.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Because I didn't know what it was like to just
sit around and talk for Christmas and Christmas Eve, just
be there and everybody just sits around and does nothing. Like,
what are we doing? Like, where's the poker chips? Like,
we're gambling. Like something, like what's happening? I was very
uncomfortable with them.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
But they've been so present even to me before we
had the baby. And they've been so present even with
the baby. They live nine and a half, 10 hours
away drive. And they get in their freaking cars and
drive over here all the time. That's awesome. And I
worried because I didn't have a model and she has
a very strong model. that there would be this warm

(41:16):
front meets cold front tornado and who knows how it's
going to end once the destruction starts. I have found
myself in this situation doing something I don't normally do,
just leaning and going, I have no idea. I just
want to learn everything. And it's not too different. I
don't have one. And it's been really nice to embrace

(41:41):
learning because I do feel a bit childlike and I
didn't have it. So it's like my daughter and I
get to experience this at the same time with family.
Family has been weird for me. I was talking to
my wife last night. I said, is it odd to
you that like we have a unit now? And she says,
what do you mean odd? I said, I just, I
never envisioned having a unit really. You talked about it.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
I'd like to have kids, like to get married if so,
but I never thought I was going to meet anybody
much less have an actual family. And she said, well,
I kind of, You know, always wanted and thought I
would have one because she saw one though. Like she saw,
she lived one.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Modeling is, and that's what y'all are doing now.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
And I never, to me, never was one modeled nor,
so I didn't think it was a real thing. It
kind of felt like Central Perk. You know, you don't
really go to that cafe. It's just, you know, it's there. So,
but yeah, last night we were having the conversation. I
was like, this is odd. And I don't mean odd
in a bad way.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
But odd in, I kind of can't believe it. Yeah.
because this is like fairytale stuff from where, how I
grew up. Yeah. So it's been great for me not
having a model and her having a great model. And
I just wondered about you and your wife and how
you guys dealt with that, because obviously your models aren't
gonna be exactly the same. How do you guys, what's

(43:01):
the key to your compromise?

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Well, we're learning it every day. And I relate so
much to what you talked about just now. I've, a
stack of... I'm reading a parent book all the time
and listening to the podcast. And that's just... I'm a
three on the Enneagram. So if I check off a
bunch of boxes and know that I did the homework,
I just feel better and more safe. And that's a

(43:26):
big part of what I feel like I do, regardless
of what my model was. And I'm really interested in...
And I think most of the conversations that my wife
and I have around parenting are about... it's all generational,
all of it. I'm the recipient of generational blessings and

(43:49):
the opposite of that. I don't want to say generational
curses sounds heavy, but generational wounds, I guess. And same
with most people have a little bit of both. And
so it's more about, hey, what generational blessings do we
want to pass down And what things do we want

(44:12):
to end with us? And that's really the lens. And
it's not about our families so much as it is
about just our kids and their future.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
The Bobby cast. We'll be right back. This is the
Bobby cast.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
What new feelings have you had about yourself? Or what
new feelings have you had about your parents? Because I
find myself now like being so grateful for my grandma. Yeah.
Because she did not have.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
To step in.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
She was older.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
She already had many kids. Her husband died when my
mom was eight and she raised me.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
She did not have to do that. And that was
just so normal.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
It was just a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But now that
I got older and like I have a baby. I think, man,
I appreciate that so much now. And I don't think
that I would have had I not got to experience
it on this end. I think I've learned a lot
about whatever my parent situation was by being a parent.

(45:25):
And I've only been one five months. That's enough though.
So there's like a genuine appreciation and I already had it,
but more deeper for my grandma. What do you have
towards your parents now that you're a parent?

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah. Well, I certainly wouldn't be here talking to you
if they had not been so supportive and made sure
I had every resource I needed to chase the thing
I was so curious and determined to chase. And so
there is a lot of gratitude. And when I get
really frustrated or, you know, have to like walk out
of the room because there's a meltdown happening or something,

(46:02):
it's a lot of things at once. I mean, one
being this appreciation for when they showed patience with me.
this awareness of, oh, I am whatever my reaction might be.
And like the word reaction versus response, right? Like that's
the big lesson I'm trying to practice every day is
just to respond and not react. But when I react,

(46:25):
I find that I'm reacting the way that I would
have seen the people who raised me react. And I also,
in becoming a parent, have learned more about my parents'
lives and gotten more curious about their childhoods. And I
don't know sports. I know you know sports very well.
You have a podcast about it. Essentially, the metaphor is

(46:49):
they moved the ball so far down the field in
their time being parent, holding the possession of the ball.
And there's a sadness. Sometimes I just feel sad because
I think about things that I had that I know
they didn't have. And everybody grows up getting something they

(47:10):
didn't deserve to get. And sometimes it's a little tiny
thing and sometimes it's a massive thing. Or not getting
something that they deserved to get. And I think about
the other night, and I'm not trying to just bring
this into the conversation, but this is where that question
takes me. So I got asked to be a member

(47:31):
of the Opry by my hero, by Vince Gill, on
the Ryman stage. And Kristen saw this. I don't think
I would have known I did it. She and the
management team I have in this room and so many
people orchestrated this amazing surprise. And it went on for
a month. I couldn't have kept the secret for three hours.
It had been on every post and everything, text thread.

(47:57):
But it just happens. And the funny thing, too, about
that moment is it happened. And Then I had to
go play the last six songs of the show. And
two of the guys were out. So I was covering
for other parts. So I was just like, I can't
fully embrace this for another six songs because I got
to get through. And one of them is Go Rest
High on that Mountain. So it's like, I can't screw

(48:17):
that up. What was also really sweet about it is
it was all these songs that I grew up in
my bedroom practicing. So then I'm starting to cry again.
But as the announcement is made, I look out to
the wing of the Opry, the side of the stage.
And there's my wife. She comes out and hugs me.
And I'm holding back tears. It's amazing. And then the
show goes on. And then I'll look over to the

(48:38):
side again after the show starts back, and there's my dad.
And Kristen saw me do this. I go, Dad. Like,
you know those videos you see of kids when they're, like,
in the school play, and they see their parent in
the crowd, and they're just like, it's like they won
the lottery? Like, it was that. I didn't even know
I did it. And Kristen, after, like, it's like 2

(48:59):
in the morning, and we just get home. We're talking,
and she's like, do you remember when you saw your dad?
He went, and so in that moment for me was
that he was there. And then the childhood he had
and things that he deserved that he didn't get, you know,
had he had that moment. I don't know if he

(49:20):
would have had that same gift wrapped up in that
moment that I had. And so I'm so grateful for
both my parents for the ways in which they showed
up for me that their parents didn't for them. They
did all the things they could to stop the generational
traumas and to establish generational blessings. And nobody gets it perfect,

(49:41):
but they move the ball down the field, man.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
I even appreciate now being a parent, my mom who
got pregnant at 15 and my biological dad who I
don't know who ended up leaving, but I tell you
why I appreciate them now. I didn't think about this
until you said it. It's hard to keep a baby alive.
And I say that joking and I say that not joking.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Yeah, it's really true.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
And My mom had me right after her 16th birthday
and they kept me alive. Yeah. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's pretty wild.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
And so I think about that and like, I have
an appreciation and then there's the guilt part of it too,
where I'm going, man, if they wouldn't have had me,
they'd probably had a chance at it. Like they gave
up on their kids, but like, it's what we've done
with our, baby, just keeping it alive. And I think, man,

(50:39):
how do they do that at poor and 16? I
would have never felt that appreciation because I don't have
it in my heart for my biological dad at all,
but I do now just for that. So that's some
of the heaviness that I don't think I've ever visited.
I thought I'd visit in therapy. I mean, I'm probably

(51:00):
50 grand in therapy this year. No, not in this year.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
No, hey. Worth every penny, man.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
But I thought I'd visited it so many times and
felt like I'd fully taken the sponge and squeezed. But man,
having a kid... Cracks it open again. It just reintroduces
parts of it that I never... Rooms I've never even
been in. It's back there. That's really cool about your dad. Yeah.
The fact that you don't remember it is even cooler

(51:26):
because it was all instinct.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
It was... It was....

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Part of... Like the inner you. Yeah. That you didn't
have to communicate with to make it happen. Like it
happened because everything had happened leading up to it.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Our inner child. We've both been to on-site and that
thing at the end where you go grab your inner
child and like, I got you now. I actually did that.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
With a real kid. I didn't know you were supposed
to do it with your inner child. I grabbed a
real kid. Did you? No, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Here's some socks. But man– Yeah, it wasn't 40-year-old me
saying it. That was like 10, 12-year-old me.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
When did you get to fully enjoy that?

Speaker 1 (52:08):
That moment? It was a cascade of full circle everything
for hours on end that day. Even before it happened
that now looking back, I'm like, that's eerie. And I
think when I got home with my wife and– It

(52:31):
was just the two of us in the kitchen and
the house was quiet. It was just like, I cannot
believe this happened.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
You had no idea.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
I had no idea except that I have hoped for
it since I can remember, especially on big days like
record launch days. I mean, dude, I can't tell you
how many like Tuesday night operas with a half full
audience that I'm just like, oh, I wonder if somebody's
in the wings. Is this the moment? Is this going
to happen? And I love that I have that in
my life because I think it's important to manifest. I

(53:01):
think it's important to give yourself a stick and a
carrot to run towards. And for me, that was really
always the Opry.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
But that night.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
But that night, I did not expect it. So I
interviewed Vince earlier in the day at the Ryman. And
earlier that week, I told Kristen just at the house
and ran him. I was like, man, I got this
weird feeling. I just have to say it out loud.
I feel like I might, like maybe, like it would
certainly be a cool opportunity if Vince was ever going
to ask me to join the Opry. Like there's the cameras,

(53:30):
and I've seen them do it before, like Dolly and
Carly Pierce at Dollywood, and they set her up for
an interview. And then like two hours later, I was like, no,
that could never happen. Like he really has to get
that interview done, and you wouldn't pass up a chance
to interview at the Ryman. So it's just going to be–
and she even– of course she knew this, texted me
later that day like, oh, I'm guessing it didn't happen
at the interview.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
No, but that's great. It's like I got to love
my team and I love this record. I'm so excited.
It's the best launch day I've ever had. And I
get to play with my hero tonight. And so I
just went about the rest of the day like this
is going to be a great day. And I knew
my management would be there to watch the show. And
I was going to go. We were going to go
like across the alley to Roberts and cheers the record
coming out. And I was really excited for that. And

(54:14):
it didn't hurt that. So next to me on stage
all summer is this guy, Jed Hughes. who's an insanely
talented musician and songwriter and singer. Uh, and he's played
on my records. Uh, as a matter of fact, the
first sound you hear on my first single, could it
be all those years ago is Jed playing a slide mandolin.
That's him. Anyway, uh, Jed's wife went into labor at
the end of soundcheck and we knew it was coming.

(54:36):
We knew that one of these nights I'd have to
step up and he'd be out. Uh, but just as
I would have on any other night possibly been like,
I'm going to go walk around the Ryman or I'm
going to go around the block. Like, That would have
been a disaster. Like I could have run into so
many people then. But Jed was out. So I was
camped outside stage, practicing parts, going, okay, I need to
play this on that song, check with them on this song.

(54:57):
And so it was perfect because I just, that was
all I had in mind. Whole show, the whole night,
I never looked out past the front of the stage
because I was just, and I was in the flow.
I felt like the hillbilly ghosts were all with me.
And like, I was like, man, I feel like I'm
kind of killing it tonight. And then this moment happened
and boy, was I surprised. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
When did you know that was the moment? Because I've
had surprise parties and I'm just confused for a minute. Yeah.
And I'm like, wait, why is everybody, oh, oh God,
this is a party. Like that, I would assume that
kind of that happened too where something was happening like, wait, what?

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Big time. So, I played my song. Vince is kind
to feature those of us in the band that sing
and put records out. And because Jeb was out that night,
I'm not usually the last of the guest singers, but
I was because it just made sense the way the
show flowed. And, Play my song and then I know
what's coming next. Vince introduces the band. He introduces the
band and then there's a pause and I've already got

(55:53):
my guitar on for the next song and he goes,
all right, now I get to do something. I've been really,
and like my spotty sense is starting to tingle and
then he's like, what I get to do tonight is
fulfill a dream and now I'm like gripping the guitar
for dear life like, No, this couldn't. No way. You're
not going to move? It could be anything, dude. He
could be giving a publisher's clearinghouse check to somebody. And

(56:16):
then when it got right up to the talk to
the management of the General Opera, I'm like, I think
this might be it. I think this might. But I
still got to play six songs, even if this is it.
And then he said my name. He turned around to me.
And it was just, it was pure magic.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Did you have a moment with him after the show?

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Not a lot of time.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
They.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
man they did it up the surprise was massive there's
a cool little room if you go to the Ryman
for a show and you buy merch behind where the
merch table is is this sort of room and they
had a reception there for me with a cake which
by the way, one of the things I'm most excited
about becoming an Opry member is for the rest of
my life, there's going to be so much Opry cake.
You've had Opry cake. I have had Opry cake. Opry

(56:55):
cake is elite cake. And so I had my own
Opry cake. I took two big old chunks of it
home and ate on it all weekend. But all these
people that I've known and loved had been gathered under
largely false pretenses. And so I was just hugging necks
and like, I didn't know my in-laws were there. I
was at the part in that room for like, 10

(57:17):
minutes and I'll look over. I'm like, Tom, that's my father-in-law. Kate,
that's my sister-in-law. Like, Grace and Sophie, y'all are here. Like,
I'm just consistently throughout the night getting my mind is
getting blown. And then my management dropped a big surprise
on me. The last time I had been at the,
two times ago at the Opry, George Gruen, this amazing,

(57:37):
he's the Indiana Jones of guitar people. He knows everything
there is to know about guitars. He sells guitars to
Eric Clapton and everybody. He's always at the Opry with
instruments and he brought this hundred-year-old banjo and he put
it in my hands in the dressing room and I'm
just like, the most inspiring instrument I've ever held. And
I've been wanting to get back into banjo and I
think whatever comes next for me musically might have a

(58:00):
healthy dose of bluegrass in it. And I just, I'm
just like, this instrument, oh my gosh. And I wonder
if I could get Vince to buy it and hold
it until I can find a payment plan or if
I hit a lick, then I'll buy it from him.
I'm just trying to scheme how do I– because it's
not a banjo I can justify purchasing at this point
in my life. And that night, Michael Bryan, my manager,

(58:23):
he steps up and gives a quick speech and he goes,
one more surprise, and it's this banjo. And so now
I've got this 100-year-old banjo as old as the Opry
that I've met at the Opry. uh, it's yours and
it's mine now. And so just blessing upon blessing and
full circle moment upon full circle moment. Cause the banjo

(58:43):
is what brought me here. You know, when I was 10, uh,
my banjo teacher happened to be the banjo player for
a guy named Jimmy Martin who was playing at the Ryman.
And he kind of got me up on stage for
the encore. And that was my point of no return.
And a couple of years later, when I first played
at the Opry, it was the banjo that brought me there. And, uh,
My favorite Vince Gill song is The Key to Life.

(59:05):
A few chords on the banjo was the key to
life about his dad who played a few chords on
the banjo. And I'll definitely be playing that song induction night.
So it was a really cool night of full meaning
where I really connected with Vince. I was flying to
the UK the next Tuesday morning, and I called him
from the airport. And we had like a two-minute conversation
that was just one of the coolest conversations of my life.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
Opry also has elite sweet tea and lemonade. Oh, yeah.
And very good salty popcorn.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Best popcorn.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
And that's where anybody can grab, but it's always good. Yeah.
If I'm taking anyone on a tour, that's the halfway point.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
The popcorn. Popcorn picked me up, man.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Halfway through. Vince is so nice. Just generally, everybody loves Vince,
but my... Caitlin's grandfather was with us and he was like,
I want to see the Opry. And so he, he
actually was in town a night that I was playing
and it wasn't on purpose, but I was just doing
standup and I was like, come, we'll walk around and
I'll show you. And Vince was playing too. No, Vince
was just there. It wasn't even playing. He was just there. Yeah.

(01:00:12):
And he's talked to my girl about for 15, Caitlin
about 15 minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
And no, it wasn't like pressure. It wasn't Vince talking
for 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Just about.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Where he's from, what kind of music. And it was
so genuine. Yeah. It wasn't somebody running for office or
that feeling that he felt.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
And I'm like, I'm super grateful for that because still
he talks about that. Yeah, that's really great. Obviously, you
deserve it. I just want that. Do you play that banjo?
I'll be afraid.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Oh, dude, I'd have been.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
I'd be afraid to mess with it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
I actually had a great idea for content. I might
have to do this because I was coming back from
the UK a couple of days ago and so excited
to see. And you're not here yet, but boy, when
you come in from work and your kid comes running
to you, the run and hug, it's like I live
for it. It's worth leaving just so you know that

(01:01:08):
moment's coming when you get back. But I thought it'd
be so funny to... shoot a reel where I'm coming home,
door swings open, slow motion. It's like, dad's doing this.
And then the kids are running, you know, towards dad
and the camera shooting from behind the kids. And it's,
and it's all of that. But dad's actually just running
through the banjo. I have to like, wait till the

(01:01:30):
kids go down and find a quiet corner where I'm
not going to wake them up. But man, I've been
playing banjo left and right. And like parenting unlocks childhood memories,
getting back on an inspiring banjo like that has been
unlocking all these old tunes I learned and forgot that
I knew. And I'm excited for the season ahead of
just five string Nirvana.

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
And we're back on the Bobby cast.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
We were talking a bit about the record before you
came in. How is this version of you different than
the last couple?

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
I love that question because, oddly enough, more things than
not are the same. There's– and I felt this with
the Opry thing too. There's just been a relief, I think,
and a weight lifted, like a pressure's off kind of thing.
And I think it's because this is not a dig

(01:02:35):
at any label, especially not Warner. I– had the most
magical parting of ways with Warner and it was in
a lot of ways a gift. And the thing is though,
that the goal of a corporation and the goal of
someone who creates art or music specifically are two wildly
different goals. And the definition of what success is in

(01:02:55):
those two worlds is usually, it's not a Venn diagram
where it's just one circle. There's a very small sliver
that overlaps. And I think that for me with this
record I was free to define what success would be
for me. And I mean, dude, I call the same
hair and makeup. I got it. I didn't actually hire

(01:03:18):
the wardrobe, but I called and got advice and tips.
Same people that have done wardrobe for me. I hired
the same guy to do my logo. A friend that
was a photographer, same band, same studio, all those things.
Except the difference being when it was time to go, OK,
what are we going to record? There was not this
whole crazy set of hurdles that had to be jumped

(01:03:39):
through and like, well, is this going to be approved?
Can we run this down this field? Can we do
this with it? And so there was a freedom there.
And I think if anything, the difference is that you
hear me making music more like a kid plays in
a sandbox than a grown up who does music for
a living trying to crack a code, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
It does make sense. When I hear Crack a Code,
I hear try to predict what people will like.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Which is also- Are those parallel? Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah.
You're trying to guess as opposed to just, man. And
you know what's interesting too, man, is, and I swear
I'm not trying to like drop all these names, but
this is my life and this is what informs how
I make records is playing on other people's records. And
the most successful records I've ever played on, as a
matter of fact, by far the most successful song I've

(01:04:27):
ever been a part of. is playing Acoustics and Mandolin
on Choose in Texas. I played on the Dandelion record.
Nobody was in that room going, oh, this is the hit. Oh,
we got to make this a single. Can we get
this more hooky? Are people going to dig it if
this turnaround is too long? It was just, does it
feel good? Does it make us want to get up
and move and dance? And, oh, that'd be cool. Let's

(01:04:48):
try that. And those are always the best days in
the studio anyway. And so for me, the artist... I've
got some of my favorite session players in the room.
I know what's going to make them have a good day.
And I also know if they're having a good day,
they're going to bring the heat. And so I was
interested in like, let's have fun. Let's make ourselves get

(01:05:09):
excited about this. And I want all my friends that
are playing on this to leave today going, yes, I
was allowed to come up with my own ideas as
opposed to here's the demo, paint by numbers, sign the
card and go home. And So regardless of what this
record does for me, commercially speaking, I know that it
shares that with these other records like the Nanoline record

(01:05:33):
where it's awesome to see it be so successful. But
when they were making it, they were just trying to
make it sound cool and be intrigued about what they
were creating.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
Why the title of your record?

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
That's another part of Full Circle happening in my life.
I'm 20 years into Nashville this month as this record drops.
And it feels like halftime in the game. I get
to sit in the locker room right now for the
metaphorical 15 minutes, assess how I played the first half,
let that inform how I want to go out and
play the second half. I think for a lot of people, sadly,

(01:06:07):
when you part ways with a label, that becomes the
end of the story. At least historically, that has been
the case for a lot of people. And so, you know,
I've gotten to sort of be reincarnated. It's the second
time around. Our second child was born during this time.
The song, the title song, was a song I remember
writing with a dear friend, Jay Knowles. And I loved it.

(01:06:28):
I loved the song. I was like, I wrote one
for my heart today. And I turned it in and
thought to myself, this will never see the light of day.
Nobody's going to cut it. It won't make it on
one of my records. But I'm so glad I cut it.
I needed it for me. And then most of the
songs on this record came from a meeting with my publisher,
Josh Van Valkenburg is his name, who became A & R,
who became executive producer, who comes out and plays drums

(01:06:49):
with me on the road. Sometimes I have to fight
him to pay him. And, uh, who's just a dad
friend too. And he played me that song. He said, look,
you've got a, you know, not a million of them,
but you got a few longtime fans and you need
to give your longtime fans an old school Charlie song
on this record. And Once Upon a Second Time Around
is it. It's a story song. It reminds me a

(01:07:10):
lot of Young to See. Uh, and, uh, And then
he played me songs I hadn't written. They never do
that Laney had co-written. Whiskey Sippy, Good Hurt, which is
a 16-year-old Walker Hayes song. Crazy to think about that.
Like he wrote it when he was working overnight.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
I saw his name. He posted it at Costco. He
wrote the song at Costco. Yeah. And he was talking
about you're recording this song. That's a cool video.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
Isn't it cool?

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
And it's cool to me. Like that song is getting
a once upon a second time around. It was almost
recorded a few times and just never was. And so
that just feels like the spirit of the record.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Congratulations, man.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
On everything. On the Opry, on the record, on the hair.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Thanks. Hey, you too, man. Look at us.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Look at yours, though.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
It looks good.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
Thanks. Solid.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
As soon as you came in, I was like, he's
got it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Thank you, mom, for the jeans.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
I have a baby that's growing her hair out, and
she thinks it's funny when I have it, so I'm
just growing it out for now. I don't have a reason.
Yours looks good. My agent called me yesterday. I was like,
you have to cut your hair. It looks terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
No comment?

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
I hear you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
No, no, no, no. What it is is a story
I can't tell you on camera about hair and somebody
calling and needing to get it cut. I'll have to
wait until the camera stops to tell you. You're not
the only one that got a call like that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
I'm a fan, obviously, in many ways. So congratulations on everything.
My last question. Do you ever just practice?

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
You know, the previous four summers I was out with Dierks.
And I learned a long time ago, just because you're
playing an hour or two of music every night doesn't
mean your chops are staying in shape. You're good at
that show, but get thrown a new piece of music
and you might be really rusty. So I've taken it
upon myself to have a music project every summer. And

(01:08:56):
so for the last four summers, this is part of
that banjo story. I was getting ready to shift. to
banjo on the next tour, but I started practicing mandolin.
With parenthood, with everything I'm juggling, I don't have as
much of an opportunity to practice. It's usually on the
road in the dressing room, but I make a habit
to just be learning something new. I enjoy it. It's
like going to the gym. I just feel better when

(01:09:18):
I do it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
I haven't practiced mandolin at all in like three months. Yeah.
I actually, I've never played mandolin in my life, but
I just haven't in the last three months at all.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
But never, I never have though either. So yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Oh, when you're ready, I'll send you some Sam Bush solos. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
I'll get on that for sure. You can send them
and that'd be really cool. Can I borrow the banjo?
What if I wanted to borrow your banjo? What if
I said, after I wrote the cameras off, I was like, dude,
is there any way that I could learn on that
hundred year old banjo?

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
You know, it does have good insurance. Tell me more about,
tell me more about how you intend to use it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
My aspirations on with me. Yeah. Uh, I hope everybody
checks out your record. I am so happy for you
with the Opry. And it's just really great to see
you again.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
You too, Bobby.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
There he is. Charlie Worsham.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
Thanks for listening to a BobbyCast production.