Madeline Edwards (@MakingMadeline) has had a big year after signing a record deal, making her Opry debut, performing on the Today Show and releasing her debut album called “Crashlanded”. Madeline talks about what it was like growing up in a mixed-race household, training her voice and making money singing Jazz in bars / restaurants, and finding her place in country music. Madeline talks about what it was like signing her record deal, having her dream come true making the music video for her latest single and getting to tour with Chris Stapleton that included a massie stadium date.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Episode three seventy two with Madeline Edwards. Loved it. What
a what a fun time. Uh. This is Madeline Edward's
song called Mama Dolly Jesus you ain't may she is
and she was described to me as someone who will
come in and challenge you in the best way, meaning
(00:23):
I would really like her and she would go just
whatever I had to say. If she had something to
say back, she would for sure say it. And that
was the case. Her new album is out right now.
It's called Crash Landed. I think we recorded this is
the day before it came out, and so we kept
going it's it's out now, even though it wasn't something
like that. You can follow her at making Madalene. She
grew up in a large musical family that moved from
(00:44):
California to Houston when she was in high school. You know,
her mom was a big influence on her music taste.
Her mom wanted to listen to jazz and classical, and
you know she ever made her listen to old country
western music and Madeline even sings for us a little
bit when talking about jazz, which I thought was crazy.
When she was doing the did I can't I can't
do it because I never want to make anybody sing,
and I said that I don't want make anybody sing
(01:04):
here because you didn't. But she did. And it wasn't
that she was showing off how good she can sing.
She was showing a jazz style. I like, wow, that's crazy.
So check it out. I really enjoyed it. Support her,
go follow her. This is Madeleine Edwards. The new album
is called crash Landed. The new song is called Mama
Dolly Jesus. And here she is on the Bobbycast. First
of all, thank you for the coffee, of course. So
(01:25):
this is is this a special brand or special flavor?
It's both. So this is a Houston specific company. It's
called Cats Coffee, and they bring a lot of different
elements of Texas into the coffee. So it has these
very very slight notes of like sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, all
that kind of stuff. But I don't know. It's my
(01:46):
favorite coffee, and I'm not a massive coffee drinker. So
anyone that likes coffee, I think is actually going to
really like it. We had a coffee machine, I guess
I was an espresso machine, and I had forgotten to
clean it for I've forgotten, don't know, like eater, and
so it was so gross. It's almost like when you
look in your dryer and you forget you haven't been
cleaning out the lent for a long time. You're like,
(02:07):
oh wow, this it was so disgusting. Wait, do you
have like a normal coffee machine? Yeah? I would have
figured in a house like this, you have like a
robotic coffee maker where it like cleans itself and then
it says, hey, good morning, how are you? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, whatever,
you know. I was gonna say that, Well, we had
an espresso machine that basically did that too, but it
was so I just had left it so disgusting that
(02:30):
we had to throw it out because oh no, it
was like a virus inside of thing. I'm yeah. My
wife was like, this has never been cleaned. I was like,
I've really let you down. So but we have a
new one now and it does it just hello, good morning.
It rubs my feet. It's amazing. It's the greatest coffee
coffee machine ever. That's amazing. Have you done the Today
(02:50):
Show yet? Did you just do it? Did yesterday? You did?
Who were you with? I was with Hooda and Jenna
love them? Yeah, they're pretty amazing. They kind of freaked
out after I played, and I had no idea we
were still filming, and I almost cussed on air, and
because i was just so excited from their reaction, and
I'm like, oh, ship, Like, I'm glad I'm not saying
(03:12):
this in front of everyone on national television. Luckily there's
a bit of a delay. I hosted The Today's Show
a few weeks ago with Hoda and she's I mean,
she's the loveliest and she's as if not more lovely
off camera. It's one of those rare people where you go,
there's no way they can be this awesome all the time.
But I spent four days with her just the best.
She's pretty amazing, pretty amazing, And so I'm glad I'd
(03:34):
heard either you were doing it or you had done it,
and I was hoping that was the hour you did,
because they're they're amazing. How that experience is weird though,
because you have to get up so early to to
like go through sound check. Yeah, that's why my voice
is like an octave deeper today and my eyes are bloodshot.
I'm not stoned. I promise you that's okay too. But
it's like that. You know, you go on it like
maybe ten that's the hour you're actually on up there,
(03:56):
but you have to what time do they tell you
to get there? We had to get there at about
four thirty, and so obviously I have to get all
my makeup done. I have to put hair into my
already here hair, and put makeup on, lashes, the whole ordeal,
which I I don't usually do, but for national television,
I thought it was probably appropriate to look decent. And
(04:17):
so I'm getting up at like three am, if not
earlier than that, to start getting ready to go. It's brutal.
It's brutal for me and my normal job. I wake
up really early. Obviously we go on the air at five.
But I imagine for you someone who doesn't your your
job doesn't require you most of the time to wake
up that early. That's gonna be. That's awful. Not usually
are you doing the thing where you're going around radio stations?
(04:38):
Have you done that yet? Radio tour? Yeah, gets the worst.
You never have to do it. Everyone's warning me about
I never wish that up on anyone. It's it's literally
the worst. Maybe you don't have to do it. Hopefully
I can just bypass that. Not that I don't love
radio and not radio personalities, but I don't want to
wake up early. I'm not a fan of either myself.
Here's the point that now you can connect with everybody
(04:59):
in every way that you don't have to be in
touch them. Yeah. You literally can get on a zoom
and meet somebody. Do you have any meetings? I have
now because I don't have to fly to Los Angeles.
I don't have to fly across town and they're like, hey,
we want you to meet with some executive of a
TV show that I'm talking like, okay, I have to
fly No, no, no no, just yeah, wow, I don't have
to fly. No. So the radio tour thing I hope
(05:21):
goes away. I think post COVID, that's kind of become
more of a reality, not just a regional thing. Even
if you want to and I have a lot of
friends in radio, kid, but even if you they wanted
to send you to Atlanta, right and you do that
southeast part, they wanted to send you to Pittsburgh. Okay,
but for new artists, I feel bad because they run
you guys ragged. So I hope that doesn't happen to you. Well,
(05:45):
let's keep on dreaming. What are you doing this week?
So you said you're about to go back to New York.
You just came from New York. No, I just came
from New York yesterday. We landed yesterday afternoon. But this
week is a big week because I'm debuting my first record,
my first full length record, tomorrow. The viewing, what do
you mean this? Just this being my first full length record.
I've put out you know, EPs and singles before, but
(06:08):
this is my first full length and it consists of
twelve songs, and it's been in the works for the
last two years. But I really feel like it's been
in the works for my whole life. It's just a
huge accumulation of influences and styles and sonics that I'm
really inspired by and I wanted to put onto this record. Um,
so yeah, that's coming out tomorrow with a music video.
(06:30):
Why I'm confused is Okay, today's Thursday, but this will
be your record will already be out by the time
this airrors. So in my head, I was already there,
and You're like, it's come out tomorrow, I'm like, we
have another one, So this is it? So as of
now it's out. Oh, yes, it's out. Now, it's out
right now it's out. So with with that, you say
you've been I forget the terminology. You said you've been
(06:52):
working on your whole lives said, what do you mean
by that? It's been a long process for me to
get here. And what I mean by that is I
am very sure and confident of what my sound is,
what I want to say, what I'm trying to present
in my songs lyrically, how I'm trying to produce it sonically,
what kind of creatives I want to be working with
in order to get that product um And I feel
(07:15):
like this has been so I started off in jazz,
you know, moved my way into soul, experimented in pop
for a little bit, went into Western and now here
I am in country music. But it's a huge accumulation
of all of those styles. And so when I started
in jazz when I was like ten years old, to
where I am now, it's just building, building, building off
(07:36):
of what I've already learned in my past with music
and basically trying to put it in a way that
is easily digestible for the consumer, but is still really
broad and deep and introspective. So with all that, I'm
gonna ask a couple dumb guy questions in a second. But,
um my journey here. I worked in pop, worked in alternative,
(07:57):
worked in hip hop, I worked in setted sports. You know,
I'm here in country. I grew up in Arkansas country
to start with. But I've balanced all around. And when
I first got here, it was, oh, you're not one
of us, I was told all the time. So you're
not one of us, You're not one of us. You
came from this or that. You've done multiple things, and
here we don't do multiple things. We do one thing.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, That's that's how
(08:18):
it used to be. But that's not how people are today.
So I don't think that's how anyone that works in
Nashville in this format are. How has that been? Because again,
you have so many different I don't even want to
say influences. I want to say almost fundamental parts of
your musical journey and career. Has anyone been like what
you're saying jazz and how you're doing country? How does
(08:39):
that work? Yeah? I not to get too deep into it,
but I come from a really interesting household and come
from a mixed race household. My mom's white, my dad's black,
um my sisters adopted. I spent half of my life
in Santa Barbara, California, and half of my life in Houston, Texas,
very different geograph fix, very different political climates, and so
(09:02):
I feel like I was really um privileged in a
sense to be able to kind of have this really empathetic,
unbiased view towards people. And I've always kind of felt
like I was in the middle anywhere, I always felt
like I didn't fit, and so entering into this space
wasn't any different for me. It's something that I've always
kind of dealt with my whole life. And I find
(09:23):
a way to kind of carry that confidence of even
though I look different, I still belong here, and the
empathy in it helps people to really connect with me
and connect with my music, And so I don't ever
feel like I don't belong even though I know for
a fact that I don't fit in. That's good. I
don't belong. I belong, but I don't fit in. Yeah,
(09:46):
I think I feel I understand that because I do
belong and people love you here, and I think people
and it's very a very revisionous history too. But I
think people same can be said for you. People respect
how many the word voice, not as my literal physical voice,
(10:06):
but people respect your voice, not singing voice, but who
you are and what you have to say the same
way that I think even people don't like me or
how I do things, I think they still respect my
voice as well because I've really been unapologetic about it
and I've always known who I am and what i
want to say and who I want to represent, and
so same can be said about you. When I was
asking people about you, they were like, oh, you'll love her.
(10:27):
She's strong and she'll be strong with you. And I'm like,
she should be scared or they're like, no, you'll you'll
respect you. Feel like people said the same thing about you.
That's what it was because I I was like, hey,
what's madete. They're like, oh, yeah, you'll like her. She's strong,
And I'm like, what are you am I intimidate? Am
I scared? They're like, no, no, no, you'll you'll kind
(10:47):
of meet your match in the best way. And so
that's that's like the that's that's the best compliment that
someone could Yeah, I'm not that intimidating. I'm actually pretty nicey. No,
it's not that you're not not to be kind of mean,
but I'm I've I've found Jesus since, so I'm kind
of nice now. I think your confidence can be intimidating
to some people. Yeah, I mean, but but that's not
(11:09):
something that you have to worry about. That's a them thing. Yeah,
and and I'm the same for me. I think sometimes
my confidence can be misconstrued at times. I think my
confidence and also my crazy insecurity because I have both,
It's it's okay to have both, because I'm a creative.
I think that sometimes can look like with me arrogance.
(11:29):
No one said that about you, but I can. I
hear that about me. It's like, oh, he's kind of arrogant,
and they're probably right. And how it's presented because sometimes
I'm really confident. Sometimes I'm so insecure that I have
to like, oh no, no, no, I'm really good, I promise,
And so it's a weird, weird mix to deal with.
But well, you've had longer in this industry too, so
you're gonna have more critics coming against you, and I
might sometime in the future too, and also I'm more
(11:51):
of a jackass. Let's be honest, I think that's what
it is. Were you always that confident? But I'm not.
I'm so not in parts of my life. The only
thing that I know I'm good at is this and
I'm the best at it. And then other than that,
I am so insecure. Can I ask you a question
(12:12):
whatever you want? Do you ever feel like you get
that impostor syndrome? Because you feel like there's parts of
your life where you don't feel like that, but here
and when you're creative, that confidence comes through completely. I
live imposter of that. My career life was a pie
and most of its imposter syndrome, just because I shouldn't.
I don't feel like I'm that talented whereaf when I
(12:33):
hear you and I know all that you've gone through
to get to this point, and all the pivots that
you've taken in different roads have gotten you here, and
those roads have gotten you here, But I feel like
you are talented and you've picked up a lot of
things along the way, And I go, mam Adan's so good,
she's so talented, Like you have a literal talent. I
get a find and people say I'm talented. I know
it's a weird thing, therapy thing, but I'm like, I'm
(12:55):
not talented. I've just worked hard, and you're telling me
I don't work very hard because I'm not talented? Were you?
I know you're super talented, but also know how hard
you've worked, But you have a talent. If you were
taken out of here and thrown into Albuquerque tomorrow, you
could still work and sing and have a career in Albuquerque. Me,
I'm done, I've got nothing. I'm out of here. I
wouldn't say that I've Built've climbed a ladder, and if
I fall lader, there no more steps back up. They've
cut all the steps out underneath me as I've climbed up.
(13:17):
So when did you? But I mean, I sincerely mean it.
Um How what? How do you sing jazz? What does
that mean? It's different tones and tambers in your voice.
So I mean, do you want me to give you
an example? You don't have to ask you to sing
because I know you've traveled. I mean, I don't mind,
it helps explain it better, I would If you don't mind,
I would love it. So I grew up on Ella Fitzgerald,
(13:39):
Frank Sinatra, at A James Dave Rebecca, And there is
a certain uh learning how to combine the improvisation of
jazz with also structure, um, because you can sometimes do
whatever the hell you want in jazz and everyone's like, yeah, babadaba,
and that's jazz, but there is a structure to it.
(14:00):
I think that's what a lot of people don't see. Um.
And so for instance, what I loved in Ella Fantzgerald's
voice is that she had this tone was that was
super rich, but also she has this timber that a
lot of operatic people do with more space in between,
but when you have jazz, it's closer in between. So
how you would do it is um dree a little
(14:22):
dre of me like that, So it's quicker where opera
it's way more space in between. Pop you don't really
see it that much. Country you can see it sometimes
you say space in between, space in between the verbrato
going on in between your voice. And so you train
to do that in jazz to have you can the
(14:44):
way I trained myself as I just listened to it
a lot, I taught myself. Can you listen to music
and do you have a good ear Like with instruments.
I know you play piano. Can you listen here? Can
you hear something and translate it almost immediately? Oh? Yeah,
I mean I would definitely consider myself even a producer
in that sense that I can pick up things pretty
easily when I listened to them. When did you realize
as a kid that you it came a little easier
(15:06):
to you than it did other people that were trying
to play piano or just do music randomly. I was
probably like eight or nine, I started picking up piano quicker,
and uh, just picking up jazz piano. It is specifically
quicker than than I probably should have. Um, I didn't
know that I was good at music though. I It
(15:26):
wasn't something that I thought to myself, like, wow, I
sound good. I remember wanting to try out for Star
Search when I was like five and trying to learn
a Mariah Carey song and it was failing epically, And
then I was like, no, I don't think I can
try out for Star Search because I don't think I
actually thought I was good. But I worked hard at it,
and I think when there's a certain level of talent
(15:47):
and you work hard, it's just a good combination. So
do you water? Oh? I have one? Oh? You do? Okay?
Just making sure do I sound dry mouthy? You do not.
But when you I'm grateful that you would show me
that with your voice, because I never want to require
that because obviously you're traveling and or just you're talking
and I didn't tell you, And then I was like,
I to make sure you have water if I'm you're
singing here. Oh no, I just want to make sure
you're good. Yeah, no, no, no no, I'm fine. I love
(16:08):
singing any I'll take any excuse to sing. I'm not
snobby about it. Are you someone? Because as your star
has risen at least here in this town in the past,
I would say six months a year or so when people,
you know, reals are popping people knowing about you. Are
you doing different things to take care of your voice,
You're learning things or are you still kind of the
(16:31):
same You're just gonna do how you do it. No,
I've had to start taking care of it. So before
I moved to Nashville, when I was living in Houston,
I was singing as my job. This was my full
time job. I sang four or five hours a night,
almost four or five nights a week. Huh doing what
what are you singing? Just singing anything pop, country, jazz,
(16:53):
maroon five, Frank Sinatra, where just in jazz bars, steakhouses.
I'm that was my bread and butter. That's how I
put myself to college. That's how I learned how to
be a really good singer and support myself doing it.
It wasn't the most glamorous thing in the world. But
I think when I was doing that, your voice is
(17:13):
a muscle. So Olympic runners, I mean they can run
miles and miles and miles and they don't get tired.
But it's because they've trained their body to do that. Um,
same thing with a voice, Like, if you train yourself
to sing and protect it the whole time, you can
sing four or five hours a night. And I honestly
wasn't even getting tired. I was just stretching this muscle
(17:34):
as far as it could go and learning how to
protect it at the same time. So now what I
do is cold water therapy. I love the whim Hoff method. Um. Actually,
just try a sauna situation this morning where you go
into a chamber. It's kind of a nightmare for anyone
that's claustrophobic. But I tried it today and I loved it.
So is a sauna situation a sauna? I don't understand it.
(17:55):
I mean, I think it's a sauna. You know what
I'm talking about where you go into that chamber and
then you're kind of like covered from the chest down
and you can't is not that must be? Is it
cold or hot? It's super hot? You eve heard because
I listen. I know you made fun of me the
coffee thing. We have a sona here too, do you really? Yeah?
But it's not it's not your you must have gone
(18:17):
to some specialized I think it's a specialized son it's
new new technology. I don't know that. I wasn't well.
Apparently it's good for your voice. And then also I've
been drinking and eating a lot of pasta as a celebration,
and I'm gonna have to fit into this address for
the CMAS next week, and I'm like, I'll sweat out
all of this is as such as I can. Yeah,
(18:44):
you talk about your record, which is out um and
something that I constantly have to reevaluate is again I'll
go back to the word voice, like what do I
stand for? What do I want to say? Who do
I want to say it to? How do I want
to say it? It's what is my perspective? Right? This
is something I'm cont it mine changes too as I
get older, as I meet new people, as my mind
is open to, like what is your voice? Like? Who?
(19:07):
What's what is it? What? What's your perspective? What? What?
What is your deal? What do you want to do?
How do you want to do? I've never really had
anyone asked me that before, but I feel like people
just get the gist, but there's actually an answer to this,
which I'm glad you asked me this because I feel
like I could go more in depth with my answer.
But I think because of my background, I'm a true
believer in inclusivity in in every aspect, whether that be belief, systems, genders, um,
(19:34):
no matter where you come from, no matter what your races. UM.
I was very fortunate to grow up the way I did,
but I know a lot of people weren't, and a
lot of people see a lot of oppression and um
just polarizing anything, especially in this society and especially with
social media and technology right now. And so my message
is to push loving everyone and just showing that inclusivity
(19:58):
not only in my songwriting, but even in just like
I think this is a weird futuristic country record. I
you see little bits of R and B in motown
and songs like Forehead Kisses, but it still sounds like
a Brooks and Done song because there's slide guitar on
it and steal. You hear these elements of true, true
country and too much of a good thing and why
I'm calling, and you hear you know, different sounds across
(20:20):
the board, And I think that's even showing some inclusivity too,
because it's showing a broad spectrum of of genres and cultures.
And so I just want to show people, especially in
this day and age, that you can become a stronger
person by digging deep and going through the pain. I
think there's a lot of things to distract us right
now from doing that. I'm not even just talking like
(20:41):
substances and alcohol. I'm literally talking about even our phones
or shopping or just things that distract us from going
through hard things in our life. And the reason why
I've gotten to this place that I've gone through or
that I am right now, is because I've gone through
this really really really hard ship in my life and
a lot of abuse, and instead of running from it
like I used to, now I'm doing the things that
(21:02):
I need to do, the heart work. I'm going to therapy,
I'm making sure i'm building my community around me, making
sure I'm pouring into my family as much as I can.
And it's made me a stronger person, and I want
people to see that. So that's kind of the message
that I'm I don't know if that totally answered this question,
but it doesn't in a way. And I've already say
a few things that resonate with me where and you
can tell me if it is somewhat similar for you.
(21:24):
I used to be very resentful at how I grew up.
You know, my mom was an addict when she died
in her forty as my dad left when I was young,
I was welfare kids, food stamp, kid trail, the part
kid whatever, all these things, and I used to hate it.
I used to be so ashamed of it, and I
used to be someone who resented it. And I never
had a dad, and all these things happened to me,
and I was just angry and sad. However, I got
(21:46):
to a point where I started to appreciate it because
I'm glad all of that happened now because one talk
about developing a muscle, and to the tool that I
have that I use the most as empathy, and I'm
so fortunate to have that, and I wouldn't have gotten
in any other way, Like you can't. That doesn't happen
(22:06):
unless you go through all of that. And so now
there's I do see that. I was fortunate to have
that happen and get through it and be able to go, Okay,
I see it, and I only trying to make sure
that doesn't happen and with other people if I can
end the next generation. I mean, like we carry the
things that our parents do into our life, and you
(22:28):
have a choice to break those generational curses and to
break those barriers, you know, like my kids are not
going to deal with my kids, whether I have them
biologically or adopt or whatever. That looks like it starts
with me. It starts and it ends with me, and
that's I'm not carrying that over. And it sounds like
that's kind of the philosophy you have in your life too. Yeah,
I think so, I mean, I know. So it's when
(22:48):
it comes to my life. Obviously, I look at me different.
I look at you know what, I'm like, Hey, that's awesome.
Look at you should be so proud and you look
at your stuff like you know, but I now am
proud of it. And as you talk about, did you
have a stage where you're like, you know what sucks
for me? It's difficult right now? And did you ever
hit a point where you you're now you where you
look back and go, oh, I've learned from all this.
This is the greatest teaching set ever. Was it always
(23:10):
as positive with you? Definitely? Not? Um, I mean this
is kind of I would say, even a more recent
uh attitude that I walk around with. I would say,
over the last maybe three or four years, it's been
like this. It's when I really started digging into you know,
therapy and and trying to figure out how I need
to take my past traumas and learn how to live
(23:33):
with them. Um. I'm trying to think of when I
didn't think that way? Was there anything specific to happen
that kind of flipped your mind? Therapy was a big
part for me too. I I didn't know what therapy
was growing up, and then I started to go only
because they offered it as part of like insurance, and
I was like, what is therapy? We didn't we have
(23:53):
therapy where I came from just worried about eating, you know,
And so I was like, I got to therapy, what
is this? And I went and it it comes plately,
I would say, revolutionize my approach to perspective. And I
understand it's a silly concept, Like if I try to
explain it to people that also are not familiar with therapy,
(24:15):
you know it. It's it's not just going into a
room and being like blah blah blah blah blah, here's
my problems, and they're like, cool, here's the check, have
a good day. I don't know. I feel like there
was a time in my life, um probably leading up
to when I started digging in that I was just
noticing a lot of patterns of falling back into past demons.
And I feel like I have a very addictive personality.
(24:38):
I've seen that kind of be a string in my life,
and that's something that I've seen, you know, past generations
in my family deal with. And I really feel like
it must have been not even a crazy rock bottom.
I think it's just when I started seeing it hurting
the people around me, like my family and um, people
that really cared about me and wanted to see me
(24:59):
out of this. And don't get me wrong, I mean
there's been a lot of things. I also come from
a fatherless home. He was pretty abusive in our life,
and um, you know, it was tough to deal with.
But and I'm the oldest of five, so I kind
of took over as like this weird mom role to
my siblings along with my mom, and me and my
(25:19):
mom are survivors. You know, we've we've dealt with a
lot of ship. But I think it's kind of just
an annoying pattern of me seeing that and using my
trauma or my abuse as an excuse to be like, actually,
I want to drop five thousand dollars even though I
know I don't have the funds to do this, or
I should be saving for something like a house or
college or whatever. Or seeing myself like going to weed,
(25:43):
or seeing myself going to alcohol or whatever, and deciding
I want to find a way to manipulate these patterns
to where I don't have to fall back into this
because I'm seeing myself in my father's shadow right now,
I think that's probably more so what it was is
seeing myself and my dad and not wanting to be him. Yeah,
that's what scares me because I don't I got married
(26:03):
a year and a half or so ago for the
first time and we don't have kids yet. But it
scares me to death because I saw I didn't see
my dad, but I saw what happened there, and I'm like,
what if I'm not like and I go to I
have a lot a lot of therapy, and it's like,
I don't have to be that. I'm I've broken the
cycle and every other way. Why do I Why do
(26:26):
I just attach myself to that one? Like what if
I have a kid? I'm like, hey, I'm out, and
I don't think that, but he did that so well.
The funny thing is like, you know you're not going
to be like that too, Like deep down, yes, my
brain says, look at the data. For sure, you will
not be like that because of every other way that
you've changed your life. However, there's just something in trance,
(26:48):
in my in my heart and my gun. That's all.
This is just I'm just scared and it kind of
overrides all the all the systems. Yeah, no, I feel that.
Thank you for sharing that too. That's very vulnerable. You know,
I live a life of vulnerability. That is what I do. Uh,
your family musical growing up? Yes, I um, all of
my siblings are musical. So the brother right under me,
(27:09):
his name is Mica Edwards and he's still based in Houston,
and he has coined himself the title Mr. Texas Soul
and so he'll go around. You know. He's very much
like a cross between Leon Bridges and Charlie Crockett. Has
an incredible band with steel guitar and a horn section.
He actually just opened for the War and Treaty last
week in Houston, and um, he definitely follows in that
(27:30):
lane of the Gary Clark Jr. Abraham Alexander world. And
he's incredible. And um, my middle brother is out in
l A pursuing acting in music as well, so creative
like arts filled family. Yeah, I bet that's awesome sometimes
and also yeah really ann yeah, yeah, I mean I
can see where you can relate. But also it's kind
(27:50):
of it's the double edged sword. So do you guys
ever just get together? Go? Nobody talks about music or art. No,
we love it, We bond over it. It's something that
when we're together, it's kind of like a language of ours,
like did you hear this? Tim and Paula record No,
let me okay, da da da da, and then we'll
just put it on and we'll analyze the music together
(28:11):
in the room. It's kind of weird actually, now that
I'm saying that out loud, But so all you three
are very musical. But your mom did she have music
in the house. Yes, we were exposed to classical music,
early jazz, like the people I was saying before um seventies,
music like the Beatles and Bread and the b Gs
(28:33):
and not very modern stuff. My mom didn't really like
modern music, and so I actually didn't even know about
artists like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilar until I was
in middle school, which is wild. I felt sheltered. Get
to a radio yourself somehow, that's how Is that how
you found it? Like somebody else having a radio? Oh yeah,
I think I like just rode with one of my
friends in the car one day and I'm like, what
(28:54):
is this and they're like, oh, this is Britney Spears,
Like this doesn't sound very jazzy. What what's the difference
now because I know or November now, last month you
get signed at Warner was the last month, So what's
the what what has happened since then? Because you obviously
get signed, but then like what what happens every day?
That's different. I mean, this whole year has been moving fast,
(29:17):
so it's it's just kind of a lot of the
same stuff. However, it's really cool because this music video
that we're putting out tomorrow, gosh, it's already out. You
can find it right now. I need to keep saying
that the music video that's out right now, Mama Dolly Jesus.
I mean, it looks expensive and it's incredible because I've
I've never made work like this before, and it's kind
(29:39):
of cool just having that associated with my music and
my image now because that's always the level I've wanted
to be at and that's something that I've been chasing
my whole life, and to see it in this capacity
now is a lot different. So life is kind of
stayed the same in terms of dizziness, but everything is elevated. Yeah,
(30:04):
now you have people with more influence working to hopefully
put you into place to succeed. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
That means. You know why I mean and why it's
cool is they only have so much time and so
much money, and in the fact they're spending both on
you means that there's a belief in you. I mean,
that's what it is. I mean, they have limited time,
(30:24):
limited money. They're gonna only pick the limited amount of
people to spend both on, and they have not chosen
you to spend some time and money on. Yeah. Pressure,
yeah right, but still you give me all the pressure
because I've earned the pressure and I've been working hard
to feel the pressure. And that's some pressure, then feel good.
But I'd rather have pressure than no pressure, because no
pressure means nobody, nobody cares. No, that's yeah, I mean
(30:46):
that that's people. You know. Ask me about being nervous
a lot when I was working on American Idol. It
was really one of the things I worked with the
contestants on most or like how how do you not
be nervous? And it's just been a common theme of man,
you should be happy you're nervous. Imagine you're never nervous.
That means not that matters. I mean, d you get
a shot at anything? Like you you only have so
many times in your life that you get to be
(31:07):
positively nervous, for sure, because most offs were nervous. It's
like somebody's sick, somebody's But think about you get to go,
you have a shot, you get to feel you get
to feel nervous. Here's your gift with a bow on it.
Nerves congratulations. Now here's what you do with it, Like
it's one of the greatest gifts. Same thing as pressure. Yeah,
it's one of the greatest gifts. It's a weird gift
because then feel good. But I I appreciate you saying that.
(31:30):
I had an interesting conversation with someone a couple of
days ago that was very similar to that philosophy. Her
name's Monica Earnshaw, and she was actually my boxing coach
in Houston, and I saw her in Houston a few
days ago and she told me, you know, what are
you feeling with all this happening so quickly? And I
told her, you know, some days it feels really amazing,
and then some days it's happening so fast that I
(31:52):
don't feel like I'm adjusting well. Like I feel like
a lot of things are falling through the cracks. I'm
forgetting to respond to some people because there's just so
many people to spawned too or whatever. I feel like
I'm failing at it. And all she said to me was,
you've been given a gift and your only job now
is to just honor it, and that's it. And I
it was the most simple advice. And now I feel
(32:13):
like I'm just going to carry that and this into
the rest of whatever happens from here on out, because
it's just that simple. You just honor the gift. I
would get really tired and I would go and be
flying all over and just shoot a show here we
was shot a show in another country of doing the
radio show every day, and I'll be so tired, and
I would have to remind myself how lucky it might
have be this exhausted doing what I want to do.
(32:35):
Like my you know, my my mom got married again
later in life, and she was married for a few
years to my stepdad for a few years before she
passed away, and he worked at a sawmill. He was tired.
But there's a difference. I'm tired, you're tired. We get
to do we get we're tired at like going after
the thing we've always wanted to go after, and that is,
and after I have to remind myself that I'm not
(32:56):
reminding you. Sometimes I'm talking myself into this and go,
you're really freaking lucky to be tired, Like stop complaining.
And then I'm like, why are you talking to yourself
in the mirror? You can just think these thoughts and
it's a whole thing where then I make fun of
myself out loud, and you know, we have yeah, and
then we take a bath. It's all um, So I
do want to play Mama Dolly Jesus. Now that being said, legally,
if we play more than five seconds, we get sued,
not by you really, Yeah, but they have all these
(33:19):
rules now on podcasts and music. And we used to
be considered an editorial podcast, but now any podcast you
play for five seconds, you go to jail apparently. So
we're gonna we're gonna do two five second clips. We'll
talk for a second and go back into it. Can
we do that, Mike? Yeah? All right, Here is Mama
Dolly Jesus. You ain't dollars Jesus. All right, So we'll
(33:41):
talk for us just a second here and just talk
about Look at that there's a tree outside the window,
all right, Mike, give me a little bit more. Jesus,
what's the video? What is it? Yeah, like what you
said it was that they spend a bunch of money on.
It looks cool at your vision, Like, what is it?
What's man? It's so cool. It's one I've never seen
(34:02):
a video like this, especially in the country music space,
and now that it's out, I can talk about it.
But it's basically this concept that me and my girlfriends
we're super confident in who we are. We board this
train with a bunch of tired, angry people that are
that don't love themselves well, but they see us and
they see us in all this confidence and it's infectious
(34:24):
and it takes over the entire train. And at the
end of the video, you know, we get this amazing surprise.
We have a drag dolly in the in the video,
and it's incredible because I'm talking about Jesus and also
having a drag dolly in the video at the same time,
which I mean that could piss people off. I don't
really care if it does, but honestly, it's just promoting
more of the inclusivity. But also it's just this really
(34:46):
it's this really fun video. I don't. I think it's
totally positive and it's not meant to be divisive or
controversial at all. I feel like it's really fun and
positive and really trying to get people to feel confident
and love themselves well and so then they'll be able
to love other people well as as Wow, well as well.
How is the operation? When I saw, because I you know,
(35:09):
I spent a lot of time at the opera your
debut a couple of months ago. Yeah, I saw it
pop up on the Instagram. I wasn't there that night,
but it's pretty cool. Huh. Yeah. It was nerve wracking.
There's cameras in your face all day, they're always you know.
That makes makes me a little more nervous. But it
was really cool. My mom got to be there and
I sang why I'm calling, which is about her, and
(35:29):
she lives in California now doing she's actually a child
psychologist as well. But um, I just missed her. I'm
I'm doing a lot of big things in my career
that honestly I wouldn't be able to do if she
didn't raise me and protect me the way she did.
And so it's kind of sad her missing out on
all these really big life events just because we're so
far away, and you know, she's working in California right now,
(35:52):
but um, she got to be there and that was
really special for me. And I was probably crying from
you know, the minute I woke up to the minute
I want to sleep, just because I was so grateful.
That's cool. Was she crying obviously? Yeah? Do you see
you and her? I do. I see more of myself
and my mom than and my dad. For sure. She's
(36:12):
a really giving, loving person, and I think she actually
believes the best and a lot of people and builds
them up well. And I've always wanted to be like that.
I think I'm starting to see myself be like that
more so. You are you feel like you're maturing? Do
you feel like I mean, I'm old as crap. I
better be maturing by now. Yeah, but there are plays
(36:34):
I'm eight years old in some ways still. Yeah. You know,
I don't think age and maturation. I don't think they
always go hand in hand. That's true. There are some
parts of my life where again I'm nine, and my
wife and in serious and joking, she's like, look, you've
there are certain parts of your life where you froze
certain parts of your um you know, psychological lives and
parts of my emotional There's there are some trauma there
(36:56):
that just said, all right, we're gonna put a stop
sign here and we're just gonna stop into you have
to uncomfortably go through the top sign. Yeah, I get that,
and I'm Peter Pan and Peter Pan in a lot
of ways. I mean, I'm still a kid in some
ways like that. That's why I'm in therapy. But yes,
I feel like I'm a cheering a little bit. Did
you always know what you wanted to do? Yes? Because
(37:17):
I always knew, and it was it was weird to
me the people didn't. And your let's say you're seven,
what do you want to do when you were seven? Music?
Did you want to do this when you were ever?
There are three things I wanted to do. I wanted
to be on the radio, on TV, and be a
stand up comedian, and I do all three. But I've
always the create. I just would look at people be like,
what do you mean you don't know what you want
(37:37):
to do? I just didn't understand the concept of not
I knew immediately, but you too. Isn't it crazy that
we actually get to do it, though, there's like maybe
two percent of people that actually get to say that
they and entertainment specifically, because your odds are even small.
You think your odds are small in the real world,
they're even smaller in the world of entertainment. So the
(37:59):
fact that we're getting to do this is wild. When
you wanted to do music, let's say you're seventeen, different
stage alive, you still want to do music, But what
what did that mean to you as a teenager when
you wanted to do music. I had to kind of
buck up and and figure out how that was going
to be a career transition or start a career with that,
(38:20):
because obviously when I was seventeen, I was actually I
started playing in jazz bars when I was fourteen. So
you when you say music, did you want to sing specifically,
or was it I wanted to sing. I wanted to
be a songwriter. I wanted to be a producer. So
a fourteen you start going into jazz bars and singing. Well,
you know, it's funny. I actually started singing in jazz
(38:42):
bars because it was a way that I could help
my family keep the lights on. But then I loved it.
And I actually ended up making a lot of money
doing that. And I sang for this guy in Houston.
His name's Tilman for Tita billion dollar buyer. He also
owns the Houston Rockets and the U of H team,
but he has a ton of restaurants and steakhouses and
(39:03):
very high fine dining places in the entire Texas and
South and on um. But I was like one of
his main piano players and singers for all of his
establishments and all of his corporate events and everything. And
so it was funny that it started off as this
thing to really help my family along, and then it
ended up being this amazing career by the time I
(39:23):
left Houston and moved to Nashville. So, you know, the
Beatles would talk about I don't know the Beatles. I
just read book. I don't talk to you about it.
But if you know the Beatles, I don't know the Beatles.
But they they would always an interviews and in books
that would talk about going in They would be in Germany.
They play the clubs in Hamburg for you know, eight
nine hours at a time, and that's really where they
got good at everything because they had to do eight
or nine hours they had to play songs two or
three times. They'd have to play all these covers, the
(39:45):
occasional original. But that's where when you talk about singing
three or four hours, and they were like, well, we
learned how not to be tired. For sure, you would
sing for eight hours, you would, or you'd play for it.
You just be tired. But we learned how not to
be tired and perform at a high level because we
had to do it so off. And so when you're
telling that story about you having a sing for three
or four hours a night and your voice wasn't even tired,
(40:08):
we had to learn how to do that. It's probably
easier to not go blow your voice while doing a
show now because you've had all this training. Is a
good word for it, like it's literal, it's hard. It
was paid practice time. That's what I thought of it
as when I was seventeen, which I think is a
really mature way to think of it as a teenager.
Anytime I was like, man, I don't want to play
for four hours. This is really tiring. Um My mom
(40:30):
told me. She was like, you're just getting paid to
basically practice every song in every key, in every format,
whether people are paying attention to you, or whether they're
paying more attention to the football game behind you on
the screen, Like it doesn't matter. You're getting paid to
practice and you can mess up and no one cares.
(40:51):
You did a show with Stapleton, actually did a whole
tour with Stapleton, which I have a funny story about. Okay,
so you go, you have a story for me or Okay,
So first, how did you and Chris even come together?
What was that? I was kind of online friends with Morgan,
his wife, and we just kind of followed each other
(41:12):
for a little bit up until the c m As
last year when I sang with Mickey and Brittany and
I met them because their table was right in front
of our table, and I had just come off the
stage from singing. My makeup is all sweating down my
face because I'm crying and sobbing with the girls, and
Morgan and I have already been basically Instagram friends for
a couple of months, and she points at me and
(41:33):
she blines it for me because she loved the performance,
and she really really loved my music at the time,
and she'd play it for her family, and we just
made that connection there at the c m A S.
And I was again sobbing more because these are my
two musical heroes and the fact that I was getting
to meet them on this really historical night, not only
in my career but just in country music, it was
(41:55):
kind of unreal for me. So you meet then and
then who does she go come come out with this
or yeah, my my touring agent, Lenore. She was the
one that reached out to them when they were looking
for a new opener, and Yola had come off for
a few events that she was already doing and they
were looking for someone to fill yolas spot, which actually
(42:18):
this rolls perfectly into my story. So one of the
spots that Yola was out for was Chris's massive Kentucky
concert at a stadium and the lineup am I allowed
to cuss on this? Okay? The lineup was Chris s Tableton,
Willie Nelson, Ryl Crow and who the fuck is Madeleine Edwards?
(42:39):
That was the lineup. And very shortly before this happened,
you were opening I think for Brooks and done was
it and you had a song come out called No
One Cares About the Opener Garth Brooks. I was the
opener yeah, yeah, I've never felt more seen than when
you released that song on Instagram and it was like
literally right before I was about to open in this
(43:03):
stadium for all of this massive star lineup, and then
everyone's not only like that, Liver, It's okay, it's like legitimately,
I've never heard of this girl and what is happening
right now? So I felt very seen in that moment.
Thank you. That's funny. But the difference is you had talent. Again,
we go back to that. Here we are playing in
front of seventy people without talent and and whatever. Yeah
(43:25):
you know, Okay, So look you got the new album
that's out now, not tomorrow. I don't know, now what
do you? Let's talk expectations of the record that aren't
super personal, meaning find your stuff. I want people to
laugh and feel. I don't want to feel. But it's like,
also I wanted to be What do you want the
(43:45):
record to do? Are you true? Like, what's the what's
the purpose of this record when it comes to you
in Nashville? Is it setting something up? You wanted to
talk to be a number one? But what is it?
What's the deal? Is there a single that goes to
Mama Dolly Jesus. Okay, because we've I've played a bunch
of your songs on the National weekend show, you know,
I know you have, and thank you for that because
I've been a fan for a long time. Well, thank you.
(44:06):
So it's like, I just need to know what the
song is, you know. So yeah, Well, and the single
is definitely Mama Dolly Jesus. I think that we're going
is that what they know and they're gonna work that? Yes, okay, yes, es, Yes,
that's the one that we plan on working, whether it
be to radio or whatever that means. That's the one, um,
which is why we did a music video to it.
(44:27):
But my hopes and anticipations for the record, and I'll
I'll preface this was saying, even if this record is
a total flop and it doesn't do anything, I'm really
proud of it. And this is exactly what I wanted
to make and produce, and this is the message that
I'm trying to give to the world. And so even
if it does terribly, I'm still kind of like, this
(44:48):
is my favorite record in my favorite piece of art
I've ever put out. But what I would like for
it to do, I want this to be a new
era for me. I want this to be an establishing
of my self here in Nashville in the country music space,
even in the contemporary music space, because I think mom
A Dooli Jesus has the potential to cross over to pop. UM.
(45:12):
And I really wanted to be kind of a statement
of this is who I am. And it's not snarky
or cheeky, because I'm I'm, you know, challenging the listener
to do the same thing. I'm challenging the listener to
do the hard work and be confident in themselves. UM.
There's really really sexy songs on here, like Forehead Kisses
(45:32):
or Playground that are very much UM. I'm very you know,
confident in my sexuality. I'm very confident in in who
I am as a woman, which especially in the Christian
music space, which I'm not in Christian music, but I
am a Christian. UM is usually looked down upon, and
I don't think it has to be. I think that
could be used in a really positive light, a woman
(45:54):
being confident in her body and being confident in her
sexuality and um. And then you have songs like how
Strong I Am and and talking about digging into the
pain and coming out a stronger person. So there's a
lot of different themes on the record. They all are
genuine to who I am, but it's all challenging the
listener to be confident in who they are. And so
(46:15):
I think that's kind of my goal for it. I
don't really know, like accolades wise, what I'm I mean, Obviously,
I would love it to go as far as I
as I think it could go, which is, you know,
I think this album could be recognized at least by Grammys.
There if you don't say it, how's it supposed to do? It?
(46:36):
You let people know your goals so they can help you.
I mean, I don't want to sound egotistical, that's not
I asked you the question. I asked you the question,
would you like to go? I love to one of
Grammy Boom? There we go. Yeah, I knew it was
personally fulfilling, Like I I really because I know that's
who you are, right, You're not gonna do something that
isn't you, And I'm glad you said that. But let's
let's go. Let's get some big goals. We're not scared
(46:56):
of goals now, I'm not. I think. I always kind
of struggle with like, I want to say what I want,
but I don't want people to think that I'm egotistical
or narcissistic for thinking that. And there's a very fine
line to what people think as I mean, you are,
like I said about me and arrogance, I don't feel
like American at all, but I definitely can see sometimes
I cross the line to people where they do think that,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, I gotta I got a
(47:18):
good point of feeling that way, because it could have
come off that way. But I don't care. I tried to.
I don't care as much about what people that people
understand me anymore because if they don't, either they will
eventually or I'll just die and just be under un understood,
and you know, I'll be one of the great thinkers
that nobody ever really die. Not the part at the point, Okay,
(47:38):
look here we are. The album is out. I everybody,
I'm telling you just go listen to it. Um. It
has been out for a bunch of days now, I
don't I don't know any days at this point, tons
of days, tons of so many days. I'm just about
a big fan. I enjoyed you anyway without knowing you.
But everything that people told me about you, not they
weren't exactly true. It's true. We're meeting you than even
(48:01):
they said, Like, I really enjoy just spend a time
with you. Yeah, you're very You're you're very deliberate, and
I appreciate thank you. I will say, I've been kind
of waiting for this call because I feel like music
is not cool until Bobby Bones says it's cool. And
I was like, I saw you interviewing a lot of
my friends. I'm like, man, he doesn't think my ship
is cool yet. I guess I just got to keep making.
(48:24):
I kept like making cooler and cooler ship, and oh,
Bobby Bones didn't call me. I guess it's not that cool.
But then finally you have a new album coming out album.
If we would have called you two months ago, I
wouldn't have been the same, right, it would have us
got to know each other. But then you would have
missed a prime opportunity, or I would have missed a
prime opportunity to promote something new that you have just spent. Well,
(48:45):
you know what this means now it meets I don't
know what I mean. It means my ship is cool.
It already was. No, No, it already was. I'm telling you,
I've played uh too much of a good thing. Heart.
You can't break hold my horses, sports City, thinking about
you been all this stuff I played right, So I
already thought it was cool. That's alright. So it was
never that. It was always timing on when can you
(49:08):
come in and promote your newest thing? And it makes
We have a million people who listen to this, so
I wanted to make sure that when you came in,
we took their gift and we said, this is the
gift I'm presenting you. It's Madalin and she's presenting her
new project, her new music. There we go where everybody wins.
That's why you've always been cool. Thanks. I on the
other hand, I have not, and I am not secured
(49:29):
in my body. And we'll just end it there at
making Madalen. That's it. Go go follow. What are you
doing the rest of the day. The rest of the day, Oh,
my family's income. They're coming in town because I'm singing
for the Opery again, So I'm gonna be cleaning my
house for the rest of the day. When you form
the oy tomorrow, Saturday today, tomorrow we'll talk in real
(49:51):
terms now. Were actual recording this on a Thursday, but
so's Friday night the night? Yeah, Oh that's cool. Good
for you. Big week. Yeah, it's a big week. Operates
a cool spot to do on an album released, because one,
it's the Opery Opera is always cool. Um too. The
it's on satellite radio. It's on all these ws M,
(50:12):
so there's actually a reach as well aside from it
just being the Opery and then there's a lot of
good social that comes out of it. That's that's a
good good spot. I love it. We're gonna also be
doing Mama Dolly Jesus with their bands with the Opery Band,
which I think is going to go so hard, and
then we're gonna really strip it down and I'm going
to be playing all by myself on their grand Too
much of a good thing. I think that is a
perfect little spot right there. I've never heard anyone so
(50:34):
the Opery Band goes hard, but I like it. They
will on this song. They you will make them, I
will make no doubt about it. Made You've been It's
been awesome talking to you. Yeah, it's really been amazing.
You guys follow at Making Magdalene and you, guys check
out the album because it is out now. It is right,
and it's been out there because I was already listening
to it last week. It's so great already. That's speaking
(50:58):
into existence, all right. There she is mat elan Etter
Episode three seventy two with Madeline Edwards. Loved it. What
a what a fun time. Uh. This is Madeline Edward's
song called Mama Dolly Jesus you ain't may she is
and she was described to me as someone who will
come in and challenge you in the best way, meaning
(00:23):
I would really like her and she would go just
whatever I had to say. If she had something to
say back, she would for sure say it. And that
was the case. Her new album is out right now.
It's called Crash Landed. I think we recorded this is
the day before it came out, and so we kept
going it's it's out now, even though it wasn't something
like that. You can follow her at making Madalene. She
grew up in a large musical family that moved from
(00:44):
California to Houston when she was in high school. You know,
her mom was a big influence on her music taste.
Her mom wanted to listen to jazz and classical, and
you know she ever made her listen to old country
western music and Madeline even sings for us a little
bit when talking about jazz, which I thought was crazy.
When she was doing the did I can't I can't
do it because I never want to make anybody sing,
and I said that I don't want make anybody sing
(01:04):
here because you didn't. But she did. And it wasn't
that she was showing off how good she can sing.
She was showing a jazz style. I like, wow, that's crazy.
So check it out. I really enjoyed it. Support her,
go follow her. This is Madeleine Edwards. The new album
is called crash Landed. The new song is called Mama
Dolly Jesus. And here she is on the Bobbycast. First
of all, thank you for the coffee, of course. So
(01:25):
this is is this a special brand or special flavor?
It's both. So this is a Houston specific company. It's
called Cats Coffee, and they bring a lot of different
elements of Texas into the coffee. So it has these
very very slight notes of like sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, all
that kind of stuff. But I don't know. It's my
(01:46):
favorite coffee, and I'm not a massive coffee drinker. So
anyone that likes coffee, I think is actually going to
really like it. We had a coffee machine, I guess
I was an espresso machine, and I had forgotten to
clean it for I've forgotten, don't know, like eater, and
so it was so gross. It's almost like when you
look in your dryer and you forget you haven't been
cleaning out the lent for a long time. You're like,
(02:07):
oh wow, this it was so disgusting. Wait, do you
have like a normal coffee machine? Yeah? I would have
figured in a house like this, you have like a
robotic coffee maker where it like cleans itself and then
it says, hey, good morning, how are you? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, whatever,
you know. I was gonna say that, Well, we had
an espresso machine that basically did that too, but it
was so I just had left it so disgusting that
(02:30):
we had to throw it out because oh no, it
was like a virus inside of thing. I'm yeah. My
wife was like, this has never been cleaned. I was like,
I've really let you down. So but we have a
new one now and it does it just hello, good morning.
It rubs my feet. It's amazing. It's the greatest coffee
coffee machine ever. That's amazing. Have you done the Today
(02:50):
Show yet? Did you just do it? Did yesterday? You did?
Who were you with? I was with Hooda and Jenna
love them? Yeah, they're pretty amazing. They kind of freaked
out after I played, and I had no idea we
were still filming, and I almost cussed on air, and
because i was just so excited from their reaction, and
I'm like, oh, ship, Like, I'm glad I'm not saying
(03:12):
this in front of everyone on national television. Luckily there's
a bit of a delay. I hosted The Today's Show
a few weeks ago with Hoda and she's I mean,
she's the loveliest and she's as if not more lovely
off camera. It's one of those rare people where you go,
there's no way they can be this awesome all the time.
But I spent four days with her just the best.
She's pretty amazing, pretty amazing, And so I'm glad I'd
(03:34):
heard either you were doing it or you had done it,
and I was hoping that was the hour you did,
because they're they're amazing. How that experience is weird though,
because you have to get up so early to to
like go through sound check. Yeah, that's why my voice
is like an octave deeper today and my eyes are bloodshot.
I'm not stoned. I promise you that's okay too. But
it's like that. You know, you go on it like
maybe ten that's the hour you're actually on up there,
(03:56):
but you have to what time do they tell you
to get there? We had to get there at about
four thirty, and so obviously I have to get all
my makeup done. I have to put hair into my
already here hair, and put makeup on, lashes, the whole ordeal,
which I I don't usually do, but for national television,
I thought it was probably appropriate to look decent. And
(04:17):
so I'm getting up at like three am, if not
earlier than that, to start getting ready to go. It's brutal.
It's brutal for me and my normal job. I wake
up really early. Obviously we go on the air at five.
But I imagine for you someone who doesn't your your
job doesn't require you most of the time to wake
up that early. That's gonna be. That's awful. Not usually
are you doing the thing where you're going around radio stations?
(04:38):
Have you done that yet? Radio tour? Yeah, gets the worst.
You never have to do it. Everyone's warning me about
I never wish that up on anyone. It's it's literally
the worst. Maybe you don't have to do it. Hopefully
I can just bypass that. Not that I don't love
radio and not radio personalities, but I don't want to
wake up early. I'm not a fan of either myself.
Here's the point that now you can connect with everybody
(04:59):
in every way that you don't have to be in
touch them. Yeah. You literally can get on a zoom
and meet somebody. Do you have any meetings? I have
now because I don't have to fly to Los Angeles.
I don't have to fly across town and they're like, hey,
we want you to meet with some executive of a
TV show that I'm talking like, okay, I have to
fly No, no, no no, just yeah, wow, I don't have
to fly. No. So the radio tour thing I hope
(05:21):
goes away. I think post COVID, that's kind of become
more of a reality, not just a regional thing. Even
if you want to and I have a lot of
friends in radio, kid, but even if you they wanted
to send you to Atlanta, right and you do that
southeast part, they wanted to send you to Pittsburgh. Okay,
but for new artists, I feel bad because they run
you guys ragged. So I hope that doesn't happen to you. Well,
(05:45):
let's keep on dreaming. What are you doing this week?
So you said you're about to go back to New York.
You just came from New York. No, I just came
from New York yesterday. We landed yesterday afternoon. But this
week is a big week because I'm debuting my first record,
my first full length record, tomorrow. The viewing, what do
you mean this? Just this being my first full length record.
I've put out you know, EPs and singles before, but
(06:08):
this is my first full length and it consists of
twelve songs, and it's been in the works for the
last two years. But I really feel like it's been
in the works for my whole life. It's just a
huge accumulation of influences and styles and sonics that I'm
really inspired by and I wanted to put onto this record. Um,
so yeah, that's coming out tomorrow with a music video.
(06:30):
Why I'm confused is Okay, today's Thursday, but this will
be your record will already be out by the time
this airrors. So in my head, I was already there,
and You're like, it's come out tomorrow, I'm like, we
have another one, So this is it? So as of
now it's out. Oh, yes, it's out. Now, it's out
right now it's out. So with with that, you say
you've been I forget the terminology. You said you've been
(06:52):
working on your whole lives said, what do you mean
by that? It's been a long process for me to
get here. And what I mean by that is I
am very sure and confident of what my sound is,
what I want to say, what I'm trying to present
in my songs lyrically, how I'm trying to produce it sonically,
what kind of creatives I want to be working with
in order to get that product um And I feel
(07:15):
like this has been so I started off in jazz,
you know, moved my way into soul, experimented in pop
for a little bit, went into Western and now here
I am in country music. But it's a huge accumulation
of all of those styles. And so when I started
in jazz when I was like ten years old, to
where I am now, it's just building, building, building off
(07:36):
of what I've already learned in my past with music
and basically trying to put it in a way that
is easily digestible for the consumer, but is still really
broad and deep and introspective. So with all that, I'm
gonna ask a couple dumb guy questions in a second. But,
um my journey here. I worked in pop, worked in alternative,
(07:57):
worked in hip hop, I worked in setted sports. You know,
I'm here in country. I grew up in Arkansas country
to start with. But I've balanced all around. And when
I first got here, it was, oh, you're not one
of us, I was told all the time. So you're
not one of us, You're not one of us. You
came from this or that. You've done multiple things, and
here we don't do multiple things. We do one thing.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, That's that's how
(08:18):
it used to be. But that's not how people are today.
So I don't think that's how anyone that works in
Nashville in this format are. How has that been? Because again,
you have so many different I don't even want to
say influences. I want to say almost fundamental parts of
your musical journey and career. Has anyone been like what
you're saying jazz and how you're doing country? How does
(08:39):
that work? Yeah? I not to get too deep into it,
but I come from a really interesting household and come
from a mixed race household. My mom's white, my dad's black,
um my sisters adopted. I spent half of my life
in Santa Barbara, California, and half of my life in Houston, Texas,
very different geograph fix, very different political climates, and so
(09:02):
I feel like I was really um privileged in a
sense to be able to kind of have this really empathetic,
unbiased view towards people. And I've always kind of felt
like I was in the middle anywhere, I always felt
like I didn't fit, and so entering into this space
wasn't any different for me. It's something that I've always
kind of dealt with my whole life. And I find
(09:23):
a way to kind of carry that confidence of even
though I look different, I still belong here, and the
empathy in it helps people to really connect with me
and connect with my music, And so I don't ever
feel like I don't belong even though I know for
a fact that I don't fit in. That's good. I
don't belong. I belong, but I don't fit in. Yeah,
(09:46):
I think I feel I understand that because I do
belong and people love you here, and I think people
and it's very a very revisionous history too. But I
think people same can be said for you. People respect
how many the word voice, not as my literal physical voice,
(10:06):
but people respect your voice, not singing voice, but who
you are and what you have to say the same
way that I think even people don't like me or
how I do things, I think they still respect my
voice as well because I've really been unapologetic about it
and I've always known who I am and what i
want to say and who I want to represent, and
so same can be said about you. When I was
asking people about you, they were like, oh, you'll love her.
(10:27):
She's strong and she'll be strong with you. And I'm like,
she should be scared or they're like, no, you'll you'll
respect you. Feel like people said the same thing about you.
That's what it was because I I was like, hey,
what's madete. They're like, oh, yeah, you'll like her. She's strong,
And I'm like, what are you am I intimidate? Am
I scared? They're like, no, no, no, you'll you'll kind
(10:47):
of meet your match in the best way. And so
that's that's like the that's that's the best compliment that
someone could Yeah, I'm not that intimidating. I'm actually pretty nicey. No,
it's not that you're not not to be kind of mean,
but I'm I've I've found Jesus since, so I'm kind
of nice now. I think your confidence can be intimidating
to some people. Yeah, I mean, but but that's not
(11:09):
something that you have to worry about. That's a them thing. Yeah,
and and I'm the same for me. I think sometimes
my confidence can be misconstrued at times. I think my
confidence and also my crazy insecurity because I have both,
It's it's okay to have both, because I'm a creative.
I think that sometimes can look like with me arrogance.
(11:29):
No one said that about you, but I can. I
hear that about me. It's like, oh, he's kind of arrogant,
and they're probably right. And how it's presented because sometimes
I'm really confident. Sometimes I'm so insecure that I have
to like, oh no, no, no, I'm really good, I promise,
And so it's a weird, weird mix to deal with.
But well, you've had longer in this industry too, so
you're gonna have more critics coming against you, and I
might sometime in the future too, and also I'm more
(11:51):
of a jackass. Let's be honest, I think that's what
it is. Were you always that confident? But I'm not.
I'm so not in parts of my life. The only
thing that I know I'm good at is this and
I'm the best at it. And then other than that,
I am so insecure. Can I ask you a question
(12:12):
whatever you want? Do you ever feel like you get
that impostor syndrome? Because you feel like there's parts of
your life where you don't feel like that, but here
and when you're creative, that confidence comes through completely. I
live imposter of that. My career life was a pie
and most of its imposter syndrome, just because I shouldn't.
I don't feel like I'm that talented whereaf when I
(12:33):
hear you and I know all that you've gone through
to get to this point, and all the pivots that
you've taken in different roads have gotten you here, and
those roads have gotten you here, But I feel like
you are talented and you've picked up a lot of
things along the way, And I go, mam Adan's so good,
she's so talented, Like you have a literal talent. I
get a find and people say I'm talented. I know
it's a weird thing, therapy thing, but I'm like, I'm
(12:55):
not talented. I've just worked hard, and you're telling me
I don't work very hard because I'm not talented? Were you?
I know you're super talented, but also know how hard
you've worked, But you have a talent. If you were
taken out of here and thrown into Albuquerque tomorrow, you
could still work and sing and have a career in Albuquerque. Me,
I'm done, I've got nothing. I'm out of here. I
wouldn't say that I've Built've climbed a ladder, and if
I fall lader, there no more steps back up. They've
cut all the steps out underneath me as I've climbed up.
(13:17):
So when did you? But I mean, I sincerely mean it.
Um How what? How do you sing jazz? What does
that mean? It's different tones and tambers in your voice.
So I mean, do you want me to give you
an example? You don't have to ask you to sing
because I know you've traveled. I mean, I don't mind,
it helps explain it better, I would If you don't mind,
I would love it. So I grew up on Ella Fitzgerald,
(13:39):
Frank Sinatra, at A James Dave Rebecca, And there is
a certain uh learning how to combine the improvisation of
jazz with also structure, um, because you can sometimes do
whatever the hell you want in jazz and everyone's like, yeah, babadaba,
and that's jazz, but there is a structure to it.
(14:00):
I think that's what a lot of people don't see. Um.
And so for instance, what I loved in Ella Fantzgerald's
voice is that she had this tone was that was
super rich, but also she has this timber that a
lot of operatic people do with more space in between,
but when you have jazz, it's closer in between. So
how you would do it is um dree a little
(14:22):
dre of me like that, So it's quicker where opera
it's way more space in between. Pop you don't really
see it that much. Country you can see it sometimes
you say space in between, space in between the verbrato
going on in between your voice. And so you train
to do that in jazz to have you can the
(14:44):
way I trained myself as I just listened to it
a lot, I taught myself. Can you listen to music
and do you have a good ear Like with instruments.
I know you play piano. Can you listen here? Can
you hear something and translate it almost immediately? Oh? Yeah,
I mean I would definitely consider myself even a producer
in that sense that I can pick up things pretty
easily when I listened to them. When did you realize
as a kid that you it came a little easier
(15:06):
to you than it did other people that were trying
to play piano or just do music randomly. I was
probably like eight or nine, I started picking up piano quicker,
and uh, just picking up jazz piano. It is specifically
quicker than than I probably should have. Um, I didn't
know that I was good at music though. I It
(15:26):
wasn't something that I thought to myself, like, wow, I
sound good. I remember wanting to try out for Star
Search when I was like five and trying to learn
a Mariah Carey song and it was failing epically, And
then I was like, no, I don't think I can
try out for Star Search because I don't think I
actually thought I was good. But I worked hard at it,
and I think when there's a certain level of talent
(15:47):
and you work hard, it's just a good combination. So
do you water? Oh? I have one? Oh? You do? Okay?
Just making sure do I sound dry mouthy? You do not.
But when you I'm grateful that you would show me
that with your voice, because I never want to require
that because obviously you're traveling and or just you're talking
and I didn't tell you, And then I was like,
I to make sure you have water if I'm you're
singing here. Oh no, I just want to make sure
you're good. Yeah, no, no, no no, I'm fine. I love
(16:08):
singing any I'll take any excuse to sing. I'm not
snobby about it. Are you someone? Because as your star
has risen at least here in this town in the past,
I would say six months a year or so when people,
you know, reals are popping people knowing about you. Are
you doing different things to take care of your voice,
You're learning things or are you still kind of the
(16:31):
same You're just gonna do how you do it. No,
I've had to start taking care of it. So before
I moved to Nashville, when I was living in Houston,
I was singing as my job. This was my full
time job. I sang four or five hours a night,
almost four or five nights a week. Huh doing what
what are you singing? Just singing anything pop, country, jazz,
(16:53):
maroon five, Frank Sinatra, where just in jazz bars, steakhouses.
I'm that was my bread and butter. That's how I
put myself to college. That's how I learned how to
be a really good singer and support myself doing it.
It wasn't the most glamorous thing in the world. But
I think when I was doing that, your voice is
(17:13):
a muscle. So Olympic runners, I mean they can run
miles and miles and miles and they don't get tired.
But it's because they've trained their body to do that. Um,
same thing with a voice, Like, if you train yourself
to sing and protect it the whole time, you can
sing four or five hours a night. And I honestly
wasn't even getting tired. I was just stretching this muscle
(17:34):
as far as it could go and learning how to
protect it at the same time. So now what I
do is cold water therapy. I love the whim Hoff method. Um. Actually,
just try a sauna situation this morning where you go
into a chamber. It's kind of a nightmare for anyone
that's claustrophobic. But I tried it today and I loved it.
So is a sauna situation a sauna? I don't understand it.
(17:55):
I mean, I think it's a sauna. You know what
I'm talking about where you go into that chamber and
then you're kind of like covered from the chest down
and you can't is not that must be? Is it
cold or hot? It's super hot? You eve heard because
I listen. I know you made fun of me the
coffee thing. We have a sona here too, do you really? Yeah?
But it's not it's not your you must have gone
(18:17):
to some specialized I think it's a specialized son it's
new new technology. I don't know that. I wasn't well.
Apparently it's good for your voice. And then also I've
been drinking and eating a lot of pasta as a celebration,
and I'm gonna have to fit into this address for
the CMAS next week, and I'm like, I'll sweat out
all of this is as such as I can. Yeah,
(18:44):
you talk about your record, which is out um and
something that I constantly have to reevaluate is again I'll
go back to the word voice, like what do I
stand for? What do I want to say? Who do
I want to say it to? How do I want
to say it? It's what is my perspective? Right? This
is something I'm cont it mine changes too as I
get older, as I meet new people, as my mind
is open to, like what is your voice? Like? Who?
(19:07):
What's what is it? What? What's your perspective? What? What?
What is your deal? What do you want to do?
How do you want to do? I've never really had
anyone asked me that before, but I feel like people
just get the gist, but there's actually an answer to this,
which I'm glad you asked me this because I feel
like I could go more in depth with my answer.
But I think because of my background, I'm a true
believer in inclusivity in in every aspect, whether that be belief, systems, genders, um,
(19:34):
no matter where you come from, no matter what your races. UM.
I was very fortunate to grow up the way I did,
but I know a lot of people weren't, and a
lot of people see a lot of oppression and um
just polarizing anything, especially in this society and especially with
social media and technology right now. And so my message
is to push loving everyone and just showing that inclusivity
(19:58):
not only in my songwriting, but even in just like
I think this is a weird futuristic country record. I
you see little bits of R and B in motown
and songs like Forehead Kisses, but it still sounds like
a Brooks and Done song because there's slide guitar on
it and steal. You hear these elements of true, true
country and too much of a good thing and why
I'm calling, and you hear you know, different sounds across
(20:20):
the board, And I think that's even showing some inclusivity too,
because it's showing a broad spectrum of of genres and cultures.
And so I just want to show people, especially in
this day and age, that you can become a stronger
person by digging deep and going through the pain. I
think there's a lot of things to distract us right
now from doing that. I'm not even just talking like
(20:41):
substances and alcohol. I'm literally talking about even our phones
or shopping or just things that distract us from going
through hard things in our life. And the reason why
I've gotten to this place that I've gone through or
that I am right now, is because I've gone through
this really really really hard ship in my life and
a lot of abuse, and instead of running from it
like I used to, now I'm doing the things that
(21:02):
I need to do, the heart work. I'm going to therapy,
I'm making sure i'm building my community around me, making
sure I'm pouring into my family as much as I can.
And it's made me a stronger person, and I want
people to see that. So that's kind of the message
that I'm I don't know if that totally answered this question,
but it doesn't in a way. And I've already say
a few things that resonate with me where and you
can tell me if it is somewhat similar for you.
(21:24):
I used to be very resentful at how I grew up.
You know, my mom was an addict when she died
in her forty as my dad left when I was young,
I was welfare kids, food stamp, kid trail, the part
kid whatever, all these things, and I used to hate it.
I used to be so ashamed of it, and I
used to be someone who resented it. And I never
had a dad, and all these things happened to me,
and I was just angry and sad. However, I got
(21:46):
to a point where I started to appreciate it because
I'm glad all of that happened now because one talk
about developing a muscle, and to the tool that I
have that I use the most as empathy, and I'm
so fortunate to have that, and I wouldn't have gotten
in any other way, Like you can't. That doesn't happen
(22:06):
unless you go through all of that. And so now
there's I do see that. I was fortunate to have
that happen and get through it and be able to go, Okay,
I see it, and I only trying to make sure
that doesn't happen and with other people if I can
end the next generation. I mean, like we carry the
things that our parents do into our life, and you
(22:28):
have a choice to break those generational curses and to
break those barriers, you know, like my kids are not
going to deal with my kids, whether I have them
biologically or adopt or whatever. That looks like it starts
with me. It starts and it ends with me, and
that's I'm not carrying that over. And it sounds like
that's kind of the philosophy you have in your life too. Yeah,
I think so, I mean, I know. So it's when
(22:48):
it comes to my life. Obviously, I look at me different.
I look at you know what, I'm like, Hey, that's awesome.
Look at you should be so proud and you look
at your stuff like you know, but I now am
proud of it. And as you talk about, did you
have a stage where you're like, you know what sucks
for me? It's difficult right now? And did you ever
hit a point where you you're now you where you
look back and go, oh, I've learned from all this.
This is the greatest teaching set ever. Was it always
(23:10):
as positive with you? Definitely? Not? Um, I mean this
is kind of I would say, even a more recent
uh attitude that I walk around with. I would say,
over the last maybe three or four years, it's been
like this. It's when I really started digging into you know,
therapy and and trying to figure out how I need
to take my past traumas and learn how to live
(23:33):
with them. Um. I'm trying to think of when I
didn't think that way? Was there anything specific to happen
that kind of flipped your mind? Therapy was a big
part for me too. I I didn't know what therapy
was growing up, and then I started to go only
because they offered it as part of like insurance, and
I was like, what is therapy? We didn't we have
(23:53):
therapy where I came from just worried about eating, you know,
And so I was like, I got to therapy, what
is this? And I went and it it comes plately,
I would say, revolutionize my approach to perspective. And I
understand it's a silly concept, Like if I try to
explain it to people that also are not familiar with therapy,
(24:15):
you know it. It's it's not just going into a
room and being like blah blah blah blah blah, here's
my problems, and they're like, cool, here's the check, have
a good day. I don't know. I feel like there
was a time in my life, um probably leading up
to when I started digging in that I was just
noticing a lot of patterns of falling back into past demons.
And I feel like I have a very addictive personality.
(24:38):
I've seen that kind of be a string in my life,
and that's something that I've seen, you know, past generations
in my family deal with. And I really feel like
it must have been not even a crazy rock bottom.
I think it's just when I started seeing it hurting
the people around me, like my family and um, people
that really cared about me and wanted to see me
(24:59):
out of this. And don't get me wrong, I mean
there's been a lot of things. I also come from
a fatherless home. He was pretty abusive in our life,
and um, you know, it was tough to deal with.
But and I'm the oldest of five, so I kind
of took over as like this weird mom role to
my siblings along with my mom, and me and my
(25:19):
mom are survivors. You know, we've we've dealt with a
lot of ship. But I think it's kind of just
an annoying pattern of me seeing that and using my
trauma or my abuse as an excuse to be like, actually,
I want to drop five thousand dollars even though I
know I don't have the funds to do this, or
I should be saving for something like a house or
college or whatever. Or seeing myself like going to weed,
(25:43):
or seeing myself going to alcohol or whatever, and deciding
I want to find a way to manipulate these patterns
to where I don't have to fall back into this
because I'm seeing myself in my father's shadow right now,
I think that's probably more so what it was is
seeing myself and my dad and not wanting to be him. Yeah,
that's what scares me because I don't I got married
(26:03):
a year and a half or so ago for the
first time and we don't have kids yet. But it
scares me to death because I saw I didn't see
my dad, but I saw what happened there, and I'm like,
what if I'm not like and I go to I
have a lot a lot of therapy, and it's like,
I don't have to be that. I'm I've broken the
cycle and every other way. Why do I Why do
(26:26):
I just attach myself to that one? Like what if
I have a kid? I'm like, hey, I'm out, and
I don't think that, but he did that so well.
The funny thing is like, you know you're not going
to be like that too, Like deep down, yes, my
brain says, look at the data. For sure, you will
not be like that because of every other way that
you've changed your life. However, there's just something in trance,
(26:48):
in my in my heart and my gun. That's all.
This is just I'm just scared and it kind of
overrides all the all the systems. Yeah, no, I feel that.
Thank you for sharing that too. That's very vulnerable. You know,
I live a life of vulnerability. That is what I do. Uh,
your family musical growing up? Yes, I um, all of
my siblings are musical. So the brother right under me,
(27:09):
his name is Mica Edwards and he's still based in Houston,
and he has coined himself the title Mr. Texas Soul
and so he'll go around. You know. He's very much
like a cross between Leon Bridges and Charlie Crockett. Has
an incredible band with steel guitar and a horn section.
He actually just opened for the War and Treaty last
week in Houston, and um, he definitely follows in that
(27:30):
lane of the Gary Clark Jr. Abraham Alexander world. And
he's incredible. And um, my middle brother is out in
l A pursuing acting in music as well, so creative
like arts filled family. Yeah, I bet that's awesome sometimes
and also yeah really ann yeah, yeah, I mean I
can see where you can relate. But also it's kind
(27:50):
of it's the double edged sword. So do you guys
ever just get together? Go? Nobody talks about music or art. No,
we love it, We bond over it. It's something that
when we're together, it's kind of like a language of ours,
like did you hear this? Tim and Paula record No,
let me okay, da da da da, and then we'll
just put it on and we'll analyze the music together
(28:11):
in the room. It's kind of weird actually, now that
I'm saying that out loud, But so all you three
are very musical. But your mom did she have music
in the house. Yes, we were exposed to classical music,
early jazz, like the people I was saying before um seventies,
music like the Beatles and Bread and the b Gs
(28:33):
and not very modern stuff. My mom didn't really like
modern music, and so I actually didn't even know about
artists like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilar until I was
in middle school, which is wild. I felt sheltered. Get
to a radio yourself somehow, that's how Is that how
you found it? Like somebody else having a radio? Oh yeah,
I think I like just rode with one of my
friends in the car one day and I'm like, what
(28:54):
is this and they're like, oh, this is Britney Spears,
Like this doesn't sound very jazzy. What what's the difference
now because I know or November now, last month you
get signed at Warner was the last month, So what's
the what what has happened since then? Because you obviously
get signed, but then like what what happens every day?
That's different. I mean, this whole year has been moving fast,
(29:17):
so it's it's just kind of a lot of the
same stuff. However, it's really cool because this music video
that we're putting out tomorrow, gosh, it's already out. You
can find it right now. I need to keep saying
that the music video that's out right now, Mama Dolly Jesus.
I mean, it looks expensive and it's incredible because I've
I've never made work like this before, and it's kind
(29:39):
of cool just having that associated with my music and
my image now because that's always the level I've wanted
to be at and that's something that I've been chasing
my whole life, and to see it in this capacity
now is a lot different. So life is kind of
stayed the same in terms of dizziness, but everything is elevated. Yeah,
(30:04):
now you have people with more influence working to hopefully
put you into place to succeed. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
That means. You know why I mean and why it's
cool is they only have so much time and so
much money, and in the fact they're spending both on
you means that there's a belief in you. I mean,
that's what it is. I mean, they have limited time,
(30:24):
limited money. They're gonna only pick the limited amount of
people to spend both on, and they have not chosen
you to spend some time and money on. Yeah. Pressure,
yeah right, but still you give me all the pressure
because I've earned the pressure and I've been working hard
to feel the pressure. And that's some pressure, then feel good.
But I'd rather have pressure than no pressure, because no
pressure means nobody, nobody cares. No, that's yeah, I mean
(30:46):
that that's people. You know. Ask me about being nervous
a lot when I was working on American Idol. It
was really one of the things I worked with the
contestants on most or like how how do you not
be nervous? And it's just been a common theme of man,
you should be happy you're nervous. Imagine you're never nervous.
That means not that matters. I mean, d you get
a shot at anything? Like you you only have so
many times in your life that you get to be
(31:07):
positively nervous, for sure, because most offs were nervous. It's
like somebody's sick, somebody's But think about you get to go,
you have a shot, you get to feel you get
to feel nervous. Here's your gift with a bow on it.
Nerves congratulations. Now here's what you do with it, Like
it's one of the greatest gifts. Same thing as pressure. Yeah,
it's one of the greatest gifts. It's a weird gift
because then feel good. But I I appreciate you saying that.
(31:30):
I had an interesting conversation with someone a couple of
days ago that was very similar to that philosophy. Her
name's Monica Earnshaw, and she was actually my boxing coach
in Houston, and I saw her in Houston a few
days ago and she told me, you know, what are
you feeling with all this happening so quickly? And I
told her, you know, some days it feels really amazing,
and then some days it's happening so fast that I
(31:52):
don't feel like I'm adjusting well. Like I feel like
a lot of things are falling through the cracks. I'm
forgetting to respond to some people because there's just so
many people to spawned too or whatever. I feel like
I'm failing at it. And all she said to me was,
you've been given a gift and your only job now
is to just honor it, and that's it. And I
it was the most simple advice. And now I feel
(32:13):
like I'm just going to carry that and this into
the rest of whatever happens from here on out, because
it's just that simple. You just honor the gift. I
would get really tired and I would go and be
flying all over and just shoot a show here we
was shot a show in another country of doing the
radio show every day, and I'll be so tired, and
I would have to remind myself how lucky it might
have be this exhausted doing what I want to do.
(32:35):
Like my you know, my my mom got married again
later in life, and she was married for a few
years to my stepdad for a few years before she
passed away, and he worked at a sawmill. He was tired.
But there's a difference. I'm tired, you're tired. We get
to do we get we're tired at like going after
the thing we've always wanted to go after, and that is,
and after I have to remind myself that I'm not
(32:56):
reminding you. Sometimes I'm talking myself into this and go,
you're really freaking lucky to be tired, Like stop complaining.
And then I'm like, why are you talking to yourself
in the mirror? You can just think these thoughts and
it's a whole thing where then I make fun of
myself out loud, and you know, we have yeah, and
then we take a bath. It's all um, So I
do want to play Mama Dolly Jesus. Now that being said, legally,
if we play more than five seconds, we get sued,
not by you really, Yeah, but they have all these
(33:19):
rules now on podcasts and music. And we used to
be considered an editorial podcast, but now any podcast you
play for five seconds, you go to jail apparently. So
we're gonna we're gonna do two five second clips. We'll
talk for a second and go back into it. Can
we do that, Mike? Yeah? All right, Here is Mama
Dolly Jesus. You ain't dollars Jesus. All right, So we'll
(33:41):
talk for us just a second here and just talk
about Look at that there's a tree outside the window,
all right, Mike, give me a little bit more. Jesus,
what's the video? What is it? Yeah, like what you
said it was that they spend a bunch of money on.
It looks cool at your vision, Like, what is it?
What's man? It's so cool. It's one I've never seen
(34:02):
a video like this, especially in the country music space,
and now that it's out, I can talk about it.
But it's basically this concept that me and my girlfriends
we're super confident in who we are. We board this
train with a bunch of tired, angry people that are
that don't love themselves well, but they see us and
they see us in all this confidence and it's infectious
(34:24):
and it takes over the entire train. And at the
end of the video, you know, we get this amazing surprise.
We have a drag dolly in the in the video,
and it's incredible because I'm talking about Jesus and also
having a drag dolly in the video at the same time,
which I mean that could piss people off. I don't
really care if it does, but honestly, it's just promoting
more of the inclusivity. But also it's just this really
(34:46):
it's this really fun video. I don't. I think it's
totally positive and it's not meant to be divisive or
controversial at all. I feel like it's really fun and
positive and really trying to get people to feel confident
and love themselves well and so then they'll be able
to love other people well as as Wow, well as well.
How is the operation? When I saw, because I you know,
(35:09):
I spent a lot of time at the opera your
debut a couple of months ago. Yeah, I saw it
pop up on the Instagram. I wasn't there that night,
but it's pretty cool. Huh. Yeah. It was nerve wracking.
There's cameras in your face all day, they're always you know.
That makes makes me a little more nervous. But it
was really cool. My mom got to be there and
I sang why I'm calling, which is about her, and
(35:29):
she lives in California now doing she's actually a child
psychologist as well. But um, I just missed her. I'm
I'm doing a lot of big things in my career
that honestly I wouldn't be able to do if she
didn't raise me and protect me the way she did.
And so it's kind of sad her missing out on
all these really big life events just because we're so
far away, and you know, she's working in California right now,
(35:52):
but um, she got to be there and that was
really special for me. And I was probably crying from
you know, the minute I woke up to the minute
I want to sleep, just because I was so grateful.
That's cool. Was she crying obviously? Yeah? Do you see
you and her? I do. I see more of myself
and my mom than and my dad. For sure. She's
(36:12):
a really giving, loving person, and I think she actually
believes the best and a lot of people and builds
them up well. And I've always wanted to be like that.
I think I'm starting to see myself be like that
more so. You are you feel like you're maturing? Do
you feel like I mean, I'm old as crap. I
better be maturing by now. Yeah, but there are plays
(36:34):
I'm eight years old in some ways still. Yeah. You know,
I don't think age and maturation. I don't think they
always go hand in hand. That's true. There are some
parts of my life where again I'm nine, and my
wife and in serious and joking, she's like, look, you've
there are certain parts of your life where you froze
certain parts of your um you know, psychological lives and
parts of my emotional There's there are some trauma there
(36:56):
that just said, all right, we're gonna put a stop
sign here and we're just gonna stop into you have
to uncomfortably go through the top sign. Yeah, I get that,
and I'm Peter Pan and Peter Pan in a lot
of ways. I mean, I'm still a kid in some
ways like that. That's why I'm in therapy. But yes,
I feel like I'm a cheering a little bit. Did
you always know what you wanted to do? Yes? Because
(37:17):
I always knew, and it was it was weird to
me the people didn't. And your let's say you're seven,
what do you want to do when you were seven? Music?
Did you want to do this when you were ever?
There are three things I wanted to do. I wanted
to be on the radio, on TV, and be a
stand up comedian, and I do all three. But I've
always the create. I just would look at people be like,
what do you mean you don't know what you want
(37:37):
to do? I just didn't understand the concept of not
I knew immediately, but you too. Isn't it crazy that
we actually get to do it, though, there's like maybe
two percent of people that actually get to say that
they and entertainment specifically, because your odds are even small.
You think your odds are small in the real world,
they're even smaller in the world of entertainment. So the
(37:59):
fact that we're getting to do this is wild. When
you wanted to do music, let's say you're seventeen, different
stage alive, you still want to do music, But what
what did that mean to you as a teenager when
you wanted to do music. I had to kind of
buck up and and figure out how that was going
to be a career transition or start a career with that,
(38:20):
because obviously when I was seventeen, I was actually I
started playing in jazz bars when I was fourteen. So
you when you say music, did you want to sing specifically,
or was it I wanted to sing. I wanted to
be a songwriter. I wanted to be a producer. So
a fourteen you start going into jazz bars and singing. Well,
you know, it's funny. I actually started singing in jazz
(38:42):
bars because it was a way that I could help
my family keep the lights on. But then I loved it.
And I actually ended up making a lot of money
doing that. And I sang for this guy in Houston.
His name's Tilman for Tita billion dollar buyer. He also
owns the Houston Rockets and the U of H team,
but he has a ton of restaurants and steakhouses and
(39:03):
very high fine dining places in the entire Texas and
South and on um. But I was like one of
his main piano players and singers for all of his
establishments and all of his corporate events and everything. And
so it was funny that it started off as this
thing to really help my family along, and then it
ended up being this amazing career by the time I
(39:23):
left Houston and moved to Nashville. So, you know, the
Beatles would talk about I don't know the Beatles. I
just read book. I don't talk to you about it.
But if you know the Beatles, I don't know the Beatles.
But they they would always an interviews and in books
that would talk about going in They would be in Germany.
They play the clubs in Hamburg for you know, eight
nine hours at a time, and that's really where they
got good at everything because they had to do eight
or nine hours they had to play songs two or
three times. They'd have to play all these covers, the
(39:45):
occasional original. But that's where when you talk about singing
three or four hours, and they were like, well, we
learned how not to be tired. For sure, you would
sing for eight hours, you would, or you'd play for it.
You just be tired. But we learned how not to
be tired and perform at a high level because we
had to do it so off. And so when you're
telling that story about you having a sing for three
or four hours a night and your voice wasn't even tired,
(40:08):
we had to learn how to do that. It's probably
easier to not go blow your voice while doing a
show now because you've had all this training. Is a
good word for it, like it's literal, it's hard. It
was paid practice time. That's what I thought of it
as when I was seventeen, which I think is a
really mature way to think of it as a teenager.
Anytime I was like, man, I don't want to play
for four hours. This is really tiring. Um My mom
(40:30):
told me. She was like, you're just getting paid to
basically practice every song in every key, in every format,
whether people are paying attention to you, or whether they're
paying more attention to the football game behind you on
the screen, Like it doesn't matter. You're getting paid to
practice and you can mess up and no one cares.
(40:51):
You did a show with Stapleton, actually did a whole
tour with Stapleton, which I have a funny story about. Okay,
so you go, you have a story for me or Okay,
So first, how did you and Chris even come together?
What was that? I was kind of online friends with Morgan,
his wife, and we just kind of followed each other
(41:12):
for a little bit up until the c m As
last year when I sang with Mickey and Brittany and
I met them because their table was right in front
of our table, and I had just come off the
stage from singing. My makeup is all sweating down my
face because I'm crying and sobbing with the girls, and
Morgan and I have already been basically Instagram friends for
a couple of months, and she points at me and
(41:33):
she blines it for me because she loved the performance,
and she really really loved my music at the time,
and she'd play it for her family, and we just
made that connection there at the c m A S.
And I was again sobbing more because these are my
two musical heroes and the fact that I was getting
to meet them on this really historical night, not only
in my career but just in country music, it was
(41:55):
kind of unreal for me. So you meet then and
then who does she go come come out with this
or yeah, my my touring agent, Lenore. She was the
one that reached out to them when they were looking
for a new opener, and Yola had come off for
a few events that she was already doing and they
were looking for someone to fill yolas spot, which actually
(42:18):
this rolls perfectly into my story. So one of the
spots that Yola was out for was Chris's massive Kentucky
concert at a stadium and the lineup am I allowed
to cuss on this? Okay? The lineup was Chris s Tableton,
Willie Nelson, Ryl Crow and who the fuck is Madeleine Edwards?
(42:39):
That was the lineup. And very shortly before this happened,
you were opening I think for Brooks and done was
it and you had a song come out called No
One Cares About the Opener Garth Brooks. I was the
opener yeah, yeah, I've never felt more seen than when
you released that song on Instagram and it was like
literally right before I was about to open in this
(43:03):
stadium for all of this massive star lineup, and then
everyone's not only like that, Liver, It's okay, it's like legitimately,
I've never heard of this girl and what is happening
right now? So I felt very seen in that moment.
Thank you. That's funny. But the difference is you had talent. Again,
we go back to that. Here we are playing in
front of seventy people without talent and and whatever. Yeah
(43:25):
you know, Okay, So look you got the new album
that's out now, not tomorrow. I don't know, now what
do you? Let's talk expectations of the record that aren't
super personal, meaning find your stuff. I want people to
laugh and feel. I don't want to feel. But it's like,
also I wanted to be What do you want the
(43:45):
record to do? Are you true? Like, what's the what's
the purpose of this record when it comes to you
in Nashville? Is it setting something up? You wanted to
talk to be a number one? But what is it?
What's the deal? Is there a single that goes to
Mama Dolly Jesus. Okay, because we've I've played a bunch
of your songs on the National weekend show, you know,
I know you have, and thank you for that because
I've been a fan for a long time. Well, thank you.
(44:06):
So it's like, I just need to know what the
song is, you know. So yeah, Well, and the single
is definitely Mama Dolly Jesus. I think that we're going
is that what they know and they're gonna work that? Yes, okay, yes, es, Yes,
that's the one that we plan on working, whether it
be to radio or whatever that means. That's the one, um,
which is why we did a music video to it.
(44:27):
But my hopes and anticipations for the record, and I'll
I'll preface this was saying, even if this record is
a total flop and it doesn't do anything, I'm really
proud of it. And this is exactly what I wanted
to make and produce, and this is the message that
I'm trying to give to the world. And so even
if it does terribly, I'm still kind of like, this
(44:48):
is my favorite record in my favorite piece of art
I've ever put out. But what I would like for
it to do, I want this to be a new
era for me. I want this to be an establishing
of my self here in Nashville in the country music space,
even in the contemporary music space, because I think mom
A Dooli Jesus has the potential to cross over to pop. UM.
(45:12):
And I really wanted to be kind of a statement
of this is who I am. And it's not snarky
or cheeky, because I'm I'm, you know, challenging the listener
to do the same thing. I'm challenging the listener to
do the hard work and be confident in themselves. UM.
There's really really sexy songs on here, like Forehead Kisses
(45:32):
or Playground that are very much UM. I'm very you know,
confident in my sexuality. I'm very confident in in who
I am as a woman, which especially in the Christian
music space, which I'm not in Christian music, but I
am a Christian. UM is usually looked down upon, and
I don't think it has to be. I think that
could be used in a really positive light, a woman
(45:54):
being confident in her body and being confident in her
sexuality and um. And then you have songs like how
Strong I Am and and talking about digging into the
pain and coming out a stronger person. So there's a
lot of different themes on the record. They all are
genuine to who I am, but it's all challenging the
listener to be confident in who they are. And so
(46:15):
I think that's kind of my goal for it. I
don't really know, like accolades wise, what I'm I mean, Obviously,
I would love it to go as far as I
as I think it could go, which is, you know,
I think this album could be recognized at least by Grammys.
There if you don't say it, how's it supposed to do? It?
(46:36):
You let people know your goals so they can help you.
I mean, I don't want to sound egotistical, that's not
I asked you the question. I asked you the question,
would you like to go? I love to one of
Grammy Boom? There we go. Yeah, I knew it was
personally fulfilling, Like I I really because I know that's
who you are, right, You're not gonna do something that
isn't you, And I'm glad you said that. But let's
let's go. Let's get some big goals. We're not scared
(46:56):
of goals now, I'm not. I think. I always kind
of struggle with like, I want to say what I want,
but I don't want people to think that I'm egotistical
or narcissistic for thinking that. And there's a very fine
line to what people think as I mean, you are,
like I said about me and arrogance, I don't feel
like American at all, but I definitely can see sometimes
I cross the line to people where they do think that,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, I gotta I got a
(47:18):
good point of feeling that way, because it could have
come off that way. But I don't care. I tried to.
I don't care as much about what people that people
understand me anymore because if they don't, either they will
eventually or I'll just die and just be under un understood,
and you know, I'll be one of the great thinkers
that nobody ever really die. Not the part at the point, Okay,
(47:38):
look here we are. The album is out. I everybody,
I'm telling you just go listen to it. Um. It
has been out for a bunch of days now, I
don't I don't know any days at this point, tons
of days, tons of so many days. I'm just about
a big fan. I enjoyed you anyway without knowing you.
But everything that people told me about you, not they
weren't exactly true. It's true. We're meeting you than even
(48:01):
they said, Like, I really enjoy just spend a time
with you. Yeah, you're very You're you're very deliberate, and
I appreciate thank you. I will say, I've been kind
of waiting for this call because I feel like music
is not cool until Bobby Bones says it's cool. And
I was like, I saw you interviewing a lot of
my friends. I'm like, man, he doesn't think my ship
is cool yet. I guess I just got to keep making.
(48:24):
I kept like making cooler and cooler ship, and oh,
Bobby Bones didn't call me. I guess it's not that cool.
But then finally you have a new album coming out album.
If we would have called you two months ago, I
wouldn't have been the same, right, it would have us
got to know each other. But then you would have
missed a prime opportunity, or I would have missed a
prime opportunity to promote something new that you have just spent. Well,
(48:45):
you know what this means now it meets I don't
know what I mean. It means my ship is cool.
It already was. No, No, it already was. I'm telling you,
I've played uh too much of a good thing. Heart.
You can't break hold my horses, sports City, thinking about
you been all this stuff I played right, So I
already thought it was cool. That's alright. So it was
never that. It was always timing on when can you
(49:08):
come in and promote your newest thing? And it makes
We have a million people who listen to this, so
I wanted to make sure that when you came in,
we took their gift and we said, this is the
gift I'm presenting you. It's Madalin and she's presenting her
new project, her new music. There we go where everybody wins.
That's why you've always been cool. Thanks. I on the
other hand, I have not, and I am not secured
(49:29):
in my body. And we'll just end it there at
making Madalen. That's it. Go go follow. What are you
doing the rest of the day. The rest of the day, Oh,
my family's income. They're coming in town because I'm singing
for the Opery again, So I'm gonna be cleaning my
house for the rest of the day. When you form
the oy tomorrow, Saturday today, tomorrow we'll talk in real
(49:51):
terms now. Were actual recording this on a Thursday, but
so's Friday night the night? Yeah, Oh that's cool. Good
for you. Big week. Yeah, it's a big week. Operates
a cool spot to do on an album released, because one,
it's the Opery Opera is always cool. Um too. The
it's on satellite radio. It's on all these ws M,
(50:12):
so there's actually a reach as well aside from it
just being the Opery and then there's a lot of
good social that comes out of it. That's that's a
good good spot. I love it. We're gonna also be
doing Mama Dolly Jesus with their bands with the Opery Band,
which I think is going to go so hard, and
then we're gonna really strip it down and I'm going
to be playing all by myself on their grand Too
much of a good thing. I think that is a
perfect little spot right there. I've never heard anyone so
(50:34):
the Opery Band goes hard, but I like it. They
will on this song. They you will make them, I
will make no doubt about it. Made You've been It's
been awesome talking to you. Yeah, it's really been amazing.
You guys follow at Making Magdalene and you, guys check
out the album because it is out now. It is right,
and it's been out there because I was already listening
to it last week. It's so great already. That's speaking
(50:58):
into existence, all right. There she is mat elan Etter
Host
Bobby Bones
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