#417 - Steven Lee Olsen on Getting Dropped from Label...Before Keith Urban Cut His Song “Blue Ain’t Your Color” + Getting The Call Garth Brooks Wanted His Song + Garth Coaching Him In the Studio on Singing Background Vocals - Bobbycast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
I was like, he's probably not going to cut it anyways.
I'm like, I'm sitting here with no trajectory of anything.
I get a call the next day and he's like,
Keith absolutely loved it. He wants to hold this.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Episode four seventeen with Steven Lee Olsen. You can see
what he looks like at Stephen Lee Olsen on Instagram
Blue Anter of Color. He wrote that, and you know,
I didn't know that he had put it out himself. Well,
he had recorded it to be put out, and then
as he talks about his record kind of got shelved,

(00:40):
he got dropped, and then Keith Urban heard that and
then cut his verse. I didn't know that's how it happened.
I thought he just wrote the song and then Keith
Urban heard it.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Cool process.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, a little disheartening though for him, because he was
gonna put a record out and they were like, we
now drop you. But this guy's got some tenacity for sure.
He talks about moving to Nashville, talks about a guy
car dealership who's like, I kind of believe in you.
His wife was in with us, who I know a
little bit, and his brother ends up showing up too
who's also his manager. And then by the end of

(01:10):
this all four of us are just hanging out in
the college. I think we're onto something with the family
interviews country artists. Yeah, you just got to get him there.
He's got to get him there. But he wrote Blue
Ancher Color for Keith Urban twenty seventeen, Kip More and
more Girls like You.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's a number one got me.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
And then his single right now is called out Here.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
We have.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Here you go. Steven Leolson. He's an artist, he's a writer.
He's a writer artist and he's an artist writer, you know.
And that's a that's a line sometimes that you got
to walk back and forth. And he talks about that.
So here we go, Episode four to seventeen of The
Bobbycast with Steven Lee Olsen. Do people call you Steven
or Stephen Lee or Slow?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
My friends call me slow.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
They really do, well, they do.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I thought it when I first moved here, and then
everybody so I was like, you know what, I can't
beat him to join him, So everyone just calls me slow.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Now, what what is your What do your parents call you?

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Steve? And they're the only one see, Yeah, i'man like
I feel like I need mustache to be called That's
like me being called Bob. Yeah don't Yeah, yeah, I
would never call you Bob. They call you Steve, my sister,
my mom. I know I have an uncle Steve and
has like quite the duster on him. So I'm like,
I just feel like I need a mustache if I'm
going to be a Steve.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Is Lee your middle name? Or is Stephen Lee like
the first Is there another name that you don't have
out there?

Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's Lee's my middle name. Yeah, And honestly, that's a
whole story in itself. I just changed it officially to Mark,
which was my who is my stepdad? Lee was the
was my biological father's first name, so it was like
I was born with that name, sure, and it really
worked well for country. When I first moved here, I
was like Stephen Lee Olson and uh but yeah, So

(02:52):
I just changed it to Mark officially.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Do you want to drop it? Like officially professionally not professionally.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I think there's an people now that know me by
Steven Lee Olsen. So I'm like, I'm okay with that.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Did you know your dad? No? Never, No, not even
for a minute. Because I knew MiNet was five or
six and he was out, but at least like I
knew him. I have a very vague memory of what
he looked like. Yeah, but with you when when did
your dad.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Le So I'm the youngest of three and he bounced,
probably when I was one ish. So, I mean, I
have like one memory, and I don't know if it's
a real memory or like one that I made up,
But it's of basically being in a pickup truck in
the smell of a gasoline and leather, that's all. And
then all I have his storm one.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Do you think you can have a memory at one.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
I don't think so. That's why I'm like, maybe i'm
as well, but you know, it's uh my brain wants
to believe it's a real one.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Do you have any is is there a picture other
than the gas smell the gas like the truck is
a picture of him in your mind?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
I mean, I know what he looks like just because
of social media now, but no, I mean not really
back at the time. You know, I guess when I
was that young, he was on the road with my
they both that's kind of how they met. They were
both singers on the road. So I have pictures of them,
you know, in the craziest outfits on stage. But other
than that, I'm like, there's really no memories other than
that one.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
So he leaves and I don't know the story. So
bear with me, and also you can if you have
any questions, because I'm just asking from a place of
having a parallel kind of kind of life. Well, have
you met him at all?

Speaker 1 (04:25):
No?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Have you ever run into him accidentally?

Speaker 1 (04:27):
No? You know what, And you know, he still lives
in Canada and has I think a few other families
and a bunch of kids. We just weren't one of them,
you know, the only kind of not even communication. But
I guess he was doing security backstage at a theater
a bunch of years ago and I just had a
pretty successful single on the radio and he walked up

(04:51):
to somebody and was like, Hey, I'm Stephen the Olsen's dad,
and they're really good friends of mine. So that got
back to me and I was like, you don't, well,
I don't get to say dad, right. I'm like, there's
a big difference. But you know, little stupid things like that,
you know, have come up. But you know the reality
is is I have no interest in knowing him, meeting him, he's.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
You know, he's never reached out on social media.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Not to me. He has reached out to my sister.
You know, my sister has a way bigger heart than
I do.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
You know, it's the same story with me too. Yeah,
Like I don't know, I do. I didn't, and I
kind of chased him down because I just wanted to
see if he was the evil person that I thought
he was. Yep, And it turns out he was just
embarrassed and confused and ashamed. And but my sister was
much younger, four or five years, and she has a
relationship with him now really, but she wasn't there when

(05:41):
he left, so she doesn't harbor all the resentment that
I think I mostly had. I think I've gotten rid
of a lot of that because I was just like, oh,
I don't even want to waste but I did. I
wouldn't have cared if he died. That's that's I wouldn't
have know.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I That's kind of how I feel right now. And
I can't tell if I'm I will care when he dies.
But the reality is he's a stranger, like I don't
know him. I know that my mom, she really made
the best decisions for us as kids. You know, she
really like kind of took us from him because he
was just you know, an abusive, alcoholic wreck that just

(06:15):
didn't My mom was like, you guys need better, you know.
And even when they separated, he would be like yeah,
you know, it would every other weekend or every third
weekend he was supposed to come grab us. You know,
My mom just paints a picture of us sitting with
our backpacks ready to be picked up, and him just
not showing up at all, and as being you know,
let down and just crying and and I think that

(06:37):
happened so many times for my mom was just like,
you know what, you don't need this in your life,
and we're going to do this together. And so my
mom raised the three of us super poor.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know, stepdad.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
You say, I had a lot of father figures in
my life, you know, but you know one stepdad. His
name is Mark, and he's been you know, my rock
since I've been eight, probably you know, the first like
real authoritative figure. You know that. I My mom is
also this tall, so you can imagine as soon as
we got taller than her, it was probably hard to

(07:07):
discipline us. But so he was he was a hockey player,
firefighter Mark and it was just like a really tough guy.
So there was some it was hard transition a little
bit for everybody, but he really stepped up and filled
those boots for us.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
And still when you tell Mark, still alive?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Oh yeah?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Okay, So when you tell Mark, is he still with
your mom?

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes and no, but he's still he's still around. Yes,
when you told him you were going to change your
name to Mark because of him, how did that go over?

Speaker 1 (07:36):
He cried? I cried. You know, that was only a
couple of years ago, and it was very special.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Man, it is That's about the biggest complient you can
give somebody.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Well, you know, I think it was. It was an
obvious thing. I'm kind of upseted into it sooner, you know,
but I'm like, we've I've also kind of dealt with
a lot of grief in the last like four years,
losing other you know, male figures in my life that
kind of helped me through high school and help me,
you know, through everything, including as well as Mark. So
it just kind of like put a timer, like just

(08:07):
flipped over the sand timer and I was just like, man,
you know what, I don't want to leave anything left unsaid.
I want him to know exactly how I feel about him.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, that would be heavy but awesome feeling for someone
to tell you that you've influenced their life so much
that you want to change your name to them.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Mark must have been a pretty consistent yes person. That
to me was what my grandmother was when she adopted me.
Was like the only real consistency.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
So you know, other're all these you know, adjectives you
can use, but consistent was really the most important thing
to me because there was no consistency in my life whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
So it sounds like Mark was kind of just present.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
And still to this day, you know, shows up to everything,
gets every newspaper clipping, shows up to everything. He'd be
here right now if I said, come on.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
What's your mom?

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Like?

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh, my mom is the salt of the earth. She's
a little mighty mouse. You can't hold her.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
How tall is she? You made two references out short?

Speaker 1 (09:02):
She she's about as short as my wife, Shannon. You
know how tall are you?

Speaker 2 (09:06):
You're five foot? Okay?

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, yeah, so she's you know, she's tiny, but I
you know, I wouldn't mess with her for sure, you know.
But she worked three jobs non stop, you know, to
try and pull us out of you know, we, like
I said, we grew up really bore, but we always
felt like the lucky ones we did because she always
went above and beyond. And that's kind of how I
got into music. Is a way to escape where we

(09:30):
were living, which sometimes was not very great. We would
be singing all the time.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Nature nurture, singing.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Nurturer.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Your mom want you to sing, she sing with you. Yeah,
But again, you had two parents. I'm not gonna al
won't say your biological father and your mom. There were
both singers, so there's intrinsically something.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
And you know, I've seen videos of my biological father.
He was an Engelbert humperdink impersonator, not a great singer.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
My mom, on the other hand, Now, are you being biased? No,
you don't like him.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
No, if you heard him, you would be you. We
would both laugh. And it's okay to say that because
he's a complete stranger to me. But I can tell
you for sure that my mom's voice to this day
is still one of my favorite voices. Should never sing
in front of us now, she'd be like you guys
are so far ahead of me. But she is an
incredible vocalist, you.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Know, and she was a performer when she was younger. Yeah,
so how did that work with the At what point
did she go, you know, I'm not going to be
a performer anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
As soon as she had us kids essentially, you know,
and she realized that she had to pay the bills
and really gave up her dream to do that for us.
You know. I was born in Scarborough, Ontario, which is
kind of a rough part of Toronto, and we would
basically every time she got a promotion or we would
just she'd just move us a little further north into

(10:53):
the suburbs and it just got better and better and better.
But it definitely was because she would work two jobs.
She worked for the government, you know, basically she was
a social worker working with people you know that putting
on welfare and you know, doing really great work. But
then she would take us to you know, offices to
clean with her. You know, she had cleaning jobs, and

(11:15):
she would always be crafting ship and you know, just
selling it just side hustles.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I think the wind blew the door.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, oh no, it's not.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
There's really somebody that walked in. I was like, I
think the wind blew the door.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
That's my manager Sean, as well as my brother both.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, so he gets a pass for being late.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, he gets a path for being like he also
came from Chattanooga this morning, so.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
So two passes pass that's right. Okay. I really thought
it was the wind and I was like, Man, this place.
I still haven't got to figured it out yet, right, Okay,
So where what part of Canada did you grow up near?

Speaker 1 (11:49):
So I called Barry, Ontario home now because that's where
my mom still lives. But you know, I went to
high school everywhere you can think of.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I mean it was do me over America.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, like Toronto, I would say, just two hours north
of Toronto is where I said I did most of
my growing up.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
So like northeast part of the I've been in Toronto,
so it's like New York Ish yep, and then two
hours above that.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Is it just cold all the time?

Speaker 1 (12:15):
It feels like it. Man, I've been here for sixteen
years and I can tell you I definitely missed the seasons.
But I only say that until I go back in
the the depth of winter there, and I'm like, you
know what, I don't miss it that much.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
When you're growing up in Canada and you have this
musical mother. Do your brother and sisters sing by the way,
Yeah they did? So was there ever a family? But
do you sing?

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Not?

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Really?

Speaker 1 (12:39):
He learned to play guitar literally so that he could
pick up girls when he was in high school.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
I thought you were gon, say so we could be
part of the family band. I got it.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
So was the plan initially to do something with a
family or stay in Canada and be an artist or
was it always to come to the States eventually?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
I mean, you know what I think for me, it
was there was never a family band kind of mentality.
I always knew I wanted to do something with music,
and you know, Nashville was the place I knew I
needed to go. And I had a champion, my first
real champion that you know, made me believe in myself
and knew the roadmap and knew where I needed to

(13:18):
be and literally bought me my first guitar, you know,
my real first real guitar, helped me make demos. And
who is that champion? This guy's name is Steve Lawrence.
You know, we called him Big Steve. And I was
working at a car dealership, you know. It was like
the detailer at an Audi dealership in Canada. In Canada, yep,
and you know, honey, you can plug your ears if
you want. But I brought my guitar to work one

(13:40):
day because there was this receptionist named Burgundy, and she
found out that I sang, and so you should bring
your guitar to work tomorrow. So I did, and I
started singing her songs in the parking lot and he
was like the head used car salesman at this place
and heard me, and I didn't think anything of it.
And halfway through the day, I heard my name and
get called on the PA and I thought I was

(14:02):
getting fired for it, and it was him. He was like, hey,
what are you doing. He's like he was a you know,
a musician himself that I don't think had a believer
or a champion, you know. So his kind of dreams
got capped and he went into you know, corporate America.
So he was really just he wanted to do this
out of the goodness of his heart and wanted to
help me. He saw something in me that I didn't

(14:22):
even see yet and uh and yeah, he drove me
to Nashville for the first time.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
He Uh, you guys drove down.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, drove in my ninety four two toned Chrysler Sea Bring.
It was a total piece of I can't even believe
it made it. But yeah, he drove me down. Really
kind of set me up to, uh, to start my
my dream here.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Burgundy wasn't in the car. No, she was not in
the Car's a tough name to have too, It's just
too many syllables, right, burg Gundy Berger What do you
call him? Berg Berger Berg?

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, that's just Gundy.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
And so you told your wife to plug her ears.
You never said anything abut Burgundy. O. Then you played
the guitar, did you in Burgundy?

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Have never? That was it? That was it. Yeah, But
I think she'd like to believe she's the only one
I've ever serenaded and menton, you're the only one I've
meant it with.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, that Burgundy was the hole anyway.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, from what I me, that's what I'm saying. I'm
sorry for this.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
A legal disclaimer. I'd have no idea who Burgundy is. Yes,
So how old were you when you came to Nashville
for the very first time.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
I wasn't old enough to drink yet. I'm twenty. I
think I was twenty years old.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Were you performing near home? Were you playing around in
Toronto at all?

Speaker 1 (15:28):
I was playing in like small little bars, you know,
And actually at the time, I was playing with my sister,
you know, we'd play like Dixie Chick songs and Faith
Hill and Tim McGraw. And that's kind of where really
like my performing started.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
When you moved to Nashville and you see the other performers,
just the performers that are playing at bars. So many
of my friends are like, holy crap when they.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Moved here, Like that's how I felt.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
These are the people who aren't even like quote unquote
making it exactly. So you come down, you're twenty years old,
what do you see and how do you feel?

Speaker 1 (15:58):
I feel completely in Tim. I also feel like I'm
exactly where I need to be. You know. I definitely
can't see myself competing at this point, but I was
extremely happy to be there. I was I always say,
I was like I didn't know that I couldn't do
it yet. I was like that blind, kind of fearless

(16:18):
young going to live forever kind of mentality, you know.
But I definitely remember, you know, seeing a lot of
artists and going, man, I'm like, I'm not even like
ten percent as good as them, and I can't see
how I will be. But I just kept showing up.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
When did you move down?

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Two thousand and seven?

Speaker 2 (16:37):
How many how many years from the first time you
came down until you moved down?

Speaker 1 (16:42):
I think it was a month and a half the
first time I came here. Yeah, it was really cool.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
We just knew.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
I did know. And I also had Steve Lawrence being like, hey,
we're doing this, this is where you need to be.
He didn't move with me, he you know, he just facilitated,
you know. And I was one of the lucky ones
that had got a publishing deal. Like the first I
moved here, how did that happen? It was a Canadian company.
Now they're called Anthem, but at the time it was
called ol A and so Steve Lawrence.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
They have a bus.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, that's right. I remember that I wasn't there when
they had the old a bus. That everything cool happened
after I left. That always happens that way. But Steve Lawrence, essentially,
you know, found this manager named Ron Kitchener. And Ron
Kitchener was like the manager in Canada. He was, you know,
distributing everything that Taylor Swift did here there, so he
was kind of a big deal. It kind of just

(17:32):
handed me off to Ron and with nothing, you know,
just out of the goodness of his heart. And Ron
had a publishing company with ol A called Roots three,
and you know, it was the worst publishing deal probably
you'll ever hear. It was like eight hundred bucks a
month Canadian check that Canadian and uh, you know, but

(17:52):
I made it work. And you know the same story.
I'm sure you've heard a million times of like I
had to borrow things from my publishing company in the
middle of the night, you know, food snacks, tolet paper,
and actually drove her around without car insurance for like
the first year, which was not recommended. I'm happy and
nothing happened.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Where'd you live? What kind of place you live in?

Speaker 1 (18:14):
It was an apartment in East Nashville on Forest Road,
I believe it was. And that was only short term.
They would like, let us live for like five hundred
bucks a month. Who's us, well, I mean it was me. Nope,
you're trying to get me in trouble.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, say, did you have a roommate at all?

Speaker 1 (18:31):
No? I didn't, but I definitely had people sleeping on
my couch for like twenty five bucks a night. Really, yep,
I did, and that had to end as soon as
they weren't wearing pants and just like you know, underwear
on your couch.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
No sheet, at least thirty bucks for that thirty bucks, right,
So you're struggling. Yeah, it's the all too common story
of your creative you're struggling. You don't come from money,
so you also have the luxury of not and often
say it by myself. I didn't have any money growing up,
so it wasn't like I needed to have some crazy lifestyle, right,
I could just run exactly. You know, I had nothing

(19:01):
to lose. Yep, So I wasn't going to lose even
if it didn't go my way, especially for a while
you're here, is there like like an underground like Canadian
mob type group that looks out for each other, meaning
you move here and so even though you don't know them,
they're like, hey, he's also from this part or even Toronto,
and they kind of look out for you because because
there even is with States here, Yeah, like there's the

(19:24):
Georgia boy and if you're from Arkansas, like even if
you don't like but it's like Matt Stell and Justin
Moore and myself and Hamburg, like we could all call
each other and be like, hey, let me go, just
because we grew up in the same place.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, trying to help each other. Little.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Does that happen at all?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
You know what it's yes, but it was you know,
I can tell you personally that you know any Canadian
artists that are trying to make headway in Nashville already,
you know. When I moved here, anyways, it was more
difficult for us. You know, I don't think guys you're
a Canadian, Yeah for sure. So I mean when I
when I first moved here, I actually try to try

(19:59):
to to avoid it as much as I could. I
didn't want to be clicky with only the Canadians because
I knew that was only going to make my life harder,
you know. And it's not not like I didn't love them,
you know, but it was.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Interesting because I don't And again this is a different time.
I don't feel that way now, yep at all. Yeah,
do you feel that way?

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Now you know what I don't I think, you know,
technology has has really helped kind of get that to
a point where it's you know, almost an even playing field,
you know, but I can. You know what I did
is I found the best writers I knew or that
I just my that I was a fan of. And
that was like Gordy Sampson. He was the Canadian that

(20:42):
was like, he wrote Jesus Take the Wheel and it
was just crushing. I had a bunch of Keith songs
as well. And Hillary Lindsay, she was one that I
looked up to, Brett James. These were all people that
I was like, man, if I can just write with
the people that they're writing with, maybe we write something good.
They're like, hey, let's pull you in with Gordy, pull
you in with Hillary, pull you in with Brett. And
that was kind of my strategy. That's how I met,

(21:05):
you know, Eric Pasley for the first time in Gordy Shack.
We would all just be back there playing songs and
he was amazing and I absolutely sucked, and you know,
they'd be passing around the guitar and following Eric. At
the time. It was like, good God, I'm like you
are everything and I'm nothing. But it was for me
that was kind of my strategy, was just to find

(21:27):
the people that I respected the most as songwriters because
that's what I knew I had to do. First. I
was like, if I can write songs to tell my
story the way that only I can, I'm like, you know,
I think I'll have a shot at the artist's side,
and that's kind of how I, you know, developed as
a writer.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Hang ty, the Bobby Cast will be right back, and
we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
First cut you ever got?

Speaker 1 (22:00):
First cut was? I always say I ruined the Judds' career,
but it was the Juds. You know, they actually went
to radio with it, and I don't even know if
it I don't know if anyone added it. So I
always say I had their last single and killed it.
But that was that was my first cut, and then
I had.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Did they give you any sort of momentum at all? Though?
Because you have a cut, you do have a cut?

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Oh my god, it was everything. At the time. I
remember going, look, mom, we're doing it like I'm on
the board.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Did rooms open up a little bit? Because now, no, no.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Really, they really didn't open up at all. Honestly, I
can tell you rooms really didn't open up for me
until until Blue Intra Color.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's when they opened up for you.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
That's when they like, they like, they just wide opened
up for me, when people were like, oh, that's what
you do in a room? You know. But you know,
I think being with the right publishing company definitely can
get you into the right writing rooms at least one time.
You know. After that, it's if you if.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
You suck or you're unlikable, you can't You're not gonna
give it exactly.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yep, yep. Even if you suck, but you're super likable,
you might get another shot.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
It's like, shot my whole life is what happened to me.
I'm kind of likable.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
So like, come on back, come on back, and you
hope you bring something breaks, some cookies, something into the room.
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
So you're so you get the judge that doesn't do
much for you. What what cut happens next?

Speaker 1 (23:20):
The I want to say?

Speaker 2 (23:22):
And how what's the difference? What's the time from the
judge cut to whatever you're about to tell me? Is
the second song you get cut?

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Oh? Man?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
See now you're are you getting holds like crazy too,
but they're not turning into it really.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
No.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
I have no idea how I held onto a publishing
deal as long as I did. To be honest, I'm like,
I think everyone thought that the next year was going
to be the year. And I was making a lot
of trips, you know, over to Sweden, over to London
with what purpose because they were like, you know, you
very R and B stylistically, and there was a lot
of opportunity to write for pop stuff. So I you know,

(23:52):
I got a west Life cut, the massive.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I love west Life, right, I was a pop radio
for a long time. Yeah. At west Life, they were
legit for sure. I went one of the guys and
Westlife was playing was the lead in a broad that's
not Broadway in London, whatever their version, and and I
want to watch it just because he was the lead.
West Life was legit for anybody that doesn't know.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
And they're massive. I had no idea either.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
So soccer, yeah, like everyone but here, yes, no, that's.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
That's that's really accurate. So I had I had just
enough things going on, I think where they thought, maybe
you know, Steven's going to start popping off as a writer,
you know, and then I got my Garth Brooks cut
and that was really the that was for me, like
I saw Magic of Nashville. You know what they talk
about when things happened that you were just like, couldn't

(24:37):
couldn't happen in any other place?

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Was that from his Man Against Machine record?

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yes, the one with the awesome sony.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
And the rope on his neck.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, that's the first time I met Garth is when
he's put in that out when we first moved here.
That was probably about twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, something like that. Yeah,
so you get how does he find that song?

Speaker 1 (24:54):
I honestly still to this day don't know. I think
I wrote it with Chris Wallin and Melissa and they're
both insanely good writers. And that song like was on
a shelf for like four years.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
What was that song called.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
It's called Cold like That, Okay, And it was on
a shelf. We wrote it four years, you know, before
he cut it. And then I remember getting an email
from his producer at the time, and I can't remember
his name for the life of me, but his email said, hey, Stephen,
you know, Garth really wants you to come into the
studio when we record this tomorrow. Would you be able
to free up your.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Day out of nowhere come tomorrow and Garth will be there.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, yep, absolutely, And I was. I called everyone I knew.
I I honestly, I was so nervous that I asked
my producer at the time, Clint Laugerberg, to come with me.
I was like, man, I'm going to throw up on him.
I'm like, I don't know, it's like Garth. I grew up.
Everyone grew up on Garth, but I definitely did. And so,
I mean, it was this old church and I remember

(25:51):
and it was later at night too, it was like
five pm or something, so it was just getting dark
and there's these big wooden doors, and I remember knocking
on the door and Garth showed up with his Louisville
slugger answered the door, wearing his own merch of course,
and he was like, hey, Steven, and I was. And
he's way bigger in person than I thought as well,
Like he's just a bigger guy. And he he said, hey,

(26:14):
come on in the studio, was just super humble, like
everything you want Garth to be. He sat me down
in this room like for forty minutes, literally just did nothing.
But this man. He started asking me questions about my life,
my mom, my sister, my cat's name, like where I
grew up, like my T shirt size, everything you can
think of. And I'm like, what is happening. I'm pinching
myself the whole time, and I get super comfortable, you know,

(26:38):
starting to like talk to Garth like we're friends, and
I just asked him. I said, I'm like, dude, do
you have any advice you know for a new artist?
I'm like, a might as well ask like the top
selling mail artists of all time? Got right, yeah, And
I honestly can't remember what he said because I made
a total ass of myself shortly after that, and because

(27:00):
what he said was so profound and awesome that I
was like, man, you should write Fortune cookies. I was like, wait,
you should write Fortune five hundred cookies because you're rich,
and I thought that was hilarious. He literally didn't even
crack a smile, like he just stared at me for
like a good twenty seconds, and it was the longest
twenty seconds of my entire life. And then he just

(27:22):
broke the silence, like just broke it and was like,
all right, man, let's get you back to the studio.
And I was like, all right, I ruined it. And
then he brought me back into the vocal booth and
he wanted me to sing background vocals on this record.
So I actually got to sing background vocal. It was
like the experience of a lifetime. And Garth is behind
the console and he's like, man, He's like, I need
you to sing this with your heart like you mean it,

(27:42):
and I'm like, I sing it, okay, mister Brooks. I'm
like okay, I'm starting to sing it and sing it
and he's like, man, try and sing it like Nickelback.
And then he lost me and I was like, okay, Nickelback.
I'm like, I just I don't even think I did
anything differently than the take before. But he was like
that's the one, and it was that was it, and

(28:03):
then you know he two months later, he was doing
one of these massive stadium tours and he texted me
out of nowhere and he's like, hey, do you want
to come to the show and shoot the T shirt cannon?
Because I think I mentioned to him I would do
that and he remembered, of course, and I showed up
to the show and sure enough he greeted me at
the door and sat down with me in the room

(28:23):
like with nothing but chairs, like thirty minutes and told
me every single thing that I told him that day,
Cat's name, T shirt size, where I grew up, all
my best friends, like, he garthed me like you hear
stories about him just being the best that's ever done it,
And I was like, that's that's part of why you're
a legend.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
So when you write a song for Garth in that project,
I remember when it was happening, everybody was just excited
Garth was back right because he had been gone for
so long. Yeah, what did that do for you as
a songwriter, just to be attached to Garth anythings?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
No, it did that one actually did, I think. And also,
if I'm correct, was also signed to Columbia. I just
got my record deal at Columbia at that time as well,
so they love to capitalize on Garth of course, and
so that was pretty cool. We got to go to
a lot of parties and you know, I was going
on a radio tour across the country, which I did,

(29:16):
and you know that was one of the songs we
played as well. We're like, oh and He also got
a song on Garth Brooks's new record, which I think
helped move the needle because not a lot of people
besides like me and Lee Brice could say that at
the time. So I mean, I think that definitely at
least gave me some street cred if nothing else during
that radio tour.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, so you're writing for others or just writing, and
you're also pursuing a solo career at the same time. Yeah,
how do you juggle those priorities because it's hard to
do them both.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Full It's impossible, especially in this town. You know, Like
I feel like this town wants you to be one thing,
Like they do not want you to be both, you know.
But now it's like you see people like Hardy and Earn,
I'm like, it's they've really smashed that at least with
the within their own camp, you know. But that was
a probably still to this day is my biggest struggle.

(30:09):
Is because I had more success as a writer, you know,
with Blue Intra Color and more girls like you for
Kip before I did as an artist. So I think
even in this town somewhat it's like people see me
as a writer and trying to break that stigma has
been has been a challenge.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Well it Stephen mark Olsen would be quite the artist. Hey,
I love that. Oh there's already a big snow so
I guess that would so you the Rascal Flat song
that you had.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Kiss kiss you, kiss me while you can, Kiss me
while you can?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Is that what it was?

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, kiss you while I can?

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Did you do back to us?

Speaker 1 (30:45):
I wish I did? Okay, I wish I did.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
No, it's I get those two confused though, what's sing me?
Not knowing? I'm seeing like saying things, but give me
the melody.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
D man, I don't even know if I can remember.
It was like because I can't kids, well kids, you
are kids you while I came.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
So when they cut that song again, you haven't all
I mean you got the judge, Yeah, Garth, you got
Rascal Flats. These are legendary acts totally where the judge
the judges are a little older, as in that's kind
of a hey retro, it's cool, but like Garth was
coming back Rascal Flats. Even though they're older and legendary,
they were still at the time totally rushing it. So

(31:19):
but no singles, no singles that are making it so
are you still on the stage of like boom, I
got another cut, let's go? Or is there are the
cuts not really paying the bills and you're like, I
want to cut, but I need a freaking single so
I make some money.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Honestly, I don't even think I my mindset was singles
until I had one, and then you knew, and then
I knew. Once you got a taste of it, I
was like, oh, you know, it's like man, And also
to see how many doors it opened, and awards shows
you get to go to, and like relationships you make
and people that actually want to write with you instead
of you trying to hunt down everybody else.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Which one was first, the Kip Song or Blue Antra Color?

Speaker 1 (31:55):
It was blue?

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, well that thing was a cannon boom.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
And the big you know, and that was my first
single that I really like had hit the charts. And
I also moved to town because of Keith. You know,
he was the first artist. I mean, they used to
call me Steven Urban, Stephen Lee Urban. You know. Back
at home, all my friends would laugh because I literally
dyed my hair. There's horrible photos online if you care
to look or not. But he was like the artist

(32:21):
that kind of made me think maybe I could do
this as an artist, because he definitely wasn't your stereotypical
hat act that was wearing cowboy boots and was saying,
you know, his voice was a little more progressive too.
Between Rascal Flats and Keith, I was like, Keith was
definitely the one that helped me make the move. And
also what I was kind of, you know, stenciling, if

(32:42):
it's the right word, my music after it was like
the thing I latched onto before I could really had
my own artistry. So I'm like, for that to be
my first real cut was I thought I was dreaming
like it was. I remember even getting the call, and
that's and that cut happened from the absolute worst time
in my entire life. Like I just had lost my
deal at Columbia after making a full record, you know,

(33:06):
they they fired Gary Overton or he stepped down, depends
on who you ask. And I was like, wow, it
took me six years to get this record deal. I
just made this record with Clint Laugerberg. Blue at Your
Color was my next single, and they canned everybody, like
everybody that Katino and you know, Taylor Lindsay and Gary

(33:28):
Overton signed, so I was completely defeated and had no
idea what I was going to do. I was just like,
this is not how the story he's supposed to go.
And I did all the bullshit you have to do
to get a record deal, including drink a ton at
red Door and show up to cottages. I went hunting,

(33:48):
and I'm not a hunter.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
I shot.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
I'm not I shot birds. I still feel guilty about.
And you know, I did all the things that you
know I saw everybody else doing. I was writing, you know,
I believe great songs, and I was just starting to
really figure out like who I was going to be
as an artist, and then the kind of the ball
got dropped on me. And it was the lowest point
I think I'd ever been in that in that moment,

(34:11):
it was like the first real loss that I'd had
in Nashville.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Did your record ever get put out? That first one?

Speaker 1 (34:18):
No?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
The version of Blanche Color that you recorded, it is it?
Did Keith hear that? Or do you hear like a
demo before you even recorded your version?

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Keith heard my record version, you know, he heard what,
you know, what we had recorded.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Did they just start shopping those songs as soon as
it like, how does that work?

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Well? You know what? I that was a song that
was Bluincher color was the only one that I was like,
no one else can cut this, this one, it has
to be mine. I knew it was special and uh
and at the time I was, I was signed with
to Brett James's publishing company, corn Man and Nate Lowry,
which he helped totally change my world. He called me

(34:56):
one day and was like, hey, I know you said
no one can cut. He just said, but I know
Keith is looking. Can I just pitch this to Keith?
And Keith on me? And I said no, And then
I called him back twenty minutes later, and I was like,
what's the worst that can happen? He's probably not going
to cut it anyways. I'm like, I'm sitting here with
no trajectory of anything. And so he pitches it to him,

(35:20):
and I get a call the next day and he's like,
Keith absolutely loved it. He wants to hold this.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
So I was like, both good and bad.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Yeah, well it was all good for me. At that point,
I thought I was going to have to pack up
and go home. I thought I was like this is
it for me, you know, the once you have that
label on your head of dropped and for whatever reason
it is in this town, you're just you know, you're
not the new shiny penny, and dropped is dropped. No
one sees you in any other light unless you've had
you know, a certain amount of success and raised by

(35:49):
a good time. The song I did put out with
Columbia was crushing it. It was actually doing way better
than anything else that any new artist was doing at
the time, but none of that mad Uh And I
remember getting the call that Keith was actually going to
cut it, and then I found out that Dan Huff
was going to produce it on him and Dan, I'm like,

(36:10):
like I said, I grew up on that Golden Road record,
so it was like, Wow, this is from the worst
possible place I've ever been in my life, is setting
itself up possibly to be the most cool. I'm like,
it's Keith. I'm like, it was just a dream. I
never even thought I was going to meet him, let
alone have his biggest song he's ever had. So I

(36:31):
and he called me to the studio too. He texted me,
got my number from somewhere, and he's that's who he is.
He's just said, hey, want to come and hang out
of the studio and record this song and said absolutely.
So I got to go there and meet Dan Huff
and just I was so nervous. I didn't even say anything.
I just sat back and was like, don't say anything
exactly That's what I was saying. I was like, man,
you know Garth is you know, he's he's the goat,

(36:53):
but you know, Keith to me is like the ultimate goat.
And it was it was an amazing experience. And then
you know, from all that, I got to I got
to bring my mom to the Grammys and.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
It's did he modify the song a bunch?

Speaker 1 (37:08):
He did?

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Keith? And I know Keith pretty well and he has
I've been over to his house so much in his
studio too, where he's like, check this out, and it's
just he's got eleven things happened at the same time.
And it's crazy for whatever version of ad D that
I have, But he changes a lot, or he moves
or pivots from things quickly. Yeah, you know, that's part
of his creative genius is able to do that. How

(37:30):
was the version that we all heard different from your.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Version, you know what, I think they Honestly, the first
time I heard his version of it, and my heart
sunk a little bit just because it was I you
call it demo witis in this town, but I was
so used to it having it was slower my version.
It had a little more swing in the pocket. It
was more R and B to be honest, and and

(37:53):
Keith and Dan they sped it up. They made it
exactly what it should have been for him, and you know,
made it fit his sound. You know, I've heard stories
since that, you know, Keith actually didn't want it on
the record for a minute and was second guessing it.
And I don't know if there's validity to that.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
I would say there is, only because I know Keith
and he's second guess every single record, every single time.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Like it's like he's like, I love it, Oh no,
I hate it. Oh no, it's great. Well, I would
imagine that's part of that process.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Man, you know what. And then I've heard I heard
Dan Huff was like, Keith, you have to have this
on your record, this is like, this is the song.
And he trusted the people around him, and uh, you know,
and and the rest was kind of history, but you know,
they definitely he sped it up quite a bit. He
straightened out a lot of the vocals that I did.
You know, he was more on the beat.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
You know.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
I live behind the beat historically, you know, but I
now it's so funny when I play and sing that
song live, I actually sing it a little bit more
like Keith.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Does because how people know it.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, I don't know if it's because that's how people
know or that's just like the version I've heard a
bajillion times on the radio as well, you know, but
it was definitely a surreal expce avarience. And uh, you know,
Keith is still at the very top of my list
of artists, and you know we I wrote a song
with Nathan Barlowe, who's in Keith's band and has been

(39:12):
for a while. And I want to say, it's been
like five years and he's held this one song that
and not let it go.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
And I know that he's reading the kidnapping that's what
al that.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Is a kidnapping or it has been a roller coaster,
you know. And I've had a bunch of songs on
hold with Keith and he's put his vocals on a bunch,
but this was the one that he never let go.
And I always check in on songs, probably like every
three months. With Keith. I'm like, hey man, it's like,
how are you feeling? But you know, take your temperature
on this song is what I call it? And you know,
and he for a lot of them, he's like, you

(39:44):
know what it is not quite many? And I said
a more like Crocodile Hunter, didn't it just now?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
You know all that kind of the urban crocodile hundreds unde.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
I don't know if he's offended. He's not okay, He's
not okay, but you know he's And I just found
it out that he's finally finished it after five years.
And I know he's went through like four different producers,
he's mixed at seven different times, he's cut it, he
cut it, and it's finally coming out.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Have you heard it? I have.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, because well,
he sent me. He sent me a version a long
time ago of the progress and I thought that was incredible.
But you know, I've since been with Nathan Barlowe and
he was like, hey, you got to hear this because
we're so excited. This has been like a rollercoaster of
is it not happening, it's happening. It's been three different
records that it was supposed to be on and it's

(40:32):
not and now it's finally Yeah, exactly. Yeah man, that's cool.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Congratulations, thanks man.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
You played the opry when was did you play it
for the first time?

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:57):
And did you play this year?

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Like point, How was that for you? Because being in
the town for a long time, obviously it exists and
it's always a goal. But you've had success in these
other areas, but you're a you're heart an artist, yeap,
and so to finally get to do something that monumental
on the artists side, that had to be, you know,
pretty substantial for you.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
It was emotional. Man. I'm an emotional guy, you know.
Ever since I had my son too, I've just I
cried everything, So like something that big for me. You know,
when I first moved to town, there was like a
few things that I knew that were made at Marks
and like everyone else, it's and that was one of
them for me. And you know, being in Nashville for
like sixteen years now, it's you know, I've had a

(41:42):
lot of people tell me what I can't do, and
that just things that I wouldn't be able to achieve,
you know, people trying to be real with me, just
being like, you know what, maybe you are, maybe you
are just a songwriter. Maybe you should just give up
the artist thing altogether. And and then you know, earlier
this year, I kind of I was in a place
where I started to believe them. And that's the worst
thing you can do, is like lose your own hope

(42:04):
for yourself. Like I always say, you have to like
just hang on a string if you can. It's because
I know that this town can beat you up, and people,
like I said, they they don't. They don't want you
to be more than one thing, you know. So I
just getting the call that I was going to be
on the operat was just a crazy moment for me,
one that I almost like let the belief that it

(42:26):
was going to happen. I almost let it go. So
it was like incredible, and you know, now I can
look at it and go it was the timing of it.
I wouldn't have had it any other way. I got
to bring my son out there, you know, onto the
stage for a rehearsal, and one of the backup singers
grabbed him and like brought him right to the microphone
and he's saying like I'm a little teapot or something
on the opery stage before I did.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
And the first song I did at the operation HiT's
a hit, a hit classic.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yep, you know, but that was you know, I had
that memory forever, you know, and uh, and it was
just it was a surreal moment. I and uh, yeah,
I mean it happened all so fast and you only
get sing a few songs, but.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah, it's quick. So to me, it was blurry the
first time. Second time I loved even more than the
first because it wasn't so blurry.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
You were more prepared, ready, and like now.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
I saw faces the second time. The first time I
didn't see but his face. I was just like, oh
my god, don't screw this up.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
That's where I was at.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
There were people, they brought cake, you had a sign.
It just was so much more about the pageantry. Yeah,
that I felt like I couldn't really appreciate the substance. Yeah,
the second time was freaking awesome.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Second time was for you being like, Okay, I showed up.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
How did your first performance go?

Speaker 4 (43:34):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Man, I got a standing Oh you did? I did?
Which made me. Ugh get me emotional right now, don't
make me cry, but yeah, it was What did you play?
I played Blue Antra Color, of course, and and I
played a song called Out of Yours, which was my single.
I think that was the peak of the single, actually

(43:55):
was when we shifted the a few next days over
to something else, But it was just like an nice
way to cap off that song at the operat.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Why do you think they gave you a standing ovation?

Speaker 1 (44:08):
You know? I I don't think I sang the greatest,
to be honest, like you said, I was. I was
all in my own head and then my emotions were
kind of taken over, like my voice. I I haven't
even watched it back because I don't think I can,
but I think they they saw what it meant to me.
I think, you know, when you know I got I

(44:28):
got a good opportunity to talk to talk to them
in between songs, and you know, setting up Blue ant
Your Color, I kind of let them know how long
I'd been in town and what my dreams were and
how this was always you know, one of the biggest
things on my bucket list. And I don't know why.
I can't tell you why. I'm I'm sure as hell
happy they did, though, because it made me feel like,

(44:50):
you know what, I always hoped it would be matched matched,
Actually what happened?

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Can you remember? You remember it?

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Pieces of it? I remember my you know the things
like basically, I remember my recap video that we had
made it, which is crazy. I remember how big I
the set is. When I walked out for the first time.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
You remember them like standing up and you being like, okay,
and I need to sit here and take it, or
I because we can also walk off, right if you're
like because if they're all like doing a half standing out,
just get to crap off stage, because right because if
you're going to wait for them, they don't ever stand up,
then not embarrassed exactly. You mail yes, And I'm also
waving my hands like come on to stand up, stand up?

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Come on?

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Do you remember that moment when people started to stand up?
I do you had to make that decision do I
stay or do I walk off?

Speaker 1 (45:34):
I honestly, I feel like a lot of people stood
up at the same time, and that was when I
lost it, I was just like, what is life? You know?
Made it like a lot of a lot of shitty
moments in this town make a lot of sense, you know.
Reminded me to just keep going, you know, no matter
what it's like, because most of my setbacks have actually
been set ups, and you don't know that until you've

(45:57):
kind of gone through that to know. I'm like here,
like this year was a really difficult year for me,
and it ended up being one of the best years
of my entire life. And you know, I mean, if
you give up, you'll never know what's on the other
side of it. And there's just no give up in me.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Your TikTok happy Heavenly was he was doing big numbers.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Why do you think that song has resonated? Is this
the story? Is it the because it's it's it's I mean,
it's a viral song, you know, Viral so harder to
find even now because every everything does nothing in a
bunch at the same time. But I feel like that's
been a really big one for you online.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
It's so funny. No, I actually only posted like two
or three videos of that thirty second clips of the
of the demo just because I wanted to see. You know,
I was in a place where my my management was
just like really pushing me hard on TikTok, and that
was kind of the infrastructure they had at the time,
was just like you know, TikTok, TikTok, five videos a day,

(46:53):
and that's you know, it kind of ended up really
burning me out. But that was blessing through that is I.
You know, I threw that song up and and you know,
I wrote that song, you know, because I lost somebody
like one of my I don't even know, maybe not
call him a father figure, but this man, his name
is Ian and he dated my mom back in high
school when she went to high school, and they stayed
friends ever since. And you know, when I was coming

(47:15):
up in like seventh and eighth grade, I had zero confidence,
you know, I just I didn't I didn't know how
to talk to girls. I didn't know how to be cool.
I didn't I don't know what, you know, any good
taste in music was. And he kind of really took
me under his wing, you know, taught me how to
roll joints the first time. I didn't let me smoke
him for a long time, but you know, taught me

(47:36):
how to be cool, and I had to talk to
to women and how to how to stand out in
a room. And I lost him three years ago suddenly,
you know, And I guess the last two years, every
time on his birthday, I would just be broken, you know,
I'd just be like, man, I'd always call him and
make him make fun of how old he was, and

(47:57):
and I was just tired of I was tired of
being So I wanted to write something that turned a
tear into a smile essentially and remember all the amazing
things that we got to do together. So I wrote
this song really for me with my buddy Jimmy Robbins.
I had the chorus and I brought it to him
and I was like, dude, can you help me write
these verses. I don't want to screw this up. It
means a lot to me. And so we wrote this

(48:19):
song and we posted it and then six thousand people,
you know, made their own video collage with a thirty
second clip of the people that they've lost.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
That's where you actually saw it start to resonate with
people using it for their own message.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
And it became like bigger than me. It became like
I need to put this song out because not only
has it like helped me tremendously, I still can't get
through live. It's like I'm going to take at least
twenty more times singing it live to not cry. But
it's it's helping people, And I'm like, man, grief is
just something that no one really talks about or teaches you,
and you have to go through it, and it feels

(48:55):
like you have to go through it alone, even though
you'll have people around you that love you, it's still
like a very personal journey. And for whatever reason, I
think that the song is is helping people get through
their grief, especially on that day when it's so hard
to uh to get through.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
What is your distribution? Because I saw that out here
as your single? Now yeah, so is that your single?
I mean it's weird even say where is it your single?
But where who's playing it the most? What's been Because
it's a strategic process too, yeah, because you can't really
get to everybody all the time, all at once unless
you have the monster behind you, right, So what's what's

(49:31):
the strategy with the song?

Speaker 1 (49:33):
So? I mean without here or out here? Man? You
know what I think? At the top of the year.
Like I said, you know, I went through a whole
team change. I was with Universal Canada for the last
few years and and with a management company that just
really wasn't a good fit for me, and our ideas
of who I was was very different, you know, what

(49:54):
they wanted me to be and uh and what they
expected of me, you know, leaning into a lot of
like the tick talk side of things, which I actually
love TikTok the way I do it now, I just
wasn't you know, at the time, I wasn't really happy
with the music I was putting out, So it was
hard to be authentic on TikTok to shut a camera
in your face and you and your music is not
even you that you know, That's kind of what I

(50:15):
was dealing with. So, you know, out Here was a
song I wrote because you know, my wife and I
we bought a place, we bought a horse farm outside
of Nashville, about fifty minutes in Portland, and you know,
it was always something that I wanted to do, just
live out in the country because I've been I've lived
everywhere you can live in Nashville for the last sixteen years,
and so this song was really like a description of

(50:36):
where I I'm at. It was the most authentic, you
know song I could write. I wrote it by myself
because I really wanted to make sure that I believed
every word I was singing and basically the lifestyle, you know.
And I also grew up listening to you know, commercial
country music, like that's the radio, So I wanted it
to be all of those things. And so we put
it out with a team called star Seed, and the

(51:00):
distribution company is stem here and uh, you know, the
management that I'm that I'm with now and the people
that I'm with now have really gotten behind me and
have kind of just rebuilt me as an artist and
the belief in myself and uh, and you know, you
know the right team when you're with them, and because
you start believing in yourself again and that hope starts

(51:22):
to build, and then you start writing songs that are
completely authentic, that are connecting, that don't feel strained or
confusing to to the listener. And that's kind that's where
we're going. That's you know, I mean, I have a
whole record essentially of music that is extremely authentic to
where I'm at now, and we're going to be starting
to put that out. The next thing we're putting out

(51:43):
is Happy Heavenly.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
You're gonna do the very You're gonna put it out
on forms.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah, that was a demo. So I'm literally leaving today.
I'm going to go sing the vocal right after this
and being mixed next week. So I'm really excited about
that one.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
What's your what's your percentage of you writing for you
versus you writing and then seeing where it lands?

Speaker 1 (52:05):
You know, I guess it's It's an interesting season because
the last couple of years, especially this last year, I've
really taken off the writing hat to a certain degree
and really just believing full on that, you know, and
myself as an artist. I'm like, you know what, I'm
not getting any younger and the music has never been better.
So I think you know, you're.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Still writing for you as an artist, though does the
art when you say the hat? Are you still the
artist who writes instead of the writer who's almost the
artist or you just like, I'm not really right now much.
I'm on the road grinding doing singing things.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
I would love to be on the road grinding as
much as I can, and you know, being on the
road with Old Dominion. This year was definitely the first
time that I've really actually been able to go out
and play. I mean, I've in Canada. I have a
lot of songs that we put out to radio, but
I just have not had the opportunity to go and
make those fans live. And I'm like, that is where
I see the most conversion is when I can have

(53:00):
this and I can sing to you and I can
tell you my story and we can connect. You know,
that is where I win people. That's where I see
my socials go up. That is when you know it converts,
you know. So that is really the goal for me
right now is just to go out and play as
much as I can. And I do have a publishing
deal with Jimmy Robbins, so it's it's really important for
me to keep the song writing up because I do

(53:21):
love writing songs, even if it's not for me, So,
I mean, it's it just has to be more intentional. Now. Yeah,
you know, in a way that I've been able to
do that is you know, I'll go on retreats for
me if i'm and I'll tell the publisher, like, hey,
everything that I write on this retreat is for me.
As an artist, these are the only songs you can't pitch.
And I'll go in those into those retreats, locked and
loaded with titles and ideas and know exactly what I

(53:43):
want to do. And it's funny because those are always
the songs. They're like, can we pitch those? And I'm like, man,
I just can't win.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Do you look back at blue out your color a
little bit and go, I just wish I would have
held it for me a little longer.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
That's the question. I knew that was going to come up, because.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
I would, even with the success, I would still feel like,
you know, I want it. But it's also opened a
lot of doors. And there's no right answer because no
matter what you say, it is and.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
We'll never know. Yeah, for sure, I can tell you that,
you know, there's no saying what what would have happened?
But you know what did happen with Keith definitely reignited
the hope in me again. This town is like and
maybe this town isn't the way to say it, but
this industry we'll call it.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
You get to the town.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, this town Okay, Yeah that sucks. It definitely suck
the life out of you. But you know, you'll also
get this second wind. You'll also get like a gust
of wind that makes it gives you the magic back
of that, you know, sixteen years ago when I moved here,
that like that anything is possible, and that was that
for me. I was like, not that to say I
was going to quit, but I had no idea what
I was going to do. I was like, is this

(54:48):
it I've seen We've all seen so many artists come
lose their deal and then they're gone and you never
hear of them again, or some of them, you know,
become songwriters. And I think that song just gave me
the hope and it put me in front of a
lot of people when I needed to be put in
front of a lot of people, you know, whether it
was award shows or that song one NSAI song of

(55:10):
the Year, which I had no idea like that how
much that actually meant until Hillary said, hey, like Stephen,
like this this is the one in town, that the
big one. You know, this one's voted on. It's not
block voting, this is voted on by all of your
favorite songwriters, that this is the song they wish they wrote,
and that kind of you know, like little things little things,

(55:32):
huge things like that, you know, I think gave me
the belief to keep moving forward and believing in myself.
And there's no telling where this thing's going to end up.
All I know is I'm like, I definitely don't have
the quit in me and I have more reasons ever
now to just keep writing music and seeing where it goes.
Because I'm like, sitting here with you, man, I'm like,
that's just something. If you told me this four years ago,

(55:54):
I wouldn't have believed it. I just you know, but
I'm like, anything is possible, And I also think I'm
trying to set an example for my kid now you
know that anything's possible.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Channa, can you come over for a minute. Come on, baby,
So your wife, who I know? I know she's your wife,
but I don't know her as your wife. It doesn't
make sense like I yell her. I know she's your wife,
but I don't know you two together.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Sometimes I know her from working right around the door
in the studio in the same building as she hosted
the ACM special that we did here. That's right, So
I'm going to ask you, how did you guys meet?

Speaker 4 (56:42):
We met in an interview CCMA word.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Really you were interviewing him.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Yeah, it's on the internet for everyone to see. Wow encounter.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Yeah. She actually had no idea who I was, which
was the best part about it.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
So it was the ccma's Yeah in twenty eighteen in Hamilton,
which we just actually came back from cc MAS, say this.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Is what I needed here on the tea.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
So you're interviewing him and you're like, okay, you got
a song, Okay, you're a good singer. Where was that?

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Click that?

Speaker 2 (57:14):
And who followed up? Uh?

Speaker 4 (57:16):
It was instant because he was my last interview of
the day. I did like thirty two interviews that day,
and the Sony rep was like, hey, we have Stephen
Lee Olsen and I was like sure Fried.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
At this point, yeah, my brain was done.

Speaker 4 (57:28):
And I just looked at my producer and was like,
who is he give me Cole's notes and he was like,
you know blue, your color reads by a good time,
and I'm like, oh, okay, And then I turned around
and I mean, I'm a I'm a hugger, but I
just remember turning around in him being there, and we
both just instantly like smiled and he just gave me
the biggest bear hug ever, and I was like, nice.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
To meet you.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
And we started doing the interview, and you know, normally
when I do an interview, I'll address the camera, and like,
I just stared at him the whole time, and we
had a great It was a great interview.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
I can't remind any of it. I just know we
were staring at each.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
Other, yeah, yeah, and just smile the whole time. But
afterwards we just stayed friends for like a year. We
were both in different relationships and we would he would
send me songs and.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
D or text.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
It was DM for a while, and then we eventually
I think when I was single, I was like, you
can message me. And then when we were both single,
I remember you had actually come into town to do
an interview for Hello Country, and we went out for lunch,
and I think we both were like, I don't know
if we're friends.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Yeah that's it.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
Oh yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
That's the interview. Well you're good. Look at that. You
like children. I know, yeah, but that's not that's only
five years ago, right, Yeah, you still look like children.
That's what that's pandemic age. Yeah, we that.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
We did a lot in the pandemic. We got engaged, married, pregnant,
and had our son all in twenty twenty, so we
moved quick.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Your wife's really really good. She's really talented.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
I believe she's the best.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
No, no, I and that. But she's sexy, like the
very second floweh is the the sheep. No, she she's
really really talented. And you know, I guess the first
time that I met you was yeah, maybe you interviewed me,
and she wouldn't stop staring at me the whole time,
and then she started sending me songs.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
It was a whole weird okay.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
But so, but you're you work down here in the States,
but do you still do Canadian iHeart radio stuff?

Speaker 4 (59:37):
So I work for I Heart Canada, like syndicated across
campus from Nashville.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
But do you do like if you have to award shows,
does that like you're that person who services it to
the whole iHeart Radio Country Canada type thing you should do?
And I always tell people here like she's good, you
should use her here, and they're always like, we're broke,
and I'm like and I'm like, no, you're not. So

(01:00:04):
your goals, your aspirations for in country music or just
in media, Like, what's the goal for you?

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
I mean not to be cliche, but like I've always
watched you doing what you're doing. And I when I
got hired by it was I hurt Canada, but we
didn't have a syndicated thing. I was like, I want
to do what he's doing, and how do we do
that here? And I wasn't living in Nashville at the time,
so they were like, all right, let's build a you know,
national radio brand, and let's start a syndicated show, which

(01:00:33):
had never really been done before. But my thing, I
love radio. I just always wanted to do I like
sitting with people on camera because I feel like radio
interviews are great, but when you actually get to see
communication with someone in person, there's just like something you
can't quite capture on air on radio like you can
in person. So I always was like, one day I

(01:00:53):
want to have a show on television somewhere where like,
you know, what I do on the radio.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Will be there. So what is your show every day?

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
It's that's a four hour midday show that do.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
You have the rules?

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
We have to play just so much Canadian music. Yes,
because our countdowns on a bunch of Canadian places, and
there's stuff have.

Speaker 6 (01:01:16):
To remove, like happy Fourth of July. Yeah, apparently you
don't have that because they didn't set America free. Yes,
and are you doing anything in the States like that's
not Canadian at all yet?

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
Yeah, well we see you. We have to change Yeah,
we have to change that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
Yeah that's about it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Yeah this, I forgot your husbands even here me too.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I'm loving this. Well. I did want you to cut.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
But this is what's great because I like him better
because of you, because we work together a little bit,
and because I think we may have met once. Did
we play like a weird songwriters thing a long time
ago together? I think I did, like some comedy stuff
in my first move of town and they were like play.
Because the reason I say that is Stevens. I have
a somewhere. I have one of those pread with both
of our names on it. Oh really from like a

(01:02:04):
Saint Jude songwriters thing that we both maybe, but maybe
we even played separately, like like the junior varsity wards
me junior varsity and then the real guys come on.
It's you could have even been that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Man, I know I was. I was so scared to
talk to you for the longest time. To me, well,
you know, I'm like, you're kind of a big d
in town but wild and now, you know, now being
a little more seasoned and just very comfortable with who
I am and just you know, not trying to be
anything other than that, It's way easier to talk to
people China to just when you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Know who you are, Yeah, and you're warm.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
I think that's kind of the only way I can
move forward, you know, and in this industry is being
authentically myself and being the non hunting crier that I am.
You know, I'm like even coming down to like my
brother manages me now, I'm like, it's I need to
be able to surround myself with people that that have

(01:02:57):
the same best interest for me and it really his heart.
And when the chips are down, when you know, when
the world goes to ship, it's like your people are
still your people no matter what. Hey, brother, we can
move here, come on, buddy, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Know I'm having say by me right here, it's right here,
right here, got the whole freaking family down here, I know,
right like this, my mom is going to be so
bummed she didn't come to this. So older or younger, older,
you can't tell. They are huge lights everywhere, so I
can't really see how young and radiant your skin is
or not either way, So I don't know. And what

(01:03:30):
was what was he like as a little brother? You know,
I think it's a typical little brother. Like we loved
each other.

Speaker 5 (01:03:38):
We had a really great childhood, but we uh, we'd
had our spats. I mean, he still can't take me for.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
Sure, can or can't?

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Can't?

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
Oh, I bet for sure a bunch of times. Hey,
I'll give it a no, but no it I mean
we were always close. And you know, I went corporate
America route. Actually I worked in ten ten Publishing and
and Grandy Gee Building on music Row, so you stayed
in music too. Two thousand and nine, I was working

(01:04:06):
and I couldn't get my visa, so I ended up
moving back to Canada, and I ended up getting sucked
into corporate world. And I kind of just watched his
career from the sideline since since two thy and twelve,
do you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Guys call corporate Canada corporate America?

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
I know?

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Twice that's a good.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
That's a good point.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
We went into Corporate America and I was like.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
America, Corporate North America.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're here now, and what
is your goal for your brother at this point?

Speaker 5 (01:04:36):
My goal is to help him achieve his goals, whatever
that is. You know, I've I'm in a position in
my life where I was able to do things out
of love instead of money. And you know, I don't
love anything more than Steven, and I've watched his whole
career and to be a part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Are you saying you made a lot of money and
you're rich now?

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
No, I mean, if so, that's great. I am too
much the same.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
No, I wouldn't say that, but I'm in a position
I can. I mean, I still need some money, but
I don't have to do things for money anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
It's kinky.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
I was like, what were you doing, buddy? How deep
do you want to go here? Not that deep?

Speaker 5 (01:05:15):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
And your brother is managing you? Yeah, you know, and
as important as he is as your brother, there's got
to be a line, you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
We we actually get along insanely. Well, there's no one
I respect more, love more. I'm like, we have the
exact same interests. And the reality is there's nobody else
that I think I could move forward in this industry
with managing me, you know, because I've been through every
management you can think of, like the massive managers. I've
been through smaller management and then massive again, thinking that

(01:05:46):
they were, you know, going to change my world completely,
and all of them had this really common word that
they used. Family. It's like we're a big family, you
know what I mean, Like we're here to the end
and you know, and it's the the first people to
jump when when the chips are down. That's what I noticed.
And I was just at a place where I was like,
I don't think I can be broken because I'm naive.

(01:06:08):
I believe everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
I'm like, I just believe that optimistice.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Line in between. I'm like, I just I want to
believe that people have as good as intentions as they
say they do and mean it when they say they
mean it. And this is this for me anyways. It
hasn't been a sprint. It's a marathon, you know, And
it's easy to forget that, especially when the people you
work with are they're trying to build something very quickly

(01:06:37):
and it's like, oh, not the overnight, because that's impossible
for me at this point. But you know, to try
and get like that big, huge thing that happens that
just you know, everything takes off from there, whether it's
TikTok or whether it's you know, a show or whatever
it is. It's always like get rich quick mentality, and
and I just I'm not built for that. I'm like,
I'm willing to do all the work. I'm willing to

(01:06:58):
continue to make the art and go out and grind it.
My favorite part is meeting the fans, like there's no
one that will stay longer. I'm like, you're very similar
in that way, and like you actually love your fans
and you give it to them, you know. But I
was just in a place where I'm like, I need
to if I'm going to continue to do this, I'm
going to shoot from the heart, be as authentic as
I can, write the music that's authentic to me, and

(01:07:20):
have a team that I literally want to win with.
I'm like that, you know, when the chips are down
there there, but when we win, it's that much sweeter,
you know, And how much cooler could it be than
winning with your bro Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Let's end on this. We've done we will overall over
an hour. So out of fairness, I'm going to ask
you both of these questions because I just don't want
the cliche answer. But give me the best trait about
your brother, not as a brother, but working with him
as an artist and as a peer like contemporary you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:49):
Know, I would say there's two things that I believe
in his heart. Is the number one thing he does
the right thing and when he's authentic to himself, when
he gets that out to people, he wins every single time.
And the second thing is his Talent's insane the music
and what I've watched him do for shoot, I mean

(01:08:11):
sixteen years. I mean I've been there the whole time.
I've heard every song. It is insane, like how talented
he is. And when it gets out there, I have
full belief he'll reach every single goal that he ever
sets for himself. And it's just a matter of time
and he's willing to put in the work in the time,
and so am I.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
So those are the things, let's be fair. Also, what's
the hardest thing, what's the worst thing about him? As
professionally speaking.

Speaker 5 (01:08:38):
I would say so he's he's been doing it for
a lot longer than me. I went to school for
it and I've had a big gap in between.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
So he's smarter than he knows everything correct. Yeah yah
yah yeah yah yeah yeah yeah, I felt that. I
felt that. Yeah, everybody, okay, san husband wise, same thing,
best and hardest, worst, best, first best.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
I mean, like, not a lot of people really know
who he is. I know him because I get to
live with him every day, but most people because I
came up on the other side of the industry, so
I saw the version of him that everybody else saw,
and a lot of teams in the past had him
kind of hold back his heart, his emotions who he was,

(01:09:22):
and I've always been like he's always you know in
socials he's like, I don't want to let people see
that side of me, Like, well, that's the side that
I fell in love with that I get to see.
So that to me, now that he's letting more people
in on that, you just kind of see where everyone's going. Like, man,
like you said, he's so warm and his heart is
so big. So there's nobody that believes in like his

(01:09:43):
art more than him. So when he starts to really
put that out. I think it's going to be great.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
The hard stuff here, we go back on this one.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Give him the real real on like husband, husband, heart,
what's the worst? What's the worst thing?

Speaker 4 (01:09:56):
I think it's it's the other side of that is
like he's his own worst critic, and sometimes I have
to be there to remind him, you know, like something
being perfect, it's actually better if it's not. Like let
people see you know, your performance where you break down
and cry when you're performing something. He's like, yeah, but

(01:10:16):
it doesn't sound as good. I'm like, yeah, but that's
means you're real. You're like a real human that's feeling
things and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
I get for you. I need that for my wife
because I go crazy and she has to really sometimes
slap me back into some sort of normal, see, because
I won't accept it from anybody else. I'm like, you
have no idea what you're talking about. You don't. But
she's the only person that I will even let have
the option of correcting something. And sometimes she doesn't even

(01:10:43):
the option anymore, so she just.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
Have his socials.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
So I just log, well, mister Stephen mark Olsen, I
love that on Instagram. You guys, Steven Lee Olsen, TikTok.
You're TikTok again. It's been doing great, like it really is.
Congratulations from just like making it like your piece of pizza.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
That's right, yeah, kind of not looking left or looking right.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
Yeah, no, it's really and you can tell that too,
So you guys follow my TikTok Steven Lee Olsen music,
good luck. I think this is the start, the earliest
start of this version this season, which is super cool.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
I love that man.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Thank you and thanks to the family. We've never done
the full part of the family because the first time ever, right, Mike,
we got We're gonna need bigger cast laying across all
of us now, all right, see thanks

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
For listening to a Bobby Cast production

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#417 - Steven Lee Olsen on Getting Dropped from Label...Before Keith Urban Cut His Song “Blue Ain’t Your Color” + Getting The Call Garth Brooks Wanted His Song + Garth Coaching Him In the Studio on Singing Background Vocals

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Bobby Bones

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