A Message from Bobby + In Case You Missed It: #164 - Trisha Yearwood Made More Money Singing Backups + First Tour Ever was Opening for Garth Brooks

Trisha Yearwood stopped by Bobby's house and talks about how she got her start singing demos in the 80's. Trisha has sung backups on more than 100 Garth Brooks songs and got her start opening up for him on his tour back in 91 when she only had 1 song on the radio. Trisha also talks about recording her Frank Sinatra tribute album "Let's Be Frank", her next country album and what she likes to watch on Netflix.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Bobby Bones. You know, sometimes we want to
feature episodes that maybe if you're a new listener, if
you're a new subscriber, you didn't hear back in the day.
We have done hundreds and hundreds of these, and sometimes
it's hard to scroll back and find really good ones.
So that's what we're gonna do. Back I mean a
house ago, at least so years ago, Tricia your would
stop by the house and it was a kind I
will walk through her life and career. You know, she

(00:21):
stopped by and talked about how she got to start
singing in you know, demo rooms in the eighties. She'd
go into a room and there's a microphone. It wasn't
a big fancy studio, but she would sing demos and
that's how she got her deal. You know, she worked
at a record label as a secretary, so all of this,
and then obviously background vocals on more than a hundred
Garth Brooks songs and she opened for them, and it's

(00:42):
a really great story. And at the time, she was
promoting her Frank Sinatra tribute album called Let's Be Frank,
and we talked about that. So I hope you haven't
heard this yet and you hear it, and you learned
about Tricia your Wood and what's cool is a tie
into next week's episode. So next week we'll talk to
Leslie Simon and she is like the general manager of
Garth and Tricia's record label now, and she tells the

(01:04):
story about their connection and how she ended up working
with and for them and really why they're such great people,
Garth and Tricia. So I think you're gonna love next
week's episode as well. But here is an old episode,
but since it's all about her career, it's evergreen. Here
is Tricia year Wood. All right, welcome to episode one
with Trisia Yearwood. What a treat, Thank you very much.

(01:27):
You brought me some Jack Daniels Sinatra select Now do
you have that the Frank Sinatra record? And so we'll
talk about that in a second. But it's orange. It's
it's orange on the packaging because that was Sinatra's favorite color.
And and you're pretty cool. I guess if Jack Daniels
gives an entire collection of alcohol for you, I mean,

(01:48):
I think it's pretty cool. Anyway, I was gonna stretch
scratch out his name of mine, but I decided to
just leave it for you that way. I think you're
pretty cool if tiar Wood does a record of all
your songs, more so than if Jack Daniels doesn't need
to be I'm waiting to do let's be Bobby, but
I'm probably don't want to do that one. That's like
a FCC fine, that could be my next thing. That's
the whole thing we were. So you hand up the

(02:10):
alcohol and I said, hey, why don't I just drink this?
Um the first time I ever drinking, and I'll just
get hammered during the podcast, be so embarrassed to be
that person for you. I don't want to be that person,
I think, and a lot of my friends want to
be that person. They want me to get drunk with
them because then they have like my my alcohol flower,
right exactly. Yeah, I mean, I mean I love you,
but I don't want your alcohol flower. It's not my thing.

(02:31):
I've never even heard it called that. I haven't either.
Creepy alcohol totally creepy. I was out with a girl,
um speaking of alcohol flower. Well, this is a whole
story about me drinking, because when I drink, people act
weird around me. I don't drink, but people are drinking. I'll, oh,
I shouldn't rink around you, So I don't tell anybody
that that I don't drink. So I I think drink.
So I asked the bartender for something in Virginy and
you know, put a little whit. So I was with

(02:54):
a girl and we went out and Ray and they
who um, we were having dinner with them, and I
go to the bathroom and Ray tells the girl that
I took out, Oh, you know, he doesn't drink, right,
And then she starts she said, I didn't know he
told her that, And she's been actively totally weird around me,
And that's what it is. It was something else. Yeah,
I was like, she must know about my rash. You

(03:14):
must have which is another reason this kind of be
what don't you deserve a metal because it's really hard
I find to be the sober person around a bunch
of drunk people because no one who's really drunk understands
how drunk they are, right, so you're if you're the
sober person, if you're drunk with them, then you don't
have to worry about not having patience with anybody because
you're drunk too. But if you're sober and everyone else

(03:35):
is drunk. But I don't know the difference, right, Well,
you just aren't hanging around the right drunks. Maybe so,
I mean, I don't know the difference in me like
I know the difference in them. I've never been drunk
with the drunks. I only know being with the stupid people,
like I know, a Friday night, if I go out
with a bunch of stupid people, that's just par for
that course. That's what it's going to be. So I
appreciate that someone in this house will drink it. Well

(03:56):
that's what I thought. You could serve it. You could
serve it to one of your guests, yeah, or someone
to steal it. That's what happens. That might happen. I'll
go into my bedroom and I'll come back and Eddie
stolen or somebody from the show selling all the alcohol.
I get really nice. Alcost it to me sometimes because
you keep alcohol in your bedroom. I mean, is this
something going to my bedroom, like to change clothes or something.
I come out all right, Okay, I feel better now,
I feel better now. I was concerned. Yeah, what have

(04:17):
you been up to all day? I've been doing I've
been talking about this record. And uh yeah, just kind
of doing my thing. We're getting ready to go to St.
Louis to do a tailgate, so I've been talking about
that and um, what is the interview day for you?
Like a press day? What does that consist of? You
wake up? What time today? I woke up at thirty.
So some days it depends on what you're doing. You know,
if you're doing one of those big early morning shows

(04:38):
where you're hate the crack, hate the early morning shows. See,
I got into the music business to not have to
get up early, but then you end up getting up
early for stuff. You get up early three o'clock. Yeah,
that's not okay. That's not okay to me. I would
have to quit my job. What I used to think
that because I'm not a morning person. I just I'm not.
It takes me three hours to get to where I'm okay.
But you it's just a balance like do I love

(05:00):
what I do? Yeah? But do I hate waking up
to do it? Yeah? And then as it starts, like
now we've kind of kind of built something cool, So
it's like, you know, if my worst problem is not
getting sleep, I got that's true. And once you're up,
it's Okay, it's the getting up for me. But getting
up in the dark, I mean, that's you. Really, you
really are a night person because you get up in
the middle of a night. That's crazy. I'm a night

(05:20):
person anyway, I'm too, but I mean, and I am
that person. If I have to get up really early,
I'm not the person that goes to bed early. I
can't do it. I'm just a night person. So I'm
just not going to get sleep if I got to
get up early. If you're playing a show and you
finish at eleven thirty, what time? What time is into
the set usually the whole thing, usually eleven thirty and
midnight something like that. What time do you finally get down?

(05:42):
Probably two wish. Yeah, that's my perfect schedule. If I
could go to bed wake up at one pm, like
that would be so good, Like that's my my natural
I was reading a story about that where a lot
of jobs, not a lot of jobs, but a lot
of science is saying jobs have like programming people wrong,
that everybody's body isn't built for nine to five, that

(06:04):
a lot of people's bodies are built for noon to
eight p m. And at the productivity scale whenever you
find what people do best, they actually work better at
the times of their bodies. That makes so much, It
makes so much sense, so much sense. I mean, I
was a I had a nine to five job when
I first moved to town. I was a receptionist at
the record label, and I had to be at work
at nine. And I worked at a label where there

(06:25):
was a guy at the desk, so if I got
there at nine oh one, he'd had to sit there
an extra hour, so he was really ticked at me
if I was ever late. So I was always on
time because I didn't want to be mad at me.
And you couldn't leave your desk to even use the
restroom without somebody sitting in your chair because your dance
on the phones, you're in them. You're the gateway, you know,
the whole place. And it was really depressing for me.

(06:45):
Not because first of all, I'm watching people coming every
day and do what I wanted to be doing, so
that was hard, but secondly, just that structure of this
is when you clock in, this is when you clock out.
I think people, some people are made for it, and
I think some people aren't. And I don't think I
am I like people because it must be so crazy.
You just normal ever know what your schedule is going
to be. I'm like, it's kind of different every day,
but I kind of love that for me. So it's

(07:07):
consistently different, Like there's a consistency to to it always
being different exactly exactly, And I like that. I think
I thrive on that. I don't think I would do well.
I know I don't do well. Did not do well
in the nine to five. Marcus Hummond is a friend,
UH and songwriter in town, and he said that he
would go in. You mentioned your your job, Mary Tyler Moore,
and he would see you working behind the desk early on. Yes,

(07:30):
And actually Marcus gave me work. Um he I did
some demos for him, um back in the day. Back
in during that time period, I got to know I
knew a couple of songwriters, and I started doing demos
after work. Um. So I'd work nine to six and
then I would do demos until you know, nine o'clock,
and then I would go home and go to bed
and get back up the next day, and and then
for and then for a while, I got a job

(07:51):
playing at a bowling alley in Hendersonville, north of town,
so I would go leave my job and I would
play from seven to two, and then I would get
up and go to work the next day. So you're
like a full normal day five pm. Then you go
to the bowling allien play for five hours? Yeah? What
does that mean? What are you doing a bowling? When
you play? Do you have like a you play sets?
So as you play at three like three sets a band.

(08:12):
I was in a band, so I did all the
girls songs, you know, and you did that for five hours? Yeah?
For yeah? And was it enough? Were you doing it
to like pay rent? Are you doing it to get
in the music scene a bit? I just wanted to sing, Yeah,
I mean, and I I honestly made I think I'd
make about two hundred bucks in a weekend, which was
what I made in a paycheck, you know. So it

(08:33):
was and it was I was having more fun doing that,
So eventually quit the job to do that. But also
the demo work was I couldn't get full time demo
work having a full time job, so I could only
sing after work. So it was kind of that moment
of like, I'm not really making enough money to to
quit the job, but if I don't quit the job,
I'm not gonna be able to do the other thing.
And that was a little transition. But then I then

(08:55):
I did demo work, and it was great for me
because I learned. I learned so many things I didn't
even know was learning. You know. I learned what a
good song was for me. I learned what a bad
song was for me. I learned how to make a
song on my own because I'm kind of an imitator
and I had sung with the radio my whole life.
So then you're hearing songs you've never heard before, and
you have to you have to make him yours. And
it was it was a great training ground for me

(09:15):
in a way that I didn't even realize when you're
a demo singer. And for example, UM, if you're listening
to this, Let's say you and I write a song
and we're like, this really a good song. We'll get
someone to sing the demo so it gets pitched to artists. Um,
are you hearing like the work tape there recording like
ascett player and then learning it real quick? Are you
hearing that? And and looking at the lyrics she and
then walking in and singing it like pretty fresh? Yeah,

(09:36):
I'm hearing I'm hearing it on like a jam box
back in the day, um with a lyric sheet maybe
usually usually a lyric sheet. And and this was the eighties,
you know. So I would have a ten o'clock at
two o'clock, at six o'clock. So usually there be three
or four songs per sessions. So I would listen to
the cassette of the three songs I had to sing
at ten o'clock on the way to the session, because
i'd usually go by and pick up a copy the

(09:58):
day before usually, and I learned them on the way,
and I was I had a really good short term memory.
So and I had this system of because you know,
in Nashville it's the number system. And I was like,
do you know the number system. I'm like, yeah, of
course I didn't, but I said I did because I
wanted the work. And my system was to listen and
kind of just make these little hieroglyphic lines that no

(10:20):
one can understand but me about this one, this song.
There's a little lick here, that melody goes up upon
an arrow, whatever I need to do to kind of
learn it. And then I would sing those songs and
then I would um usually do a harmony, and then
I would get in the car and learned the next
three or four songs on the way of the two
o'clock because you keep your cramming for a test and
to each one, and then the next day you do

(10:40):
it all over again. So sometimes I wouldn't I couldn't
tell you what I had sung that morning. But if
I eventually heard that on the radio, I'd find myself
singing along with a song and be like, Oh, I
did the Democrat, So it's subconscious, Yeah, it's in here,
but you're just sitting Yeah. So did you ever sing
demos of a song that turned out to be a
pretty big one? Um? I did had a I did
sing a demo for a lor Morgan song called I

(11:02):
Guess You had to Be There? Sang the demo for that,
Um I sang, I'm trying to think there was something
else that I did that became a big song. But oh,
I did a demo for one of my very first
demos ever was a song that became a hip for
Sammy Kershaw called Dun't Go Near the Water, complete switch up,
totally Dun't Go Near the Water Pride to demo singing

(11:24):
when it when it does kind of make it because
you're like, oh, I was on the first level of this.
It kind of is. And especially before you have a
record deal on your own and you're you're not hearing
yourself on the radio, then you just kind of feel like, Okay,
I'm in I am in this business somehow because I'm
you know, I'm I'm I'm contributing. And then the first
time I heard myself on the radio was as a
harmony singer. I um Kathy Mattea asked me to sing

(11:47):
on a record of hers called Time passes By, and
I could hear my high harmony and for me to
hear myself singing on the radio, that was the first time,
and it was like, okay, So every step was like
a little step closer and closer to where I wanted
to be. We just did a whole show about background
singer and background singers that you may not know we're
singing background and some of the ones that we talked
about where recently We're Stapleton singing with Luke Brian and
drink a Beer. We went back to your so Vain

(12:09):
from um Carly um Carli Simon with Mick Jagger who
just happened to be in the studio and was like,
I'll sing and you know he's not credited or when
the Beatles did, uh, but we did all this whole
this whole show about background singers and you may not
know who the famous background singer was kind of crossing
on the wallflowers things like that. But like you mentioned,
you know, you saying harmon you sing background records. That

(12:31):
was a step up from demo singing when they would
hire to come and sing the backgrounds of the harmonies. Yeah,
and I because you were doing something that was for
a record label that was potentially going to get played
on the radio. And I mean I saying, you know,
I think Garth Garth says, I don't know how many
songs he's got, but I mean I'm singing on like
a hundred songs of his and sometimes we know it's
sometimes you don't know it's me, but um. And he

(12:53):
did the same for me. He's singing on some of
my records that you wouldn't know he's singing on. Um.
And then Leroy Mornella sang for as I saying with
Vince Gill, I sang um. I just I mean pretty
much because I loved singing harmony and I was good
at it, and I was inexpensive, you know. So as
a demo singer, you're like, I come in, I know
the song, I can sing on pitch, and I can

(13:16):
do my own harmonies, and you know, twenty bucks, maybe
forty if there's harmony, if there's more than one harmony,
and you're out the door. You know. So it was
a but you add those up in a day, and
it was a pretty good living. So you know, it
was it was I made better money doing demos than
I did as a receptionist. And then I got a
record deal, and then I was broke, you know, because
then you stopped doing all of that and then you
you're then you're in debt. So what's funny is, and

(13:38):
this happens again to a lot of my friends and
people I know, is that you as your profile goes up,
you get poorer totally, and it's a it's a weird
juxapossession of here you go. Everybody's like, well, I check
this out, but you have no time to do anything
except kind of start over, and you're not making any money.
You know, they don't give you an American idol. They
don't give you a bunch of money as noon you's
on a record deal, you know, they don't. And if they,

(13:59):
whatever they give you is to make your record, which
is by the way alone because it's got to pay
it back, and then you pay it all back and
then you still don't own your record, you know. So
it's kind of a weird, it's totally weird situation. Um.
But yeah, and then when you do. I remember that
the first money that I actually made, which I never
saw the check, but the first money that came in
was the second album, Hearts and Armor, when it went platinum.

(14:20):
I remember that there was there was gonna be some
actual money coming in, and um, it went right back
into reinvesting in what we were doing next because we
were going on tour and we were you know, you're
paying a band, you gotta you gotta bust, you gotta
pay for and it's it's a lot, you know, So
we never really saw it. It's so much. I was looking,
you know, because I have a comedy band and we

(14:41):
play some do you know, we'll do a few thousand people,
and I it's just pretty good little shows and I
do stand up and we do some comedy songs in
the full band plays, but just to pay the band
and travel every show, it's thousands of thousands of dollars.
I was looking at my business manager, and you know,
because I'm paying my drummer. You gotta pay your basis,
you gotta pay your tour manager, your pay And by
the time you look at the thing, it's thousands of

(15:01):
dollars for every show. And if you're new and some
of life, you know, people have been opening acts and
you're getting you know, five to seven for opening spot
on one of these tours, right, you're paying that to
just get there. Oh yeah, you're you're not making any money.
And I think it's harder, even harder now because artists,

(15:21):
you know, they pretty much don't do a deal anymore.
That's not a three sixty deal, right, so you don't
get So now you're you're used to be that your
you know, your money is you're paying everybody you have,
you have all the responsibility, you pay all the expenses.
You're the last person paid. And now a percentage of
everything you make is going to your record label, including
your live show, including your merchandise, through every single thing.

(15:43):
So it sounds like, oh, for me. But I think
people just assume, oh, well, they're just all rolling in
the dough, and it's really, it's really for ninety five
of artists, it's a really hard job that has you
in debt. I mean it's it's not it's not you
have to you have to do it because you love it,
you know. It's the I would say it's the one
percent of the one percent who make money, because it's

(16:03):
the one percent to get to this town and be
able to just be so good and good meaning you've
done the work to also be good, to be so
good that you get a shot and you get signed
and that's just a shot. And then to be the
one percent who gets signed and actually can make money
and make a longer of it. It's the one it's
the point one percent of people who can actually, you know,
make money. It's it's way more difficult than I think

(16:25):
some people think it is. Yeah, And I think I
think especially now with there's so many ways if you
don't have any kind of connection into the music industry,
there's so many ways not to get yourself out there
with social media and YouTube and all that that everybody
does think oh, I'll just do this and I'll be
famous or whatever. And even if you become a sensation
on YouTube, it doesn't guarantee, you know, the the goal

(16:46):
is longevity, and that's not easy to do these online musicians.
I was reading about a rapper, young Dolf. I don't
know who he was either. Maybe you do, maybe don't
you see the look in my eyes? I'm like, know
he was. He was eating at a cracker barrel. It's
old Dolf's kid. Yeah, of course, and the Dolf senior,
the whole generation of Dolfs had the golf video. I

(17:08):
think he was eating in a cracker barrel. And he
had five hundred thousand dollars of jewelry in his car.
There was they bust out of the window. It was
all in his car. They stole it all out of there.
And I'm like, how did this dude make five hundred
thousand dollars? He's an online wrapper, he's a rapper who
made it online. I don't know where he's getting that money.
But some of these YouTubers can make a quick pop,

(17:29):
but you gotta sustain that. But half million dollars in
a car are you kidding me? And first of all,
where's your business? Where someone telling you to not nobody
was half a million does with the jelry? Anybody. Nobody
was telling him he was half a million does with
the jewelry? Besides maybe, like Liz Taylor, I don't know
jewel and in a car. Yeah, so someone busted out
the window. It was a camouflager get wagon busted at
the crack, and I'm like, get the cracker barrel. He's

(17:51):
also gonna get the cracker barrel. There's there's some irish.
So many things wrong with his story. I can't even
when did like the for you? When did they start
to be hey, got to get this music online? What part?
What stage? Um? Like a couple of weeks ago, Tricia,
I've sort of in the last man standing. Um, sorry,

(18:12):
I h It's it's hard because I come from a
different kind of a different era, you know, of the
way music was made and sold, and I I am
also wanting to be current, so I want to do
things the way things are being done. I know people
consume music in such a different way. Um. And this

(18:34):
was really the album, This Let's be Frank album was
the one that I said, Okay, let's just put it
everywhere because we just what we want is for as
many people to discover it as possible. So let's put
it in every single possible form we can, which is
why if you buy the album or you buy the vinyl,
there's a digital download inside. We're on all this streaming. Um,
we just want we just want to get it out there.

(18:55):
And you know, I it's tough for me because I
as a as a listener and consumer of music, I
consume that same way. So if I if I want
to hear a song and I and I go to
YouTube and watch the video, then I might be less
likely to buy the record. So what's going to motivate
me to buy it if I can just hear it
in all these places for free. But at the same time,

(19:16):
you have to get it out there for people to hear. So, UM,
we just said, let's go for it. Why do I
play for the last Time? This is from the Let's
Be Frank album. I have it here, I have it
on the final time. I'm in love for the last time.
My love was luck with Normality. This is the next

(19:37):
to last track on the record. I just look at
the track lists. I have a final you gave me here.
Do you listen to things on finals I do. You know,
what's really cool is that it makes me listen to
albums again all the way through, which is because it's
hard to skip. I agree with that. So, and there's
reasons for the the way records are made in a
certain order. It was the first time in a long

(19:57):
time that I had to think about, what are you
to start side B with? You know, it's like I
haven't thought about that in a long time. You know.
Is it a different order than if you were to
stream the record that you did the album the vinyl
with um? Yes, because because of that butt and on vinyl.
One of the reasons that we moved away from vinyl
as a format is because it can only handle a
certain amount of time on the on the vinyl before

(20:20):
it starts to lose the quality of the record. Well, no,
it's it's actually the minutes on the record, so like
something over is over twenty two minutes aside, something about
the grooves in the vinyl makes the sound quality go
go the other way. So so there's that, you know.
So we actually had another song we dropped a song
on this off of this to make it fit on
the vinyl, and then I decided not to add it

(20:41):
back on CD. You can put as many as you want. Um,
I didn't want to. I didn't do that because I
didn't want there to be something somewhere that went anywhere else.
So that's a consideration. And then you have to think about, well,
if somebody's gonna flip this record over, how does It's
almost like a a six song playlist on each side?
Here is come Fly with Me, Come Fly with Me,

(21:04):
That's fly, that's fly. Did you find that songs like this,
the more legendary songs were a little harder to do
because everybody knows them, because I would be like, I
just don't want to screw this up, and everybody knows yes.
And also, interestingly, the big, huge, lush symphony ballads were

(21:25):
not as hard as the lighter like come Fly with Me,
kind of the jazzy, more rhythmic things, because you find
yourself trying to think about being cool when you're singing it,
and you have to not think about it. You have
to just like you have to go, look, you know
what I'm saying, don't overthink it, don't worry about it,
just sing it. Um, But yes, I mean come Fly

(21:48):
with Me one from My Baby one for the road.
Those are such quintessential Frank songs, right, So you just
have to hope that people know that you are just
trying to show your respect. And with Frank it's such
a weird thing because you want to do it right
because of Frank's legend. However, people love Frank and if
you don't do it right. I just I danced to

(22:09):
a Frank Sinatra song. I dance with Stars, and people
were lighting me up because I wasn't great at the dancer.
It's like, how would you could you disrepect Frank Sinatra?
And I was like, I'm dancing, this isn't I did
New York, New York, and they were like, how would
you just I was like, I dance as good as
I could dancer. I just liked the song. But I
saw then a little bit how pissy people would get
when you I wouldn't do everything wonderfully. What you have
to do is you have to just understand that if

(22:30):
you I know that my respect level for him and
his music is high. I know that my intention was
to make a record that was mine but also was
a very uh you know, specific tribute to him. And
there's got to be somebody out there that is like, really,
what does this country chicks thinking doing a Sinatra record?
But I really don't care. I mean, it's kind of

(22:52):
like if you're gonna do it, you know, you go
out and you dance your heart out Bobby Bones, and
you don't worry about what I worried about whatever. But
I thought, because I wasn't, they could dancer for um,
let's be Frank's out. Um, I should mention that first
song we played, that's the one that you and Garth wrote, right,
is that that's what you told me. We talked about
it on the radio show. No, yeah, we um, yeah
that one. So I came home with, um, this title

(23:13):
in my head, and I think I told you when
we talked before that you know, Garthia one and all
the songwriter Hall of Fames, And so I'm like, I don't.
I'm not really a confident writer, and I tend to
do things that come easy to me, but if they're
a little bit of work, I give up pretty quickly.
I'm good at that. And uh, writing is one of
those things that I mean, I've written all my cookbooks
and their stories about my life and my family, but
they're not poems. They don't rhyme. They're not you know,

(23:35):
I'm not a poet like Garth is, but he is.
So it worked out really well and we worked on
this together and um, I really I would I would
not have. I didn't intend to write a song for
the record. It wasn't didn't happen at the same time.
But um, when the song was finished, it felt like
a throwback to another era. So when this album came about,
it felt like the place to put it. It fits
with all the other songs too, like I if I

(23:57):
would have just played it and not known. Um. Yeah, sorry,
I'm sorry. I'm just off the end of a cold
and it's like the cough won't go away. You take
a drink. We'll take a quick break here. You know
something interesting about you is um you mentioned that you

(24:18):
that you sang on roughly a hundred Garth songs. Yeah,
something like that. Do you remember the first time that
you ever went and sang with him or was he
just one of the singers you were popping in word? No,
I mean actually I met Garth. Um. It's kind of
a famous story. Now. We were introduced by a guy
named km Blaze who wrote um if Tomorrow never and

(24:39):
I did demos for Kent. So when during those demo
days when I was driving around with the cassette in
my car. UM, Kent was one of the first guys
I met in Nashville, long before I met Garth, and
so I kn't had a studio in his attic of
his house, and I would go over to his house
and I would sing, and Kent kept saying, I'm working
with this other guy, and you guys need to meet
each other. Feel like you guys are really get along,

(25:00):
and he needed he needs to call you to do
some of his chick singer demos and like cool, and
Garth was, um, didn't have a record do Yeah, I
think he had just signed with Capital, didn't have an
album out yet. And Um, so one day Kent hired
us uh for to do a demo a duet. So
we met at Kent's house in the attic for ten
bucks a song. And Garth says he didn't get paid

(25:20):
anything that day, but I think he got ten bucks
that day. And Um, that was the day that we met.
So we met before he was, you know, famous, And
I remember him saying because that day he said he
went to Bob Dole, his manager and said this girl like,
you've got to hear this girl sing. I. UM remember
him saying, you know, I just got signed to Capital,
I'm about to put up my first album, and I

(25:41):
hope someday, you know, we can work together and uh,
if I'm lucky enough to do well and whatever. And
remember when he left, I thought that's cool, Like I mean,
I thought, this guy's got really big dreams. I mean,
I hope, you know, like he's he's not even released
his album yet and he's asking me to, you know,
be on his tour kind of thing. And then of
course he became Garth Brooks and after that first album, UM,

(26:02):
then he called me to come and sing on the
second album, and so it was songs like um, uh
Cole's Shoulder when that on the second album. Cole Shoulder
was on the second album. UM, I missed the friends
in the Places day I was out of town on Toura,
literally missed that day, which really bummed me out because
there's like everybody's on that song and I wanted to

(26:22):
be on that record and it wasn't. UM. But it's
fast forward to when I got my record deal a
couple of years later, and uh, by that time, Friends
in the Places was out and he was this phenomenon,
you know, and so he he said, let's go over
to m c A and go see Tony Brown and
Um about seeing if you want to come out on
tour with me. And everybody was wanting to be on
that tour. I mean, it was like the tour to

(26:44):
be on. And so when we got to the front desk,
the receptionist, Willie she Um called back to Tony and said,
Garth and Trisher here, and Garth Fondis is my producer.
So Tony thought it was me and my producer. And
so I walked in with Garth Brooks and He's like,
I'd like to I want to I like to talk
to you about maybe taking Trisha on this tour, and
of course I was like yes, you know. So for me,
it was kind of a blessing and a curse because

(27:05):
I had grown up doing demos. I had not grown
up in the clubs. I had not come up through
learning my way in front of a small crowd of drunks.
So my very first audiences were opening for Garth and
you know, doing a set in front of fifteen thousand
people who didn't know who I was. That was my
first and of course Garth being Garth, you know, most
of the time, if you're on a big tour like that,

(27:26):
the artist has all their stuff and then there's a
big curtain in front of it and you've got about
three feet to stand in front of them do your show,
which would have been a dream coming true for me
because I was terrified. And of course Garth's like, here,
use my whole stage, you know. I'm like, oh, that's
so great. So that was It was terrifying, but I
had to. It was really baptism by fire, you know.
And I had cheese and Loved the Boy out, which
was doing well, but that was the only song I

(27:48):
had on the radio, so people spent either the entire
twenty minutes I was out there getting popcorn or yelling
for she'son Loved the Boy, you know, until that was
my last song. Is that the first song of yours
that you heard on the radio? She's in Love with
the Boy? Yeah? Play that on a little bit. Did
you know it was coming when you heard it the
first time? I remember exactly where I was. I was

(28:10):
just I was right down the street here in Green Hills,
driving down the road in A had a four door
Burgundy Honda used and I was driving down that road
and I heard it come on and I rolled all
the windows down, and I don't know why. I guess
I thought I wanted everybody on the street to hear too.
I don't know. I mean it was like this, you know,
just this whole your whole body lights up, you know,

(28:30):
and um, it was the most exciting thing in the
world because I had literally wanted to be a singer
since I was five years old. And I remember listening
to the radio and my mom's and dad's kitchen in
our house thinking I was naive enough to think, well,
they're on the radio, why can't I be? And I
think that's part of the reason that I became one
of those one percent, because I didn't know the odds.

(28:50):
I didn't know what the odds were, and I really
just believable. If they can do it, why can't I
do it? Did you feel when you were working at
the front desk and people would come into work in
a profession that you wanted to do, that you were
as good as they were already, Because I know it's
frustrating when people are doing what you want to do.
But did you feel like, oh, I'm I'm there talent wise,
It's just I gotta put in my time. My thing

(29:11):
was I believed in my voice. I believed that I
had a voice and that I could sing. But I'm
I'm basically an introvert. I mean, I'm not like I
grew up watching Barbara Mandrell on television and she played
every instrument and she danced and she did all this stuff,
and I was not. I'm not that kind of an entertainer.

(29:31):
And so I really thought, um, you know, I'm I
can sing, I'm a little bit overweight. I don't play
an instrument. Really. I can play a little bit of guitar,
but I don't. So I didn't think I had enough.
I thought, I've got this one skill that I believe in,
but I don't have all these other ones. So I
think for me, it was that DID have a strong
belief in myself, and I don't think if I didn't,

(29:52):
I wouldn't be sitting here. But at the same time,
I had all these doubts about the things that I
thought I needed to be able to do before I
could be be successful at it. So you felt you
had to develop even then you felt like you need
to develop a bit more. Yeah, you weren't so strong. No, no,
I mean And I went to Belmont where there were
so many music majors, and you couldn't you throw a

(30:14):
stick without somebody telling you what a great singer they were,
you know, And I was not that girl. And even
actually at at MTM Records, UM, after I got my
record deal, there were people at that building who said,
we didn't even know, we didn't know you, saying really, yeah,
so you weren't. You weren't one of the ones that
were like, hey, I sing i sing? I was not.
I was not. How did you change that? Then? How
did you start telling people I sing I sing? I

(30:36):
think it was because I was shy and I wasn't
bold about telling people I was a singer. But after
working at that label for about six months and answering
the phones and ordering liquid paper and not and watching
people do what I wanted to do, I realized, if
I don't tell somebody this is what I do, if
I don't really get off my butt and try to
make this happen, then I'm gonna get to do this

(30:57):
for the rest of my life. And I reconnected. I
had um, I had a couple of songwriters. One was
camp Lazy that I had done demos for, and I um,
I just found those guys again and said, hey, I'm
trying to find I'm trying to get some demo work,
and demo work was my way out on once I
started to get enough work that I could actually quit
my job. Who wasn't for you that took the big
shot like you? We went, Wow, this person really like

(31:19):
put it out there for me to believed in me
when maybe they didn't have to. I mean there was
there were several, There were a lot of people. The
chain of events were the two Garths, honestly, because when
I met Garth Brooks, he was the person who introduced
me to Alan Reynolds, his producer, and Alan was really
a great friend to me because Alan gave me advice

(31:41):
based on what he thought was best for me, not
what he thought I could maybe do for him. And
he was the guy who said you should meet Garth Fundas.
He's a guy who I feel like you guys really
hit it off. And Fundus was the one who, when
he heard me seeing said let's do a showcase. He's
the one who went to bat for me at the
record labels and to help me get a record deal.
And he was the one who helped me get the

(32:03):
music that was in my head on to tape what
I what I really wanted, how I really wanted to sound,
and the music kind of music that I wanted to make.
So it was it was really all of those people
together because I would never met Garth Fundis, it wouldn't
have been for Garth Brooks UM, and so I guess
it really was, you know, ended up being my husband,
the one that really believed in me. That that was

(32:23):
like the stargest telling everybody about me. And he didn't
even have a single on the radio, so he was
doing that before he was, Yeah, freaking Garth Brooks. He
was just a guy named Garth. He was he was
a less famous cards probably at the time, and he
was and then it was like I knew two Garths. Now.
Eventually a guy there's a guy who's a tour Manager's
name is Garth and he came in and UM did
an interview for a job, and I told him, I said,

(32:45):
you're probably great at what you do, but I can't
know you, like I just can't, Like I I have
two guards in my life. It's already too weird, Like
I just can't do it. That's a true story that happened.
That's a lot of gods. I mean, even two guards.
I know obviously your husband a bit. I don't know
the other Guarth. I know. It's so it's so odd.
And actually, if we're all in the studio together, which happens,

(33:06):
it's very strange, you know. So actually I started calling
Garth fund As Tennessee because I'm like, I have to
have like a nickname for you, because I can't because
I'd say Garth. They both with their head around, you know,
like because they never hear anybody else called Garth. So yeah,
so it's a it's a thing on on this new
Let's Be Frank record you went and recorded, did you
say you recorded like with the like the mike that

(33:27):
Frank Sinatra had used that Does that mike just chill
there or do they like bring it out for special
occasions they use it? I mean it's you know, Capital
is like a working museum, you know. I mean you
walk and you think this stuff should be behind glass.
But I guess it's cool that you actually get to
use this stuff. But at the same time, it's like
it's Sinatra's microphone, and um and the bar stools in there,

(33:51):
the straight backed chairs, they're they're like there's tons of
photos of Frank and and Judy Garland and Dean Martin.
All this stuff is that is the capital gear. And
I guess that's part of the vibe. I mean, you
definitely feel the ghosts in this room when you're in there.
But I would be afraid to use all that stuff.
But I mean some of the best microphones, like Nashville,
where where I make my country records, I use. I

(34:12):
used this annoyment. It's kell C twelve and it's a
Now it's a microphone that I've used for years because
I like how it My voice can tend to if
I get loud at either the Michael shut down or
the Michael sound really, I'll sound really tinny and high ending,
and I don't I want it to still sound warm,
and that's a challenge. And the other thing is if
they put a compressor on your voice, then you can

(34:34):
handle the big loud, but it just still shut your
voice down. So it's a thing. So there's this one
microphone that I love, and I've been trying to buy
this microphone forever, because there are you can put for
the same exact side by side, but there's one that's
gonna sound different. And I've been stalking this microphone for
years and I finally I bought it, like last week. Yeah,
finally finally they sold Um. Not not terrible, but it's

(34:57):
it's yeah, but hard to get. And it's an old microphone.
So so this microphone is probably years old, so it
is a it's that it's one of those things that
doesn't that that time is a friend too. It doesn't
make it like old. This is just old. There is
something sweet about it. And I will say that that
that Frank microphone was warm and friendly and it just

(35:19):
made your voice feel like butter and you just felt
like you could sing anything. One of the things that
I would compare it because I am very particular about
the mics that I use every day, right because I
talk every day, so mikes are important to me, and
also headphones. But I would compare them to people who don't.
If you don't work in music or sound like the
you can have ten pair of jeans that are exactly
the same, but one of those pair of jeans is

(35:39):
gonna fit you so just right. You may have three
pairs you own it the same, but that one pair
you always go back to because it just feels the
best and you can't really explain it so much like
a little bit. You can maybe it fits you a
little better here, but you're like, oh, this one just
feels better, like it fits me better. That's how I describe.
I'm telling people abology and and the microphone too, and
what you hear in your headphones. It's so um subjective, right,

(36:02):
So it's whatever feels good to you. And sometimes it's
hard to describe if especially if I'm in the studio
and the engineer is um ask me what I need.
Sometimes it's hard to say exactly what it's doing. But
if you're if you've worked with somebody long enough, you
can kind of say I feel this way or that
way and they're like, oh, I got it, and they'll
they'll figure it out. That's the one thing I've really

(36:22):
enjoyed about making records with Garth Fundis, who we've made
it most of our records with and we've just finished
in a country record now, is that we've worked together
for so long that I can tell him something's not right.
And I don't know exactly what it is, but I
but something in here is bugging me. And he'll usually go, oh,
I bet you don't like the blah blah blah here,
let's turn that down. He he knows me well enough
to kind of know. So we have a language. That

(36:44):
is nice because I can't always articulate what I want,
but he seems to know. Then. It's funny because the
analogy I used for that is like, if you're getting
like a massage, it's hard to say exactly where it hurts.
But if they like confined it, you're like, Oh, that's it,
that's it, that's it right there, Like that's that's how
adjusting something that you really can't explain is. Yeah, for sure.
Oh you gotta come back a little bit there, right there,

(37:04):
right there there is That's that's also the sound I
do when you do from this Let's be Frank record,
Will you do any of these songs live? Yeah? Um
we we just did our first show um at the
Rainbow Room in New York, um fitting for the Frank Record,
and it was the first time I had done all
of these songs and it was really funny. You'll find

(37:24):
this funny I think I had done a few of
the songs, but I hadn't done the whole show. And
I've been doing a lot of press in New York
that week, and um, I'd had a long day. It
was one of those morning shows where IVE gotten up
at four and then I had a show that night.
And in about three o'clock that afternoon, before sound check,
it hit me, I haven't done these songs, like, I
don't know if I know all the words? Did they
all laughed? And the Ladies of Tramp. There's a lot
of verses, and there's a lot going on here, and

(37:46):
I'm nervous, and as the Rainbow Room and its New York,
and so I spent a couple of hours while I
was getting made hair, makeup, and everybody's coming and asking
me questions, listening and listening and listening. So I was
terrified that night because I thought, I can't go out
of here and this. I've been waiting to do this
record for twenty years, and I don't remember all the
words to the Ladies of Tramp, like I will be
I will be carried out of here. You know, someone

(38:07):
will record on their phone right exactly. Um, And but
I did I did find it was a good night.
It was a good night, but I was terrified. Um,
and I loved it, like I loved singing these songs.
We did a few of like we did She's and
Loved the Boy, and we did um walk Away Joe.
But I kind of couldn't wait to get to these
songs just because Um. And when we do when we

(38:27):
do a tour, we'll do some of the songs that
people know me for, but we'll also do these. It's
just I don't know how we're going to do it,
because you kind of want your it's kind of changing
into a different mode, and when you're in that mode,
you kind of want to stay there. So we'll see
how we do it. I've done some symphony shows before
before I made this record. Um, and I have some
really cool orchestra arrangements for some of those songs. But UM,

(38:48):
so we'll see. Bet that band's expensive. Talking about expensive
band orchestra, yeah, I mean yes, I mean that's the thing.
You know, a lot of people don't use live orchestra
anymore because it's so expensive. L A was good, and
they a lot of work because they had a lot
of movie scores and stuff. But um, fifty pieces. I mean,
you know this album will have to do well for
me to do another one, because it's really a lot
of money and you don't have to do that anymore.

(39:09):
But I can't imagine having done this another way. To
be in the room with everybody, it's almost like you're
all taking insane breath in and out, and the conductors
across from you, and he's looking at you for a
signal of how long do you want to pause here
and how and you're all working together and it feels
like you're just another instrument in the room. And I
can't imagine doing it another way. It was. It's one

(39:29):
of the coolest things ever. Would you use a prompter
let's say the words you just didn't have it? Would
you put a prompter up? I mean, I hope I've
never done that. I hope not, because here's what. Here's
what I find if I'm doing an award show or
something and they they'll have the prompter. I even if

(39:51):
I if I'm singing She's a Lot of the Boy,
which I sugn a million times, and I know I'm
gonna I'm gonna look at the prompter, you know, So
I feel like it's a thing that makes you look.
And I've been to shows and seeing people use prompter
and I find them staring at the prompter, and so
I don't want to be that girl. So as long
as I can remember the words, and if I forget words,
I just blame someone else, like I blame the microphone.

(40:13):
I pretend something's wrong, you know, like I have lots
of ways around it, or I just acknowledge I totally
totally forgot the words. Um. I'd rather do that, I
think than um. And I have a pretty good memory
for lyrics. So as long as I do, I'm gonna
I'm gonna keep doing that. You mentioned walk Away Joe,
and we'll play that just for a bit here, a
song like that that you're saying times, right, do you

(40:36):
go into a mode of like when you drive, you
know you're driving, but you've driven this way so many
times that you probably are doing most of that driving subconsciously.
Do you do that with these massive songs where it's
just like you're so comfortable it's hard to not fall
back into the subconscious place of just singing the song.

(40:56):
I mean, I would would be lying if I said
I'd never done that. But the time, I I'm so
dramatic and I love a story, and I always make
myself a character in the story. So if in that
in walk Away Joe, I'm a character for those three
and a half minutes, you know. So I really get
lost in the lyric of a song and I enjoy that.
That's part of what I get out of live performing.

(41:17):
So I will say that I I'm sure I've done it,
but I also do really think about this. This is
something that that I learned on the Growth tour. There's
gonna be somebody in the audience who's never seen you
before and it's never going to see you again, and
the only time they're ever going to hear walk Away
Joe live is this moment, and so I don't really

(41:38):
want to be making my mental grocery list while they're
in there for that moment. And I do think about
that before I go out. So, um, I'm sure I've
done it, but I try not to do it. And
Mickey Mantle would say, there's always somebody in in the
stands who has never seen Mickey Mantle before and will
never see Mickey Mantle again. So I gotta go out
and make it special for that person. But it's such

(41:58):
a hard thing to do because you see you do
it so often, do you in carthe give to the
pep talks because I've never met either one of you
together separately, and you're not just awesome, and it's almost
annoying where it's like I would like to I'd like
to catch you on off day because that just means
you're human. You know you guys have never not been
awesome to me. Well, I'm more human than him, I mean,
I think he I think one of the reasons that
I have um more of a grateful, positive outlook in

(42:22):
life in general is because of him, because he he
looks at everything in a positive way. I mean, he
will he will spend the positive no matter what, And
I think that I I want to be that, but
I'm not as much so as him, but I am
more so that way with him in my life. And
I think that there's just a I mean, honestly, when
you really think about it, what we'd get to do

(42:45):
for a living, if you really think about it, is
so such a great job. It's not even really a job.
It's like I'm getting paid to have every day be
different in my life. And I get to go sing
and I get to basically set my own schedule, and
I'm doing what I have always wanted to do my
whole life. So I really, if I complain about that,

(43:06):
someone should really just punch me in the face. Can
I be Devil's advocate for a second? Yes, you sacrifice
a lot. You have a lot of talent. It's not
that anybody can do it. And you not only have
a lot of talent because a lot of people have talent,
but people don't have talent and work ethic. And again
it's that perfect mixture of the both and also catching
a couple of breaks and giving a couple of breaks.
Like it is. I agree with you because I feel

(43:28):
the same way. But again, it's not like it was
handed to you and you go out and go you
know what this this is given to me. I actually
appreciate what was given to me, like you work so
hard for it. Well, I think there is. I mean,
I think it's a Will Rogers quote that's something about
um luck is disguised in overalls and something. I felt
like it's a bunch of work. But I mean, I
think it is a drive that makes the work feel

(43:52):
like not work really because it's you're so driven. I don't.
I always say I don't feel like I chose this,
Like I never I didn't wake up one day and go, hey,
I think it'd be really cool to be a singer.
I feel like I was and it felt like a
calling and it was almost It was hard when I
couldn't do it because as a young girl and as
a teenager in a small town where nobody did what
I wanted to do, I didn't know how to go

(44:12):
about it. And that was the most frustrating part. Once
I got to Nashville, then I'm like, Okay, I'm here now,
and I'm just gonna be here and I'm gonna I'm
just gonna figure it out. There's a drive there. And
I am a person who I like balance. So like yesterday,
I didn't have anything on my schedule yesterday and I
stayed in my pajamas most of the day. I play

(44:33):
with my dogs, I read a book, I had coffee
and I loved it. But I couldn't. I couldn't do
that every day. I need this. This has been a
great day. It's been a really busy day. I've had
the best day. So it's a it's and it's because
I'm doing what I enjoy. Yeah, I feel the same way,
and I work really hard but also love what I do,
which makes me work really hard, which it's because I love.

(44:55):
It's just a it's a nice little circle. Yeah. The
recycle arrows almost as like you do have to figure
out the balance when you have I don't have that yet.
Do you know anybody, I don't even life balance? Let
me know, Um, yeah, yeah, I don't know. If I
can help you that, don't tell them. I don't drink though,
because it runs the whole thing. I want to talk
about that though, Bobby. We have to find you. We
have to find you that balance. You need it because

(45:15):
you will just work all the time if you don't
have it. Back, well, that's what I do. Here's my
cycle is that I go, I'm gonna work all the
time because if I work hard, I gets because called
somebody will like me, right, And then I work all
the time and I don't build my my ecosystem of
friends and folks, and so when I go, you know what,
I'm not gonna work. I'm gonna take a second and
I take a break. And there's no ecosystem of friends
that folks around me because I haven't built. It's like
being a gardener. We're not playing in the garden for

(45:37):
my food. We didn't plant an idiot, that's why. That's like,
that's what I'm saying to myself. And then I'm like,
you know it screwed this. I don't want to be
I don't have system is gonna keep working so it
never end. After you've been through all the Netflix you
can watch, then it's time to go back to work. Yeah,
I do want you have watch Netflix? What do you
what do you watch recently? Um? Well, I've been on
this whole kick of all these really disturbing documentaries on

(45:57):
everything that you know, from abducted in plain Site to
so disturbing. I couldn't I couldn't help myself to Dirty
John too. Like it's just like I really need to
watch like a Disney movie, although usually someone dies in
the first five minutes, so that's not good. When need
to find something else that abducted a plain side so disturbing,
so incredibly disturbing. I'm glad it was only one episode
I caught one' have done in a second one. Yeah,

(46:18):
I get excited when I find me too. I get
excited when I find out a show that I love
has new episodes that I didn't know so that I
can bange watch. So I just figured out the second
half of the last of this current season of Shameless
is out and I didn't know it. So yesterday, when
I was in my pajamas, I got to watch like
four episodes in a row that I had not seen,
and I was so excited because I love that show. Um,
you watched Ted Bundy tapes. I did. That's that's I

(46:42):
can't wait to the movie. I can't wait to see
the movie movies and it's it's a Netflix movie too,
is it? Yeah, so it'll be right right into our
even the great isn't The great thing about Netflix movies
is that they don't even tell you they're coming, so
you don't sit there and go I can't wait. I
can't wait. It's like boom, you got a movie and
I love it. It's cray. I was a kid. I
was in high school in um or junior high was it?

(47:03):
It was eighties, right, so I was in high school.
So when that story was real and a thing, it
was before cell phones. It was also really before like
serial murders. It was like, that was kind of the beginning.
So I remember, and one of my best friends who
lives here in Nashville is from Seattle, and she she
there's that that park that one of the girls was.

(47:24):
She was in that park that day and um, she
and her girlfriend saw a VW bug drive by and
slow down and then they went and they ran, they
ran into the woods, and I'm like, maybe you saw that,
Like I think you might have seen Ted Bundy that day. Like, so,
it's it's terrifying when you realize that it's kind of
happened when it could have happened to you as as
a young girl. And also that it was kind of
the beginning of this whole serial killer thing. So if

(47:46):
you if you were alive during that time, I mean,
our kids go, well, I don't, I don't even understand it.
I'm like, yeah, it was. It was a thing. It
was a big deal. The craziest thing about that to
me was state to state you could basically go do
whatever you want in this state, just jump over the
state line, and they didn't share records with each other.
You're a brand new man, all right, I Mean, isn't
he the reason that there became like an FBI database
because there wasn't one right that and also the fact

(48:09):
that he escaped jail twice blew my mind. He would
practice jumping off his top cell to get his legs
strong so we can jump out of the building. Then
when he lost all the weight so we could go
through the little ceiling square in the ceiling to get out.
I mean, come on, yeah, that was crazy. And then
I felt guilty when it was over because I really
enjoyed it, like I enjoyed the show of it, and
I enjoyed learning the history of it. And I'm like, oh,

(48:31):
I shouldn't feel that way. So then I watched like
five episode of the Office to kind of cleanse myself. Something.
I do want to talk about this country record that
you're gonna put out, I'll just called it. I would
even call it a country record. I would s there
your record, another record, because like it's time right, like
just me talking like it's time right. Yes, I mean
thank you, I mean yes, I mean I think what happened,

(48:53):
honestly was I didn't say I'm going to take several
years off of making records. It just the tour with
ar plus the cooking show, which I you know, I
never dreamed I would be doing all this other stuff.
It's sort of became well, I'll i'll make a record,
I'll make a record, and it just kind of kept
getting put on the back burner. And it is what

(49:14):
feeds my soul. It is what I do. It is
what brings me the most joy of all these things
I do that I love. And so last year or
two thousand eighteen, after the tour ended, I just made
it a priority and like, I'm making music this year.
And that's how the Sinatra record happened. And then I
started the country record, which I would call it a
country record in uh in May, and we're mixing starting

(49:37):
this week. So um, it was so much fun. It
reminded me that that whole life is short and get
get after it thing. I don't want to wait. I
want to just keep making music. I'm not worried about
at this point in my life. I'm not worried about
how I'm going to get it out there. I'll figure
that out. I mean, I don't know about radio, I
don't know about any of those things. But I wasn't

(49:58):
thinking about any of that in the studio. I was
just finding songs. That felt good. I laughed a lot,
I sang a lot. I feel like my voice feel strong,
I feel good, and I just I did what I do.
If you're going to call yourself an artist, that's what
you do. And then you figure out someone else will
help you figure out how you get it out there?

(50:20):
Do you guys record a song and songs that you
obviously really love and go, oh, that could be the single?
Like do you do you now? Are you leaning towards one?
You're going I think this is the one that and
whatever single means radio highlighted on playlist you know it first.
It's funny because at first I said and I said, um,
I'm not making her, don't I'm not even gonna send
this record radio, Like I'm just gonna make an album.

(50:40):
I don't care. I don't care about having anything on
the radio. And then as I started making the record
and started listening to the songs and started like I
love these songs, and I'm like, well, this could be
a single, you know, and so so we're I'm just
about at that place where I'm going to figure that out.
But I it's funny because I guess it's ego or
it's my own self confidence. But when I hear it,

(51:01):
I go, I I can hear this on on the radio,
So I mean, that'll be for a group of people
to weigh in on. But I feel like, um, I
feel like there's there's certain things and the cool thing
is the hard thing is I'm fifty four, I'm a woman.
There's so those are two big strikes against me for radio.
But the good news is that there is more opportunity,

(51:24):
I think, and openness to do things however you do
them now, So it doesn't it's not as well you've
got to be on these three labels and you can
only get there's there's just a million ways to do
it now, So I think there's While some things are harder,
some things are easier. So, um, we'll see. I'm excited
about it. Well, thank you. I am too, I really am.
I mean I when we made the this let's be

(51:46):
frank in the summer, I've been chomping at the bit
to get it out, and now that it's out, I'm
chopping at the bit to get the country record out.
So um, I'm I'm very excited to come in and
talk to you about it. Yeah, don't send it to
me early, though I will not listen to it. I
will not send it to you early, right, not that
you were going to, but don't send it to me early.
What's good to know because I want, I want to

(52:07):
send it to you and you'll listen to it. Well,
My thing is, I think you can be of the
industry of the people, right, one of the two. And
I don't listen to music early because I don't want
to be cooler than my people, and so some of
my best friends will go won't listen to it. I
just I have a rule. And it's also a slippery slope,
but but it's mostly about I don't want to be
of the industry and it gets me a trouble a lot,

(52:28):
you know, good and bad, you know Yin yang. But
I just I won't because like I like to wake
up on the Friday and and I'll listen to it
before I go to show sometimes sometimes after Never can
I hear a full record before I go on the air.
It takes an hour sometimes it's a weeds a record
takes nineteen minutes. One of the two. Um, and I
like to experience it like my people experience it. And

(52:51):
so yeah, like I'm excited if you come in early
and we do an interview. This is what this is
my moral dilemma. If you come in early, because sometimes
let's say you're gonna go to press in New York,
you're not gonna be able to talk to me on
album day and you come in on a Wednesday and
have to like play the clips. I feel like I'm
dirty to my people because but I have to the interview.
I feel bad. I shouldn't hear this. It's like a

(53:11):
baby that covers ear muffs from old school. Well, it's
kind of like I will, like I want to go
support the artists. So even for myself, like I have
a thing where I go and buy my album on
the first day. It's kind of like that. I mean,
I um, and if somebody gives me an advanced copy
of something, I still want to go buy it because
I want all the artwork and I want I want
everything I want to I want to have the original whatever.

(53:31):
So I still do that since the very first album.
I go and buy my my records every on the
on release day. Let me mention Tricious Tilgate real quick,
tell me about that. So when we were doing the
tour with Garth the last one. I guess I just
didn't notice it because I mean, I'm a sports girl,
so I know about tailgating and that's the thing in
Georgia especially, but um, everybody tailgates for these concerts and

(53:52):
they're there all day long and they're just waiting and
waiting for the show. So we thought we'd set up
a big tent, make it a very cool, very nice
tailgate if you want to come before orhand seven or
eight Tricia dishes and drinks and games and we're gonna
do food demos. It's just gonna be. It's kind of
like the ultimate tailgate for about three hours before doors
open to go in and see the stadium show. You
guys are still giving to the fans. You know that.

(54:15):
You probably hear it's some but you don't get to here.
People talk about you behind your back that often. But
the thing that said about both you and Garth and
I said up to your face a minute ago, you
guys are always great, and so we wonder are you real?
Like you what's under that skin? I have to get
back in my pod later. Yeah, do you walk into
recharged like back in like the iPhone? But yeah, I mean,
you guys are, And I think that for a lot

(54:37):
of artists that's something to look at is that you
guys really you know where my grandmaways say, well your
bread is buttered, and and now I've learned from you
guys too, And but I also know that my people
got me here there. I want to be doing this,
I want to be doing the radio show. I want
to be doing stand up on the road if it
weren't for the people. But you guys are superstars and
you still keep that as your number one. That's awesome

(54:58):
to me. Well, I think you definitely have to keep
in mind that you don't get to go out there
and do those shows if those people don't show up.
You know that that doesn't that doesn't fly, you know.
I think there's a real realization of that. And I
I'm in a relationship. I keep giving Garth credit, but
I mean when I my very first tour was opening
for him in and it was like it was like
the way to be one on one with him because

(55:19):
he was he was He became a superstar, I mean
like no one has seen in country music. And I
watched him helping roll up chords that load out and
being kind to every single person in his path, and
I remember thinking, well, he's Garth Brooks, like he doesn't
have to be nice and people won't nobody's gonna say

(55:40):
anything because he's the like he's the star of the show.
But the way he treated people was a lesson for me.
And we both were raised by families who would not
have tolerated us not being nice to people. But at
the same time, you know, you gotta hit record and
people are opening the door for you and carrying your bags.
I might have gone down the path of I'm how

(56:00):
in somewhere in my brain thinking I deserve that, but
living with him and being around him, it was a
great lesson to see to remember who you are always
and no matter what happens to you. And I mean,
I really do credit him with that because he and
it's genuine. You know, I've known him such a long
time now, and I thought, at some point, the other
shoe's gotta drop, Like I think he's I think he's

(56:20):
a he's a unicorn for sure. Like I keep thinking,
I'm going to see the other side and he's just
a good guy. He just is and yeah, oh yeah,
it's total baby, Yeah, total baby. Yes, he's got a cold.
He's like, oh my god, he's not a good patient.
Is what I figured. I knew he's not. All right,
let's be frank. Um is out now, and that the

(56:45):
new country record, which we haven't said a name of
anything yet. I don't know a name of anything. You
don't know the name yet. I've got a couple ideas,
but I'll probably have one by the next let me
at Let's be tricia nice, consider it. Let's I really
enjoyed our talking, you know, I really enjoy you. Um,
you are a delight, you really are. I love this.

(57:06):
It's like this time has gone really quickly. So we've
been here seven hours really already tomorrow. Wow. Yeah, it's
like when you start dating someone you talk older than
night that's here. Yeah right, yeah, you wouldn't know anything
about that, about that all right, Let's be frank really,
thank you, and everybody check out. Let's be Frank, and
we'll just sit and wait, sit on our hands until

(57:27):
the country and I won't play it for you early,
but I won't bring it to you the day of.
If you have a party, I will not be there.
And we're gonna have to do the release a Nashville
just so I can come play it for you that day.
It's going to have to happen. It's so weird to
have an artist play music for you, though, because I
have to do this thing where you just bob your
head and act like you're feeling it. This is not
what do you do if you're not like? What if
you don't say you do? You go into it the

(57:47):
same way every time when this is you ready, I'm
act right now? All right? M m, that's it? Oh wow,
it was good. Like it's the same bust that I'm
gonna watch you like a hawk. Next time we get
together and you're listening I'm my music, I will know.
I won't listen to ask Leslie. I will listen to
a song with somebody in front of me out of
your mind. So as an artist, I go and sit

(58:08):
with a publisher and a songwriter and they play me
their song that they poured their heart into, and I
have to say face to face to them, I mean,
that's just not for me. Should I say that to
you record? You know what? Just not for me? I
mean it's great, but it's just not for me. I
like the old stuff. You would kill me. It's really
that hard. That's your job to do that. It's hard
to do. I hate, I hate to make people sad. Yeah,

(58:29):
me too, So let me just say already, I love
every song you're you've made and a're gonna make. Thank you, alright,
t hear one, episode one sixty four. We'll see you
guys next time.