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September 16, 2022 13 mins

Bobby had Ryan Hurd stop by the studio to discuss his journey from song writing to becoming a performer. They talked about the difference in being an opener versus the headliner, the fatigue of a tour, life and behind the scenes on a tour bus, and much more!

 

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
On the Bobby Bones Show. Now heard I think I
saw in your Instagram you're opening for Sam Hunt this
past weekend. Yeah, what's the difference for you as far
as your your mindset before you go on stage, if
you're like the main support act or if it's your show. Oh,
it's so much easier to open these days. There's it's
just a different feel, even if it's two thousand people

(00:22):
at your own show, like or the thousand people or
whatever were less than that sometimes for me, but it's
there there for you. So it's just a different a
little bit of a different mindset. But there's also like
no pressure. I don't get nervous. It's the shorter set.
It's usually forty five minutes, so that's like by the
time I'm kind of bored, it's like all right, it's
over and you go hang out. And Sam has always

(00:44):
been cool at US I toured with We toured with
him on the fifteen and a thirty tour and Marin
was on it, and uh so we know the camp.
And the next night I went and we did Summer
Fest in Milwaukee for the first time and tr was
the headliner that night, so I got to see Sam
and Thomas this last week Kins, so that was really cool. Um,
But it's just a little bit of a different mindset.
But there's also less pressure and I don't get very

(01:07):
nervous at all or anything. So you're in a cool
place where you can absolutely go headline your own shows
and you have a ton of songs and people are
very passionate about you. But you're also you can make
pretty decent chunk of change being main support for another
artist and like you said, play. I was talking to
Dan and shakes it open for Kenny right now, and
they're like, it's awesome. Yeah, like we we could go out.

(01:27):
We have to, you know, take all our equipment, go
out and just have fun. Yeah, it's it's a different
It's nice to switch it up, like switch your days
up too, because at some point you want to headline
all the time and you want to play late in
the day at festivals. But it's also nice to be
done at like eight thirty and you don't have anything
else to do, like all right, I'll just like watch
the show or drink a beer or go to bed.

(01:49):
So uh, I think everybody enjoys the change of pace.
When do you get tired? Meaning in a year, is
there a season and you start to go because for me,
you know, we start in January doing the radio show,
and if I take out all the other stuff to TV,
the traveling, but just the radio show alone, about June,
I start to get fatigued for the first time. Is
there a touring fatigue? And when does it usually hit?

(02:11):
So I'll preface the answer by saying, we basically took
two years off like we did. We did shows during
COVID times, but not like a tour um so those
were pretty easy to just kind of come in and
out of. But so we started second week of January
this year, and I think that once you start, you're

(02:35):
just going to be tired the whole year. I mean,
you you do shows and you ride busses and you
get it like it's it's it's really fun, but there's
not a whole lot of rest in it. So the
way that I kind of manage my time is if
I touch an airplane or a bus, that's a work day.
Even if it's like I'm leaving at nine o'clock at
night or getting home at like seven am on the

(02:56):
bus drops off drops me off at my house, that's
a workday. So Sunday to me is not a day off.
I usually have to take another day off in the
week just so I can have like some time to
my to just be a human, hang out with my
kid or whatever. So but usually Sundays we're just worthless
people Like we both get home, get dropped off, and

(03:16):
then you just kind of like look at look, I
look at Mary and she listen to me, like let's
take a nap, because you just no matter how you
do it, it's exhausting. The travel just wears you out.
Josh Thompson used to say this thing, and I'm sure
he didn't come up with it, but he said, you
don't pay me for the show. The show is free.
You pay me for getting there and getting back, Like
that's the part that's work. So um, we really are

(03:39):
blessed to both get to do it. Um we have
like this weird uh like I don't know, we just
have an understanding about where we both need to be
and uh, we're really blessed to be making a living
on the road. But it is exhausting no matter how
you do it, it's it's it'll wear you out all year.
I think there's a romantic thought of being on a

(04:03):
bus and listen, I try. I've you know, done a
little tours and cars and vans and that really stinks
and a bus is much better than that. But even
when you're sleeping on a bus, you're driving overnight, and
I never because I'm I and we have a big
what they called the star bunk in the back, like
you know, I have my own little room, but you're
never really comfortable because the bus is always moving or

(04:23):
hitting the thing on the side of the road, or
you're just never you're never just totally safe feeling. You're
always like knock on wood, let's let's make it yeah
at night. So I sleep better in a bunk, I
don't know. I mean, we have every kind of bus
you can imagine out between the two of us, and
I still I sleep in a bunk because I like

(04:44):
to be confined like that. Is that more comfortable? Whatever reason?
I just those those crew busses ride smoother to me,
and I for I just that's what I like. So
the we have on you know, Marin's bus has a
star coach in the back, and we have our own
apartment back there. But I it just feels like we
bounced more on it, So I like, I like the
bunk from when I'm just out with myself. So um,

(05:07):
but hey, that bus. I'll never ever speak poorly of
of touring on a bus because it saves you. It
really does. Like getting home at seven am, getting to
have a whole day with your kid, have like half
a weekend almost on Sunday for us is usually what
it is is pretty special and important, and uh, you know,

(05:29):
I do remember the one time where I was like,
I can make a lot more money if I just
like suck it up and drive the van and there's
like no more van, Like we you need to be home. Yeah,
your quality alife is terrible. So that was like five
years ago, and I just remember her being the one
that made that decision, and it was a good decision.
It was like a family decision, like whatever, even if
you like don't make as much money we we, it's

(05:52):
good to get home. So the thing about the bus
and we'll get off this. But I think that that
I learned early on was first of all we had
run on was like five grand a weekend, and I
was like I was like what, Yeah, you cannot get
in that deal anymore either, because are so hard to
get now, so before pandemic, I pay like five grand
a weekend and you know that comes out of the

(06:12):
money that you're making, and you're like wow, And then
you gotta pay. If you drive over eight hours, you
gotta take an extra bus driver. And most of the
trips will eight hours, so we have to put two drivers,
and that takes an extra bunk and you're trying to
fit everybody in. And what also is you don't really
drive in the daytime because you don't want to be
awake while you're moving. You know, for the most part,
you know, if the bus would leave, we leave at
eleven midnight, one o'clock. Your goal is to get on

(06:34):
the bus and sleep. That's the when the bus is moving,
you want to be asleep exactly. And so when you
see people on tour, be like, man, it must be
so cool. The goal is to be asleep on the
tour bus. It's good to have when you're awake, but
it's to be asleep on the bus. It's definitely a tool,
and it's part of it, and it's really important, and
it is fun. Don't don'tlet anybody tell you that being
on the bus isn't fun. It's blast, but it's what

(06:55):
you dream about when you're fourteen years old. Is like
living on a tour bus. I'm serious. I every day
I get up on that thing, I'm like, gosh, I
really wish I was home, but this is pretty sweet. Yes,
but you're right. It's like there's little things about it
that I think and it's really fun showing people like
whenever you go, I go. Everywhere I go. My day
starts at three o'clock when I go to eleven in

(07:17):
my own like sound checks at three, and then I'm
on we have radio, and then we have friends and
we have meet and greet and we have but every
day someone's like, hey, can you meet my friend? And
I love doing that stuff, so you and then like
whoever you got there too, Like I'll always have guests
out too, and I love having them up on the
bus because they're just like looking around and everybody wants
to know, like what's on the inside of it, and

(07:38):
most it's bananas and protein bars for us, and we
got like you know, if everyone wants a beer, you
can have a beer, but but don't get out of hand, yes,
because we're all working, so keep it between the navigational beacons,
as Alan Jackson would stay. I have a question, because
you know, you come to Nashville and you have always

(07:58):
been an artist, but you're at started as far as
your commercial success as a songwriter. So it's a very
interesting journey from a songwriter to a performer. What's it
like looking back at that career journey now? I still
think of myself as a writer, and I know Randy
Goodman hates it when I say that. At my record

(08:19):
label president, he hates when I say I think of
myself as a writer. But that's where everything starts for me.
So I love getting to do both things. I talk
about my career as a pair of shoes, like I
have a right foot writing songs for myself and other people,
and then the left foot is being an artist and
singing them and traveling and touring. And I can't really
imagine doing this without both. And someday I'll probably have

(08:42):
to back one of them down. But while they're both working,
it's really fun to get an opportunity to just still
write for people like Jordan Davis and Marin and Lady A,
like those people are my friends and and it's so
natural to write songs with them still and I still
have that opportunity to get on their records. I feel
like I still have a lot to offer as a

(09:03):
songwriter for other people. And then at the other we
just talked about it, like and then I get to
get on a tour bus on Wednesday night and go
play my songs for a bunch of people who know them,
and that's a dream come true. So um, you know,
I I do both things and I still get to
and I don't really I don't have to make a
choice yet and maybe someday I will. But for me,

(09:25):
it's like that journey is it is sort of like
I've gotten to do everything and I still get to
do everything, and I'm really enjoying that. And the great
thing about a bus is you can actually ride on
a bus if you want to. Yeah, I was out
with Thomas this weekend. We played Summer Fest on the
same night and so we wrote a song. It was great,
so we It's always fun to see your buddies on

(09:45):
the road and it's always you know, I've also as
an artist, like my music has been the best marketing
tool for me. So I put out an album and
like you know, Cole Swindell. I became buddies because he
liked to a T and I liked break up in
the end, and we talked about it on Twitter, and
then all of a sudden we were writing songs together.

(10:07):
And I don't think I've ever had a cold cut.
Maybe someday, but that's about a few cold cuts. Pet.
That's a that's a good example of like cold cut,
cold cut, cold cuts. I'm gonna have some cold cut, uh.
But that's a good example of, like my artist thing,
opening doors. As a writer, do you ever think about

(10:28):
what would be like if you went down a different
road in your life, as in maybe not an artist
or a musician or were you ever close to that?
I as soon as like halfway through college, I was.
So I went to Belmont, and everyone who goes to
Belmont A lot of most people who moved to Nashville
to go to Belmont and do music some one way

(10:49):
or another music business or but I went and saw
everybody doing these music programs, either the business side or
the performance side or something that had to do with music,
and I was like, they're all gonna zig. I'm gonna zag.
So I went and did sociology and e con and
got a degree and was going to go to grad school,
and then about halfway through as kind of I kind

(11:10):
of like made it, like found out what a songwriter
in Nashville was, so I kind of put all of
my eggs in that basket and started writing country songs.
And so I guess like I would have gone to
graduate school and maybe done something else, but I've never
really had to. I think the cool part about music

(11:34):
is like most of us don't have a plan B,
and so I don't. I don't know. I always say,
like what you say, like I would be the left
fielder for the Cubs. No, I wouldn't, But like I
like sports growing up and I liked music growing up,
and but this is the only job I've ever wanted
since I was eleven years old. So I don't know. Man.
Maybe when I was a kid, my dad used to

(11:56):
work in advertising, and I always thought, like, if nothing else,
I can go do something with my dad, either at
the company's working for and at one time he had
he had an advertising agency, and like, maybe I'll go
do something like that, But it never really came to that.
So it's mostly like thinking about what I'm gonna do
after all this is over because your window doesn't last forever.

(12:16):
I mean for some people it does. But like being
realistic about my own life, like unless like I I
hope that we have a whole lot more success, but
at the end of the day, like you're only given
what you're given, and so I'm trying to really enjoy
this part of my life. And then you also in
the back of your mind, are like, Okay, what happens
when I'm old and nobody cares about my songs anymore?

(12:37):
Happens to everybody? It doesn't. It happens to everybody. So
what I think about, we're all gonna die. Oh man, Yeah,
but you can be you can do this till you're done.
Like for me, it's like what happens when I'm forty,
And like only if I get higher ratings me too.

(12:57):
Your road to Vegas and the I Heartready and Music
Festival has been a unique one. How does it feel
playing this awesome festival? I'm just thrilled to be invited.
I looked at the bill the other day and I
just couldn't believe that my name was next to everybody else's. Uh.
I mean, obviously it's been a dream come true to
have my songs on the radio. That's every single time

(13:18):
somebody plays your song, whether I wrote it or whether
I sing it, that's a every time. It's a dream
come true because I grew up listening into country radio.
So to get an opportunity to like go to a
festival like this for the people that have supported you
and made your dreams come true as a massive a
massive deal for me. And uh, to get to play
it on the same day as Marin is really fun.
We always love doing that and uh, it's a it's

(13:41):
a busy day, but it's gonna be a lot of fun. There.
He is Ryan Hard. Ryan could have talked to you, buddy,
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Bobby Bones

Bobby Bones

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