DYLAN SCHNEIDER: Getting Real about His Debut Album, Addiction, Breakups & More

Caroline sits down with country artist, Dylan Schneider on this episode of Get Real. At 16, Dylan Schneider left his small town and moved to Nashville, becoming one of the first artists to go viral with cover songs on YouTube. Now, he’s opening up like never before. With a close bond to country star Kane Brown, who also got his start virally, a Top 5 hit with Dustin Lynch, and a debut album that’s brutally honest, Schneider dives deep into the heartaches that shaped him. Puzzled explores his dad’s battle with addiction, a brutal breakup, and the fresh hope of new love. The album, co-written entirely by Schneider, is filled with stories only he could tell—especially in tracks like “Better Than You Left Me." Now on his Bad Decisions Tour and opening for country icons, Dylan’s proving he’s here to stay. “I’ve been waiting to share these stories,” he says, “and I hope listeners find their own in them too.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Adam Adam.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Carylne. She's a queen and talking if it was so,
she's getting really not afraid to feel its episode, so
just let it flow.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
No one can do we quiet, Carylne, it's sound for Caroline. Yes,
Dylan Schneider going to be here. I have actually interviewed
you almost ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I know it's been a while.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
It's crazy, and you were just getting going yep, and
TikTok did not exist Nope, maybe barely.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Instagram.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, it was like kind of the I guess the
dawning age of Instagram and Facebook like social media wise,
I feel like everything like that.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
You're one of the og og og viral sensation. Yeah,
it goes back because you went viral back in the
day day.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah. Yeah, it was like I mean when we did
that with Aurora. Yeah, that was probably early twenty seventeen.
And then I first came to town like twenty sixteen,
as you were young. I was sixteen, I think. Yeah,
were you born in two thousand, nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Nine, nineteen? You got the last nineteen hundreds?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, I know the nineties or six I always tell
people that like that are my age. I was like, man,
you missed out. The nineties were awesome. I was born
like two months before.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Wait to close it out though, you know, nineties were
a good error. I have to say, I feel sorry
for everyone who didn't get to experience them.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's what I tell them, you know, Yeah I was there.
I was there, but no, yeah, nineteen ninety nine and
then yeah I was. I turned seventeen that October and
I had released my EP Want to Be and then
my EP seventeen, and that was like my first two
projects then. I think it was right after that thirty
piece spolets on You that we did the Aurora thing,

(01:53):
So that would have been early twenty seventeen.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So what was seventeen? And want to be all about?
What were you writing about back then?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh? Man, It's funny. Nowadays, I'm like, I have a
lot more honesty in the songwriting, and you know, the
stories that I tell, I feel like because I've just
lived and experienced so much more life. Back then, it
wasn't even always you know, my personal experiences or anything.
Sometimes I was making up things, you know, right.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
It happens when you're young and you don't even know
what you're I.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Used to say, like to me, it was like writing
like a movie script or like a you know, an
episode on TV or something like that. I was writing stories,
even if they weren't mine. I was just trying to
write something that people would relate to, you know, especially
like with some of the more mature content that we'd
sing about back then. You know, I was like, I
feel like I had one girlfriend at the time. I
hadn't really had my heart broken, hadn't you know, really

(02:41):
been partying or drinking.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
You know, You've covered some grounds.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
I've covered some grounds since then.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
There's a lot more, like I said, just truthfulness and
reality and in the music that's coming out right now,
and it makes it a little bit easier to I
guess create, you know, and have something to talk about.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, you said this, this is a quote you said,
I wanted to talk about my life. So I sixteen,
and I hopeing people listen to this album Toy'll be
able to think of it from their own perspective. So
if you just felt called to share your life, tell
me about that. Because Puzzled is your album that's.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Out now, Puzzled debut. You've done all the EPs, but
this is your first full length album.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Right, Yeah, yeah. Yeah, after eight years, it's crazy you.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Wrote Puzzled by Yourself. Yeah, so you're really going through
it in this album.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh yeah, broke my heart broke and went through some heartbreak.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, it's all the same heartbreak.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Uh yeah. I mean a lot of the songs it
was just relating to, yeah, the emotion of a relationship
I had from a few years ago. And then also
I wrote, you know, some of the songs with people
that I'm friends with that had gone through their you know,
fair share of heartbreak. So that's another thing I used
to say about songs that I've written over the years

(03:46):
is it wasn't always maybe my personal story, but it
was something i'd been you know, talking somebody through, or
you know, they'd given me the rundown of their you know,
love life or relationship status, and I'd be like, oh,
that's kind of interesting, I should write a song about them.
But yeah, a lot of that was from like four
years ago. There was a relationship that was kind of

(04:07):
hard to get out of.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
So how old were you then?

Speaker 4 (04:10):
How do you know I just turned twenty five.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I've done so much to be only twenty five.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, it's created a lot of life. I was twenty.
I was twenty then during that time dated this girl
for about a year and a half, almost two years probably, okay,
and then, uh, you know, had a whole lot more
of uh, I guess, relationships stuff to talk about. So
there's a lot of that on the album. There's a
lot of just my personal, you know, life that I

(04:36):
haven't really shared, a whole lot of from family stuff,
you know, just to my own I guess, you know,
growing up in time spent in Nashville over the years.
There's a couple of songs like that.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
So I just wanted to talk about those songs. What
was your growing up like?

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I think it's just been like navigating the waters of
like my career.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Because you've been doing this since you're sixteen in Nashville. Yeah,
so you like grown up, you're pivotal like years.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Here were you in high school?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
I went until sophomore year, and then I came to
Nashville that summer decided this is what I wanted to do. So, oh,
I would go back and forth because like where I'm
from in indiana's like four hours, so I'd come down
at the start of the week be here like Sunday
like afternoon until like Wednesday morning, you know, and I'd
write and then that's when I met Jaren. We just

(05:26):
talked about Jaron Johnston. Got my first songwriting deal with
him that summer after sophomore year. Literally we were working
with the same attorney at the time, Marcus.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, he was my attorney when I was an artist.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Really yeah. Yeah. I worked with him for a few
years and I feel like he reached out to Jaren,
was telling him about what was going on. Then I
ended up going It was when Fgo was on tour
with Jaren and CATLLG three, and then I think Caine
was out then too, and col Swindell or something went
to a show up in Indianapolis, got to meet him

(06:01):
in person. We clicked and he just had interest in
you know, wanted to help me write and everything. So
ended up signing over there and then I didn't go
back to school. The next year I got my high
school it's g D what they call it, the high
school Equivalency Exam now, I guess. So that was the
one thing with my mom was like, YO, just make
sure you get that done. And then like I'm all
for you, going to like you know, chase your dream
and everything, and it's worked out.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Good so far, you know. And I could always go
back to school if I needed to.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
So what would you study?

Speaker 4 (06:27):
That's the thing I don't even know.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I felt like I wanted to do something like in
the medical field.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
I just didn't totally say doctor.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I was about to say, you're a heart surgeon.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, oh, I would love that. Anesthesiologist or something I
wanted to do too. I was Joe Younger. I know
that's serious stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
You got to be like seriously, steady hands.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
I know it's scary.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah. I wouldn't want that responsibility, I know. So I'm
gonna hopefully just keep getting me this.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah, yeah, you're doing good. Okay, So YouTube happened? How
did you even think when you were that age?

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Let me just start putting covers of myself singing song
because people weren't doing that all the time, like you.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Were like literally like it's like you and Kane kind
of broke. Would y'all come in at the same time?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, yeah, y'all talk about this literally, Yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Sit around to talk about how y'all got YouTube famous.
Before he explained to me, y'all's conversations about that.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
It's like, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
The first time I met him, we were working with
mutual people, like how we got down to town some
of the same people were like, you know, noticing people
on social media and bringing them down creating relationships. So
we met through them, and uh, first time it was
he was always supportive of me because you know, he
kind of took off first and then I was doing
it and he had my back and he's like, it

(07:36):
was YouTube first, and then uh, Facebook, Instagram and we
met and it was It's just been weird to talk about,
especially now that we're like working together, looking back on
those days and being like, man, it's changed so much
like then just the us in the mirror singing selfie videos.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Do you think that y'all both came up that way?
Has created a bond for y'all.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Definitely. We have a lot of common ground just in
our growing up years and even like deeper into that,
like he's like we have a pass like with some
family stuff and like people we've worked with and stuff
like that, Like we're you know, we've always had like
kind of the same similar circle of people that have
been around our careers from the very beginning, so we
can just relate on like levels and not a.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Lot of other people do I feel like about stuff
like that.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
So what have you learned from him?

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Like being with him, because like y'all obviously have both
been growing at the same time, and like I feel like, now,
is he he's like doing is he doing like stadiums
and stuff?

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (08:33):
He did crazy He did a stadium this year.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
He did the La Galaxy Stadium out There was a
dude right after the last show we played together. We
did want an Idaho or something middle of nowhere Idaho?

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Hey potatoes?

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah yeah, and uh then they went and he did
that stadium. But it's been great. I mean we've become
super good friends. He texted me the other night. I
don't know if you knew this. He texted me the
next morning after the show. He was bummed nobody told
him that I was playing Exit in the other night. Oh.
He text me in the morning. He's like, I would
have came to the show if I was surprised Martha
or Joey or anybody didn't tell it. But I was like, yeah, man,

(09:05):
next time, you gotta come. So like we're you know,
good tot homies now and like having that, like I said,
common ground from the beginning has been really cool. But
I guess seeing it now, like you said, we've both
grown up so much, and to like think back where
our relationship first started, we were very immature about a
lot of things. We you know, didn't really have a
grasp on the industry yet. And now you know, we've

(09:29):
even him having his kids, you know, having his family.
He's a very very grown up person and he's a
good role model, and you know, I'm proud of him,
and I know he's proud of me. So it's just
cool to like have that, you know, from the very
beginning relationship grow into what it is now and us
be like, you know, right back on track.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
It's cool.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's also like to be able to have people that
you've known for a long time that you can trust
and grow with.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
It's hard to kind of have that camaraderie. You can't
make old friends.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
No exactly, And like with the history that we've had
and what he knows about me personally, I feel like
kind of helps him have a even you know, more
of a respectful I guess idea of me as I
do for him, you know, in his head. I'd hope
just to see the growth because we know how hard
it's been here, we know how hard we've had to
work to get, you know, to the future. And it's cool.

(10:17):
It's a cool bond. It's definitely like very unique.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
How do you start in YouTube and Facebook and you
get going?

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Like what was that even like back then?

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like when you started picking up momentum, Like did it
translate into people coming to shows? Did it translate into
record labels calling you? What did it translate it where
people were you doing advertisements? Were you making money back then?

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Like how did that all work?

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah? Right out of the gate, I was just doing
really really working hard on pushing Instagram and Facebook, and
they had started doing like monetizing things like early on
right there. So if luckily I worked with people who
had a really good idea of just marketing and stuff,
and that definitely helped. But I was just pumping out videos,
like every day I would do a cover video, you know,

(10:57):
and then I'd be writing down here and it was
a grind. Like it's funny that people were like, oh, dude,
you just took off. I don't know where. You just
walked into town. It was like, no, dude, it was
like every day working hard to like make sure I'd
do like six seven covers in a day, just to
make sure we had enough content, you know, for like
the rest of the week if something came up or
I didn't have time to do it, you know. So
we were just trying to always have content ready to go.

(11:19):
And it's like that now, but there's just so much
more that goes into it. I mean, the production value.
I feel like everybody's stuff is higher, the you know,
quality is higher. That's what makes it harder to constantly
stay on top of things.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
So competitive. Yeah, it is so oversaturated.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Getaturated.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
How do you rise up these days?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I think you just get lucky. I mean, I don't know,
like you got to have a great prodiability.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Not everyone can sustain it. That's a big difference, you know, because.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I've had so many people.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Say that, Well, I think that's a big difference. I
think a lot of people can pop off and have
a flash in the pan and have a moment. But
if you're not actually like a true true artist who.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Who can like keep delivering, you're not gonna be able
to sustain what it takes to keep the content and
keep the music coming and keep that keep your listeners fed.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
You know, all the consistency. Yeah, you definitely want to
be bringing a good product every single time. I mean,
there's plenty of people you've seen over the years. I'm
sure I know I've seen them who come in and
flash in the pan, like you said, and it's like
one hit wonder, you know, nothing to follow. That's the
hard part today. It's just constantly having top of the
line quality stuff, great music, you know, and there always

(12:26):
are the songs that catch on and have the trend.
And that's what's great about TikTok, I think is it
gives you the opportunity to kind of make that a
little bit easier for a song to catch. But there's
also after you have one song, you got to have
your like you know, I guess individuality of who you are,
like your character, you know, who you are as a person,

(12:46):
like what you you know, I guess stand for, and
your music and everything. You know, you want to have
the relatability I feel like of that, you know, after
the fact that your music could be catching on, But
it's also about you know who you are as a
person an artist.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Does that give you anxiety.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
It's hard sometimes because you want to be super unique
and you don't want to you know, feel like you're
a copycat of something else that's out there. But there's
just so much of it all the time. I think
it's just kind of being for me always over the years,
as being like as real as possible and just being me.
It's done pretty well, so I don't ever try to
stress too much about it. And as a I feel

(13:25):
like as we've gone along, I've kind of figured things
out here and there. So I'm just going to keep
making the good music and being me and hopefully it
keeps working. You know, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
So what were you like growing up?

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Because you started pursuing your career at age sixteen and
actually like doing it for real, which is way sooner
than most kids and young adults do.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Most people are like, you know, dicking off for a
long time before they start like getting into something legit.
But you were like focused, ready to go, like pursuing
this career at such a young age. What were you
like as a kid, Like, how did you even start
this path?

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (13:57):
What's your family like? Do you have siblings?

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah? I have three siblings. I got a little sister,
little brother, and then our youngest sister. You're the oldest,
I'm the oldest. Yeah. And then my family's cool. We're
very tight knit family still to this day. They're my
best friends. I mean they are, yeah, yeah, for sure.
My siblings are. No. My dad actually lives down in Alabama.
My mom's back home with my sisters, and we're all

(14:21):
really tight unit. But I guess me growing up, I
don't know. I'd say I was always kind of like, was.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Your dad with you all growing up or did he leave? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:31):
He was. He was with me early on in my
career and stuff. So it was like within the last
few years that that's all switched up, but which has
been a transitional thing. I talked about that a little
bit and a couple of songs on the album and things.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Your parents got divorced, yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Like twenty twenty. Unfortunately, is that.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Hard as an adult to go through that.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
I think that that was one of the weird things,
is like, you know a lot of people that I know,
the parents aren't together. It's just been that way. It
was a weird thing for me to be like twenty
years old and then you know, my siblings have to go.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
Through it too and have to be there for them.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
So yeah, I was definitely not like the most typical
way I feel like of that going down.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
But were they like trying to wait for everyone to
grow up and then do it.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
No, No, it was kind of just out of nowhere
things like it just kind of you know, it didn't
work out, and oh that's.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Hard at any time, no matter what. You know. I'm
a parent now, so like I understand.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
I have friends who are going through divorces at the
young age and stuff, and I understand how things don't
work out. But it's like when you're the kid, no
matter what your parents, whatever your parents do, no matter
what age you are, it's always gonna Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
I mean that's the thing too, is it just affects
everybody all the way around the whole family in general.
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
So you wrote about that.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yeah, yeah, I wrote a song about it.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
What's the song call.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
It's called Daddy Drinks Whiskey.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Oh man.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Yeah, it's pretty deep.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
It's probably like the deepest song I ever put out.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
So so it's about alcohol too, yeah, yeah, and alcohol is.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
A beast it is, and it's crazy because like it
was never like that in our house, like and then
it just kind of got out of hand.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
A little bit.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, and the dark Monster fortunately for really. Yeah, it's
something that you always got to your respect and make
sure you can control because it can, you know, it
can mess things up pretty quickly, anything like that, any
substance or anything. You know, it's it's hard. But what
we were talking.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
About, you have your family heard that song? Has your
dad heard it?

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (16:14):
Yeah, yeah, it's on the album.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
I played it for all my family members before I
even released it because I wanted to see it's their
story too, you know, and I wanted to see how
they They all cried and they all said, man, that's real,
and you should put it out of you know, it's
time for you to talk about it, because it's something.
Even with the song, like, I wanted to share my story,

(16:38):
but I also wanted, you know, anybody else that goes
through those difficult things and has a family member or
a friend or you know, loved one that struggles with
addiction or you know, alcoholism, substance abuse, anything.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
I wanted to, like, you know, share my story.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
So people could feel okay to talk about theirs, because
sometimes it can be an embarrassing thing it can be
something you don't want to, Yeah, you don't want to,
like a dress, and then holding that back really hurts sometimes.
So to like put it out there, I hope that,
you know, I would help everybody else who has similar
things and let them know they're not alone and they
can talk about it too.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
That's powerful to being so young to be able to
hit that topic too and share that with your age group.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Mm hmm, definitely. I mean it's crazy. I've talked to
a lot of people, even just on this tour because we.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Just started playing it.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Oh you're playing it live.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
In the set list.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, and it's like a pivotal moment of the set
I'd say it is. It changes the whole vibe of
the show in the room, and you know, we pick
it back up pretty quick after that.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
But those are those songs that'll let people know you
as an artist exactly. You know, it's like, this is
my story, this is my life, and then people are like, dang,
this is my life too, and thank you for sharing.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Because it's very hard to talk about heart.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Those kinds of topics and somebody has to be the
voice for it, so others can relate.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, and that's what I'm proud of about that one.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I'm proud of you.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. But uh yeah,
I played it for all of them. They cried and
they said, you know, your story to share too, if
you're ready to talk about it. It was written for
probably like a year and a half or so before
we finally released it.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
And and your dad said, release it too.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh no, my dad didn't hear until it came out.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Okay, So okay, have you' all talked since?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
No, we don't talk very much. That's that's the other
part about it. It's just kind of like, you know,
I'm ready to talk about it. Let people kind of
hear about what's been going on in my life and
have that relatability, you know, and understanding of you know,
what my last four years has entailed, you know, just personally.
So that's another story, you know that I was just
waiting to share, and I'm finally glad that I did.

(18:45):
But we were talking about what besides that, how it
was growing up. Yeah, I would say, I don't know.
I was always like the like outgoing person and I
feel like that show is just for me, Like leaving
school and then coming here probably too, Like I just
always wanted to like be ahead of things, and like
I always wanted to, you know, be like life of

(19:05):
the party type vibe everything like that. So I was
always like a fun, outgoing person. I guess I don't know,
maybe did your mom. I'm very like close, Like I
keep a tight circle too, That's the other thing. I'm
out going. But I'm also like kind of keeping to
myself with my friend, friend group and everything like that.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
That's how I was growing up, you know.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Honestly, though, I've learned the hard way because I am
trying to button myself up more because I'm the kind
of person who just immediately share every personal and songwriting rooms,
Like when you go into songwriting rooms, I was a
songwriter for like ten years, and you've got to get
to like a great song like Katty drinks whiskey. You
have to be able to share very very very personal things.
So you kind of get in the habit of just

(19:46):
like talking about feeling your deepest, darkest secrets and guts.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
And then you're like, is this actually normal?

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Perfect halfway through a story, I'll be like, damn, this
is kind of deep shit. I was like, not when
deep right now?

Speaker 1 (20:01):
And then you have like afterwards, you have like a
vulnerability hangover and you're like, what just happened? Everyone that
person knows everything about me?

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Literally hell anxiety after like why did I say so
much about myself?

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Like you're probably gonna fel that way after this podcast?

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Oh man, I hope. So sometime it's a good feeling.
You got to open up.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
It feel so good. I love to get all my
stuff out. I think there's a way, like you don't
want to, like you know, but I think you have
to share these things. And I think music is.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Such a powerful way to share because now your pain
and tragedy. It's like you're on the same label as
Jelly Roll. Look at what he's done by sharing his story.
I know it's so powerful hold back at all, and
it's like it's so great to know all of his
demons because now you're like, man, okay, you feel so
much better about having your own demons when someone is
so willing to stand in front of you and say

(20:44):
I've gone through this, I face this, and you can
live through this too.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah yeah, no, one hundred percent. I mean it just
it's an empowering thing for sure, gives people strength.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Have you hung out with Jay Rol?

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Oh? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Are you all friends?

Speaker 5 (20:56):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, Like what do y'all do when y'all hang out?

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Out of him some weed?

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, we've done that. Yeah. He's just a fun, you know, energetic,
good like energy to be around. We did a show and.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
I love Bunny.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
I mean there's such a power couple, both of them,
just like freaking doing it and being so honest about everything.
It's so great when someone's that honest because it's it's
like you can't even like say no because they're telling
you everything.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yes, that's that's the beauty of it.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
It's so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
You got to respect it at the end of the day,
you know, even if it's not always you know, perfect,
If somebody is that honest.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Like they're not acting like it is.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
Ever exactly, you know, you got to respect it.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
They're not ever trying to act like it's perfect.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, you got to just be yourself. And I feel
like that shines through and it's a it's a powerful
force to be like, you know, reckoned with when somebody.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
Is just that true.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
He's just that true. Yeah, it's so humble.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
He's so humble. Yeah, Like I mean, like I've seen
him just be the nicest people or the nicest person ever,
you know, people that like everybody else would just probably
walk by and not like you know, give the.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
That's actually who he walks up to exactly.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
It really is like he's going into prisons ever before
shows like he's walking by the people who are forgotten.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yep, which is so cool.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
I know, I love it.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
He's a great.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Soul and you're you're hanging out with some great people.
Came round jelly roll Jaron Johnson.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Kicking it off back in the nineties. True, I mean,
he's the best song I was in this town.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
I've had. Yeah, I've had some some some great relationships
along the way and got to meet a whole lot
of cool people, people that you know, I was looking
up to when I was just a kid.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
What's that like when you meet your heroes? Here'd you
meet that you were like whoa whoa woa? Like I
ran into Faith Hill at the mall the other day
and I panicked. I had a panic attack.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
I want to hear who you've met, but let me
just tell you the story, because actually I need to
tell this I got to hear it, Okay, So I
love Faith Hill.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
I used to stay up all night long.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
When I was in high school and try to watch
her music videos on CMT and record them on my
VHS tape.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's how eighties.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
I am back in the eighties, where I'm like recording
it on a tape.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
You have to rewind anyway.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
So I used to just be obsessed with every move
she made, and I'll wanted to be her. I wanted
to move to Nashville and be Faith Hill all the things.
So here I come up the escalator in the mall
on Sunday because we decided to go to the mall
on Sunday for a fun. We never go to the mall,
but Michael's like, let's.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Go shopping, and I'm like, okay, it's fun to go
to the mall. Never go to the mall.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
So we're coming down from the kids department in Nordstrom
and going up the escalator.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
And as we're going up the escalator, you might not
ever see this movie, but there's a movie called Cruel
Intentions with Ryan Felippe and Reese Witherspoon.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
You were very young. It was a very hip movie
in the eighties. Okay, it's I'm so old. I'm forty
one years old. I mean literally, but there's this moment
where the escalator scene happens and Ryan Felippe is coming
up and Reese is at the top or reverse or something,
and they're like, it's this epic moment. So I had
a cruel intentions moment with Faith Hill.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
I was coming up the escalator with Sonny holding hands,
and I was just staring into what was in front
of me, which was the shoes, Nordrum's shoes, which are amazing.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
And there's this woman staring at Sunny as I come up,
and we just keep moving towards each other because the
escalator keeps coming up and she's walking forward, and finally
we like walk in to each other's arms and.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's Faith Hill. I was like, high, Faith Hill. I
was like, I'm sorry to be staring at you, but
it just happened, and I want you to know I
just spilled my gutshirt all in one moment. She's trying
to talk to Sonny, but I'm like, I just want
you to know that I love you so much. I
moved to Nashville because of you. I used to stay
up all night and record your songs on vhs ont

(24:31):
and she got tears in her eyes. I'm not kidding.
I can show you pictures with tears in her eyes.
I'm not making up. She was like, oh my god,
that's us. And I was like, will you take a
picture with Sunny. She's like sure, and then they had
this big embrace and she's like squeezing her and I
was like, Sonny, this is the best singer you're ever
gonna meet in your whole life. Like you're really having
a moment right now. You don't even know it.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
And she's like okay, and then we leave and I
couldn't come down off that high all day. I was like,
how did that just happen? That was like a great,
great moment for me. And I just smoke glad that
I could put that out on world.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Right now with you Dylan.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, it was epic.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Those moments are insane.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
Have you had something like that? I hope you have.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Oh man, Yeah, I would say the biggest one was
in it. I know how real it is because like
for a year of like me being around them and
like getting to like play shows with them, still every
time I would like freak out. But it was when
I met FGO for the first time and I was
like sixteen and.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
They were in the height of the.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
They're the reason I wanted to do it, really yeah,
and like I got to meet him, like right after
I came to.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
Town, like that summer.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
How did you meet him?

Speaker 2 (25:34):
So my manager who works for me now at the time,
was working at their publishing company.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
They had Tree Vibes.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh yeah, so he was working there and then we
started working together and then they wanted to sign me.
So we went and had lunch.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Fg I wanted to sign you. Hold on, don't breeze
past this.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
So you're obsessed with FGL. They want You're the reason
that you're coming to town. You want to do this
is for them, and now they want to sign you
doing it.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
It was like a couple of mon It's like like
not even so cool, that is.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
What is happening.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
It was surreal.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
You're like, what is happening in my life?

Speaker 4 (26:07):
It was, uh the Hutton Hotel?

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Oh yeah, so they're taking you to the Hutton. You're
going to the Hutton Hotel at sixteen years old.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
With FGL A private one of them like private rooms.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
You are did you roll up like a Danali Oh.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, all the works, and like I'm texting my
friends back home or like you know, diehard FGL fans too.
I'm like, dude, like, yeah, I'm just sitting here like
Tyler BK just like talking to me.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Tyler McKay were the biggest things. And I mean, that's
a cruise is that? And then like but they're wanting
to sign.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
You to what to write the publishing deal and.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
So they think you're a great enough writer that they
who are the biggest band in the world who you're
obsessed with and all your friends are crazy about. Now
they're saying, Dylan Schneider, we think you are so great
we want to sign you.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Who are you? Are?

Speaker 2 (26:50):
You?

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Are you sprinkled with fairy dust? Like all this magical
stuff is happening to you.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
From the start, I've been I've been blessed. That's for
damn sure you have. And then like we didn't end
up working out. That's what I went and worked with
Jaron because I'd met Jaren first, so in good faith,
I was like, sorry, FGL so bad. Yeah, but I
was like cool to Jared.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
He was he probably would have understaid.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Though, yeah they did. And I mean fast forward you
go to twenty nineteen.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
That summer I had a record deal with Interscope Records
when they were in town at the time. They moved
their national office now and I got out of that
right before like pandemic twenty twenty, stuff went crazy and
that summer though before in twenty nineteen, they needed like
a natural partner, somebody to come in to like yeah,

(27:38):
like work with them. And I think BK had heard
some of the songs I've been writing with some of
the Tree Vibes riders, and I got a random call.
I was up at w me up at my agent's office,
and all of a sudden, I got this random text
and random call, and I was like, who's this Florida
number whatever? And then it was BK again. He was like, dude,
like I'm hearing some of these songs, like I want

(27:59):
to like sit don't have a meeting with you, like
I want to like on tour. Yeah, I want to
champion you like you're.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Like, but first they want to sign you. And now
they still even though they're not gonna sign you, they still.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
They came back.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
They came back, again to figure out.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
He's like, I don't know what we're gonna do. I
don't know how it's gonna work. He's like, but I
just want to help you out and be involved in
any way we can, and dying I don't know. Like
I was freaking out. I couldn't believe it because I
hadn't talked to him in a couple of years. And
then to get the opportunity again to like know that
they were so interested, and my career that year had
been picking up a little bit more again because I

(28:34):
hadn't had a manager for like a year, so it
was like getting back into the groove of things. And
uh then Tyler texted me and hit me up and
they were like, yeah, like let's get together, let's jump
on a call.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
It's all meet up soon. And then they ended up coming.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Into that Interscope deal they signed, Like they had a
record label called round Here Records for a little bit
before all that stuff, and Red Fern was over there.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Oh yeah, so you were in all that.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
And Corey Crowder.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
You know, Corey Crowd is the godfather of my child.
Oh really, that's how much I love Corey Crowd I
love him.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yeah, we were out on the Tree vis bus like
that whole summer together.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Corey's amazing for everyone listening. He's an incredible songwriter. He
ended up producing Ford to George Line. His wife Laney
is the greatest on the earth. And they're just awesome people.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah, they're great people.

Speaker 5 (29:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
I had a lot of fun with them. Uh.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
And when they signed that deal, they brought me out
on that tour with them. So it was like you
went out with yeah, were you playing, Yeah, we did.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
It was your performing on the tour.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah. So we did an EP that summer right after
we signed that deal, did like four or five songs
and it came out with Innerscope and then they're round
Here Records and they were like, all right, we're gonna
bring you on the tour. At the time, they had
Canaan Smith, Dan and Shay Morgan. H what it was sick,

(29:52):
You're touring with like lineup, like best tour ever.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Dan and Shay were like, so it was like you
and then Kanaan's It was.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Like a huge tour. Two songs or four songs from
the EP, Canaan would start and then when Kanan got done,
I'd come out with fgl's players and do like an
acoustic in the middle set like where a DJ would
normally be. I would play my songs from the EP
they put out with their players. So then I played
like two songs. Morgan would come out and play, go

(30:22):
back out, play three songs.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
And Morgan was just playing acoustic too, right.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
No, he was full band, okay, So it was like
Canaan full band. I'd come out acoustic with those guys,
Morgan full band. I'd come out acoustic again, Dan and
Shay go on.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
So you drew the intermission.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
You're the interlude in between you were like the you know,
like when you go and small perfume and then you
put the coffee beans out to cleanse your palette.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
You were cleansing everyone's palate.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, okay, and that was getting to play all those
new songs the whole summer too, so and then I'd
go out. They had Hardy on the tour before thatang,
but then when Hardy jumped off, Canaan took his spot
because Canaan was doing the acoustic intermission thing first, okay,
So then when they brought me out, I took that spot.
Canda went to the full band and then I would

(31:03):
do Hearty's part in their song y'all boys in their
set too, So I would not do that with them.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
It was crazy, like cool, You tell me what y'all
were like? What was it like? Did y'all hang out?
What was the backstage back.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Hanging hang out all day everybody? Yeah, I was friends
with all their band guys.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Everybody was hanging out. It was like a big family.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, one hundred. We'd all always I
mean we played a lot of basketball. Shave was always
out there playing basketball.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Ye, thenniest person around.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
We had a lot of fun. Yeah, I know, he's
he's a goof.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
I like him a lot. I like him and Dan both.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
But so what was Morgan Walling like back then? Because
he wasn't Morgan Walling yet at all?

Speaker 2 (31:43):
He was wild?

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Is that his blood?

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Oh my gosh? Yeah? Like how so I feel like
if I would have let loose as much as I
probably would these days, back then, we would have been
like too wild.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
You glad that you didn't, maybe.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
To have a good reputation because it was my first
time being out on a big tour like that. Ye,
so I was trying not to, like, you know, get
too lit and get roudy in front of everybody. But no,
Morgan was fun. We had a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
And then me and Kanan got super close to we'd
known each other a little bit because we'd written a
few times. And then you know, I was hanging with
Tyler and b K all the time. But that whole
summer when I was out with them, like you said,
like you asked, like, did I ever have a moment
where it was crazy it was them? And then like
that whole summer, every time I don't even care, Like
Tyler walk on the tour bus and I'm looking at

(32:33):
him like I can't believe I'm just sitting on this
tour bus right now with Florida jors A line.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
What is that like?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Though?

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Because like, what is that like? Truly?

Speaker 3 (32:38):
And I know you're you're talking about what is that like?
Because everyone I feel like it is so easy. People
put stuff on a pedestal. People can dream all the time.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Be like man, if I could do this, or if
I could have any life, or if I could hang
out with anyone in the world, And like you had
that moment where it's like you are doing what you
want to do with the people that you.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Most admire in this magical experience. It's like it's actually
all happening for you.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
I'm lucky as hell.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Uh. Is it as fun as you think it would be?

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yes, it was the best summer of my life, my
favorite summer of touring ever. And like the fact that
I got to do it like pretty much a year
or two before, you know, FGL is not even a.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Thing, and the last you came in the nineties, you
have this doing that the last at the last minute,
you get the good stuff and you're like, okay, yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
And uh, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
People ask me in interviews now, like they're like, if
you could go on one tour with anybody in the
whole world, you could pick, like who would it be?
And I'm like, I already got.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
To do it.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah. I was like I got to do it with
like my idols of like you know idols, And they
were like mentors at the time, touring me at the time. Yes,
And they helped me get out of some you know,
sticky situations with business with with prior you know management
that just went wrong.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
They helped me, you know, put some you know deals together.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Even now. I mean I'll call Tyler. If I have
a question or likes something that, you know, I want
to talk about, get off my chest and kind of
see what his opinion is. You know, cool, it's great.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
How cool that, like fgl's your mentor there were You're crazy,
I don't not idol, that's a terribley putting it. But
they were who you looked up to, loved, wanted to
be like, got you inspired, and then they became your mentors.
I mean that's freaking awesome.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
Yeah, it's awesome.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
I'm I'm grateful for both their relationships and the fact
that we got to share you know, that summer and
tour together and everything. It's been a cool, cool ride
with those guys.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
So what happens after that when you're at a peak?

Speaker 3 (34:25):
So I've had these moments in my life where i
hit like a peak experience and then I've oftentimes had
a giant crash letdown.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Has that happened to you or you just continue peaking?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
I feel like I don't know. I feel like I've
always hit different peaks, which is cool. It's been like
a roller coaster for me.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Is it is it exciting to have that moment?

Speaker 3 (34:42):
And then is it scary? Right after, because you're like,
what's going to top this? Or do you just know
the next thing's coming.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I did think that for a while. I was like, man,
I was like, that's going to be a really hard, hard, summer,
hard tour to be. But I guess there's little moments
like that that have come along the way that have
just been so surreal. A couple of months ago, or
I guess it was about a month ago, a month
and a half ago, finally got to play the amphitheater

(35:07):
that like I grew up going to, you know, as
a kid, and they watched every concert. It's up in Noblesville, Indiana.
It's called ruof.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Home Mortgage Center, but we called it Clips Music Center
when I was.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Going out because that was the name. They've changed it since,
so I still call it Clips. And I got to
play that stage, got to open up for Luke Bryan,
and I've seen Luke Brian there three times, so that was.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Like see your friend pocket list.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, Yeah, we had a great time. We did like
four five I think we did four shows, maybe five,
I can't remember.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
One of them had three.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
What did you take away from playing with Luke Bryan?
How does he run his shows exactly like.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
I thought he would. I really care, like kind of
just has fun with it. At this point, he's you know,
so like cemented, like in just like he's a legend.
I feel like, you know, it plays twenty five thirty
straight number ones, you know the whole night. Oh my God,
doesn't really have much to worry about. He just lets loosen,
has fun.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
He genuinely has fun.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
We pull out the tequila bottle on stage and just
take shots while we were singing Sweet Caroline, Like that's great.
But last night we were in Tampa and he was like,
you know, living on a Prayer and I was like, yeah, no,
it was like I don't know the verses well enough.
I don't think. He's like, well, I'll just sing the verses.
He's like, just sing with me, and I just like
started screaming the chorus and he looked over and he

(36:19):
was like, you said you didn't know the song, and
I was like, well, I don't know, dude. You got
me in the mood. I'm feeling good. Yeah, and then
he brings out He's like telling him, like I said,
literally bring out the whole bottle of tequila and not
just some shots brings out the bottle tequila passing around.
We're all pouring it, you know, in fans' mouths on
the stage and stuff. I'm like, this, dude, is just

(36:40):
a good time. That's exactly the concert you want to.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
Be opening up for.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yeah, so fun. Okay, So you've opened up for Luke Bryan,
You've opened up up for FGL, You've opened up for Caine. Yeah,
you stored Mitchell Tenpenny.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
We're right now with him. Then. Yeah, we're just in
Pittsburgh and Louisville and then we're playing Atlanta this weekend.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
So you're getting a firsthand view of like how to
run your own headlining show because if you just started
headlining too.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Yeah, yeah, this is my first Okay, and it's called decisions?

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Why are they called bad? Are you making bad decisions
out there? What kind of decisions are you making? What
kind of bad decisions are you making? Enough to name
a tour about it? I need a little details I
can't talk about. Well, let's let's talk about some of them.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
We just you know, we've been partying out there.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
So you're just having a good time right now. You're
in your party ere Oh yeah, what is that like?

Speaker 3 (37:43):
As a twenty five year old single dude who's like
in a great part of his career, Like, what is
it what is it like your days like on the road?

Speaker 2 (37:50):
It's wild?

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Uh details because I'm forty one and mother and I
don't drink alcohol, so I literally we could drink it
three years ago. So like my party days are over.
I need to hear what it's like out there for
the young bus.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
I'm trying to wind down a little bit, but it's
hard right now much to celebrate, you know. Yeah, with
the tour, with the album coming out, we have fun.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
What they like on the road.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
It's like i'd say, so luckily we had a bus.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
This whole tour.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
That's a game changer.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Great.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
Yeah, you know, wake up. I'll sleep in.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Pretty much till like yeah, ten.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Eleven times twelve one. I won't go past.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Noon, okay, yeah, because then we're were entering afternoon territory.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Wake up, but.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
You stay up late because the shows are.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Late, yeah, okay they are, and then you know you
got to hang out a drink and eat after show
food exactly, do all the things.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
So maybe do you flirt with girls out there? What's
it like? Do you ever like hang out with girls
on the road. Do you do that?

Speaker 2 (38:43):
No? No, I have, Like over the years, I've I've
met some some cool people and friends and stuff. Actually
i met a girl not too long ago. Okay, but
I'm not with other girls because I'm kind of talking
to that girl.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Right now, the girl that you met on the road exclusively.
How to jump meet on the road? Can' give us
little details?

Speaker 2 (38:58):
We played?

Speaker 4 (38:59):
The show was the Idaho Show with.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Cain with the Potatoes. You said, what's an Idaho? A girl?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (39:05):
A girl?

Speaker 2 (39:05):
You had?

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Nothing else was there but this awesome girl? So that
was good.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
No, Yes, she's cool.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Is it you on the road like travel together?

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yes? She came to show in Portland?

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Is this new? Or we DTR? And yet do people
still say DTR like determine the relationship?

Speaker 2 (39:18):
No, it's new.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
You didn't know I was gonna try to talk to
you about this today, did you?

Speaker 2 (39:23):
It would maybe come up at some point, okay, But
she came to uh show in Portland, the headlining show
up there, saw her. She was already gonna be up
there with her friends anyway, That's what she said.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, sure, I'm sure she was already gonna be up
there with her friends. Yeah, conveniently.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
So was it when you meet some of her show
and you have an epic, a fun experience in this
whole vibe, but then you talk on the phone and
then uee each other again, is it like, do you
get a little nervous because maybe.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
It was just like a thought that was gonna be
great and it's not as great when you meet again.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Nervous with her?

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Oh okay, Zylan, look we're excited.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah. Yeah, I feel good about it. She's awesome.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Okay, she's really cool.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
So how do you date when you're touring like this?
What do you do? Oh?

Speaker 4 (40:04):
Man, I haven't been in a relationship in four years.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, since Better Than You Left Me happened twenty twenty
knocks you out?

Speaker 2 (40:11):
No, literally, I don't know. It's it's difficult, you know,
because you got to line up your schedule, you got
to try to find time, and.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
You're busy and you're doing like very time consuming, big
energy events all the time.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Yeah, it's uh, it'szy. I don't know. It's we talk
on the phone a lot, you know, and keep up
with each other every day, So I feel like that's
an important thing every day. Yeah, every day.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yeah, yeah, that's fun.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah, like that you got me blushing. I love cool though.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
I love to talk about romance.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Yeah, I know, I feel you.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Are you a romantic guy?

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah? You are?

Speaker 1 (40:52):
Okay, So how are you keeping the romance alive when
you're not together?

Speaker 4 (40:55):
Oh? Man, that's the hard part.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
People send pictures y'll self for each other all the time,
like good morning, No, I don't do that.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
You like before?

Speaker 4 (41:03):
Use text message?

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Can call?

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Okay, FaceTime sometimes?

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Okay, do you like get ready for the FaceTime? Do
you like make sure you're looking good, get the lighting right?

Speaker 4 (41:10):
The first few times I probably did.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Do you want to look good? Yeah? It's crazy. It's
crazy because I do. I never expected. I mean, I
don't know. I kind of did think I would meet
somebody outside of Nashville. I know a lot of people
in Nashville. Yeah, I just haven't had any luck around here,
and I don't go out very much in town.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
You don't know what are you do in town?

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Sit at home? You do a lot?

Speaker 1 (41:34):
What do you do when you're sitting at home?

Speaker 4 (41:35):
Like?

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Are you looking at something?

Speaker 2 (41:38):
I'm playing video games? Yeah, I guess I'm looking at Instagram?

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Are you Okay, can you stare for hours? Do you
go down the rabbit hole all the time? Is that
what your age does? You'all?

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Just like I try not to because, like I feel
like it's a toxic habit to get stuck into the wormhole.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Like.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
I try to put my phone down as much as
I can.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
But I mean, but I don't know.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Are you a fortnight er?

Speaker 5 (41:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:59):
I'll play Fortnight, but I play Call of Duty?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Do you like meet people on the show? Oh yeah,
you're like, Hey, let's go play.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
I have friends all over the country that I met
over the years, meet up, got homies in Baton Rouge.
I play with a lot.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Have you met them in real life?

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (42:13):
You have.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
I played his first dance.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Song and you met him on the video game?

Speaker 2 (42:17):
I met him in twenty eighteen. Me and Riley Green
played a show down at the Texas Club in Baton Rouge,
met him, ended up staying at the dude's house that night.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Wait wait, wait, and y'all met on We just hung
out all night. But what's the game? You met on
call duty?

Speaker 2 (42:30):
We didn't meet on call duty. We met at a show. Oh,
and then ever since then, we've kept up with each other,
been best friends on call of duty.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
On call duty, yeah, you're like fighting and saving lives
and knocking people, so like y'all are in war together
on the daily basis.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
So he's a close friend.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Brothers in arms man. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
And then I got was some people I played with in.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Who Else? Oh Canada. I actually have a friend coming
from Canada this week. We met him on the game
and he went to a show in Toronto, him for
the first time in person. We went to Cane's show.
It was great. No, it wasn't like a girl, you know,
I feel like a girl. Like that's different. Like if
I was meeting a girl, i'd have a little bit
of butterflies, but like this is the homie. Like I

(43:12):
was excited, what do you?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
What do you? What did I do the show?

Speaker 2 (43:16):
We went to the show. Yeah, we got drinks and
then I met his girlfriend. And he's coming to town
this week. Like I said, so, my cousin's coming down.
He lives up in Indiana. He'll come down from Canada
and then we're all gonna hang out. And I was
supposed to have two more shows this week in Virginia
and in I can't remember who the other one was.

(43:37):
Me and Mitchell Slis have three shows this week, but
two of them got canceled. So now we'll be in
town for Halloween and everything, and we just got to
go to Atlanta on Saturday. Nice.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
I don't know, I think.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
So I haven't got a costume yet because I thought
I was gonna be busy, so I might go out
and get something next couple of days.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
I want to be Jack Sparrow.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
I think this year I was Jack. Yeah, yeah, I
was him, probably back when I was like six seven
years old, so I haven't been him in a long time.
But I was watching the movies the other day and
I was like, this is a perfect I like to
do impressions and people sometimes too, so I was like, you.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Have to know, you have to there's no way you're
leaving this.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
You can't say that yet.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Okay, let's hear it. Come on, just do it.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
I gotta think of doing.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Was it? Like?

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Why is it always going? And I do like the
movements and stuff. I gotta I gotta like practice it
a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
That was pretty good doing. I think I could do it.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
I need the whole get up.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Oh yeah, your impressions. No, how did you win her over?

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Actually?

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Your voice?

Speaker 2 (44:41):
I have in the past, I feel like press some
girls with impressions, but I feel like I'm kind of
drunk when I do that, Like I'm more relaxed in
the moment, like being funny.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
You know, what are you?

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Like?

Speaker 1 (44:53):
What can this girl look forward to when she dates you?

Speaker 2 (44:57):
I'm I'm a very honorable guy. You know that's good.
I'm loyal.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Okay, that's key, keep my word crucial. I'm very very
romantic charming.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yes, I would like to make out. Yeah, okay that
I'm into that. No, I'm like you said, though, I
am a romantic for sure.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
That's good.

Speaker 4 (45:20):
I'm like passionate about that.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
That's good. I'm telling you having some romance in the
relationship is a good thing.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
It's very important. Dry it's boring.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah, I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
I can't. I don't like drive people like that. You know,
you got to have a little bit of like lovey
doving this.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yeah, totally okay, Dylan, So this is exciting. I'm excited
for you, very excited to see how this goes. You
keep me updated.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
Okay, So before we wrap up. Tell me how you're
feeling about puzzled, being out, Tell me how you're feeling
about being so vulnerable with these songs. Tell me how
you're feeling about the world loving you even more singing
along knowing all your story.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
I love it. I'm so proud of it. That's one
of my favorite things. You know, since the day we've
finished it and settled on the track list that I
was just like, man, I'm proud of every single song.
I'm proud of every single song, and I'm proud to share,
you know a lot of these like personal more personal
stories and be a little bit more honest. I think

(46:14):
that it's just, you know, the best representation of who
I want to be as an artist now, the growth
that I've made from you know, going back to listening
to some of those older dps, and you know, I
just think that it shows where I'm going as well.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Where do you think you're going? Where are you wanting
to go?

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Only up from here? In this tour, you know, we've
sold out six or seven of the shows, a few
hundred people a night.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Like it feels really good.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah, So, like everything right now is very you know,
exciting and motivating, and I know next year is just
going to be, you know, probably twice as busy as
it always gets. But I feel like i've after getting
through the craziness of the last couple of months.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
I know what to expect you're talking about, like releasing the.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Album, releasing an album, getting ready for these tours. I
know a little bit more what to expect, you know,
because it can come in and blindside people at first.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
And it did a little bit.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
I mean, it stressed me out just how much goes
into it, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Like se someone listening who has no idea what you're
talking about, What do you mean goes into it?

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Well, I know that Like the for the two weeks
leading up to it, I felt like I barely slept,
you know, I was tired, easy to get irritable. You know,
you got to like come down to you know, oh,
because you just have so much.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
On your plate. So you're stressed out that it's going well.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Yeah, and then you're thinking about, yeah, you want the
release to go good, you want people to like the music.
There's a lot, there's a lot weighing on you when
you get to the you know, almost to the finish line.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
And also do you think that's weighing in, Like the
world's about to know all this. It's not like you're
just like doing a job, dialing it in. It's like
you're doing this and it's about to be known with
the whole world.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
Yeah, it's about to be a reputation.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Yeah, you're like, you know, setting yourself up for you know,
great success to the future or like it's not gonna
go over well and have an.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Opinion good exactly, and everyone gets to weigh in and
tell you what they think about you.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I know, I know that's a little bit of scary.
You know, the scariness of it is the vulnerability. And
then like, but I'm never really wanted to be too
worried about negative you know, reviews or haters or anything
like that. I don't let that really cloud in my
mind very much. So yeah, but it is nice to get,
you know, the I guess approval of fans and people,

(48:32):
and I feel like I've seen a lot of that
ever since the release and ever since the tour started.
For sure.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Okay, so running out no bad decisions, yeah, bad decisions
tours right now album Puzzled is out. What else do
we need to know.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
We're gonna have a new radio single coming soon. Better
than You Left Me, Better Than You Left Me? Yeah.
The ad date I think is to be determined January, Yeah,
early next year. I'm excited about that. Glove always said
that song is kind of like the part two of
my song Ain't Missing You, and I think it's so
funny because that was our last single, and it's crazy

(49:09):
because it kind of has a similar way that it
came about, like Ain't Missing You sat around for probably
a year, a little over a year maybe I finally
was like, I'm just going to post this because I
liked the song and I hadn't really heard anybody say
anything about it, and I was like, I'm just going
to post it on social media and see how it goes.
And then it went over really well, you know, great,
great response. One hundreds of thousands of videos have been made,

(49:30):
and then now with people telling me from the very beginning,
better than You Left Me feels like part two that
Ain't Missing You. We put it on the album after
being written for probably a year year and a half,
and now it's, you know, having success on social media.
It's got a couple of videos with you know, a
few million views and everything, and I'm like, dude, it

(49:50):
is literally part two.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
So is that like the sweetish revenge though? To break
up when you're putting songs about it and you're like, oh, yeah,
I got your luck.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
It's awesome. And I love the message of that song,
you know, like you're looking for everybody, got to be
looking for somebody to bounce back, you know and kind
of throw a middle finger to somebody did you wrong?
Or the X? You know. So that's what's great about
those songs are so relatable and I'm excited for everybody
to get to hear that one and for it to
already be having success on social media, you know and

(50:19):
just streaming wise in general before it even hits radio.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Feel really good about it.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I feel like you're pretty grounded to be twenty five.
So we've gone through those I feel like you kind
of have your head on trade about all this, like
you know a lot.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah, you've been through a lot, you know a lot.
You've been here for ten years, like you have definitely
weathered it.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yeah, the ten year of town and it's uh, it's
coming true. I feel like, so I'm just gonna keep
my head down and keep working. And I mean we
got a year and a half maybe before it's actually
hits the ten year mark since I came. I can
think them down here May or April twenty sixteen, So
we're getting close.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
And you've done a lot.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Well, Dylan, I'm proud of you. I'm excited for you.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
It's so cool to see how you've kept evolving and
how you literally started like as like one of the
OG influencers, starting on YouTube, starting on Facebook, and to
see how you have grown it and developed it sustainability
to sustained it and you truly are like a real
awesome artist. But you've found your way and you've gone
through all these different platforms and navigated it and it's

(51:18):
just a wild journey. Yeah, and to see you here now,
I mean, look at you, look at you go thank.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
You, thank you for the kind of words that really
doesn't mean a lot.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
I've known you for a long long time, so it's
cool to hear.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
That from you.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Well.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
It is also I just like now that I've been
here for so long and I'm like forty one and
old and mom and all these things, I'm like, man,
you really can see though, somebody who isn't just like
trying to catch a hot flash like this is you, Like,
this is your career, this is what you love.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
You're doing all went all in. You went all in,
and you're just right in the you're writing it.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
You're right in the waves, doing my best and gets
choppy at times. With the wave keep going.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
You get some major crashes, you know, and to be
old to withstand them and like regroup and recalibrate and
get back in there and come back stronger.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
I mean, there's been a lot of them challenges, but
I feel like, you know, if you can get up
and keep going, that that just makes you stronger for sure.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
It's not for the faint of heart.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
Nope, I say that all the time.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
You do. What makes you want to say that?

Speaker 2 (52:16):
I actually have a rap song. We make like rap
songs on the side, and I think that's a line
that I started the song off with, you gonna put
Jason Nod Ain't for the faint of heart.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
No, you definitely have to put your wrap one day.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
We probably will, but we don't have any plans to
put them out right now. But it's fun. It's just
like a hobby that me and my songwriting buddy do
we got a little rap group we make music. Maybe
maybe I'll come on here next time or something, and
do you wrap? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Are you gonna show us how?

Speaker 2 (52:44):
I can't right now, I don't freesetyle. I have to
write me a wrap. I'll come back. I have something
ready though, for real. If we come back on.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
Would you ever just drop a little about in the
middle of your show?

Speaker 4 (52:53):
No, right now, not right now.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Till it'd be so people would go nuts if you,
I know, they will say I claim it here first.
If you start putting some of those rap songs in
your show, people are gonna go nuts.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
We've thought about playing them like doing a jelly roll.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
He wraps. Oh yeah, y'all should do a collab on that.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
That'd be sick, Okay.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
I came up with this idea to say get credit. Okay, thanks.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
We thought about playing them like subliminally, like before the
uh the show starts in like the playlist.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
You do not need to preblimmably play it.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
You need to You need to actually do it, like
do yourself, and then all of a sudden just bust
out into a little section of wrapping people would lose
their minds.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
I might need to do that for sure on the
next album. Put a little rap thing in there, somethingna
be fun saying. I mean, yeah, I was into hip
hop really before I went full fledged country, so it's
it's an influential thing for me for sure.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
I love it. Dylan, you just got layers appeel for days.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Hey, I'm gonna peeling them back.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
I always wrap up with leave your Light, and it's
just super open ended, inspirational.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
What do you want people to know? Just if you're
gonna drop some n spell?

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yeah, well, I guess what we were saying was pretty inspirational. Yeah,
But like just in my life, especially what I've just
noticed over the last couple of years, just keep on going.
Believe in yourself. I'm excited for the future where I'm
headed and the music that I've been creating, and anything
that anybody else is doing out there in their life,

(54:19):
they can do the same thing. So, uh, you know,
just believe in yourself, work hard, and no matter how
long it takes, at some point, a whole lot is
gonna come back your way and it's gonna all be
worth it.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
And there's a lot more in Idaho than potatoes.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Thank you Dylan Schneider. This is so fun.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Good to see you.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Bye,