May 27, 2024 • 62 mins
Acclaimed singer/songwriter Maggie Rose joins Caroline Hobby on this episode of Get Real. Maggie dives into detail on her long career in the music industry and all its ups and downs. She talks about how she navigates being married to her manager, her new album “No One Gets Out Alive” and more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
At Carrol Line. She's a queen and talking song.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
She's getting really not afraid of things, so so just
let it flow.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
No one can do we quiet car Line is soun
of Caroline.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm so excited, Maggie rose On, get real. You were
one of the first guests I ever had when I
was launching my podcast eight years ago.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What an honor I know is that your we were neighbors, yes,
at that point, and we've known each other a long time,
forever since the beginning, maybe since the year I moved here,
which was sixteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I mean, can I say since Margaret Durante, yes, a
government named I've known you since Margaret Duranti.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I know, Wow, I know I'm still in there. She is.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean I remember you and I was reading a
Rolling Stone article and they're like, you have successfully just
crushed the reinvention. But I don't even think you've been
reinventing yourself. In my personal opinion, I fully think you
have fully just owned who you've always been, and you've
been trying to fit into the boxes that we thought
we had to fit into to play the game. Am
(01:25):
I right or wrong? Or yeah, no, you're right.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I do think that there has been a lot of
discovery along the way though finding out who that person is.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Ye, you probably had to go get her. You reready
had to go, like, you know, to the hills and
find her.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, And you know you said the Margaret Duranty days.
When I released music at nineteen or however old I was,
that was really early on in my career, and when
I reflect on it, maybe it was a little hasty.
I felt like I was trying to keep up with
the program that was put in place for me.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And would that be where too Young came from. It's
got a live new album that's epic gold, I mean,
so great, so great.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I wrote that song with Natalie Hemby, who also moved
to Nashville when she was a teenager, and we had
so much in common to talk about, just that feeling
of being undermined when you're too young and being told, okay,
do things our way and then you'll get to call
all the shots, like there's like this promise.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Of that, like morph into this person and then you
could eventually get back to who you want to be.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Right and then things don't exactly pan out, and you know,
all the star studded ways that were promised to you,
and people kind of move on to the next thing,
and you feel like you've been cast aside. That's not
necessarily the reality, but it's still what you feel. It's
the perspective that we had. And then you feel like
(02:49):
you're you know, this imposter syndrome sets in, or you're
too old to begin something new, and it's.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Just we're too young until you had to follow suit
and now they didn't. It didn't pan out, so now
you're too old, right, and so like oops, sorry I
didn't work. So just going to move on to someone
else who's too young, and we're going to try to
do it again with them, right, So being negative about there's.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
There's some nessaray to it. I mean, there is everything
agism in our industry, and I think there's also some
internalized agism, like we undermine our own uh abilities and
are we let our confidence take a hit because we
kind of buy into these things and it's not true.
I love listening to artists who have all different perspectives.
(03:32):
I love hearing from Bonnie Rait who's lived a long life,
and Carol King and they put all these experiences into
their songs. And I also feel like, it's important to
hear the viewpoints of people who come from different communities
and are at a different stage in their life too.
So that's what makes music interesting, is when you start
(03:53):
listening to all the different vantage points that are out there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, so let's kind of start at the beginning. Yeah,
so you who grew up where.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I grew up in Potomac, Maryland. Potomac, Maryland, which is
outside Washington, d C. Not necessarily like the hotbed of
country music. But I was lucky to grow up in
a time where there were so many women who were
just breaking the mold. We had the Chicks, We had
(04:22):
Shania Twain, we had Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston. It was
just rife with Faith Hill, like these diva singers. And
of course what drew me to Nashville was it seemed wholesome.
I was really young. I grew up Catholic school girls,
so I felt like, I want to be in the
(04:43):
music industry, but Nashville's I can do this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I feel that way too, honestly. Yeah, it's a big
reason why I came to Nashville.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I'm like, it still feels like there's values here and
there are values here, but I feel like you can
run into the same pitfalls of any industry, any entertainment industry, anywhere.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And I moved here being a new signee to Republic Nashville,
although actually Republic Nashville hadn't even been formed yet. It
was out of New York. You get a record deal
so fast through Tommy and Mottola.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Okay, how'd you get with Tommy Mottola.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's like just crazy six degrees of separation.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I was He's the one who discovered like Mariah Carrie
Whitney Houston, like.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
She was married to Mariah Carey.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I mean, let's talk about as big as it gets.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Right, but you have to hold on. It's a bit
of a wild.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Ride, Okay, take me on.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I was performing with the Bruce Springsteen tribute band.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
When you were like eighteen sixteen.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
It was like fifteen fifteen. They were kind enough to
let me join them. Actually, the lead singer just passed
away a few weeks before my album came out. It
just felt like this full circle moment where I was like, wow,
they're so responsible for facilitating my move to Nashville and
me falling in love with live performance, but with them
(06:06):
I started to perform in bars on the Jersey Shore,
and it became apparent to me that music was so
much more than just being a perfect singer. It's about
connecting with people and helping them escape into the music
and leave behind, you know, the rigors of their daily life.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Do you learn that early on from them?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yes? I think they. They gave me the opportunity to
see that. And I was introduced to them by a
family friend who actually helped finance my early career for
many years. So he made the move to Nashville much
more manageable because he invested in me.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And yes, wow, that's huge.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
He's still a really good friend of mine. But you know,
I probably wouldn't have been able to move to Nashville
and pursue those opportunities if I didn't have the support
of him and his family, and of course, you know
my family's emotional support. But so I released a cover
(07:07):
of a Kings of Leon song, I remember what was it?
Was it? You somebody?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
And I went to country radio too, it sure did.
And it was released through Casablanca And is that a label? Yes,
it's a subsidiary of Universal, and they're still kicking and
they're more of like a tech a techno kind of label.
It was a crazy hodgepodge. I was thrown on this
(07:38):
subsidiary of the of Universal. I was kind of like
switched to a lot of different labels because I don't
think they really knew what to do with me before
Republic Nashville had been formed. And I also think that
there was a little bit of an attitude of like, well,
(07:58):
Tommy Mattola is not going to tell who to sign
this girl who just came from outside of Nashville.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Like, how did you get hooked up with Tommy Mottola through.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
A family friend, the same one who introduced me to
B Street Band.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
He knew that's some good family friends, same guy. But
this is a strong friend right here.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, And it's just hard to even it feels so
far removed from where you are now what I'm doing
at all right now. But I have to at least
credit the fact that all these outrageous scenarios are a
part of your safe catalyst for me moving here. I
don't work with any of these people anymore, but I
(08:39):
feel like at least it made me jump in the pool.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
At the top of the top.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yes, and there were no bad actors. I think everyone
was just trying to help me realize a dream. But
as you know, there's no template in the music industry
for how to secure success or connect with an audience.
That really has to come from the artist. And even
the first album that I released was a bit of
a Frankenstein record because I had created it with two
(09:07):
different producers over a pretty extended period of time where
I was trying to salvage masters that I had already
started recording with a different label, And you know, long
story short, I was just trying to kind of scrap by,
and it was a David and glythe situation too, with
(09:28):
the fact that this was a smaller independent label trying
to release music in a commercial country radio scenario that
there and you know how important radio tour was, especially
in like twenty twelve when everything this album was being released.
(09:49):
So I feel like I'm going to fast forward a
little bit that label that I released my first album,
cut to Impress with Folded, and I felt like my
world was over.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And man, isn't that true with that first big hit,
Especially when you're so young and you think you have
all the players lined up, you're obviously you're working with
these big names, it's all happening. You're going to radio.
Even though it feels a little not organized and chaotic,
you're still like, this is it, this is it, this
is my one and only shot.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Right, and you think you live and die by the
ad numbers every Monday morning. For the lay person out there,
that's like the report card that you would get back
from how many radio stations are going to add your
song and spin your song. And if you got a
bad report, like glum and doom would set in hard.
(10:42):
You might the whole team and.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Your single might get people to start.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Like vacillating on maybe this isn't the song, and like.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It starts questioning themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That questioning sythesis of art to me is not having
conviction behind what you're doing and letting analytics that are
volatile and change every week. Dicked hate what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I'm so true.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I needed to get out of that.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That is so true creation because then everyone's in high
stress mode because now it's no longer about this artist
and who this artist is and what they're creating for
the like the full spectrum of art that this artist
is putting out. It's like are you going to sell
right now? Are you going to connect right now with
radio in this format? And this is the only thing
that matters, And so it's like the whole concept of
(11:24):
who the artist is doesn't even really matter. It's just like,
is your song working?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, and there's the big picture. Shouldn't be forsaken like
that ever.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Ever, But it totally I think feel like it went
through a spot especially where it was like that all
the time, and now it's coming out of it completely.
It's like all changing, but and you're a huge part
of that, like with what you're doing in your movement now.
But I'm like, for a while, it's like you lived
and died by radio, and if you weren't working on radio,
then you feel you have to read change. Then you
have to change everything about yourself. Then you enter into
(11:52):
an identity crisis, right you don't even know who you
are and everyone leaves you and you're just left with
all these pieces of what just happens? How am I?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yes, it's so disorienting and you're so young, super myopic
about you know, this one song. You end up consolidating
everything about yourself into the success or failure of this
one song. When all the artists that I love to
watch have multitudes within them, Like I want to know
(12:22):
what their whole album sounds like. I want labels to
begin again developing the artists that they're signing and believing
in them more long term, because that's going to yield
more sustainable artists over time. And we keep Now I'm
sort of like pontificating about the industry at large, but
(12:44):
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
It's such a good vocabulary. Do you read tons of
books I'd like to read. You're so smart.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I'm like smartificating that I'm complaining. I'm on a soapbox
about it because I feel like people keep saying, like
where are superstars? Where are are Like we have one
hit wonders, or we're signing a TikTok artist and then
dropping them one single later. That's what happened to me
with you Somebody forever ago. They gave me a singles
(13:12):
deal and whether that succeeded or not determined who would
claim me in Nashville. And when it didn't happen, I had, luckily,
you know, all the people at RPM that got behind
me to help me release that first album. That was
your management, yes, and you know I love that those
people tried, and we put together this label and promotions
(13:38):
team and everything with the help of my financier to
release all these songs from cut to impress to country radio.
But it just wasn't politically a match for what we
were up against. And I'm glad that things fell apart.
In retroster rep is always looking back because I needed
to just be like it was almost like the second
(14:00):
phase of me changing my name from Margaret Dranty to
Maggie Rose. That was me trying to reclaim and draw
a line in the sand and decide intentionally how I
wanted to do things going forward.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You weren't going to be told who you were.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, And then after the label folded, I felt like
it was like rebrand two point zero. So the Rolling
Stone reinvention thing that you talk about, I think reinvention
is sort of synonymous with just like reclaiming something and
deciding that I'm not going to pack it up and
go home because it didn't work out in thism that
(14:37):
was set forth for me, But I am going to
try and look at this from another place and see
how I can approach it in a way that makes
sense for me Going forward. That is within my boundaries
as an artist and how I want to create, and
that honors my connection to the audience, which is music,
(15:00):
Like that's that's our bond. So I need to make
it feel right for me and for like how I'm
going to do this for a long time.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So hmm, you have just when I think of you,
I just think of drive, Like you just have passion
and you just have drive because I've known you now
for like twenty years almost right, yep, And like you've
been grinding you were five. You've been grinding it so
(15:30):
hard for the whole time, Like you've never once stepped
off the gas, Like even when you have these massive
like setbacks or like these disappointments in the moment that
turn out to be leading you to where you're supposed
to go, But you have these big epic moments that
could crush somebody really, you know, and they do crush people,
and a lot of people when they hit their first
(15:51):
big roadblock, they're like, Okay, this is too much, I'm out,
But you're not. You have always regrouped, reassessed and gotten
back on even stronger. What is that in you? Like?
How do you do that? Because so many people can't
withstand the pressure that it takes to keep coming back
(16:12):
and stronger. You know, you keep coming back stronger. That's
so nice of you to say, but it's so hard
to do.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I'm really stubborn. And I also feel like I am
pragmatic about the fact that like work put in doesn't
necessarily always reflect in the return on that investment of
the work you put in. I do it because I
(16:41):
love it.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
You love this.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
This is a vocation for me. This is what I
know I'm best at doing. But I also know that
I'm not dealing like and I've said this to you before,
I'm not dealing with a meritocracy where it's this fool
proof system that's always to propel to the top the
best talent out there are the best artists. That's not
(17:04):
its job, it's it's there's a lot of luck involved,
and there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Of there's a lot of to make someone successful fail.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
We were just talking about this before the interview, Like,
there is many, many, many attempts that need to be
made to sometimes get the results that you want.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That is so true.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I'm okay with doing that if I feel at peace
with how I've gone about it. So, yeah, there's been
crushing times, but I also don't there's no like villain
in my story that I'm like.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
But that's one person like that's you holding that perspective
though you have chosen to not let someone be the villain,
because you probably could have a villain.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I mean, I'm sure there are people who could have
probably handled me a little bit better, but I'm I
might be that person to someone else too, and unaware
of it. I think.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Sure wise, Maggie, that's nice. I've got wisdom on you.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I don't know. I mean, I've been here a long
time and I just want to the fact that I
get to do this and get to make music for
a living, work with my husband, like talk to my
friends about music, and live in this community is really
(18:23):
really fortunate. So you know, I'm not I still have
big dreams, and some of them might not be quite
as lofty as they once were, but a lot of
them still are. So I'm going to keep trying to
chip away at that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Because I remember when you did what was the album
that you did a big video release and like it
was like the country music Hall Fame. You had a
movie premiere and which one was that one.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Change the whole thing?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Change? And was that kind of when you really entered
into this new season of like okay, because that was
like so soulful and it was like live, You're recording live,
and it was just like there's so much musical element
to it too, and like I feel like you went
this soulful like and this is Bonnie I'm quitting this
from a rolling stone, but like Bonnie Ray, and I'm like,
oh my god, yes, you're like Fleetwood Mac Bonnie Ray.
(19:27):
You have all these like soul singer elements in you
and you owned it and claimed it there and you're
like this is it?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And change the Whole Thing? Was that because you were
changing the whole thing?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yes, I mean we had we had the title track
of change the Whole Thing, and that song on its
own is about leaving the world better than you found it.
You don't have to change the whole thing, which just
leave it a little better. And then on like a
macro level, I totally changed the whole day I approached recording.
I do so a lot of times on the records
(19:59):
that I had made previous. To change the whole thing.
You go into the studio you get the tracking down,
then you come back and you do the vocal, and
then you'll comp that vocal, which means you could do
like five or six takes, and then you take from
each take the perfect little phrase, and then it's like
this little Frankenstein vocal that comes together. It sounds perfect,
(20:22):
but it's sort of doesn't have the soul and the
urgency of what you would hear in just like a
live performance. So with change the whole thing, I had,
first of all, like incredible musicians who were good friends
of mine and who'd been touring with me, and who
had been very much aware and involved with the process
(20:44):
that I had been through thus far. And I didn't
have a label at the time telling me like, oh,
you need to deliver this album. We were just making
it because we wanted to, and we were all in
one room at the gallery in Starstrucks Studios. It was
like at times, eighteen musicians, no isolation booths, just playing
(21:06):
at once. So that gave us a lot of freedom,
but it also meant that we all had to agree
on one take, one take, and.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's like the old school days.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
It was cool mine, yes, and it was like vocals
were bleeding through the guitar, the ant mics and vice
versa and Bobby Holland produced it, and I know it
was like an engineering nightmare probably at times, but it
was also really amazing to see what we were capable
of and like, that's your shot and kind of emulated
(21:37):
what I love about a live performance.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Why was that important to you to do it that way?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I think I needed to know what I was capable of.
Why just because it was sort of do or die
at that point. And I think I also, maybe for
the first time, actually really knew like what my voice sounded.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Like you had the confidence to show it.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, and like, this is me live. This is what
that people are going to hear when they come see
me live, and they're not going to like, I'm not
gonna have to pick and choose between all these different
takes like how I said this word perfectly or is
that pitch perfect? There there was a lot of technical
and unemotional grace that I gave myself on this, and
(22:22):
I think it just made me approach music and what
I deem most important in a performance totally differently.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
And did that shift your whole perspective on music after
that album? It did like I don't I have ever
gone back to having to fit into these rigid lines.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yes, and also just like having a live tracking band.
I'm not saying that the subsequent projects, like I did
that vocal take with the band as we were going down,
but there's just a lot of components that like, I'll
never go back on after that record because I just
feel like it makes it more human and that to me,
(23:03):
I love all types of music, but I personally want
to make more of like an analog style music because
I think that sounds timeless and it's something that I
can always honor in the live setting. I know with
the band that I have.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
That's amazing. Okay, so you mentioned Austin your husband. How
does he fit into the mix because you guys are married,
living together and is he like managing you?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
How does that work? Because to be able to have
a great working relationship with your spouse and not want
to kill them after all these years of being so close,
how do y'all work it out?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I laugh because there are times where I'm sure he
wants to kill me, and I don't want to kill him,
but maybe just have a little break for a second.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
But I was checking with you. When you walked in,
I was like, we haven't chattered in a while. And
I heard your new album No One Gets Out Alive.
There's a few songs on here. How's Austin. I know
a lot of people. Everybody okay.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
When I sent the first mix out to some of
our close friends, I got like, you, guys, okay, you
are totally okay. In fact, we've really never been better.
I don't recommend every artist out there be managed by
your spouse or significant other, but it really works for
us because for many reasons, he's a wonderful person, and
(24:21):
he's first and foremost, he's so musical, he's so supportive.
He's definitely like Type A a little more OCD, where
I'm more like.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Don't you love a Type A OCD? Though, when you're
a little more absolutely I need I need an OCD
in my life.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, Like yeah, Pixie manic dream girl vibes, and he'll
he'll kind of he's a good pusher, sometimes too much so,
but I know that he notes that I'm capable of it,
and in a way that's like very fortifying and makes
me more confident.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
He'll push you as hard as he knows he pushes
really hard.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
He also manages me with Norvel Blackstock, so Norvil knows
what it's like to manage your spouse. He managed Riba forever,
oh they were married. And he also just he picks
up the red phone when we need it, you know,
when I need a little interference between like the husband
wife dynamic. And he also was such a big facilitator
(25:23):
of two projects that I made before I got signed.
He functioned as my record label. So love that guy,
and he helps us a lot with that, but also
with Austin in our relationship. It allows for me to
share in this with him and make it something that's
a lot bigger than me. It takes me out of
(25:45):
the center of it all, which I feel like is
actually a relief for me, because I feel like it
could get too daunting to just feel like, oh, this
is all me and it's it's all like, you know,
this is mine and he's.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Just living in it, right, He's actually participating in it very.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Much so and I get that it's taking so much
of the risk with me, and.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
That's really that's really kind of beautiful.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Actually, it makes it just easier. It doesn't like totally
overwhelm me. Sometimes when I just think about the fact
that this is something that we mutually share very much,
and even though I might be like front facing in
how we present a lot of this, Like he's putting
so much on the line too professionally, and it takes
(26:32):
so much of his time where I know he's capable
of helping other artists with their careers and he has
ambitions to work with other artists and is but you know,
this is takes a lot of oxygen from him. So
I appreciate that generosity.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
It does take a lot of oxygen, especially like right
I feel like where you are right now, it's like
you are at this prime. In my opinion, I am
no expert. I have just observed a lot and lived
a ton.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Of like this. She've seen a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I have seen a lot I have. I've been overwhelmed
a lot. I've had my very high highs, my very
low lows, my I don't give a crap or shit
about any of it. I quit the moments so many times,
and then you come back around and you're like, Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
I know. I'm always like I'll quit, that'll show them and.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Get a show. Who nobody even cares, Like, oh oh,
that That's the thing is like even you can be
so great and have such important things to say, and
if you just take yourself out of the game, people
just not care. Eventually, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
It's just out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
If you're heartbreaking industry, like you give everything you have
and if you it can anyway. But it's also so
that's why you ultimately have to know why you're doing it,
which is for yourself and your calling and your mission,
and then you have to find the players who align
with you. But I have seen now a lot of things.
And when I look at someone like you, and I
was actually talking to Bobby Bones about this in the
(27:49):
parking lot with you before you got here, it's like
you are that artist who has gone so hard. Like
when I think of you, I just think of like
you just in it. You're just in this grind, this hustle,
this passion, this going NonStop, like you have never stepped
off the break. You're always coming back figuring it out,
like you haven't quit, you haven't let up because you're
(28:11):
so great and it's just a matter of time of
the right pieces connecting. And I say this about a
thousand horses too. I'm like they haven't. They have a
switchboard and their switchboard it's it's like it's a great
operating system. Just the wires have been all crossed a
little bit, and finally I feel like they're getting in
the right places. And like with you, it's like you
are this incredible operating machine that is so impactful and
(28:34):
is so authentically just like epic. Like it's just like
you are one of the legendary singers. Like you are
a legendary singer. It's just like your moment I feel
like is coming right now because all of your backstory
to get you to right here, which is this album,
no one gets out alive. I'm like, and it's gonna
keep building. Obviously, it's not like one one moment can't
(28:55):
change everything. But like I'm like, you are here, like
it is here, You're bating system is aligned, you got
your team in place. You signed with Big Loud Records,
and they're so known for like supporting artists as the
artist and not changing artists progressive.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I mean, I have this album done before I signed
with them, and they fully embraced what I was doing.
And I was like, well that is those are rogues,
Like that's a Maverick kind of team that's going to
get behind you. But the wires crossing, like I had
I had a little bit to do with those wires
(29:30):
being crossed in the beginning, just like even you know,
we're trying to talk about how I even got here,
and like how Tommy WOTLD Like I can't even tell
you in a straight line how that first part happens.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It was just spaghetti part of it.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Might be just like my brain even protecting me from
the beginning of that. But I don't take my foot
off the gas because like this is the time now,
That's what this whole album is about. It's like no
one gets out alive. We have a finite amount of
time to.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Get seeing it absolutely. Why do you have that urgency?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I just I feel like I've been here long enough.
I know now who I am. I believe in what
I'm doing. I'm not doubling down. I'm not tripling down.
This is the fourth album that I'm like, I still
am here and I still feel like I should be here,
and I have so much more left to do, and
(30:26):
I certainly think I have plenty of time to do
all sorts of things. But like I'm not I don't
want to take a break right now. I don't. I
didn't want to take a break when the pandemic happened.
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I resented that you did. Yes, what happened to you
during the pandemic? How did that affect you mentally in
your career?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I think, you know, I had a little bit of
an identity crisis of like, if I'm not performing, who
am I in?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Like?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Right, what I'm used to having like one hundred some
dates a year and they were just canceled overnight. And
I had relationships that were friendships, but also there was
a work component. When that was removed, there.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Was like what is the friendship now?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And is that where some of the loss with friendships
came from? Yeah, and realized who was really a friend
and he was just kind of in it for the
It's more I feel.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Like it's it's more complicated than that, you know. I
think that a lot of people needed to be they
needed to feel valuable, and I probably couldn't provide that
in the way that you know I used to be
able to. So I don't I don't think that it's like, oh,
you see who your friends are. It's not that simple
to me. I think that there was a lot of
(31:37):
pressure that all these relationships had to sustain. That's so
hard to untangle now. And that's one of the reasons
that with this current project, like these songs are so
personal because I wasn't collaborating the same way that I
was on previous projects. I was writing not from the
(31:58):
collective we. I was from the I'm going through this.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
And so this is your you, Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
This I had to And you know, I also, like
my best friend's dad died, and my uncle had an aneurysm,
and my husband's uncles passed away. Like we we went
through a lot of loss as a family. And there
was just that beauty too of like cud, this is
getting older sucks, and like you are confronted with these
(32:24):
inevitable losses that happen. You know, people went through addiction issues.
I had friends getting divorced, Like just the I feel you,
the sheen, the like patina of all the like things
that I thought were so perfect really wore off. And
I also started this podcast, which was so fun, but
(32:47):
it was it was like I was throwing my life
and focus into all these different guests and hearing about
their experiences and like, oh, this person's got the best
career ever, there are no problems in the world, and
you hearing about their loss and it was just it
became like a really eye opening, sobering time for me.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Was that healing to hear about other artist losses that
you had kind of idolized and thought it was such
a That's what this podcast has done to me is
this made me realize, Oh, my god, everybody's got every
chaos and trauma and so many hard knocks, and it's
all about how you navigate it.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yes, because you think about their career, what a storied career,
that's exactly the one I want. And then you get
into it, they reveal to you just how incredibly heavy
some of the things are in their life. And I
think it seems so simple to just try and have
empathy for everyone. You don't know what anyone's going through,
but just to hear it bold faced in like detail,
(33:48):
I think was it was there was a moment where
like I was like, Okay, I'm sort of morphing into
maybe not like this always happy, go lucky person, which
I always would have characterized myself as before the pandemic
and I sort of embraced that. And even on the
(34:09):
last song of this record, we have a reprise, it's
called another Sad Song, and it's like, sorry if this
is another sad song that no one's gonna hear, and
they say that's the best way to kill a career,
But like, I'm going to write what I feel.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Did you kind of embrace your sadness in the pandemic?
I did her, And yeah, what were you angry about?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I was angry about. I think a lot of things
that I had gone through in the industry, or maybe
you mistakes that I had made, were times where I
just felt like, you know, there was a lot of
changes socio politically too, with just the me Too movement
(34:58):
and all that stuff, and realizing like I put up
with a lot of bullshit right in other scenarios trying
to be like that, you know, that fun girl who
was going to play the game politically.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I feel you hard on that.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Put a lot of effort into that, and I wish
I was putting more effort into my artistry and finding
my voice.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
And that kind of goes back to the two young part, right,
like you just were trying to win at the game
you thought by the rules that you thought were laid
out for you. Yes, so you kind of were mad
at yourself for playing the game, but you didn't know then.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I didn't know then, And I always was like, I'm
a hard worker, So I was working really hard at
doing what I thought was the most important thing, which was,
you know, getting people to like me and be on
my side and play my music. And then also I
was so angry at the rhetoric that I was seeing
between people, like just the hate of going online and
(35:57):
seeing how people were talking to one another. It was
something that was new for all of us. I think
we were in a pressure cooker during the pandemic. I
was mad that all my shows were canceled overnight. I
was mad that I felt like I had made all
this great music and it hadn't gotten me to that
place where I needed it too because of what was
going on in our touring world, and I was disheartened
(36:21):
about some like friendships that I thought would last forever
that just seemed to kind of dissolve with no closure.
And of course there was grief too that I was
dealing with. And some of these songs like fake Flowers as.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Wan, Yeah, talk to me about fake flowers.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
It's just kind of messy, like I imagine like a
crazy person sort of throwing stuff around in their kitchen
singing it. And it swings from like like kind of
quiet and gloomy to like this explosive chorus, and that's
how I was feeling.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
It was like all over the place.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, And usually I feel like I would have tried
to sort of like soften the edges of that song
before I finally decided to release it, And with this record,
I just was like, no, even the way that no
One gets out alive ends, it's like this big explosive
(37:16):
overture at the end because it's it's almost like violent
and rage, you know, but I wanted it to sound
like that.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And you're like almost so mad at people not appreciating
what life is and like doing the right things for
life that you're like, enjoy the urg like it's urgent,
enjoy this life, be awesome, be the best you can be,
and you're like almost like mad that people aren't because
there's so much confusion and hatred and all these things going.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
On in the world.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Is that I think complex.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
I'm not mad at others it's it's there was a rage.
There was like a you know, with making this record.
It was just something that I was like, I need
to just go for it. I don't know when the
right time to begin this is.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
So you had a real rage inside? Yeah, I think so.
I mean, what a great place to put it in music. Yeah,
and sometimes to rage out. Yeah, like we all need
to rage.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
You've been gone at karaoke. When you're angry, nothing feels better.
So that was sort of my way to address that.
And with No One Gets out Alive. I wrote that
with Natalie Hemby and Sonny Sweeney. If I played you
the work tape, you'd be like, oh, this is like
a sweet little folk song almost. And then we took
it to the studio like it's like oh at the end,
(38:36):
and I got a little orchestra, yes, out of Macedonia.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I mean you had a sixty plus piece of orchestra
in there. Yeah, Maggie, You're like, we're not doing this lightly. No,
all my feelings will be expressed in this album.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yes, no stone will be unturned. But also that was
a beautiful thing that came out of the pandemic because
there was this ensemble in Eastern Europe who because of
the pandemic, made themselves available to help put movie scores
together and work on projects. Now, yeah, I don't think
they would have, you know, facilitated that kind of production
(39:14):
for people overseas. And I worked with this guy Don
Hart who was able to make all these arrangements and
compose them and notate them in a way that an
orchestra in Macedonia could read it and be able to
play along with it. And we didn't use a click
on the record either, So that was just people who
(39:34):
are way more talented than me figuring that all out.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
What does that feel like knowing that a whole orchestra
is performing for you?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
It was, It was crazy. I was like, I want
to swing for the fences once.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I am taking your idea and they're giving it a life.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Well, it felt awesome to just have it be such
a collaborative effort because everyone that we had in the studio.
We had Chad Gamble, Zadler Vaden from the four hundred Unit,
and Ben Tanner who's part of the Alabama Shakes. He
produced my last record as well. He brought Zach Cockerlan
from the Shiks to play bass. We had Peter Levin
(40:15):
who plays with Amanda Shires and the Almond Brothers on keys,
and then Kitlyn Connor and Kyle Lewis from my band,
and everyone was just very much like in it, you know,
forthcoming with ideas and that was the energy of putting
this album together. And then I had these sixty four professional,
(40:36):
classically trained musicians kind of finish it off and it
just felt like, you know, this beautiful, cinematic, sweeping arrangement
that brought it to the height of its life. It
was really cool and surreal.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
What would you say are the big emotions you cover
on this album? No one gets that alive?
Speaker 3 (40:57):
I think gratitude.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Which ones would be the gratitude?
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Which songs? Yeah, no one gets out alive? I think
is a I think all the songs kind of have.
I'm grateful for all the songs because they provided me
some Catharsis Vanish is one that I feel like is
very much about closure that never came, but still respecting
(41:25):
and appreciating a relationship. Sad song at another sad song
at the end, I think is just being thankful that
I was able to tap into the emotions that inspired
a lot of these songs, regardless of what an A
and R team would tell me about the overall theme
(41:45):
and dead way. It was a really fun song to
write because it was about just moving forward with only
what you need and you know, a little a little
anger in there and conviction, you know, feeling like I
know what it.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Is that like underestimated me, I Estate Me is.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Was a really fun song to release ahead of the
album coming Back because.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
F you to everybody too. It's like, not to everyone.
I know, you're not doing this for other people. I
keep putting other people in it, and you're like, no,
this is about me in my journey, and I am
so whole and in tune with it all. I mean,
you really are. You're like you're like wise beyond your years.
But like for me, I'm like, yeah, there's a little
there's a little geary the middle figure, just a little
bit that came.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I wrote that with Chris Gilbuda and Henry Bryll, who
are buddies of mine, and it came a lot from
them knowing my story pretty well. And also at the
end of every podcast Asleep the Songbird that I hosted,
I would try and like let's leave, let's leave on
a positive note here and tell me what your favorite
(42:51):
part about being a woman in the industry is. And
pretty much like almost every episode I would get some
version of the underestimated because then I'm just gonna, like
far exceed your expectations if you're already selling me short.
And I loved that idea of like, yeah, I dare you,
I dare you to underestimate me and just sit back
(43:14):
and let's talk after the show, after you've seen so.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Even the pandemic, even though it really brought out your sadness, grief, anger, rage,
all that, it brought you to your podcast, which was
suit the Songbird, the song Word. Yes, I remember you
had like Martin McBride on there. You're really I mean,
do you still do that or is it just taking
arrest for now?
Speaker 3 (43:34):
I'm reformatting it. We're going to come out. I wanted
to release some music. Also, my editor passed away suddenly
and he was like such a wonderful right hand man
and helping me, sorry, get the whole flow of it together.
But it's excited to come back, okay, because I'm missing
that voice a lot. It was helping me work through
(43:56):
a lot of things, especially just like what's going on
in the world. I'm not always someone who's going to
take to Instagram and like be really didactic about what
I think, but it is it was a great way
to in a long format, talk through some of these
things going on with other women, different women, and let
(44:16):
them talk about it that, let them be the experts
on some of these things, and just yeah, hear it out.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
So I love though that, Like even this is why,
like looking back in retrospect, it's it's always great to
see because I love that, like in that moment that
was so hard for so many but we're talking about
you specifically, like the pandemic and everything stopping on a
you know, on a dime, and it's you went though
from like trying to say you used to be like
(44:41):
the happy girl. And I feel that way too, just
like I always wanted everyone to be happy walking a room,
like be bubbly. You like me?
Speaker 3 (44:48):
You like me?
Speaker 2 (44:48):
You like me? Do you like me? I mean that's always.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Going to be there. I'm always I'm the middle child
that's never gonna go away.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
But you like me? Right?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I love the okay, but it's like you kind of
were able to be like Okay, if you don't like me, though,
I'm also okay with that.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
That's part of getting older, right, Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
It's a heart that it's hard through some shit.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
I feel like if you don't have a little bit
of that now, like you're just not paying attention. Yeah,
so there is a bit of a ticket or leave
it now?
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Is that a relief though, to like feal that in
your body, Yes, to be like genuinely like, I know
my talent, I know my worth, I know what I'm
great at, I know what I want to do, and
I know it's going to be awesome. And if you
don't like it, it's like you know yourself? Now, what
is it like knowing yourself? What is the difference like
talking to your like Margaret Durante fifteen to nineteen year
(45:40):
old self with Tommy Mittola, the big explosion of it
all happening to now, what would you tell her?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
I have so much compassion for her. There used to
be times I was like, oh my god, like if
this all blows up for me and I do get
the exposure that like I'm working so hard to get,
people are gonna look at my old videos or my
old songs and like, no, I've been making music a
(46:06):
long time. I'm allowed to change, I'm allowed to evolve.
And I also I am just so grateful that my
nineteen year old self had the bravery or the insanity
or it was just too green to know what was
ahead of her to put me here and allow me
to do this. And she had have a career that
(46:28):
yes a lot, and she kept going and talent and
enough belief in herself that she thought she could take
this on and then no. I also wish I could
have told her, like, you know, it's a lot more
forgiving than you think, and really yes, because when it
(46:51):
did feel like everything was just ending, like the world
was closing in, it didn't. So it did not.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Yeah, did you so you actually felt that forgiveness? How
did the forgiveness come to you?
Speaker 3 (47:06):
I think like just that the the world is more
forgiving than you think, and people's collective memories of your
perceived failures are not as long lasting as you think. Like,
so true, if you come back at it after something
has blown up, with something that is truly great, then
(47:28):
people will like receive it. People will receive it, yeah,
and you think they won't until you do. People want it.
And I feel like I've deserved every second, third, fourth
chance that I've gotten because you know what preceded that
was it was still solid. I think I was just
(47:49):
overly critical and I was petrified of making the wrong step,
not realizing that, Like, you need to make men many
wrong steps to land where you have to go.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
So how you probably will.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
You don't need to, but.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
You will, So you figure it out. How would you
describe yourself as an artist and a human and as
a whole brand and being now now that you've gone
through this journey, I mean you have gone through the
(48:30):
journey all the ways internally, externally, soul, mind, body, soul
spirit music. Like in the industry, I mean you have
gone into the pressure cooker and you have survived and
you've come out the other side.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yeah, I mean, I think you just need to try
and authentically be yourself, not trying to emulate someone else's career.
You need to make music for yourself. I think you
need to create art that you yourself love and will
(49:05):
want to revisit ten years from now. Making timeless sustainable
music means being genuine in what message it is that
you're putting out. Also knowing the responsibility of what messages
you're putting out there is your audience.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Now that's wisdom, because I feel like I didn't learn
that part until a little bit later, Like, oh my gosh.
When you actually have a platform and people are actually
listening to you like what you are saying, you really
have an impact, right, you know?
Speaker 3 (49:33):
Yes? And I also think knowing what not to speak
on too, and not taking up other people's oxygen who
might know better than you what to say. It's words
are so important, you know, And just trying to be
a force of good by connecting people through music, by
(49:56):
always practicing vulnerability. I think if you want to make
music that connects with people, you need to always consider
it an exercise and vulnerability and being willing to learn
and listen. Being a good musician, I think you need
to be a great listener. So I'm always trying to
(50:16):
make sure that I'm receiving enough so that I can
have output that's worth something.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
What have you learned from your live shows with connecting
with the fans? What have you learned about humanity?
Speaker 3 (50:26):
That people are inherently good? That might sound you know,
Pollyanna of me, but there's nothing more powerful than getting
on stage knowing that most everyone doesn't know one another,
but there's like this community by the end of the
show where everyone leaves with that connection to each other.
(50:48):
That feels, you know, that's invaluable to me. It feels
really specific to music and to anything that will gather
people together and let them just folks on one singular
thing at the time. There's so few things that we
do now. I feel like we're all factioned off into
our own little our own little tunnels of whatever it
(51:12):
is that we want to receive. And to have that
ability to have a show that is my own with
my band and we set the agenda is a big responsibility.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
It very plugs in. Yeah, yeah, what is success to
you now? Now that you've seen it all, Like you've
been to OZ, you've looked behind the veil, you know
what it is? What is success to you now?
Speaker 3 (51:35):
I think success is being able to do this for
as long as I can get myself up on a stage.
You know, if I'm old and sitting in a chair
and singing my songs way down the road.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
So singing forever, it's just who you are.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
I would like to Yeah, if you know, God willing,
I have the ability to and having balance, you know,
I want to start a family and all those things too.
I think in order to be a well rounded artist,
I want to make sure I'm a well rounded person.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
And yeah, I still want to like, is it pressure
to start a family?
Speaker 3 (52:14):
I'll do the Super Bowl halftime show. I'll do all
these things if it comes. But that's not what motivates
me to get out of bed. It's it's being able
to make music on my terms, and I'm lucky to
do it with such an effective, incredible team.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Do you feel like because I was talking to jin
Way and my wey, I wasn't talking to her, but
we've talked about this and then she was still loved
gin I loved jin But she made a post the
other day and she has a little girl now and
she was like, to all the people that said, I.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
Love that post, I did too. I needed to see
that post.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
I did too. She's like, to all the people that
said you can't have a kid or a family when
you were trying to do this, they were wrong. And
it makes you cheery think about it because I felt
that pressure forever. I needed to see that because it's
like everyone's like, you can't, you can't be a successful
woman in the career and have a kid. It's going
to ruin your career. But they're wrong. Have you felt
(53:08):
that pressure like you can only be one or the other?
Speaker 3 (53:11):
Absolutely? Absolutely, And that's internalized misogyny. That's my own shit,
like me buying into It's not like some dude came
up to me. It was like, you better not get pregnant.
And that's what's keeping me from it. It's me believing
that because it will be harder, it will be more
(53:33):
difficult to leave my child behind when I go out
on the road, or or strap them to my chest
and go hit the road. Both of them are going
to be challenging. But I'm like, I'm not afraid of
a challenge. That's just me going to a deeper level
of existing and living the human experience. If I'm ever
(53:56):
granted that and like some people can't have children, that
doesn't make you any less than either. I just feel
like it's definitely been a current that has affected my
idea on family planning, being specific to this industry. I
know that I probably would have had a child or
(54:19):
attempted too sooner if I was in a different profession.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
Undoubtedly, I know I know, and I'm so happy that,
like the mold is breaking in so many ways. But
it being a woman in the industry. That's why, Like
you just like crazy saying so strong and like pushing
through all of these roadblocks that I feel like are
so hard for women. I mean really, and you've just
(54:44):
kept moving through them. It's inspiring, Maggie.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
But being a woman is awesome too. It is so fun.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
What are your favorite parts about being a woman.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
Oh, I just think the camaraderie. It really is like
I grew up with two sisters.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
I know you got your bird tattoo for all three
of us.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
And you know, I feel like you and I we've
always checked on each other over the years because there's
like just this understanding of what we've been through. I
also love the clothes.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
I love Oh, I love the intuition.
Speaker 3 (55:19):
I love the like I don't know, I just feel
like there's a really cool perspective about what it gives
you in the way you see the world.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
I love that place when you start, no one gets
out of here alive. You're like, go to Rome, buy
the ticket, go to Rome. By the dress that stops
to show all that man, I'm staying the lyrics song,
but I'm like, so one of my favorite clothes experience
I've ever had was actually and then we need to
wrap up because I love hearing your story so much.
But it's almost an hour and you did the most
epic closet sale. It was probably ten years ago, maybe
(55:53):
even fifteen, Like ten years ago. I was gonna wear
this sequin jacket that I still have from you, because
I will never forget walking into your closet and you
had all these clothes for sale, and I was like,
you're getting rid of these, like they're freaking amazing, just
clothes and clothes of fantastic, dreamy outfits. And I stocked
(56:15):
up so hard and I have worn We were.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
My best customer that day, for sure, Bananas.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
I literally could not believe this was happening.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
That's why you still have it. I need to do
another one.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
I've filled me first first well, actually i'll give you
a private, let me do it by myself, till let
me have first entry.
Speaker 3 (56:31):
I just finished my attic like last year upstairs, and
it's like a.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Full blown uh.
Speaker 3 (56:41):
Room just for my touring clothes, and it has you
ask how Austin and I are still married that is how.
That's how because being like on tour, it used to
just be like an open suitcase and then like just
my shit everywhere. And now there's a place to contain
the mess. And I don't buy as much clothes because
(57:04):
you can see it all everything. And I'm a big
newly rent the runway both of them subscriber. It's literally yes,
when you perform sometimes like how many times could I
wear this outfit?
Speaker 2 (57:15):
Is this rent's runway? This is one of those newly.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
Oh but it's like you know, oh, there's she is
in her puffy pink sleeve bodysuit. Again like no, we
gotta and it's better for the environment and all that stuff.
But yeah, you got to come over. And it makes
life less expensive, believe it or not, and uh more creative.
Like with what I get to put together, I'm repurposing
(57:40):
a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
You just sit in your clothes attic and just feel
like if you need to like calm down, you just
go sit in there.
Speaker 3 (57:47):
Yes I do, I do, I very much do. I
pak my makeup in there. All the products are contained,
Like Austin is very lucky that he doesn't have all
the potions and lotions everywhere.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Just your room.
Speaker 3 (58:01):
Yes, well he has. I gave him a little section.
He has a section on a tiny little section on
the right. But he also got to redo his own
closet in our primary room, so it's slightly more organized.
But I have a little more real estate than he
does for sure.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
I mean you need as yeah, you need it. Okay.
So I'm just gonna say a couple of facts. So
I think it's really amazing you just played the Opyry
over one hundred times, Like that's incredible. Yeah, I mean,
how cool is that. It's it's you've done some pretty
bucketless things.
Speaker 3 (58:32):
Very much pinch me moment to play the oprya anytime,
but especially when you walk through the doors and everyone's
just like, hey, welcome back, and just feels so familiar.
And I think that there's a reason they've been around forever.
They're about to turn one hundred years old. It's incredible,
and I feel like they're really trying to keep their
ear to the ground and pay attention to not what's
(58:54):
just only going on in country radio, but like what's
going on in Nashville. That they keep inviting people that
are out of the box to.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
That stage, it's incredible. Okay. I always wrap up with
leave your light, and it's just open ended. I mean
from the OG days, I think we left our light
with you back in the day. What do you want
people to know?
Speaker 3 (59:20):
Just in general?
Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, just to leave them with a bit of just
some inspiration, like what do you want people to know?
Speaker 3 (59:27):
This sounds so cheesy, and I think it's tied into
this record and having this sense of autonomy that I
have now, it's like you are good. You are as
you are offering what only you can to this whole thing,
(59:48):
and I feel like embracing those things that make you
you and uniquely you are sometimes the things that we
try and hide away about ourselves. But if you kind
of to work on them, like it, it makes you
have that unique thing to offer to this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
I love that and I love you said if you
kind of work on them, because when I think of you,
I think of someone who was just this. Like I
said it, Sony and Hames. I just want to end
with this just so you know how deeply I feel
about you and everyone listening. I want to give inspiration
because you are so inspiring. If you would have quit
when it didn't work out in the beginning, however, many
years ago, what that was when it all happened, and
(01:00:29):
you wouldn't have kept coming back into the fire, reassessing,
going back into your heart, pulling out who what you really,
what felt good, what felt bad, changing the potion just
a little bit, tweaking it, and then coming back again.
If you don't keep going back in when you get burned,
then you just stay burned, you know, and then you
just end with the bad feelings, and then you just
(01:00:50):
end with feeling like a victim. Then you just end
with all of it being a disaster. But if you
go back in and you say, Okay, this will not
break me. I'm going to figure out what I need
to Shane change about myself, what was good, what was
about and then you regroup. Then I look at you now,
all these years later, and I'm like, not only are
you this incredible artist who knows who she is, but
(01:01:11):
you have this depth of wisdom that you could never
have gotten if you hadn't kept coming back in and
learning and grabbing all the tidbits of knowledge and just
taking it, taking the good and leaving the bad, and
learning and growing. And I feel like you have to
do that if you want to become the most evolved
version of yourself and the greatest and best version of yourself,
which you have continuously done. Thank you and I admire
(01:01:33):
you for that, because it's hard to do that. So
many people want to get stuck in the pain.
Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
I like that you said you would have just stayed burned.
You do, and I'm I think just saying self acceptance
is too simple, Like you accept all the things about yourself,
but you also need to polish up a few of
them too, and that's how you really own it. That's
how you own what you are.
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
And then nobody can break you because you've been through
all this and you're like, you actually can't take me
down because I'm so whole within myself now that like
nobody can knock this down.
Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
That's the lyric and fake flowers.
Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
I mean, I got it from somebody really far.
Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
You're amazing, Maggie. Thank you so much for joining me.
Can you stickround for a few burning questions? Speaking of Bernie? Okay, okay, YEA,
absolutely love it.
Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Thank you so much.
At Carrol Line. She's a queen and talking song.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
She's getting really not afraid of things, so so just
let it flow.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
No one can do we quiet car Line is soun
of Caroline.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm so excited, Maggie rose On, get real. You were
one of the first guests I ever had when I
was launching my podcast eight years ago.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What an honor I know is that your we were neighbors, yes,
at that point, and we've known each other a long time,
forever since the beginning, maybe since the year I moved here,
which was sixteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I mean, can I say since Margaret Durante, yes, a
government named I've known you since Margaret Duranti.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I know, Wow, I know I'm still in there. She is.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean I remember you and I was reading a
Rolling Stone article and they're like, you have successfully just
crushed the reinvention. But I don't even think you've been
reinventing yourself. In my personal opinion, I fully think you
have fully just owned who you've always been, and you've
been trying to fit into the boxes that we thought
we had to fit into to play the game. Am
(01:25):
I right or wrong? Or yeah, no, you're right.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I do think that there has been a lot of
discovery along the way though finding out who that person is.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Ye, you probably had to go get her. You reready
had to go, like, you know, to the hills and
find her.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, And you know you said the Margaret Duranty days.
When I released music at nineteen or however old I was,
that was really early on in my career, and when
I reflect on it, maybe it was a little hasty.
I felt like I was trying to keep up with
the program that was put in place for me.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And would that be where too Young came from. It's
got a live new album that's epic gold, I mean,
so great, so great.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I wrote that song with Natalie Hemby, who also moved
to Nashville when she was a teenager, and we had
so much in common to talk about, just that feeling
of being undermined when you're too young and being told, okay,
do things our way and then you'll get to call
all the shots, like there's like this promise.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Of that, like morph into this person and then you
could eventually get back to who you want to be.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Right and then things don't exactly pan out, and you know,
all the star studded ways that were promised to you,
and people kind of move on to the next thing,
and you feel like you've been cast aside. That's not
necessarily the reality, but it's still what you feel. It's
the perspective that we had. And then you feel like
(02:49):
you're you know, this imposter syndrome sets in, or you're
too old to begin something new, and it's.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Just we're too young until you had to follow suit
and now they didn't. It didn't pan out, so now
you're too old, right, and so like oops, sorry I
didn't work. So just going to move on to someone
else who's too young, and we're going to try to
do it again with them, right, So being negative about there's.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
There's some nessaray to it. I mean, there is everything
agism in our industry, and I think there's also some
internalized agism, like we undermine our own uh abilities and
are we let our confidence take a hit because we
kind of buy into these things and it's not true.
I love listening to artists who have all different perspectives.
(03:32):
I love hearing from Bonnie Rait who's lived a long life,
and Carol King and they put all these experiences into
their songs. And I also feel like, it's important to
hear the viewpoints of people who come from different communities
and are at a different stage in their life too.
So that's what makes music interesting, is when you start
(03:53):
listening to all the different vantage points that are out there.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, so let's kind of start at the beginning. Yeah,
so you who grew up where.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I grew up in Potomac, Maryland. Potomac, Maryland, which is
outside Washington, d C. Not necessarily like the hotbed of
country music. But I was lucky to grow up in
a time where there were so many women who were
just breaking the mold. We had the Chicks, We had
(04:22):
Shania Twain, we had Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston. It was
just rife with Faith Hill, like these diva singers. And
of course what drew me to Nashville was it seemed wholesome.
I was really young. I grew up Catholic school girls,
so I felt like, I want to be in the
(04:43):
music industry, but Nashville's I can do this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I feel that way too, honestly. Yeah, it's a big
reason why I came to Nashville.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I'm like, it still feels like there's values here and
there are values here, but I feel like you can
run into the same pitfalls of any industry, any entertainment industry, anywhere.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And I moved here being a new signee to Republic Nashville,
although actually Republic Nashville hadn't even been formed yet. It
was out of New York. You get a record deal
so fast through Tommy and Mottola.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Okay, how'd you get with Tommy Mottola.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's like just crazy six degrees of separation.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I was He's the one who discovered like Mariah Carrie
Whitney Houston, like.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
She was married to Mariah Carey.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I mean, let's talk about as big as it gets.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Right, but you have to hold on. It's a bit
of a wild.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Ride, Okay, take me on.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I was performing with the Bruce Springsteen tribute band.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
When you were like eighteen sixteen.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
It was like fifteen fifteen. They were kind enough to
let me join them. Actually, the lead singer just passed
away a few weeks before my album came out. It
just felt like this full circle moment where I was like, wow,
they're so responsible for facilitating my move to Nashville and
me falling in love with live performance, but with them
(06:06):
I started to perform in bars on the Jersey Shore,
and it became apparent to me that music was so
much more than just being a perfect singer. It's about
connecting with people and helping them escape into the music
and leave behind, you know, the rigors of their daily life.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Do you learn that early on from them?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yes? I think they. They gave me the opportunity to
see that. And I was introduced to them by a
family friend who actually helped finance my early career for
many years. So he made the move to Nashville much
more manageable because he invested in me.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And yes, wow, that's huge.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
He's still a really good friend of mine. But you know,
I probably wouldn't have been able to move to Nashville
and pursue those opportunities if I didn't have the support
of him and his family, and of course, you know
my family's emotional support. But so I released a cover
(07:07):
of a Kings of Leon song, I remember what was it?
Was it? You somebody?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
And I went to country radio too, it sure did.
And it was released through Casablanca And is that a label? Yes,
it's a subsidiary of Universal, and they're still kicking and
they're more of like a tech a techno kind of label.
It was a crazy hodgepodge. I was thrown on this
(07:38):
subsidiary of the of Universal. I was kind of like
switched to a lot of different labels because I don't
think they really knew what to do with me before
Republic Nashville had been formed. And I also think that
there was a little bit of an attitude of like, well,
(07:58):
Tommy Mattola is not going to tell who to sign
this girl who just came from outside of Nashville.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Like, how did you get hooked up with Tommy Mottola through.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
A family friend, the same one who introduced me to
B Street Band.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
He knew that's some good family friends, same guy. But
this is a strong friend right here.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, And it's just hard to even it feels so
far removed from where you are now what I'm doing
at all right now. But I have to at least
credit the fact that all these outrageous scenarios are a
part of your safe catalyst for me moving here. I
don't work with any of these people anymore, but I
(08:39):
feel like at least it made me jump in the pool.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
At the top of the top.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yes, and there were no bad actors. I think everyone
was just trying to help me realize a dream. But
as you know, there's no template in the music industry
for how to secure success or connect with an audience.
That really has to come from the artist. And even
the first album that I released was a bit of
a Frankenstein record because I had created it with two
(09:07):
different producers over a pretty extended period of time where
I was trying to salvage masters that I had already
started recording with a different label, And you know, long
story short, I was just trying to kind of scrap by,
and it was a David and glythe situation too, with
(09:28):
the fact that this was a smaller independent label trying
to release music in a commercial country radio scenario that
there and you know how important radio tour was, especially
in like twenty twelve when everything this album was being released.
(09:49):
So I feel like I'm going to fast forward a
little bit that label that I released my first album,
cut to Impress with Folded, and I felt like my
world was over.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And man, isn't that true with that first big hit,
Especially when you're so young and you think you have
all the players lined up, you're obviously you're working with
these big names, it's all happening. You're going to radio.
Even though it feels a little not organized and chaotic,
you're still like, this is it, this is it, this
is my one and only shot.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Right, and you think you live and die by the
ad numbers every Monday morning. For the lay person out there,
that's like the report card that you would get back
from how many radio stations are going to add your
song and spin your song. And if you got a
bad report, like glum and doom would set in hard.
(10:42):
You might the whole team and.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Your single might get people to start.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Like vacillating on maybe this isn't the song, and like.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It starts questioning themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That questioning sythesis of art to me is not having
conviction behind what you're doing and letting analytics that are
volatile and change every week. Dicked hate what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I'm so true.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I needed to get out of that.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That is so true creation because then everyone's in high
stress mode because now it's no longer about this artist
and who this artist is and what they're creating for
the like the full spectrum of art that this artist
is putting out. It's like are you going to sell
right now? Are you going to connect right now with
radio in this format? And this is the only thing
that matters, And so it's like the whole concept of
(11:24):
who the artist is doesn't even really matter. It's just like,
is your song working?
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, and there's the big picture. Shouldn't be forsaken like
that ever.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Ever, But it totally I think feel like it went
through a spot especially where it was like that all
the time, and now it's coming out of it completely.
It's like all changing, but and you're a huge part
of that, like with what you're doing in your movement now.
But I'm like, for a while, it's like you lived
and died by radio, and if you weren't working on radio,
then you feel you have to read change. Then you
have to change everything about yourself. Then you enter into
(11:52):
an identity crisis, right you don't even know who you
are and everyone leaves you and you're just left with
all these pieces of what just happens? How am I?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yes, it's so disorienting and you're so young, super myopic
about you know, this one song. You end up consolidating
everything about yourself into the success or failure of this
one song. When all the artists that I love to
watch have multitudes within them, Like I want to know
(12:22):
what their whole album sounds like. I want labels to
begin again developing the artists that they're signing and believing
in them more long term, because that's going to yield
more sustainable artists over time. And we keep Now I'm
sort of like pontificating about the industry at large, but
(12:44):
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
It's such a good vocabulary. Do you read tons of
books I'd like to read. You're so smart.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I'm like smartificating that I'm complaining. I'm on a soapbox
about it because I feel like people keep saying, like
where are superstars? Where are are Like we have one
hit wonders, or we're signing a TikTok artist and then
dropping them one single later. That's what happened to me
with you Somebody forever ago. They gave me a singles
(13:12):
deal and whether that succeeded or not determined who would
claim me in Nashville. And when it didn't happen, I had, luckily,
you know, all the people at RPM that got behind
me to help me release that first album. That was
your management, yes, and you know I love that those
people tried, and we put together this label and promotions
(13:38):
team and everything with the help of my financier to
release all these songs from cut to impress to country radio.
But it just wasn't politically a match for what we
were up against. And I'm glad that things fell apart.
In retroster rep is always looking back because I needed
to just be like it was almost like the second
(14:00):
phase of me changing my name from Margaret Dranty to
Maggie Rose. That was me trying to reclaim and draw
a line in the sand and decide intentionally how I
wanted to do things going forward.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You weren't going to be told who you were.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, And then after the label folded, I felt like
it was like rebrand two point zero. So the Rolling
Stone reinvention thing that you talk about, I think reinvention
is sort of synonymous with just like reclaiming something and
deciding that I'm not going to pack it up and
go home because it didn't work out in thism that
(14:37):
was set forth for me, But I am going to
try and look at this from another place and see
how I can approach it in a way that makes
sense for me Going forward. That is within my boundaries
as an artist and how I want to create, and
that honors my connection to the audience, which is music,
(15:00):
Like that's that's our bond. So I need to make
it feel right for me and for like how I'm
going to do this for a long time.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So hmm, you have just when I think of you,
I just think of drive, Like you just have passion
and you just have drive because I've known you now
for like twenty years almost right, yep, And like you've
been grinding you were five. You've been grinding it so
(15:30):
hard for the whole time, Like you've never once stepped
off the gas, Like even when you have these massive
like setbacks or like these disappointments in the moment that
turn out to be leading you to where you're supposed
to go, But you have these big epic moments that
could crush somebody really, you know, and they do crush people,
and a lot of people when they hit their first
(15:51):
big roadblock, they're like, Okay, this is too much, I'm out,
But you're not. You have always regrouped, reassessed and gotten
back on even stronger. What is that in you? Like?
How do you do that? Because so many people can't
withstand the pressure that it takes to keep coming back
(16:12):
and stronger. You know, you keep coming back stronger. That's
so nice of you to say, but it's so hard
to do.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I'm really stubborn. And I also feel like I am
pragmatic about the fact that like work put in doesn't
necessarily always reflect in the return on that investment of
the work you put in. I do it because I
(16:41):
love it.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
You love this.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
This is a vocation for me. This is what I
know I'm best at doing. But I also know that
I'm not dealing like and I've said this to you before,
I'm not dealing with a meritocracy where it's this fool
proof system that's always to propel to the top the
best talent out there are the best artists. That's not
(17:04):
its job, it's it's there's a lot of luck involved,
and there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Of there's a lot of to make someone successful fail.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
We were just talking about this before the interview, Like,
there is many, many, many attempts that need to be
made to sometimes get the results that you want.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That is so true.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I'm okay with doing that if I feel at peace
with how I've gone about it. So, yeah, there's been
crushing times, but I also don't there's no like villain
in my story that I'm like.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
But that's one person like that's you holding that perspective
though you have chosen to not let someone be the villain,
because you probably could have a villain.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I mean, I'm sure there are people who could have
probably handled me a little bit better, but I'm I
might be that person to someone else too, and unaware
of it. I think.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Sure wise, Maggie, that's nice. I've got wisdom on you.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I don't know. I mean, I've been here a long
time and I just want to the fact that I
get to do this and get to make music for
a living, work with my husband, like talk to my
friends about music, and live in this community is really
(18:23):
really fortunate. So you know, I'm not I still have
big dreams, and some of them might not be quite
as lofty as they once were, but a lot of
them still are. So I'm going to keep trying to
chip away at that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Because I remember when you did what was the album
that you did a big video release and like it
was like the country music Hall Fame. You had a
movie premiere and which one was that one.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Change the whole thing?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Change? And was that kind of when you really entered
into this new season of like okay, because that was
like so soulful and it was like live, You're recording live,
and it was just like there's so much musical element
to it too, and like I feel like you went
this soulful like and this is Bonnie I'm quitting this
from a rolling stone, but like Bonnie Ray, and I'm like,
oh my god, yes, you're like Fleetwood Mac Bonnie Ray.
(19:27):
You have all these like soul singer elements in you
and you owned it and claimed it there and you're
like this is it?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
And change the Whole Thing? Was that because you were
changing the whole thing?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yes, I mean we had we had the title track
of change the Whole Thing, and that song on its
own is about leaving the world better than you found it.
You don't have to change the whole thing, which just
leave it a little better. And then on like a
macro level, I totally changed the whole day I approached recording.
I do so a lot of times on the records
(19:59):
that I had made previous. To change the whole thing.
You go into the studio you get the tracking down,
then you come back and you do the vocal, and
then you'll comp that vocal, which means you could do
like five or six takes, and then you take from
each take the perfect little phrase, and then it's like
this little Frankenstein vocal that comes together. It sounds perfect,
(20:22):
but it's sort of doesn't have the soul and the
urgency of what you would hear in just like a
live performance. So with change the whole thing, I had,
first of all, like incredible musicians who were good friends
of mine and who'd been touring with me, and who
had been very much aware and involved with the process
(20:44):
that I had been through thus far. And I didn't
have a label at the time telling me like, oh,
you need to deliver this album. We were just making
it because we wanted to, and we were all in
one room at the gallery in Starstrucks Studios. It was
like at times, eighteen musicians, no isolation booths, just playing
(21:06):
at once. So that gave us a lot of freedom,
but it also meant that we all had to agree
on one take, one take, and.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's like the old school days.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
It was cool mine, yes, and it was like vocals
were bleeding through the guitar, the ant mics and vice
versa and Bobby Holland produced it, and I know it
was like an engineering nightmare probably at times, but it
was also really amazing to see what we were capable
of and like, that's your shot and kind of emulated
(21:37):
what I love about a live performance.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Why was that important to you to do it that way?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I think I needed to know what I was capable of.
Why just because it was sort of do or die
at that point. And I think I also, maybe for
the first time, actually really knew like what my voice sounded.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Like you had the confidence to show it.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, and like, this is me live. This is what
that people are going to hear when they come see
me live, and they're not going to like, I'm not
gonna have to pick and choose between all these different
takes like how I said this word perfectly or is
that pitch perfect? There there was a lot of technical
and unemotional grace that I gave myself on this, and
(22:22):
I think it just made me approach music and what
I deem most important in a performance totally differently.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
And did that shift your whole perspective on music after
that album? It did like I don't I have ever
gone back to having to fit into these rigid lines.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yes, and also just like having a live tracking band.
I'm not saying that the subsequent projects, like I did
that vocal take with the band as we were going down,
but there's just a lot of components that like, I'll
never go back on after that record because I just
feel like it makes it more human and that to me,
(23:03):
I love all types of music, but I personally want
to make more of like an analog style music because
I think that sounds timeless and it's something that I
can always honor in the live setting. I know with
the band that I have.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
That's amazing. Okay, so you mentioned Austin your husband. How
does he fit into the mix because you guys are married,
living together and is he like managing you?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
How does that work? Because to be able to have
a great working relationship with your spouse and not want
to kill them after all these years of being so close,
how do y'all work it out?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I laugh because there are times where I'm sure he
wants to kill me, and I don't want to kill him,
but maybe just have a little break for a second.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
But I was checking with you. When you walked in,
I was like, we haven't chattered in a while. And
I heard your new album No One Gets Out Alive.
There's a few songs on here. How's Austin. I know
a lot of people. Everybody okay.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
When I sent the first mix out to some of
our close friends, I got like, you, guys, okay, you
are totally okay. In fact, we've really never been better.
I don't recommend every artist out there be managed by
your spouse or significant other, but it really works for
us because for many reasons, he's a wonderful person, and
(24:21):
he's first and foremost, he's so musical, he's so supportive.
He's definitely like Type A a little more OCD, where
I'm more like.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Don't you love a Type A OCD? Though, when you're
a little more absolutely I need I need an OCD
in my life.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, Like yeah, Pixie manic dream girl vibes, and he'll
he'll kind of he's a good pusher, sometimes too much so,
but I know that he notes that I'm capable of it,
and in a way that's like very fortifying and makes
me more confident.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
He'll push you as hard as he knows he pushes
really hard.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
He also manages me with Norvel Blackstock, so Norvil knows
what it's like to manage your spouse. He managed Riba forever,
oh they were married. And he also just he picks
up the red phone when we need it, you know,
when I need a little interference between like the husband
wife dynamic. And he also was such a big facilitator
(25:23):
of two projects that I made before I got signed.
He functioned as my record label. So love that guy,
and he helps us a lot with that, but also
with Austin in our relationship. It allows for me to
share in this with him and make it something that's
a lot bigger than me. It takes me out of
(25:45):
the center of it all, which I feel like is
actually a relief for me, because I feel like it
could get too daunting to just feel like, oh, this
is all me and it's it's all like, you know,
this is mine and he's.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Just living in it, right, He's actually participating in it very.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Much so and I get that it's taking so much
of the risk with me, and.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
That's really that's really kind of beautiful.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Actually, it makes it just easier. It doesn't like totally
overwhelm me. Sometimes when I just think about the fact
that this is something that we mutually share very much,
and even though I might be like front facing in
how we present a lot of this, Like he's putting
so much on the line too professionally, and it takes
(26:32):
so much of his time where I know he's capable
of helping other artists with their careers and he has
ambitions to work with other artists and is but you know,
this is takes a lot of oxygen from him. So
I appreciate that generosity.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
It does take a lot of oxygen, especially like right
I feel like where you are right now, it's like
you are at this prime. In my opinion, I am
no expert. I have just observed a lot and lived
a ton.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Of like this. She've seen a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I have seen a lot I have. I've been overwhelmed
a lot. I've had my very high highs, my very
low lows, my I don't give a crap or shit
about any of it. I quit the moments so many times,
and then you come back around and you're like, Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
I know. I'm always like I'll quit, that'll show them and.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Get a show. Who nobody even cares, Like, oh oh,
that That's the thing is like even you can be
so great and have such important things to say, and
if you just take yourself out of the game, people
just not care. Eventually, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
It's just out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
If you're heartbreaking industry, like you give everything you have
and if you it can anyway. But it's also so
that's why you ultimately have to know why you're doing it,
which is for yourself and your calling and your mission,
and then you have to find the players who align
with you. But I have seen now a lot of things.
And when I look at someone like you, and I
was actually talking to Bobby Bones about this in the
(27:49):
parking lot with you before you got here, it's like
you are that artist who has gone so hard. Like
when I think of you, I just think of like
you just in it. You're just in this grind, this hustle,
this passion, this going NonStop, like you have never stepped
off the break. You're always coming back figuring it out,
like you haven't quit, you haven't let up because you're
(28:11):
so great and it's just a matter of time of
the right pieces connecting. And I say this about a
thousand horses too. I'm like they haven't. They have a
switchboard and their switchboard it's it's like it's a great
operating system. Just the wires have been all crossed a
little bit, and finally I feel like they're getting in
the right places. And like with you, it's like you
are this incredible operating machine that is so impactful and
(28:34):
is so authentically just like epic. Like it's just like
you are one of the legendary singers. Like you are
a legendary singer. It's just like your moment I feel
like is coming right now because all of your backstory
to get you to right here, which is this album,
no one gets out alive. I'm like, and it's gonna
keep building. Obviously, it's not like one one moment can't
(28:55):
change everything. But like I'm like, you are here, like
it is here, You're bating system is aligned, you got
your team in place. You signed with Big Loud Records,
and they're so known for like supporting artists as the
artist and not changing artists progressive.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I mean, I have this album done before I signed
with them, and they fully embraced what I was doing.
And I was like, well that is those are rogues,
Like that's a Maverick kind of team that's going to
get behind you. But the wires crossing, like I had
I had a little bit to do with those wires
(29:30):
being crossed in the beginning, just like even you know,
we're trying to talk about how I even got here,
and like how Tommy WOTLD Like I can't even tell
you in a straight line how that first part happens.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It was just spaghetti part of it.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Might be just like my brain even protecting me from
the beginning of that. But I don't take my foot
off the gas because like this is the time now,
That's what this whole album is about. It's like no
one gets out alive. We have a finite amount of
time to.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Get seeing it absolutely. Why do you have that urgency?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I just I feel like I've been here long enough.
I know now who I am. I believe in what
I'm doing. I'm not doubling down. I'm not tripling down.
This is the fourth album that I'm like, I still
am here and I still feel like I should be here,
and I have so much more left to do, and
(30:26):
I certainly think I have plenty of time to do
all sorts of things. But like I'm not I don't
want to take a break right now. I don't. I
didn't want to take a break when the pandemic happened.
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I resented that you did. Yes, what happened to you
during the pandemic? How did that affect you mentally in
your career?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I think, you know, I had a little bit of
an identity crisis of like, if I'm not performing, who
am I in?
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Like?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Right, what I'm used to having like one hundred some
dates a year and they were just canceled overnight. And
I had relationships that were friendships, but also there was
a work component. When that was removed, there.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Was like what is the friendship now?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And is that where some of the loss with friendships
came from? Yeah, and realized who was really a friend
and he was just kind of in it for the
It's more I feel.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Like it's it's more complicated than that, you know. I
think that a lot of people needed to be they
needed to feel valuable, and I probably couldn't provide that
in the way that you know I used to be
able to. So I don't I don't think that it's like, oh,
you see who your friends are. It's not that simple
to me. I think that there was a lot of
(31:37):
pressure that all these relationships had to sustain. That's so
hard to untangle now. And that's one of the reasons
that with this current project, like these songs are so
personal because I wasn't collaborating the same way that I
was on previous projects. I was writing not from the
(31:58):
collective we. I was from the I'm going through this.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
And so this is your you, Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
This I had to And you know, I also, like
my best friend's dad died, and my uncle had an aneurysm,
and my husband's uncles passed away. Like we we went
through a lot of loss as a family. And there
was just that beauty too of like cud, this is
getting older sucks, and like you are confronted with these
(32:24):
inevitable losses that happen. You know, people went through addiction issues.
I had friends getting divorced, Like just the I feel you,
the sheen, the like patina of all the like things
that I thought were so perfect really wore off. And
I also started this podcast, which was so fun, but
(32:47):
it was it was like I was throwing my life
and focus into all these different guests and hearing about
their experiences and like, oh, this person's got the best
career ever, there are no problems in the world, and
you hearing about their loss and it was just it
became like a really eye opening, sobering time for me.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Was that healing to hear about other artist losses that
you had kind of idolized and thought it was such
a That's what this podcast has done to me is
this made me realize, Oh, my god, everybody's got every
chaos and trauma and so many hard knocks, and it's
all about how you navigate it.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yes, because you think about their career, what a storied career,
that's exactly the one I want. And then you get
into it, they reveal to you just how incredibly heavy
some of the things are in their life. And I
think it seems so simple to just try and have
empathy for everyone. You don't know what anyone's going through,
but just to hear it bold faced in like detail,
(33:48):
I think was it was there was a moment where
like I was like, Okay, I'm sort of morphing into
maybe not like this always happy, go lucky person, which
I always would have characterized myself as before the pandemic
and I sort of embraced that. And even on the
(34:09):
last song of this record, we have a reprise, it's
called another Sad Song, and it's like, sorry if this
is another sad song that no one's gonna hear, and
they say that's the best way to kill a career,
But like, I'm going to write what I feel.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Did you kind of embrace your sadness in the pandemic?
I did her, And yeah, what were you angry about?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I was angry about. I think a lot of things
that I had gone through in the industry, or maybe
you mistakes that I had made, were times where I
just felt like, you know, there was a lot of
changes socio politically too, with just the me Too movement
(34:58):
and all that stuff, and realizing like I put up
with a lot of bullshit right in other scenarios trying
to be like that, you know, that fun girl who
was going to play the game politically.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I feel you hard on that.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Put a lot of effort into that, and I wish
I was putting more effort into my artistry and finding
my voice.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
And that kind of goes back to the two young part, right,
like you just were trying to win at the game
you thought by the rules that you thought were laid
out for you. Yes, so you kind of were mad
at yourself for playing the game, but you didn't know then.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I didn't know then, And I always was like, I'm
a hard worker, So I was working really hard at
doing what I thought was the most important thing, which was,
you know, getting people to like me and be on
my side and play my music. And then also I
was so angry at the rhetoric that I was seeing
between people, like just the hate of going online and
(35:57):
seeing how people were talking to one another. It was
something that was new for all of us. I think
we were in a pressure cooker during the pandemic. I
was mad that all my shows were canceled overnight. I
was mad that I felt like I had made all
this great music and it hadn't gotten me to that
place where I needed it too because of what was
going on in our touring world, and I was disheartened
(36:21):
about some like friendships that I thought would last forever
that just seemed to kind of dissolve with no closure.
And of course there was grief too that I was
dealing with. And some of these songs like fake Flowers as.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Wan, Yeah, talk to me about fake flowers.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
It's just kind of messy, like I imagine like a
crazy person sort of throwing stuff around in their kitchen
singing it. And it swings from like like kind of
quiet and gloomy to like this explosive chorus, and that's
how I was feeling.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
It was like all over the place.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, And usually I feel like I would have tried
to sort of like soften the edges of that song
before I finally decided to release it, And with this record,
I just was like, no, even the way that no
One gets out alive ends, it's like this big explosive
(37:16):
overture at the end because it's it's almost like violent
and rage, you know, but I wanted it to sound
like that.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And you're like almost so mad at people not appreciating
what life is and like doing the right things for
life that you're like, enjoy the urg like it's urgent,
enjoy this life, be awesome, be the best you can be,
and you're like almost like mad that people aren't because
there's so much confusion and hatred and all these things going.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
On in the world.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Is that I think complex.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
I'm not mad at others it's it's there was a rage.
There was like a you know, with making this record.
It was just something that I was like, I need
to just go for it. I don't know when the
right time to begin this is.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
So you had a real rage inside? Yeah, I think so.
I mean, what a great place to put it in music. Yeah,
and sometimes to rage out. Yeah, like we all need
to rage.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
You've been gone at karaoke. When you're angry, nothing feels better.
So that was sort of my way to address that.
And with No One Gets out Alive. I wrote that
with Natalie Hemby and Sonny Sweeney. If I played you
the work tape, you'd be like, oh, this is like
a sweet little folk song almost. And then we took
it to the studio like it's like oh at the end,
(38:36):
and I got a little orchestra, yes, out of Macedonia.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I mean you had a sixty plus piece of orchestra
in there. Yeah, Maggie, You're like, we're not doing this lightly. No,
all my feelings will be expressed in this album.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yes, no stone will be unturned. But also that was
a beautiful thing that came out of the pandemic because
there was this ensemble in Eastern Europe who because of
the pandemic, made themselves available to help put movie scores
together and work on projects. Now, yeah, I don't think
they would have, you know, facilitated that kind of production
(39:14):
for people overseas. And I worked with this guy Don
Hart who was able to make all these arrangements and
compose them and notate them in a way that an
orchestra in Macedonia could read it and be able to
play along with it. And we didn't use a click
on the record either, So that was just people who
(39:34):
are way more talented than me figuring that all out.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
What does that feel like knowing that a whole orchestra
is performing for you?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
It was, It was crazy. I was like, I want
to swing for the fences once.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I am taking your idea and they're giving it a life.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Well, it felt awesome to just have it be such
a collaborative effort because everyone that we had in the studio.
We had Chad Gamble, Zadler Vaden from the four hundred Unit,
and Ben Tanner who's part of the Alabama Shakes. He
produced my last record as well. He brought Zach Cockerlan
from the Shiks to play bass. We had Peter Levin
(40:15):
who plays with Amanda Shires and the Almond Brothers on keys,
and then Kitlyn Connor and Kyle Lewis from my band,
and everyone was just very much like in it, you know,
forthcoming with ideas and that was the energy of putting
this album together. And then I had these sixty four professional,
(40:36):
classically trained musicians kind of finish it off and it
just felt like, you know, this beautiful, cinematic, sweeping arrangement
that brought it to the height of its life. It
was really cool and surreal.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
What would you say are the big emotions you cover
on this album? No one gets that alive?
Speaker 3 (40:57):
I think gratitude.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Which ones would be the gratitude?
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Which songs? Yeah, no one gets out alive? I think
is a I think all the songs kind of have.
I'm grateful for all the songs because they provided me
some Catharsis Vanish is one that I feel like is
very much about closure that never came, but still respecting
(41:25):
and appreciating a relationship. Sad song at another sad song
at the end, I think is just being thankful that
I was able to tap into the emotions that inspired
a lot of these songs, regardless of what an A
and R team would tell me about the overall theme
(41:45):
and dead way. It was a really fun song to
write because it was about just moving forward with only
what you need and you know, a little a little
anger in there and conviction, you know, feeling like I
know what it.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Is that like underestimated me, I Estate Me is.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Was a really fun song to release ahead of the
album coming Back because.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
F you to everybody too. It's like, not to everyone.
I know, you're not doing this for other people. I
keep putting other people in it, and you're like, no,
this is about me in my journey, and I am
so whole and in tune with it all. I mean,
you really are. You're like you're like wise beyond your years.
But like for me, I'm like, yeah, there's a little
there's a little geary the middle figure, just a little
bit that came.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I wrote that with Chris Gilbuda and Henry Bryll, who
are buddies of mine, and it came a lot from
them knowing my story pretty well. And also at the
end of every podcast Asleep the Songbird that I hosted,
I would try and like let's leave, let's leave on
a positive note here and tell me what your favorite
(42:51):
part about being a woman in the industry is. And
pretty much like almost every episode I would get some
version of the underestimated because then I'm just gonna, like
far exceed your expectations if you're already selling me short.
And I loved that idea of like, yeah, I dare you,
I dare you to underestimate me and just sit back
(43:14):
and let's talk after the show, after you've seen so.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Even the pandemic, even though it really brought out your sadness, grief, anger, rage,
all that, it brought you to your podcast, which was
suit the Songbird, the song Word. Yes, I remember you
had like Martin McBride on there. You're really I mean,
do you still do that or is it just taking
arrest for now?
Speaker 3 (43:34):
I'm reformatting it. We're going to come out. I wanted
to release some music. Also, my editor passed away suddenly
and he was like such a wonderful right hand man
and helping me, sorry, get the whole flow of it together.
But it's excited to come back, okay, because I'm missing
that voice a lot. It was helping me work through
(43:56):
a lot of things, especially just like what's going on
in the world. I'm not always someone who's going to
take to Instagram and like be really didactic about what
I think, but it is it was a great way
to in a long format, talk through some of these
things going on with other women, different women, and let
(44:16):
them talk about it that, let them be the experts
on some of these things, and just yeah, hear it out.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
So I love though that, Like even this is why,
like looking back in retrospect, it's it's always great to
see because I love that, like in that moment that
was so hard for so many but we're talking about
you specifically, like the pandemic and everything stopping on a
you know, on a dime, and it's you went though
from like trying to say you used to be like
(44:41):
the happy girl. And I feel that way too, just
like I always wanted everyone to be happy walking a room,
like be bubbly. You like me?
Speaker 3 (44:48):
You like me?
Speaker 2 (44:48):
You like me? Do you like me? I mean that's always.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Going to be there. I'm always I'm the middle child
that's never gonna go away.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
But you like me? Right?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I love the okay, but it's like you kind of
were able to be like Okay, if you don't like me, though,
I'm also okay with that.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
That's part of getting older, right, Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
It's a heart that it's hard through some shit.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
I feel like if you don't have a little bit
of that now, like you're just not paying attention. Yeah,
so there is a bit of a ticket or leave
it now?
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Is that a relief though, to like feal that in
your body, Yes, to be like genuinely like, I know
my talent, I know my worth, I know what I'm
great at, I know what I want to do, and
I know it's going to be awesome. And if you
don't like it, it's like you know yourself? Now, what
is it like knowing yourself? What is the difference like
talking to your like Margaret Durante fifteen to nineteen year
(45:40):
old self with Tommy Mittola, the big explosion of it
all happening to now, what would you tell her?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
I have so much compassion for her. There used to
be times I was like, oh my god, like if
this all blows up for me and I do get
the exposure that like I'm working so hard to get,
people are gonna look at my old videos or my
old songs and like, no, I've been making music a
(46:06):
long time. I'm allowed to change, I'm allowed to evolve.
And I also I am just so grateful that my
nineteen year old self had the bravery or the insanity
or it was just too green to know what was
ahead of her to put me here and allow me
to do this. And she had have a career that
(46:28):
yes a lot, and she kept going and talent and
enough belief in herself that she thought she could take
this on and then no. I also wish I could
have told her, like, you know, it's a lot more
forgiving than you think, and really yes, because when it
(46:51):
did feel like everything was just ending, like the world
was closing in, it didn't. So it did not.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Yeah, did you so you actually felt that forgiveness? How
did the forgiveness come to you?
Speaker 3 (47:06):
I think like just that the the world is more
forgiving than you think, and people's collective memories of your
perceived failures are not as long lasting as you think. Like,
so true, if you come back at it after something
has blown up, with something that is truly great, then
(47:28):
people will like receive it. People will receive it, yeah,
and you think they won't until you do. People want it.
And I feel like I've deserved every second, third, fourth
chance that I've gotten because you know what preceded that
was it was still solid. I think I was just
(47:49):
overly critical and I was petrified of making the wrong step,
not realizing that, Like, you need to make men many
wrong steps to land where you have to go.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
So how you probably will.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
You don't need to, but.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
You will, So you figure it out. How would you
describe yourself as an artist and a human and as
a whole brand and being now now that you've gone
through this journey, I mean you have gone through the
(48:30):
journey all the ways internally, externally, soul, mind, body, soul
spirit music. Like in the industry, I mean you have
gone into the pressure cooker and you have survived and
you've come out the other side.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yeah, I mean, I think you just need to try
and authentically be yourself, not trying to emulate someone else's career.
You need to make music for yourself. I think you
need to create art that you yourself love and will
(49:05):
want to revisit ten years from now. Making timeless sustainable
music means being genuine in what message it is that
you're putting out. Also knowing the responsibility of what messages
you're putting out there is your audience.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Now that's wisdom, because I feel like I didn't learn
that part until a little bit later, Like, oh my gosh.
When you actually have a platform and people are actually
listening to you like what you are saying, you really
have an impact, right, you know?
Speaker 3 (49:33):
Yes? And I also think knowing what not to speak
on too, and not taking up other people's oxygen who
might know better than you what to say. It's words
are so important, you know, And just trying to be
a force of good by connecting people through music, by
(49:56):
always practicing vulnerability. I think if you want to make
music that connects with people, you need to always consider
it an exercise and vulnerability and being willing to learn
and listen. Being a good musician, I think you need
to be a great listener. So I'm always trying to
(50:16):
make sure that I'm receiving enough so that I can
have output that's worth something.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
What have you learned from your live shows with connecting
with the fans? What have you learned about humanity?
Speaker 3 (50:26):
That people are inherently good? That might sound you know,
Pollyanna of me, but there's nothing more powerful than getting
on stage knowing that most everyone doesn't know one another,
but there's like this community by the end of the
show where everyone leaves with that connection to each other.
(50:48):
That feels, you know, that's invaluable to me. It feels
really specific to music and to anything that will gather
people together and let them just folks on one singular
thing at the time. There's so few things that we
do now. I feel like we're all factioned off into
our own little our own little tunnels of whatever it
(51:12):
is that we want to receive. And to have that
ability to have a show that is my own with
my band and we set the agenda is a big responsibility.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
It very plugs in. Yeah, yeah, what is success to
you now? Now that you've seen it all, Like you've
been to OZ, you've looked behind the veil, you know
what it is? What is success to you now?
Speaker 3 (51:35):
I think success is being able to do this for
as long as I can get myself up on a stage.
You know, if I'm old and sitting in a chair
and singing my songs way down the road.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
So singing forever, it's just who you are.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
I would like to Yeah, if you know, God willing,
I have the ability to and having balance, you know,
I want to start a family and all those things too.
I think in order to be a well rounded artist,
I want to make sure I'm a well rounded person.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
And yeah, I still want to like, is it pressure
to start a family?
Speaker 3 (52:14):
I'll do the Super Bowl halftime show. I'll do all
these things if it comes. But that's not what motivates
me to get out of bed. It's it's being able
to make music on my terms, and I'm lucky to
do it with such an effective, incredible team.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Do you feel like because I was talking to jin
Way and my wey, I wasn't talking to her, but
we've talked about this and then she was still loved
gin I loved jin But she made a post the
other day and she has a little girl now and
she was like, to all the people that said, I.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
Love that post, I did too. I needed to see
that post.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
I did too. She's like, to all the people that
said you can't have a kid or a family when
you were trying to do this, they were wrong. And
it makes you cheery think about it because I felt
that pressure forever. I needed to see that because it's
like everyone's like, you can't, you can't be a successful
woman in the career and have a kid. It's going
to ruin your career. But they're wrong. Have you felt
(53:08):
that pressure like you can only be one or the other?
Speaker 3 (53:11):
Absolutely? Absolutely, And that's internalized misogyny. That's my own shit,
like me buying into It's not like some dude came
up to me. It was like, you better not get pregnant.
And that's what's keeping me from it. It's me believing
that because it will be harder, it will be more
(53:33):
difficult to leave my child behind when I go out
on the road, or or strap them to my chest
and go hit the road. Both of them are going
to be challenging. But I'm like, I'm not afraid of
a challenge. That's just me going to a deeper level
of existing and living the human experience. If I'm ever
(53:56):
granted that and like some people can't have children, that
doesn't make you any less than either. I just feel
like it's definitely been a current that has affected my
idea on family planning, being specific to this industry. I
know that I probably would have had a child or
(54:19):
attempted too sooner if I was in a different profession.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
Undoubtedly, I know I know, and I'm so happy that,
like the mold is breaking in so many ways. But
it being a woman in the industry. That's why, Like
you just like crazy saying so strong and like pushing
through all of these roadblocks that I feel like are
so hard for women. I mean really, and you've just
(54:44):
kept moving through them. It's inspiring, Maggie.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
But being a woman is awesome too. It is so fun.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
What are your favorite parts about being a woman.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
Oh, I just think the camaraderie. It really is like
I grew up with two sisters.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
I know you got your bird tattoo for all three
of us.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
And you know, I feel like you and I we've
always checked on each other over the years because there's
like just this understanding of what we've been through. I
also love the clothes.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
I love Oh, I love the intuition.
Speaker 3 (55:19):
I love the like I don't know, I just feel
like there's a really cool perspective about what it gives
you in the way you see the world.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
I love that place when you start, no one gets
out of here alive. You're like, go to Rome, buy
the ticket, go to Rome. By the dress that stops
to show all that man, I'm staying the lyrics song,
but I'm like, so one of my favorite clothes experience
I've ever had was actually and then we need to
wrap up because I love hearing your story so much.
But it's almost an hour and you did the most
epic closet sale. It was probably ten years ago, maybe
(55:53):
even fifteen, Like ten years ago. I was gonna wear
this sequin jacket that I still have from you, because
I will never forget walking into your closet and you
had all these clothes for sale, and I was like,
you're getting rid of these, like they're freaking amazing, just
clothes and clothes of fantastic, dreamy outfits. And I stocked
(56:15):
up so hard and I have worn We were.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
My best customer that day, for sure, Bananas.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
I literally could not believe this was happening.
Speaker 3 (56:22):
That's why you still have it. I need to do
another one.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
I've filled me first first well, actually i'll give you
a private, let me do it by myself, till let
me have first entry.
Speaker 3 (56:31):
I just finished my attic like last year upstairs, and
it's like a.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Full blown uh.
Speaker 3 (56:41):
Room just for my touring clothes, and it has you
ask how Austin and I are still married that is how.
That's how because being like on tour, it used to
just be like an open suitcase and then like just
my shit everywhere. And now there's a place to contain
the mess. And I don't buy as much clothes because
(57:04):
you can see it all everything. And I'm a big
newly rent the runway both of them subscriber. It's literally yes,
when you perform sometimes like how many times could I
wear this outfit?
Speaker 2 (57:15):
Is this rent's runway? This is one of those newly.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
Oh but it's like you know, oh, there's she is
in her puffy pink sleeve bodysuit. Again like no, we
gotta and it's better for the environment and all that stuff.
But yeah, you got to come over. And it makes
life less expensive, believe it or not, and uh more creative.
Like with what I get to put together, I'm repurposing
(57:40):
a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
You just sit in your clothes attic and just feel
like if you need to like calm down, you just
go sit in there.
Speaker 3 (57:47):
Yes I do, I do, I very much do. I
pak my makeup in there. All the products are contained,
Like Austin is very lucky that he doesn't have all
the potions and lotions everywhere.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Just your room.
Speaker 3 (58:01):
Yes, well he has. I gave him a little section.
He has a section on a tiny little section on
the right. But he also got to redo his own
closet in our primary room, so it's slightly more organized.
But I have a little more real estate than he
does for sure.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
I mean you need as yeah, you need it. Okay.
So I'm just gonna say a couple of facts. So
I think it's really amazing you just played the Opyry
over one hundred times, Like that's incredible. Yeah, I mean,
how cool is that. It's it's you've done some pretty
bucketless things.
Speaker 3 (58:32):
Very much pinch me moment to play the oprya anytime,
but especially when you walk through the doors and everyone's
just like, hey, welcome back, and just feels so familiar.
And I think that there's a reason they've been around forever.
They're about to turn one hundred years old. It's incredible,
and I feel like they're really trying to keep their
ear to the ground and pay attention to not what's
(58:54):
just only going on in country radio, but like what's
going on in Nashville. That they keep inviting people that
are out of the box to.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
That stage, it's incredible. Okay. I always wrap up with
leave your light, and it's just open ended. I mean
from the OG days, I think we left our light
with you back in the day. What do you want
people to know?
Speaker 3 (59:20):
Just in general?
Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, just to leave them with a bit of just
some inspiration, like what do you want people to know?
Speaker 3 (59:27):
This sounds so cheesy, and I think it's tied into
this record and having this sense of autonomy that I
have now, it's like you are good. You are as
you are offering what only you can to this whole thing,
(59:48):
and I feel like embracing those things that make you
you and uniquely you are sometimes the things that we
try and hide away about ourselves. But if you kind
of to work on them, like it, it makes you
have that unique thing to offer to this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
I love that and I love you said if you
kind of work on them, because when I think of you,
I think of someone who was just this. Like I
said it, Sony and Hames. I just want to end
with this just so you know how deeply I feel
about you and everyone listening. I want to give inspiration
because you are so inspiring. If you would have quit
when it didn't work out in the beginning, however, many
years ago, what that was when it all happened, and
(01:00:29):
you wouldn't have kept coming back into the fire, reassessing,
going back into your heart, pulling out who what you really,
what felt good, what felt bad, changing the potion just
a little bit, tweaking it, and then coming back again.
If you don't keep going back in when you get burned,
then you just stay burned, you know, and then you
just end with the bad feelings, and then you just
(01:00:50):
end with feeling like a victim. Then you just end
with all of it being a disaster. But if you
go back in and you say, Okay, this will not
break me. I'm going to figure out what I need
to Shane change about myself, what was good, what was
about and then you regroup. Then I look at you now,
all these years later, and I'm like, not only are
you this incredible artist who knows who she is, but
(01:01:11):
you have this depth of wisdom that you could never
have gotten if you hadn't kept coming back in and
learning and grabbing all the tidbits of knowledge and just
taking it, taking the good and leaving the bad, and
learning and growing. And I feel like you have to
do that if you want to become the most evolved
version of yourself and the greatest and best version of yourself,
which you have continuously done. Thank you and I admire
(01:01:33):
you for that, because it's hard to do that. So
many people want to get stuck in the pain.
Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
I like that you said you would have just stayed burned.
You do, and I'm I think just saying self acceptance
is too simple, Like you accept all the things about yourself,
but you also need to polish up a few of
them too, and that's how you really own it. That's
how you own what you are.
Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
And then nobody can break you because you've been through
all this and you're like, you actually can't take me
down because I'm so whole within myself now that like
nobody can knock this down.
Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
That's the lyric and fake flowers.
Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
I mean, I got it from somebody really far.
Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
You're amazing, Maggie. Thank you so much for joining me.
Can you stickround for a few burning questions? Speaking of Bernie? Okay, okay, YEA,
absolutely love it.
Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Thank you so much.
Host
Caroline Hobby
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