August 7, 2023 • 35 mins
Join Brooke Taylor (@Brookeradio) and Ryan Griffin (@RyanGriffinLive) on this episode to hear all of the details of his new EP Phases. Ryan explains the point in his career where music became fun again, the joy his family brings to him and sacrifices he's had to make along the way. Grab a drink, let's go Backstage.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey, were ready to roll,Let's go stage. Welcome to the backstage
with Brook. You're all access pastto music city, where nothing is off
limits. Grab a drink, let'sgo backstage. Ryan Griffin's in the house.
What's up. I'm good. Howyou doing. Listen? We were
(00:22):
just bonding over our kids and howamazing they are. So I'm really good.
I'm happy now because I was justtalking about Emma and she's my favorite
human thing, the hardest thing you'llever do, best thing, every cliche
is true, the best thing.And we were talking about the whole like
time thing of like Kenny Chesney's songfor example, don't blink. Oh yeah,
heard that song a million times,had a child, and I was
(00:42):
just like, wait, seriously,don't blink. It's different, right.
It's so crazy how kids are.Literally, I don't know. I feel
like there's such a scary thing becauseyou're like, oh my gosh, I
don't know what I'm supposed to do, But then you do it and you're
like, wait, okay, thisis actually the best thing because they teach
you so much every single day.It's crazy. Yeah. We got so
(01:03):
Levi's my oldest and when we gotto one year old. My wife and
I high fived and we're like,he's alive. We're winning, Like that's
that's the main objective here. Butseriously, though, it's like you get
sent home from the hospital with aliteral human being and they're like, good
luck, see later, let's knowif you need anything. I drove like
a grandpa. Oh yeah, likehome the first time. Second time,
(01:27):
I was like flying on the It'sso funny because my my girlfriend Catherine and
I were just talking about this theother day with how Emma just turned to
my daughter and you know, she'senrolling her daughter into like a like preschool
type situation but it's for like youngerkids than preschool and like the school daycare
whatever you wanna call it. AndI was just like, I want to
(01:48):
for like my own sake, liketime wise, mental health. Yeah,
it's a real thing. But alsoI'm like, you overthink everything with the
first kid, and I'm like I'min that overthink mode where I'm she's good,
Yes I'm supposed to, Yeah,like do I want to? Am
I gonna be a bad parent forputting her in daycare when I don't necessarily
need to? But we could talkabout that for hours. My wife and
I went through the same thing endedup being a good thing that we put
(02:10):
him in like a little mother's dayhelp program. Yeah, that's what I
need to do. It helped herwith both of us, honestly, with
our sanity. So I mean,there's there's nothing like being able to like
be blessed enough to stay at homewith your kid all day but also work.
But also it's just like a lot. Hello, I need a break.
(02:30):
I feel that. Oh my goodness. Okay, well I'm sure kids
are going to get brought up herein a minute. But I wanted to
first and foremost talk about something thatyou posted on Instagram yesterday because I was
literally having the worst day yesterday andI posted about it all my stories and
I was just like in this holeand I don't remember what I was doing,
but I was just going through andI see this quote that you posted
(02:52):
that Mark Wahlberg said. It says, sometimes God slows you down so that
evil ahead of you will pass beforeyou get there. Your delay could mean
your protect And I literally hit thefloor. I was like, thank you
Jesus. I needed to hear that. You know. My wife sent that
to me yesterday and yesterday was justa struggle. And she sent that to
me and I was just like,I love you so much. This was
(03:14):
so timely, so needed, andI had never thought about it that way
before. You know, it's takingand what we interpret as a negative and
flipping it in a positive, andthe Lord's protecting us and he's there by
our side, and yeah, youknow it's pretty cool. It was a
powerful thing. We'll tell your wifethat I love her too, because I
needed that yesterday too so bad.And I saw it and I literally sitting
(03:34):
on the couch and I like didlike this big like sigh, and I
was like, what's like, what'sup? And I just like turned my
phone around and I like showed himand he was just like, yeah,
see, I've been trying to tellyou that why I had to listen to
me? Oh you know, youknow I had to get it from Instagram.
Seriously love it. Being open andhonest about your faith and just kind
of sharing things like that I knowis important to me. And I just
(03:57):
thank you for sharing that because courseit changed my day. Yes, I
mean it's the most important thing.Faith and family. Yeah, you know,
that's that's where it all. That'swhat's all about that's true faith,
family, and then the wrest willfall into place after that. I'm in,
yeah, all right, well Igotta play this little clip. Okay,
(04:23):
new EP phases come on like soawesome, thank you, so so
good. I was really upset becausewe originally had this planned before the EP
came out, and then we hadto reschedule and now it's you know,
a little little behind this backwards whenit comes to schedule wise. But I
was so excited when um we talkedabout doing this podcast because truly, I
(04:45):
feel like there's so many people inthe world that don't know about certain people,
like when it comes to like musicand things like that. I love
this podcast so much because my friend'shusband listens to it like religiously, and
he's a very like traditional nineties countrylike that's all he has on his playlist,
that's all he listens to. Andevery time that we have like somebody
he doesn't know about on the podcast, he's like I looked up their music
(05:08):
and they're like really amazing, andI was just like, just wait till
you hear this guy. Okay,do you spreading the word literally when you're
putting together a piece of work toput out to the world. What is
that as you know, like aperson just putting something out. You know,
Yeah, people are going to eitherlike it, they're not gonna like
it. They're gonna have something tosay about it, they'll have an opinion
(05:30):
about it. But it's got tobe such a cool thing to work on
something so special and then just belike, this is what I've been working
on, guys, then give itto the world. It's it's one of
the coolest things. You know.I learned a long time ago that fans
can see through if you're being fake, or if you're chasing something, or
if you're not being who you are. And so, you know, putting
together this music, so much ofmy journey has just been to get to
(05:57):
this point. Yeah, and puttingtogether phases is I couldn't be more proud
of it. I'm so excited thatit's out in the world. And I
just realized, I was like,this is something that connects us all.
You know, we've all been there, We've all gone through these phases of
trying to find love. You know, you find love, you break up,
you struggle a little bit, youheal, and then you try again
(06:19):
until you find that one that makesyou stop looking. Yeah, and it's
something that we all unite, weall feel, and so it just felt
like something that was really genuinely onmy heart. And you know, yeah,
so I'm really pumped about. We'retalking to a second ago about how
your kids are very good, likedecision Maker when it comes to music.
(06:40):
Yea. Do they have a favoritesong on the EP? They do?
So. They love Heart to Break, you know, that's been the primary
one that we've been playing a lot. But I come home and oh,
they also love been missing you andFridays that's what God made. Friday's little
Jude, the three year old,he has dance parties to that song.
We've nicknamed it Friday's. It's likehe's like dead Depittely Friday's exactly. And
(07:05):
you know, every day I goand write and I come home and they're
the first ones, you know,them two and my wife. I play
it for him before I send itto my publishers, before I send it
to my team. I play itfor them. And it's crazy. Like
we were talking before, how kidscan latch on to certain songs, and
it typically like the songs that theylove are the songs that everyone else loves.
(07:29):
And I think, you know,dissecting a little bit, it's just
because it's like it's simple to understand, and it's like those nursery rhyme melodies
that just get stuck in your head, and uh, yeah, they're my
best gauge for sure. It hasthere ever been a time where you brought
a song home and you're like,this is it? I love this?
And they're like all the time,all the time, I get done right
and pouring my heart into something foryou know, six hours or whatever.
(07:53):
And I'm listening to it on theway home and I'm just like, oh,
I can't wait to play it forhim. And I go turn it
on and I always know because they'llget distracted easily. They'll go like walk
away and grab a toy or something, and I'm like, oh, that's
a miss, you know. Don'tnever be like I don't like it totally.
They're they're sweet to their daddy.That at least you know you've taught
(08:13):
them manners. They're polite. It'smore of their mama. But yeah,
we love you again wants to lovefor her on this podcast, I want
to talk to you about the beginningof your career and sort of maybe those
people who haven't met you yet orthey don't know you, they're hearing you
for the first time right here.Um, what led you to music?
What made you fall in love withmusic? That's oh man, that's a
(08:35):
really good question. So I wentmy first concert I ever went to.
I grew up down in South Florida, and we went to this arena and
Brooks and Dunn was playing, andI fell in love with Ronnie Dunn's voice.
And then I saw the way thatthe crowd was reacting and smiling and
like the joy that that artist wasbringing to these people. And then I
(08:56):
found out like I could kind ofsing a little bit, and I wasn't
sure, like is my voice goingto change? Am I not gonna be
ald? And it just kind ofstuck around, and I could always kind
of be that that kid who sang, you know, and I sang everywhere.
Like I was never the best studentin like learning my ABC's and all
that kind of stuff, and learningwhatever projects. My mom would always like
(09:18):
put it to a melody and I'dinstantly be able to pick it up.
And so it's just always been somethingthat I feel like I've been called to
or like gifted with and I've beenpursuing it ever since. Was there ever
a moment in your career where you'relike, I don't know, man,
this is hard. I don't thinkthis is for me. There's been a
(09:39):
lot of valleys, you know,in my journey here in Nashville, and
music is the thing that has alwayskept me going, you know, because
it's just it's so cool to beable to say things in a way that
maybe somebody else didn't have the wordsto say, and you see them connect
and you see the feeling that thatsong gives them, especially when you're playing
(10:03):
live. Like hearing people sing saltlimon Tequila back to me all last year
was like one of the coolest momentsof my life, of my career.
It's just amazing to see people connectin that way with something that you've created
from nothing. Yeah, you havebeen playing the opry, Yeah, a
couple you know, I have tosay handful of times, no big deal.
So I feel like that is justsuch a moment. When you moved
(10:26):
to Nashville, I mean, that'sa bucket list item and being able to
do it, oh, you know, multiple times is a pretty freaking big
deal. Yeah, recently you justplayed again. I mean what stepping into
the circle like, tell me thatfeeling. Like trying to describe it the
best you can, it's hard forme. Like this was the fourth time
I think I got to play theOpry, and every time I pinched myself
(10:48):
and I'm like, is this reallyhappening? Like this was the most comfortable
I've been on the Opry stage.And I actually took a minute standing in
the circle to just stop and lookaround and be like, wow, so
many people have stood on this stagethat have paved the way for us,
and it's incredible. But the Opryhas always had a really special place in
(11:09):
my heart because my grandfather, weused to have Sunday dinners, big family,
and he and I would sneak awayafter dinner and we'd sit down and
he would, you know, puton the Opry and he teached me about
everybody that he grew up with andso like not to go dark. But
before he passed, one of thelast things he said to me was keep
(11:31):
going. You're going to be inthat circle one day, kid, and
a couple of years you know goby, and I'm invited to go play
at the Opry. And it wasjust such a huge, huge moment for
me personally and career wise. Ithink that's so sweet when you hear stories
like this where it's like it's almostlike a generational thing where you know there's
(11:54):
there's never not a love for theopry, you know what I mean,
and it just runs so deep.And I know that one of my girlfriend
friends, she her and her husbandjust celebrated their i think four year wedding
anniversary and they went to the Operyfor the first time together, like on
a date night, and she wasjust like William cried, He like actually
shed tears because of just how it'sjust an emotional place. It's not bad,
(12:16):
but you know what I mean,not a bad teer. He was
just like this is awesome. LikeRicky Skaggs was there, Skill was there,
and he's like these are my people. Like yeah, it's just so
much history in one room and knowingthat, like you get to be a
part of that, like interwoven intothat history and continue to be a part
of that. I just from anoutsider's perspective, I just can't believe,
Like that's got to be the coolestfeeling. I can't believe it either.
(12:37):
Honestly, it's like I said thisafter the first time I stepped on in
the circle, that the spirit ofthe Opry is a real thing. Yeah,
and it is alive and well andthat's what's moving him sitting, you
know, in the audience because it'sa very intimate environment. The sound is
incredible. People are there to listenand it can really impact you and affect
(13:01):
you in that environment. You know, in the spirit of the Opery,
it'll get you. There's nothing likeit. I'm telling you. The first
time I ever went to the operastanding side stage, Vince Gill brought Patty
Loveless on stage and I was justlike, what, I'm like melting and
I don't know if you could topthat. It's like what I was crying.
Yeah, I was like this isnuts. That is crazy. And
it was like, how do youlove dude? It was so wild.
(13:22):
And that was one of those likekind of like godwink moments in my life
where I was in LA at thetime working for a company and I was
like not happy with what I wasdoing, and it was like God tell
like planting the literal seed of Nashvillein my heart. And then fast forward
like eight years here I am,and it's just like so cool to see
and look back at those moments wherewe're like, I love you know.
(13:43):
It's like a little seed was plantedand then it was watered, and it
was watered and then you continue togo and I'm just like I love that.
You can trace it back to beingat the opery. Yeah, that's
when that seed was planting. Theseed was planting really cool, and I
was like, I want to behere, and it was ever since then.
I was just like I'm gonna getI'm gonna get there someday. And
then COVID hits top, goes awayand then Nashville here we come. You
(14:05):
know, let's go well, Andlike, I feel like COVID specifically was
such a weird time for so manypeople, but I feel like there were
so many weird blessings within that year. It was a lot of fear,
it was a lot of unknown,but there was so much I feel like
clarity and so many people's lives oflike I was meant to do this yea,
or like maybe this isn't for me, Maybe I should go somewhere else.
(14:26):
Yeah, it was definitely not forme. I mean, at the
end of COVID, I lost mysecond record deal. I was with Warner
Records, and I didn't know whatI was gonna do. You know,
now I look back on it,and it really is one of the biggest
blessings in my life because I wasslated to maybe miss Jude's birth and then
(14:50):
definitely miss the first year or twoof his life. Yeah, knowing now
walking through that, being present forhis birth for his first two years of
life, there's nothing I would giveup, you know. Yeah for that.
That was one of the biggest blessingsin my life that I did not
(15:13):
see coming. It took me.Took me a minute to figure that one
out. Oh yeah, one.It's like shout out to God man,
because I feel like he really justpulled the plug out of everybody's lives and
was like, y'all need to rest. Yeah, y'all need to just chill
out and enjoy your family and stoppedtaking life's a day, seriously, refocused,
reprioritized, recenter like that's what weuse that time for. And it
ended up I know, there's obviouslya lot of heartbreak that happened in horrible
(15:39):
things, but it ended up beingthere was a blessing in the silver lining
of it for us totally. Ithink over the last what like three years
since COVID kind of landing back onyour feet, trying to you know,
figure things out. What have youlearned along the way, Like I think
music has become fun again. Yeah, I stopped taking it so seriously and
(16:03):
started just really focusing on connecting withpeople and being just as real as I
could be, and not trying tobe what my label wanted me to be,
or trying to be what I thought, you know, was gonna get
get me fans or whatever. Iwas just like, I'm gonna just write
from my heart. I'm gonna tellmy story, and I'm gonna try to
(16:26):
do it in a way that connectsthe most most people, you know.
I feel like being a father whois in an industry that is just so
demanding of your time has got tobe such a hard thing. And I
know that other people who are listeningmight have a different career and you know
their their their career might be verytime consuming as well. But being a
(16:47):
dad and I know how much likejust knowing you for a short a few
minutes, like I can just tellyou you beam every time you talk about
them so being a part of theirlives and making sure that you're intentional with
those moments, whether you know you'reworking or being at home. What are
some of the ways that you liketo just be intentional, you know at
home? Yeah, side of thejob, I mean, we have like
(17:08):
our little things, like my Leviand I we watch a show before bedtime
every night. Were like cuddle,you know, and it's like our special
time. Jude is just now gettingto the age to where he's like not
so much of a mama's boy andhe's starting to love daddy, you know,
and so he and I will justtake little trips together, you know,
(17:30):
and even like to the gas station, to the grocery store, whatever
it is, just to like spendthat time one on one with each other.
And then you know, we loveplaying in the backyard and doing stuff
like that. But one thing that'sactually kind of surprising me is that music
is connecting us really. Yeah.So Levi did not care if he was
(17:55):
backstage at a show or at oneof my shows, or if I was
standing on stage and there were twentythousand p pull out there. He didn't
care. This year, he's actuallylike starting to get old enough to where
he thinks it's so cool, andhe came to the opera with us.
Both of them came to the opera. It was Jude's first time, which
was really sweet, amazing. Andthen Levi came to the opera and he
goes, Dad, just please don'tmake me go backstage. I want to
(18:18):
go out in the audience and beable to hear you and see you.
And he goes, my children arespoiled. And he goes and less there's
a VIP section, then I'll goto the VIP section. I was like,
oh my gosh, what listen thoseparks if you can. He ain't
bashful about it. I'll tell youthat one bit. Yeah, it's so
(18:41):
awesome. I feel like my husband, Andrew and I we talked about this
a lot of like how we havethese get two jobs, not come two
jobs, and knowing, you know, how we grew up with six kids
in our family, so it's like, Wow, my parents did the best
that they could and you know,gave us better lives than they had and
that's all you can ask for.Yeah, And I'm like Emma's too,
and has been to more concerts thanmost people in the United States. So
(19:03):
it's like it's crazy to know thatwe have these jobs where it's like I
feel like sometimes we can take thesespecial moments for granted. But like to
grow up with a dad who getsto sing at the opry, like the
shows, the shows where my familycome with me, everything in the world
is right. I'm doing what Ilove. I'm out there singing and connecting
(19:26):
with people, and then I getto turn around and hug my boys and
my wife. Like it doesn't happenoften, but when that happens, it's
like my world is just full andcomplete. Because if I'm if I'm at
home and I'm not touring, I'mlike itching to get out and tour.
When I'm touring and my family's athome, I'm itching to get home,
(19:48):
you know, to be with them. I'm missing them, and I just
wasn't missing anything in those moments whenthey're out with me. And it's a
really sweet thing. I talked toWalker Hayes about that all the time,
and it's like I'm like, dude, you are live in the dream.
Literally come out and do all thethings with him. It's like so cool,
like he has it, he hasit figured out. Yeah, you
know well, and that's just it. My husband works in merchandise for country
(20:11):
artists and so he travels a lot, and now having Emma, he's like,
this sucks. You know. It'slike without kids, a kid,
you're like, oh, having fun, I'm going to Chicago, I'm going
to la This is so cool andyou're not really torn. Ye, your
heart's not torn, you know,and you get kids, know them in
the mix, and your heart getstorn a lot. And I think that
that's one of the things that Ilove to talk to about specifically on this
(20:33):
podcast out of those like backstage momentsof like, you don't see the sacrifice
that these artists are making every singleday, and that is sometimes you miss
dinners, sometimes you miss birthdays,sometimes you miss anniversaries, sometimes you miss
these big moments. My sweet wife, I will tell you the sacrifice often
falls on her because last year shewas basically like a single mom. I
(20:57):
was gone to hundred and sixty dayslast year, and you know, it
was like I could see it wearingon her, and I could definitely see
it wearing on LEVI. Jude didn'tknow any different, but it was interesting.
When I came back, it waslike December tenth was our last show
last year, and from then untilabout March, it was like I was
(21:21):
making up for lost time with LEVI. You know, he I could see
it affect him, and so thatwas that was a sacrifice that I didn't
I knew was there, but Ididn't really see coming. I didn't really
see that it was going to affecthim as much as it did. But
yeah, I couldn't do this withoutmy wife, Like you have to have
(21:41):
someone in your corner that is thatsupportive. And it's not just music.
It's like so many of my friendsdon't work in music, but they make
sacrifices constantly because they're traveling or they'reworking super late hours or missing birthdays or
whatever. We literally have never beennever celebrated an anniversary on our actual anniversary
(22:03):
day. Like our first anniversary,my wife carried tips around the bar downtown
when where I was playing Wow,So I guess we kind of spent it
together, but it wasn't. Itwasn't We weren't celebrating each other. And
then last year I was playing ashow and I was like, I promise,
And last year was our tenth anniversary, and I was like, I
(22:26):
promise, I'll make it up toyou next week, you know, the
following week, and she's just sherolls with the punches. You know.
It's so crazy because that you mentionednot celebrating your anniversary, because my husband
and our anniversary is coming up herein a few weeks. It's our third
wedding anniversary. And he's going tobe out on a West Coast run with
Tracey Atkins and he's like, thisis weird. I don't know what to
(22:48):
do, and you know, we'rejust like whatever, We'll roll with it.
It's like so different for him becausehe's like, you know, he's
slinging merch like he you know,not saying that that's not important, but
he's like, but I, youknow, like I'm not I don't have
to do it, Like I don'thave to be out. Maybe I should
take the week off. And I'mlike, do your thing. Oh,
We're like we had celebrated on anotherday. It's like it's our my thing
is It's just a day. Likethe whole point is celebrating each other and
(23:11):
um the journey of the past tenyears for us, for instance, and
so it doesn't have to be thatspecific day for us at least that's not
what's important. So but I getit because it's like the he's weighing the
cost versus you know, the reward, and it's a real thing. Yeah,
(23:34):
Okay, ten years or ten yearsmarried, you and your wife hit
me with some good marriage advice.I'm only three years in me, I'm
putting you on the I mean,there's so much, um some good marriage
advice. I don't feel like.I feel like I'm just now starting to
(23:56):
figure out how to how to bea decent husband and how to like you
know, I think the biggest thingand it may be a little cliche,
but like when we lose that likefriendship aspect of it. We started as
friends and then we fell in love, and it's like kids get involved in
(24:17):
life, gets involved and things don'tgo the way you think they're gonna go,
and and you can easily slip outof that like friendship mode. And
the moments when we've lost that,it's like we've lost what was special about
it. So getting back to thatbeing friends and knowing trusting that she's going
(24:40):
to take care of me and I'mgoing to take care of her, so
we don't have to take care ofourselves in a way, like just trusting
that we're going to take care ofeach other has been a huge thing because
the moments where we lost that friendshipand we tried to take care of ourselves,
we don't connect. It's like there'sa huge wall in between us.
When I take care of her andshe takes care of me, then everything
(25:03):
works. Yeah, dude, Iwas just talking to her friend the other
day about how marriage is hard.They don't tell you it is hard where
you say I do. Man,it's it's tough, and it's somebody said
the other day. I can't rememberwho said it, but they were like,
you have to find somebody that youwant to struggle with, you know,
somebody that you're willing to like digthrough the trenches. Yeah, it
gets ugly sometimes not in a badway, but it can. It's just
(25:26):
real life. Yeah, I meanthere's ups and downs and everything. And
you know Porter's Call, which isclose to here and Franklin. It's like
this counseling for artists and it's anamazing organization. And there's a guy named
Chad that I go over there andsee and he said something to me that
blew my mind. And it's sosimple and you just said it. He's
(25:48):
like, struggle. Well, yeah, life is a struggle, so you
can't make that go away. Hesaid, all you can do struggle Well
yeah, and I was like,whoa, that's a word for somebody that
is so good, something that knockedme. You know. Well, we're
talking about literally, I feel likethis whole podcast has different phases of life.
We're talking about, you know,the trenches. We're talking about exciting
(26:11):
times. We're talking about your DWEPand I feel like twenty twenty we're already
halfway through twenty twenty three, whichis I don't know how that happened.
Crazy that it went by so fast. It's faster every year, literally,
it's so fast. The rest ofthis year. Do you have anything like
on your vision board, something thatyou're just like really excited about or maybe
that you hope happens. Yeah,I mean, we just had one come
(26:32):
true which I wanted to get ona tour, and we're about to hop
on tour with Gavin de Grawl.Yeah here in August, and we're playing
primarily the South, Like we getto go to Charleston and Birmingham, and
I'm just really really excited because I'ma huge Gavin de Girl fan and grew
up listening to his stuff, andit's kind of a full circle moment for
(26:56):
me just to be able to getup there and share the stage with him
and hopefully learn from him and andyou know, tap into his crowd a
little bit. Totally. Did youget Do you get nervous at all?
Saying that, like, yeah,nobody deal. I have to, like,
you know, I have to pumppeople up before Kevin Degrago. Oh
yeah, I mean I get nervousevery time, you know, I walk
(27:17):
out on stage. Like for theOpry, for instance, I was a
wreck. You know. You getup there and you play two or three
songs, and I was a wreckthe whole day before, just you know,
trying not to show it, butlike stomach is a knock. Yeah,
step out on stage and this happensevery time I step out on stage,
start playing, and then it's justeverything's right, Like I feel like
I'm supposed to be there, thisis what I'm supposed to be doing,
(27:40):
and all the nerves go away andwe just have a great time and put
on a show. Yeah, butleading up to it, come on,
those like nervous jitters are such areal thing, and I know it's like
so different, but like me goingon stage to like introduce somebody or like,
do you think like sometimes you justyou're just like, what is this?
It's such a weird adrenaline rush.It is. But then, like
you said, you go on stageand you're like, all right, settle
(28:03):
into it. I'm here, allright, let's go. Ye. Um
when it comes to this EP isthere do you feel like an extension of
things that maybe people didn't get onthis EP that you're like, I don't
know, maybe working on with somethingelse, m like what's coming in the
future kind of thing. I've beenwriting pretty much every day and I have
(28:27):
so many songs that I am justdying to get out there. And this
EP really helped me kind of honein to just me as an artist and
like what you can come to expect, you know, from me, There's
going to be a lot of emotion. You know, I'm not afraid of
being vulnerable at all, of beingvulnerable and but also like balancing it with
(28:52):
a good time and you know,like God made Fridays and stuff like that,
and um, so I really know, going back to your vision board,
I would love to do a duet, Like I have a couple songs
that I really would love to havejust the right female on it and get
it out there. Um. Sothat's I hope what happens in the future,
(29:17):
and I hope that that's a littlething on my vision board that comes
from I mean, listen, Imean there's so many good female artists right
now, Like Lady Wilson is crushingit incredible. Just put that on the
vision board. I'm speaking it intotimes, Lady Wilson, Let's make it
happen. Sometimes people are just soauthentically themselves and that's her, Like she
(29:38):
just I'm a huge fan. Yeah, huge fan she is. I mean,
she's crushing it. She's I feellike, just when it comes to
females in the industry, she's doingit right, she is, And I
mean I think everybody relates to her. Yeah, you know, and she's
so real. She's so sweet,she's so real. And what I love
(30:00):
about her, you know, she'snot trying to hide who she is,
and I think that's why it's working. Yeah. Well, I love that
you said that she's not trying tohide who she is, because I feel
like you do the same. You'reopen and honest about your emotions. You're
open and honest about your faith.You're very you're very genuine and true to
who you are. And I thinkthat when you don't try to fit into
a box, that's when you reallydo kind of, you know, stand
(30:22):
out to me and I think you'reI mean, you're doing that well,
thank you. I mean that thatyou just made my day, because that's
it's scary to do that, tobe honest, because like hard to Break,
for instance, there's not a lotof stuff on country radio that sounds
like hard to Break right now.And I was nervous to put it out
and Jay's like, just trust me, you know, Jade Marcus, he's
(30:42):
the head of our label, andhe was like, just trust me,
just be you. Just go outthere and be you. And it was
like I had that little bit ofdoubt entering my mind and I just needed
him to go, like, justbe you, because sometimes it's scary.
Well, and like you said,sometimes you just need somebody else to give
(31:03):
you that affirmation because that fear anddoubt will creep in. It's inevitable that
it's going to happen, and havingsomebody in your corner, it could be
a stranger on the internet. Itcould be you posting something that somebody else
needed to hear, you know whatI mean. And I think it's just
such so true. You know.One of my favorite things is reading through
comments on social media, and thehate ones make me laugh. But yeah,
(31:27):
thankfully it's not on a ton ofthose, but connecting with people and
like seeing the joy that your song'sbringing. Or like there was a song
I put out a little while agocalled Mama's Boy, and it just blew
up because people were like, there'sno song out there, you know,
for a mother and a son inthat relationship. And and I just love
(31:48):
reading all the comments and it literallymakes my day because we pour into this
stuff, you know, we pourour hearts into all this music. And
so yeah, keep the comments comingbecause those are my favorite dread literally ones
are the best too, because it'sjust like they make me laugh. It's
just a comical part of the daybecause first and foremost it's such a cliche
(32:10):
thing to say, but like thatwhole quote about like if you can't say
anything nice, don't say it atall, Like truly, yeah, just
don't say anything mean. Guys likeyourself, keep it to yourself, like,
because we all have thought maybe somethingthat's a little rude or harsh or
mean, but like, you don't, what's the point of going on somebody's
social media and telling them that ifthey're not hurting you, why hurt them?
(32:31):
You know, there's enough of thatout in the world. It's like,
we just need to focus on beingpositive and encouraging people and spreading love.
And I think that's one beautiful thingthat we get to do as musicians
and artists, is we can focuson that. We can focus on spreading
love and and just bringing joy topeople's lives. Just be nice. The
(32:52):
goal just being nice, y'all?Okay, speak Oh my gosh, Ryan,
I feel like I could sit hereand chat with you all. There
was one thing I heard the otherday that I wanted to share with you,
and it was about having children.Yeah, and it shook me to
my core. And my buddy toldme, he said, your ceiling is
(33:13):
their floor, and so he waslike, as good as you can become
as whatever. He's like, that'stheir launching pad. And so I'll tell
you what. It a little fireunder me. And I was like,
all right, all right, wegot to do Yeah. Oh, man,
I love that. I'm definitely goingto take that into I mean,
just you want better for your kids. Ye, that's just that's it.
(33:35):
And I love that because it trulyis our ceiling, is their freaking floor.
That's it. Crazy. It takesyour mind a second to like understand
it, but then when you do, it's like my mind exploded. Oh
all right, Well, to endthe podcast, there's a little gumball machine
to your left. On the bottom. There's a little fun little question to
end the show. Gumball machine.Nice touch. I wish it was real
(33:58):
gum, but you know, it'sjust little questions. Hey, let's see
here, all right, What issomething in your life you wish you could
go back and handle differently? Oh? Man, that's a loaded question.
No, that's a loaded question.I mean there's obviously, like relationships where
you've made mistakes, you know,the broken road that leads you to your
(34:19):
wife. I'm so thankful that Imet her when I did, because I
had a lot of like you know, I had to work on myself and
grow up. And I feel likethere's some past relationships that I wish I
could go back and maybe change theway they ended, or or change you
know, just behavior, you know, and stuff like that when I was
(34:44):
just too young and immature and andwhatnot. But I'd say that's probably the
biggest thing. And ultimately it's justlike anytime that you feel like you've treated
somebody not the best way that youI could have or should have. You
know, you wish you could goback and fix that. And a couple
(35:05):
I mean, honestly, there's acouple of I didn't have a ton of
relationships before my wife, but there'sone or two of them where I actually
got the chance to call him andbe like, yo, I'm sorry it
ended that way. Yeah, Ishould have done it differently. Yeah,
you know, sorry, I wasa jerk. Yeah, sorry, I
broke up with you overtext or whateverit was. You know, my husband
has a couple couple of girls thathe ghosted, and I was like,
(35:28):
you need to rectify that. Thatwill stick with a girl forever. I'm
like, tell her you're sorry.Yeah, okay, because there's no reason,
no reason for you to just ghosts. It's a weight off your like
soul in your core too. Soyeah, I would say that, Yeah,
no, that's so good. Thatwas like we're having a therapy okay,
all right, y'all Ryan Griffin getyeah,
Hey, were ready to roll,Let's go stage. Welcome to the backstage
with Brook. You're all access pastto music city, where nothing is off
limits. Grab a drink, let'sgo backstage. Ryan Griffin's in the house.
What's up. I'm good. Howyou doing. Listen? We were
(00:22):
just bonding over our kids and howamazing they are. So I'm really good.
I'm happy now because I was justtalking about Emma and she's my favorite
human thing, the hardest thing you'llever do, best thing, every cliche
is true, the best thing.And we were talking about the whole like
time thing of like Kenny Chesney's songfor example, don't blink. Oh yeah,
heard that song a million times,had a child, and I was
(00:42):
just like, wait, seriously,don't blink. It's different, right.
It's so crazy how kids are.Literally, I don't know. I feel
like there's such a scary thing becauseyou're like, oh my gosh, I
don't know what I'm supposed to do, But then you do it and you're
like, wait, okay, thisis actually the best thing because they teach
you so much every single day.It's crazy. Yeah. We got so
(01:03):
Levi's my oldest and when we gotto one year old. My wife and
I high fived and we're like,he's alive. We're winning, Like that's
that's the main objective here. Butseriously, though, it's like you get
sent home from the hospital with aliteral human being and they're like, good
luck, see later, let's knowif you need anything. I drove like
a grandpa. Oh yeah, likehome the first time. Second time,
(01:27):
I was like flying on the It'sso funny because my my girlfriend Catherine and
I were just talking about this theother day with how Emma just turned to
my daughter and you know, she'senrolling her daughter into like a like preschool
type situation but it's for like youngerkids than preschool and like the school daycare
whatever you wanna call it. AndI was just like, I want to
(01:48):
for like my own sake, liketime wise, mental health. Yeah,
it's a real thing. But alsoI'm like, you overthink everything with the
first kid, and I'm like I'min that overthink mode where I'm she's good,
Yes I'm supposed to, Yeah,like do I want to? Am
I gonna be a bad parent forputting her in daycare when I don't necessarily
need to? But we could talkabout that for hours. My wife and
I went through the same thing endedup being a good thing that we put
(02:10):
him in like a little mother's dayhelp program. Yeah, that's what I
need to do. It helped herwith both of us, honestly, with
our sanity. So I mean,there's there's nothing like being able to like
be blessed enough to stay at homewith your kid all day but also work.
But also it's just like a lot. Hello, I need a break.
(02:30):
I feel that. Oh my goodness. Okay, well I'm sure kids
are going to get brought up herein a minute. But I wanted to
first and foremost talk about something thatyou posted on Instagram yesterday because I was
literally having the worst day yesterday andI posted about it all my stories and
I was just like in this holeand I don't remember what I was doing,
but I was just going through andI see this quote that you posted
(02:52):
that Mark Wahlberg said. It says, sometimes God slows you down so that
evil ahead of you will pass beforeyou get there. Your delay could mean
your protect And I literally hit thefloor. I was like, thank you
Jesus. I needed to hear that. You know. My wife sent that
to me yesterday and yesterday was justa struggle. And she sent that to
me and I was just like,I love you so much. This was
(03:14):
so timely, so needed, andI had never thought about it that way
before. You know, it's takingand what we interpret as a negative and
flipping it in a positive, andthe Lord's protecting us and he's there by
our side, and yeah, youknow it's pretty cool. It was a
powerful thing. We'll tell your wifethat I love her too, because I
needed that yesterday too so bad.And I saw it and I literally sitting
(03:34):
on the couch and I like didlike this big like sigh, and I
was like, what's like, what'sup? And I just like turned my
phone around and I like showed himand he was just like, yeah,
see, I've been trying to tellyou that why I had to listen to
me? Oh you know, youknow I had to get it from Instagram.
Seriously love it. Being open andhonest about your faith and just kind
of sharing things like that I knowis important to me. And I just
(03:57):
thank you for sharing that because courseit changed my day. Yes, I
mean it's the most important thing.Faith and family. Yeah, you know,
that's that's where it all. That'swhat's all about that's true faith,
family, and then the wrest willfall into place after that. I'm in,
yeah, all right, well Igotta play this little clip. Okay,
(04:23):
new EP phases come on like soawesome, thank you, so so
good. I was really upset becausewe originally had this planned before the EP
came out, and then we hadto reschedule and now it's you know,
a little little behind this backwards whenit comes to schedule wise. But I
was so excited when um we talkedabout doing this podcast because truly, I
(04:45):
feel like there's so many people inthe world that don't know about certain people,
like when it comes to like musicand things like that. I love
this podcast so much because my friend'shusband listens to it like religiously, and
he's a very like traditional nineties countrylike that's all he has on his playlist,
that's all he listens to. Andevery time that we have like somebody
he doesn't know about on the podcast, he's like I looked up their music
(05:08):
and they're like really amazing, andI was just like, just wait till
you hear this guy. Okay,do you spreading the word literally when you're
putting together a piece of work toput out to the world. What is
that as you know, like aperson just putting something out. You know,
Yeah, people are going to eitherlike it, they're not gonna like
it. They're gonna have something tosay about it, they'll have an opinion
(05:30):
about it. But it's got tobe such a cool thing to work on
something so special and then just belike, this is what I've been working
on, guys, then give itto the world. It's it's one of
the coolest things. You know.I learned a long time ago that fans
can see through if you're being fake, or if you're chasing something, or
if you're not being who you are. And so, you know, putting
together this music, so much ofmy journey has just been to get to
(05:57):
this point. Yeah, and puttingtogether phases is I couldn't be more proud
of it. I'm so excited thatit's out in the world. And I
just realized, I was like,this is something that connects us all.
You know, we've all been there, We've all gone through these phases of
trying to find love. You know, you find love, you break up,
you struggle a little bit, youheal, and then you try again
(06:19):
until you find that one that makesyou stop looking. Yeah, and it's
something that we all unite, weall feel, and so it just felt
like something that was really genuinely onmy heart. And you know, yeah,
so I'm really pumped about. We'retalking to a second ago about how
your kids are very good, likedecision Maker when it comes to music.
(06:40):
Yea. Do they have a favoritesong on the EP? They do?
So. They love Heart to Break, you know, that's been the primary
one that we've been playing a lot. But I come home and oh,
they also love been missing you andFridays that's what God made. Friday's little
Jude, the three year old,he has dance parties to that song.
We've nicknamed it Friday's. It's likehe's like dead Depittely Friday's exactly. And
(07:05):
you know, every day I goand write and I come home and they're
the first ones, you know,them two and my wife. I play
it for him before I send itto my publishers, before I send it
to my team. I play itfor them. And it's crazy. Like
we were talking before, how kidscan latch on to certain songs, and
it typically like the songs that theylove are the songs that everyone else loves.
(07:29):
And I think, you know,dissecting a little bit, it's just
because it's like it's simple to understand, and it's like those nursery rhyme melodies
that just get stuck in your head, and uh, yeah, they're my
best gauge for sure. It hasthere ever been a time where you brought
a song home and you're like,this is it? I love this?
And they're like all the time,all the time, I get done right
and pouring my heart into something foryou know, six hours or whatever.
(07:53):
And I'm listening to it on theway home and I'm just like, oh,
I can't wait to play it forhim. And I go turn it
on and I always know because they'llget distracted easily. They'll go like walk
away and grab a toy or something, and I'm like, oh, that's
a miss, you know. Don'tnever be like I don't like it totally.
They're they're sweet to their daddy.That at least you know you've taught
(08:13):
them manners. They're polite. It'smore of their mama. But yeah,
we love you again wants to lovefor her on this podcast, I want
to talk to you about the beginningof your career and sort of maybe those
people who haven't met you yet orthey don't know you, they're hearing you
for the first time right here.Um, what led you to music?
What made you fall in love withmusic? That's oh man, that's a
(08:35):
really good question. So I wentmy first concert I ever went to.
I grew up down in South Florida, and we went to this arena and
Brooks and Dunn was playing, andI fell in love with Ronnie Dunn's voice.
And then I saw the way thatthe crowd was reacting and smiling and
like the joy that that artist wasbringing to these people. And then I
(08:56):
found out like I could kind ofsing a little bit, and I wasn't
sure, like is my voice goingto change? Am I not gonna be
ald? And it just kind ofstuck around, and I could always kind
of be that that kid who sang, you know, and I sang everywhere.
Like I was never the best studentin like learning my ABC's and all
that kind of stuff, and learningwhatever projects. My mom would always like
(09:18):
put it to a melody and I'dinstantly be able to pick it up.
And so it's just always been somethingthat I feel like I've been called to
or like gifted with and I've beenpursuing it ever since. Was there ever
a moment in your career where you'relike, I don't know, man,
this is hard. I don't thinkthis is for me. There's been a
(09:39):
lot of valleys, you know,in my journey here in Nashville, and
music is the thing that has alwayskept me going, you know, because
it's just it's so cool to beable to say things in a way that
maybe somebody else didn't have the wordsto say, and you see them connect
and you see the feeling that thatsong gives them, especially when you're playing
(10:03):
live. Like hearing people sing saltlimon Tequila back to me all last year
was like one of the coolest momentsof my life, of my career.
It's just amazing to see people connectin that way with something that you've created
from nothing. Yeah, you havebeen playing the opry, Yeah, a
couple you know, I have tosay handful of times, no big deal.
So I feel like that is justsuch a moment. When you moved
(10:26):
to Nashville, I mean, that'sa bucket list item and being able to
do it, oh, you know, multiple times is a pretty freaking big
deal. Yeah, recently you justplayed again. I mean what stepping into
the circle like, tell me thatfeeling. Like trying to describe it the
best you can, it's hard forme. Like this was the fourth time
I think I got to play theOpry, and every time I pinched myself
(10:48):
and I'm like, is this reallyhappening? Like this was the most comfortable
I've been on the Opry stage.And I actually took a minute standing in
the circle to just stop and lookaround and be like, wow, so
many people have stood on this stagethat have paved the way for us,
and it's incredible. But the Opryhas always had a really special place in
(11:09):
my heart because my grandfather, weused to have Sunday dinners, big family,
and he and I would sneak awayafter dinner and we'd sit down and
he would, you know, puton the Opry and he teached me about
everybody that he grew up with andso like not to go dark. But
before he passed, one of thelast things he said to me was keep
(11:31):
going. You're going to be inthat circle one day, kid, and
a couple of years you know goby, and I'm invited to go play
at the Opry. And it wasjust such a huge, huge moment for
me personally and career wise. Ithink that's so sweet when you hear stories
like this where it's like it's almostlike a generational thing where you know there's
(11:54):
there's never not a love for theopry, you know what I mean,
and it just runs so deep.And I know that one of my girlfriend
friends, she her and her husbandjust celebrated their i think four year wedding
anniversary and they went to the Operyfor the first time together, like on
a date night, and she wasjust like William cried, He like actually
shed tears because of just how it'sjust an emotional place. It's not bad,
(12:16):
but you know what I mean,not a bad teer. He was
just like this is awesome. LikeRicky Skaggs was there, Skill was there,
and he's like these are my people. Like yeah, it's just so
much history in one room and knowingthat, like you get to be a
part of that, like interwoven intothat history and continue to be a part
of that. I just from anoutsider's perspective, I just can't believe,
Like that's got to be the coolestfeeling. I can't believe it either.
(12:37):
Honestly, it's like I said thisafter the first time I stepped on in
the circle, that the spirit ofthe Opry is a real thing. Yeah,
and it is alive and well andthat's what's moving him sitting, you
know, in the audience because it'sa very intimate environment. The sound is
incredible. People are there to listenand it can really impact you and affect
(13:01):
you in that environment. You know, in the spirit of the Opery,
it'll get you. There's nothing likeit. I'm telling you. The first
time I ever went to the operastanding side stage, Vince Gill brought Patty
Loveless on stage and I was justlike, what, I'm like melting and
I don't know if you could topthat. It's like what I was crying.
Yeah, I was like this isnuts. That is crazy. And
it was like, how do youlove dude? It was so wild.
(13:22):
And that was one of those likekind of like godwink moments in my life
where I was in LA at thetime working for a company and I was
like not happy with what I wasdoing, and it was like God tell
like planting the literal seed of Nashvillein my heart. And then fast forward
like eight years here I am,and it's just like so cool to see
and look back at those moments wherewe're like, I love you know.
(13:43):
It's like a little seed was plantedand then it was watered, and it
was watered and then you continue togo and I'm just like I love that.
You can trace it back to beingat the opery. Yeah, that's
when that seed was planting. Theseed was planting really cool, and I
was like, I want to behere, and it was ever since then.
I was just like I'm gonna getI'm gonna get there someday. And
then COVID hits top, goes awayand then Nashville here we come. You
(14:05):
know, let's go well, Andlike, I feel like COVID specifically was
such a weird time for so manypeople, but I feel like there were
so many weird blessings within that year. It was a lot of fear,
it was a lot of unknown,but there was so much I feel like
clarity and so many people's lives oflike I was meant to do this yea,
or like maybe this isn't for me, Maybe I should go somewhere else.
(14:26):
Yeah, it was definitely not forme. I mean, at the
end of COVID, I lost mysecond record deal. I was with Warner
Records, and I didn't know whatI was gonna do. You know,
now I look back on it,and it really is one of the biggest
blessings in my life because I wasslated to maybe miss Jude's birth and then
(14:50):
definitely miss the first year or twoof his life. Yeah, knowing now
walking through that, being present forhis birth for his first two years of
life, there's nothing I would giveup, you know. Yeah for that.
That was one of the biggest blessingsin my life that I did not
(15:13):
see coming. It took me.Took me a minute to figure that one
out. Oh yeah, one.It's like shout out to God man,
because I feel like he really justpulled the plug out of everybody's lives and
was like, y'all need to rest. Yeah, y'all need to just chill
out and enjoy your family and stoppedtaking life's a day, seriously, refocused,
reprioritized, recenter like that's what weuse that time for. And it
ended up I know, there's obviouslya lot of heartbreak that happened in horrible
(15:39):
things, but it ended up beingthere was a blessing in the silver lining
of it for us totally. Ithink over the last what like three years
since COVID kind of landing back onyour feet, trying to you know,
figure things out. What have youlearned along the way, Like I think
music has become fun again. Yeah, I stopped taking it so seriously and
(16:03):
started just really focusing on connecting withpeople and being just as real as I
could be, and not trying tobe what my label wanted me to be,
or trying to be what I thought, you know, was gonna get
get me fans or whatever. Iwas just like, I'm gonna just write
from my heart. I'm gonna tellmy story, and I'm gonna try to
(16:26):
do it in a way that connectsthe most most people, you know.
I feel like being a father whois in an industry that is just so
demanding of your time has got tobe such a hard thing. And I
know that other people who are listeningmight have a different career and you know
their their their career might be verytime consuming as well. But being a
(16:47):
dad and I know how much likejust knowing you for a short a few
minutes, like I can just tellyou you beam every time you talk about
them so being a part of theirlives and making sure that you're intentional with
those moments, whether you know you'reworking or being at home. What are
some of the ways that you liketo just be intentional, you know at
home? Yeah, side of thejob, I mean, we have like
(17:08):
our little things, like my Leviand I we watch a show before bedtime
every night. Were like cuddle,you know, and it's like our special
time. Jude is just now gettingto the age to where he's like not
so much of a mama's boy andhe's starting to love daddy, you know,
and so he and I will justtake little trips together, you know,
(17:30):
and even like to the gas station, to the grocery store, whatever
it is, just to like spendthat time one on one with each other.
And then you know, we loveplaying in the backyard and doing stuff
like that. But one thing that'sactually kind of surprising me is that music
is connecting us really. Yeah.So Levi did not care if he was
(17:55):
backstage at a show or at oneof my shows, or if I was
standing on stage and there were twentythousand p pull out there. He didn't
care. This year, he's actuallylike starting to get old enough to where
he thinks it's so cool, andhe came to the opera with us.
Both of them came to the opera. It was Jude's first time, which
was really sweet, amazing. Andthen Levi came to the opera and he
goes, Dad, just please don'tmake me go backstage. I want to
(18:18):
go out in the audience and beable to hear you and see you.
And he goes, my children arespoiled. And he goes and less there's
a VIP section, then I'll goto the VIP section. I was like,
oh my gosh, what listen thoseparks if you can. He ain't
bashful about it. I'll tell youthat one bit. Yeah, it's so
(18:41):
awesome. I feel like my husband, Andrew and I we talked about this
a lot of like how we havethese get two jobs, not come two
jobs, and knowing, you know, how we grew up with six kids
in our family, so it's like, Wow, my parents did the best
that they could and you know,gave us better lives than they had and
that's all you can ask for.Yeah, And I'm like Emma's too,
and has been to more concerts thanmost people in the United States. So
(19:03):
it's like it's crazy to know thatwe have these jobs where it's like I
feel like sometimes we can take thesespecial moments for granted. But like to
grow up with a dad who getsto sing at the opry, like the
shows, the shows where my familycome with me, everything in the world
is right. I'm doing what Ilove. I'm out there singing and connecting
(19:26):
with people, and then I getto turn around and hug my boys and
my wife. Like it doesn't happenoften, but when that happens, it's
like my world is just full andcomplete. Because if I'm if I'm at
home and I'm not touring, I'mlike itching to get out and tour.
When I'm touring and my family's athome, I'm itching to get home,
(19:48):
you know, to be with them. I'm missing them, and I just
wasn't missing anything in those moments whenthey're out with me. And it's a
really sweet thing. I talked toWalker Hayes about that all the time,
and it's like I'm like, dude, you are live in the dream.
Literally come out and do all thethings with him. It's like so cool,
like he has it, he hasit figured out. Yeah, you
know well, and that's just it. My husband works in merchandise for country
(20:11):
artists and so he travels a lot, and now having Emma, he's like,
this sucks. You know. It'slike without kids, a kid,
you're like, oh, having fun, I'm going to Chicago, I'm going
to la This is so cool andyou're not really torn. Ye, your
heart's not torn, you know,and you get kids, know them in
the mix, and your heart getstorn a lot. And I think that
that's one of the things that Ilove to talk to about specifically on this
(20:33):
podcast out of those like backstage momentsof like, you don't see the sacrifice
that these artists are making every singleday, and that is sometimes you miss
dinners, sometimes you miss birthdays,sometimes you miss anniversaries, sometimes you miss
these big moments. My sweet wife, I will tell you the sacrifice often
falls on her because last year shewas basically like a single mom. I
(20:57):
was gone to hundred and sixty dayslast year, and you know, it
was like I could see it wearingon her, and I could definitely see
it wearing on LEVI. Jude didn'tknow any different, but it was interesting.
When I came back, it waslike December tenth was our last show
last year, and from then untilabout March, it was like I was
(21:21):
making up for lost time with LEVI. You know, he I could see
it affect him, and so thatwas that was a sacrifice that I didn't
I knew was there, but Ididn't really see coming. I didn't really
see that it was going to affecthim as much as it did. But
yeah, I couldn't do this withoutmy wife, Like you have to have
(21:41):
someone in your corner that is thatsupportive. And it's not just music.
It's like so many of my friendsdon't work in music, but they make
sacrifices constantly because they're traveling or they'reworking super late hours or missing birthdays or
whatever. We literally have never beennever celebrated an anniversary on our actual anniversary
(22:03):
day. Like our first anniversary,my wife carried tips around the bar downtown
when where I was playing Wow,So I guess we kind of spent it
together, but it wasn't. Itwasn't We weren't celebrating each other. And
then last year I was playing ashow and I was like, I promise,
And last year was our tenth anniversary, and I was like, I
(22:26):
promise, I'll make it up toyou next week, you know, the
following week, and she's just sherolls with the punches. You know.
It's so crazy because that you mentionednot celebrating your anniversary, because my husband
and our anniversary is coming up herein a few weeks. It's our third
wedding anniversary. And he's going tobe out on a West Coast run with
Tracey Atkins and he's like, thisis weird. I don't know what to
(22:48):
do, and you know, we'rejust like whatever, We'll roll with it.
It's like so different for him becausehe's like, you know, he's
slinging merch like he you know,not saying that that's not important, but
he's like, but I, youknow, like I'm not I don't have
to do it, Like I don'thave to be out. Maybe I should
take the week off. And I'mlike, do your thing. Oh,
We're like we had celebrated on anotherday. It's like it's our my thing
is It's just a day. Likethe whole point is celebrating each other and
(23:11):
um the journey of the past tenyears for us, for instance, and
so it doesn't have to be thatspecific day for us at least that's not
what's important. So but I getit because it's like the he's weighing the
cost versus you know, the reward, and it's a real thing. Yeah,
(23:34):
Okay, ten years or ten yearsmarried, you and your wife hit
me with some good marriage advice.I'm only three years in me, I'm
putting you on the I mean,there's so much, um some good marriage
advice. I don't feel like.I feel like I'm just now starting to
(23:56):
figure out how to how to bea decent husband and how to like you
know, I think the biggest thingand it may be a little cliche,
but like when we lose that likefriendship aspect of it. We started as
friends and then we fell in love, and it's like kids get involved in
(24:17):
life, gets involved and things don'tgo the way you think they're gonna go,
and and you can easily slip outof that like friendship mode. And
the moments when we've lost that,it's like we've lost what was special about
it. So getting back to thatbeing friends and knowing trusting that she's going
(24:40):
to take care of me and I'mgoing to take care of her, so
we don't have to take care ofourselves in a way, like just trusting
that we're going to take care ofeach other has been a huge thing because
the moments where we lost that friendshipand we tried to take care of ourselves,
we don't connect. It's like there'sa huge wall in between us.
When I take care of her andshe takes care of me, then everything
(25:03):
works. Yeah, dude, Iwas just talking to her friend the other
day about how marriage is hard.They don't tell you it is hard where
you say I do. Man,it's it's tough, and it's somebody said
the other day. I can't rememberwho said it, but they were like,
you have to find somebody that youwant to struggle with, you know,
somebody that you're willing to like digthrough the trenches. Yeah, it
gets ugly sometimes not in a badway, but it can. It's just
(25:26):
real life. Yeah, I meanthere's ups and downs and everything. And
you know Porter's Call, which isclose to here and Franklin. It's like
this counseling for artists and it's anamazing organization. And there's a guy named
Chad that I go over there andsee and he said something to me that
blew my mind. And it's sosimple and you just said it. He's
(25:48):
like, struggle. Well, yeah, life is a struggle, so you
can't make that go away. Hesaid, all you can do struggle Well
yeah, and I was like,whoa, that's a word for somebody that
is so good, something that knockedme. You know. Well, we're
talking about literally, I feel likethis whole podcast has different phases of life.
We're talking about, you know,the trenches. We're talking about exciting
(26:11):
times. We're talking about your DWEPand I feel like twenty twenty we're already
halfway through twenty twenty three, whichis I don't know how that happened.
Crazy that it went by so fast. It's faster every year, literally,
it's so fast. The rest ofthis year. Do you have anything like
on your vision board, something thatyou're just like really excited about or maybe
that you hope happens. Yeah,I mean, we just had one come
(26:32):
true which I wanted to get ona tour, and we're about to hop
on tour with Gavin de Grawl.Yeah here in August, and we're playing
primarily the South, Like we getto go to Charleston and Birmingham, and
I'm just really really excited because I'ma huge Gavin de Girl fan and grew
up listening to his stuff, andit's kind of a full circle moment for
(26:56):
me just to be able to getup there and share the stage with him
and hopefully learn from him and andyou know, tap into his crowd a
little bit. Totally. Did youget Do you get nervous at all?
Saying that, like, yeah,nobody deal. I have to, like,
you know, I have to pumppeople up before Kevin Degrago. Oh
yeah, I mean I get nervousevery time, you know, I walk
(27:17):
out on stage. Like for theOpry, for instance, I was a
wreck. You know. You getup there and you play two or three
songs, and I was a wreckthe whole day before, just you know,
trying not to show it, butlike stomach is a knock. Yeah,
step out on stage and this happensevery time I step out on stage,
start playing, and then it's justeverything's right, Like I feel like
I'm supposed to be there, thisis what I'm supposed to be doing,
(27:40):
and all the nerves go away andwe just have a great time and put
on a show. Yeah, butleading up to it, come on,
those like nervous jitters are such areal thing, and I know it's like
so different, but like me goingon stage to like introduce somebody or like,
do you think like sometimes you justyou're just like, what is this?
It's such a weird adrenaline rush.It is. But then, like
you said, you go on stageand you're like, all right, settle
(28:03):
into it. I'm here, allright, let's go. Ye. Um
when it comes to this EP isthere do you feel like an extension of
things that maybe people didn't get onthis EP that you're like, I don't
know, maybe working on with somethingelse, m like what's coming in the
future kind of thing. I've beenwriting pretty much every day and I have
(28:27):
so many songs that I am justdying to get out there. And this
EP really helped me kind of honein to just me as an artist and
like what you can come to expect, you know, from me, There's
going to be a lot of emotion. You know, I'm not afraid of
being vulnerable at all, of beingvulnerable and but also like balancing it with
(28:52):
a good time and you know,like God made Fridays and stuff like that,
and um, so I really know, going back to your vision board,
I would love to do a duet, Like I have a couple songs
that I really would love to havejust the right female on it and get
it out there. Um. Sothat's I hope what happens in the future,
(29:17):
and I hope that that's a littlething on my vision board that comes
from I mean, listen, Imean there's so many good female artists right
now, Like Lady Wilson is crushingit incredible. Just put that on the
vision board. I'm speaking it intotimes, Lady Wilson, Let's make it
happen. Sometimes people are just soauthentically themselves and that's her, Like she
(29:38):
just I'm a huge fan. Yeah, huge fan she is. I mean,
she's crushing it. She's I feellike, just when it comes to
females in the industry, she's doingit right, she is, And I
mean I think everybody relates to her. Yeah, you know, and she's
so real. She's so sweet,she's so real. And what I love
(30:00):
about her, you know, she'snot trying to hide who she is,
and I think that's why it's working. Yeah. Well, I love that
you said that she's not trying tohide who she is, because I feel
like you do the same. You'reopen and honest about your emotions. You're
open and honest about your faith.You're very you're very genuine and true to
who you are. And I thinkthat when you don't try to fit into
a box, that's when you reallydo kind of, you know, stand
(30:22):
out to me and I think you'reI mean, you're doing that well,
thank you. I mean that thatyou just made my day, because that's
it's scary to do that, tobe honest, because like hard to Break,
for instance, there's not a lotof stuff on country radio that sounds
like hard to Break right now.And I was nervous to put it out
and Jay's like, just trust me, you know, Jade Marcus, he's
(30:42):
the head of our label, andhe was like, just trust me,
just be you. Just go outthere and be you. And it was
like I had that little bit ofdoubt entering my mind and I just needed
him to go, like, justbe you, because sometimes it's scary.
Well, and like you said,sometimes you just need somebody else to give
(31:03):
you that affirmation because that fear anddoubt will creep in. It's inevitable that
it's going to happen, and havingsomebody in your corner, it could be
a stranger on the internet. Itcould be you posting something that somebody else
needed to hear, you know whatI mean. And I think it's just
such so true. You know.One of my favorite things is reading through
comments on social media, and thehate ones make me laugh. But yeah,
(31:27):
thankfully it's not on a ton ofthose, but connecting with people and
like seeing the joy that your song'sbringing. Or like there was a song
I put out a little while agocalled Mama's Boy, and it just blew
up because people were like, there'sno song out there, you know,
for a mother and a son inthat relationship. And and I just love
(31:48):
reading all the comments and it literallymakes my day because we pour into this
stuff, you know, we pourour hearts into all this music. And
so yeah, keep the comments comingbecause those are my favorite dread literally ones
are the best too, because it'sjust like they make me laugh. It's
just a comical part of the daybecause first and foremost it's such a cliche
(32:10):
thing to say, but like thatwhole quote about like if you can't say
anything nice, don't say it atall, Like truly, yeah, just
don't say anything mean. Guys likeyourself, keep it to yourself, like,
because we all have thought maybe somethingthat's a little rude or harsh or
mean, but like, you don't, what's the point of going on somebody's
social media and telling them that ifthey're not hurting you, why hurt them?
(32:31):
You know, there's enough of thatout in the world. It's like,
we just need to focus on beingpositive and encouraging people and spreading love.
And I think that's one beautiful thingthat we get to do as musicians
and artists, is we can focuson that. We can focus on spreading
love and and just bringing joy topeople's lives. Just be nice. The
(32:52):
goal just being nice, y'all?Okay, speak Oh my gosh, Ryan,
I feel like I could sit hereand chat with you all. There
was one thing I heard the otherday that I wanted to share with you,
and it was about having children.Yeah, and it shook me to
my core. And my buddy toldme, he said, your ceiling is
(33:13):
their floor, and so he waslike, as good as you can become
as whatever. He's like, that'stheir launching pad. And so I'll tell
you what. It a little fireunder me. And I was like,
all right, all right, wegot to do Yeah. Oh, man,
I love that. I'm definitely goingto take that into I mean,
just you want better for your kids. Ye, that's just that's it.
(33:35):
And I love that because it trulyis our ceiling, is their freaking floor.
That's it. Crazy. It takesyour mind a second to like understand
it, but then when you do, it's like my mind exploded. Oh
all right, Well, to endthe podcast, there's a little gumball machine
to your left. On the bottom. There's a little fun little question to
end the show. Gumball machine.Nice touch. I wish it was real
(33:58):
gum, but you know, it'sjust little questions. Hey, let's see
here, all right, What issomething in your life you wish you could
go back and handle differently? Oh? Man, that's a loaded question.
No, that's a loaded question.I mean there's obviously, like relationships where
you've made mistakes, you know,the broken road that leads you to your
(34:19):
wife. I'm so thankful that Imet her when I did, because I
had a lot of like you know, I had to work on myself and
grow up. And I feel likethere's some past relationships that I wish I
could go back and maybe change theway they ended, or or change you
know, just behavior, you know, and stuff like that when I was
(34:44):
just too young and immature and andwhatnot. But I'd say that's probably the
biggest thing. And ultimately it's justlike anytime that you feel like you've treated
somebody not the best way that youI could have or should have. You
know, you wish you could goback and fix that. And a couple
(35:05):
I mean, honestly, there's acouple of I didn't have a ton of
relationships before my wife, but there'sone or two of them where I actually
got the chance to call him andbe like, yo, I'm sorry it
ended that way. Yeah, Ishould have done it differently. Yeah,
you know, sorry, I wasa jerk. Yeah, sorry, I
broke up with you overtext or whateverit was. You know, my husband
has a couple couple of girls thathe ghosted, and I was like,
(35:28):
you need to rectify that. Thatwill stick with a girl forever. I'm
like, tell her you're sorry.Yeah, okay, because there's no reason,
no reason for you to just ghosts. It's a weight off your like
soul in your core too. Soyeah, I would say that, Yeah,
no, that's so good. Thatwas like we're having a therapy okay,
all right, y'all Ryan Griffin getyeah,
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