May 11, 2026 • 28 mins
Dan + Shay open up like never before in this powerful, can’t‑miss episode with Wayne D. The guys share the heartbreaking story of losing a close friend to suicide, how it forever changed them, and why they felt it was so important to speak out. From grief and guilt to healing and hope, Dan and Shay get deeply personal and reveal the true meaning behind their new song—and the message they hope it carries to anyone who’s struggling. Honest. Emotional. And incredibly important. This is an interview everyone needs to hear.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Make sure nobody sees the first part of that.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hanging in studio with guys that like I just love
like brothers, which how could you not?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Dan and Shay, Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Man, dude, So good to see you. Man, been a minute, it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Has he all just walked down Broadway casually. You're first
of all, shout out to your record label for parking
in Antioch.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know I couldn't.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
We walked across the river as a seven mile hike.
We left at seven this morning to get here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's about this.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That was their way of saying, Hey, you haven't put
out a song a little bit, so you haven't been
paying the bills so long.
Speaker 5 (00:35):
That's why we're here, brother, That's why we get the
song on the air. Next up is their new song,
and then the rest of their songs.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
As well, all of the songs because dogs, children need
to eat, and Tom Martins has to pay for his
ninety two Cutlass zero.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Parking ain't cheap in Nashville anymore, man, ridiculous, crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
But there.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
The rumor is that they're about to start like a
locals discount, where the more you park with them, the
cheaper it gets.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
That's what they say here. That another thing.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
I'm not trying to bash this company, but I kind
of am. This is a big platform here that I'm
saying this on. The company is called park Happy, Yeah,
and they just ticket you like crazy and they charge
you in astronomical costs.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That ain't happy to me. It's park sad. If you
know what I'm saying, like park just change it to
park yeah. If it's park happy, it should be free.
That's what's going to make me happy. Man.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
I'm just like, I will walk five miles before paying
one dollar for parking twelve south Man. There's a garage
like connected to the restaurant. If they ain't validating, I'm
parking in the residential section, risking getting ticketed, not having
a residential pertmit.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It's a principal thing for me that heated about that would.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Go more viral than the justin Timberlake.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
The tour. It's also their logo is absolutely wild.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I don't understand what they're really going for. Like park Happy,
it's all jovial, and then they've got like a policeman
from like the nineteen fifteen that's not.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
That's from one hundred.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I'm like Walmart Reader didn't work so you're here booting cars.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, I feel it's a tough name for a company
that gives you take.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's right, speaking happy.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Last time we got together, y'all had shared details about
a new level of happy that you guys have found personally,
that it made you stronger musically, it's been a minute
since we've heard some new tunes. How is that new
mindset kind of helped you, you know, continue to stay
on that path?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Man?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Honestly, like, if you follow our socials, we haven't been
posting much on social media recently, which we're just in
here bashing everything today.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'm not trying to.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Bash socials, but I just I don't know, man, I
feel like I kind of got carried away on socials
for a few years where I was like spending my
entire life digitally.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I was online all the time.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
The algorithm starts feeding you stuff, and I don't know,
I feel like the algorithm knows what to feed you
to keep you on there, and I just found myself
like in a I don't know, kind of a dark
place like I tried to. I'm just being proactive about community,
being with my friends in real life, hanging with people,
going and getting a drink with somebody, grabbing dinner, grabbing
a coffee with somebody calling somebody on the phone.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I just think that's that's what we're here for.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Man, that's life giving, that's the human condition, and that's
the human experience. And I think a lot of that's
translating into our music. I think, you know, we're getting
older now and I've I've had this like midlife crisis
about AI and I know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's you know, it's here to stay, it's.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
In our lives, and I'm not you know, it's AI
is a crazy thing. When we start thinking about as
AI coming for our jobs, we're really getting into it here.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
But as musicians and creatives, it is.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I mean, things you can create on AI with the
click of one button is pretty surreal. The thing AI
can't recreate is human emotion, human connection and authenticity. And
I think we kind of just were chasing something, you know,
for a little while, for a few months, trying to
make songs that I don't know, maybe sounded like hits
or we're catchy or whatever, but it's like it just
didn't feel authentic to us, or didn't feel real or
(03:44):
from our hearts or from our souls and uh, man,
we just kind of went back to the drawing board
and we're like, man, that's the thing that can take
down AI. That's the thing that can combat it. And
if at the end of the day, that's what we're here,
that's our purpose is to make those songs. Because if
we don't believe in it, why should anyone else. You know,
we can't walk in here and get on this mic
and say like, man, that is me, and when people
listen to it and they look at us they can't
(04:05):
make that connection, then we're not doing the right thing.
We had cold feet about, you know, the direction that
we were kind of going down for a little while,
and we were like, let's pivot.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Let's get back to it.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
You know, that's the only thing we can do here, man,
And we went back into you know, back to the
drawing board, kind of wiped slate clean and just started
writing about stuff that was pertinent into our lives. Right
now in this moment, I'm thirty eight years old, you know,
just what's going on in my life right now, what's
going on in Shay's life right now?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
What does his household look like? What does my household
look like?
Speaker 5 (04:30):
What are some real concepts and topics that might be
uncomfortable to talk about. And you know, the first single
off this record, say So, is that man. It's about
one of our good friends, Ben who took his life
and it just hit us like a train.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Man. It was just like brutal, brutal realization.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
You know, just from the outside was just always the happiest,
most positive guy, or so it seemed. And you know,
it's a big part of our story. You know, when
Shaye and I met, we were two songwriters, nothing to
our name, no money, nothing couldn't afford to eat. I
was sneaking into the Hampton in on on West End,
stealing connin On breakfast every day just to survive and
to get to sessions. But he believed in us early
(05:07):
and we're still sign of that publishing company today. Is
a big part of the reason we're signing Warner Records Nashville.
And he marched us upstairs and said, you got to
meet Jonasposito, the president of the label at the time,
and big part of our journey, close, close personal friend
and just one of those things that like just really
shook our worlds. It shook a lot of people in
Nashville's Worlds. We're just writing songs for this album. And sorry,
(05:28):
I'm ranting right here. It's just this, I don't know,
it's just very personal to us and get a little emotional.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Talking about it.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
But we were just sharing stories that day. This is
like the song meant was meant to be written that day.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Again, he was a big part of our songwriting journey
as a song champion for us, Thomas, Rhett Stapleton, all
these these artists that are you know on the radio now,
but he's just was there early for all of them
and was just a close friend.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You know, he was at my house.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
We were all there celebrating bigger houses going number one
before this all happened like two weeks before and just
no one suspected anything. And we're just sharing stories about
then and how much we love him and how much
he meant to us. And you know this, this concept
of depression and anxiety and mental health is something that's
like maybe you would think of Dan and Shay'd be like, ah,
this is just a freaking wedding.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
You know, they sing love songs about their wives. That's
just not a topic we would normally cover. Or tackle,
and we were like, you know what, this song there's
it needs to be written today.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
It's on our hearts.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
We need to see this one through to the finish line.
And I think again, not to get too spiritual, it's
just like Ben was in the room with us that day.
It was meant to be written. We're talking about him.
We're like, let's write a song for Ben. You know,
this song is heavy, it's tough subject matter, but like,
let's write it.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Even if it never comes out. It's just a demo
on our phones.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Like it's cathartic and therapeutic for us to write the
song and put those worlds words into the world that day.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And we did, and it was just the craziest thing.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Man.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
I came home and played the demo for my wife
Abby and she was like, you know, it's incredible, like amazing,
beautiful song.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Did you guys write that about Ben?
Speaker 5 (06:59):
And I was like, of course, you know, it's pretty
obvious if if you know us and you know Ben,
And she was like, that's beautiful that you guys made
a beautiful tribute to him on his birthday. We didn't
know it was his birthday that day. It would have
been his fiftieth birthday. And that's that's more than coincidence
to me, man, That's that was a sign this song
needed to be written in, this song needed to be heard. Yeah, man,
(07:19):
I put up Facebook and sure enough it was like,
would you like to wish Ben a happy birthday? And yeah,
like I said, it would have been his fiftieth birthday
that day, And we had no idea at the time
we were writing it. And it's just when it came
time to We've got a lot of stuff We're really
proud of that that we tapped into. I feel like
we hit this creative streak. This just felt like we
haven't felt that since the first album. It just was
like every day we're writing songs for us, We're popping
(07:40):
in with our buddy Brandon Lake writing stuff for his project.
Just it was crazy, like two weeks of just like
knocking all these tunes out and I don't know, I
feel like songs sometimes are in the atmosphere and you
just have to be there and you're the conduit in
the vehicle that these songs come through. And I just think,
I think this song is bigger than Dan and Shay,
It's bigger than us It's a song that.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
We want the world to hear and know.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
We're proud of the way it sounds and turned out. Everybody,
you know, it's like, oh, it sounds like a hit
or whatever, but it's to us, it's it's the message,
and it's an important message for us to hear for
ourselves as guys who've struggled with mental health over the
last few years, who've battled it. Whether people know it
or not, this is a good opportunity for us to
share that, to make it okay, to normalize that. You know,
we're open about that, we go to therapy. I mean,
(08:21):
I as men, we pushed that down, we bottled up inside,
and I think that's an issue, you know. I feel
like growing up in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh blue collar, hard nose,
I was like, screw that, man, I'm too tough to
get you know. And it took me a lot of
years of My wife and people were like, dude, you
should go talk to somebody, and I did and it
changed my world. With this song, knock on Wood, it
(08:41):
goes number one and becomes a big song for us.
We love that, but like, if it doesn't, if it whatever,
if it a fall it ever does is helps one person.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Or saves one life.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
It was worth it for us and that's I don't know,
that's a conviction we have on this thing. And man,
I'm proud of it. I feel like, you know, we've
made a lot of songs that meant something to us
in our career, but this song song means more and
I think it's just it's an important song for us
to put out there.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Early in your career, everything was fun and light and lovy.
Now that you guys have experienced life and obviously you
were very vocal about, you know, difficulties you had a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Does music need to have more purpose now than it did?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Because obviously the hey, this is fun, let's you know early,
but now like to fulfill where you're at life wise
and career wise, do does the music need a little
more purpose behind it for you to to keep you
excited and engaged?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Absolutely? Man, you know, and I think you you know,
you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Like early on, like we had a lot of fun songs,
we were talking about these things and like that's where
we were in our life at the time, you know,
and looking around at our lives now, Like I think
the word that I would use is there's just more
depth to it, Like things mean more to us because
we've gone through time.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Like that's what time does.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Like I always love to you know, the saying you
can't make old friends, like we've been friends with you
now for a very long time. And what you what
you build over time, it's you know, it's trust, it's
it's community, and it's love that only can be you
can fake that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It's something that has to be.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Built, you know, with time, and something that has earned
And I look at that in our lives like now
I have you know, four kids, and Dan and I's
relationship we've known each other now for like twelve or
thirteen years, and we've it's blood, sweat and tears of
like time and sleepless nights like that we have gotten
to experience together. You can't fake that until actual time
(10:22):
goes by. And I feel like that's a common thread
of this music is it's kind of an exploration of
what time is and why it's important that we take
a second to be like, hey, this is uh, this
this means something, you know, like to be able to
be creative and being open and honest, you know, with
each other and with like our lives.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
It's a very important thing. We don't know how much.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Time we have on this earth, which is a very
scary thing. And back in twenty twenty was probably the
source of my anxiety and panic attacks for the very
first time, like a fear of death, fear of like
the fact that you know, one of these days, like
I'm not going to have any more time.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And it was a very scary thing.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
And I think, as you know, I worked through that
and saw a therapist and talking with my wife and
talking with Dan, like you know, having a community around me,
you realize, like that is the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
About life, is that it is fragile.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I look at my kids and like it's devastating to
me that you know, back in twenty twenty when we
played our first big arena show right across the street
over here, that you know, my oldest was two years
old and now he's nine, and the fact that time.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Has just flown by.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And if there's anything that I've learned as a dad
and as a friend and all these things, is that
we have to find ways to capture these moments of
magic in our life. And even with the sad things
that we go through, like being able to have a
community to get through those things. On the other side
of that, there's a lot of weight and heaviness, not
necessarily in a bad way, like I have. Me and
(11:43):
my wife have been through a lot of hard things
now and we've built something together. Me and Dan been
through a lot of hard things together, our wives, like
our whole you know, friend group, Like we've all been
through a lot of stuff us as a community.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I mean, it's been a really tough few years. But
what's on the other.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Side of that is is really a to me because
even though there's a lot of heartbreak, you know, and
all these things that have happened, you know, in our life,
on the other side of that was something really special
where it was like it's time that we've spent. It's
the people that we've shared these moments with, and it's
just weighty. And I feel like our music kind of
feels like that. It's exactly where we're at in our
life right now. And when I say weighty, it's not
(12:19):
all you know, sad songs. There's a lot of hope
and happiness and all this music and it's a discovery
of time and since we only have a certain amount
of time on this earth, that's what's beautiful about it
is that we have to take each moment for captive
and make sure that we are enjoying these things. But
I think with a song like say So, it even
captures that too, like with this little amount of time
(12:40):
that we have here on earth, like make sure that
we're taking each you know, don't take a second for
granted because somebody might be going through something and having
that community like us, creating a culture that inspires people
to talk about, you know, their feelings is important because
I think that just encouraging that could save one person's life.
And if it that, I think it's it was more
(13:01):
than worth it to be able to kind of open
up this conversation. And I know that we I feel
like I've been rambling when I talk about this, because
it really is just it's a realization that we've come
to through a lot of hard work, you know, and
talking about it. But I think that it's so important
that we put out a song like this because it
is so much bigger than us, and you know, like
Dan said, and I think it's a it's an important
(13:22):
message it's a timely message, and I hope that we're
able to contribute to that in a way that maybe
someone else couldn't. You know, there's there's other people who've
tackled this subject before, and there's a lot of amazing
resources for people out there. But I think that when
it's someone like us, I think that people that maybe
wouldn't listen to somebody else, they might listen to us,
(13:42):
because I think that there's this kind of stigma of
like people who are dealing with mental health look a
certain way or they have you know, you would just
think it's these people, And more times than not, it's
always the people you least expect it.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Like our friend Ben.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
You would never look at that guy from the outside
and say he's dealing with something very difficult. And I
think that that's usually the case. I mean for us,
people would look at from the outsides like these guys
are doing great, they're having success, you know, they've got
a family, like all these things are good.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
But sometimes that's the weight of that will get you.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And I think it's a thing that we need to
make sure that we create this community that is a
safe place and encourages especially men to like, hey, say something,
there's always somebody on the other line, and it's just
a I think it's a really important message that I'm
so proud to be a part of and a lot
bigger than just us.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And I didn't know this.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I liked this song before and the message was so
good before, but now to hear a story behind it,
it's like, I mean, I have goosebumps knowing how what
this song could mean. And that's one thing y'all have
always done well, is like, here's what the song means
to us, But like.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
You let whoever hears it own and how they have to.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Is it tough? Because now knowing more story behind the song?
You guys are great entertainers, you're great performers, you're great songwriters.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
But to do something like this, man, you've got to
be vulnerable. Was that tough?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Not that you haven't been vulnerable songs before, but man,
this this is a whole new level of that.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Big time.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
I mean, this is maybe too personal, and I'm going
to just air it out here anyways because we're buds,
but talk about it with my therapist. I was dealing
with a lot of you know, just anxiety and imposter
syndrome and just things that we all go through, you know,
And he was like, you should have an open conversation
with your fans at some point, like whether it's on
social post one story or go on stage and be like, hey, guys,
(15:27):
I just want to clear the air right now. I'm like,
I'm dealing with some I'm anxious, I'm dealing with like
break that fourth wall with the fans. And I was like, oh, dude,
what am I I'm not going to say that.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And this song is called Speechless. It doesn't make any sense,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Like that was hard for me trying to minimize the
gap between the guy that I am off stage and
the guy that I am on stage, because I think
when you can minimize that gap and you can really
perfect that, that's when people.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Love you for you, and I think they do. It's
just we convince ourselves.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I have to go on stage and be like stone
cold Steve Auston, I'm going crazy up here, you know,
still good at that, because that's fun, you know. That's like,
that's what we want to do since we were little kids.
But I think we get caught up sometimes and trying
to present who we think that the people want us
to present to them, you know who we think that
they think that we should be. And it was just
like we had this conversation about trying to minimize that
(16:11):
gap and breaking that wall. And I think, selfishly, this
song is that for me, you know. I mean it's
hard to do in the same way it was hard
for me as a tough man or whatever to like
say I need help, I need to go to therapy.
But I think being able to stand on stage every
night and say, like, hey guys, I'm I'm probably gonna
take more than a minute of their time.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
You hear me rambling about it right now. You hear
how passionate we are.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
But to just be able to say that on stage,
to break that wall, to have that open line of
communication with the fans, I feel such a cloud lifted
in my own personal world. So maybe that's selfish, but
I think it's important. I think it's just a necessary
step for healing or getting better as a person, as
a man. And I don't know, I just really look
forward to that moment in the set. It's a heavy moment,
it's serious, But I do think if we can be
(16:55):
as vulnerable as humanly possible in that moment, it might
make somebody out there in the crowd who may not
have otherwise reached out, may not have otherwise whether it's
you know, whether it's you're in such a severe place
that you're suicidal, or whether it's that you're just going
through some stuff like, both of those matter. You know,
whether you need to call the Suicide and Crisis Hotline
nine eight eight, or whether you're just dealing with some
(17:16):
anxiety and you need to ask somebody like, hey man,
can we grab a coffee or something? Those are both matter,
and this song is going to both of those people.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And I think as much as you both have said,
you know, I'm rambling or I'm sorry, I'm going on
and on what I think that you might not see,
like from your point of view, but as a fan
and as somebody who's going to the show, as you're
talking about, if you stop down like that, you're giving
a parent a chance of connected with a kid. Sure
on the top, you may have just broke the ice
for them. Not only that, they'll talk about that moment
(17:46):
in the car the whole ride home, more than the Pyro,
more than the hits, more than because you were you
weren't Dan and Shaye.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
We were Dan and Jan and shit exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
So that's that's as a as a fan who's going
to go to shows to see something like.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
That would be mind blowing. I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So how do you keep when you guys have worked
with like Saint Jude's obviously huge a country music You've
done stuff with them before. You guys are involved with
the animal rescue in town here, when you were a
part of a mission, it doesn't just end there, right,
It's about keeping the mission alive past that. If you
lose a friend, it's not just about this song, right.
(18:27):
How So have you guys thought of how do you
somebody who is so close to you, so close to
the foundation of why you are where you are today,
how do you keep his memory alive past this song?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
I think that you know, obviously it started really for us.
Obviously we've had internal conversations and you know this town.
He was a very revered guy in this town and
was made a big impact on a.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Lot of people's careers because.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
He cared, you know, And I think that us talking
about Ben, you know, and obviously this song we're going
to be talking about Ben a lot. But I think
there's having this conversation and finding ways. I think it's
going to be an ever changing thing. I think the
best thing that we could do in Ben's honor is
to do exactly what we're doing, you know, with putting
this song out and trying to champion people speaking up
(19:15):
and saying something.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And we're we've we're going to do a lot of
different things.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
There's a lot of amazing resources that currently exist. And
I think, you know, for us, it doesn't matter what
that looks like, whether it's partnering with other people, We're
going to do that, whether it's starting some sort of foundation,
you know with Porter's call in town here, whatever that
looks like, we want to do as much as we
possibly can to you know, not only you know, hold
hold Ben's you know memory, you know, close to our
(19:43):
hearts and to make sure to share you know, his message.
But I think for for other people, there's when you
start talking about something like this, there's one million stories
that start to you know that you start to hear
everybody has a story about some either whether it's themselves
going through anxiety or you know, depression or whatever it is,
someone has dealt with that or someone has lost someone
you know to suicide and has dealt with this in
(20:06):
some sort of way, and I think the best way
we can honor his memory is making sure that we
make sure those people are heard and that they are
you know, inspired to say something or to talk about
with them. And I think what's interesting about this song too,
is it's not just the people who have dealt with
mental health issues.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I think that there's there's also.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
A lot of other scenarios where people that this song
can bring them hope, because even though this song is
a heavy topic, the song as a whole like it
it is a message of hope. It's a message of
hope to say something, you know before it is too late.
And I think that you know, whether it's dealing with
with you know, mental health issues, or someone who is
you know, battling cancer, has someone who has you know,
(20:45):
lost the fight to cancer, I think there's a lot
of different people who can that have heard this song
already and said, hey, like, when I heard this, this
is what I thought of. And I think that a
lot of people will take this song and kind of
make it their own. And I think that's the whole
point that we want to be able to open up
this conversation, and however someone hears it and receives that
with it being one hundred percent honest from our story,
(21:06):
I think it'll even it'll touch them even deeper because
they know it's it's from a place of like this
song was supposed to be written, Like I think that
this song is that message of hope that was just
a gift from above, Like this is supposed to be
out in the world and what happens after that, Like
that's not all on you guys, Like do this part
of it?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And I think you know that. I think it'll take
care of itself.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
And I think as long as we're doing our job
to maybe encourage people to just have these kind of
conversations like hey, how are you going to do this?
Like we don't really know all the ways that this
song's going to touch people. And I think as long
as we're really pursuing that with an open heart and
our hearts are in the right place of trying to
make sure that as many people can hear this song
in particular as they can, because I know that this
(21:48):
is going to touch somebody's life. You know, it already
has just internally of people hearing this song, it's really
affected them.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's affected us first.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
But yeah, man, I'm excited to see the ways that
this song is used to help you people. And you know,
like Dan said earlier, like putting out this song, if
it helps one person, like, what an amazing thing to
be a.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Part of that.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
We get to be the voices that bring awareness to
this and there's a lot of people that are doing
that in an amazing way. And whether it's partnering with them, like,
this is all whatever we can possibly do, and I'm
excited to see what comes out of this. You know,
what kind of partnerships come out of this, and that
we we just want the most amount of people to hear, like, hey,
there's always somebody listening, there's always somebody on the other
(22:27):
end of that line, and we want to make sure
to be that that voice that encourages people to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
You guys are creating NonStop and I'm sure texting NonStop
about ideas and whatnot. Did this kind of just pop
in the middle of ideas that we're already brewing or
was this kind of like, hey, we knew this was
going to be our next offering, whether it's country radio
single or something we just put out on our own
before the next the next full project. Did this kind
(22:54):
of hop in front of the line, or was this
already in the works this song?
Speaker 5 (22:57):
No, man, we hit this streak of a couple of weeks,
just like creative wild inspiration, just writing a bunch of songs,
and a lot of songs will come from a title
that's in somebody's phone and it's like, yeah, that's going
to be a good hook or whatever, you know, but
this one. Sometimes the most beautiful songs come from just
a conversation in the room.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
We started writing the song.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
And didn't have like, you know a lot of times
you got that bluebird moment that you tee up, you
rhyming with the last whatever the title is, and it's like, well,
that's okay, that's how we land that hook. This one, actually,
a lot of the songs came from that. We were
just singing in the room or just saying what was
on our heart, and then we figured out how to
get to what the title was, you know. And it
was one of those ones that didn't come in a
notes document that was like, say so, we should write
(23:36):
a song called say so today. It was from a
conversation about our friend, and that was kind of just
where we landed. We thought that was a powerful way
to say it. No pun intended. It's just like, man,
if you're going through hell, you're not alone. If you
need somebody, say so. And whether that's picking up the
phone and calling somebody on the other line or just
in the room with your buddy asking for help. I mean,
we just want to make that, We want to normalize that,
make it okay.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
Man, this is a song that I don't know, we've
said a million times, just needed to be written that
day and it was a special week of creativity. Every
song that we wrote, I feel like help tell the
story of the next one that we wrote.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
We got a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
You know, there's a lot of songs in there that
I think like sound like hits that feel amazing, they
still feel personal. But this one, for some reason, just
felt like it needed to come out first. You know,
it sets the tone for the record. It's I would
say this stuff that we're working on this batch of
music is it's not like it's not all heavy, it's
not all weighty, it's not all sad, but I would
say it's serious. It's like reflective of where we are
in our lives. As I'm a little older than Shay,
(24:33):
but a thirty eight year old man, you know what
I'm saying. It's like, it's not We're not parking up
at the tin roof and party until three in the morning.
As much as we use I'm saying never, but I
said as much as we used to. You know, we
can still pop it off.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Oh sorry, exactly, exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I all had this Sonsea at four pm, you know,
which is true? Anyways, I don't.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
Know, man, life is real, and I just worded a
little bit of a different spot now than we were
when we got started here, So I think subject matter
reflects that, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I'm proud, man, I'm proud of this stuff that we're making,
especially this song.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
It feels like just coming in here talking about it,
talking to you about it, like listening to when you
played it on your phone just there, I'm like, man's
that's cool.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I think that song is gonna live on for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It feels it feels great, And the thing is.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Not to I'd compliment you NonStop when you're in here,
but it's the song. The song is so good, and
it tells the story you needed it to tell. But like,
I didn't know anything about Ben. I didn't know his
tide to the song, or his story or even his
chapter in your guy's story, right, So I got to
hear the song the way my ears needed it. So
(25:40):
you still got what you needed right therapeutically and then
to share. But like I heard it the way like
my mind needed to hear it. So it's cool because
you got what you needed out of it, right, and
now it gets to serve the world however it needs to.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
That's the beautiful thing about music, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
I think everybody can have their own interpretation of songs,
and it's crazy as it sounds. We've had people come
off to us and be like, man, your song Tequila,
Like that song saved my life or whatever, you know.
I mean, it's like it's that's beautiful, like whatever it means.
That's a heartbreak song, you know. But I've also had
people say that was my wedding song. What kind of
wedding is that we first danced in Tequila? Well, you
(26:16):
guys are doomed through Chaplin, Vegas. That's where they pay
out exactly. Yeah, man, I mean, but I think, you know,
having this platforms, thank you always for letting us come
on here and you know, share our truth. But I
think it's important to give it context. But I do
also think it's important for people to put their own
message and put their own spin on it as well,
because I think the end of the day, it is hopeful,
it is optimistic. You know, those kind of songs that
(26:38):
carry a lot of weight. Sometimes could be the real sad,
depressing piano ballad that's tracked ten on the record that
doesn't ever see the light of day, and it's very personal.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
But this I think combines all the things. It's hopeful.
It's still bangs on the radio.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
You know, it's one of those those vibes, but I
just I think it carries a lot of weight. And
when you find one of those songs, you gotta roll
with it. And that's what we're doing. Man, We're going
We're diving in head first, and I don't know, we're
not afraid of it. We're not afraid to come on
here and talk. As you know, it's an important subject
for us.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Last thing I'm gonna ask you and don't make me
fight on Wednesday morning, But you're not leaving without saying
when the album's coming out.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
It came out last night, we'll tell you as soon
as the as soon as the we go off there.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
But is there pressure to get that stuff done like
in a timely fashion obviously early?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, we moved the date up.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Actually, yeah, we wade up because of because of these
clowns over there, the clowns on the left, not that
it was.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Kind of like my bad combined with some other people's bad.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Well, I can't give a date yet, but it was
gonna be later. And we've got the songs.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I mean that we think we have a song, we're
excited about them, but it was like the passion and
excitement that we felt behind the scenes for this song
already is like we don't want to spread out the
distance between when this song comes out and when the
album was supposed to come out, and if we're ready,
like let's go, you know, let's go these songs. We
feel like the world needs to hear these songs. We've
kind of made them wait long enough. It's been three
(28:08):
years since our last one, so we haven't posted on
socials in a long time either.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, No, it's I know almost unfollowed, I'm like, God, yeah,
what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I would if I were you.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Honestly, I've nothing that compelling here you are, guys.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thanks for carving out, and we can't wait to share
Ben's legacy on the radio with the song.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Dude, You're the best man. We love you, Love you
to your boys.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Thanks man,
Make sure nobody sees the first part of that.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hanging in studio with guys that like I just love
like brothers, which how could you not?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Dan and Shay, Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Man, dude, So good to see you. Man, been a minute, it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Has he all just walked down Broadway casually. You're first
of all, shout out to your record label for parking
in Antioch.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know I couldn't.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
We walked across the river as a seven mile hike.
We left at seven this morning to get here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's about this.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That was their way of saying, Hey, you haven't put
out a song a little bit, so you haven't been
paying the bills so long.
Speaker 5 (00:35):
That's why we're here, brother, That's why we get the
song on the air. Next up is their new song,
and then the rest of their songs.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
As well, all of the songs because dogs, children need
to eat, and Tom Martins has to pay for his
ninety two Cutlass zero.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Parking ain't cheap in Nashville anymore, man, ridiculous, crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
But there.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
The rumor is that they're about to start like a
locals discount, where the more you park with them, the
cheaper it gets.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
That's what they say here. That another thing.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
I'm not trying to bash this company, but I kind
of am. This is a big platform here that I'm
saying this on. The company is called park Happy, Yeah,
and they just ticket you like crazy and they charge
you in astronomical costs.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That ain't happy to me. It's park sad. If you
know what I'm saying, like park just change it to
park yeah. If it's park happy, it should be free.
That's what's going to make me happy. Man.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
I'm just like, I will walk five miles before paying
one dollar for parking twelve south Man. There's a garage
like connected to the restaurant. If they ain't validating, I'm
parking in the residential section, risking getting ticketed, not having
a residential pertmit.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It's a principal thing for me that heated about that would.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Go more viral than the justin Timberlake.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
The tour. It's also their logo is absolutely wild.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I don't understand what they're really going for. Like park Happy,
it's all jovial, and then they've got like a policeman
from like the nineteen fifteen that's not.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
That's from one hundred.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I'm like Walmart Reader didn't work so you're here booting cars.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, I feel it's a tough name for a company
that gives you take.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's right, speaking happy.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Last time we got together, y'all had shared details about
a new level of happy that you guys have found personally,
that it made you stronger musically, it's been a minute
since we've heard some new tunes. How is that new
mindset kind of helped you, you know, continue to stay
on that path?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Man?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Honestly, like, if you follow our socials, we haven't been
posting much on social media recently, which we're just in
here bashing everything today.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'm not trying to.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Bash socials, but I just I don't know, man, I
feel like I kind of got carried away on socials
for a few years where I was like spending my
entire life digitally.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I was online all the time.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
The algorithm starts feeding you stuff, and I don't know,
I feel like the algorithm knows what to feed you
to keep you on there, and I just found myself
like in a I don't know, kind of a dark
place like I tried to. I'm just being proactive about community,
being with my friends in real life, hanging with people,
going and getting a drink with somebody, grabbing dinner, grabbing
a coffee with somebody calling somebody on the phone.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I just think that's that's what we're here for.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Man, that's life giving, that's the human condition, and that's
the human experience. And I think a lot of that's
translating into our music. I think, you know, we're getting
older now and I've I've had this like midlife crisis
about AI and I know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's you know, it's here to stay, it's.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
In our lives, and I'm not you know, it's AI
is a crazy thing. When we start thinking about as
AI coming for our jobs, we're really getting into it here.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
But as musicians and creatives, it is.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I mean, things you can create on AI with the
click of one button is pretty surreal. The thing AI
can't recreate is human emotion, human connection and authenticity. And
I think we kind of just were chasing something, you know,
for a little while, for a few months, trying to
make songs that I don't know, maybe sounded like hits
or we're catchy or whatever, but it's like it just
didn't feel authentic to us, or didn't feel real or
(03:44):
from our hearts or from our souls and uh, man,
we just kind of went back to the drawing board
and we're like, man, that's the thing that can take
down AI. That's the thing that can combat it. And
if at the end of the day, that's what we're here,
that's our purpose is to make those songs. Because if
we don't believe in it, why should anyone else. You know,
we can't walk in here and get on this mic
and say like, man, that is me, and when people
listen to it and they look at us they can't
(04:05):
make that connection, then we're not doing the right thing.
We had cold feet about, you know, the direction that
we were kind of going down for a little while,
and we were like, let's pivot.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Let's get back to it.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
You know, that's the only thing we can do here, man,
And we went back into you know, back to the
drawing board, kind of wiped slate clean and just started
writing about stuff that was pertinent into our lives. Right
now in this moment, I'm thirty eight years old, you know,
just what's going on in my life right now, what's
going on in Shay's life right now?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
What does his household look like? What does my household
look like?
Speaker 5 (04:30):
What are some real concepts and topics that might be
uncomfortable to talk about. And you know, the first single
off this record, say So, is that man. It's about
one of our good friends, Ben who took his life
and it just hit us like a train.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Man. It was just like brutal, brutal realization.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
You know, just from the outside was just always the happiest,
most positive guy, or so it seemed. And you know,
it's a big part of our story. You know, when
Shaye and I met, we were two songwriters, nothing to
our name, no money, nothing couldn't afford to eat. I
was sneaking into the Hampton in on on West End,
stealing connin On breakfast every day just to survive and
to get to sessions. But he believed in us early
(05:07):
and we're still sign of that publishing company today. Is
a big part of the reason we're signing Warner Records Nashville.
And he marched us upstairs and said, you got to
meet Jonasposito, the president of the label at the time,
and big part of our journey, close, close personal friend
and just one of those things that like just really
shook our worlds. It shook a lot of people in
Nashville's Worlds. We're just writing songs for this album. And sorry,
(05:28):
I'm ranting right here. It's just this, I don't know,
it's just very personal to us and get a little emotional.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Talking about it.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
But we were just sharing stories that day. This is
like the song meant was meant to be written that day.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Again, he was a big part of our songwriting journey
as a song champion for us, Thomas, Rhett Stapleton, all
these these artists that are you know on the radio now,
but he's just was there early for all of them
and was just a close friend.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You know, he was at my house.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
We were all there celebrating bigger houses going number one
before this all happened like two weeks before and just
no one suspected anything. And we're just sharing stories about
then and how much we love him and how much
he meant to us. And you know this, this concept
of depression and anxiety and mental health is something that's
like maybe you would think of Dan and Shay'd be like, ah,
this is just a freaking wedding.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
You know, they sing love songs about their wives. That's
just not a topic we would normally cover. Or tackle,
and we were like, you know what, this song there's
it needs to be written today.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
It's on our hearts.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
We need to see this one through to the finish line.
And I think again, not to get too spiritual, it's
just like Ben was in the room with us that day.
It was meant to be written. We're talking about him.
We're like, let's write a song for Ben. You know,
this song is heavy, it's tough subject matter, but like,
let's write it.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Even if it never comes out. It's just a demo
on our phones.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Like it's cathartic and therapeutic for us to write the
song and put those worlds words into the world that day.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And we did, and it was just the craziest thing.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Man.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
I came home and played the demo for my wife
Abby and she was like, you know, it's incredible, like amazing,
beautiful song.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Did you guys write that about Ben?
Speaker 5 (06:59):
And I was like, of course, you know, it's pretty
obvious if if you know us and you know Ben,
And she was like, that's beautiful that you guys made
a beautiful tribute to him on his birthday. We didn't
know it was his birthday that day. It would have
been his fiftieth birthday. And that's that's more than coincidence
to me, man, That's that was a sign this song
needed to be written in, this song needed to be heard. Yeah, man,
(07:19):
I put up Facebook and sure enough it was like,
would you like to wish Ben a happy birthday? And yeah,
like I said, it would have been his fiftieth birthday
that day, And we had no idea at the time
we were writing it. And it's just when it came
time to We've got a lot of stuff We're really
proud of that that we tapped into. I feel like
we hit this creative streak. This just felt like we
haven't felt that since the first album. It just was
like every day we're writing songs for us, We're popping
(07:40):
in with our buddy Brandon Lake writing stuff for his project.
Just it was crazy, like two weeks of just like
knocking all these tunes out and I don't know, I
feel like songs sometimes are in the atmosphere and you
just have to be there and you're the conduit in
the vehicle that these songs come through. And I just think,
I think this song is bigger than Dan and Shay,
It's bigger than us It's a song that.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
We want the world to hear and know.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
We're proud of the way it sounds and turned out. Everybody,
you know, it's like, oh, it sounds like a hit
or whatever, but it's to us, it's it's the message,
and it's an important message for us to hear for
ourselves as guys who've struggled with mental health over the
last few years, who've battled it. Whether people know it
or not, this is a good opportunity for us to
share that, to make it okay, to normalize that. You know,
we're open about that, we go to therapy. I mean,
(08:21):
I as men, we pushed that down, we bottled up inside,
and I think that's an issue, you know. I feel
like growing up in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh blue collar, hard nose,
I was like, screw that, man, I'm too tough to
get you know. And it took me a lot of
years of My wife and people were like, dude, you
should go talk to somebody, and I did and it
changed my world. With this song, knock on Wood, it
(08:41):
goes number one and becomes a big song for us.
We love that, but like, if it doesn't, if it whatever,
if it a fall it ever does is helps one person.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Or saves one life.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
It was worth it for us and that's I don't know,
that's a conviction we have on this thing. And man,
I'm proud of it. I feel like, you know, we've
made a lot of songs that meant something to us
in our career, but this song song means more and
I think it's just it's an important song for us
to put out there.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Early in your career, everything was fun and light and lovy.
Now that you guys have experienced life and obviously you
were very vocal about, you know, difficulties you had a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Does music need to have more purpose now than it did?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Because obviously the hey, this is fun, let's you know early,
but now like to fulfill where you're at life wise
and career wise, do does the music need a little
more purpose behind it for you to to keep you
excited and engaged?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Absolutely? Man, you know, and I think you you know,
you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Like early on, like we had a lot of fun songs,
we were talking about these things and like that's where
we were in our life at the time, you know,
and looking around at our lives now, Like I think
the word that I would use is there's just more
depth to it, Like things mean more to us because
we've gone through time.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Like that's what time does.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Like I always love to you know, the saying you
can't make old friends, like we've been friends with you
now for a very long time. And what you what
you build over time, it's you know, it's trust, it's
it's community, and it's love that only can be you
can fake that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It's something that has to be.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Built, you know, with time, and something that has earned
And I look at that in our lives like now
I have you know, four kids, and Dan and I's
relationship we've known each other now for like twelve or
thirteen years, and we've it's blood, sweat and tears of
like time and sleepless nights like that we have gotten
to experience together. You can't fake that until actual time
(10:22):
goes by. And I feel like that's a common thread
of this music is it's kind of an exploration of
what time is and why it's important that we take
a second to be like, hey, this is uh, this
this means something, you know, like to be able to
be creative and being open and honest, you know, with
each other and with like our lives.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
It's a very important thing. We don't know how much.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Time we have on this earth, which is a very
scary thing. And back in twenty twenty was probably the
source of my anxiety and panic attacks for the very
first time, like a fear of death, fear of like
the fact that you know, one of these days, like
I'm not going to have any more time.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And it was a very scary thing.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
And I think, as you know, I worked through that
and saw a therapist and talking with my wife and
talking with Dan, like you know, having a community around me,
you realize, like that is the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
About life, is that it is fragile.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I look at my kids and like it's devastating to
me that you know, back in twenty twenty when we
played our first big arena show right across the street
over here, that you know, my oldest was two years
old and now he's nine, and the fact that time.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Has just flown by.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And if there's anything that I've learned as a dad
and as a friend and all these things, is that
we have to find ways to capture these moments of
magic in our life. And even with the sad things
that we go through, like being able to have a
community to get through those things. On the other side
of that, there's a lot of weight and heaviness, not
necessarily in a bad way, like I have. Me and
(11:43):
my wife have been through a lot of hard things
now and we've built something together. Me and Dan been
through a lot of hard things together, our wives, like
our whole you know, friend group, Like we've all been
through a lot of stuff us as a community.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I mean, it's been a really tough few years. But
what's on the other.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Side of that is is really a to me because
even though there's a lot of heartbreak, you know, and
all these things that have happened, you know, in our life,
on the other side of that was something really special
where it was like it's time that we've spent. It's
the people that we've shared these moments with, and it's
just weighty. And I feel like our music kind of
feels like that. It's exactly where we're at in our
life right now. And when I say weighty, it's not
(12:19):
all you know, sad songs. There's a lot of hope
and happiness and all this music and it's a discovery
of time and since we only have a certain amount
of time on this earth, that's what's beautiful about it
is that we have to take each moment for captive
and make sure that we are enjoying these things. But
I think with a song like say So, it even
captures that too, like with this little amount of time
(12:40):
that we have here on earth, like make sure that
we're taking each you know, don't take a second for
granted because somebody might be going through something and having
that community like us, creating a culture that inspires people
to talk about, you know, their feelings is important because
I think that just encouraging that could save one person's life.
And if it that, I think it's it was more
(13:01):
than worth it to be able to kind of open
up this conversation. And I know that we I feel
like I've been rambling when I talk about this, because
it really is just it's a realization that we've come
to through a lot of hard work, you know, and
talking about it. But I think that it's so important
that we put out a song like this because it
is so much bigger than us, and you know, like
Dan said, and I think it's a it's an important
(13:22):
message it's a timely message, and I hope that we're
able to contribute to that in a way that maybe
someone else couldn't. You know, there's there's other people who've
tackled this subject before, and there's a lot of amazing
resources for people out there. But I think that when
it's someone like us, I think that people that maybe
wouldn't listen to somebody else, they might listen to us,
(13:42):
because I think that there's this kind of stigma of
like people who are dealing with mental health look a
certain way or they have you know, you would just
think it's these people, And more times than not, it's
always the people you least expect it.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Like our friend Ben.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
You would never look at that guy from the outside
and say he's dealing with something very difficult. And I
think that that's usually the case. I mean for us,
people would look at from the outsides like these guys
are doing great, they're having success, you know, they've got
a family, like all these things are good.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
But sometimes that's the weight of that will get you.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And I think it's a thing that we need to
make sure that we create this community that is a
safe place and encourages especially men to like, hey, say something,
there's always somebody on the other line, and it's just
a I think it's a really important message that I'm
so proud to be a part of and a lot
bigger than just us.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And I didn't know this.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I liked this song before and the message was so
good before, but now to hear a story behind it,
it's like, I mean, I have goosebumps knowing how what
this song could mean. And that's one thing y'all have
always done well, is like, here's what the song means
to us, But like.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
You let whoever hears it own and how they have to.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Is it tough? Because now knowing more story behind the song?
You guys are great entertainers, you're great performers, you're great songwriters.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
But to do something like this, man, you've got to
be vulnerable. Was that tough?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Not that you haven't been vulnerable songs before, but man,
this this is a whole new level of that.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Big time.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
I mean, this is maybe too personal, and I'm going
to just air it out here anyways because we're buds,
but talk about it with my therapist. I was dealing
with a lot of you know, just anxiety and imposter
syndrome and just things that we all go through, you know,
And he was like, you should have an open conversation
with your fans at some point, like whether it's on
social post one story or go on stage and be like, hey, guys,
(15:27):
I just want to clear the air right now. I'm like,
I'm dealing with some I'm anxious, I'm dealing with like
break that fourth wall with the fans. And I was like, oh, dude,
what am I I'm not going to say that.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And this song is called Speechless. It doesn't make any sense,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Like that was hard for me trying to minimize the
gap between the guy that I am off stage and
the guy that I am on stage, because I think
when you can minimize that gap and you can really
perfect that, that's when people.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Love you for you, and I think they do. It's
just we convince ourselves.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I have to go on stage and be like stone
cold Steve Auston, I'm going crazy up here, you know,
still good at that, because that's fun, you know. That's like,
that's what we want to do since we were little kids.
But I think we get caught up sometimes and trying
to present who we think that the people want us
to present to them, you know who we think that
they think that we should be. And it was just
like we had this conversation about trying to minimize that
(16:11):
gap and breaking that wall. And I think, selfishly, this
song is that for me, you know. I mean it's
hard to do in the same way it was hard
for me as a tough man or whatever to like
say I need help, I need to go to therapy.
But I think being able to stand on stage every
night and say, like, hey guys, I'm I'm probably gonna
take more than a minute of their time.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
You hear me rambling about it right now. You hear
how passionate we are.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
But to just be able to say that on stage,
to break that wall, to have that open line of
communication with the fans, I feel such a cloud lifted
in my own personal world. So maybe that's selfish, but
I think it's important. I think it's just a necessary
step for healing or getting better as a person, as
a man. And I don't know, I just really look
forward to that moment in the set. It's a heavy moment,
it's serious, But I do think if we can be
(16:55):
as vulnerable as humanly possible in that moment, it might
make somebody out there in the crowd who may not
have otherwise reached out, may not have otherwise whether it's
you know, whether it's you're in such a severe place
that you're suicidal, or whether it's that you're just going
through some stuff like, both of those matter. You know,
whether you need to call the Suicide and Crisis Hotline
nine eight eight, or whether you're just dealing with some
(17:16):
anxiety and you need to ask somebody like, hey man,
can we grab a coffee or something? Those are both matter,
and this song is going to both of those people.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And I think as much as you both have said,
you know, I'm rambling or I'm sorry, I'm going on
and on what I think that you might not see,
like from your point of view, but as a fan
and as somebody who's going to the show, as you're
talking about, if you stop down like that, you're giving
a parent a chance of connected with a kid. Sure
on the top, you may have just broke the ice
for them. Not only that, they'll talk about that moment
(17:46):
in the car the whole ride home, more than the Pyro,
more than the hits, more than because you were you
weren't Dan and Shaye.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
We were Dan and Jan and shit exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
So that's that's as a as a fan who's going
to go to shows to see something like.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
That would be mind blowing. I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So how do you keep when you guys have worked
with like Saint Jude's obviously huge a country music You've
done stuff with them before. You guys are involved with
the animal rescue in town here, when you were a
part of a mission, it doesn't just end there, right,
It's about keeping the mission alive past that. If you
lose a friend, it's not just about this song, right.
(18:27):
How So have you guys thought of how do you
somebody who is so close to you, so close to
the foundation of why you are where you are today,
how do you keep his memory alive past this song?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
I think that you know, obviously it started really for us.
Obviously we've had internal conversations and you know this town.
He was a very revered guy in this town and
was made a big impact on a.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Lot of people's careers because.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
He cared, you know, And I think that us talking
about Ben, you know, and obviously this song we're going
to be talking about Ben a lot. But I think
there's having this conversation and finding ways. I think it's
going to be an ever changing thing. I think the
best thing that we could do in Ben's honor is
to do exactly what we're doing, you know, with putting
this song out and trying to champion people speaking up
(19:15):
and saying something.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And we're we've we're going to do a lot of
different things.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
There's a lot of amazing resources that currently exist. And
I think, you know, for us, it doesn't matter what
that looks like, whether it's partnering with other people, We're
going to do that, whether it's starting some sort of foundation,
you know with Porter's call in town here, whatever that
looks like, we want to do as much as we
possibly can to you know, not only you know, hold
hold Ben's you know memory, you know, close to our
(19:43):
hearts and to make sure to share you know, his message.
But I think for for other people, there's when you
start talking about something like this, there's one million stories
that start to you know that you start to hear
everybody has a story about some either whether it's themselves
going through anxiety or you know, depression or whatever it is,
someone has dealt with that or someone has lost someone
you know to suicide and has dealt with this in
(20:06):
some sort of way, and I think the best way
we can honor his memory is making sure that we
make sure those people are heard and that they are
you know, inspired to say something or to talk about
with them. And I think what's interesting about this song too,
is it's not just the people who have dealt with
mental health issues.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I think that there's there's also.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
A lot of other scenarios where people that this song
can bring them hope, because even though this song is
a heavy topic, the song as a whole like it
it is a message of hope. It's a message of
hope to say something, you know before it is too late.
And I think that you know, whether it's dealing with
with you know, mental health issues, or someone who is
you know, battling cancer, has someone who has you know,
(20:45):
lost the fight to cancer, I think there's a lot
of different people who can that have heard this song
already and said, hey, like, when I heard this, this
is what I thought of. And I think that a
lot of people will take this song and kind of
make it their own. And I think that's the whole
point that we want to be able to open up
this conversation, and however someone hears it and receives that
with it being one hundred percent honest from our story,
(21:06):
I think it'll even it'll touch them even deeper because
they know it's it's from a place of like this
song was supposed to be written, Like I think that
this song is that message of hope that was just
a gift from above, Like this is supposed to be
out in the world and what happens after that, Like
that's not all on you guys, Like do this part
of it?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And I think you know that. I think it'll take
care of itself.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
And I think as long as we're doing our job
to maybe encourage people to just have these kind of
conversations like hey, how are you going to do this?
Like we don't really know all the ways that this
song's going to touch people. And I think as long
as we're really pursuing that with an open heart and
our hearts are in the right place of trying to
make sure that as many people can hear this song
in particular as they can, because I know that this
(21:48):
is going to touch somebody's life. You know, it already
has just internally of people hearing this song, it's really
affected them.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's affected us first.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
But yeah, man, I'm excited to see the ways that
this song is used to help you people. And you know,
like Dan said earlier, like putting out this song, if
it helps one person, like, what an amazing thing to
be a.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Part of that.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
We get to be the voices that bring awareness to
this and there's a lot of people that are doing
that in an amazing way. And whether it's partnering with them, like,
this is all whatever we can possibly do, and I'm
excited to see what comes out of this. You know,
what kind of partnerships come out of this, and that
we we just want the most amount of people to hear, like, hey,
there's always somebody listening, there's always somebody on the other
(22:27):
end of that line, and we want to make sure
to be that that voice that encourages people to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
You guys are creating NonStop and I'm sure texting NonStop
about ideas and whatnot. Did this kind of just pop
in the middle of ideas that we're already brewing or
was this kind of like, hey, we knew this was
going to be our next offering, whether it's country radio
single or something we just put out on our own
before the next the next full project. Did this kind
(22:54):
of hop in front of the line, or was this
already in the works this song?
Speaker 5 (22:57):
No, man, we hit this streak of a couple of weeks,
just like creative wild inspiration, just writing a bunch of songs,
and a lot of songs will come from a title
that's in somebody's phone and it's like, yeah, that's going
to be a good hook or whatever, you know, but
this one. Sometimes the most beautiful songs come from just
a conversation in the room.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
We started writing the song.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
And didn't have like, you know a lot of times
you got that bluebird moment that you tee up, you
rhyming with the last whatever the title is, and it's like, well,
that's okay, that's how we land that hook. This one, actually,
a lot of the songs came from that. We were
just singing in the room or just saying what was
on our heart, and then we figured out how to
get to what the title was, you know. And it
was one of those ones that didn't come in a
notes document that was like, say so, we should write
(23:36):
a song called say so today. It was from a
conversation about our friend, and that was kind of just
where we landed. We thought that was a powerful way
to say it. No pun intended. It's just like, man,
if you're going through hell, you're not alone. If you
need somebody, say so. And whether that's picking up the
phone and calling somebody on the other line or just
in the room with your buddy asking for help. I mean,
we just want to make that, We want to normalize that,
make it okay.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
Man, this is a song that I don't know, we've
said a million times, just needed to be written that
day and it was a special week of creativity. Every
song that we wrote, I feel like help tell the
story of the next one that we wrote.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
We got a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
You know, there's a lot of songs in there that
I think like sound like hits that feel amazing, they
still feel personal. But this one, for some reason, just
felt like it needed to come out first. You know,
it sets the tone for the record. It's I would
say this stuff that we're working on this batch of
music is it's not like it's not all heavy, it's
not all weighty, it's not all sad, but I would
say it's serious. It's like reflective of where we are
in our lives. As I'm a little older than Shay,
(24:33):
but a thirty eight year old man, you know what
I'm saying. It's like, it's not We're not parking up
at the tin roof and party until three in the morning.
As much as we use I'm saying never, but I
said as much as we used to. You know, we
can still pop it off.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Oh sorry, exactly, exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I all had this Sonsea at four pm, you know,
which is true? Anyways, I don't.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
Know, man, life is real, and I just worded a
little bit of a different spot now than we were
when we got started here, So I think subject matter
reflects that, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I'm proud, man, I'm proud of this stuff that we're making,
especially this song.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
It feels like just coming in here talking about it,
talking to you about it, like listening to when you
played it on your phone just there, I'm like, man's
that's cool.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I think that song is gonna live on for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It feels it feels great, And the thing is.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Not to I'd compliment you NonStop when you're in here,
but it's the song. The song is so good, and
it tells the story you needed it to tell. But like,
I didn't know anything about Ben. I didn't know his
tide to the song, or his story or even his
chapter in your guy's story, right, So I got to
hear the song the way my ears needed it. So
(25:40):
you still got what you needed right therapeutically and then
to share. But like I heard it the way like
my mind needed to hear it. So it's cool because
you got what you needed out of it, right, and
now it gets to serve the world however it needs to.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
That's the beautiful thing about music, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
I think everybody can have their own interpretation of songs,
and it's crazy as it sounds. We've had people come
off to us and be like, man, your song Tequila,
Like that song saved my life or whatever, you know.
I mean, it's like it's that's beautiful, like whatever it means.
That's a heartbreak song, you know. But I've also had
people say that was my wedding song. What kind of
wedding is that we first danced in Tequila? Well, you
(26:16):
guys are doomed through Chaplin, Vegas. That's where they pay
out exactly. Yeah, man, I mean, but I think, you know,
having this platforms, thank you always for letting us come
on here and you know, share our truth. But I
think it's important to give it context. But I do
also think it's important for people to put their own
message and put their own spin on it as well,
because I think the end of the day, it is hopeful,
it is optimistic. You know, those kind of songs that
(26:38):
carry a lot of weight. Sometimes could be the real sad,
depressing piano ballad that's tracked ten on the record that
doesn't ever see the light of day, and it's very personal.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
But this I think combines all the things. It's hopeful.
It's still bangs on the radio.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
You know, it's one of those those vibes, but I
just I think it carries a lot of weight. And
when you find one of those songs, you gotta roll
with it. And that's what we're doing. Man, We're going
We're diving in head first, and I don't know, we're
not afraid of it. We're not afraid to come on
here and talk. As you know, it's an important subject
for us.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Last thing I'm gonna ask you and don't make me
fight on Wednesday morning, But you're not leaving without saying
when the album's coming out.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
It came out last night, we'll tell you as soon
as the as soon as the we go off there.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
But is there pressure to get that stuff done like
in a timely fashion obviously early?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, we moved the date up.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Actually, yeah, we wade up because of because of these
clowns over there, the clowns on the left, not that
it was.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Kind of like my bad combined with some other people's bad.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Well, I can't give a date yet, but it was
gonna be later. And we've got the songs.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I mean that we think we have a song, we're
excited about them, but it was like the passion and
excitement that we felt behind the scenes for this song
already is like we don't want to spread out the
distance between when this song comes out and when the
album was supposed to come out, and if we're ready,
like let's go, you know, let's go these songs. We
feel like the world needs to hear these songs. We've
kind of made them wait long enough. It's been three
(28:08):
years since our last one, so we haven't posted on
socials in a long time either.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, No, it's I know almost unfollowed, I'm like, God, yeah,
what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I would if I were you.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Honestly, I've nothing that compelling here you are, guys.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thanks for carving out, and we can't wait to share
Ben's legacy on the radio with the song.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Dude, You're the best man. We love you, Love you
to your boys.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Thanks man,
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