April 15, 2024 • 14 mins
He's had an amazing career and he may slow down a bit, but he's far from done. We catch up with Luke Bryan as he's got a new song, tour and somehow has the time to keep American Idol as a priority. Plus, we get Luke to admit one of he nastiest truth's for artists today...it's gross!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, we're hanging out with Lukebryan Man. First of all, how
do you find time to make aradio visit with everything you're doing right now?
Well, I mean I think listen, it's uh. When you're putting
new music out, and certainly musicthat you're really really excited about, you
know you need to come. Thisis part of the part of the process.
I mean, that's what it's interesting. When you move to Nashville and
(00:25):
do all this. You just thinkyou write a song and it goes.
You don't realize you gotta you gottarun around and promote and talk about how
awesome you are. And I lovehearing myself brag about myself. So this
is just a full This is mymoment for fans that don't see that back
end, right, Like, theyknow that you do the idle stuff,
(00:45):
right, they know that, weget it, you do idle. But
then you know what the fans don'trealize is then you have to go film
five days of commercials and you've gotto go promote idle. So when you
launch a big situation, you've gotto run and and and feed feed the
(01:06):
feed the system. Because that's justthe way it ought to be. And
that's what you do. It looksto a country music fan or an American
idol fan, that looks glamorous,right, like, oh, he does
these shows and sells out, andhe's got these number one songs and he
does idle. What are some ofthe like not so glamor and you obviously
appreciate where you're at in life,And well, I would always non glamorous
moments, I would say the most. No matter who the country music star,
(01:34):
throughout the history of country music,at some point that star has had
to get off their tour bus,walk across a muddy festival field and use
a portal, lid or portagehn,no matter which one, all the all
(01:55):
the female stars. And also thatthat's pretty non glamorous when you here,
because well, tour buses are gettingbetter, but ten years ago that was,
you know, number two on atour bus. You couldn't. It's
a it's a no no. Sojust just understand that. However, glamorous
one might be yeah, toting yourown roll of toilet paper through a festival
(02:20):
field. Two, Yeah, that'ssharing a shower or not sharing a shower,
but you know mobile showers, Yeah, so it it uh yeah,
there's some but you know it's uh, it's a little more glamorous for me
now. I mean, you knowwhen I'm when I'm when i'm home,
(02:43):
I'm having fun. Really every day. I mean when I'm home, I'm
having fun. And when I gotsome shows booked, I'm having fun.
And like coming in today, andI mean I'm really like I said I
said earlier, I'm really excited aboutthis song. So coming in and talking
about new music is U is funstuff and and this is it's a fun
thing I get to do when itcomes to the challenge of new music.
Because you've had so many amazing songsand so many great albums and tours.
(03:07):
What keeps you excited about a newsong? Well, I think it's you
know, when new songs come in, and when you write a new and
that you really loved, that that'sfun. I mean playing it for people,
watching watching them react to the song, testing it out on people even
like so I've got tea on mynephew who's twenty two, and I've got
(03:29):
bow my bow's sixteen and takes thirteen. I mean, if I get a
cool song that's a country song andI play it for them and they're like,
Dad, we love that song.That's fun, and so playing something
that you worked on and you yeah, that's what it's all about to me.
So as long as I can gowrite songs now, I don't want
(03:53):
to hold like I'm not holding myselfup and writing one hundred songs a year
like I did from you know,two thousand and five to twenty fifteen.
I mean it was one hundred songsa year and and and you know,
writing constantly. But now I'll geta great idea, a fun idea that
I'm really confident in, and callup a call up some songwriter buddies,
(04:16):
and we'll sit down and write itand we love how it turned out.
So that that's that's fun. Iwhen when you get an exciting song or
someone pitches you an exciting song,it's good stuff. I can tell the
excitement in your eyes and then yourvoice, the way you're talking about new
music. Obviously, that's part ofthe reason you're here today with love you
miss you mean It? Why Whydid this feel right to not only record,
(04:39):
but be like, hey, let'sthis is because picking a radio single
there's more of a science behind itnow, right versus I like it go
right, I mean, yeah,the the yeah, you're right. I
mean when you when you go toradio and you you pick your single,
it's it's a it's a there's alot of things in play and a lot
(05:00):
of places to go and do andsee and all that. But I mean,
this song is just one of thosesongs where you hear it and you're
like, man, that title,why has that title not been written?
And the story around it and ityou know, from people that I've talked
to, it kind of feels likepeople are like, it's kind of vintage.
It's kind of throwback stuff that youused to do. And I think
(05:21):
it's challenging where I'm at in mycareer to try to moodle. I've talked
about so many sub but I kindof get just being kind of the party
guy. I get my all ofmy dad. I mean, it hadn't
been all raging party songs either.It's been so as I as I go
(05:42):
to try to pick the next single, how do I pick one that's kind
of different than you know, fifteenyears of all this other music, So
it gets a little more challenging.And even sitting down to write a song,
if I'm like, gosh, I'vealready already kind of did that with
this song. Or you know,I've already had a song about farming,
(06:04):
or I had a song about thehonky Tonk and all this. So so
you just have to get a littlemore creative and and and push yourself and
and hopefully when you get the rightone, it's uh, it starts the
right process. I mean, Iasked for the small donation after you leave,
because we just had a label inthe middle of the interview. Yeah,
(06:25):
it's fine, it's fine, it'sthe electricity. My truck didn't start
yesterday, so oh no, whatis okay? What does Luke Brian do
when this truck doesn't start? Thankfully? Well, thankfully. We were at
my bass lake down in uh downin Murray County, and I got a
buddy that kind of helps us onthe farm and he was checking his cows
(06:46):
and I called Trevor and I said, hey, my truck didn't start,
and he was right there. Sowe it was an electrical deal, but
we got it jumped off and anduh wasn't the battery or anything. It
was just a little something were goingon. So I got to send it
to the send it to the shop. So the new song is an iHeart
country new music spotlight. It's goingto be played all over the country.
(07:08):
How do you I'm sure early inyour career it's like, hey, I'm
on the radio, turn this up. You've had so many number ones,
You've done this for so long.Now, how do you react when you're
driving in your song? Well,historically, if a lot of times,
I don't you know, you're you'reon the phone a lot driving down the
road. If I look on thescreen and see one of my songs,
(07:30):
I always I talked me back.Well, you know, I always turn
it and listen. I never Inever take that for granted. I always
listen and it never gets old,and it always feels great. And you
know, I mean, there wasa time in my life where you know,
my current single was getting played,and then the last two singles were
(07:53):
and it was just like, youknow, when you turn on the radio,
now you're hearing Morgan and Luke Comb's. And there was a time where
literally every time I turn on theradio, it was me and Jason Aldan
and it was just like I SoI appreciate and like really relish that time
in my life. But now anysongs that get played are kind of back
(08:13):
catalog stuff, and so when Iwhen I have stuff getting played out there,
it's very I mean, it's it'sfun and humbling and and I'm always
gonna like when I hear love youmiss you mean it, like, I'll
really study it because I want tohear how it sounds on the radio and
nothing. When you hear stuff onthe radio, it just always it always
(08:35):
brings a smile and makes you feelgood, and it always has a little
more uh, a little more popto it. You get to enjoy this
moment, this brand new song comesFriday. Do you have to think past
that? Are you at a pointwhere you're like, no, we're just
gonna enjoy that. And then well, I mean I'm always thinking about I'm
almost thinking about like where to gowith what I want to do, and
(08:58):
and how to navigate the changes inhow music is done and navigate the changes
of kind of you know, morphinginto Like I mean, I'm kind of
the older guy on the block nowwhen I see younger acts coming out,
But that doesn't mean I think thathas a real uh kind of charming role
(09:22):
too. The fact that I canwalk into a room and I'm like,
been there, done there, seeingit all, you're you're you know,
I've kind of been around the blockand I get it and I can just
be comfortable in that space. Ifso. Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty
(09:43):
fun. Like nothing, nothing overwhelmsme like it used to. And uh,
I think that planning my life whereI can do concerts and shows and
then uh like this year we putsome baseball stadiums on the on the tour
just because I did stadiums for threeor four years and loved it. And
(10:09):
when I quit doing when I quitkind of just doing amphitheaters and stuff.
Well, what's interesting is the yearthat I had the most stadiums book,
I had Morgan opening up for me, and then COVID came and so I
was like, oh my god,this thing was about to be You're like,
hey, you on me? Wellwe you know, we he and
I get together and we play golfand joke about it. But but so
(10:35):
yeah, I mean I look attwenty twenty, I was like, god,
I mean I could have I mean, it was going to be a
crazy year of stadiums and probably missedout on a little bit of money along
the way. But but the butthat really doesn't matter. I mean,
the main thing for me is isjust do plan things that really are worth
(10:58):
my mental time. I mean whenI when I when I plan a little
business endeavor, when I do musicor whatever it it, it takes up
a lot of room in my brainto think it out. And you always
say you can hire some people todo stuff for you and make stuff,
make stuff happen, but you really, at the end of the day have
(11:20):
to be engaged in it too andconcentrating on it or it's not gonna work.
The last thing I want to askbefore we have you run here is
and I just thought of it becauseyou're like, I've been around the block,
you know, I'm comfortable. Solet's say, when when you years
from now, decide like, youknow what, I'm just gonna stand back
and enjoy and let the music,you know, continue to live for itself.
(11:43):
What are moments that you're gonna belike, I'm proud of that.
I'm proud of that. I'm proudof that, I would say, I'm
I'm really proud of like when CountryGirls Check It from Me came out and
I did it on the CMT Awards, and then I do on the CMA
Awards, and that really felt likethe kind of transitioning into like a superstar
(12:07):
kind of country music artist. That'swhen that happened. I'm really proud of
how I'm proud of how I foughtthrough the early years and had some successes
and failures. But then I'm proudof that moment. And then like when
you look at I did the anthemat the Super Bowl, that was a
huge challenge for me. I hadmessed up an anthem before kind of so
(12:33):
you know those years of when I'mat home on Sundays watching football with the
boys and you know, the Steelersare playing and the boys go, Dad,
did you ever play that one?I'm like, yeah, I sold
that one out in ten minutes,and they look at me like they almost
look at me like I'm jacking withthem, you know, messing with them.
(12:56):
And so the fact that I didall that, and then when I
look at like the body of workon American Idol, I think everybody looks
at that show and they really reallyfeel like, at the end of the
day, we're pretty good people onthere. We're trying to really help people.
I mean, I think just proudof that and proud that I'm proud
(13:18):
that I've really navigated all this andat the core of me, I'm really
happy. You know, I'm notlike, I'm not some I'm not a
dark It's not a dark energy thatI go retreat and you know, go
sit in a cabin somewhere and drinkwhiskey all day and you know a bit
(13:39):
about being sad. I mean,if I'm out, I'm having fun fishing
and playing in the next hunting tripand playing the golf trip and trying to
take my boys with me or mybuddies or playing playing some fun stuff.
So I kind of get after itevery day and the fully I'll drink a
little less and eat a little bit. There's plenty of time for that.
(14:01):
There's plenty of time for that.Lukes, thanks for hanging out to the
man. Yeah, good to behere. Thank you.
Hey, we're hanging out with Lukebryan Man. First of all, how
do you find time to make aradio visit with everything you're doing right now?
Well, I mean I think listen, it's uh. When you're putting
new music out, and certainly musicthat you're really really excited about, you
know you need to come. Thisis part of the part of the process.
I mean, that's what it's interesting. When you move to Nashville and
(00:25):
do all this. You just thinkyou write a song and it goes.
You don't realize you gotta you gottarun around and promote and talk about how
awesome you are. And I lovehearing myself brag about myself. So this
is just a full This is mymoment for fans that don't see that back
end, right, Like, theyknow that you do the idle stuff,
(00:45):
right, they know that, weget it, you do idle. But
then you know what the fans don'trealize is then you have to go film
five days of commercials and you've gotto go promote idle. So when you
launch a big situation, you've gotto run and and and feed feed the
(01:06):
feed the system. Because that's justthe way it ought to be. And
that's what you do. It looksto a country music fan or an American
idol fan, that looks glamorous,right, like, oh, he does
these shows and sells out, andhe's got these number one songs and he
does idle. What are some ofthe like not so glamor and you obviously
appreciate where you're at in life,And well, I would always non glamorous
moments, I would say the most. No matter who the country music star,
(01:34):
throughout the history of country music,at some point that star has had
to get off their tour bus,walk across a muddy festival field and use
a portal, lid or portagehn,no matter which one, all the all
(01:55):
the female stars. And also thatthat's pretty non glamorous when you here,
because well, tour buses are gettingbetter, but ten years ago that was,
you know, number two on atour bus. You couldn't. It's
a it's a no no. Sojust just understand that. However, glamorous
one might be yeah, toting yourown roll of toilet paper through a festival
(02:20):
field. Two, Yeah, that'ssharing a shower or not sharing a shower,
but you know mobile showers, Yeah, so it it uh yeah,
there's some but you know it's uh, it's a little more glamorous for me
now. I mean, you knowwhen I'm when I'm when i'm home,
(02:43):
I'm having fun. Really every day. I mean when I'm home, I'm
having fun. And when I gotsome shows booked, I'm having fun.
And like coming in today, andI mean I'm really like I said I
said earlier, I'm really excited aboutthis song. So coming in and talking
about new music is U is funstuff and and this is it's a fun
thing I get to do when itcomes to the challenge of new music.
Because you've had so many amazing songsand so many great albums and tours.
(03:07):
What keeps you excited about a newsong? Well, I think it's you
know, when new songs come in, and when you write a new and
that you really loved, that that'sfun. I mean playing it for people,
watching watching them react to the song, testing it out on people even
like so I've got tea on mynephew who's twenty two, and I've got
(03:29):
bow my bow's sixteen and takes thirteen. I mean, if I get a
cool song that's a country song andI play it for them and they're like,
Dad, we love that song.That's fun, and so playing something
that you worked on and you yeah, that's what it's all about to me.
So as long as I can gowrite songs now, I don't want
(03:53):
to hold like I'm not holding myselfup and writing one hundred songs a year
like I did from you know,two thousand and five to twenty fifteen.
I mean it was one hundred songsa year and and and you know,
writing constantly. But now I'll geta great idea, a fun idea that
I'm really confident in, and callup a call up some songwriter buddies,
(04:16):
and we'll sit down and write itand we love how it turned out.
So that that's that's fun. Iwhen when you get an exciting song or
someone pitches you an exciting song,it's good stuff. I can tell the
excitement in your eyes and then yourvoice, the way you're talking about new
music. Obviously, that's part ofthe reason you're here today with love you
miss you mean It? Why Whydid this feel right to not only record,
(04:39):
but be like, hey, let'sthis is because picking a radio single
there's more of a science behind itnow, right versus I like it go
right, I mean, yeah,the the yeah, you're right. I
mean when you when you go toradio and you you pick your single,
it's it's a it's a there's alot of things in play and a lot
(05:00):
of places to go and do andsee and all that. But I mean,
this song is just one of thosesongs where you hear it and you're
like, man, that title,why has that title not been written?
And the story around it and ityou know, from people that I've talked
to, it kind of feels likepeople are like, it's kind of vintage.
It's kind of throwback stuff that youused to do. And I think
(05:21):
it's challenging where I'm at in mycareer to try to moodle. I've talked
about so many sub but I kindof get just being kind of the party
guy. I get my all ofmy dad. I mean, it hadn't
been all raging party songs either.It's been so as I as I go
(05:42):
to try to pick the next single, how do I pick one that's kind
of different than you know, fifteenyears of all this other music, So
it gets a little more challenging.And even sitting down to write a song,
if I'm like, gosh, I'vealready already kind of did that with
this song. Or you know,I've already had a song about farming,
(06:04):
or I had a song about thehonky Tonk and all this. So so
you just have to get a littlemore creative and and and push yourself and
and hopefully when you get the rightone, it's uh, it starts the
right process. I mean, Iasked for the small donation after you leave,
because we just had a label inthe middle of the interview. Yeah,
(06:25):
it's fine, it's fine, it'sthe electricity. My truck didn't start
yesterday, so oh no, whatis okay? What does Luke Brian do
when this truck doesn't start? Thankfully? Well, thankfully. We were at
my bass lake down in uh downin Murray County, and I got a
buddy that kind of helps us onthe farm and he was checking his cows
(06:46):
and I called Trevor and I said, hey, my truck didn't start,
and he was right there. Sowe it was an electrical deal, but
we got it jumped off and anduh wasn't the battery or anything. It
was just a little something were goingon. So I got to send it
to the send it to the shop. So the new song is an iHeart
country new music spotlight. It's goingto be played all over the country.
(07:08):
How do you I'm sure early inyour career it's like, hey, I'm
on the radio, turn this up. You've had so many number ones,
You've done this for so long.Now, how do you react when you're
driving in your song? Well,historically, if a lot of times,
I don't you know, you're you'reon the phone a lot driving down the
road. If I look on thescreen and see one of my songs,
(07:30):
I always I talked me back.Well, you know, I always turn
it and listen. I never Inever take that for granted. I always
listen and it never gets old,and it always feels great. And you
know, I mean, there wasa time in my life where you know,
my current single was getting played,and then the last two singles were
(07:53):
and it was just like, youknow, when you turn on the radio,
now you're hearing Morgan and Luke Comb's. And there was a time where
literally every time I turn on theradio, it was me and Jason Aldan
and it was just like I SoI appreciate and like really relish that time
in my life. But now anysongs that get played are kind of back
(08:13):
catalog stuff, and so when Iwhen I have stuff getting played out there,
it's very I mean, it's it'sfun and humbling and and I'm always
gonna like when I hear love youmiss you mean it, like, I'll
really study it because I want tohear how it sounds on the radio and
nothing. When you hear stuff onthe radio, it just always it always
(08:35):
brings a smile and makes you feelgood, and it always has a little
more uh, a little more popto it. You get to enjoy this
moment, this brand new song comesFriday. Do you have to think past
that? Are you at a pointwhere you're like, no, we're just
gonna enjoy that. And then well, I mean I'm always thinking about I'm
almost thinking about like where to gowith what I want to do, and
(08:58):
and how to navigate the changes inhow music is done and navigate the changes
of kind of you know, morphinginto Like I mean, I'm kind of
the older guy on the block nowwhen I see younger acts coming out,
But that doesn't mean I think thathas a real uh kind of charming role
(09:22):
too. The fact that I canwalk into a room and I'm like,
been there, done there, seeingit all, you're you're you know,
I've kind of been around the blockand I get it and I can just
be comfortable in that space. Ifso. Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty
(09:43):
fun. Like nothing, nothing overwhelmsme like it used to. And uh,
I think that planning my life whereI can do concerts and shows and
then uh like this year we putsome baseball stadiums on the on the tour
just because I did stadiums for threeor four years and loved it. And
(10:09):
when I quit doing when I quitkind of just doing amphitheaters and stuff.
Well, what's interesting is the yearthat I had the most stadiums book,
I had Morgan opening up for me, and then COVID came and so I
was like, oh my god,this thing was about to be You're like,
hey, you on me? Wellwe you know, we he and
I get together and we play golfand joke about it. But but so
(10:35):
yeah, I mean I look attwenty twenty, I was like, god,
I mean I could have I mean, it was going to be a
crazy year of stadiums and probably missedout on a little bit of money along
the way. But but the butthat really doesn't matter. I mean,
the main thing for me is isjust do plan things that really are worth
(10:58):
my mental time. I mean whenI when I when I plan a little
business endeavor, when I do musicor whatever it it, it takes up
a lot of room in my brainto think it out. And you always
say you can hire some people todo stuff for you and make stuff,
make stuff happen, but you really, at the end of the day have
(11:20):
to be engaged in it too andconcentrating on it or it's not gonna work.
The last thing I want to askbefore we have you run here is
and I just thought of it becauseyou're like, I've been around the block,
you know, I'm comfortable. Solet's say, when when you years
from now, decide like, youknow what, I'm just gonna stand back
and enjoy and let the music,you know, continue to live for itself.
(11:43):
What are moments that you're gonna belike, I'm proud of that.
I'm proud of that. I'm proudof that, I would say, I'm
I'm really proud of like when CountryGirls Check It from Me came out and
I did it on the CMT Awards, and then I do on the CMA
Awards, and that really felt likethe kind of transitioning into like a superstar
(12:07):
kind of country music artist. That'swhen that happened. I'm really proud of
how I'm proud of how I foughtthrough the early years and had some successes
and failures. But then I'm proudof that moment. And then like when
you look at I did the anthemat the Super Bowl, that was a
huge challenge for me. I hadmessed up an anthem before kind of so
(12:33):
you know those years of when I'mat home on Sundays watching football with the
boys and you know, the Steelersare playing and the boys go, Dad,
did you ever play that one?I'm like, yeah, I sold
that one out in ten minutes,and they look at me like they almost
look at me like I'm jacking withthem, you know, messing with them.
(12:56):
And so the fact that I didall that, and then when I
look at like the body of workon American Idol, I think everybody looks
at that show and they really reallyfeel like, at the end of the
day, we're pretty good people onthere. We're trying to really help people.
I mean, I think just proudof that and proud that I'm proud
(13:18):
that I've really navigated all this andat the core of me, I'm really
happy. You know, I'm notlike, I'm not some I'm not a
dark It's not a dark energy thatI go retreat and you know, go
sit in a cabin somewhere and drinkwhiskey all day and you know a bit
(13:39):
about being sad. I mean,if I'm out, I'm having fun fishing
and playing in the next hunting tripand playing the golf trip and trying to
take my boys with me or mybuddies or playing playing some fun stuff.
So I kind of get after itevery day and the fully I'll drink a
little less and eat a little bit. There's plenty of time for that.
(14:01):
There's plenty of time for that.Lukes, thanks for hanging out to the
man. Yeah, good to behere. Thank you.
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