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December 10, 2024 40 mins
One of the greatest country music singers of all time joined us on the show as Anita Cochran talked to us about her big hit, "What If I Said" with country music legend Steve Wariner and lots more! Anita is keeping busy with some new music expected in 2025! Tune in to hear more! 
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Nashville recording artist Anita Cochran and you're
listening to the Backstage Pass podcast powered by the Sports
Guys Podcasts exclusively. I'm KKTC True Country ninety nine point
nine in Taos, New Mexico, and.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome inside the Backstage Pass. Always a busy day and
of course just a couple of weeks out now from
the holidays. Happy holidays to everybody out there too. Whatever
you're doing, make sure you do it safe out there,
and if you're in ski toown KKTC True Country ninety
nine point nine out there at TAAs, turn us on
at the Sports Guys podcast dot com. It's the Backstage
Pass and presented by our friends over at the Cadangordon
Show dot Com. Today's best Country Mix. And I told

(00:36):
you guys, we had one of the all time greats,
and I want to say that just greatest of all time.
Goat out there, because she is no doubt she's a badass.
She's coming back here with some more great projects and
new music. In twenty twenty five, the great Anita Cochran
here to the show, Miss Anita, how you doing well?

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Gosh? How nice of an intro was that? I'm doing great.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
How are you.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's good to have you here too. Well, let's talk
about the forecast before we start getting into all the
music and relive in the past and things like that,
which I love to do. Here. Talk about just how
hard you've been at work, and we're talking before the
show a little bit about this new project coming out
hopefully in the spring of twenty twenty five. Lay it
on us so we can hear everything about this as
much as you can tell us of what's done already.
I know you're proud of this.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, I got to be honest with you, it's been
a while since I've been able to be in the
studio to make new music. And I had breast cancer
a few years ago, and then my dad got six
so I've kind of been a caretaker for him, and
all of that happened all at once, so it kind
of took me away from being able to create music.
So I'm super excited to finally say I'm in the
studio and been working NonStop on this brand new project

(01:43):
that is probably the most important personal project to me
ever in my life. So I can't wait to get
this new music out. I think a lot of people
are going to be really surprised. I have some guests
on the new record coming out that is going to
blow your mind. And it's blown mind every time I
listen to the songs go by. So I'm extremely blessed.

(02:03):
I'm so happy. I'm literally living in my studio twelve
hours a.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Day, working hard.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
No doubt, I'm trying to get new music out.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I promise I'm ready for no doubt. Hey, tell us
about the holidays and just the plans where now, you know, everybody,
especially musicians, can take a little bit of a break,
go back home, maybe be with some family, stuff like that.
What are some of the plans for you coming up
over the next few weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, tonight, I'm actually going to go see my friends
Carolyn Don Johnson and Jamie O'Neill play down in Franklin, Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Tonight. They're doing a Christmas show songwriters events. I'm going
to go to that.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Spent the whole past weekend celebrating Christmas at Christmas parties,
and at one party I was with Clint Black and
Lisa Hart and Black had a great time with them.
Love Clint, such a great artist, such a great guitar player.
We talked to guitars for quite a while. And dogs.
We have a passion for dogs. And you know, for me,
Christmas was always the best time of the year. My

(03:02):
parents made Christmas so wonderful for us kids. I grew
up with three older brothers and I was the youngest girl,
only girl, and we just had the best Christmas ever.
Our parents didn't really buy us a lot of presents
throughout the year, but when Christmas came, our tree went
from presents were under the tree all the way out
into the kitchen almost We had so much gifts. But

(03:25):
that's when they would buy us all of our toys,
you know, for the year, so we had to kind
of make sure we enjoyed playing with them all year long.
But my favorite time is Christmas and just I love
the decorating. I love decorating my house, my yard. I
used to do a lot where people thought I looked
like a store. I don't do as much anymore, but

(03:47):
I do love that. It's probably one of my favorite
things to do is decorate. My mom passed in twenty fifteen,
and we always loved decorating together, so I kind of
keep that tradition going. On with her in my mind
as I do it. So I'll be going to my
lake house at Christmas time to spend it there. It's
a beautiful place to be.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know. You talked about that story, you know, battling
breast cancer back with the We were at the trip
in Nashville made for the Keith Whitley Benefits show up
there in beautiful Tennessee, which we're so glad to be
a part of to at the same time, and he
told that story about how sc scarce that was, you know,
going through and almost say, a tragedy like that, an
eye opener to talk about for the folks who may
not have known or may not have heard that interview

(04:28):
that we did on ironically Laurie Morgan's tour bus, but
it was there having fun with it. That's where we met.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I said, I love Laurie Morgan, by the way.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
She's one of my favorites too, But talk about just
that story and kind of go through that for me
and take me through just that whole kind of that,
you know, the battle of that and how that just
takes a fighter. And we're going to play the song
fight like a girl coming up here in a little bit,
which has done so much in so many different avenues
out there in music. But going through that on a
personal basis, kind of explain that to the audience as

(04:58):
it's just how scarce and how how tough that was.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, I'll try to make a very long story short,
but I was diagnosed with triple positive carcinoma breast cancer
in twenty seventeen and went through multiple surgeries and a
year of chemo. After my very first chemo, I had
to go to the hospital for four days almost died.

(05:24):
And after my fifth chemo round, I almost died again,
and I was so sick and I was going to
call my doctor and tell her I couldn't do chemo anymore.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's quite devastating.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
And for those of us who didn't really know much
about breast cancer, like I didn't know. I thought there
was one kind. There's so much you need to know.
Every time I would go to a doctor's appointment and
interview all the doctors, you have to put your team together.
You have a you're on colleges, your surgeon, your radiologist,
your general doctor. If you see a vitamin you know

(06:02):
to receive good vitamins and things. You have to build
your team. And that's the most important thing upfront, is
to build your team that you need, because you need
all of those wonderful people. And I spent a while
trying to figure out exactly who I wanted to be
on my team, and interviewed a bunch of doctors and everything,
because I was scared to death. When someone tells you

(06:22):
you have, you know, aggressive breast cancer, any kind of cancers,
it just scares.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
The daylights out of you.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
And you know, I've always been a pretty healthy person,
so to have that come up. My parents were healthy,
you know, for a very long time. My dad just
passed away last year, was ninety four. So to be
diagnosed with breast cancer really took me for a loop,
i should.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Say, and it was devastating.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
But after my fifth chemo, I was really going to
stop my treatment, and you know, a couple of days later,
I didn't call my doctor to cancel. I started feeling
a little bit better and a little bit better better,
and about four or five days later, I ended up
on my front yard.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I wanted to go outside.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
It was a beautiful day, and I ended up on
my tractor more in six acres of property, And instead
of giving up my fight. That's where I wrote the
song Fight Like a Girl. Was actually on my tractor
and I said, I'm not going to give up. I've
got to do something to help other people because there's
so much information that we need to know, and to
try to encourage as many women and men to get

(07:26):
exams because if you don't do that, it can be
too late when you find out that you have cancer.
So it's really important that we do that. So I
really wrote Fight Like a Girl, and it came from
the deepest part of my heart, my soul to try
to help other people, and it gave me something to

(07:46):
do and focus on while I was trying to figure out,
you know, finish the last year of the treatments that
I had to take. So it really gave me a
goal and some people to focus on. And then I'm
Actually when I recorded.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
The song, I thought, gosh, you should be really great.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
I would love to go on Good Morning America because
they do a big event every year for breast cancer
and play my song and hopefully raise money for my charity,
because I started a charity called the Love Anchor's Fund,
and that's what we do is we raise money for
people who can't work while they're during treatment.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
A lot of people don't understand that.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, you might have health insurance that pays your hospital bills,
but you have deductibles to pay, you have car payments,
house payments, utility bills, groceries to buy, and when you're
not working, I mean, unless you're filthy rich, right, Like
who can just take off a year or two of
their time and not work and not collect income?

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Right.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
So that's really what my charity does, and so we've
been really blessed to help so many people. It means
the world to me when I can send money to
help people who are in need. When I was first diagnosed,
my on Collogies told me, she said, Anita, she said,
I have to take you off the road for a
year at least.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
And I'm like, but that's my livelihood.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Like, how how am I not going to survive, you know, financially,
And she's like, your job right now is to fight
breast cancer.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
So you know that happened.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
And with the support of so many artists and the
support of Nashville, we have such a great community here
in this industry to help people when they need it.
They actually put together a benefit show for me to
help me financially through that period. And when I started
my charity, that's what I said, I'm going to pay

(09:32):
it forward and try to help and raise money for
people who are in need like I was. And we
shot a video for the song fight like a Girl.
I actually shot it right after my last chemo treatment
and I could barely stand. I don't know if you've
seen the video or not, but I really wanted the
video to be authentic about a woman in a fight
for her life, because that's really what you're going through.

(09:54):
And we shot it in a boxing ring, so I
was boxing and running down the street all kinds of
stuff that I felt like I was almost going to
pass out.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
And a friend of mine actually said he.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Was with me that day and she said, you know,
you don't have to punch those punching bags as hard
as you are, and I'm like, yes, I do, because
it has to be authentic, you know, like I'm mad,
and this punching bag right now is cancer to me.
And I know probably every woman out there or every
man that has cancer would like a punching bag to
be cancer so they could beat the crap out of it,

(10:26):
you know. So we shot the video for it, and
you know, I was trying to reach out to Good
Morning America to get on their show, and by fluke,
Robin Roberts saw my video and she actually they actually
contacted me and they built their whole entire breast cancer
show based around my song and had become a performant

(10:46):
that day, and it was so amazing. I had three
things I wanted to do Good Morning America. I want
to do the Grand Ole Opry when they do Opry
Ghost Pink, and then I wanted to do NFL.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
When they do their Crucial Catch program.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
And while I was in New York, the gentleman who
runs the NFL actually saw my performance on Good Morning
America and emailed me the next day and asked if
I would come do the same performance at the Arizona
football game during halftime and sing the national anthem. So
that was pretty amazing that that happened because he was

(11:22):
watching Good Morning America. And then the grandel op recalled
and had him become a singer on the Pig Night.
So the song has brought so much help for me
to help me heal, but the goal was to really
help other people heal, and it's continuing on.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
We still raise money.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
You can go to my website and neatha Cochran dot
com and donate, so we still raise money for that.
And part of the new project that I'm working on
this year has an amazing song on it that I
can't really talk about right now, but.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
I'll be back on your show and we'll talk.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
About it then.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
I know you will. Congrats on just everything the song
has meant to so many people, help people, And I said,
fight those battles out there too, And like I said,
go get check who good examined both men and women
out there too, and it's time to fight like a
girl here on the backstage pass again powered by the
Sports Guys podcast dot com exclusive KKTC True Country ninety
nine point nine is Anita Cochran fight like a Girl

(12:19):
here it is Enjoy the song.

Speaker 5 (12:27):
I'm in bad, My back's against the wall, grouping and scared.
You thought I'd take the ball, shut rack, lay down,
giver and surrender, But I won't let you be the
strong contender. You a mean Peace is lack of paws

(12:52):
along burground.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
God you found my wings. I wouldn't make.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
Another, but I'm in the rim and swinging for the draft.
So you can't take my happy for rafter because I'm
gonna hide my surve.

Speaker 6 (13:12):
I'm gonna take my stand. I'm gonna throw a punching dodge.

Speaker 7 (13:18):
You go back.

Speaker 8 (13:21):
You ain't gonna save.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Me for ride, none want you.

Speaker 6 (13:26):
I'm gonna play my strap, my bathe and have no be.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
Because I'm abide.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
I'm a survive. You ain't gonna change my worm because
I'm gonna.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
Fight my drive. He thought you had me up aking
snore rolls, but I wasn't brain. You couldn't take my
home because every day I've been getting strong, So you

(14:00):
can't break my scuberta.

Speaker 8 (14:02):
It all.

Speaker 9 (14:04):
It was.

Speaker 5 (14:04):
I'm gonna find my girl.

Speaker 6 (14:07):
I'm gonna change my stand. I'm gonna throw it king god.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Me go w I can.

Speaker 8 (14:15):
You ain't gonna see me cry?

Speaker 3 (14:18):
No, not want to.

Speaker 6 (14:21):
I'm gonna blame my strap, my faith and have no.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Fear because I'm a god.

Speaker 6 (14:27):
I'm said, you ain't gonna change my bad.

Speaker 10 (14:31):
He wasn't gonna fight my girl, and I.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Like the spatch is over. It's my name Dabi.

Speaker 6 (14:39):
Yeah, I'm a soldier.

Speaker 8 (14:41):
I'll be a warning when they ring that I'm gonna
like the Girl. I'm gonna take my stand.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
I'm gonna throw every punch in dodge if a blue ware.

Speaker 8 (15:10):
You ain't gonna see f.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
No, not wanting.

Speaker 8 (15:15):
I'm gonna play my streak, my faith.

Speaker 9 (15:18):
You have no.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Listen.

Speaker 7 (15:21):
I'm a glad.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
I'm glad.

Speaker 8 (15:23):
We're gonna change my fo.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
Yeah, I'm bad.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
We're gonna change my flo.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
Like the Girl.

Speaker 11 (15:41):
Hey y'all, this is Casey Tyndall and you're listening to
the backstage Past exclusively on KKTC ninety nine nine True
Country in Towns, New Mexico. For more of my music,
catch me at Caseytendallofficial dot com.

Speaker 9 (15:55):
The Caiden Gordon Show is a two hour show playing
the best in country music. So it out at the
Caidangordonshow dot com. Again, that is the Caden Gordon Show
dot Com. Hey y'all, this is Nashville recording artists Aaron
Gibney and you're listening to the backstage Pass exclusively on

(16:15):
KKTC True Country ninety nine point nine.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
And back here on the show. Anita Cochran joining us
here the backstage Pass again KKTC True Country ninety nine
point nine in Taos, New Mexico. Out there and up
into Colorado. Talked a lot about that great song Fight
Like a Girl who you guys enjoyed it, And of
course you can go to Anita Cochran dot com to
donate there in the battle against breast cancer there too,
all right, for the nuts and bolts of it too.

Speaker 9 (16:37):
I know.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
We talked a little bit about this at the Keith
Whitley fundraiser there too, on Lori's bus and of course
with a great night of music with a great knight
of artists, we get a chance to be a part
of two. But we're gonna play this here in just
a second. But he wrote this song called what If
I Said, which was fantastic, took the world by storm.
I met one of your greatest friends now in the industry,
and Steve Warner just go back, you know since and

(16:57):
I go back to high school, you know with this
one too. One of the greatest country duets of all
time out there too, that everybody could put or has
put on their playlist. When you guys kind of came
up with this and you wrote the song, and you
got Steve to be a part of this. Walk me
through just the project at the time, and did you
guys kind of feel like, you know what, this is
something special, this is something that radio can take to heart,
and this would last on the charts for a long time.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Well, I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
I had just signed to Warner Brothers Records, and I
was still living in Michigan at the time, and I
was sending them songs, and I think what If I
Said was the fourth song I sent them that I wrote.
And everyone asked me, where did I get the idea
to write the song? But I think we all have
been in that situation before where we've really cared about

(17:42):
somebody and we were afraid to tell them, afraid it
would wreck friendship or what would happen if they didn't
feel the same way. And I actually had two friends
who were going through that situation. Instead of telling each
other how they felt, they were telling me. So I
actually wrote the song called what If I Said, and
it was their story, really, And when I was writing it,

(18:04):
you know sometimes when you write a song at the
you not even get halfway through it and you feel like,
oh my god, I just wrote like one of the
best songs I could ever write in my life.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
And when I finished the song, I actually was writing.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
It, I'd never met Steve Warner before, and when I
was writing it, I was hoping and praying that he
could be my duet partner.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
So I was trying to.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Write the melody in a key that he could sing
it in his vocal range, and because Steve is an
incredible vocalist, but you know, when a woman and a
man sing together, you have to be cautious about the
key because it's either going to be way too high
for the girl or way.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Too low for the guy.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
And so I was trying to model the melody to
where Steve could sing it with me. And I'll never forget.
Set at the piano and I wrote the first intro
to the pan to the song, and I was like, Oh,
that's pretty, and then I kept on and it just
came to me so fast, the song did, and when
I finished it, I really felt like, oh my god,
this is like a Grammy winning song, like I just had.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
I've got feeling that.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
It was not to brag on myself at all, but
as a songwriter, sometimes you write a song and you go, oh,
I'll never play that one for anyone, you know, And
then the other times you write them and you just
have a really great gut feeling about it.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
And that's how I felt about what if, I said.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
So I sent it to Jim ed Norman, who was
the president of record label at the time, and he's
the one who signed me and he was my co
producer on my first records, and I played it for
him and he loved it. So he's like, oh, we
need to go record this song. So I'm like, okay, great.
So we go in and we record this song and
it came up beautiful and he asked me, he said, so,

(19:35):
who would you want to sing the song with you?
And I told him, I said, well, I'm a huge
Steve Warner fan. I mean, he's a great guitar player,
great book was, great songwriter, great singer, great painter. He's
great at everything he does. But I said, I've never
met him before, but I would. I really wrote the
song with him in mind to sing it with me.
And he's like, okay, well, let's call him up. I'm

(19:57):
like okay. So he called Steve and played him the
song and told him I was a guitar player and that,
you know, I had learned to play from Steve. I'm
literally hitting the rewind on his solos and learning to
play all of his solos, and Vince Gills and Ricky Skaggs.
When I was a teenager, got my first electric guitar
and I wanted to play just like them, so I
had to learn all their solos.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
So they were really my biggest inspirations of guitar playing
besides my father.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
My father taught me to play and I joined his
band when I was five years old as the rhythm
guitar player. So Steve loved the song and thought it
was cool that I played guitar as a girl, and
so he came in the studio to sing it with me.
And that was the very first time I ever met him,
was standing next to him in the studio recording our vocals,
and you talk about feeling intimidated, I was like, I

(20:48):
can't believe I'm standing next to one of my biggest
heroes of all time singing a song I wrote on
my very first record.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
And he was so awesome.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
I mean, he was so great and so humble and
so kind, and he would stop and go, Okay, how
am I supposed to sing this part?

Speaker 11 (21:07):
How much?

Speaker 1 (21:08):
And I'm like, I can't believe I'm telling Steve Warner
how to sing a love. You know, it was just
it was so surreal, like it just didn't feel like
it was real. But I mean, after being with him
for five minutes, I felt like I knew him my
whole life, Like he's such an incredible human being. Him
and his wife Karen are both great people.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
And you know, we got lucky.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
And the song wasn't even going to be a single
at radio. My record label didn't want to put it
out as a single. There hadn't been a duet out
in a long time, like years, there hadn't been duets out,
and they didn't want to release it as a single
to be one of my first songs as a duet.
And I went down and did an interview with a

(21:49):
guy in Nashville on one of the biggest stations here
and he told me, said, Anita, I played your song
and what if I said the other day and my
phones blew up?

Speaker 3 (21:58):
He said. I couldn't answer him fast enough and he's like,
can we play it? And I said, sure, play it.
So he played the song and then it took off.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
It was number one in Nashville on all the stations
before it was even sent out. To other radio stations,
and other radio stations came in for CRS, which is
a big week where all radio comes into Nashville.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
They interview artists. All the artists are here. There's a
lot of shows that go on.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
It's a really great meet And they asked me what
my new single was, and I said, what if, I said,
So they went home and started playing it off my
album cut because Warner Brothers hadn't sent them to single,
and I believe it got to number sixteen on the
Billboard chart before my record label even sent it out
to work. It just off the album cut, so it

(22:45):
was truly driven by the fans. It was a song
that the fans related to and wanted to hear, and
it wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Wasn't promoted by my record label at that time. It
wasn't anything.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
So I will always be great for the fans who
called the radio stations or bought the song to support
the song. Finally, my record label sent it out as
a single and it went to number one for two
weeks on all the charts, and the video went to
number one on all the charts, And it was one
of those things where it was just a God gift

(23:19):
you know, it was just a gift from writing the
song and getting to record it with Steve, and a
gift from the fans calling the radio stations.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
To make it go number one.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, it was vocally well done by both two great
parties and two goats in the country music industry, no doubt.
And we're going to play in here on KKTC True
Country ninety nine point nine because we love the song
out there at Taus, New Mexico and up into Colorado.
It's what if I said Anita Cochran and Steve Warner
here it is the backstage past coming back with more.
Stay tuned.

Speaker 10 (24:02):
We've been friends for a long long time.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
You tell me your secrets that tell you man.

Speaker 10 (24:17):
She's left you all morning everything, lie knowing kids, but
are never fairly.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
I've always been there.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
You tell your story.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
It sounds a bit like mine.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
It's the same a situation. It happens every time, can't
we see? Oh many?

Speaker 9 (24:52):
You and me?

Speaker 5 (24:55):
It's what's meant to be? But do it so great?

Speaker 4 (25:02):
Who want?

Speaker 12 (25:02):
If I told you want to bussy that I love you?
How would you feed? What would you think?

Speaker 8 (25:14):
What would we do?

Speaker 12 (25:18):
Do we dare to cross them?

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Vine between your heart and life?

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Nor would I lose a prayer?

Speaker 12 (25:29):
Or if find a love that would never read?

Speaker 7 (25:33):
What if I say.

Speaker 8 (25:42):
She does love you?

Speaker 10 (25:46):
Ex plain to see?

Speaker 5 (25:49):
I can read between the lines want you're telling me
it doesn't halt you?

Speaker 9 (26:00):
Well?

Speaker 7 (26:01):
Woman should be him?

Speaker 12 (26:04):
How long can I go home?

Speaker 5 (26:07):
Keep feelings?

Speaker 7 (26:08):
Feelings to mysa?

Speaker 9 (26:11):
So?

Speaker 5 (26:11):
What of my child?

Speaker 12 (26:13):
And what a person that I you?

Speaker 5 (26:19):
How would you feed?

Speaker 8 (26:21):
What would you think? What would we do?

Speaker 9 (26:27):
You?

Speaker 5 (26:27):
We dares cross that line.

Speaker 10 (26:31):
Between your heart and not over the news.

Speaker 12 (26:36):
Bread or flve that would never hear?

Speaker 3 (26:42):
What if I say.

Speaker 9 (26:45):
But we know?

Speaker 12 (26:48):
Had I shall long?

Speaker 8 (26:50):
And so du the same?

Speaker 1 (26:56):
We can have.

Speaker 8 (26:58):
Lived three.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
Bun man you.

Speaker 5 (27:06):
They but you had?

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Or would you walk away?

Speaker 9 (27:13):
Here? And I have.

Speaker 5 (27:16):
Said?

Speaker 8 (27:17):
What I don't want of that?

Speaker 6 (27:21):
That I love you?

Speaker 12 (27:25):
How would you think?

Speaker 5 (27:27):
What would you think?

Speaker 9 (27:29):
What we do?

Speaker 5 (27:48):
By?

Speaker 6 (27:49):
Do you day?

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Across the line.

Speaker 7 (27:53):
Between you had I'll always gone from the day that weve?

Speaker 5 (28:04):
WHATIFU sa?

Speaker 3 (28:06):
What a fu say?

Speaker 8 (28:16):
Love it?

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Hey, y'all, this is Texas country artist Free Bagwell, and
you're listening to Brandon on the Backstage Pass exclusively on
KKTC True Country ninety nine point nine, in tells new Mexico.

Speaker 9 (28:43):
That Caden Gordon Show Today's Best Country Mix is a
two hour show playing independent and mainstream country music you
know and love. Be sure to check it out at
the kangordonshow dot com for more information on the show.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
Hey, this is.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Nashville recording artist Michelle Wright, and you're listening to the
backstage Pass on KKTC True Country ninety nine point nine.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
One of the all time greats here Anita Cochran on
the backstage Pass KKTC True Country ninety nine point nine
in Taos, New Mexico and up into Colorado. Appreciate you
guys listening seven nights a week out there, six to
seven Mountain standard time. Always a new featured artist there too,
and some of those nineties greats like the one we're
talking to today here on the backstage pass. What if
I said, one of those classic great all time duets

(29:28):
in country music, And I want to go back to
your album that I love so much, got to listen
to way back when, even through my college years and everything, Serenity,
And there's one off there, several off there I like,
but especially one that was a picture you in Heaven,
and I know that has to be one of your
most specially requested songs out there too when you're doing
those live shows and things like that. But tell me
what you remember best about that song and about that

(29:48):
album Serenity.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Well, I will be honest.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
With you, the whole album of Serenity with songs that
I always wanted to record and didn't get a chance to.
So I really went in deep rooted as an artist
to record those songs. And thank you so much for
bringing up Picture of You in Heaven.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
I really appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
The song really really means so much to me. It's
a very personal song. I wrote it about some people
who passed away that were very close to me. There
was like three or four of them right in a row.
And it was a very difficult time, and I was
at a place where I couldn't sit down and write
a song. I couldn't I couldn't get in that mode

(30:35):
that spirit to get my mind out of getting depressed
and being sad from losing loved ones.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
And I remember sitting at the piano one day, and
usually I write on the piano, I'll write on guitar.
It depends use.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
If it's an uptempo song, I'll write on guitar, but
if it's a ballot, I'll usually write an on the piano.
And I sat down at the piano and I just
said a prayer. I said, God, I've been emotionally blocked
from writing a song and I really need to pour
out my emotions in a song. And I said, please
help me write songs today. And I just started playing

(31:09):
the piano and I wrote picture of You and Heaven.
I think I wrote the song in fifteen minutes, like
it just it poured out of me. I think it
was truly a gift from God. He said, Okay, you
want it, I'm giving it to you right here. And
it's probably one of my favorite songs I've ever recorded
because of the stories that I hear from fans coming

(31:29):
up and telling me how much the song means.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
To them, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
And I remember off there too, that title track. I'm
just going to talk about it because it was such
a great song and Nita, I loved it so much.
Serenity actually featured one of our good friends here on
the show and a good friend of yours, the vocals
that ty Herndon got to work with you on this
particular song, and that just really again and made it
come to life, and I know he's got to be
one of your all time favorites too.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Oh my gosh, Ty truly is like a brother from
another mother. And you know we were He actually was
in a student studio doing some work and had me
come in and do something and then I was like,
I have the perfect song and I want you to
come sing. And Ty and I've known each other since

(32:13):
the first time I went to an award show at
the CMA's years ago. I met him on the red
carpet and I had my mom with me and we
talked to him for a little while. And then it
was a few years later I saw him somewhere and
he asked me, said, how's your mom doing. I was like,
how do you even remember that?

Speaker 3 (32:31):
My mother was with me that night. And so it
was a few years later he was working on a
project and I met with him and I was like,
oh my gosh. I was like, I want you to
come sing on a song for me. So he came
in and sang on Serenity.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
And I'm going to tell you this, Ty Herndon is
one of the best vocalists across the board that we've
ever had a country pop rock.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
I don't care what it is.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
He is an incredible singer. I've toured with him many times.
We've done many shows together where we sing together on stage.
Such a joy to sing with him. He's always on pitch.
It's never a struggle to sing with him. He's just
he's so full of emotion. I think he sings twenty
four hours a day. I do like, well, we'll be

(33:20):
having a conversation instead of talking. The conversation we sing.
The we sing the sentences we're saying.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
To each other. It's pretty bad, but he is truly
one of the best. I just love him dearly.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Just a true tremendous professional, and no doubt the things
he does vocally, Like you said, even with the hits
that he had back in the nineties, two just made
me really just kind of cultivate to that music and
still today. Those nineties country hits that you guys put
out were fantastic. All right, let's have a little fun
because you know we're going to have you back in
the spring once this new project is released. If you'd
always come back with this because I love having you
on and you and I can talk to the cows.

(33:56):
Come home. No doubt about it, about just music in general,
but little fun there because I hope to make it
back for the CRS twenty twenty five, which is coming
up the nineteenth to the twenty first. There in a
beautiful Nashville, Tennessee at the Omni Hotel, talk about just
some of the places where Nashville now is booming with restaurants.
It could be like a hole in the wall, it
could be anything else out there. But like when you're
not of the town, you mentioned going out and seeing

(34:18):
some of your best friends play, such as Laurie Morgan
and Pam Tillis and some other great Jamie O'Neill friends
like that, Where are some of your favorite places to
hang out with some of your favorite foods?

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Well, I have to tell you, Nashville has boomed so much.
It is not like it used to be at all.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Before we didn't even have a deli. You couldn't even
go get a deli sandwich somewhere. We had no Starbucks,
we had no places to go get coffee and gosh.
Over the last ten years, Nashville has boomed. There's every
restaurant you can imagine here and so many great places
to eat. I can't even begin the list. But my
favorite place is to go see my friends perform is

(34:56):
of course, the Ryeman and the Grand Ole Opry. Those
are my two favorite places. I go to the listening
room a lot to hear people play. The Wild Horse
Saloon was always a famous place to go to and
hear good music. Of course, as a songwriter, you know,
I love the Bluebird Cafe. And I'm just gonna tell everyone,

(35:16):
if you ever make its Nashville, you have to do
the Bluebird Cafe. But you have to make reservations way early,
so make sure you do that.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
But there's everywhere you go.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
You can just walk down Broadway and walk in any bar,
you're gonna hear great music. And you never know if
an artist is gonna show up and boom, jump on
stage and see that's.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Right there too. All right, let's stay with the food category,
and I'm all mix in a little bit of desserts.
But what toppings go on the Anita Cochran favorite pizza?

Speaker 3 (35:43):
All right? My favorite pizza would be deep dish pizza.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
And I like pepperoni cheese, green pepper, onion, red pepper mushrooms.
And then this is gonna make you you're gonna think
I'm crazy. But when I get it, I put little
drops of tiny little piece drops of mustard on it
and broccoli. I love broccoli on my pizza. And I

(36:13):
thought it was the nastiest thing I ever saw. I
used to manage a recording studio in Michigan and the
owner of the studio was a producer, Ben Gross, who's
now he's produced every rock album out there, I think
in pop record But he would always order his pizza
and put mustard on it in broccoli, and I was like,
that is like the grossest thing I've ever seen in
my life. And after about six months, I finally tried it,

(36:36):
and oh my god, it's changed my life. So try
putting little tiny drops of mustard. You can't put a
lot of mustard because then it takes over. Okay, the
only way I can explain it is that it kind
of takes an Italian pizza and puts a coney twist
to it.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
I'm gonna have to do that next time. Just whatever
it is, I'm going to do that, I'm gonna text
you back and say yum yum, or I'm gonna say
you know what, but you're right, drop some mustard on
the particular pizza that I ordered there. I like that,
which will be a good thing, no doubt about my
life in the coney because we all love the Coney's being,

(37:16):
especially down here in Texas, to always love a good
time for a hot dog. But to make that kind
of like the pizza formation, I actually loved that idea.
All right, let's have fun with this one. Had you
never become a working musician, what other career path would
you follow?

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
I was a huge Charlie's Angels fan, and I probably
would have been a private eye or an astronaut.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
I like that. Two good answers haven't had the private eye.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
I love space, I love the stars. I think it
would be amazing to go to the moon or go
to outer space.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
I like that, which is good. I can see Anita
Cocker in the astronaut, successful Nashville recording artist turned astronaut
to go to the moon, and an all great astronaut.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
The race car driver.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
I could be a d I like that race car driver.
I couldn't see that coming up to it. I'd have
to get in the passenger seat. I'm not going to
drive one, but I'd have Anita Cochran driving the race car,
and I would just sit as a passenger on that
particular passenger side too. Hey, congratulations on just everything. You're
such You're a saint and country music too, no doubt,

(38:22):
one of the greatest of all time. So glad you
came out on the other side, just battling one of
life's tragedies, no doubt. But I cannot wait to talk
to you more about this new project and just after
all you've been through, you just one of my favorites
out there. So glad to meet you. At that Keith
Quinley Memorial tribute event this past year, we got to
broadcast live from Laurie's tour bus and it was just
so cool to run in to so many great artists

(38:43):
right up there. Continued success going forward, happy holidays, and
looking forward to meeting up again in person and doing
this show when the new project comes out, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Well, thank you so.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Much for having me, And I just want to end
with this. I had my four month check up with
my oncologists last week. I'm seven years cancer free.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Congratulations, And we just keep knocking it out like a
punching bag. Like she said to it. If you want
to don't right newcocchan dot com to donate to the
calls toward breast cancer and for all the men and
ladies out there too as well, get check at those
exams routine because catching it early is the warning sign,
so no more serious things can occur out there too.
At the same time, new music coming from her in

(39:23):
twenty twenty five. She's on fire out there too. Anita
Cochran dot com for all the latest projects and tour dates,
and again, happy holidays to one of the greatest of
all time out there too, and of course we'll have
more great shows coming up over the next few weeks
and then take that two week break at Christmas. Here
on the Backstage pass KKTC True Country ninety nine point
nine at Tauas, New Mexico. More great music coming up there.
Stay tuned and of course keep it tuned the Sports

(39:46):
Guys podcast dot com. Take care, God bless and we'll
see you sir. What's up, y'all. It's Lakeview and you're

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Listening to the Backstage Past podcast exclusively on KKTC ninety
nine point nine True Country and Mexico
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