Ep. 20; Kansas Kids with Nicolle Galyon & Logan Mize

The KANSAS KIDS episode! Morgan is from Wichita, Kansas and when she was 23-years-old she moved away from the only place and people she ever knew to chase a dream in Nashville. Her own dream chasing inspired this episode with fellow Kansans, songwriter Nicolle Galyon and country artist Logan Mize. Nicolle and Logan also moved away from Kansas to chase dreams in Nashville. They opened up about their experiences from being judged for moving away, how they handled the transition, if the move was ever not worth it to how Nashville AND Kansas played significant roles in each of their lives. 

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Follow Nicolle Galyon: @nicatnitemusic

Follow Logan Mize: @loganmize

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Personally with Lord Koelsman at Astra per Aspera. This means
to the stars through hardships. Now, this is the state
motto of Kansas, and I have grown up loving this phrase,
maybe because it's I'm from Kansas, or maybe because I
love what it means. I love that it stands for
dreamers and chasing your dreams and doing things in this

(00:36):
life despite the hard things that are going to come.
I'm sharing this not just because I love the phrase,
but because this is the Kansas Kids episode. I brought
on Nicole Gallian and Logan Mize, both fellow Kansas like myself,
so we could talk about chasing our dreams and moving
away from the state of Kansas to Nashville, Tennessee, and
just moving away from your hometown in general. I wanted

(00:58):
to do an episode on this because I often get
asked in my DMS was it worth it to move
away from anything and everyone you knew? Would you do
it again? Are you glad you're still there? What does
this all look like? So? Who better to answer these
questions than fellow dream chasers and people who moved away
from home and who both moved back. So my wonderful
Sunflowers let's talk chasing dreams, moving away and what that

(01:23):
all looks like. This is the Kansas Kids episode, and
I have got Nicole Gallion on here. Nicole and I
have become friends in recent years, especially over our loved
connection of Kansas. Nicole, how are you wonderful?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Good to see you?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Good to see you. Now. Most people are going to
know you because you're in fabulous, fabulous songwriter, and you're
really well known in town. But I genuinely have be
come to know you as Nicole from Kansas.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I That's how I want to be known.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
So I want to talk about not just kansas Is
in general, but really the purpose of this episode is
people who have moved away from their home state when
it was kind of unheard of and not something that
a lot of people did, and chase their dreams. So
before we get into that, though, like tell me kind
of your origin story when you started writing and wanting
to chase the dream of music and when you were

(02:18):
first starting to think, Okay, I don't think I can
live here and do what I want to do.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
So I went to this thing when I was in
junior high with my mom called at the time it
was Fanfair, which did cmafest. I'm sure all of your
followers know what CMA Fest is. But back when I
was in middle school, my mom and I went to
CMA Fest like Fanfare, three or four years in a row,
and it was my first time on an airplane to
go anywhere. So we came to Nashville and I just

(02:45):
learned about this place called Belmont, and I remember like
just knowing like, oh, I have to go there. I
have to be there now. Granted I had never been
to like any other city, but it was totally like
grand design that I came to Nashville first and fell
in love with it. So I always at that time
like I just knew that I needed to be in Nashville.
I didn't really know the why. I just was for

(03:07):
sure that I needed to get here, and that is
really the way it worked out. I got here, went
to Belmont, and then I learned about songwriting. It was
so weird because I like, I have a job that
I didn't know existed when I was growing up in Kansas.
And I'm sure you're in the same boat where you're like, I.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Have a job that I didn't know I could have.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know, I mean, did you think that you were
gonna win a CMA or do you know it's like,
oh now in.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Social media, no working in social media side of that, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
No, a hundred percent. So I guess like Nashville is
the thing that like spoke to me more than songwriting.
And then I got here in met songwriters and I
was like, I think I'm a songwriter because I was
always a writer, Like wrote in every way that I
possibly could, you know, and whatever my hometown had to
offer me, like your book, or I wrote for our
small town newspapers in the summer, like as a journalist,

(03:55):
or would go to the city commission meetings and like
write the copy for the newspaper. I just loved writing,
very creative. So it makes sense now in hindsight. By
the time I didn't really know, but.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
I love going.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
I actually just spoke to high school in Kansas last week,
and I like saying yes to those things because I
feel like when they learn about my job, the lesson
is there are jobs that exist outside of the box
that you don't realize, especially when you're like in a
rural area and you're not quite as connected. That's kind
of where it started, and I ended up getting some

(04:27):
cool gigs along the way. Like I was a personal
assistant in college for a booking agent okay at Willie Morris.
I did that job for four years.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Did you interact with a lot of people that you're like,
what is my life right now?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah? And I got that job when I was eighteen. Wow,
so you very much for what is my life? I
was like, wait a minute.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
A year ago, I was the church pianist in Sterling, Kansas.
And now I'm like throwing like parties at this big,
fancy house for all of these artists that I grew
up listening to on the radio, and those you know,
those those moments actually really like propelled me forward because
I got to observe like so many guitar polls at

(05:08):
my boss's house, and all these artists would come in
and just sit around the piano and sing or the guitar,
and I'd be like I started to feel that like
ache of oh I want that in my life and
I think I can do that. Yeah, you just never know,
Like it's not just like a to B like, oh,
go to school, get this degree that turns out to
be your job. It's like, who would have thought that

(05:28):
my job? Most of My job was taking care of
my boss's dog and driving him around. And somehow without
that job, I don't know that I would be a songwriter.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah. It was like all the different courses in life
led you to where you are right now. When you
were considering, when you're like, Okay, I know I want
to be in Nashville. When you're kind of having that
conversation and that's starting to happen and you're about to
move from this place, the only place you've ever known home,
what was it feeling like for you And what was
the experience you were having with other people as they
heard you were choosing to move.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's such a good question.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Things that come to mind were like, I remember my
high school like guidance counselor you know, like your like
junior year and your meeting and like she had never
heard of Beaumont and kind of I didn't have any
judgment over it, but it was just like you know,
you when you go in and you like get accepted
to a school and you're like, tell, you know, and
you've done well in school and you've worked really hard,

(06:22):
you have good GPA and your act and all that,
and you want to be like and I got accepted.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Here and you're excited, You're excited about it.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
There was just kind of like this blank of like, well,
we don't know what that is. I remember just having
to learn just put blinders on and do my own thing.
And it wasn't that hard for me. I've kind of
always been a tunnel vision in a good way.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I've been like locked in.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, but get I know what I want and I'm
going to go for it.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah. I love to execute, so not people, but yeah, okay,
And so that was And I do remember years later
my mom told me that she was probably the biggest
champion for me, like going and taking the risk, and
you know, I mean we couldn't afford for me to
go to Belmont.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, it didn't make sense.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
On paper, and I'm getting a degree in music business,
Like whoever makes it in that, you know. I never
knew it at the time, but I think my dad
was really scared. And years later my mom came back
and she's like, you know, I had to really like
champion you behind the scenes, like with your dad and
with your grandpa, because like your grandpa, I was a
volleyball player and your grandma.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
It's just like your grandpa loved.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Watching you play sports, like he was so sad that
you weren't going to go to college and play sports.
My mom just had my back in that way, and
I never knew, And like, I'm glad that I didn't
know that other people had doubts, because I may have
taken that on a little bit myself.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
If you would have known at the time that your
dad had felt that way, do you think it might
have pulled you back a little bit or questioned yourself
or were you still so tunnel vision it wouldn't matter.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
No, I probably would have I'm pretty headstrong. Probably it
probably would have made me like challenge it even more
and maybe even want to move here more, not inspite him,
but because it would have made me. We're like all
people are like mirrors, you know, and we're like constantly
pinging off of each other our thoughts and when somebody

(08:12):
says something, you're trying it on of like does that
make sense for me?

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Do I feel the same way? Does that resonate?

Speaker 3 (08:19):
And I think if anyone would have said that's stupid,
and I'm sure people in my class thought it or something,
a few of them were like, what if she did
I don't know that it would I would have absorbed it.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's a good quality trait. Do you realize that now too, Like, oh,
that's a really good thing that I have that ability
to kind of block this noise out and just do
what I feel is best for me.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yes, it's yes, And I think that I'm like, I
don't I can't take credit for being that way, but
I know that I am that way. In fact, my
best friend we were just on audio message a few
days ago and she was like, I was trying to
make a decision of like do I commit to this
or not commit? It was like a thing and it
was something around travel, and she just said, well, one
thing that I know about you is all my friends,

(09:01):
you have like the most sovereignty over your life, where
you do what is right for you.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
And maybe I.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Do that even to a fault where I'm just like,
maybe I disappoint other people sometimes, but I always tell
my daughter this too, I'm like, somebody's gonna get disappointed.
Just make sure that it's not you disappointing yourself.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
That compliment from your friend is amazing. I bet hearing
that you were so thankful that not only do you
feel that way, but somebody feels that way over your life.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
And then also that you can now teach that to
your daughter and she gets that lesson very very early
instead of later on in life.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah. And everybody's wired differently, you know.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
And I as long as it's not hurting someone else,
you doing the right thing for yourself just causes like
a ripple effect of other people around you. I can't
tell you the amount of friends that have like gone
into the studio and made records later in life and stuff.
I think because I they were like, oh wait, that
doesn't seem as scary on that.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Level of like you helping your daughter with her experiences
in life. What's some advice you would have for somebody
who is considering the big move from everything they've done
and they want to chase their dreams but they're so
afraid to. What's something you would tell them.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
If it's advice, but it would be just sharing that
I was homesick for years. I've seen like my little
brother moved here from Kansas. He's seventeen years younger than me,
and I remember telling him I was like, just FYI,
this place didn't start to feel like home for like
five years. And I think that that it's not advice,
but I think it's helpful information because I think when
people do make a big move somewhere, even if it's

(10:35):
just to go to college, it always appears like everyone
else has found their place and you haven't. But really
everybody else is not everybody, but most people are feeling
that ache of oh, I don't fully I haven't fully
planted myself here, you know. I don't feel established. I
don't feel like I belong, you know. And so I
think just knowing that that's a common theme for people

(10:57):
that have gone before you will keep you from talking
yourself out of doing what is right for you, because
I do think that loneliness can like just take you
out and feel like, you know, I think that's just
part of it. It's like the rebuilding your identity and
all of that, and you kind of have to start
a square one.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, And you know, something I wish people would have
told me is, yes, you can always travel back home,
but you will miss things. There are times you will
miss things back in your hometown, whether it be with
your family or experiences because you just can't make it back,
whether it's travel work, whatever related, and those were probably
the hardest, most homesick moments.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
For me one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Same because you and I both are super family oriented
and we love being very close with our family and
missing out on those things, I felt like I was
missing out on experiences, so I often had to kind
of have internal conversations where it's like, yes, but you
are chasing this dream and this is important right now. Yeah,
and you make the time when it matters and you
will always find a way to make up for this.

(11:57):
So it's almost like I also had to have this
backbone for myself of you deserve to chase this, yeah,
and it's going to be okay, even if it feels
like you're maybe not making the right choice family wise
or whatever it might feel in that moment. Did you
have that too?

Speaker 3 (12:12):
One hundred percent Because I think it comes back to values.
If family is something that you value a lot, like
you want to show up and invest in that, but
also then you have to ask yourself, like what do
I value with myself? And I think everything comes with
a cost. It's just like you kind of just and
there's no right or wrong to it. You just kind

(12:34):
of have to look at it. And go, Okay, no
matter what I choose, I'm going to sacrifice something. And
I think it's also important to remember in those moments,
Like for me, I there's one of my friends. I
missed her wedding. I think it was when I was
on the voice actually, which.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Is a very good reason, and it's a wedding to
want to miss one.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
It was kind of an unexpected reason.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
But and then years later she was like pregnant or
something and had to miss my wedding. So you think, oh,
maybe you don't want to talk yourself into one thing
fills off, so you throw the whole thing away. Most
journeys are like peppered with moments of like things that
aren't comfortable. Just because it's not comfortable to miss something

(13:15):
doesn't mean that it's that your life is necessarily going
in the wrong direction. Yeah, and there's seasons. I mean
then there's like now I'm in a season where I'm
missing things in Nashville a lot, and those missing things
back home and like just staying on my staying the
course I think kind of prepared me for this season
where it's like, no, that's.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Not for you right now.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
What made you decide to make that call because you
guys were living in Nashville for so long and I
know you still love it here, but you did move
back to your hometown and now you kind of split
your time between both, which is definitely a big balance
that you have to do. So what made you decide
to make that call at this point in your career?

Speaker 2 (13:52):
A lot of things.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
It just felt right, and I think in hindsight, it's
something that I always wanted to do. But you have
the opportunity because so many things have to line up logistically,
you know, I mean full transparency, just like finances have
to you know, you have to have the means to
be able to to split time between two cities and
to be able to turn down opportunity and all that stuff.

(14:16):
And so we've been incredibly blessed first and foremost to
be able to do it. I like the version of
me that I am the most when I'm there, When
I when I think about the fact that, like, you know,
we all turn into our mom you know what I.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Mean, we do we do. So I started to go, like, what.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
Version of me what I want my kids to turn into?
And also like a lot of it comes back to
motherhood because I think the greatest gift that I can
give my kids is for me to like get my
anxiety and my nervous system, like get it right and
to get it calm, and to bring that into our home.
And I, you know, for so many years and I
stand by, like as hard as I worked, and all

(14:55):
the things that I have taken on and all the
things I'm still doing, but I had a life that
was like a lot of p sure and I just
kind of got to a point where I was like
I cannot stick my finger up and say hold on
a second, like one more time while I'm on the
phone to my kids, be.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Like hold on, hold on.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
I just felt like something just hit me where I
was like, I'm about halfway through their childhoods how have
we done this first half of the game? Go into
the locker room at the halftime and go, okay, what
are we going to do second half? You know, what
are we going to change on like the offense of
our family? And I was like, Okay, I've missed being
a missing things. I mean I've missed a lot of

(15:32):
school pickups, I've missed some I've been there for most
of it. But I was kind of like I think
that's I think that we can have that here, you know.
And I just drew this like big geographical boundary between
me and all the temptation to work all the time,
and I just I don't know that I ever wanted
to leave. It was just what was true for my story. Yeah,

(15:54):
you know, and I'm so glad that I did, because
Nashville has been like I feel, like Dorothy, you know,
I came down and like the world turned to color
in a lot of ways, and I learned so much
here and I still am. But I think taking that
home and like taking all of that stuff that I've
learned and experiences that I have, I love giving like feet,

(16:17):
like taking that energy almost like I collected like all
of these little jewels. Yeah, and I took them back
like Doroth, you know, to like my hometown, and now
I'm kind of like sharing them there.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah. It's like for you, Nashville had to be a
big important role in your life to be who you
are in this space now back in your hometown. And
that's really special because not only that you I think
hearing that now back to what you had said at
the very beginning, was you know, I just knew I
wanted to be in Nashville. I didn't know why, I
didn't know what it looked like, but there was just

(16:47):
this huge part of you that felt an importance to
the city, this place, and I think there's people out
there that feel that often. I remember so so well
I have. I'd posted a picture in college with one
of my friends and it was I'm sad to say bye,
but like, I'll see you in Nashville. Sometimes I wasn't

(17:08):
moving to Nashville. I didn't have any goals of I
knew I loved the city, had never been here, but
I knew it. For some reason, I loved the city.
I knew I loved country music, and that was it.
But for some reason, I kept saying I'm going to
live in Nashville, and even still, I got out of college,
got a job back in my hometown, and I was like, Okay,
you know, maybe that's just not for me. And then

(17:30):
somehow somewhere it was like job opening, Oh you're going down,
Oh you're getting the job. This is all happening very quickly,
and I felt so compelled that I knew it before,
almost like the universe was ready to give it to me.
You know what, I mean, and that kind of feels
like you too.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, I think the older that I get and maybe.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
You feel a switch too, But you look back and
you're like, I knew more than I knew that I knew. Yeah,
my friend Betsy always says, my feelings aren't in English, hit,
I can't put them words yet, and I love that.
I think I had a knowing similar to you. It
was a sense. I think I can sense things in
my heart and my gut that my head can't quite

(18:11):
understand yet, but I trust that. And it's the same
thing with moving back. It was like even when people
would ask me why, I would have answers, but I
just knew that I had a knowing that that was
the right thing or the next thing for us as
a family and for me. Ask me in ten years,
and I'll be able to actually, in hindsight tell you, oh, well,
I didn't quite know this yet, but I knew enough

(18:33):
to get myself there and to live my way into
it and to see all the whyse like, I'll tell
you the whys.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Later, you know. Yeah, yes, that's so good. I'm going
to use that now. My my, what did she say?

Speaker 2 (18:44):
My feelings aren't an English yet feelings.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
I need that more often than not. It's kind of related, unrelated.
I do want to talk to you a little bit
about your husband too. You're comfortable with that because you
guys also have a unique love story. Remember you saying
at one point, again, we've been around each other so
many times, We're like, I just never expected this one.
So was it a similar kind of situation with him
where something about you knew understood but maybe your brain

(19:10):
was like there's no way.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Okay, Well, this is kind of on both themes of
like Rodney and my husband, and also Kansas and small
town Rodney's also from for those of you that don't
know him, he's from a very small town in Texas,
even smaller than Sterling, like Sterling's twenty five hundred. Groover,
Texas is fifteen hundred. And I remember growing up having
like at a very like preteenage and you start to

(19:33):
think about boyfriend or like, you know whatever, and I
remember being panicked that I would never meet somebody that
would like where I was from, Like that was a
thing for me, Like I must have known that I
was going to leave and go somewhere that was like
more of a metro area. But I knew that it

(19:53):
wasn't going to work if he couldn't, like if if
I couldn't bring him home, or he looked his nose
down on my little small town.

Speaker 4 (19:59):
You know.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Now I'm married to somebody who, like he would call
Sterling maybe not his hometown, but it might as well
be because he loves it. There's so much and maybe
the lesson in all of that is like we all
know ourselves so much more than we realize. You know,
I was too young to connect all those dots, but yeah,
I mean, Roddy's older than me. He you know, had
had another marriage and kids before, and so like on paper,

(20:25):
you know, it wasn't like that was like what I
thought was going to be my future. But I remember
that one of the very first conversations I ever had
with him, and he said something about we're talking about
like small town or something, and he said something about
the Fellowship Paul, which the Fellowship Paul. I don't know
if you had that way. I grew up in a
Methodist church, and the Fellowship Paul is kind of like
the gathering area that like isn't the sanctuary, but it's

(20:48):
like where they would have a kitchen and they would
put out folding tables and like people if they got
married in the church, they would.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Have Okay, know what you're talking about now. I just
didn't realize it had a name, but yeah, that's what it.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Was, and he said fellowship.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Paul, and I had lived here long enough to like
really be in that like lonely of like nobody really
understands where I come from. And I felt like when
I talked to him, I was like, you are my people,
you know, I don't know it's my person, yeah, but I.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Knew there's something in my life I'm just not sure where.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
And he was honestly just kind of like a really
good friend for a long time and somebody that I
think and then through my job that I referenced before,
we ended up in the same like social circles all
the time. So we didn't really have like we had
a lot of overlap in like seeing each other at
a lot of stuff, but honestly, like we emailed a lot,
Like I would email him like, hey, so I got

(21:34):
this job and my boss says, we're going here tomorrow
and we're going to see these people, Like what do
you know about these people?

Speaker 1 (21:40):
And he was really like a good friend.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
He was a really good friend and he had done
a very similar like thing where he was splitting time
between his hometown and Groover, Texas and coming here to write,
which here we are like full circle, and that he
understood like the perspective that I had, like as a
new to Ashville person and especially like coming from just

(22:03):
the culture in the Midwest. And I remember one time
I told him what I was going to be doing,
and I was like, what do you think? He was like,
just remember you don't have to see things the same
way as other people. You know, you can have different
beliefs in them and not judge them for it. Because
I think I was like such a like conservative small
town kid, that things were a lot more black and
white and right and wrong, and I hadn't quite leaned

(22:24):
into that gray area of life yet that I think
we all eventually get to and then we really embraced that.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
And he was, you know, I.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Was like probably a self righteous, little like golden girl
from hometown, thought I'd never done anything wrong, and he
would call me out on my shit and it'd be like,
you'd get over yourself, Like people have different beliefs than you,
and you know, and if you're going to be in
this business and you're going to you're going to be
around a lot of other people. You can be around
things that are not right for you without taking on.
And so those were kind of some of our early conversation.

(22:53):
At the time, he was still farming with his dad,
so it was almost comforting for me, Like I'd send
him an email and be like, oh, I was on
the tractor and I'd be like, oh, that reminds me
of home. So like we just had so many if
we were like a Venn diagram, we just had so
much overlap that it you know, I guess it was
kind of like it was.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Faded before you evenknew it was coming. Yeah, at what
point because it was such a good friendship where you like, oh, crap,
this is more than what I thought this is gonna Well.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
I remember realizing that I would call him. He was
the first person I would call when something really great
happened or when something really bad happened. Sometimes that's like
your best friend as a girlfriend, or sometimes that's your mom,
like and I felt like I had gotten to a
point where he was that person and I was like, Okay, yeah,
you're my person.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
And we weren't dating or anything.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
It was just like we might as well be because
you're my person.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
You know, who had that conversation first? Who initiated that,
because it's always that touchy thing because with your friends,
and you're not sure even.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Think it was a conversation.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
I think it was just like a moment and then
you know, we're having some really emotional conversation about something,
and then I think I just said, well, because I
love you and I'm telling you, and it just like
came out so naturally, and then you kind of can't
go back, and then you can't unhear ye that, and
you can't unfeel how natural that was and how true
it was, And it was just like a matter of fact.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
I remember that all though, that you guys had such
a natural connection, not just as people who wanted to
be together, but like as a friendship. That then it
just was so seamless into that next phase.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah, he is my best friend in every way. I
remember my mom told my mom had come out to
visit me one time and she had met him in passing.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
And then a year year and a half later, I
was like.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Hey, so I'm dating this guy, she's like I knew
when I met him, that is the kind of she's like,
I knew, at very least that's the kind of person
that I know.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
You're my daughter, that's that's your kind of person. And well,
this is.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Also why we become our mom is because they often
know us better than we know ourselves. Yes, they can
see we're all like right here and.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
At least have a more of like an aerial view
of our life. And I can kind of see I
can feel it with my daughter.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
I was gonna say, do you feel like now you've
kind of had that mom instinct and you're like, oh,
now I get the bird's eye view all the time.
I never had this before.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, yeah I do. But my daughter is a lot
more like Rodney. She's a little more mysterious. Okay I was.
I was like so forthcoming and like a very open book.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Do you feel like your son might be more like you? Yes, so,
at least in pictures. I can feel that more energy.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Ford and I like wear our excitement, like when we
want something, we wear it on our face, like if
we're disappointed, if.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
We're excited, if like we're very eager, very driven, self starters,
like high energy, have a lot to say, and Charlie
is a lot is more like Rodney where she's kind
of like you know, and it's so cool to me
because I'm attracted to that personality type.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
So it's I'm like, good for you. It's gonna serve
you well.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh Nicole, Well, I mean I love talking with you
so much. You for me kind of like Rodney was
for you, not but like you're a piece of home
for me that I.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Send to you.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
I just texted you the other day asking for a
dermatologist recommendation in Wichita because I didn't grow up in
Wichita and I don't really know many people there, but
it's like my hub now for you know, it's for
their Target and Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and you know, it's.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Your drive into town. It's your little trip. I call
it Richitah because it was never rich A when I
lived there. But please don't know.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Well, I call it Richitah because there's different levels of
like what people feel like.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
You have you seen those memes of It's like you.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Feel rich when you like get to a point where
you like always buy like the Guacan Queso or you
always let yourself do something you know you you know
didn't do growing up. And I think for me, like
getting to go to Wichita and just like go spend
a lot of money at Target is like your meme
of that. It is my playground of like Okay, I'm
going to the big city. I'm going to Richitah, I'm

(26:55):
gonna go spend a lot of money. Like there's not
a lot of players to spend money around here, but
I'm to find a way.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Maybe your next venture is bringing some things to Sterling.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
I actually it's definitely on my radar. I think it's
a long play for me. Like I'm really just observing
right now for a while, just like want to live
there and like find the best way to maximize like
my gifts and my resources to be able to give
back to Sterling and I do as much as I can.
I'm going to speak to the pas Schneider's at sixth
grade class on Monday. We're actually going to do the

(27:26):
Saint Jude T shirt picture together on Monday. So like
I just love doing But I think there's some big
things that I can do long term. But I just
want to find what the right things are because I
don't want to like spread myself too thin. I want
to find like one or two really big ways to
give back, you know. And Rodney's always like, you just
need to like create what you want here, And I'm like,

(27:48):
what real like a really good restaurant, But I don't
know if I want to get in, Like I don't
know if I want to get in the food business.
I'm a songwriter.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Maybe that's more of an investment than like the full
you know, you being involved. There's options to these things, yes.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
I think like I've started to have people come out
and write with us in Kansas, and at first that
was like a little like honestly insecure because I love
it there and I see it with these rose colored glasses,
you know, like I look at a wheat field and
it's art to me, and it's home and it's comforting.
But like other people, I might look at my little
downtown and be like, what is this.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's a childhood little wound that's in there that you
felt all the time.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
But every time I have someone out, they're like, I
needed this.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
I love it here. There's something special about your town.
And I do think that like certain places can kind
of like have a spiritual like anointing to them. I
think places have memories, and I think there's like some
kind of like aura in Sterling.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
That's but I also feel like it is attributed to
you as well. You have the aura of that small town.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Oh well, I know God put me on this planet
to live in a small town, because I can feel
what happens to my spirit when I go to like
an La, And I don't know, like if you thrive
when you go like my best friend she goes to
La to come alive. I literally am so depleted when
I go there, and like it's like when I can
just see that water tower in my hometown in the

(29:14):
distance and I'm like five miles away, I feel like
I have my heart expands and like I don't know,
like I'm just taking an oxygen.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
It's so good for me.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
And so people feel that way about the ocean, and
I don't expect anybody else to feel that way about
where I come from.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
No, But it's because I think I don't know that
people understand well enough about energy of people. But when
you're around somebody with an energy of a deep feeling
of something, it doesn't necessarily even have to be of themselves,
but like if they feel so deeply and so securely
about a thing or whatever it may be, you can

(29:50):
feel that and you pick up on that. You're like, oh,
I want to feel that too, and I think that
has a connection to you in general, just like you're
this string that ties it together.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah, I hope that I can, I guess, spread the
gospel of the small town you are every time someone
comes there like, oh, I love it.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Here, listen, I'm so glad and I seriously I would
keep you forever because we could talk about some flowers
and we feel we really could, but we have to
save that for another time. I'm really glad that you
are here. I want to end on one thing For
someone who is in this position right now that you
and I were in. Maybe they didn't have a soul calling,
but maybe they're like, I have to move, this has

(30:27):
to happen. What would you just kind of tell them,
like if they're contemplating everything, every life decision, and they're
sitting here, maybe like this could be your daughter or
your son one day and they're sitting here trying to
decide if this is the decision to make. What do
you think you would tell.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Them that you already know what you want. I think
if you're wrestling with it, you're fighting yourself, you're talking,
you're trying, probably trying to talk yourself out of being you.
I think usually you know, I mean, I think we
all know what we really want, and I think more
often than not we try to talk ourselves out of
being us and just accept that that is something that

(31:01):
you want and you know what happens if My second
part of the answer'll be like, can you know what
happens if you don't? You don't know what happens if
you do. And it's so true that curiosity is what
you need to lean into of going what happens if
I do try it.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
I love that. Well. Thank you Nicole for all of
your wisdom and for coming on and being not only
a great representative of the state of Kansas, but also
of small towns.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Thank you Jesus forever.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
The Kansas Kids episode continues. Logan Mice is joined with
me right now. Logan, you have been part of my
life as a friend, as an artist, as so many
different things. So it's really good to have you here.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Are good Thanks for having me on. Yeah, this is fun.
I've met your dog. She's awesome and she's now at
my feet, so I feel like we're buddies.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
She is. It's kind of the therapy room with her.
She likes to come in and make sure everybody is
like prepared for what's going to go down in here.
I love it.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Well, thanks for coming on. I want to talk to
you about Kansas is kind of the focus of this
episode because I have Nicole Gallion on. Also, you and
me are both from Kansas. It's just a whole thing.
And we left Kansas and takest our dreams and have
done all these things.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
You're from Maze, right, Yeah, from Maze. I'm in Maze
all the time.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Sorry to interrupt, It's okay. And you're from Andel, which
is a much smaller town than Maze.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, I'm from Clearwater, which is where I grew up
and went to school. But I mean Andel's where my
kids go to school, That's where I live. I got
married there. It's kind of the hometown.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Now.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, okay, So I want to break this down. At
what point for you when you were growing up where
you're like, Okay, I want to be an artist and
I'm going to move away from here.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Well, it wasn't that much of it, wasn't that clear
of a decision. I was just like I couldn't never
stick with anything, like I was kind of a meandering idiot, honestly,
but I and I wasn't like a great singer by
any means that I had to like the work at that.
But I loved music. I loved songs, and you know,
I just a night out for me as a kid

(33:05):
was like begging my parents to take me to Witch
Talk so we could go to Blockbuster Music. And I
don't know if you remember that.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah, Blockbuster Music, Blockbuster Music.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
I'm showing my age a little bit.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I know there's like Blockbuster for DVDs, but Blockbuster music.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
There was a Blockbuster Music. See that's how much older
I am the new Okay, So thirty nine, full disclosure.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
That's only eight years. That's not that much.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Okay, Well it must have closed down at some point.
It was it was amazing. First of all, you would
go into this big section and it was like the
lighting was cool, and there was music posters everywhere, and
there was rows and rows of CDs and you could
go just you could find anything. And so I would
beg my parents to take me. We'd go on a

(33:50):
Friday night. I'd spend hours in there. And my parents
like music too, so that was like what I loved.
And I just I didn't know that I wanted to
do music. I just that was where my art was.
But I couldn't stick with anything, you know, I couldn't
stick with piano lessons. You know, I dropped out of
three different colleges. I just was a mess. And that
was the one thing that I always felt passionate enough
about where like I can stick with that. I'm gonna

(34:13):
go to Nashville. And I was writing songs and stuff.
So when I just fell in love with it, that's
that's how what got me here.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Okay, so you dropped out of college three times? Yeah,
I did not know this, Yes, why what happened?

Speaker 4 (34:25):
I just couldn't pull it together. You know, I have
a wandering I just can't squirrel, you know, everywhere, and
I can. I love to read books if it's on
my own terms. Like I love to walk into a library,
pick something up, read it. But like if I'm sitting
in a desk with fluorescent lights and somebody's talking and
telling me what I have to read and what I
just can't. I couldn't even stay awake. I would fall

(34:46):
asleep constantly. And that could be due to me being
in my dorm room just playing guitar and trying to
write songs all night. But yeah, yeah, and so I
dropped out of a I went to hutch Community College.
I was in the football team there, quit the football team,
dropped out of school. Then went to Southern Illinois, dropped
out of school, quit the football team there. And then
I tried Wichita State for a little bit and made

(35:07):
it two weeks, and I was just like, I'm not
I can't do this. I'm not cut out for it.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Well just wasn't for you.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
I couldn't do it. And so yeah, all I have
is a high school degree. But that's when I was
I was really good at like I loved outdoor jobs,
like I you know, did construction and stuff. I could
make a living doing that when I moved to Nashville
until I was able to get my you know, songwriting going.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
And what was it like for you when you first
moved to Nashville where you're like, Okay, I'm going to
move here and everything's just gonna work out. Or you're
kind of hoping that and then it did or it didn't, Like,
tell me a little bit about that. I know a
little bit about your backstory.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
But yeah, gosh, I feel like we're talking about me
a bunch right now because.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
I interrupt about you.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Okay, well, no it's not. That's the hard part I've
had about being an artist. But we can jump into
that later. No, well, okay, I didn't know. I just
was enamored by the whole thing. I loved it. There
was a community that wrote songs. I didn't really know
what a publishing deal was. Honestly, I just knew there
was songwriters here because I would read all the labels
on the back of the CDs.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
You know, and that was how you knew about songwriters.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
Yeah, so I would be like, oh, this guy wrote
this song, this guy produced it. So I felt like
I knew all the names, not only country, like any
genre that I was into. But I was in the
middle of it and that was good enough for me,
and so I got a job right away. The one
good thing I did I got a CDL driver's license
when I was in college. So it was like a
two week course and which.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
I've heard is pretty tough to get.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
Well, I'm good at that stuff. I'm not good at
a lot of things, but I can drive anything. So
it was like go through the CDL course, and I
always had a truck driving job. I could get one
pretty easy. So I worked for a construction company in
Hendersonville driving a dump truck, and that's like what I
did from seven to four every day. And then i'd
get done with that and I would just come down

(36:51):
and either Playwriter's Night or go check out other people play.
I just loved the whole thing and I wanted to
be successful at it, and I would dream about the
day that my job was writing songs all day, which
eventually happened, but at the time I didn't. It wasn't
like an urgent feeling like I have to make this
happen now. I'm just happy to be here. It felt free.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, you finally felt like you were doing something that
mattered to you, versus being forced into doing school and
all these things that didn't feel right.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Right.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah, I love your story because I think you have
so much resilience in what you've done, and obviously Kansas
loves you and your music has grown beyond that. But
you got this huge start in Kansas. So you had
come to Nashville, you did the songwriting, and you found
your footing.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
And what you wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
When did you realize, like, oh, well, my kind of
target demo is Kansas, and I got to work from there.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
I was pretty aimless. I got a publishing deal early on,
like a year and a half after being here. I
got a publishing deal with a guy named Brett Jones.
And there was tons of songwriters around. It was a
houseover in Belmont and Dallas. Davidson had like the lower
half of the house. So Jamie Johnson and Ben Hayes
Slip and Red Akins and Billy Crington and all these guys.

(38:06):
Luke Bryant, these guys were around all the time. I
got to know a lot of them, Bobby Pinson, Anthony Smith,
and they were just coming in and out. And I
was this twenty one year old kid like learning from
people who were really good at it. I didn't have
a clue what I was doing. I just loved it,
and so I kind of got a really good crash
course in songwriting from some of the best writers in town.

(38:27):
But I didn't know what to do with any of it,
and that publishing deal dried up after a year just
to went sideways and I was immature, and so then
it was like back to I think I was weed
whacking ditches and smyrna. After that, you know, we're trying
to find another publishing deal. And it wasn't until I
met my wife Jill, three years after I moved here,
and she's the one that actually said, well, why don't

(38:47):
you just make a record? You know, you should just
record some of this stuff. You have all these songs,
which you would think that that would have occurred to
me before, but it wasn't. It wasn't something that I
was really you shouldn't.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Have a booprint. I'd come here just like I love music.
This is something I think I might want to do.
I'm not really sure. Yeah, you're just kind of fumbling
your way.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Through, fumbling through, totally fumbling my way through still am
but yeah, so she kind of was like, well, you could,
you know, give away some of your publishing or your
master rights or whatever and get some people. So I
went through some family, her family whatever, got enough money
to get in the studio and record ten songs and

(39:26):
made a record. And you know I learned on this.
You know, I still was brand new at singing in
the studio. I didn't have my voice. I didn't know
who I was as an artist. But I had these
songs that I felt were decent enough to start with,
and I just released it independently and there was a
DJ in Wichita. I sent it to Rick Reagan. I
don't know if you remember him, Rock Rock and Rick Man.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, Okay, dude's the bomb.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
And there was this kick it or flick it like
competition they had on Fridays, and he one of the
songs that album he put I think you shouldn't have
done it because I'm just this unknown independent artist. He
put it up against like a Brad Paisley song. And
which song.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Was this that you had sent him or that he
decided to play?

Speaker 4 (40:13):
It was a song called Ride in the Middle off
my very first independent album, Okay, which I cringe thinking
about some of those, But anyway, when you're twenty one,
you know, maybe don't put that record out yet.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
You're a busy.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yeah. So he played it and like the whole town
rallied behind me, and so then it was like, well,
maybe I should go try and play in Wichita. You know,
we have a song that's getting played on radio there now,
and so we did and it sold out. So then
we were able to go there and play shows, and
before you know, after a couple of years, we could
sell out the Cotillion, which is you know, seventeen eighteen
hundred people.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
It's a really good venue in Wichita.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Yeah, we just kind of drew a circle. Randy Rogers band,
they're the fiddle player Brady Black. I talked to him
one night and he was like, man, draw a circle
where you're where you can sell tickets, and then little
by little, just try to get your circle bigger and bigger.
And I was like, oh, good idea. So I did that,
and I was my own booking agent and slowly grew it.
And it grew a lot to the north. You know,

(41:10):
south is the Oklahoma red dirt Texas scene, and for
whatever reason, you know, it felt saturated, and I was
the Kansas guy, so and I was living in Nashville,
so I would didn't really get into that scene. But
it grew really well to the north and west and east.
So it was like Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, the Dakotas
and it all just kind of next thing. You know,
we have an agent and it just grew by itself

(41:34):
so well, not by itself, I had, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, but from this one song and the song that
you're embarrassed by now, but it was a song that
started everything.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
Yeah, there was a song on that album called Boys
from Back Home and it didn't get played on radio,
but it was kind of the organic grassroots song that
kind of spread through little college towns and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
I remember that one blowing up. I want to say,
what year was that that you put that one out?

Speaker 4 (41:57):
Two thousand and nine.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, I was in high school, and I remember all
of the guys in high school because it'd be like
Friday night football, everything's happening, and you hear that song
on a repeat. Yeah you know what I mean. That
was a song that I remember in college around football season.
I remember that time literally in high school existing and
this was the moment that I discovered you it was
Boys from Back Home.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Wow. Mm hm, I can't do math ye now, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
We got to stop looking at the numbers because we
feel older. But yeah, that was the that was that moment.
That's so crazy and was it hard for you? Okay?
I really love this because I love Kansas. It's my
home and it's cool being back here. But was it
hard for you being the Kansas guy and like exploding
from there? I imagine like I've had the privilege of

(42:42):
talking with Randy Rogers and Josh Abbott band who are
very Texas guys and right there known as the Texas guys,
and there's some there's pros and cons to that. Yeah,
So what was that like for you? Like being that
Do you wish that kind of didn't happen in that capacity?

Speaker 4 (42:56):
No, I don't have any regrets as far as that goes.
I just knew that I for me, I felt like
just a wet dish rag that needed wrong out.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
You know, you just conveyed yourself to a wet dish well.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
You know, I was an immature guy that just had
a big dream and I didn't really have any idea
how to get from A to B. I just needed
the experience on stage. I just needed to figure out
like I needed to keep writing and keep recording and
keep playing it. And there was no timeline of I
need to get to this set point. By this time,
it was just chipping away at the block and I'm
still doing it. But yes, I became known as kind

(43:32):
of the Kansas guy. But songs transcend that, and you know,
if the right song happens and you connect with your
fans and you're genuine, you know, you're authentic with them, No,
that matters. I don't think.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Which song for you? Obviously boys formack com was a
big one, but which song for you? Were it kind
of blew up and you were watching it happen and
you were like, is this real? Is this my life?
What's happening here?

Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah? The first one was Can't Get Away from It? Well,
there was one called Used Up was played on Serious
XM the Highway, and that kind of led into there
was like I'd been recording with my road band here
in Nashville. I think Roundhill Music is where it's at now,
but it used to be called Quadraphonic and there was
an SSL board in there that we loved how it sounded.
And we'd go in there and just me and the

(44:17):
road band, and I'd come in and be like, here's
the songs we have this week. I'd book it like
once every three weeks. So we had this group of
songs Used Up as one of them, and there's another
one called Can't Get Away from a Good Time, and
I took it serious XM. They started playing it and
it was doing really well. Back when singles sold and
we were selling close to I think I had to

(44:38):
look back at the numbers, but we were somewhere in
the realm of like the ten thousand a week sales,
which there was a few songs that had hit that before.
I think one of them was col Swindell's first single,
and then one was Cruise Fullot Georgia Lyne. So it
was tracking really well and it got me my first
major label deal, and it was all pretty surreal. I

(44:59):
might have gotten in my own way on that whole thing,
but it was really cool to see something finally working
and seeing the town kind of go okay, well there
might be something here, because before it was just like
another idiot kid trying to be an artist in town.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
You know, why do you think you got in your
own way like fear?

Speaker 4 (45:19):
And I think it was I was signed with this
massive record label, Sony Records. You know, I'd done dozens
of showcases and been shut down, so failure didn't bother me.
And getting rejected like you get thick skin. I don't care.
I think when it started to really take off and
I knew it was going to go to country radio,

(45:39):
I think that I lived in this perpetual fear that, like, wait,
they're pushing this artist, and when they opened the door,
they're all they're going to see is I have like
a couple of little independent albums behind this. I didn't
really have anything to back it up. And I still
don't know if I knew exactly who I was as
an artist and what my trajectory was. And so I think,

(46:01):
and the song was can't get away from a good time?
Like am I going to be that can't get away
from a good time guy?

Speaker 1 (46:05):
When I'm forty, like you know, you like, I don't
know that I can keep up with that one.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
I have kids, you know, I'm trying to learn how
to be a dad. I'm on the road constantly in
a van. It was just I felt like I was
drinking through a fire hose, and so I don't know
that I put my best foot forward, and I you know,
looking back, I'm glad that didn't explode. I'd be done
by now, you know, I would have I would have
self imploded.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
You had mentioned the part of this where you're like,
I don't like the fame side. Is that what you're
kind of referring to maybe a little bit.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
I don't. I don't have a problem with music connecting
and I did, you know, obviously I want to sell
tickets and I want people to for my music to
be part of their life. I think the thing that really,
when you get out there on the radio tour and
you're part of a major label trying to launch an artist,
it becomes more about them trying to sell the product,
which is the artist, rather than a body of work

(47:02):
or something. And that felt really weird to me. I
felt like, Oh, I need to be back in the
studio working on more songs, and I need to be
writing more and instead you're just going around showing your
face and shaking hands, and I felt like, I don't know,
I just felt really uncomfortable with it.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah. I don't think that's uncommon either, you know. I
look at people like Christapleton, Sam Hunt. These are people
that don't typically like the spotlight and the stuff that
comes that. They just want to make music. Yeah, so
there's an avenue for it, but it's certainly a difficult
avenue because there is this, you know, shake hands, kiss babies,
and do the thing you're supposed to do.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
Yeah, And it's nothing against anybody in the industry or
the people I was meeting. I've not met very many
bad people. It was just the uncomfortableness of, Hey, everybody
look at me. That really really didn't sit well with me.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Does it sit well with you like now in a
way or do you feel like that was just always
a part of you and you were like when you
were kind of coming up, you didn't realize this was
going to be part of it. You kind of like,
I just wanted music. I just wanted to do music.
I didn't really know what that looked like.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
Well, it's gotten a lot better the more music I
put out and the more time I have to kind
of figure out, you know, what it is I want
to do. And you gotta figure yourself out. You don't
know when you're twenty something years old who you really are.
At least I didn't. There's some people that do, and
good for them. But yeah, it's I think it's I
needed my ass kicked and I've got it handed to

(48:29):
me a lot, and it's just it's been really good
for me. You know, you kind of just take a
couple of steps back and focus on actually what's important.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
You know. M hm, you did too, Like when you
first moved away from Kansas, did you have people in
your family or even anyone just kind of around you, like,
what are you doing? What's happening?

Speaker 4 (48:49):
Yeah, And there's people that I could bring that up
to now that would and have that would deny that now,
you know. But there was some really there's some things
said that I was like, Okay, I mean you remember it,
and you want you want to say that you're not
holding grudges and I'm not gonna let that stuff go.
But it definitely doesn't give you the warm and fuzzies.

(49:10):
It didn't make you want to run back and you
know the feeling, right you did you experience that?

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, I mean I remember it being really hard because
Kansas in general, the values are just like it's family.
You're close to your family, and you stay close to
your family and you don't leave. So anybody who is
thinking of leaving in any capacity, it was like, why
are you leaving? Why this place is amazing? And you're right,
You're like, yeah it is and I love it here.
But like there's a whole life out there for me

(49:37):
that I'm wanting to see what, you know, what's out there,
and that was just uncommon. It was uncommon that people
were leaving in that capacity. So you just feel met
with constant questioning. And you're already questioning things, right because
you're like, I'm moving away from everything that I've ever known,
and I already have questions myself, and now all you're
doing is adding to it. So now I have multiple
questions and this is not good for me.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
Yeah, do you feel that, like, yeah, like I'm already
all the questions that you're asking me, I'm already asking myself,
so now I have to answer them, you know what
I mean. It's just then there were people that were encouraging,
and you remember that forever. They're like people looking at
you like you're sure about that? You know plenty of that.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
I don't know if you feel this way now, but
I'm so glad that it happened in the way that
it did. I feel like everything panned out exactly how
it was supposed to do. Do you feel like that,
even despite like the things that you went through and
the failures and what came, do you feel like it
did pan out in the way that it was supposed
to do.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean I feel really like at a
good place now where I feel comfortable with myself and
comfortable with what it is I want to do. Having
kids young for me, And I don't think this is
for everybody. I'm not saying it is. I really needed it,
Like I was just so stupid.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
That's a different perspective. Good, I know, and like don't
have kids to fix things like.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
It was just really good for me to like have
another responsibility, something else to worry about besides myself. Yeah,
that perspective gave me perspective.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
And I don't know this answer. Were you and jil
married before you guys have the kids or no?

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yeah, yeah, we got married, we had kids shortly after.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Okay, so, but you had enough like around and about
an understanding of your life to have asked her to
marry you, like you weren't totally not put together, you know.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Yeah. Well, I think in my head I went like, well,
if this one gets.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Away, couldn't let her.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
Yeah, I was like, God, bless her, She's probably a saint,
you know. But yeah, I knew I always wanted to
be a dad, and so I knew when when I
met her. I was like, well, here's your opportunity. Don't
blow it.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Yeah. Yeah, And you guys, you guys are you guys
are a bazy dealer, and you guys sing together like,
you guys are beyond just a couple parents, you're also
a duo.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Yeah. That's how we met, was writing songs.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
So it was in a writing room or like different scenario.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
At her apartment. We would just she moved to town.
And there was so many like weird near misses that
we had when we lived in Kansas, and then we
finally got linked up in Nashville, like we were in
our first concert was the same concert. We were sitting
in the same section, like we have pictures from the
same angle. Trying to think there was so many there

(52:17):
were in pictures together and you guys.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Grew up in the same town or she was from
so she's from Andeal.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
So for those of you geographically not there's Wichita, which
is in the south central part of the state, and
up northwest of Wichita is Andale, nine hundred people, and
then southwest of Wichita is Clearwater, like two thousand people.
But our schools played each other in sports and so
like there's a picture of me on the football field
taking a drink of water, and like she's in the
background in her dance uniform for the other team.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
What.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Yeah, there's just all sorts of random things like that.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
So you guys were gonna end up together one way
or another, Like the universe was literally trying to send signs.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
Yeah, it felt like, Yeah, it felt like that. At
one point, somebody gave me her number and I was
framing houses in which talk for a little bit after
I dropped out of Wichita State before I moved to Nashville.
But somebody gave me her.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Number, like trying to set you guys up.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Yeah, they said it was some I was framing a
house that was a friend of hers that she went
to ultrasound school with. Hey, this girl girl's house for framing.
I think she has a friend who's a singer. You
should meet up with there. Threw it away, like yeah,
but she got my number two in the same way,
and she threw like it was we It wasn't anything

(53:27):
that we ever pursued, but we got here, or she
got here three years after I did, and I met her.
It was fine. She definitely, she told her mom. Well,
I asked her. She wanted to write them a lawn.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
More with me, stop it right now, that that was
your company in line, it.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Was, well, it was her birthday and I didn't know that.
But I had a band. We lived out in whites
Creek at this house that I got evicted from but before.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
I kicked out a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
You know what, I'm not good. So I had a party.
I had her number at this point. I'd met her
once and invited her and her friend out. Hey, we're
having like a party and our band is playing in
my barn. And she came out and I had this
like Briggs and Strutton riding lawnmower. I thought she was cute,
you know. I didn't. I'm not good with the ladies.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
You know.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
It's just it's not been something that is part of
my repertoire. It's like if it happens, great, if it doesn't, well,
So I.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Really liked that. How you're setting this up to likensine.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
But I thought she was really cute, and I didn't
have a line. You know. I just rode my lawnmower
over by where she was standing by.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
The fire, and I was like, I'm sorry, you were
having a party. You got on your lawnfower.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
Well wait, there's a fire. And then the band was
set up in the barn and people were kind of
scattered through this big lawn at this house that we lived.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Law was kind of the golf cart situation.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
Helping Yeah, well no, I wasn't helping anything. It was
just the lawnmower was there, okay, and uh yeah, So
I fired it up and drove over by where she
was standing. Asked her if she wanted to ride. I'm
a lawnmower.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
We did she say no?

Speaker 4 (54:58):
She said no, and then she told her mom that
I was someone she would never date. Interesting ever, Yep.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
What was her reasoning?

Speaker 4 (55:05):
Oh well, Morgan, well I had hair down to here first.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Of all, when you had your long hair.

Speaker 4 (55:11):
Yeah, I was just kind of a mess, you know.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
The lawnmower wasn't.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
Yeah. Yeah, anyway, for whatever reason, she asked me, well, hey,
do you want to write sometime? And I said yeah,
and we met up and wrote.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Me.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Her and her friend Shelley Frayley, who lived here too.
She's from Burden, Kansas, but she lives in Augusta now
met up. We wrote and I could tell that something like,
I don't know was the fact that i'd just kind
of given up after she denied my lawnmower ride. But
I could tell like, oh I think that maybe you

(55:46):
know and uh yeah, next thing you knew we were
married and had you know, one on the way.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
But that's hilarious. Also, if that doesn't tell you anything,
like like what's meant for you is never going to
pass you. It's going to happen whether you like it
or not. It's just gonna run into you.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah. And one of the things I really when I
got once I got to know her initially, she didn't
She doesn't let me get away with anything. You know.
She definitely holds me to a standard that I'm still
trying to get to. And I needed that, and I
think deep down I knew I needed it. So, yeah,
it was a good pairing. And if you listen to
our EP or that we did as a duo, you'll
hear you know, it's there's a lot of this, but

(56:26):
it's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Yeah. I mean, I feel like if you can have
good tension, it's part of the fun. Yeah, for sure,
you know, that's part of what keeps you guys on
your toes and living through life, because life comes with
so many things that if you can keep each other
on your toes, you're never gonna be surprised. You know,
you're already already on your toe.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Right right, and you got to be able to laugh
about it too.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
And I do want to tell you your your recent song.
I think it's one of your latest ones that you
put out just keep breathing. Oh yes, that song like
part of my raped and all the things, because I
had played it on repeat after like a really hard
time in my life. Yeah for your songwriting on that one.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Oh yeah, thank you. I had that idea was my
mom had just passed, and it was that's part of
the reason we moved. But you know, so I lived
here thirteen years and at one point my kid kids
were getting to the while my son was starting kindergarten,
and it was just I didn't And this is not
a knock to anybody who raises their kids here, but

(57:22):
when you grow up in a small town in Kansas,
and you know how freeing that is to put them
through school here, them knowing all their cousins and stuff
were like back home in Kansas, it felt like we
were robbing them of an opportunity that my mom got sick,
and we were just like, you know, for me, it'd

(57:42):
be great to stay in Nashville and keep doing this thing,
but like, I'm kind of like making everybody else pay
the price for it. And so we made this decision
to move back home. And it was around the time
my mom had passed. Shortly after we moved back, I
was doing these whim Hoff breathing things. I got really
deep into that.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Still am but kind of like meditation or different.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
No, it's pretty mechanical. There's not much well, I mean
it can be, yeah, but it's it's like very just
you're over oxygenating your blood and it's it's good for
just decompressing. And anyway, I was doing the breathing techniques
and I have the app and he talks to you
while you're doing it, and he's like, just keep breathing,

(58:26):
And in my head was like, yes, keep breathe. And
you know this song and I and I had the
idea and then finished it with Somebody's here in town.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
But wow, what a cool way to come up with
a song. I guess not the reason behind it, you know,
I'm really sorry to hear about your mom. But cool
that there was this breathing technique that was able to
help you and then set the chorus to write a
song on that not only probably helped you heal a
little bit, yeah, but it's helping other people heal. Well.

Speaker 4 (58:50):
I'm glad. Yeah when I saw that, because sometimes you
write a song and you're like, no one's going to care.
But when I saw that you had been listening to
it and it was helping you, I was like, I mean,
that's what it's all about. That's why you're doing it
in the first place, you know.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Yeah, and you have a lot of songs that I
feel like connect on different levels, but that one was
just a little different for you. And it was funny
because I didn't discover that one on my own. My
sister had sent it to me. She's like, I needed
this at one point in my life. I think you
need it right now. So it was like one of
those songs that went through waves of impact to get
to me, you know what I mean. She's she's about.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
To be thirty three, Okay, similar age.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Yeah, so right around, and we both love you. I mean,
we grew up going to your concerts and stuff, so
We've always shared your songs, but that was one of
those where I was like, what's happening. Well, Logan's like
telling me to breathe and I'm doing it. Okay. That
was that moment.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
Yeah, that's all.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Wow, you have so many, so many things, and I
could sit here and talk to you forever, but I'm
not going to make you. Is there anything else you
want to talk about before you leave?

Speaker 4 (59:50):
We can talk about? Okay? So Maze? Yeah, like what
part of Maze? Oh?

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Okay, Well, so I lived in Wichita, Okay, but like
I was in the district of my district really live live.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Sense that makes sense?

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Okay, I can't tell. I don't know if I explained that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Well yeah, okay. Well May's like I think of like
Woodward's Mercantile.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Yeah. I didn't live in Mays Okay, but I went
to school May's.

Speaker 4 (01:00:13):
High School Northwest Wichita, like new Market area.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Yeah, and some of my best friends were in Andel.
So funny enough. When I went through like a really
bad situation in high school, I had so this is
so funny. One of my first like serious boyfriend had
cheated on me, and I made friends with the girl
he cheated on me with via Facebook. She lived on
Andel and we like met up and it was the

(01:00:37):
whole thing. And so she's still one of my best
friends to this day.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
And wait, wait, wait, the boyfriend cheated on you with
this girl and you're like good friends with her.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Yeah, wow, yeah, hey, yeah, listen, I'm not gonna blame
it on her even know I existed, you know what
I mean. So she wrote me, She's like, I think
we're taking the same guy on Facebook.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Oh it's one of those Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
For sure he is. And we didn't know neither one
of us new Eataller existed up until that kind of moment,
and so we like met up and broke up with
them together and then we're like, you know, right off
into the sunset as our friendship. But she's my she
was my first and del connection. So once I met her,
then I started spending like my entire life out in Andel. Yeah,
and I was parties and in fields getting drunk, and

(01:01:21):
I had no idea what was happening that happens there.
I did, like there, there's so many pictures and stuff
where I look back, I'm like, what was I even
doing out there? Like I was in the middle of nowhere,
just drinking alcohol that tasted horrible, Yeah, and almost getting
caught by cops multiple times. Never did, but that's what
those are my memories of.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
Andell, it's fun stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Yeah, yeah, and I loved it. So I'm with you
on the it's worth moving back home for those experiences
in that life for sure different than here.

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
It is very different. But yeah, I just feel like
it's good for the kids and and and you know,
it's an easy Southwest flight. I drove this time. The
drive gets shorter every time or longer. I can't tell.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
I feel like it gets longer, but you just you
get used to it is more. And it's because it's
so flat. It's not a very exciting drive. No, Like
you're through like the most dessert towns. Like there's one town.
I don't know if you've ever driven through it, and
maybe we take the same route, but it's like it
looks like a apocalypse hit it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
You take sixty like through southern Missouri. Yes, okay, yeah,
there's there's a lot of those towns.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
There is, but there's one in particular rum like what
happened here, Like this actually looks like this was recently
an apocalypse.

Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
Like Backster Springs or something.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Yeah, maybe, but it like the businesses look new, but
they're not.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
Well, there's like old mining towns down in southeast Kansas
that kind of like the mines cut, they dried up.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
And yeah, I guess that's true. I didn't even think
about that. You drive, hear a lot of them and
you're like, there's like one store that's still open there.
It makes me really sad because I was like, these
are probably really awesome at their prime because they look
really cool.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
Yeah, they're cool. And my family, my dad said, the
family's all from Baxter Spring in Galina area, and it
is kind of sad when you drive down there because
you know, one point that was like a thriving and
it's not that it's not. I mean it's still a
cool town, but yeah, at one point when those minds
were rocking, you know, it's probably different.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Well that gives me more background to those I would
just drive them thinking like, you know, some crazy virus
hit and there was like zombies that one I wouldn't
have a full extreme But Logan thank you for joining
me coming on go check out his music. It's so good.
I mean really, it's helped me through a lot of
different periods in my life. But also hearing you and
your wife seeing together is also really cool too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
That's a cool experience.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
So yeah, thanks check that out, but thanks for.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
Coming on, thanks for having me. That went so fast,
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
And like I said, we could talk forever, and we
could we could actually sit here and talk about Kansas
forever in general. Yeah, but it was really the whole
purpose of having both you and Nicoleon and talking about
Kansas in general. It's just one Nobody ever talks about Kansas.
It's like the middle the Flower State. Nobody cares about it, right, Yeah,
but there's so many cool people there, and I think
so many people cool people come from there, so I

(01:04:00):
wanted to highlight that factor.

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
I told a guy when I first moved here. I
lived in Hendersonville and there was a guy in my
apartment complex the astros from and I told him I
was from Kansas, and oh, I forgot that was even
a state. So there, that's kind of I know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Forgets about us. And there's a fair level to that
because you drive through its very flat, there's not a
lot happening, but like there's so much going on in there,
and there's really nice.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
People there is and Nicole lives like half an hour
north of me now, so that's so cool. And yeah,
her her husband Rodney, who's great, came down and has
been writing with me. They're cool people, see.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
And Kansas people are always looking out for each other
and they always end up connected. It's like an automatic.
If somebody says they're from there, like cooler friends, you
don't have to tell me anything else.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
We're just right, yeah, absolutely, yeah, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Well, thank you again, logan to chat with you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
Yes, doing both.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Of these interviews, I felt a little piece of home,
which was so special for me because I do often
get homesick. I miss my family, I'm I miss Kansas
and I miss everything that I grew up around. But
I also wouldn't trade it because I get to do
what I love and I'm chasing my dream and just
like this podcast, getting to be here and talking to

(01:05:13):
all of you guys through a microphone, it's always a
catch twenty two when you're chasing those dreams. But I
hope everybody who has the question of should I or
shouldn't I, maybe it got answered this week. And I'm
gonna leave you guys on one thing that Nicole always says.
And I love Kansas forever.