#221 - Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay on The Untold Story of Meeting Dan + Getting Justin Bieber On A Song + His Love of Star Wars - Bobbycast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But to hop into interview with Shane Mooney from Dan
and Shay. Before we do, let me recommend you check
out my ds podcast called Movie mis Movie Podcast, which
is and who Doesn't Love Movies? I was thinking about
this my who doesn't love everybody loves movie? I love
movies and it's a thirty minute podcast. And if you're
like man, I wish I had more stuff to listen to.

(00:21):
Check out Movie Mike's movie podcast. All you do type
in movie Mike anywhere you listen to them, that's right,
So check that out. Amy has Four Things with Amy Brown.
If you like sports, check out The Sore Losers just
so much. We're trying to build a network that you
can pretty much like anything and find a show. Got
a couple more shows coming on. We've been saying that
for years. It feels like years, it feels like but

(00:42):
I feel like we we agreed to terms with one
show I'm excited to get on, and that one will
probably on the next couple of months and so um
it's by one of my favorite artists by the way,
and a really interesting person. Not gonna say much more
because it still could fall through stranger things about but
we will be putting out a new podcast real soon. Um, okay,

(01:04):
here we go with Shay. I tell you we there's
no editing here. No. We talked for hour and twenty
minutes or so, pretty close known in Shade long time,
and it was almost like which part of Shade do
I want to go? I probably could have done three
hours if I just went to different places. He's also
a great and funny guy. So there's also a Dan
Smyers podcast, Dan and Dan and Shay, which we did

(01:24):
before they blew blew up, but they had blown up,
but they did this is pre like right before Tequila
came out, I think, which was the next chapter of there.
So that the Dan podcast is. I've checked that out.
Scroll back and here is Shay and I hope you
enjoy this podcast. Tell your friends about it and if
you don't mind, give it all the stars and comment
be like it's the greatest because it helps us, you know,

(01:46):
Flap podcast charts and tagg Us on Instagram appreciate that
so much. So here you go the newest this week
with with Shaye from Dan and Ship. All Right, welcome
to episode to Shay from Dan and Shay, which we
had to partner in it's probably a year or so ago. Yea.
And even for him it was kind of weird coming
in alone. But my whole goal with these is to

(02:07):
actually let people hear individuals. Yeah, this is probably trouble
for me. They won't like our band after this. I
don't think that's okay. I think people are gonna like
the band more after after this, do you find? And
and again it's Here's the weird thing for me interviewing
somebody that I kind of know, is that there are

(02:28):
things that I know that I would never ask, and
there are things that I've always wanted to ask in
a personal space. It's never you're just with a buddy
and you just don't ask question, you know, like tell
me about being seven? You know that just never comes
up when we're somewhere, you know. Um, So that's why
I'm excited to have you over because and also I
got to prank you outside of my house. Did I
got here? I was a little bit scared. I'm not

(02:48):
gonna lie because I didn't know what your house looked
like and how when did you move? Did you move
in half? Like a year and a half ago? Okay,
yeah I knew that, but I was just gonna ask it.
But I didn't know what your house look like. So
I pulled up and I was like, I have no
I was gonna text you that. I was like, I
don't want to be outside of like someone random's house,
and I didn't want to not park, So I get
out and I ring the doorbell and what I thought

(03:08):
was an old woman answered hello. Was out there. If
I did Hello scared me. I was like, I'm scaring
this woman because it had a camera and she's out
there being like I saw your faith, and I was like, oh,
he's thinking this is real. Yeah I was. I was
a little scared, like who is it anyway? Shah who
shay mooney, I don't know how any money, And about

(03:30):
that time might be the door. I was scared that
I was going to open up to, like, you know,
someone prepared, because this house was very much of like
a fortress, and I was like someone that's you know, loaded,
and stop it. I'm loaded, as in like I got
a gun, you want to sticking out looaded? This But
this puts me on a good question. I googled, because
I always think it's fun to google how much people

(03:51):
are worth, and it says that you're worth five thousand dollars.
Now I'm not gonna ask you how much of worth
because I would never do that. I would never do that. However,
it's got to be more than that at this point
after especially from by right, because like a little bit
I was offended for you. I was like, the guy's written,
he's there, shows are mine? Everything about you guys set

(04:14):
up the way my bank accounts are set up. I
got checkings and savings. Thanks hard to track, but over right,
we're getting right into it. Just it going to But
you came up when you're like your house is a fortress,
you're so loaded. I mean I'm loaded as then i'll
punt from that question. Maybe it might be over that,

(04:35):
but I got I got a kid and getting ready
for a second, so I'm you know, And I'll also
say this about you. You didn't grow uploaded, so it's
not like this whatever you have fifty dollars or what
i've heard five million, whatever, And I don't want to
say anything that's close to that. It's close to that.
If that's gonna be the rumor, I'll go up to
five that you've earned it is my point. Yeah, likewise,

(04:57):
which is you know whenever I um think about you
guys and I see you now and you guys are
you know, I was nervous and I'll come back to
this in a second. I wasn't nervous for you when
you announced an arena tour before it goes on sale,
because it was your first time to doing arena tour,
and just as someone who has to put up theaters
and I'm nervous before they go on sale to go
as anybody gonna show up because I'm doing bigger theaters
this time. So I was like, wow, they put up

(05:17):
arena is I sure hope it sells like crazy? And
as I'm thinking that, I also go, man, I remember
when those two dudes were just two dudes doing karaoke
and Nada they had their first song we were I
was hassling them on the radio and you were struggling. Yeah, man,
and that's We're so cool to see and even myself

(05:39):
to feel for you going. I'm so nervous for them
as you're about to do sell arenas like and that's honestly,
that's the growth. I think that's you know, people ask,
you know, do you get nervous for anything anymore? And Honestly,
I don't get nervous performing, you know, playing shows, as
I'm sure you don't really get necessarily nervous. It's more
of an exciting you know, your heart kind of starts
to race a little bit. You're excited about it. But
that's probably the most nervous that you get as an

(06:01):
artist is putting on a tour, because you just never know.
Selling tickets is different than getting hit songs. It really is.
I mean, it's kind of that We've been trying to
build this grassroots thing for a while. We've been headlining
for a long time of doing small shows, and then
our last tour did well. But even before that tour,
I was I was nervous because it's like you just
don't know Tuesday and Wednesday night shows, Like you guys

(06:22):
were the guys that were grinding doing week night shows
shows and everyone else is doing what the normal Nashville
thing is do Friday, Saturday and Thursday. But you guys
were grassrooting it early, which which again I admire so much,
but I just admire hustling grit with talent, and so
whenever you put in a and I saw the you
guys announced it that Rena tour comes out, and I'm like, man,

(06:43):
First of all, I was proud because you guys have
graduated to that level. But then I'm going, please God,
I hope it sounds like crazy because I know, just
in my little world of doing comedy, when I'm putting
up a bigger theater, I'm like, oh, people like me.
I hope they like me more than they used to.
As much as you were nervous, Like just imagine I
was about thirty times as nervous as I can imagine
that you were for us, because it's like, man, even

(07:04):
like the biggest room we did on the last tour
was about I think like tickets, you know, and that's
like we've done like a couple of days where you know,
we've got up there a little bit in the last
couple of years, but that's like jumping from even eight
to like eighteen is just that's a lot and a
lot of those eighteen rooms. Yeah, I was just hoping
for one. I was like, just God, please let us
sell out, just one, because that's like And we were

(07:26):
starting in Nashville too, and I remember where I was.
I was back I was back home in Arkansas, and
I was I can't remember why I was in, but
I was visiting my family, and uh, I remember we
had put you know, we're about to put on the
tour for sale, and it was in the pre sale
and I was just like, when you're starting in Nashville,
that's like starting in your hometown. I mean, that's you know,
that's where we all live now, that's where all of

(07:47):
our friends are. So like, when you start there and
if you don't sell that out, it's like, well, it's
gonna be a long it's gonna be a long tour.
It's be a long tour. And another wrinkle on the
Nashville show is that a home show that there's just
a lot of things you have to do that's not
a part of a normal show if you were in Milwaukee,
because the home show you have to entertain people, so
many people that you're close to, and it's the first

(08:08):
show where you have all this production. You're just learning
and now you have all these extra people there and
you're doing freaking Bridge Stone Arena. Yeah, it's like, let's uh,
you know, let's do this in our hometown when we've
never done this show ever, and it's gonna be too. Luckily,
it was like, that was the first call that we got.
I was so nervous that the tour wasn't gonna still me.
We we had hoped, you know, that it would do well,
but it was. We got the call and they're like,

(08:29):
all right, we have to we have to add it.
I knew whenever I got the call, They're like, all right,
you know, the Nashville show. And I was like, this
is about to be either the worst day in my
life or like one of the most exciting days. And
they said we were going to have to add another
show because we saw the tickets, and I was like,
that isn't that so crazy? Man? Honestly, like my heart
was just like I couldn't believe it. And that was
kind of People asked like, what are those moments where
you know, you feel kind of like, man, this is

(08:51):
like a dream come true. I mean that that to
me was you know, playing venues was really more like
the Rhyman. That was kind of my when you look
at the biggest bands like that I thought were the
biggest bands in the world, Like they were playing places
like the Ryman. You know that that size of venue
was like they made it and they're like the biggest
bands in the world. Bridge Stone was never really even
on my radar until I moved to town and I
realized that was the place that people did shows, and

(09:13):
I was like, that would be pretty amazing to do.
But that was kind of the moment where I was like, Okay,
this is uh, that's probably one of the coolest things ever.
I mean, your first was our first arena to to
sell out. That the second one, Yeah, now you didn't
just sell you had It's it's like, I feel proudness
for you and Dan both because it's just I've just
seen because we kind of came in at the same time.

(09:33):
I've seeing you go from two guys that they patched together,
that you guys patched together, people like I don't know
if their country, Yeah, that was your whole wrap. I
don't know if we're gonna make it. I don't know
if that they're you know, the guy could sing okay,
but they just didn't know for sure. I mean, it
was I saw one of the coolest uh. Like it
was an Instagram message. I think this girl had sent
this picture to us and she was like, I think

(09:54):
she had tagged us and it said I saw these
guys It was in two thousand twelve, I think, or
two team, like right after we had met, and we
were doing this round at Soulshine Pizza that I don't
think is there anymore. I think it's something else now
in Midtown. And she was like, I saw these guys
play around, you know, however long ago in two thousand
and thirteen, and now I just bought a ticket to
see them in Bridge Down and it kind of took me.

(10:15):
It took me back for a second because I was
just like, man, this is just as as they think
it's it's cool. A lot of times you're so busy
with building it that it's hard to look back. And
I saw that picture and immediately in that moment, it
was just like, well, that's that's heavy. You know, we're
struggling in that moment, couldn't we're probably paying for honest,
I think the deal we did, we weren't getting paid
for the round. It was we got a slice of pizza,

(10:36):
like that was what we were getting paid for. Pizza
and experience, yeah absolutely, and and playing to where people
would actually be there to listen, yeah yeah, which they
weren't that, but we didn't get the pizza, which was
pretty awesome. Apparently there was one girl though that was
there and got to kind of see that, which was
a pretty cool moment. I don't know. I looked up
the most Google questions about you here you go. Number

(10:58):
one is are you and Shape related? You can answer these,
I'm not gonna answer them for you. But are are
Are Dan and Shay related? We're not. We're not related,
not that I know about. Okay, did you twenty three
and me? And make sure I haven't yet. You know,
it's it's starting to starting to think about it now. Though.
What is make a lot of sense for me is
when I see you guys. I don't know what a

(11:19):
ward show it was, but you guys don't like each
other to the point of it's not just I'll compare
it to and I'm not married. You're married now, but
a marriage that's been through like ten years and and
this is not you guys, but they're together and they
just do it because they've agreed to a partnership. It's
like you guys that are that married couple that you

(11:40):
look at and go, wow, they still like each other
after all this time. It is, man, it feels like that,
and I think it's because it started out with a
from a place of mutual respect. You know, it wasn't
just this, It wasn't so much a lot of you
know a lot of times it's this whimsical thing that
happens and you know, you don't even have time to
really get to know each other. You know a lot
of times in bands it can happen quickly and you

(12:01):
you didn't have the time where you were kind of
grinding it out with each other on the road and
doing you know, millions of shows together. Um and Dan
and I had kind of we had become kind of
who we were going to be when we had met.
We knew where we were trying to get to, and
we just really respected what each other, you know, we're doing.
And uh yeah, I mean it's it's kind of crazy
because Dan and I are really complete opposites in most ways,

(12:24):
in most ways, and I think from that, you know,
it's kind of like a puzzle piece. It's like he
picks up what I can't do. He's an unbelievable producer.
He makes me sound good. I can't do any of that.
I don't know what I'm doing in the studio. So
it's kind of that thing of I trust him, you know,
with literally like my life and my well being, and
he trusts me with with that as well. And I

(12:45):
think it just kind of you know, it's it's clol
it's it's like being family. But it's really just a
I don't know, it's a really cool thing because I
do I do still like and we are still best friends.
You know. It's kind of one of those things of
all the time we're always looking at each other being like,
I can't believe that this is this is how evening.
It's just crazy. The second one is who are she's parents?

(13:06):
Who are parents? Rick and Cindy Mooney? Are their names?
Natural Damn, Arkansas and everybody prey a lot of people
watching from Natural. I think they just got internet, So
this is probably gonna be a pretty big deal, you know.
You you laugh about Natural Dam, Arkansas. About my town
Mountain Pine, Arkansas. We just got a cell phone tower
now nine months ago. Wow, Now where where is that

(13:26):
as far as like where a little rock is? Because
that we're on the you know, the western side of Arkansas.
So if you go straight down, because I know where
you are, if you go straight down, Mountain Pine is
below Little Rock on the same side of the state
about an hour the left side of the state down
is that towards Elder Redo or is that the other
that's the other side. But I went to Fabo and

(13:47):
I was with the Razor by game this past week,
and I don't get many weekends where I'm off, and
so I went over and I took Adam Hamburg, who's
a dear friend of mine, and I saw that and
you're with Ronnie Brewer, right, yeah, yeah, I know. They're
my points were they were asking about you. They were like,
have you seen Shy lately? And it's it's almost like
if someone they think we're all like related to hang

(14:10):
out that we're all like, what's up? What's up with Sap? Like,
you know, I've seen him, probably got a month, but
I think he's doing pretty good. I watched him on
Instagram with it. It's just funny how when we all
come from Arkansas and afterward I hung out with a
lot of listeners and a lot of people that listen
to show or watch American Idol, and they were I
probably got asked about you four times. They think all

(14:33):
of Arkansas boys run together. We should probably have a meeting.
We haven't had one, and at least it's been a
couple of chapter of Arkansas. Here's the one. Does Shay
get paid more than Dan? Yeah? That was in the deal.
I was like, look, if I'm gonna sing, if I'm
gonna do this, you know, you might do most of
the work, but this is how it's gonna be. I
assume there's this. That's it. You guys are even split

(14:54):
as far as I know. Maybe he maybe he does.
I don't know. One more, does Dan or Shay sing
speech lists? Well? We both sing Dancing's Harmony sing the lead,
but you're but yeah, I'm not. I'm not that that
sounded pretty amazing. I'll be honest with you. Yeah, do
you want to join? Yeah? Okay, Yeah that'd be cool.

(15:14):
Can you imagine if I went out and just we
didn't say anything about it, just as a joke, We
didn't acknowledge it. We just walked out, and you know,
we did see anything. I just walked out and it
was like like Danna Jay and it's me and when
we start speakless, And it would totally depend on if,
like if someone knew that it was you or not,
because if they did it and they hadn't seen it before,
they'd be like, I didn't even I had no idea
that it was three of them. Then no, no no, you

(15:36):
don't know. I don't come out. I put on like
a black better and I never break character, and I
sing as great as I can, and just we keep
cameras in the crowd'll see if people are stunned. We
never acknowledge it. I'll tell you it's gonna be. It's
gonna be a pretty great social experiment that will happen.
And I can tell you no one would get angry
at that. Um So, okay, one of my did you watch? Um, like,

(16:00):
what's the show called? You watch The Mandalorian? Did? Okay?
You're a Star Wars guy? I am. Yeah, So I've
never seen Star Wars. I would like to because I've
heard in a lot of ways. Did you like the show?
And what someone like me who's never seen Star Wars
like the show? Yes? Yeah, I think so. Do I
need to know Star Wars? Not at all. I think
you can. I think the cool part about the show

(16:21):
is that there is you know, if you like, you know,
read the books or whatever. I wasn't that I didn't
like I read like some Star Wars books like Back
in the Day. Um, but there's like the whole Mandalorian
thing is kind of you wouldn't really know about it,
even if you were a Star Wars fan, you would
probably just think, like, oh, that's like Bubba Fett, which
I guess you know Django and beaua Fett would They

(16:42):
weren't even actually Mandalorian. They just liked their armor, I guess.
So I don't know what he's saying right now and
see those quantum mechanics into it. No, I don't really
know that. But you know, it really doesn't have anything
to do with the story of of Star Wars that
people would know from their kids. It's just a great
It's a really new concept, really, even to a Star

(17:03):
Wars fan. How fast did you take in that show?
Probably like because they did it in I think they
did every Thursday, like they released. I know that you
couldn't bene it, huh. And I think I started. I
want to say, there's eight episodes, and I think I
started on six. I started when they had six out,
so I watched all of them, and then I had
to wait for the next two weeks, so I watched it.

(17:25):
I think I watched six episodes and like, like, a
couple of days, did you go watch the last Star
Wars movie and your thoughts? I I liked it. It
was it was a lot they had to kind of
button up the whole deal, which was it was a
lot to kind of it seemed like the fan reviews
were great, but the critic reviews were really not. Well.

(17:46):
It was kind of you know, and I love Star
Wars and I'm I'm not the movie guy who's like,
I don't usually look at the critics reviews. If like
the fan views are pretty good, I will enjoy the movie,
Like I like a lot. If I go to a movie,
I usually have a pretty a time. Like I enjoyed
the whole experience of going to watch movies. Always loved
movies as a kid and still love them. Yeah, I

(18:06):
enjoyed it as like a movie. It was very entertaining,
but it wasn't like if you were to pick it apart,
there was like a lot of things that we're just like, oh,
that's so he's just been alive this whole time, you know,
that's not that's not that's the one nooca like Senator
Palpatine was like he's like the you know, he's the
you know, the dark Lord Sith guy. He's like the

(18:28):
main bad guy and he dies and like one of
the first movies whenever, like with Darth Vader, Darth Vader
kills him and then he's just like, now is these
are these are? Well? I guess kind of for you maybe,
but hasn't seen the final movie or no, no, no,
not the final movie. This happens in like like oh,
like in the you know, seventies or whatever, whenever the
first movies came out, he like he dies and then

(18:50):
he doesn't really yeah, and then it's just kind of
he's just alive again. Yeah. Do you can you go
to the movies with that people stopping you? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean it's it kind of depends like what theater,
like where we are. If I go back home, like
and people would you know they kind of know that
I'm home, then it can be a little bit of
a like everybody knows that you know I'm there, but
people are super sweet, you know. Can you go to

(19:12):
the movie theater with its yeah, Like I mean like
usually like, well, we'll get stopped a couple of times,
especially for something for some reason. If I'm like with
Hannah because people kind of follow her to that's more
of like an indicator if Dan and I are together
than people really like yeah. But if it's just like
if I'm just out somewhere, people aren't like because people
aren't really expecting to see anyone that they would know ever,
so they're not like looking around like analyzing. Like when

(19:34):
in a second, I went to a True Food kitchen
today to have lunch, and I was having a work
talk with somebody from my PR team. We're kind of
lining up some stuff and Sam Hunt walks in and
comes in just just sitting over there and grabs his
food chill. He's Sam the Monster, a huge guy, big beard,
so way bad him, waves back, does the deal. He's

(19:54):
there for like ten minutes. Nobody says the word to him.
Watch and I'm like, that's interesting. Nobody uh b K
from Florida Geor Line walks right in, walks up to
a table. I say, what up to? What dude? Could?
He sets down? Nobody he had had you know, boom um,
and it was just like saying and nobody kind of
it was just cool to see nobody mess anybody, especially here.

(20:16):
And and then I saw Tomas Struts manager, but so
there was just a lot happening and nobody. I went
to dinner a couple of weeks ago at so not
a super fancy place, cool spot close to work, and
Reese Weatherspoon came in and it's her and her family,
they said, right in the middle. Nobody bothered him. I

(20:36):
just think it's cool. I would have bothered her probably
well before my rules. But my rule is you shouldn't
bother someone if they're with their kids or they're eating,
if they have food in front of them. If they're not,
they know they're famous, that's on them. They wanted to
get famous. You should go say hi if you want
to say hi, and never be ashamed to be a
fan of somebody. But if there's food or a kid involved,

(20:59):
I think it should be like a written rule. If
you're eating or if you're with your kids, and even
like it doesn't like bother me insanely if someone comes
like because we'll go out to eat, Like there's a
Mexican restaurant that's by my house, it's like our favorite spot.
We always go there, and usually if I'm with with them,
like they're people will wait until like we're done eating
and it's really funny to watch people, which is like

(21:19):
I can't, I can't, Like do you ever do you
do you find yourself like very hyper aware of people,
Like I'm so I can hardly like really when we
go out and I'm in a place where I just
know there's something in like the room that shifts if
if someone does recognize you, if if we're going out
with like a nicer restaurant, we're like, I have my
hair all spiked. I usually just like where a hat,
but if I have like my hair spiked up, it's

(21:40):
like a better chance that someone might be like, who's
what that guy's hairs looks weird, so he might be
in Nashville. So it's kind of funny. I'll be watching
like around the room, and I could always tell when
someone's like kind of just looking over like I think
that I think that might be What kind of got
me was people would take pictures and I wouldn't know,
I wasn't aware for a while, like who cares about me?

(22:01):
And you'd see them later. But then people would post
pictures and they tag me if me like just looking
awkward or that's that's the worst. And I would be
like I would love to take a picture. Stay hi,
so I don't look mostly for my sakes, I don't
look stupid on your Instagram, Like, come say hi to me.
I would love to take a picture with you because
I love I love being out when people will come
up and they say something like I love that people
are like, like you said, this is something that we
got into. It's not like I'm just like hungry for

(22:22):
the attention, but like it's I want them to like
if they're there and they're a fan, like I'd love
to meet them and feel appreciated and feel appreciated because
what you do without without people that music or come
to shows, yeah, and people that like they hide it
like this happened. Actually, reasonaid that same Mexican restaurant I'm
talking about, and it kind of and I could I knew,
like the table that there was like two tables around us,

(22:42):
and they just they were super sweet, like I just
love your music, so thank you so much. We're there
for probably like twenty minutes and we're eating and I
kind of noticed this lady at the bar and she
was just you just it was all over her face.
It was like all she was thinking about was like
when it's a good time. It's like, go over there.
And I wanted to, like, look, I didn't because you
don't want to assume and be like when she come
over and she's like, no, my my husband's here with

(23:05):
someone else, I'm just spying on them. It's fine. I
don't know why that was the example. That wasn't what
was happening with this lady. But I watched her and
all the tables and our friends that were with us
watch all of this go down, because she gets up
and she walks all the way to the bathroom, and
what feels like a half a mile of her walking,
she has her phone like this, like like people just
like like she's texting, but it's like right up against

(23:26):
her chest, and I'm just like, we all see you.
And I kind of like pointed at the camera, you know,
just like it. And I thought like for sure she'd
get in the bathroom and look at it and be like,
oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed and come over and
be like I'm sorry. I didn't me to like film you.
She comes back and like everybody around the table is like,
you know, that woman was like filming you, right, And
I was like I saw then she comes back and
does the same thing the whole way back. The films

(23:49):
all the way back, never comes over, never says anything,
And that's that's the weirdest to me. Let's make a
statement here together, because I tried to say it a lot.
I would love to take a picture with you as
long as I'm like being with my kids that no
one knows about my secret kids. Yeah, like Ben, yes,
John Ken I it's a compliment to me. But you're right.

(24:09):
Sometimes when someone's holding their phone and they're holding it
just a little two pointy like it's like we know, yeah,
I know. I would love to take a picture like
you don't text like this? Yeah, Like there's a certain
way you hold the phone, and that's what that's for sure.
Not it so natural? Damn was how many people? Five eleven? Wow?

(24:32):
Good for you. I'm seven hundred mount seven. You guys
are well. I honestly don't think like it says five
hundred and eleven. But that's been there since I've been
a kid, and I know for a fact that there's
there can't be unless there are people that are literally
living underground. I've never seen five people there, maybe like
maybe two hundred. I've never seen them in Natural Damn.

(24:54):
What school did you go to? I had to go
so for a while I went to a school and
Fort Smith you Christian, Yeah, that was and it was
River Valley at the time, so I had to drive.
It was kind of it took like fifty minutes to
get to school because there was there was Cedarville High
School and nothing against Cedarville, but at the time, it
was just like it just wasn't a great place to

(25:14):
go to school, and it was just kind of there's
a lot of just stuff going on there. My parents
were just like, yeah, we don't think that that's necessarily
where we're gonna send our kids. But now it's got
a lot better. Now there's you know, there's a lot
of great schools kind of around there. But I ended
up graduating from Van Buren High School, which was like
probably twenty minutes from Natural dam So it wasn't bad.
But growing up that was a long drive and at
homeschool until I was like fifth fifth grade. What kid

(25:36):
were you in high school? What were you known as?
Shay is the were you the singer did? Yeah? Yeah,
I think yeah, a little great that people knew most
about you was what probably honestly more that I was
kind of like the funny guy I would say, because
I didn't like sing a ton I did. Like I
was definitely kind of known for that, but I was.

(25:57):
I was definitely the class clown. I would say, um,
but yeah, I did sing at like events, like randomly,
I would do like we had chapel. It was a
Christian school, So I would sing in chapel. Shot like
people that you were so good because you didn't do
it all the time. Oh yeah, sometimes. I remember when
I came to school because I started like halfway through
fifth grade, and so I remember I I like, they

(26:19):
asked me to sing at chapel, and I was like
my first I had been I had sang in church
and like, you know, done that whole thing. But that
was like my first like real world at school. It
was like halfway through the year and I came in
singing at chapel. It's my moment I felt I felt
really good. At what age did you go, Oh, I'm
not just good for hearing a small town. I'm actually
good enough to go and try something outside of what

(26:42):
I'm accustomed to. Yeah, man, honestly, I was. I was
probably I was eight years old when we first started
coming to Nashville because we would make these little trips
because I would sing with my sisters. I have two
older sisters, eric As the oldest, and then Gabby um,
and we would sing. We would travel around and like
you know, just kind of for fun, we go to
churches and do the whole deal. Um. And when I

(27:04):
was about eight, we came to Nashville, and at that
point I kind of told my dad like, I'm I
wanna this is like what I want to do. That
was just like I didn't know that I was like
people would. I think people a lot of times I
kind of assumed that I was like this, I don't
want to say like prodigy, but like was like always
insanely good at singing and was just like that wasn't
necessarily the case. We just everyone in my family did it.

(27:25):
And I think just for the sheer fact that I
was young, people would be like, oh, he's like he's
really good. But we were in small you know, this
was small towns, so it's kind of like I would
take it as as a grain assault. I think my
parents would too, like they knew I was, you know,
pretty good, but I don't know that it was this
is gonna be your career kind of thing that kind
of came honestly later, and I did it. You know,
I was coming to Nashville since I was eight, but

(27:46):
it wasn't I never knew. There wasn't a ton of
people that were just like this is undeniable, Like they
knew that I was good. But it wasn't until I
was a little bit older where we had a couple
of people be like, you should you guys could do this,
But it was never I don't know, you go to
college for a year, right, yeah, and then you go,
I'm gonna go I need to go to do music. Yeah,

(28:06):
what was the point in going to school? Where it clicked?
Was like it's gonna be tough, but I gotta get
out of school. And I actually it wasn't even a
real It wasn't actually a school. It was actually a
ministry school. So I went there. It was like a
nine month program and I had a full ride to
go to like a music school. And I decided right
before because my sister Gabby had decided she was gonna
go up to Pittsburgh to go to this like nine

(28:29):
month you know program, and I was just like, I
kind of wanna, I'm gonna go with you. I'm gonna
do this, And it was kind of that I wasn't
quite sure what I was gonna do with my life.
I was about to graduate, and I didn't want to
go to school for something that I already felt like
I was. I didn't think I was gonna like learn
and if I was going for like engineering or something
like that, which is probably what I would have done,

(28:50):
I just I didn't want to go to school for
like performance major, you know, and like learn how to sing.
I just felt like that wasn't really the vibe. And
so yeah, I kind of took that that nine months
and lived in Pittsburgh. Um, and then right after that
I moved back home, which is when kind of the
whole tea pain thing happened. Which is an interesting thing too,
because when you can really sing, you can also kind

(29:11):
of pick where you sing. Yeah. Even I give Garth
as an example, he was singing rock songs. Yeah, he was,
you know, he was kind of finding his place early. Um.
So how do you get discovered by because what was
it called, what was the paint was called nappy boy?
Nappy Boy? How do you get hooked up with them?

(29:32):
How do they see you? What are the steps that
led you to go there? Because did you move to
Atlanta for a while. I did move to Atlanta, so
I was so I lived in Pittsburgh and my sister
was she had this uh she was super good. She
a good dancer, like she was a choreographer and Tylla's
stuff and she was had met this guy named Mike
who was actually a backup dancer for Tea Pain, and

(29:53):
so we kind of all were hanging out there for
a little while. And um, long story short, we get
back to Arkansas after you know, a school after the
nine months, and we're there and I just randomly get
like a text, was like, hey, what are you doing.
I knew he had work with Tea Paint, and I
guess he had sent some YouTube video online to Ta
Pain and I was and I was at Van Buren actually,

(30:14):
and I was in a movie I'll never forget this,
and I like he was like, hey, like he wants to, like,
you know, FaceTime you or whatever, and I was just
like I was in this movie and I didn't have
any service, and I was like, I was like, this
is the craziest thing. Ever, So I go out of
the movie and my friend was like the manager watching
and was watching him. Did you think he was like
I thought he was like Arkansas heard of This movie

(30:36):
was called hot Rod. It was like this little project
I was working on. So you leave the theater, Yeah,
so I leave it. So I walked outside and I
didn't have any WiFi and this service wasn't good enough,
so I had to get on WiFi. I think it
was a FaceTime call. I can't remember if that was
even a thing then, but either way, I didn't have
any service. I had to like go get on the WiFi.
So my friend was the manager there and like gave
me the WiFi. Bassard and I'm in like this back

(30:57):
room at the movie theater like face timing or whatever,
tea pain and he was like, hey, I want you
to come to Memphis, like we're playing a show. There
was him and Chris Brown. I want you to come,
you know, play with us and and do this whole deal.
So I was just like, yeah, all right, let's just
do this whole deal. Mean, I didn't have no idea.
To this day, I don't know what that meant. You know,
those moments like you get the call and you're just like, yeah,

(31:18):
whatever it is, I'm down. And that got me into
a lot of trouble probably at some points in my life.
Like whatever that is, I'm doing it. So do you
go to Memphis? I did. I went to Memphis, and
I by yourself, but because you don't know what's happening, like,
oh that's crazy. Who actually was not a thing that
I guess, but my sister Gabby, she she drove me
up there. So I drove up there with her. We

(31:40):
went to the show and met with him and basically
go on the bus afterwards, and I think it was
like Tea Pain and his wife and and Mike and
all these people, and I'm just like singing and just
he was like I want to I wanna sign you,
you know, And I didn't know what that. I just heard,
you know, I'm gonna sign you. I didn't know what
that entailed at the time or what that even, you know,
looked like it. Yeah, they ended up, you know, because

(32:02):
I was writing even when I was with him. When
I end up signing to him, I moved to Roswell, Georgia,
which is out there, you know, just a suburb of Atlanta.
And I started writing all kinds of stuff. I mean
I had been writing like country, and I've been writing
pop and been writing like R and B like all
this kind of stuff. But I knew that I wanted
to do country. And that's what That's kind of how

(32:22):
he the song that he had even heard me covering, um,
I think was a country song, and so he was like,
you know, this is what I want you to do.
This is oh Blood. And basically what I did for
those that year and a half that I lived in
Atlanta was just go into the studio every day until
like five in the morning and just like right two
beats and and everything else. And it was just kind
of a I don't know, it's kind of one of

(32:43):
those just kind of honing my craft moments of like
I didn't really get anywhere, Like there wasn't we didn't
release any music or anything like that. Um, what was
his goal with you? I don't know, I'm not sure. Uh,
the the overall goal, you know that was kind of
like pitch to me was we want to sign you
too major, you know, we want to get you to
Nashville at some point. But so there was country music

(33:04):
in mind for you even though it was tea pain yeah,
and we all go oh hip hop R and B yeah.
And it was kind of one of those things that
I didn't even have, like my sound. I didn't really
know what I was doing either. I was just writing
songs and I had all these you know, songs that
I was writing that wasn't necessarily I mean, they were
like fine, but it just it hadn't My identity was

(33:24):
not found yet, you know. I just didn't really know
what I was doing. So it's kind of somewhere in there. Um,
it's hard to put unless I looked at the timeline.
It's hard to put all this stuff into a timeline. Um.
But I remember there was a moment when I was there.
I was just like, what, we haven't put out any music.
We're not doing anything. I have no idea. There was
not really The contract I signed was a three sixty

(33:45):
and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't
have a lawyer at the time, so I signed this
ridiculous deal. Um. And I think it was all good
intentions on all parties, but I ended up at some
point being like I've got to go to Nashville, Like
I just have to get there. So I was getting
I mean I had no money because I was getting
paid you know, whatever it was. I think I think
I was getting paid maybe like it was like fifteen

(34:05):
hundred dollars for two thousand or fifteen hundred dollars for like,
you know, per month to like live on and stuff.
But I was having to pay like five dollars for
my you know, my rent in Atlanta, and then I
had to pay five off the top to like my
manager that was you know, this guy that had had
you know, I had met in Pittsburgh. He was now
my my manager. And uh so it was a whole thing.

(34:27):
So I had about after I was moving to Nashville.
I was left with about like four hundred dollars to
like eat, like pay everything on after this and go
out and expect, like, you know, try to meet people
in Nashville, which four hundred dollars in a month is
not a lot of not a lot of spending cash.
How did you get out of the deal? Um? It
ended up? You know, when I met Dan, uh it

(34:49):
was a whole I mean there was a lot of
people that that kind of helped me get that out
of the deal. And you know, whenever we had we
had met, it became kind of like a oh man,
what's what's going to happen? Because this is this is
like a problem. I'm still in this this deal. Yeah, yeah,
but it was yeah, that that whole that was a
pretty rough a little time there for a little while
because it was a lot of there was a lot

(35:10):
of feelings, you know, feelings hurt on I think on
all sides because it was just this I don't know,
I want to go I don't want to go like
two into detail about it. But it was a rough
time I think in his life he was he was
going through a lot, and it was just kind of
I was just stuck. There was nobody to like talk to.
He had he had gone away to kind of deal
with some personal stuff, and yeah, it was just kind

(35:32):
of all right, well, I'm in this deal and we
got to try to figure out whenever we were talking
to these labels, it was like it kind of became
an issue because it rolled really fast. When Dan and
I met and we had kind of met with you know,
Jason Owen and Scooter and things were kind of rolling.
It was just like, well, this is this is a problem.
And I was like I was freaking out because I'm like,
this is a huge opportunity and we finally got something

(35:52):
wrong to something yeah that you can't get out of. Yeah,
and it was a full three sixty deal. You know.
It was like everything you're doing, have a piece of
not just music, but if you put out a shirt,
if you touring, everything, all of it. And it was, Yeah,
it was a rough time, but we ended up you
know really, you know, Scooter and Jason had a huge
part of of kind of getting me out of that deal.
And yeah, man, it was it was a tough you

(36:15):
know start, you know, because it was just even on
that first record, like there was a lot being being
taken out, you know, and it was just kind of
like thankfully I didn't have you know, a family at
that time or no, you know, it's not like I was.
I wasn't completely broke. Whenever we had you know, Dan
and I had met and and finally exigned. You know,
we had like a lot more money than I had

(36:36):
to begin with us. It was enough to live on.
But they did a great job of kind of helping
me get out of that, and you know, Warner Brothers
and Es and all those guys. It was, Yeah, everybody's
really good. So so the legend of the fort, which
in different places we've talked about. But you guys met
in the living room for at a house which you've
been backed by. I've even seen you guys posted before.

(36:57):
Um Dan was living in that house. Yeah, and you
went over to the house I did, so I was
living on I was living with my buddy actually at
the time, UM I had I was, I was, I
think I was maybe I don't even remember how if
I even was paying him, but I was basically sleeping
on his couch for like a little while. His name
was Brandon Metcalf, great guy, and he had a studio

(37:20):
and I was like working a lot with him when
I had moved to Nashville and kind of had my place,
and um there was a guy named Andrew um that
just one night we had been writing a lot and
he told me he was like, Man, I'm going over
to these guys house. They had a band at the time.
He's like they're having a house party. Uh, you know,
you want to come with me? And I was just
like yeah, he sure, let's do it. And at that
time it was just kind of like any time you

(37:42):
could go somewhere without spending any money, and you knew
that there was like we knew that there was a
keg and I was like a braishment that's always chased.
Was like, do you think I got like pizza or
someone like? I haven't even like a couple of days,
but it was like, yeah, we showed up at this
house and little did I know that that it was
going to completely change my life. You guys start talking

(38:03):
that night. When was it that you said, Okay, we're
actually going to try something together, which means putting everything
else aside. There's a difference than going, hey, we should
do something together and going we're doing something together. I
would even say it's comparable to in that part of
a relationship where you're just dating and you go, we're
only dating each other now, yeah, so that means nothing
else can exist except us. What was that point where

(38:26):
you guys finally said we're just dating each other? Well,
it was not until just a couple of weeks ago.
We uh, it kind of happened. It happened really naturally
where Dan I started writing. Really, I think it was
either that next day or like the day after that
we had met. We were jam until probably like four
in the morning or something like that, and I think

(38:46):
we decided to write. So we get up the next
day and we go we met it like a Starbucks
or something, and then we ended up going to, Uh,
this this guy that I was Jesse Fraser. I'm sure
that I know many's been here love one of the
greatest guys. When I had for quick side side notes,
this all makes sense. Jesse. When I had first moved
to town, I had a friend and I asked him.

(39:06):
I was like, who is doing like beats? Because I
have been writing to a lot of beats. I've been
writing like country songs two beats, which is now like
a common thing, but it was just kind of becoming
a thing then, and I was like, who is a
great track guy in that in Nashville? And the first
name that he's that my friend was nash Over Street,
which is paulver Street songwriter. Uh, and he was like
Jesse Fraser. So I started writing with Jesse um a lot.

(39:29):
And then whenever Dan and I had met, I was like,
let's go right with with you know, with Jesse Fraser
or at at his place. So we ended up writing
our first writing session. I think we wrote two songs
that that day and one of them got put on
hold that night. But for Rascal Flats, so what, you
wrote a song that day. Yeah, they sent it out
maybe too Flats because they thought it's this it was

(39:52):
sensible for them. That night he got put on hold.
I think it was that night. Yeah, Like when we
got home, they were like, this is on hold for
Flats and for us, for like things things are heating up,
things are really really good at which, if you know,
you know what a hold is when they never cut
the song or anything like that. But for us, it
was just like it was legitimately, like Rascal Flats heard

(40:13):
our song. That was a huge and as small as
that you know, might seem now, you know, in our minds,
it still it was such a big deal because it
was you know, you have these big dreams when you're
coming to town, and it was kind of that first
taste of like whoa this is like somebody who's who
has done it, who is a successful artist, has they
liked our song and put on hold. So that was
a huge deal for us and that was kind of

(40:33):
the fuel to be like we should let's let's you know,
keep doing this because we liked you know what songs
are writing. Would you compare that early part of you
and Dan? And I don't mean this spacetiously at all,
but when you meet a girl, like when you and
Hannah meet and you're like, oh my god, this is it,
Like it's similar to that feeling, which as it was,
it was if you're brand of four in the morning,

(40:54):
that's what you do when you talk to all the
four in the morning. Yeah, I mean, I don't think
for either of us, we just were kind of it
wasn't it was different than when I met my wife,
because when I met Hannah, I literally told my friend
Benji Davis is a writer in town. He I told him,
like right then. It was in Arkansas. It's like our
first date. It was at George's Majestic Lounge, and I

(41:14):
like walked her out to her car and I got
back on the bus and I was like, I'm gonna
marry that girl, literally said like that night. But Dan,
it was like we were having fun writing these songs.
We didn't necessarily like we thought they were good, but
we didn't necessarily be like we're gonna make this is
We're not gonna or marry each other, but not Neither
one of those were on my mind, and I think
it just kind of happened naturally to where like we

(41:35):
thought the songs were good, but as you do, you
know when it's when it's your work. We thought it
was good, and it we knew. I think the most
exciting thing for us was there was an aha moment,
but it wasn't necessary like oh, we're gonna be a duo.
It was like, this is the kind of music that
I've been trying to write. This is all like everything
is kind of led to this, you know. It was
like the stuff that I had been wanting to write

(41:56):
but just couldn't. I hadn't quite found the sound yet.
So are you saying that when you two first started
it was like we found partners in creating more so
than we could go be a duo. It was exactly that.
It was like, oh man, this is like this is
the kind of stuff. It was like better than any
of the stuff that I had been writing in town,
And I think for both of us it was just
kind of like, well, this is like we we got
something special here. So then how long until you decide

(42:17):
you're going to actually pursue the artist thing together? Yeah?
So we started to all these songs we've been writing,
because we we did start to write a lot together,
and so the more that we wrote, we would just
start doing like these writers rounds and like playing these
songs for our friends, and like our friends and everybody
were getting hype on these songs like this is the
greatest song. Like we were doing when we were in
five oh seven, Morton Avenue was the place. I can

(42:37):
say it because we've said it a million times. I'm
sure that the owner of that house hates us for
probably talking about all the time. Um, but it was
like I think we would go to that. We went
to the house one time I specifically remember, and I
think it was Pete Tracy who now does all of
our video stuff. It was his birthday and we remember
we shot like a fake music video for one of
the songs because we love it was so good and
it was just like it was just ridiculousness. We were

(42:59):
having so much fun and it was just like, man,
this this stuff is really cool. So we started to
play all the all the music out like rounds and stuff,
and then Dan and I we had eventually like there
was actually an opportunity that we had to go down
um and I had booked a show. It was just
like Shane Mooney and we were opening up. We did
two shows together without actually being like a band at all.

(43:20):
It was just like he was there with me and
we were playing all the songs we had written. And
one was at Georgia's opening for Chris Allen and I
thought that we I thought I made it. Then I
was like this is you know, things are really starting
to take off. And then another one we played was
that in Conway um at at u c A. There
was this kid who booked me, and I thought it
was gonna be like the biggest show ever. And I

(43:42):
think this. It was in there like little performing arts
theater which probably holds like, I don't know, maybe people,
and there was probably like fifteen people in there. And uh,
right after that, we went down to Austin, Texas because
my lawyer had set up this like, uh showcase basically
for us, and we went down and we put together
a band, the whole deal. Then I drive down on

(44:03):
my truck and we ended up playing the show and
it was I'm not kidding, there was There was honestly
probably like four people in the room and one was
my lawyer, one was like a bartender girl in the back.
And then our friend Paul di Giovanni, which ended up
writing how Not To for Us used to be in
the band Boys Like Girls. He was there, and then
Dan's lawyer and there was like no other people there.

(44:23):
We rehearsed for like four days and we were we
thought it was gonna be like our big break, and
uh yeah it wasn't our big break, but at that
time it was. I think on the way back from
that trip, we kind of made the decision of, like
we've been doing these shows together, like we should, we
should kind of we should do a duo. And I
think it's hard to kind of put all this in

(44:43):
my mind to like line it up, but kind of
when we were writing all these songs, um, there was
a guy who had who knew he worked for Scooter
Brun at the time. His name was Nano and he
knew Scooter and he had kind of been talking to
to Scooter, I guess about us, and uh yeah, during
that time, Scooter ends up we're at a writing session
and uh we had kind of decided like all right,

(45:04):
we're gonna do this this duo thing, and uh, once
we kind of decided. That was when Scooter had heard
about us and we were in a writing session at
a guy named Danny Orton's house and there was he
facetimes us and basically says like I wanna work with you,
and uh, Ed Sharon was was there, which is really
funny because he was like, well, you guys, play that
song that I like. It was a song called stop

(45:25):
Dropping Roll that was actually on our first record. We
had like just written it and he was like, play
that song. So we we played it and at the
end he was like, my friend wants to hear the
song because he really loves it because we had sent
him maybe like a demo or something. And Ed Sharon
like pops in and say, hey, guys, how are you.
This is like the worst Edhering impression. Hey guys, how
are you? And he yeah, we like saying stop Dropping
Roll acoustic like overface time to him, and that was

(45:47):
kind of the start of it. Did you go and
play for different labels? Yeah? Yeah, I think that at
the beginning we had at first we had pitched, you know,
we we wanted to you know, be writers. Was like
the whole point we wanted to you know, be signing
we were working with, you know, some some guys and
Rohan who now works with us at Warner who's our

(46:07):
and our guy. Um, he was kind of working you know,
we were we were trying to you know, get all
these these meetings with publishers and things, and it was
really funny. At the very beginning we were meeting with
like everybody because at this point we had we still
had zero money, like at all coming in and Dan
and I used to like we would go out to
like a publishing meeting and we would always like we
would make them take us to dinner, Like we'd always

(46:29):
take the dinner meetings because it was like that was
free food and drink for the night. It was fantastic.
So I think we took out a couple of people,
which which now is funny because there's a couple of
our now friends in town of like, man, I was
a new publisher and you guys maybe take I spent
like Tim Grant on you guys and you didn't sign
with us, and I was like, sorry, dude, but yeah,
we were meeting with you know, publishers at first, and

(46:49):
then kind of when we decided to come together, we
met with several labels in town and um, bidding war
for you, Yeah, a little bit. There was like at
that time, we had we'd had all these songs, you know,
that we had written. We had, you know, a couple
of hundred songs that we had, and we were doing
all these these demos and everything, and we had, uh

(47:09):
I think that the demo that we were bringing out
around to people, it was like twenty two songs that
we had had on this thing, and they were and
they would they would just go in there and be like,
all right, you know, just pick a song and play it.
And uh, yeah, there was there was kind of at
the end, there was sort of, you know, this little
bit of a bidding war. But we had kind of
we met with with Warner Brothers and we had met

(47:30):
s BO and Um. I think it was like ten
thirty in the morning, and we went in and we
played with them and they just they were so passionate
about it from the very beginning. And Spo if you
if you know Spo at all, he's very passionate about music,
loves music. And it was like ten thirty in the
morning and he was like, you guys aren't leaving this
room until you sign with us, and so we were like,
well this guy was pretty fashionate, but uh yeah, that

(47:51):
was it was. It was kind of crazy, and it's
hard to even like remember all that because it all
happened so quickly after that. You know, people see it
as like, oh, this happened like overnight, if you guys
just became an overnight success. But it was really this
accumulation of of me doing my thing and Dan touring
since he was like thirteen years old, and it was
kind of that moment where it all kind of came
to a head and it was just like, I don't know,

(48:12):
it was I think when we signed it was it
was it was two thirteen when we put out like
our our first single, like that summer, and we were
going on like radio tour, and it was just like
it all it was crazy. It was just a crazy time,
and it's it seems like yesterday and now that I
look back, that was now here we are in I'm

(48:33):
gonna come back to nineteen you and me in one second.
But something you said when we were talking about you
meeting Hannah going I want to marry her, is that
you walk back to your bus. Yeah, So were you
guys touring through Arkansas? When you guys were on your
first date. Yeah. Yeah, so we had I had known
about her, like we had a bunch of mutual friends.
She was miss Arkansas. Yeah, so if you go through Franklin,
Arkansas still a pretty big billboard, it's a pretty big deal.

(48:56):
So she's she's a lot coreer than me, definitely a
lot better looking. Uh. Yeah, we were on tour. We
were I want to say it was our first time
playing George's like legitimately like as a headliner, and that
was like our our one of our first times playing there,
and I was pretty excited about it because we had
like you know, that was the hometown show and it
was Yeah, we have been talking a little bit and

(49:17):
I basically begged her. Yeah I think it was like
Facebook or Twitter or something. I don't know, but I
had invited her to the to the show, and I
know in her mind now that I've like talked to her,
she was like, this is not gonna happen because she
was like unimpressed. She was like, I'm not gonna I'm
not dating a singer, you know. And I was just
like I was doing everything I could that night. Whenever
I was like I knew kind of like I was
looking for the whole time. So you were like looking

(49:38):
at her section too, Yeah, and I was, I mean
I was looking. I was smoldering. You know now that
I know how dumb I look doing that. I wish
I would have done that, but still worked out. But yeah,
it was. It was crazy. I was looking for the
whole time, being like, I know she's here, and if
she wasn't there, I would have been devastated. Well, and
if she wasn't there that section, that would have a
great night. Sa. There was probably like a couple of

(50:01):
people in that section. They were like feeling, he wants
he wants me. I'm gonna play nineteen you and me.
Here's a little bit of this watching. That's the first one, right,
it was the first one, now you know you said
a second ago too, And I think a lot of
people look at you, guys, go wow, what overnight success
everything roses. This song, which did wonderfully for you guys,

(50:22):
only hit number nine. Yeah, it didn't even hit that.
It went to eleven. Well, my Notes has peaked at nine,
so one of the charts. I think I don't think
that I ever picked. I think it was eleven. Like
on both charts, and did you feel like when they happened,
not that I mean that was huge, right, Yeah? Yeah,
I mean it was kind of that we were stuck.
I mean I remember when Nada told us that, you know,
our song was going to be on the radio. We

(50:43):
about I literally blew out the speakers in my jeep
like listening to that. Whenever we found that out, it
was like the biggest deal. To have a song on
the radio and to be like on a radio tour
was all like, I can't believe this. It was insane.
It felt like hitting the lottery, which really, you know,
to do what we do is, you know, then you
come off with the next next song here and show
you off comes out and doesn't do as well like

(51:06):
my note Here's Us peaked at nineteen. Yeah, it didn't
do good, Bobby Now, And my point in saying this
is we haven't played that song in years yet, so
you don't play it any No, no, no, no, I
hope that's not any But when a song doesn't do
as well as your first one, are you starting to
like hang your head a little bit? You know? I
think it was all kind of we were just so

(51:28):
stoked to be in it all. I don't think we
thought about it too much, um because it's kind of
it would have been worse. Honestly, it would have been worse.
I think if nineteen and me would have would have
been at number one, and then we followed it up
with a nineteen since it was kind of this like
it still felt like, all right, we still have like
our chance to like have the song. And I don't
think that any of us like it was tempo, but

(51:50):
like looking back, neither of one of us were like
stoked on that song. We were about nineteen and me
and it's still it's still one of our biggest songs
because you know, at that time and it's so it
was like platinum. It was like a you know, it
sold a bonch. It did really well for us, but
we had put it out to radio immediately we went
on radio tour, so by the time we got to
the West coast, the East coast have been playing it

(52:10):
like they had played like times, so like we didn't
feel we knew it went number one and almost like
every market but didn't just not all at the same time.
So we were like feeling good about that. But when
show you off kind of you know, didn't do its thing.
We we kind of it was kind of a you know, like, man,
I wish that would have done better, but I don't
think that any of us was like super passionate about

(52:31):
the song to begin with, so it didn't sting as much.
But the third one that was kind of the pinnacle
of not the pinnacle, but really the start of it
that would have been if that one didn't go number one.
That's when you start to be like, oh, this is
my connection to show you off is that I remember
having you guys up in the studio and because you
guys would come in like three times so far, and

(52:51):
mostly it was because we knew each other more than anything.
You guys were really good, but it wasn't because you
had a bunch of number ones when you were fun
on the air, um two year, really good on the year,
and we had a personal relationships. And I was like,
you guys are coming in and we did a bit
together where you guys came in and saying boys to
man's songs and it goes up on YouTube, and this
is how you guys have kind of affected my life

(53:12):
from a side part. We put it together. It up
on YouTube. Scooter your managers watching you guys on YouTube,
sees me interviewing you guys, sees us doing our thing
where it's like, I'm not great at being on the radio,
but I'm great at doing a good radio show. And
he's like, dude, we should do TV work together. So
him and I get to know each other and start
working on TV projects together, which has in turn later

(53:34):
by later I've gotten working on a lot of projects,
just working. But because your relationship with him and him
watching you and seeing and so that fully responsible for
your career. Point, wasn't you bringing the chick? Yes? This
is this the part they said you had some special
Is this what it is? That's song nothing Like You
as the one where I'm or not nothing like you,

(53:55):
but show you off as a one where I was like,
that was a big part of my career because he
had told you had said that before, but that's that's
pretty crazy. Once I was with I was with Scooter
in a meeting and we FaceTime you guys, and you
guys were in a car somewhere together, I was with
that cheering no I was I was like, yeah, I
totally remember that Nothinglike You goes number one, and so

(54:17):
this is a big one. But I tell you where
it really started to sing like you guys were one.
Next level to me was the build up to from
the ground Up because I started to hear people go, oh,
this next song from the ground up is next level? Yeah,
because you had a number one and number ones are
hard to get and good for you and great, but
and now you're on the path. Took us forty seven weeks.

(54:37):
If you feel like From the ground Up was like
the first real respect you got from the community of art. Yes,
it was. It was because nothing like you was that
song where like it was, it was a hit, but
it was just kind of that it wasn't the song
that it was just like oh, Dan and Shay like
this is this is gonna be it Like obviously that was.

(54:58):
It was a hit, but there's a there's a big
difference between like a number one song and something that
truly like really impacts your career, and and it did
for us at the time. You know, we would go out,
we were also headlining like these small shows, and you
could tell when we played that song people would freak
out because it was a hit. And I think it
was more because they were like yeah for us and
not necessarily, you know, out of that people weren't you know,

(55:21):
it wasn't There wasn't a lot of respect factor there,
like you said, like from the ground up. Was the
first where people even in town was like, Okay, I
think these guys might be here to stay. That's when
I felt it was getting legitimate for you guys as
not just singers but artists. Yeah, and there is a difference.
It's yeah, it was like a three sing again, well
there were three. It was like a three or six
degree like everything they're doing is right on this is it? Yeah,

(55:42):
And I think it's that point where were it was
the first time we were really really excited of like
we we kind of started to hear even from like
the songwriting community of like like I wish I would
have written that song. It was kind of that moment,
Like I don't think there was very many people we
did with like nineteen and me. There were some people
would be like, that's you know, that is my favorite song,
nothing like you like our first hit and show you off.

(56:03):
People weren't being like I wish that I would have
written that song. There's been times a career like I
wish I maybe you didn't write that song. You know,
it's like and I'm thankful for every you know, ounce
of everything we've ever gotten to do. But that was
kind of the first song and it was very personal
to us too, you know, we had written that about
our grandparents and it was it was kind of that
moment we're just like, man, this is this is crazy.

(56:24):
You know. That's when things started to really to happen
for us. How not two hits Adam Hambrook earlier one
of the writers of the song. I would play it
because Adam had to come out and fill in when
I would do early raging idiot stuff, And so I
had to learn this song and try to do background
because he would sing it because you know, if you
write a song, you get to sing it. And he's
fantastic too. Yeah, this song goes number one. Now most

(56:47):
of these are number one. I'm gonna bring up maybe
a store spot for a second because road tripping. It's
a little heart road trip and hit number thirty six.
So one, did you want to put the song out? Two?
Did you jump off it earlier? Did it just fizzle out?
We we we pulled it. We did pull that song

(57:09):
because it was you know, it wasn't that I like
hated that song, like I don't like to play it,
Like we don't play it live. It was just kind
of one of those moments where it was it was
a tempo, it was something that we felt like we
kind of needed, and our fans loved it. It was
like and live it like did really well, And it
was kind of that moment where it was the best
move I think we could have made in our career.

(57:30):
Even still looking back, that was the best move at
that time was to pull that song because that that's
set up, you know, what was next chapter of your
freaking career when it was like and you went from
being a strong artist to know ka boom time went
te Keela hit to change the whole world. In my mind,
your whole world changed. Every don't know what happened in
your world. Everything changed. But when this song was and

(57:51):
I remember the lead up to it, and I remember
talking to Nicole before it came out in the cold
gallet and this song just shook up everything. Yeah, it
was that moment where I remember whenever roach like when
we were picking the single that wasn't necessarily like my
my choice. We we brought in you know, a bunch
of people to be like, you know, what what should

(58:12):
be the next single, and you know that was it
was back and forth between a couple of songs, you know,
we had, you know, already ready on our last record,
on our not on our last record, but the second album. Uh,
And there was a couple of other like contenders for singles.
And the problem was was, you know, our fans. We
had done this, you know, such a grassroots thing that
our fans were like buying the album and they were

(58:33):
listening to every song. So it was kind of it
was a little bit tough to to pick a single
because they had already really you know, kind of taken
in that record, and we're kind of like, you know,
they loved the record, but they had kind of heard
all these songs. And I don't think that there was
any single that we could have put out that would
have kind of taken us to the point where you know,
Tequila did. And I don't think that if we would

(58:54):
have put Tequila out in a different time that it
that it would have worked in the way that it did.
I mean, it still would have been a hit, but
the the way that all happened, like looking back and
being like all right, we pulled road tripping and now
we're gonna this is a reset and we're gonna We're
gonna do this. It was the first of a new
whole project. It was Yeah, it was the first of
a whole new project. And I remember like we had
had these you know, we'd had these songs and we

(59:16):
were really excited about them. And we had had I
think like a few like singles UH that were contenders
for like the first thing that we put out there.
And I remember Dan and I were in London and
we had to talk um and I remember like before
we cut to Quila, I was such a fan of
the song because I did. I wasn't a writer on that.
It was Dan and U and Jordan Reynolds and uh

(59:36):
and and Nicole Galleon. And I remember hearing that song
and I was just like that, I want to sing that.
I think I can. I think that that'll sound good
with us doing that, And there was it was just
that moment where like we were all in and I
remember talking with a label and Dan and I were
like in this little room we were playing in London,
I think, and we were on tour over there, and
we had this whole conversation of like, we can't there's

(59:58):
a lot of people in the label, like we can't
put a ballad first, we just can't do this. And
I remember we were just having this whole conversation. I
was just like, we're we're putting this song out. This
has to be our first one. Dan. I were so
like Adam about it, like look, this is we're taking
the reins. This is it. And I just remember like
making that decision and we put out the song and
it was just you know, the lead up to that,

(01:00:18):
we tried to you know, we we didn't know what
it was. That was a kind of a scary time,
but at the same time, we were very excited because
I feel like out of anything we had done, there's
like the songs that we had done, like I was
very proud of, like from the ground up, and even
like nineteen you and me there and how Not Too.
Those were the first times whenever I felt like I
could play something for like my friends and then be
like that's sick. You know, I love that. But Tequila

(01:00:40):
was like the moment where everyone was like, oh my god,
like that is that's crazy, Like this is it felt cool?
Like it that song a lot. We put that out.
It made us like the cool thing to go see
in town. When that song hit, it changed everything pretty
much like overnight. I mean, it was just insane. I
still think that it's the song that I've seen grew
it over more for rewards than any other song on

(01:01:01):
my history. And I say that not joking. And I
know you're you're gonna be like, oh wow, shocks, but
I do think that I and I would even you know,
talking with Dan or Nicole or people that I have,
I would be like, I can't believe it. I'll tell
you one time, I was presenting the c m A
for do Over the Year and I was just and
I love John and t J Brothers Osborne, I have

(01:01:22):
a close relationship with them, but in my mind, I
was like, this is so damage. This they there's not
been to do others had a bigger year that they
You would be speechless, Tequila, you've been touring. I was like,
I'm going to read their name and then they're gonna
pick me up and it's gonna be all We're gonna
have like the greatest moment and um and and it wasn't.
And I opened up the card on it was on ABC,

(01:01:43):
and I said in the Winner for do other year
and I saw Brothers Osborne. I called him up and
I thought what they did even then, I think they
were shocked because they give you guys a shout out
of there, which felt like I didn't We didn't know
what to do, like you good? Who would be down here?
It's everyone band like, I don't know, I can't smile
any bigger speaks to their character to do that. Um,

(01:02:04):
but I know that it has it has to And
I'll speak from personal. And you can say whatever you
want at times when you're having great success but no
one is giving you the cred from where you're living,
it sucks and that and and you can say but
I've had to happen to me too, it sucks. It
hurts a little bit. And at that point I was like,

(01:02:24):
Holy mother, like right now they're not getting it from home,
but when they do, they're gonna own home. And I
wonder how you kind of got through that. It was man.
I think I think Dan took it a little bit
harder than I did, just inherently because he I don't
want to see like I don't do anything like Dan
puts his entire life into this and I do as well.

(01:02:45):
But you know, obviously now like I have a family,
there are other things that really, you know, and that's
for him too, and everything's a chance he has. He
has a wife, you know, and pretty much a family
with his dogs, and there are other things obviously that
mattered to him. But I think that that really, you know,
that was just a lot of months going into making
this stuff and and the build up to this, and
when someone when you go and you lose, it just sucks,

(01:03:08):
like there's never and it doesn't just suck for for us,
you know, it sucks for everybody. It's horrible to lose
and it's terrible to get up there. And the whole
concept of award shows now that we've like and after
that we won like everything, and it was it was
like it was cool, but it was just kind of like,
it sucks that a lot of artists you feel like
you live and die by these award shows and it's

(01:03:29):
just not the truth. You know, it's amazing to be
recognized by your peers, but I think that your peers
do you recognize you in other way as it just
sucks when it's publicly like you lost and you had
such a monster You're like nobody else had. Yeah, I
think that to me because the talent is so different
and so just it's premiere talent. Every duo nominated premiere talent,

(01:03:50):
but you guys had statistically speaking in every count chart, streams, tickets,
they're really isn't something. Yeah, that was what hurt. I
think that's what hurts when you know that, Like you
don't want to say, like we deserve it, but if
there is a metric, you know what is the metric
at that point, it's like because you hope that it's

(01:04:11):
just like whatever the biggest song was, like the biggest
thing was, you would hope that would win, which is
just not the case, which is it sucks if you win,
it's great, but like sometimes that happens with artists when
it's like they know, like that song probably should have won,
you know, and every word show is different where it's
you know, the Grammys is more like a cred thing.
It's not necessarily based on like what was the biggest song,
which is why we were blown away when we when

(01:04:33):
we did win a Grammy, because it was like, you
know that that song was very commercially successful, so you're
like to win a Grammy for it was like kind
of a surprise for us. We had no idea that
that was going to happen. But I don't know, it
does suck, man, Like you're there and they're zoomed in
on you and they're just there to say something and
they're on a knee looking your face with a camera

(01:04:54):
and it is for me to you, oh dude, closer
than that. I mean, it's literally like it's like a
you know, the up there and you're trying to smile
and it's just like it's a weird thing. It's kind
of like if you're there and people, you know, they
get crap all the time because there's been in the
past like people having a bad reaction like what you know,
and they catch that like we got you, you know,
and they play that over and over again, like oh man,

(01:05:15):
like faith Hill. I've no idea that's ever having a
faith Hill. But she was just like what you know
and whatever that is. But it sucks because like if
someone if some it's turned it around and make it
like a lottery, like there's three people in the rim
and you're gonna win a million dollars and he put
through and you put a camera on them, what do
you think that the other two are gonna be? What
I'm gonna do whenever they're like yeah, this this person,

(01:05:38):
and like the other two are like no, I put
everything I wanted on this, like this is everything. So
it sucks, Like of course you're gonna have a bad reaction,
but we're all know now, like they'll get you if
you're not you know, bummed out because it sucks, like
for everyone, it sucks, and it's just kind of I
don't know, and it's hard to see, like to see
other people like, you know, lose it. We had we

(01:05:58):
kind of saw the other side of that because every
award show after that we won like everything, and it
was just kind of like this is like now we're
on the other side of this, and it's almost like
you're up there and then you just remember, like all
these people right now he does because it sucks, you know,
to be on the side of that, and it's just
I don't know. I think the most important that we
tried to not you know, live and die by award shows,

(01:06:19):
because it really is the most important thing to us
is to go out and to be able to to
sell out shows is like the biggest deal to us,
Like we want to be able to play to the
most people that we can and for our music to
get out there, you know. But it definitely for anyone
to say it like that it doesn't matter, like it matters,
like it definitely matters, and that momentum helps, Like to
win an award shows is huge. So it definitely sucks

(01:06:41):
to because in in your heart you're almost like it
wasn't good enough, like what you did and what you
put all those hours into of not sleeping for two
years to make this record. It did it wasn't good enough,
and that's what really hurts of just being like, damn
that that's a bummer. You know. A couple more of
these real quick speech lists. Hits Number one, massive wedding

(01:07:01):
song the Lords that it's the wedding song, the video,
the whole thing was like dialed in, Yeah, like you
knew the lane of this song visually, sonically nailed it
all to myself. Made a lot of love to myself
for this song, a lot of love. I'm gonna ask
you about ten thousand hours, what was the process like

(01:07:22):
to get a song with Justin Bieber? Were you already
talking about doing something together. Eventually, did you have the
song and Scooter go what what was that about? Yeah,
I mean it was kind of it all started. I
mean we obviously through Scooter, we had we had met
like some people, like we had met ed Sharon through him.
We had met Justin through and we had been to
l a bunch of times, and we had met Justin

(01:07:42):
a few times, and we always thought like, man, it'd
be so cool. It's like to get Justin on a
song because it's like, you know, it's one of the
biggest pop stars in the world, you know, and it
was just like that in our mind was like we
of course I want to do a song with him,
you know, especially since we have this connection. No one
in country has this unique connection that we do, you know,
through Scooter and um. Early on, we definitely we wanted

(01:08:03):
to try to, you know, do something with and we
had pitched some things and I'm really glad that it
didn't happen. Whenever, you know, it might have happened, like
a long time ago, would not have been this. This
was kind of the first time we had written this
song in Nashville. Jesse, Joe Dillon, Jordan Reynolds, and um,
it was kind of that point where we had written
a song, We're like, this, this actually might be perfect

(01:08:24):
for for Justin because in that time, like the timing
of everything, of him being you know, just getting married
and all this stuff. And it was the first time
that we felt like we were bringing something to the
table where it wasn't just like can we please get
Justin bieberrun our song? It was this would make sense
for both of us. This would be I think big
for for both of us. You know, it would make sense.
We had like because and before it was just kind

(01:08:44):
of like, you know, we were down here, We're like
can we get we please get justed In our song?
And then at that point, you know, we're out there
like we're about to do arenas. We're a legitimate act
so we can kind of bring something to the table,
and um, we just you never know what's gonna happen.
It's not like we were like, Okay, this is time
and this is for sure going to happen. We didn't
know what was gonna happen when we sent the song
to him. Um, but he just ended a scooter or yeah,

(01:09:06):
we had sent it to j B. We had we
had called him. Uh no, we had just sent it
to to Scooter to see if like it was something
that he would like before we just like you know,
sent it over to Justin and he was like, I
think that this this makes a lot of sense. And
Justin heard it when he loved it and he resonated
with it. I think, like we said, in the same
way as we thought that he would like it, he
liked it, and uh yeah, I just kind of we

(01:09:28):
couldn't believe it whenever they were like, yeah, this is
gonna it's gonna happen. So for for months, like we
had his we got his vocal, uh and and they
had like changed changed some things and kind of made
it his own. And it was crazy like getting that back.
We had to sit on that for months and months
and it was not on the song, and not telling
anybody about it was like the hardest thing we've ever
done because it was like, you know, I've literally in

(01:09:50):
my phone, I had, you know, a song with us
in Justin Bieber and it's like I couldn't even talk
about it. It was just like because if that gets out,
you know, that's like a big that's a leak. Like
maybe if like they found out. We're coming out with
a new song that's probably not gonna country songs don't
really like leak, but songs a justin Bieber on him
like that's a you know, worldwide, there's a lot of
people are trying to find that kind of stuff. So

(01:10:11):
it was it was a crazy, crazy moment. And it
was weird because I knew, I just knew. I had
a feeling that it was gonna be big for us,
just because the timing of everything, like the momentum that
we had going into this with Tequila speechless and all
of myself. It was just that moment of like, people
are not gonna they're not gonna see this guy at all,
you know, And it was it was crazy. Man. Before

(01:10:33):
we wrap, I want to play one of my favorite
songs of yours. It's called Your Love from two thousand
and eleven smack. It came in up one seventy three
in the Afghanistan charts. Oh it was. It was pretty
big in Afghanistan. I can't even go there still, it's

(01:10:53):
so it was so big there. And maybe city Lights
with Gabby, Oh yeah, these are these are great. So
what was the goal with these early songs? I was
just messing. Honestly. I was actually recording in Fayetteville with
this guy named Mike Bailey, who like kind of looks
like you, which is pretty funny. You guys look a
lot of like like the whole deal. He's got, like
where's black glasses? Everything? You're like a much better looking

(01:11:15):
like that. Yeah, he's like the you know, I almost
look the poor man's version of that, you know, juniorversity. Yeah,
but yeah, I was just I was just doing it
for fun. It was like I think I was in
high school at that time, just going to Fayetteville recording
songs for fun in this guy's house, and then I
just would put them out. And would you send that
off to people there hoping to get that next level

(01:11:36):
or we're just putting him out for fun? Now. I
was putting him out just like thinking, like, you know,
every day there are things to go viral. This is
probably didn't it didn't work out, it didn't happen like that,
But I was having fun. I think I probably made
I mean I'm literally made like tens of dollars off
that stuff. Good for you. I still check my CD baby,
uh sometimes CD baby. I had CD baby. I just

(01:11:56):
sayed music on my Space. Uh No, I didn't know.
I think my Space had kind of it had fizzled
out a little bit at that time. I think I
put like I would put these covers on Facebook though.
That's what I did, like all through like high school.
I would do Facebook videos and YouTube videos. Yeah. I
remember I checked that that CD baby account one time
because I fo forgot about it because I had this
like connected and that was I don't think that like

(01:12:18):
the label or anybody like ever knew like they knew
about it, but like they didn't know where like the
money was going. And I don't think I checked on
CD baby account thinking like there could be like some
serious change in here, and there was like thirty seven
since change, literal literal change. So yeah, go out and
check that out. I'm still Shae Mooney music on YouTube.

(01:12:38):
Go check that out. You're gonna love it. Your name,
James Shay isn't moot. How do you spell your last name?
You're real m o O an e m o o
n e y it is any anyway any y? Yeah? Yeah,
all right now. And if you're getting this with the pseudonym,
I don't think so. All right, um, listen, go let
me do a little plugger for you guys, not that
you need it because you were killing the world. Uh.

(01:12:59):
The to Towork kicks off March six in Nashville with
the bank Amino and Ingrid Andrews, who's a great friend
and so good, so good all the way through October
thirty one, and you guys are everywhere. It's hard to
get tickets. It just is. It's just really great to see.
It's good to see people that work really hard crush
it because it gives hope to other people who work

(01:13:21):
really hard. Likewise, man, it's it's really fun also, just
to to say it is very I think the coolest
thing about this town is the people that you do
meet and when you get to see them. Also, you know,
crushing it and having these moments is fun because you're
killing it. It just doesn't it doesn't feel like real
life for either one of us. This is wild and
I think a bit too, we haven't stopped to take
it in as real choirs sometimes. Yeah, And I think

(01:13:41):
for you it's great you have a kid and a wife,
because I think there's probably some balance there that you
didn't have before. When I'm home for like two weeks
I forget what I do for a living literally, which
is probably not a good thing, but it is just
kind of those are two different worlds. So it's cool
to slow down and kind of remember how how blessed
we are to get to do this, especially with people
we love. Well, dude, I love you. I'm glad of here,
and I'm rooting for you guys. I get nervous for you, guys,

(01:14:04):
And that's that's how you know I really care, because
I'm like, man, I hope this, that's so good. You
hope the arena towards seals. I hope. So. But one
of these days we have to go. We have to
play that. I don't think they've ever done a concert
like Bud Walton Arena. So let us go and we'll
do that. We'll go, I'll do stand up and open
the show and then you guys, you guys will play.
I would love it. They're working, by the way, this
can be our opener. I'm working on getting a massive

(01:14:28):
amphitheater in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Or are you really from
my hometown? Are you in? Yeah? Look at you and
I and I want and I want you to be
in on it. They have an opportunity to just talk
about it. Let me I have literally five million. Yeah,
I just found that out, which is pretty exciting. So well,
in with that question five, it says net Worth online

(01:14:50):
k it has to be higher, right not after this
deal on all into the amphitheater alright, Episode two twenty one,
Shame Mooney. Follow on Instagram at Shame UNI, follow at
Dan and Shay and go see them if they're coming around.
They really are even better than you think they will be,
which is an amazing to say about someone who you
already think they're going to be great. So and I

(01:15:10):
mean that with all mahard, not even saying all right,
thank you, m m m h

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#221 - Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay on The Untold Story of Meeting Dan + Getting Justin Bieber On A Song + His Love of Star Wars

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Bobby Bones

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#221 - Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay on The Untold Story of Meeting Dan + Getting Justin Bieber On A Song + His Love of Star Wars