Sunny Sweeney stopped by Bobby's house to talk about her journey as a singer songwriter coming from Texas and trying to make it in Nashville. She talks about getting discovered on Myspace and signing her first record deal, to only be dropped from it, to three months later being nominated for an ACM Award. Sunny also discusses how she thought about quitting music until she kept receiving signs to keep going, like her most recent one of being featured in the Country Music Hall Of Fame. She also talks about the ups and downs of her personal life and the advice she'd give to people who want to pursue a music career. Sunny recently released a cover of Emmylou Harris song "Red Dirt Girl," and she talks about the seven-year process of recording that song and writing a letter to Emmylou asking if she'd sing harmonies on it!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
When I got dropped from Big Machine, I gave myself
fourteen days. On the last day, at five pm the ACMs,
he said, we're not supposed to call you right now,
but I just felt like you needed to know this today.
We're not announcing it till like mid January, but you've
been nominated for an ACM. I saw our massive van
slash almost tour bus slash. I don't know, it was
(00:28):
just awesome, Like I need one of these. I don't
know why. It's like a mini home on wheels. Yeah.
I saw it drive into the driveway and I was like,
who is that? And it turns out it was Sunny Yeah.
And it's got like a big battering ram on the
front of it, and she talks about kind of why
but not a real battering ram, but it does have
a look, you know, something on the front there that
if anybody messed with her, she can just drive into you.
(00:49):
But Sunny Sweeney is our guest episode three eighty nine,
and so there's a lot we get into. Really enjoyed
this and it's rare that I get to talk to
somebody that back in the day I bought tickets to
watch and so I guess tickets. I think I just
paid at the door for her shows. Yeah, whatever it was.
It was in Austin, and she was in Austin, so
I would just go pay at the door and we
(01:10):
went in. So but regardless, I paid money to watch
her sing. And Sonny Sweeney talks a lot about, you know,
how her career started in Texas and then she came
to Nashville, and she talks about getting dropped and how
hard that was for her, like dropped from a label
and you know what's happened, Like she got signs that
you know, she's this person who believes in signs from
(01:31):
the universe. I don't know that I'm that person. The timing, though,
is yeah, I agree, yeah, the timing with those and
they're not just like a leaf blows in front of
you signs. She's like, give me a sign and that's
something massive happens. So I really enjoyed this Sonny Sweeney.
She's at getting sweenered on Instagram. By the way, we
always linked to socials in those notes where if you
(01:54):
gets a little drop down you can see it in there.
But she's got a couple of new songs. There is
Red Dirt Girl. It's an Emulu Harris cover that we
talk about here you go. When I say new, I
mean she put out a record in September last year,
so newish. But she's also got a whole dealt to
(02:17):
cut your music Hall of Fame, which we'll talk about.
So here we go. Also, let me shout out Jamie
Lyne Wilson because she's also on Red Dirt Girl with
Sunny Sweeney. There, but let's do it. She's on tour
right now. Got to Sunny Sweeney dot com. It's episode
three eighty nine. Here she is, Sonny Sweeney. Sonny, when
did you live in Austin. That's a funny question. Well,
my stuff is still in storage there right now. I'm
(02:38):
kind of not living anywhere. But I moved there in
ninety six for college, and you were there until kind
of like the last the last couple of months. Yeah,
I was thinking about just you. And I've listened to
your music for years, and I lived in Austub for
twelve years. I listened to you when I were there,
and I've been to a couple of your shows, but
(02:58):
I never met you. So weird. Yeah, And when I
walked in, you said, and I was thinking the same thing, like,
I don't think we've ever met. I've been to at
least two of your shows. That's so weird, and so
until now, I don't think we've ever actually spoken to
each other. We've been in the same city in the
same place a couple, and I literally listened to you
(03:20):
like as a fan. Oh you did in Austin. Well
that's so at some point this was going to happen. Yeah,
of course it was fine. So the big van out there,
that's mine, baby, that's a that's a big, awesome van. Okay,
So that's our touring van and UM. In June of
(03:42):
this past year, we were driving UM from Ohio. We
were in my car though, thank god, but we were
coming from Ohio to Nashville and an eight like eighty
miles an hour driving down the interstate, and this deer
decides to commit suicide and walked in front of us,
blew the deer up. It was terrible. It totaled the car.
(04:04):
It was really bad, really tragic. So my dad and
my stepdad bought me that big grill guard on the
front of it for the van. So it looks like
it's got a like some sort of protection system on it.
It is, and my dad and my stepdad are like, baby,
if you're driving down the road, you are protected, not
just from deer, like I think you can run through
(04:24):
a building with that thing and of those transformers. Yeah,
did you have trouble get that thing in the gate? No? Okay,
Oh I can park that in a regular spot. I can't.
I can't park my car in a regular spot. I'm terrible. Also,
here's what I was thinking about you. I went to
the country He's to Call of Fame four days ago,
and some of your stuff is there listening. If you
didn't know this, I'm telling you now, I think you
(04:45):
do know. But we saw we saw some of your stuff,
and I knew you were coming in and I was like, oh,
I should bring that up. Oh, trust me, I knew
and had like a shen dig around it. Um. So,
I've been doing this for a long time, like eighteen years,
and there's been so many times where I've just been
like I'm quitting, Like I can't do this anymore. It's
too hard, which of course is not ever going to
(05:06):
be the case. Something will always pull me back in
and I love it. And it's the only job that
I've ever loved. However, getting validation like that after eighteen
years and having them just randomly call when it was
I have a story for you that I'll tell you later,
but like, this is one of the moments in my
(05:27):
life where my mom was like, you know, I bounce
things off her all the time, and I was like, Mama,
I'm just done. I can't do this anymore. COVID was
too hard, like all this it just it sucked, Like
I don't want to do it anymore. She's like, baby,
please don't don't do this yet. Just you need to
say a prayer and you need to like beg for
a sign that you're supposed to keep doing this. This
(05:48):
is the second major thing that's happened in my life
when I've done this. They called me. They had already
mailed me a package with all of the invite and
everything saying they're going to put my stuff in there,
but I never got it because I moved. So then
the guy just randomly calls me one day and says
the curator or whatever, and he goes, hey, I don't
know if you ever got this message, but I said,
(06:11):
I didn't ever get a message. I never got an email,
I never got anything. Well that's why I was calling you.
I thought you would be excited about this. But it
was literally two days after I had told my mom
I was quitting. And so then I thought, O, well,
now I've got stuff in the country music Call of Fame.
Now this was just like last weekend. So my whole
family came up to Texas. Yeah, there was a sort
a hat there. There's one of my hats, like a
(06:32):
cool looking hat. Yeah, standard hat works from Waco, Texas. Um,
it's my friend Cameron. He makes the best hats. He's
like the only hat that I'll wear, probably because he
just he knows how big my like actually circumference, not
how figuratively big my head is, but like the circumference
of my head and um, and so he just will
sometimes just bust out like a really cool hat. And
(06:54):
he made one for me to wear to that with
these cactuses on the side. It was really cool. But anyway, yeah,
he's got one in I've got in the display. There's that,
and then my guitar did I have a bunch of
signatures on and then um, a piece of woodwork that
my dad made in reference to one of my songs
called Poets prayer and then um my, because I'm trashy,
(07:14):
I guess, but I have like a dream holder that
goes into my mic stand and I put that in there. Well, congratulations,
that's super cool. And we were going through my wife's grandpa.
I had never been to the opera or the country
means to Call of Fame, so we did all that
this weekend. I love that, And what's cool is it?
You know, sometimes myself I take it for granted because
it's here and I work at the opera and I
(07:37):
perform at the opera. And then we did the countries
to Call of Fame and walk through everything, and I
saw your and I knew you were coming in, and
I was like, dang, I should remember the teller I saw.
That makes me so happy. American the American American Currents
are the really cool new room build out. Yeah, congratulations.
So was that a sign to you? Was that the
sign you're absolutely? I mean yes, absolutely. And you know
(08:00):
the other one that happened so dramatically was I'm a
very open book with my life and how this whole
like music thing has transpired over the years. But in
two thousand and twelve, at the end of We'll get
into this later, I'm sure, but what I call my
time on the Artist Protection Program. When I got dropped
(08:21):
from Big Machine, I was devastated. I was like, I
didn't know what to do. I didn't. I was like,
do I feel like a loser? Do I feel proud
that they thought I was too country? Like? I mean,
what are my feelings? You know? And I couldn't never
get really my head wrapped around anything. I just knew
that I was super depressed and I couldn't I couldn't
really figure out what my plan was. And I was like,
(08:46):
am I Am I gonna need to like get a job, Like,
am I gonna need to like go I have a
college degree. I don't know if I can get a
job doing that. But I mean, what do I do?
And I was just like panicking. And I told my mom.
This was in two twelve, and I was like, Mama,
I just I'm gonna quit, you know whatever. She's like,
please beg verst sign, Please beg for a sign. She goes,
give yourself like a date, you know, like give yourself
(09:07):
fourteen days. And if you don't get that sign, she goes,
you know that I will stand behind you no matter
what you do, but please do this for me because
I know this is what you're supposed to do. It's like, okay, fine,
you know, roll my eyes. So I gave myself fourteen
days and um, this was in December, and you know,
the music business like shuts down. And on the last
(09:29):
day at five pm, um, the ACMs called me during
everything being shut down and said that I had a
They weren't. He said, we're not supposed to call you
right now, but I just felt like you needed to
know this today. Um, we're not announcing it till like
mid January, but you've been nominated for an ACM without
a label, without a song on the radio. It was
(09:50):
wild twelve. So for this after you've been dropped the
two three months after I got that quick wow. Yeah.
And they called you when they weren't I supposed to
at a time where you were giving yourself fourteen days
and it was on the fourteenth day at five pm. Two.
So what do you do when you hang up that call? Well,
(10:10):
I was sobbing hysterically first, and I immediately called my
mom and I was like, well, you're not You're not
gonna believe this. Actually, you are going to believe this
and I told her what happened, and she just she
was so excited and she's like, I told you, And
for you know, honestly, for for years, that little thing
(10:32):
carried me through, knowing like all the hard nights and
all the hard because this is a hard business, like
I mean, you know as well as I know, like
it is is not for the faint of heart. And
I ultimately kind of think maybe I'm like a cockroach
because I just I keep like people keep trying to exterminate,
you know, like use different extermination methods and all this.
(10:54):
But I think my love for music just honestly like
keeps me going a lot of times. And then those
two events like the Hall of Fame thing and then
that ten years apart. By the way, you know, most
people probably wouldn't admit that they tried to quit. But
also like it's hard. I don't want people to think
this is easy. You know. There's too many people that
are trying to do this that come up and ask
(11:16):
for advice, and they say, like, what's your advice for
getting started in the music business. I'm like, well, there's
two things. Either don't or be prepared to work harder
than you've ever worked in your life at anything, and
be prepared to be alone even though you're with people
all the time. Put your head down and just focus
(11:37):
on what you want to happen, and then prepare. You know.
It's like I saw a meme once that said, like
grind now so that your dog can have a good
yard later, sort of like that, like grind now, you know,
and then enjoy the fruits of your labor, like later
after you have been busting your ass for however long
you said something, be prepared to be alone even though
(12:00):
there will be people around you. What do you mean
by that? I mean like working, Like I have a band,
I have employees, I have all of that, and my
partner is actually in my band. He's my guitar player.
So I'm you know, I'm not alone so to speak.
But in theory this is the joke. And my band
is name on the door, so they're like your name's
(12:20):
on the door, Like if there's like a bad promoter
or something, you know, and I have to go deal
with something, it's me that has to go deal with something.
So like you know, and I still do my own merch,
I ship my own merch, I store my own merch
like I do literally everything. I'm back a trailer better
than anyone ever in the band, and like I want
(12:42):
to kind of have like a contest. I've thought about
having a contest because there's all these like men that
are pretty chauvinistic, not in my band, but where they're like,
y'all gonna let that little lady drive the band, and
they're like, letter let her my dad would My dad's
been teaching me how to drive a band. I was,
you know, seven, So anyway, like I do, it's on me.
(13:05):
Your job is on you, no matter who your employees are,
no matter it's always on you. Your name is the
one that's on the door. If they mess up, it's
your responsibility exactly, and if they do something bad, it
comes back on you, which is why I don't have
people that party too hard or do weird shit on
the road or whatever, you know, Like I don't do that.
This is a business. It's a business like first and foremost,
(13:28):
and it always has been, and I've always looked at
it like that, and I just feel like, honestly, I
mean even this morning I was over there ship and
March I was just like, I don't want to give
twelve percent of the merch away just because someone I'm
capable of doing this, So it's all on me. That's
what I mean by being alone, like in the sense of,
(13:48):
you know, I'm doing I'm doing the things that are
making the thing work, you know, and I've been doing
it for eighteen years. Yeah, you're the CFO, the CEO.
You're also the face. You're all I mean. And if
anybody messes up, it's also on you. You can't really
blame anybody else either. They don't come to you and
say if some drunk drummer or whatever is being a
(14:11):
jerk someone. They don't say the drunk drummer from this band.
They go, we're not having Sunny Squeeney's band back. That
guy was an asshole, you know, like or whatever. That
comes back on me, and that is never going to happen.
So I choose to put wonderful people around me. And
the people that I have around me are, oh my gosh,
you found a good group. Now. It's everything is so
(14:33):
good right now. So I let everyone go fifteen months
ago and started again from the ground up, new, all
the way across, all the way across. Why do you
think or what I'm gonna ask you this, and this
may make you have a little bit of a big head,
but you really it won't sound like that. But why
do people believe in you in your band? Um? Honestly,
I feel like, you know, I heard I heard Rick
(14:56):
Rubin do an interview before, and you know, he doesn't
play in intruments, and people are like, why do you
think that you are so sought after as a musician
or as a producer, And He's like, because people believe me,
they believe in my vision. And I feel like that's
what it is with me too, because I have been
doing this for so long and I will give anyone
(15:18):
advice if they ask for it. I'm not one of
those people that just like puts it out there, but
they're Lately, there have been a lot of young women
that are in this business that have like that I
don't know, that have reached out to me and asked
like crazy, like kind of weird, intense questions, and I'm like, oh,
let's go. Let's like I want to give you. I
want a corner cut for you if I can, in
(15:41):
any way, shape or form. And I just feel like,
you put good out into the world, and you get
good back. That's what I think it is. Did you
have anybody that helped you like that? Oh? Absolutely when
you were young you said, hey, help me out or
let me know what you know, and that would help
me out. Who was that for you? I have like
a couple of them and I call them my corner creditors.
Red Vulcart, he's a guitar player in Austin Or he
(16:02):
moved to Virginia now, but he was one of the
guys that I would share a Tuesday night with him
at Egos and he taught me guitar a little bit,
and he was just a really good friend. And he
was he played with Merle Haggard, which is my hero,
and so I was kind of like, man, this guy's
so cool and he's he's willing to help me and
give me advice, you know, unsolicited sometimes him. And then
(16:25):
Dallas Wayne, who's a radio DJ now also on series
Sex in which I do that also. But he was
actually at my first gig ever, first gig ever, Like
he randomly showed up at my first gig ever because
he was old, oh, twenty seven and how does he
randomly show up? He was playing after me. I was
(16:47):
like the band that was playing, and he came up
to me, Dallas did, and he said, he goes, I
don't know how long you've been doing this, but you
have really good potential and I'd love to help you
anyway that I can. And I said, oh, tonight, it's
my first gig. And he's like, oh, like your first gig.
I go, no, like really, this is like my first
(17:10):
gig ever. And it was at the Carousel in um Austin,
you know, across from that halfway house. And I know
exactly where Egos is, and I worrying. I'm sure we're
talking about things that, yeah, Mike and I know really well. Yeah,
I mean I lived there twenty years, so I mean
or twenty some years, so yeah, yeah. I was like,
I didn't. I didn't get into music until my first
(17:31):
gig was two thousand and four, which, yeah, which is
older than most to do a first gig. YEP. I
think definitely you had something inside you that made you
sound really educated quickly music music wise, because when I
saw you, it wasn't two maybe two years after what
(17:54):
you just said. I didn't know you don't be doing
a couple of years and I educated. I mean it
felt like you had just learned a whole lot in
a short period of time. Then I feel like when
you're starting all the way with this song, I feel
like songs are written with who they're supposed to be
written with. I feel like, you know, things that you
learn are learned when they're supposed to be learned. I
could have learned guitar. When I was twelve. My stepdad
(18:16):
and you know, begged me to let him teach me guitar,
and I was like, oh, it's for old people. It's
because him and my uncles would sit around and play guitar,
and I thought it was for old people. So when
I went to college, I went to Southwest And then
when I went to college, I graduated and had a
job for like twenty one day something like this is
not what I worked at UM. I worked in a
(18:36):
cubicle at this place called Support Kids, and it's basically
where you would get deadbeat parents to pay their child support.
It was, it was rough, and it was it broke
my heart more than anything, like dealing with some of
the parents that just wanted nothing to do with their kids.
And I, I, thank god, have never had to deal
with that, but I have plenty of friends that you
know have parents in similar situations, and it just broke
(19:01):
my heart, like it's really tragic, and so I just
I just called my stepdad and was like, hey, man,
I think I'm ready to learn guitar. Wow. What did
he say to that? He said, I'm sorry, could you
repeat yourself? And so he went and bought me a guitar,
taught me three chords, and we were coincidentally going on
(19:21):
a family vacation that weekend. So from Austin all the
way to red River, New Mexico or wherever we were
going skiing, I played those three chords in the back
of the suburban, just over and over, and they laughed
now because they were like, you were literally driving us crazy,
but we were so happy that you found something that you,
you know, enjoyed doing. And and I've always sang like
(19:43):
I would sang in church and you know, choir and
all that, and then a minor or. I was going
to minor in musical theater, but then I moved to
New York for two years tool side note, and I
wanted to be a Broadway star. And that's a lot
harder than seems. Everything is, honestly, of course, especially when
you have to be a creative yes, consistent, and different,
(20:09):
because to do all of those to do one of them,
all right, you can be creative, but how are you
going to be different? How are you going to be special?
How are you going to be consistent? And also with
creative people, it's really hard to find consistency because because
we're nuts. Absolutely we have. You have to be nuts
to even get in this business. Yep. And so you're
already nuts if you've decided I'm in and I'm going
(20:30):
to keep going, and so those kind of people like myself,
like you, it's hard to find consistency there, even within ourselves.
You were talking about just to throw some in there,
you're you can tell you're an og like me because
you called a Southwest. It's Texas State, you know, yeah,
it's Southwest, right, Yeah? That When you said that, I
was like, dang, that's og. That's like I went the
(20:51):
last semester before they changed the name, and they asked
if I wanted a new diploma. I was like, no,
I didn't go to Texas State. I went to Southwest's
the collector's item too. You grew up and your childhood
years like five to twelve. What was homelike then? So
my parents got divorced when I was like four, and
(21:11):
so then the family unit was different, do you know
what I mean? And as an adult, it's easier for
me to see how and I've been divorced twice, so
like I see now that, like not all marriage is
meant to be you know, you think it is, you
have this like whatever. So my parents were not meant
to be married, and then they got married to other
(21:33):
people and they're still married to those people a couple
of years after that. And I've always had four parents,
you know. And I sometimes feel selfish saying that because
there's so many people that don't even have like one parent.
But I feel like each of them gave me something,
(21:54):
do you know what I mean? Like, do you feel
like your stepmom and your stepdad obviously two from both units,
do you feel like they both love you? Yes? My
stepfather is I mean, one of my favorite people in
this entire universe. He's his artwork is the one that's
in the Hall of Fame, Like, he means a lot
to me, and he's the one that taught me how
(22:14):
to play guitar. He's the one that you know, the
family life on my mom and my stepdad's side was
bluegrass and country and like Kenny Rogers and Conway Twitty
is my mama's favorite. And then like my dad's house
was more like Crosby Steels, Nash and Young and Tom
Petty and Stevie Nicks, and so I feel like a
(22:34):
lot of both households. It's like by osmosis almost like
when you learn what you like as a child, you
may not even really like it, you just know what
you're exposed to, which is how country music is now.
I feel like people like what they're exposed to. If
they were exposed to my music, I feel like more
people would. You know, it's more like Americana, you know
(22:55):
what I mean? But I think is the world country music?
If we're basing I do too what country music used
to be. I also believe in fluidity and not really
a signing. But when people go, oh, it's American, it's
not country, I'm like, man, it's the countryest thing there is. Well,
so here's the weird thing, and this is the weird thing?
(23:17):
Is this? So I used to say I'm a country
artist and I am. I mean, I'm from East Texas,
I would agree you're a country artist. Yes, yes, But however, however,
the country that is current now is not what I do. Correct.
So when I say I'm a country artist to a
random person on a plane, when they see me with
a guitar and they're like, what do you do? And
(23:37):
I'm like, I'm you know, I'm a secret shopper. I mean,
I'm you know, what do you think? I am? Like,
I'm just carrying this guitar around for fun. But I'm like,
I'm a you know, country singer. And I used to
say that and now I just say, um, I'm a
singer songwriter because I don't want I am. I have
so many beliefs about the way that I make music
(24:01):
and I want people to give it a chance. So like,
if there's someone that doesn't like current music and they
only like older music, I don't want them to not
give me a chance just by putting a label, because
I'm kind of with you, like, I don't think it
should have a label necessarily. But but I am country
and I will always be a country artist. I'll always
you know, my kind of country at least. So it's
(24:23):
a really hard I say your country. I think so
countries could be I think I think so too, But
then for sure that the popular standard of country is
based on who the most popular artists are right now exactly.
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
This is the Bobby Cast. Your mom. You've mentioned her
(24:44):
probably four times and we've been talking for twenty three minutes.
I want to know about your mom because it sounds
like she's still a great influence in your life. She is,
She's awesome. Um, she's actually an israel right now. They
went to Israel to do to go like to the
Holy Land? Wow? Has she ever been before? Now? And
what motivated that? They were at church one day and
(25:06):
their preacher was like, Hey, we're gonna have a trip
to Israel. Who wants to go? And before they even
left church, my stepdad told my mom, Hey, I signed
us up for that. We're going to Israel. My mom
was like, we are, so I am thrilled for them.
Like they went to Nazareth today, it's like eight hours ahead.
I think they went to Nazareth today and then tomorrow
(25:29):
they're going to see Jesus's tomb and like stuff like that.
I think that traveling is the reason that I continue
doing this job. I love traveling. It is my favorite
thing on this planet. Nothing will ever compare to it,
no edge process of it. Though you're like getting to
these places. I don't mind either of it. Really, I'm
not one of those it's so weird. I know, I
don't care as long as I'm in motion. I'm one
(25:52):
of those people that's like a motion person. And like
today when we leave here, I'm literally getting in the
van going into hatching the trailer and then we're driving
a Little Rock and I'm so excited to go to
Little Rock. Hey, nothing on that route. I do it
about six times a year. But good luck to you.
But you know what I mean. So they're in they're
in a Israel and and and my mom is, you know,
(26:15):
clearly my best friend and time every day, all the time,
more more than more than every day. What about what
about her makes her a great friend and a great mom?
And what are you happy that you got from her?
I think she's the one that always told me. You know,
it sounds cliche, but like you can do whatever you
want to do. As long as you really really want
(26:37):
to do something, you can figure out a way and
do not ever let anyone tell you otherwise. So I
think the persistence aspect of it is what I got
from her, like just not giving up the cockroach aspect,
I guess is what we should call it. And you
know her, her humor is really good and like she
(26:58):
she can she can get it no matter what I'm
talking about. We can have like a conversation with our
eyes in a room full of people without even talking.
So to me, that's a pretty big deal. You know,
to have that first call if something goes wrong, oh yeah,
like something like real, like like yeah, fundamentally it's something's wrong,
you call her, absolutely yeah. And is she your first
(27:22):
call and something goes right? Absolutely? Yeah? Her? And I
mean my partner, I call him. I call him, you know,
unless we're together somewhere also with him a lot too,
right Yeah. So I mean, you know, but if if
I'm like by myself and I get good news, I'll
usually text both of them first and be like, can
y'all call me back? You know, I like Sharon good news. Yeah,
(27:46):
And does she text? I don't know, Yeah, she text her?
Oh yeahcause she was a lot of emojis I had
to have the talk with because I would imagine she's
over sixty, she's seventy. Okay, now what's her emoji use? Like?
These are great questions. I love this. I had to
have a talk with her. I was like, mom, one
(28:08):
emoji's fun. You don't have to do you don't have
to do literally seventeen lines of emojis, all different. You know,
I know you know what I'm talking about, and that's
why I ask. And I was being sensitive about you know.
I don't old she was, but I got to the
text question that I was like, I'm going in for
the emojis because I feel like anybody over sixty, like
(28:29):
sixty three, they either don't know how to use somebody
use way too many, and it's either one of the two.
So she uses way too many. She did, and then
I had to have the talk with her because I
was like, if you're doing this to me, you're probably
doing this to other people too. So this is annoying,
So don't do that. And then what do you call it?
A y'all? Or is it a gift or a Jeff? Yeah,
(28:50):
Jeff like a j but it's with a g. Okay,
so a Jeff. She has found the jef. So she
hits a little little work I were glass. It pulls
up all the jeffs you could send. Yeah, oh yeah,
so she is a Jeff user. And she sent me
one the other day and it was so she didn't
watch it all the way through, you know how it's
(29:11):
tough times has words at the end, like a penis
comes up from me. You didn't even see. It's because
I'll do that. I'll send some sometimes too. Well I'm like, oh,
this is hilarious, and I send it. Then I don't
watch it. Why did she send you? Um? It was
it was not good. Um. And I had to call
her and be like, mom, do you remember when because
(29:32):
there was this one time, like back when vhs was
a thing, So she would buy vhs like at garage
sales because you could tape over them, you know, and
she would she would tape her shows on them, you know,
like when you could tape shows before DVR or whatever
it's called DVR. And um, anyway, so I am not
(29:54):
kidding when I say this, this is a joke. In
my family. She was recording stuff and sending it to
her sister, to me, to whoever. Like, you know, she
was like so proud that she could record whatever shows
we wanted, they had porn on them. So oh whoas
at the end, she just didn't get far. It did
not get far. She just like hit record. So it's
a joke in our family now, like she's so like,
(30:17):
thank god her sisters were the ones that saw it.
And then my mom called everyone that she had sent
a thing to and was like, what's in turn it
off five minutes before it's over. I'll tell you how
it ends. That's funny. I was going through your music
a little bit ago and I saw a new song
I popped up and it was Emily Harris cover. And
I'm not familiar with Jamie Lynn Wilson, but I know
(30:39):
you guys did that song together? Why that song? What
about that song stood out? And why her? So Jamie
and I have been friends a long time and we
were touring together in Switzerland in twenty sixteen and it
was just me and her just doing a solo you know,
song swap thing for two weeks and um, we just
on trip, did a lot of driving and we would,
(31:03):
you know, plug the iPod in and just start listening
to music. And we always were leaning towards Emmy and
so we realized that we both had this infatuation with
that record, the Red Dirt Girl record, and it talked
about procrastinator. It took us like what seven years to
actually record it, after we had initially decided, let's should
the song. Sorry, yeah, just the song. No that I'm
(31:26):
saying that you didn't take seven years to record. It's
one song you're talking about. We didn't restart recording it
until about three months ago, So I'm saying it took
seven years to come to fruition. And so then we
just put it out and um, and we I threw
threw it all out there because every answer is going
to be no unless you ask. And so I contacted
(31:47):
Buddy Miller, who is, in my opinion, one of the
greatest musicians and people on this earth. And I was like, hey, Buddy, UM,
I know this is a shot in the dark and
you're probably gonna say no, but if you would possibly
let Emmy hear this, because I know Yellow really close
and if she's interested, would you ask her if she
(32:07):
would maybe want to sing harmony? He goes, oh, I'll hey,
I will get it to her. I will, I will
definitely get it to her. I will let her hear it.
But I don't think she's doing much right now other
than what's kind of on her calendar. I was like, okay,
well if you would just send it to her anyway,
just see so Emmy Lou Harris is a huge dog person,
(32:30):
as am I, and so I wrote her a letter
and I sent her a picture of my dog wearing
a bow tie and she this. Two days later, Buddy
called me. He goes here, you're not gonna believe this.
She's gonna take a swing at it. So and I
was like what, and he I go win and he
said tomorrow. I said tomorrow, okay, And he said would
(32:54):
you like to come over and meet her? And I'd
met her like backstage, you know, fifteen years ago somewhere,
but never like really talk to her. And he goes, yeah,
if you come over at one, we're going to record it.
Come over at one and then you know, you can
meet her. I was like, okay. I went and sat
in a laundry matt parking lot for two hours before
the time when he told me to be there in
(33:14):
case they got finished early, so that I could be there,
And then when I showed up, I was like, oh hey,
oh yeah. I was like I know, I had a
friend that lives near here and me and the laundry
matter my friend, but I was so excited to meet
her and she was so gracious and so sweet and um, actually,
do you know who Radney Foster is? So Radney actually
(33:34):
texted me yesterday and said that he had run into
Emmy Lou a couple days ago and that she was
really really happy with how that turned out. And she came,
you know, saying on it and she said, I'm just
so glad that they wanted to cut my song. That's
just so you know, flattering. And of course my heart's
exploding while I'm reading that text message because I love her.
(33:55):
I just she's the coolest. She's like the ultimate cool,
you know, and it cut me to call a fan.
The whole thing about her too. I don't know if
you if you saw it, but just spending time breaking
down her early life and how different because now we
just go, oh, the great Emma Lou Harris, but what
she was doing was kind of radical at the time. Yeah,
and how she was doing her music and who she
was doing it with and who and I would encourage
(34:17):
anybody just to look her up. I mean, she kind
of at times was like a hippie total like California
but country, and was taking that there and bringing that here,
and like working with Doll. I mean she had the
Albert League guy playing guitar with her too, which was
a totally like I mean, he has a bad ass
and he's just like he's guy's such a great guitar player.
(34:40):
But like that Luxury Liner. Just I mean, if anyone
is caring at all what I'm saying, you should listen
to a Luxury Liner because it is it is like
so radical, like you said, just like it's it's so
above it's time. Yeah. I can only imagine people were like,
what is she doing when she first started doing it,
and then she was so great at combining styles where
(35:04):
it didn't feel like she was combining styles. I felt
like she created her own path. Yeah, that she became
what people tried to be like, and then it just
became normal because she was so wonderful at it. Yeah,
that's very true. It's very true. I never thought about that,
but yeah, that's I recently, I mean, I just spent
a bunch of time like I was at the Hall
of Fame, and then I went back and kind of
deep dove a little more. And it's funny you bring
(35:26):
her up, and I didn't even know that that she
would that she's saying the harmonies on that. Yeah, she's
on the end of it. She's on the bridge and
the last chorus. That's really cool that she agreed to
do that. And it was a dog with a bow
tie for sure, because whatever you wanted for me, if
you had a dog with Boti picture, I was say, yes,
what do you need to Kidney? Yeah, absolutely sing it.
Absolutely a dog in bow tie. I'm in the Bobby Cast.
(35:46):
We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.
You mentioned your very first ever performance. You said you
were twenty seven. Why did it take until twenty seven
or maybe twenty four? I don't even four. Yeah, even
if you were to say nineteen, yeah, for most folks there,
And I say this working on America, and I hope
(36:07):
for four years. I'll be like, I've a waiting a
whole life for this, And I'm like, bro, you're fourteen.
That's what I mean, your whole life. I got an
armpit hairs long older than you. So when did the
music bug bite you? For lack of a better question
about that. Well, so my performance my first performance I
mean that with a band, like yeah, but like a
pay with with a band, where yeah, you're like, this
(36:28):
is my show. I mean I always have done like stage,
like stage has always been where I've been most comfortable.
You know, I did um, you know high school would
you do? Oh every play that was available and um,
but even younger than that, like middle school plays. Um,
(36:49):
That's why I wanted to do musical theater. What was
the dream then? I didn't really I didn't really have
a certain dream. I just knew that my hometown wasn't
where I needed to be to do what I wanted
to do. Your hometown it wasn't specifically Houston. Did you
have one of the suburbs? Law View, Texas is where
I'm from. So Houston's where I was born, and then
we moved up to northeast Texas like when I was two.
Got it. So you don't really remember Houston as far
(37:11):
as like growing up. Yeah, because my whole family still
lived there, so I went there all the time. Got it.
But lawn View is very small and and it's very quaint,
and it's cute, and there's a small little county airport
and I knew that I needed something bigger than that.
How did you know that? Why did you know that?
I don't know. That's the weird thing. So I have
(37:33):
a friend actually that passed away last year. His name
was Heath, and me and him, when we were still
in high school, we both had this whatever this was
where we had this like vision of us leaving this town.
And there was a booking agent over on Gilmour Road,
a booking agent in my hometown. Like, we don't even
(37:53):
know really what she booked, like we laughed about it
as adults, but anyway, he and I went there, I
think our junior year of high school, and we just
sat in her office and it was like Joey from Friends,
you know, with the agent smoking the cigarettes. She was
literally smoking cigarettes talking to me in Heath and she's like, so,
do you have a resume, and we're like a resume?
(38:14):
We don't know. So that was our first experience. We
wanted to talk to her about booking us in movies. Yeah,
but what was she booking? We don't know. I still know,
I'm curious, like what was I don't know that either,
And he's not with us anymore, so we can't even
really honestly figure it out. But um, she was this.
It probably was like a casting agency for who knows
(38:36):
what really, But I mean I remember where it was,
and it was in this like strip center and we
go in there and and Heath and I laughed about
it until you know, the last time I saw him
was twenty nineteen. We laughed about it then because he
is he was an actor, and all of his friends
or actors out in LA and so he was like, hey, yo,
(38:56):
we're the ones that actually left. We're following our dreams.
And so he was kind of like my first person
that gave me the courage to figure out what I
wanted to do. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
So then when I went to college, I did entertainment
pr because I thought, well, I'll be a publicist. That'd
be a great job for me. I'd be great at this.
But then that didn't work out because I got bit
(39:18):
by the wanting to do the performance part of it.
And did you do that at Southwest? No? But productions
there no, because I was just there to finish school,
like my parents really wanted me to finish school, and
I did not want to be there. But I had
an internship at Lone Star Music and the guy that
owned the company's name is Chad, and he's in a
(39:39):
wheelchair and he's a paraplegic, and so he would have
me go out to the venues to find people to
put their merchandise on our website to sell artist. So
I went to this club one night and I called
Chad and I was like, hey man, this guy, Like
I could do what this guy is doing. I just
(40:01):
have to learn to play guitar. Chack goes do it,
and I was like, no, I mean, like, I have
to learn to play guitar. He goes do it. So
that's you know, I just kind of got really interested in, like, oh,
all these people are they're they're writing songs, they're writing
stories and then they're putting them to music. And I
already wrote stories because I'm an English miner in college,
(40:24):
and I'm like, I've written stories, you know for however
long I've been in college six years. If I can
just play guitar, I ben I can figure this out.
So that's when I called my dad, like after I graduated,
and was like, I can I know I can do this,
and Paul, my stepdad, that's his name. He was like,
I mean, I know you can do it. It's like
no question in my mind. Well how long did it
(40:45):
take you to find it? And obviously your voice and
I'm not talking about your physical voice, but your your voice,
who you are, what you say, what you stand for musically?
How long until you kind of found what that was? Initially?
Pretty much since I started, because I know what I like.
I've always known what I like, which is classic country music,
(41:07):
Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. I love that stuff. Now that
being said, I really love Tom Petty. I think he
was the everything. There is a Tom Petty song for
every situation. And Stevie Nicks. I just feel like it
is the biggest style icon that's ever walked on the planet.
And so kind of Lauretta Lens talking about she was
(41:31):
so ahead of her time. Even now, if her songs
came out they came out in the sixties, even if
they came out now, people would still be show I
mean the pill look, dude, I can't imagine that. Then,
I know, you know what kind of uproar that calls no?
I yes, but no, it's I think in my head,
I do I know but I can't imagine we're in
twenty twenty three. You're talking about the sixties, I know.
(41:53):
Putting that out, I know, I would imagine every super
conservative and you're talking about a time when everybody's can servative,
just generally because it was the sixties. Yeah, that they
had to be shutting doors and no where you're not
listening to that, yeah, breaking it, turning the radio. That's culture.
That's as punk as you could possibly be, I know.
And she was. She she's the one that that spoke
(42:17):
for all of us. And she's the she's the reason
that I will write about stuff that's that's taboo. Sure,
she's the one that told me to write about stuff
that's taboo. Well, you know, it was not comfortable for her,
and she kicked down so many kicked up at so
many doors and down so many walls for other female artists.
Oh my god, because of what she put herself through
(42:39):
doing that. She's literally the queen for any woman that
walked behind her. Now that being said, she'll tell you
that Kitty Wells was the queen that kicked every you know,
door down for her. And it just shows me that,
like it's always been a thing with women. It's always
been a thing. It still is. Oh yeah, yeah, and
(43:00):
in twenty years it still will be and there'll be
people like yourself. Like in Katy Walls, you have the
first number one song as a female artist ever. Is that?
I don't know, but yes, it wasn't Guy Too Made
Honky tonk Angels was her big and I think that
was the first. I'd be interested to know that. I
actually don't know that if I know that, Mike, because
we were listening to Jake Ohen and I are big
(43:22):
classic classic. There's classic country, and there's like classic classic
where sometime people forget Kitty Walls is in that and
we we were just listening to that song a few
weeks ago. Is that the first it is? I'm trying
to find the exact song, but she was Katy Walls
was first woman to have a number one. Well, so
whenever Luretta died, um, you know, it was hard for
(43:42):
me to not say, you know the queen, But I
mean for me, she's my queen um and she will
always be and I had the pleasure of meeting her
and she she's the one that gave me so much
advice about writing and like write what you know, right,
what you know? It's that simple, right what you know? Really? Yeah? Right?
(44:03):
What you know? Because if if you know it, then
there's other women that know it. Sure, So why would
you hesitate what's saying calling her the queen? Oh? Because
because she would. She would probably laugh at that and
be like and say somebody else's She was like, oh, baby, now,
Keaty Whales is the queen, you know, But like, Lauretta
is my queen, hands down, She's she She kicked down
every door. Um that I could have ever wanted kicked down,
(44:27):
because I don't think that there should be any I
think just because I'm female, maybe it is considered crass
if I sing about some of the things I sing about,
or maybe it's considered taboo or maybe like I remember,
I had a song UM on my label when I
(44:48):
had a label, UM, Big Machine was my record label. UM.
I remember the the A and R person When we
were discussing songs to go on my record. She said
to me, Um, nobody wants to hear from the other woman.
Someone just want a Grammy. Yeah, Carly and Nashley mcbrian
(45:09):
Yeah yeah, So I feel like it was just a
little early, you know, and that's fine, Like I am
so excited for them like to win that. But I
mean there's been many songs about that, but I remember
ply on the same label. Yeah, no, no, no, that's ironic. Yeah,
but I remember her saying that, and I remember saying,
(45:29):
like it's country music, like you think that? Do you
do you think that just because I'm a female, that
nobody's gonna want to hear me talk about that, because
there are plenty of women over the last ten years
that have come up to me saying, you know, oh,
thank you for that song. You know, so it kind
(45:50):
of does sting a little bit. But also I'm so
excited that there is a time now where there are
women speaking like that, you know, and saying things that
I feel like to be said, you know, And I mean,
we go out, girls go out, girls party. You know,
it's not like tell me more, do you know what
(46:10):
I mean? Like, it's it's um, especially in this business,
like you kind of have to adapt and it's a
it's a male dominated business and you have to kind
of adapt as a woman in this business. And um,
A couple of my friends say that when they go
home to their families that they their their husband will
be like, oh, I see that you've got road mouth, because, like,
(46:32):
you know, girl, it's like you're in a different world
when you're on the road and then you go home.
You know, I don't have a family at home, so
like my life kind of just stays pretty consistent. But um,
that's the joke with them. And but I mean, girls,
girls have we have things to say, we have things
to talk about. I know, I do, you know, and
(46:53):
I don't hold back on those things. And if if
it's uncomfortable for you, I'm very sorry, not you, but
whoever's listening. That's what music is supposed to do, is
bring up emotions. Right, So if I have a song
about one of my friends committing suicide, it's uncomfortable for
me to sing it. It was uncomfortable for me to
(47:15):
write it. But there have been people that have tattooed
these lyrics on their body, you know. So it's just
a very it's a weird dynamic being a woman in
this business, it really is. It's very interesting to navigate.
Hank Tye, the Bobby Cast will be right back. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast. You signed a
(47:37):
record deal with Big Machine in two thousand and seven,
six six, So did you develop a base through the Texas, Oklahoma,
Arkansas kind of area, touring around and that's why they
found you? Or did somebody hear you and go we
should sign you. This is the weirdest story and you
probably won't believe me, but so I was doing music
(48:00):
down at played at the Poodle Dog Lounge every Sunday night,
you know where that is Jenny's little Longhorn, all the
little dives in Austin, played at Central Market, played at
the grocery store, played anywhere they would let me set
up my pa and um. Then my fans that would
come come to these shows, what they would say, like,
you need to make a CD. I was like, came
(48:21):
a CD. Like They're like, no, really, you need to
make a CD. I had no intentions. I wanted free
beer and burgers, you know, like, and that's I was.
I was eating for free and drinking for free, and
like I was living the high life and um. Anyway,
so I ended up making a CD and somehow, and
I to this day do not know how this happened
(48:42):
because I did not even know this guy. My CD
ended up on Scott Borshat's desk. No clue. How still
I didn't. I didn't like, had not been to Nashville,
and um, so he sends me a message on my Space.
He's like, hey, I own a record label. And I
was like, this sounds creepy. Sound creepy. Totally sounds creepy.
It didn't have a picture. It was just like the
(49:03):
Little Gray Head and I was like, this sounds super creepy,
but um wow. So I looked up the record label
he was talking about and I saw that Jack Ingram
was on that record label. And I've known Jack since
I was fifteen. So I called Jack and I was like, uh,
this dude just sends me a message. He's like, Sonny,
call him back. He's like what are you crazy. He's
like yeah, that's the head of my record label. Call
(49:24):
him back. And I was like, okay, this is kind
of weird. So I called him and I was like, hey,
it's sunny. And he's like, hey, um, could you send
me another copy of this? Um My wife won't let
me have this one back, but we would really love
to see you play. Are you ever going to play
in Nashville? And I was like, Oh, it's funny that
you mentioned that I'm going to play there in like November,
(49:46):
and this was like July. He goes, we're coming. I
was like, okay. He goes, can you put us on
the list? And I was like, which is Billy Block lit?
It was the Billy Block Show. Do you remember Billy Block?
He did like A. It was like A, I don't
even know what. So you did have a plan to
be here in November though, you didn't make that part up? No, No,
(50:07):
it was already planned. Yeah, I was coming to the
Billy Block Show. It was like a showcase. So I
come to this gig, they come and this was one
month before I turned thirty years old. And because I
was born in nineteen seventy six, so two thousand and six.
And at that gig he said, I'd like you signed
(50:27):
to my record label. At that time, it was Jack
and Justin Moore and Taylor and like one or two
other people. And and I said, oh, okay, I mean cool.
I had no idea what I was doing. You have
no like Bobby, I really did not know what I
was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing. I
(50:49):
really didn't know what I was doing. That all being said,
he did everything he said he was going to do.
He re released my album that I had already put out.
He didn't change anything on it, he rereleased it regionally.
I continued touring around Texas and that I jokingly call
that time because I was there for six years and
only put out one record, So I call it my
(51:10):
time on the artist Protection program. Why do you feel
like that happened? I don't know. I wish that someone
could explain it to me. He gave me opportunities that
I never would have had otherwise. He did everything he
said he was going to do. He he moved I
think the tragic mistake that happened because I know Scott
(51:32):
believed in me one hundred percent. He was like, I
really believe in my heart that he believed in me.
He moved me over to Republic and the new guy
did not like anything about me, and you weren't his
find exactly, which happens all the time, all the time,
and not just in music but anything creative. Yea, even
(51:54):
in sports it happens like a new general manager goes
in well gate my quarterback. I'm gonna go get my
own guys to get an allogy. Wow, So you get
it was that? Yeah, so so I was there from
two thousand and six to two thousand ten or nine
on Big Machine, and then Scott called me into his
office when Dan said, oh, there's this new sister label
(52:17):
we're opening, and I'm gonna move you over there. It's
going to be great for you. And I remember the
sinking feeling in my stomach going like, no, no, no,
I've already put in time with you. I want you
to believe in me. And then, as I predicted from
minute one of meaning the person that was the head
of the other label, he didn't like anything about me.
He didn't like my look, he didn't like my voice,
(52:40):
he didn't like like my actual voice, he didn't like
my songs. I wonder why you get put over there
if I don't. It wasn't a conversation, and whomever was
running it, I was hoping you would be able to
tell me, Yeah, it's weird to me that that would happen,
because there had to be a conversation between whomever the
governing bodies of those labels are a lot of times,
(53:00):
you know, things just happen, you know, like choices just
get made, and it was made for you obviously, absolutely,
and you know Um, I'm a big girl. I'm I'm okay.
Like I survived, I continue to survive. That's my whole
thing is survival. What was wrong? What was what was
wrong with you? Um? I didn't sell enough because I
(53:22):
was country. That's why I got drowned. So your style
then was, in my opinion, ahead of its time. I hope,
I hope that I would take that as a compliment honestly.
Oh for sure. You know, people that are so early
are often penalized when they're so right and so progressive
at the time. But it literally is what's about to
be the biggest thing. God, You're you're so spot on.
(53:44):
They're often penalized and treated like they're just garbage being
thrown out because people don't get it yet. It actually
takes other people consuming it over a period of time
to go we like it, we get it for even
them to go, Oh, I mean, Bobby, I feel like,
tell me if you think I'm wrong. People like what
they're exposed to for sure, Like it doesn't matter if
(54:05):
it's what or what it's like. If you listen to
something enough times, it's going to get in your brain right, yes, yes,
with the caveat of it just it just can't be bad.
Well sure, but yes, anything that is in that upper
I've had the conversation with my bosses and I don't
program music anymore. I just go. I just try to
(54:27):
do compelling content, right, I tried it funny. I try
to be compelling in many ways. But I've had the
argument with them, like, if you really believe in a song,
you just played enough time, it's going to be a hit.
That's what I think to you. If you believe in
it and and you literally just play it enough times, yep,
you can pound it into people's head. So I agree
with you in that way. Yes, okay, so that all happens.
So this is when Concrete, my album was out with
(54:50):
it had like from a table away on there. There
was stains worse than Leaving, which I was also told
was needing to be pitched to a man, that no
one would want to hear a woman sing about leaving.
I've made a career on that. Um and then um.
The next one that was on the radio was Drink
Myself single, which is a bar like honky Tonk super
country song. Even for my standards, it's country. So those
(55:11):
are my three singles that were out and um, I
did not. I didn't. I learn as I go with
pretty much everything, and um, in two thousand and twelve, also,
you know, the whole New Faces showcase or whatever. So
I don't know what that is. I have no clue
(55:34):
what that is at this point. And I know that
the labels, the label that I was with, were pushing
other artists. I guess the labels kind of barter or
not barter, but like guard for a jockey, for a position,
they'll put more of their promotion time, money and right. Yeah,
(55:55):
So they did that with a couple of artists that
were on Big Machine and public and not me. And
I had radio people that I had met over the
you know year that i'd been on the road promoting
my single that I had kind of really liked and
like stayed in touch with. And I think I'm pretty
easy to get along with and I love meeting people
and making friends, and so I had stayed in touch
(56:18):
with some of these people. Well, some of these people
were calling me, going, why is your label not putting
you up for these things? And I was like, I
don't even know what you're talking about, but I mean, whatever,
you know, it happens. I'm not gonna be mad about it,
like my time will come. That's always think that. And
so the nomen or whatever it's called come out and
(56:40):
I'm on the showcase without anything nothing, no help, no bartering,
no nothing, and whatever it's called. And so I remember
at that showcase that was when does that happened in
the spring? Happens now it's like in two days here
or now. Okay, so it's spring. So I remember we
(57:03):
did this showcase. It was awesome, and I remember I
had already put three songs out and I knew it
wasn't doing what they wanted it to do. And Scott
came backstage like, you know, oh my god, this was
the greatest show I've ever seen. If you play, we're
gonna put another single out, And I said, really, like,
(57:26):
because I thought I had already kind of felt that,
like I have a little bit of discernment where I
can kind of read people and feel the next move
sort of, and I kind of felt that they weren't
feeling it anymore. And so when he said that, it
kind of gave me a second burst of energy where
I was like, Wow, maybe this is gonna work, you know,
(57:46):
And I got really excited about it, and then he
didn't never do it, and I'd asked. I asked about it,
and he's like, yeah, we decided not too cool, okay,
all right, and then kind of back to square one.
Well then two months later he drops me after I've
been on the news and the two months later, Yeah,
(58:06):
new Faces means that radio label promote that they believe
in you and they've kind of annointed you as one
of the big new faces, like together that I've never
heard of that happening, and then do that show. And
then three months after that is or four months after
that is when I got the ACM nomination without a label,
(58:28):
without a song on the radio. Yeah, that is a weird,
like CRS New Faces, big deal, huge deal. Usually people go,
we need to invest more in that person because obviously
people believe in them. We drop you two months after
that ACMs we shall lift you up again. That's a
pretty up and down a little span of months there. Yeah,
So it was pretty heavy on my heart. I get it,
(58:50):
you know, and it was pretty like if I can
survive that, that's why I laugh now. When you know,
people try to like, um, give you the lowdown on
something that's about you know this person you're about to meet.
Blah blah. I'm like, I got it. Please, I'm good.
I have handled so much worse than this, Like, you
have no idea. Do you enjoy playing shows? Now? It
(59:11):
is my favorite thing on this earth. I feel like
it's almost like when you talk about certain things, your
eyes light up, and when you talk about playing now,
it's almost like you've been reintroduced to how awesome it is.
It is the only thing on this planet. Okay, I
play guitar and I write songs. If my entire world
(59:31):
is taken away from me tomorrow, my band, my house,
my car, you know, my friends, my family. I still
have a guitar and I still have a brain, so
I can literally do this for the rest of my life.
As long as my fingers work and my brain works,
(59:55):
I can travel the world and play music. Now that
being said, I would much prefer to do that with
my friends. You know, we have a great time together.
And I'm one of those people that I don't really
care if I mean, I do care if it's not
a great like crowd, but I I will do the
same show whether you're the only person there or if
(01:00:16):
you brought three thousand friends with you. I love my job.
I like six friends, but if I had three thousand,
we would come. I just don't want you to get confused.
I don't have that many friends, have like six friends too.
So I was just in theory saying that if there's
three thousand people there or three people there, I think
starting out in bars with drunks, and you know, I
(01:00:42):
never assumed that. I when I started, I never assumed
that would have different kinds of fans. I thought it
would be like the one lonely guy in the back
and his drunk girlfriend screaming Tanya Tucker songs at me
from across the bar, or you know. I thought it
would be like the random kind of hipsters that would
(01:01:03):
show up at the carousel. I never imagined that fans
would become so instrumental in my life, especially during COVID.
These people kept us on our they kept a roof
over my head. I am not exaggerating, like I am
really not exaggerating. We did they I sold more merch
(01:01:27):
Darren COVID then I probably sold the year before that.
People got you, we got you, you know, And I
just never figured that. I always knew that fans were
I mean, obviously the only reason that any of us
do our job, because if you don't have people listening
to you, what happens you don't I don't get to
(01:01:47):
talk anymore. So I'm saying, if I don't have people,
you know, listening to me, buying things, whatever, it makes
it really hard to do things. So I know how
important they are. I never knew how important they are,
and COVID really made me see that and made me
feel it more than anything, and it is. It is
the best feeling on this planet, knowing that there's random
(01:02:09):
people in this world that I've never met, that somehow
maybe have been touched by anything that I've done, even
if it's just one thing. Right, I used to have
guilt about that. Where why Well, and here's the reason why.
But here's how I figured out that I shouldn't have guilt.
But I used to have guilt because, like the listeners
(01:02:32):
of the show, people who read my books or whatever
the case is, they've been so generous with lots of
stuff over my career. And again, I'm just a trailer
for our kid. I grew up in a really ruled town,
didn't have anything, and they would always come to shows
or donate to causes that I believed in and using
their own time and their own money, and I would
feel really guilty for the same reason, going, man, they
(01:02:54):
don't even know me and they're doing this, but they
know parts of me that I put out there, and
I would go mad, just feel bad that they're doing anything. However,
then I started to go, Okay, well, let me just
flip the perspective. Here are there people in my life
that I don't really know that if they were like, hey,
of course, yeah, there are people that have been an
influence in my life that I've never met, and if
(01:03:17):
they were having a difficult time or a different time,
and then yeah, and I saw it coming from a
really authentic place, heck yeah I would have. I would
have done that for them. So I think that's that
has a lot to do with heart, your heart too, like,
because I have a sensitive heart and I feel that
way too. I feel I think that may be actually
nail on the head for me. Why I feel that
(01:03:37):
way because it's like I wish that I knew them
all by names so that I could do something for them.
I struggle with accepting it for a long time. Oh God,
even accepting accepting them giving to things I cared about
that were like charities. I still was like, that's your money.
I can't believe. I couldn't believe I feel guilty or
even doing it now until I said, well, what I
do this for people that have been instrumental to me
(01:03:57):
and I would if I had it. Yeah, And so
I don't know. Sometimes I think will have a black heart,
like a deadheart, like there's just a just been through,
been through some crap and it's all numb at this point.
But that to me was what made me feel like
it's okay. I can one hundred percent get behind that
(01:04:18):
because I think that's what it is for me, and
like you know, I did. I've done fundraisers before for
I'm a huge animal person. I mean, oh god, um,
we worked with the Austin Pets Alive on a lee
me too, Bobby. I mean years and years and years
and years and years. So good. Yeah, it's an animal
is like a baby and like it's the most helpless
(01:04:40):
thing on this earth. And they don't have a mouth,
so they don't have words, so they can't tell you
what's wrong. And it's our job as humans, I think,
And that's why I feel like I was put on
this earth is to figure out a way to help animals,
like I just love animals. And I saw this little
kittie in Baton Rouge one time and it had been
hit back car. Its leg was all mingled, Oh oh no,
(01:05:03):
this is the best story ever. Okay, and my band
Sarah McGlocklin starts playing in the background. Go ahead, so um,
my band goes. I said, y'all, this cat screaming at me.
It's only looking at me. They were all standing there
and it's this big, it's like five pounds and it
(01:05:24):
was screaming. And I have video of it that I
will not show you. And and I said, if it's
alive in the morning, we're doing something. This is on
its deathbed. And so these two girls pull up and
we don't have any food in our car. We're in
the middle of like somewhere, no no gas station, nothing,
there's no food. None of us had food ad granola bar,
which wouldn't eat. So I asked these girls panicky. I
(01:05:47):
was like, hey, do you have any food for this
little cat? I think it's about to die. And they
gave me a waffle, so I got it some water,
gave it a little waffle, broke it up in little pieces,
and my drummer called me the next morning at like
seven o'clock. He goes, yo, your little friend is still outside,
and I was like, damn, so all right? So I
got up and I put on Facebook. Hey y'all, there's
(01:06:10):
this cat. Here's a picture of it. Do what you do?
I need. I need a cat rescue in Baton Rouge,
you know. So within ten minutes this guy has written
me back. He said, oh, I'm a cat rescue comes
and gets it. He goes, man, this cat's on its
last leg literally, and I go, yeah, I know, but
(01:06:31):
I can't leave it here to die. It cannot happen.
I can't do anything with it. Can you just take it?
And he goes, you know what, I'm gonna call Angel
Rescue and see if they'll take it. So they take
this cat. They called me two hours later and like
the cat needs its leg amputated, and I think will
be good to go. So I go on Facebook and
I was like, oh my gosh, all aren't gonna believe this. Wow,
(01:06:53):
the cat's gonna be fine as long as they get
its leg amputated. I was ready to put it on
my credit card. Someone started a fun thing for it.
Within minutes, I had six thousand dollars for this cat.
Long story, short cat is now living the high life.
It is named Sunny Sweeners and it is living with
(01:07:13):
my friend John, who we flew it to DC to
live with him. He's now moved to Nashville as of
like two weeks ago, but the cat now lives in Nashville.
It is the man of the house. It is the
most gorgeous cat. It has three legs. It walks on
a leash outside. It is the most gorgeous story. And
(01:07:36):
we made T shirts that were you know, I have
a fan page called the Trophy Room because one of
my records it is called Trophy And anyway, we made
these little trophy t shirts for the cat and we
sold those to give the Animal Rescue that did all
the work the profits from that and anyway, it's a
totally story. That's a great story. That's what I needed
(01:07:56):
to hear. Yeah, I don't need a mangle cat legged
in like that. Well, last we saw of it mangle
then we drove off. Wait what we left it hungry?
I'm feel sad after the Sunny interview. Mike, you're headed
to Little Rock because you have a show there. I'm
gonna just read off some of the cities you're gonna
be in, Um, Little Rock, Stonewall, Texas, Albany, Fort Worth,
(01:08:17):
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Houston, Galveston. We're doing a lot of
a lot down there. Huh. Just actually that's weird this
month we're in Texas. We're usually not but Galveston though. Oh,
we're doing a cruise. That's why so many days in
a row. I was like thank four night, or in Galveston, Austin,
San Antonio. Listen, you're all over the place. And we
had talked about the record and the song with Vince
(01:08:37):
Gill married alone before you came in. And I love
Vince Doo. He's the greatest. He's the best singer on
the planet. Yeah, he's just in just his presence soft
and also not like reading, not a skin presence. It's
also like strong and like comforting, and you just know
(01:08:58):
he's seen it all. I mean, he plays his was
the Eagles and then he goes to them. I saw
him with the Eagles at the Irwin Center. I saw
him with the Eagles at Bridge. It blew my freaking mind.
I know. So you guys check out Married Alone. We
talked about it earlier before you were here. But those
are a lot of those, if not all of them
were unreleased songs that you had had Is that is
that right? Or some of them were what do you
mean on my album? Yeah? On that married was it
(01:09:20):
all new stuff? That Married Alone? Um? It was all
new songs? But had you had any of them written
for a long time? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I Um, I
have a running list of in my phone of songs
that just some of them are fifteen years old. That's
what I mean. Like you had him for a long time,
you just hadn't cut them yet. Yeah. But Mary the
oldest song you had on there? Um, like that you
(01:09:43):
held for so long because it meant so much to you.
You just could easy. Someday you'll call my name. And
when do you think you wrote that? I know when
we wrote it, Me and my friend Brittan wrote that
in like two thousand and eight. And why did it
take so long to cut? Because it wasn't good and
so we rewrote it during COVID. We literally took the
title and rewrote it during COVID. Well, there was something
about it that just the chorus was there and we
(01:10:05):
knew the chorus was good. Um, but I wanted it
to be about something else. It was about something and
we wanted to change the topic of it and so um,
so we rewrote it over zoomed during COVID and the
day we wrote it, I was like, cool, that's going
on our record, Like, it's so weird how that happens?
Sometimes you just know. And then um, before it even
(01:10:26):
came out, that was in that. Do you remember the
movie that came out over the summer called Vengeance with
bj Novak? Yes, he's a posts a podcast. Yeah. I
didn't watch it, but right, yeah, me too, So it
was in that. They put it in that movie. Well,
I have to for sure what Mike keep telling me.
The movie is really good. It's great. And my dad
and I went for Father's Day last year to New
York to try back a film festival to see it
(01:10:48):
for the first time. That was like the premiere of it. Huh,
how how do you get in that movie? Who pitches that?
How's that happened? Um? Somebody hear it. I honestly, it
was one of those things where I was like, what's
not even out like how yeah on Earth? How on Earth?
But yeah, it just got pitched and the music supervisor
(01:11:09):
liked it and put it in the rodeo scene. So
it's pretty wild. That's super cool. How I was really excited.
That's what I would love to get into, is you
know that kind of stuff, like get into you know,
SYNC and like do um TV and film. I have
a friend who is a songwriter in town and he's like,
you know, I'm just gonna take this year and dedicate
it to SYNC. And I was like, so what does
(01:11:29):
that mean. He goes, well, I'll started to create these
relationships with these and so he he kills it. Now
he writes songs for cruise commercials or movies or whoa, Yeah,
that's awesome. He was like, you know, I was writing
a lot of songs and some of them would get
on hold, maybe one would get cut. Yeah, I'm in
a pub deal. And he's like, I'm just gonna write
(01:11:50):
for SYNC for a year. And now it's like five
times when he was making and he's also still getting
control of his life. Yes he does, and he's got
good joal. Yeah, but if you come off the road,
you're not gonna be the same, you want us down
the road. Oh, look, I do everything on the road.
Everyone's always like, for since day one, people have always
you know, I do, you know, writing appointments when I'm
in Nashville or in Austin or whatever. And people are like,
(01:12:12):
when you're off the road or when you're on the road,
do you need to like, you know, just be on
the road. I was like, no, I do a radio
show every morning from the road. I write songs on
the road. I've when I'm under pressure, I am a
much more like productive person. So the more that I
can do. That's why I think I don't mind honestly
(01:12:34):
doing all of the things because freak though I mean
probably I am because I'm scared if I don't do
it won't get done, and if it doesn't get done,
I'll fail. I'll be a failure again. Do you want
me to tell you one thing? Though, I definitely am
a control freak in it's because it's my name. I
want it done right, and I know if I do
it, it it will be done right. I have found there
(01:12:55):
is my tour manager now is the first person that
I have ever trust did to do certain things. And
not only does she do them, she kicks their butt.
She is It is like having another brain and two
more sets of hand, you know, like she is a machine.
(01:13:16):
She has changed my life so and just so dramatically.
And her name is Elisa. If you're listening to Lisa,
she is the best thing that's happened to me as
far as like being able to delegate something and I
know with no question in my mind that it will
get done properly. And if she has a question, she'll
call me and be like, is this how you want
(01:13:37):
it done? Like, actually, no, could you try this? And
she'd be like, oh my gosh, yeah, that's perfect. It
is awesome. I feel the same way about Mike, except
he doesn't ask me if that's how I want it done.
He just does it better than I would have done
at the beginning. But I never trusted anybody with anything
with shows or anything. I was doing that weird ever,
and I was like, Okay, I'm finally gonna give this
baby bird to Mike and say yes, but you but
you then you see it surviving and then all of
(01:13:58):
a sudden, not only driving, it's flying around and beating
people over the head with its wings. Hey I'm here,
And then I feel less end because Mike's better than
I am. And he's like, well I would do I dodd. Well, look,
we've we've been here for hour fifteen minutes. I've enjoyed
this so much too. You're just a jar of fun.
(01:14:20):
You just it's so your spirits just there. Thanks, you know.
So here's what I'm gonna say. You guys, go follow Sonny.
She's you know, getting sweenered on Instagram, but you're your
own name on TikTok, right, yeah, and Facebook, and getting
sweenered is Twitter and Instagram. Yeah, I'm confused, but I
got you. It's all on my website. If it's all,
(01:14:42):
it's linked on my website, just because I didn't realize
when I made those names that those would be like,
I know, so stupid. I wish I could change it now,
I know. But it's been years in the making that
we finally met. I know the two of your shows,
and I've listened to you way before you ever did this.
When you're back in Austin and mikel was like, hey,
Sonny's gonna be and I was like, really that, I'm
(01:15:03):
so happy, super cool. And then when I saw your
stuff with the country to call of fame. I was
going to remember to say it, and then I forgot
and then we start of talk and then I was like, oh, yeah,
that's right, and then it got us on to Dami
Lou Harris. This is all kind of happened organically, which
is super cool. Yeah, so thank you. You ask really
good questions too. I don't know that asks anything. I
just kind of live. But I mean, like you, you
(01:15:24):
don't you do ask like the Actually you ask the
right things. You ask things that make people want to talk. Well,
I appreciate That's what I When I listened to you,
I'm always like, oh, that question is going to make
this person say this. You know, like it's it's good.
You're really good at your job. I know you know that,
but like it's really fun. Same to you, You're really
(01:15:44):
good at your job. Thank you. So, Mike, anything you
want to say, could you teach me how to back
up a trailer? Yes, I want to do it. I
want to do it on a live feed. I want
to do that. I mean I have troubled my forward focus,
so I oh no, it's much easier to back a
trailer into back a regular car. Yeah, I don't think so,
because i'd had I'd pull trailers, boats, mowers, and I sucked.
(01:16:08):
Really yeah, yeah, I messed up a couple of them.
I think I could give you some pointers. I'm sure
you could watch me and like hit your gate on
the way. Hilarious, hilarious. All right, you guys go follow Sonny.
Go to Sunny tweeney dot com. The song they just
went up, Red Door a Girl. It's in Immlu Harris cover.
And then also her album which we just talked about,
which came out Middlelisi end of last year September. Yeah, okay, yeah,
(01:16:31):
I'm Middleshi end of last year. They kind of last
that term lash end. Yeah, married alone, and that song
also has Vince Gill on it and is not only
just the name of the album. Sonny, thank you, Thank
you so much. Thanks for listening to the Bobby Cast.
Share this episode with a friend because they don't pay
to advertise us.
When I got dropped from Big Machine, I gave myself
fourteen days. On the last day, at five pm the ACMs,
he said, we're not supposed to call you right now,
but I just felt like you needed to know this today.
We're not announcing it till like mid January, but you've
been nominated for an ACM. I saw our massive van
slash almost tour bus slash. I don't know, it was
(00:28):
just awesome, Like I need one of these. I don't
know why. It's like a mini home on wheels. Yeah.
I saw it drive into the driveway and I was like,
who is that? And it turns out it was Sunny Yeah.
And it's got like a big battering ram on the
front of it, and she talks about kind of why
but not a real battering ram, but it does have
a look, you know, something on the front there that
if anybody messed with her, she can just drive into you.
(00:49):
But Sunny Sweeney is our guest episode three eighty nine,
and so there's a lot we get into. Really enjoyed
this and it's rare that I get to talk to
somebody that back in the day I bought tickets to
watch and so I guess tickets. I think I just
paid at the door for her shows. Yeah, whatever it was.
It was in Austin, and she was in Austin, so
I would just go pay at the door and we
(01:10):
went in. So but regardless, I paid money to watch
her sing. And Sonny Sweeney talks a lot about, you know,
how her career started in Texas and then she came
to Nashville, and she talks about getting dropped and how
hard that was for her, like dropped from a label
and you know what's happened, Like she got signs that
you know, she's this person who believes in signs from
(01:31):
the universe. I don't know that I'm that person. The timing, though,
is yeah, I agree, yeah, the timing with those and
they're not just like a leaf blows in front of
you signs. She's like, give me a sign and that's
something massive happens. So I really enjoyed this Sonny Sweeney.
She's at getting sweenered on Instagram. By the way, we
always linked to socials in those notes where if you
(01:54):
gets a little drop down you can see it in there.
But she's got a couple of new songs. There is
Red Dirt Girl. It's an Emulu Harris cover that we
talk about here you go. When I say new, I
mean she put out a record in September last year,
so newish. But she's also got a whole dealt to
(02:17):
cut your music Hall of Fame, which we'll talk about.
So here we go. Also, let me shout out Jamie
Lyne Wilson because she's also on Red Dirt Girl with
Sunny Sweeney. There, but let's do it. She's on tour
right now. Got to Sunny Sweeney dot com. It's episode
three eighty nine. Here she is, Sonny Sweeney. Sonny, when
did you live in Austin. That's a funny question. Well,
my stuff is still in storage there right now. I'm
(02:38):
kind of not living anywhere. But I moved there in
ninety six for college, and you were there until kind
of like the last the last couple of months. Yeah,
I was thinking about just you. And I've listened to
your music for years, and I lived in Austub for
twelve years. I listened to you when I were there,
and I've been to a couple of your shows, but
(02:58):
I never met you. So weird. Yeah, And when I
walked in, you said, and I was thinking the same thing, like,
I don't think we've ever met. I've been to at
least two of your shows. That's so weird, and so
until now, I don't think we've ever actually spoken to
each other. We've been in the same city in the
same place a couple, and I literally listened to you
(03:20):
like as a fan. Oh you did in Austin. Well
that's so at some point this was going to happen. Yeah,
of course it was fine. So the big van out there,
that's mine, baby, that's a that's a big, awesome van. Okay,
So that's our touring van and UM. In June of
(03:42):
this past year, we were driving UM from Ohio. We
were in my car though, thank god, but we were
coming from Ohio to Nashville and an eight like eighty
miles an hour driving down the interstate, and this deer
decides to commit suicide and walked in front of us,
blew the deer up. It was terrible. It totaled the car.
(04:04):
It was really bad, really tragic. So my dad and
my stepdad bought me that big grill guard on the
front of it for the van. So it looks like
it's got a like some sort of protection system on it.
It is, and my dad and my stepdad are like, baby,
if you're driving down the road, you are protected, not
just from deer, like I think you can run through
(04:24):
a building with that thing and of those transformers. Yeah,
did you have trouble get that thing in the gate? No? Okay,
Oh I can park that in a regular spot. I can't.
I can't park my car in a regular spot. I'm terrible. Also,
here's what I was thinking about you. I went to
the country He's to Call of Fame four days ago,
and some of your stuff is there listening. If you
didn't know this, I'm telling you now, I think you
(04:45):
do know. But we saw we saw some of your stuff,
and I knew you were coming in and I was like, oh,
I should bring that up. Oh, trust me, I knew
and had like a shen dig around it. Um. So,
I've been doing this for a long time, like eighteen years,
and there's been so many times where I've just been
like I'm quitting, Like I can't do this anymore. It's
too hard, which of course is not ever going to
(05:06):
be the case. Something will always pull me back in
and I love it. And it's the only job that
I've ever loved. However, getting validation like that after eighteen
years and having them just randomly call when it was
I have a story for you that I'll tell you later,
but like, this is one of the moments in my
(05:27):
life where my mom was like, you know, I bounce
things off her all the time, and I was like, Mama,
I'm just done. I can't do this anymore. COVID was
too hard, like all this it just it sucked, Like
I don't want to do it anymore. She's like, baby,
please don't don't do this yet. Just you need to
say a prayer and you need to like beg for
a sign that you're supposed to keep doing this. This
(05:48):
is the second major thing that's happened in my life
when I've done this. They called me. They had already
mailed me a package with all of the invite and
everything saying they're going to put my stuff in there,
but I never got it because I moved. So then
the guy just randomly calls me one day and says
the curator or whatever, and he goes, hey, I don't
know if you ever got this message, but I said,
(06:11):
I didn't ever get a message. I never got an email,
I never got anything. Well that's why I was calling you.
I thought you would be excited about this. But it
was literally two days after I had told my mom
I was quitting. And so then I thought, O, well,
now I've got stuff in the country music Call of Fame.
Now this was just like last weekend. So my whole
family came up to Texas. Yeah, there was a sort
a hat there. There's one of my hats, like a
(06:32):
cool looking hat. Yeah, standard hat works from Waco, Texas. Um,
it's my friend Cameron. He makes the best hats. He's
like the only hat that I'll wear, probably because he
just he knows how big my like actually circumference, not
how figuratively big my head is, but like the circumference
of my head and um, and so he just will
sometimes just bust out like a really cool hat. And
(06:54):
he made one for me to wear to that with
these cactuses on the side. It was really cool. But anyway, yeah,
he's got one in I've got in the display. There's that,
and then my guitar did I have a bunch of
signatures on and then um, a piece of woodwork that
my dad made in reference to one of my songs
called Poets prayer and then um my, because I'm trashy,
(07:14):
I guess, but I have like a dream holder that
goes into my mic stand and I put that in there. Well, congratulations,
that's super cool. And we were going through my wife's grandpa.
I had never been to the opera or the country
means to Call of Fame, so we did all that
this weekend. I love that, And what's cool is it?
You know, sometimes myself I take it for granted because
it's here and I work at the opera and I
(07:37):
perform at the opera. And then we did the countries
to Call of Fame and walk through everything, and I
saw your and I knew you were coming in, and
I was like, dang, I should remember the teller I saw.
That makes me so happy. American the American American Currents
are the really cool new room build out. Yeah, congratulations.
So was that a sign to you? Was that the
sign you're absolutely? I mean yes, absolutely. And you know
(08:00):
the other one that happened so dramatically was I'm a
very open book with my life and how this whole
like music thing has transpired over the years. But in
two thousand and twelve, at the end of We'll get
into this later, I'm sure, but what I call my
time on the Artist Protection Program. When I got dropped
(08:21):
from Big Machine, I was devastated. I was like, I
didn't know what to do. I didn't. I was like,
do I feel like a loser? Do I feel proud
that they thought I was too country? Like? I mean,
what are my feelings? You know? And I couldn't never
get really my head wrapped around anything. I just knew
that I was super depressed and I couldn't I couldn't
really figure out what my plan was. And I was like,
(08:46):
am I Am I gonna need to like get a job, Like,
am I gonna need to like go I have a
college degree. I don't know if I can get a
job doing that. But I mean, what do I do?
And I was just like panicking. And I told my mom.
This was in two twelve, and I was like, Mama,
I just I'm gonna quit, you know whatever. She's like,
please beg verst sign, Please beg for a sign. She goes,
give yourself like a date, you know, like give yourself
(09:07):
fourteen days. And if you don't get that sign, she goes,
you know that I will stand behind you no matter
what you do, but please do this for me because
I know this is what you're supposed to do. It's like, okay, fine,
you know, roll my eyes. So I gave myself fourteen
days and um, this was in December, and you know,
the music business like shuts down. And on the last
(09:29):
day at five pm, um, the ACMs called me during
everything being shut down and said that I had a
They weren't. He said, we're not supposed to call you
right now, but I just felt like you needed to
know this today. Um, we're not announcing it till like
mid January, but you've been nominated for an ACM without
a label, without a song on the radio. It was
(09:50):
wild twelve. So for this after you've been dropped the
two three months after I got that quick wow. Yeah.
And they called you when they weren't I supposed to
at a time where you were giving yourself fourteen days
and it was on the fourteenth day at five pm. Two.
So what do you do when you hang up that call? Well,
(10:10):
I was sobbing hysterically first, and I immediately called my
mom and I was like, well, you're not You're not
gonna believe this. Actually, you are going to believe this
and I told her what happened, and she just she
was so excited and she's like, I told you, And
for you know, honestly, for for years, that little thing
(10:32):
carried me through, knowing like all the hard nights and
all the hard because this is a hard business, like
I mean, you know as well as I know, like
it is is not for the faint of heart. And
I ultimately kind of think maybe I'm like a cockroach
because I just I keep like people keep trying to exterminate,
you know, like use different extermination methods and all this.
(10:54):
But I think my love for music just honestly like
keeps me going a lot of times. And then those
two events like the Hall of Fame thing and then
that ten years apart. By the way, you know, most
people probably wouldn't admit that they tried to quit. But
also like it's hard. I don't want people to think
this is easy. You know. There's too many people that
are trying to do this that come up and ask
(11:16):
for advice, and they say, like, what's your advice for
getting started in the music business. I'm like, well, there's
two things. Either don't or be prepared to work harder
than you've ever worked in your life at anything, and
be prepared to be alone even though you're with people
all the time. Put your head down and just focus
(11:37):
on what you want to happen, and then prepare. You know.
It's like I saw a meme once that said, like
grind now so that your dog can have a good
yard later, sort of like that, like grind now, you know,
and then enjoy the fruits of your labor, like later
after you have been busting your ass for however long
you said something, be prepared to be alone even though
(12:00):
there will be people around you. What do you mean
by that? I mean like working, Like I have a band,
I have employees, I have all of that, and my
partner is actually in my band. He's my guitar player.
So I'm you know, I'm not alone so to speak.
But in theory this is the joke. And my band
is name on the door, so they're like your name's
(12:20):
on the door, Like if there's like a bad promoter
or something, you know, and I have to go deal
with something, it's me that has to go deal with something.
So like you know, and I still do my own merch,
I ship my own merch, I store my own merch
like I do literally everything. I'm back a trailer better
than anyone ever in the band, and like I want
(12:42):
to kind of have like a contest. I've thought about
having a contest because there's all these like men that
are pretty chauvinistic, not in my band, but where they're like,
y'all gonna let that little lady drive the band, and
they're like, letter let her my dad would My dad's
been teaching me how to drive a band. I was,
you know, seven, So anyway, like I do, it's on me.
(13:05):
Your job is on you, no matter who your employees are,
no matter it's always on you. Your name is the
one that's on the door. If they mess up, it's
your responsibility exactly, and if they do something bad, it
comes back on you, which is why I don't have
people that party too hard or do weird shit on
the road or whatever, you know, Like I don't do that.
This is a business. It's a business like first and foremost,
(13:28):
and it always has been, and I've always looked at
it like that, and I just feel like, honestly, I
mean even this morning I was over there ship and
March I was just like, I don't want to give
twelve percent of the merch away just because someone I'm
capable of doing this, So it's all on me. That's
what I mean by being alone, like in the sense of,
(13:48):
you know, I'm doing I'm doing the things that are
making the thing work, you know, and I've been doing
it for eighteen years. Yeah, you're the CFO, the CEO.
You're also the face. You're all I mean. And if
anybody messes up, it's also on you. You can't really
blame anybody else either. They don't come to you and
say if some drunk drummer or whatever is being a
(14:11):
jerk someone. They don't say the drunk drummer from this band.
They go, we're not having Sunny Squeeney's band back. That
guy was an asshole, you know, like or whatever. That
comes back on me, and that is never going to happen.
So I choose to put wonderful people around me. And
the people that I have around me are, oh my gosh,
you found a good group. Now. It's everything is so
(14:33):
good right now. So I let everyone go fifteen months
ago and started again from the ground up, new, all
the way across, all the way across. Why do you
think or what I'm gonna ask you this, and this
may make you have a little bit of a big head,
but you really it won't sound like that. But why
do people believe in you in your band? Um? Honestly,
I feel like, you know, I heard I heard Rick
(14:56):
Rubin do an interview before, and you know, he doesn't
play in intruments, and people are like, why do you
think that you are so sought after as a musician
or as a producer, And He's like, because people believe me,
they believe in my vision. And I feel like that's
what it is with me too, because I have been
doing this for so long and I will give anyone
(15:18):
advice if they ask for it. I'm not one of
those people that just like puts it out there, but
they're Lately, there have been a lot of young women
that are in this business that have like that I
don't know, that have reached out to me and asked
like crazy, like kind of weird, intense questions, and I'm like, oh,
let's go. Let's like I want to give you. I
want a corner cut for you if I can, in
(15:41):
any way, shape or form. And I just feel like,
you put good out into the world, and you get
good back. That's what I think it is. Did you
have anybody that helped you like that? Oh? Absolutely when
you were young you said, hey, help me out or
let me know what you know, and that would help
me out. Who was that for you? I have like
a couple of them and I call them my corner creditors.
Red Vulcart, he's a guitar player in Austin Or he
(16:02):
moved to Virginia now, but he was one of the
guys that I would share a Tuesday night with him
at Egos and he taught me guitar a little bit,
and he was just a really good friend. And he
was he played with Merle Haggard, which is my hero,
and so I was kind of like, man, this guy's
so cool and he's he's willing to help me and
give me advice, you know, unsolicited sometimes him. And then
(16:25):
Dallas Wayne, who's a radio DJ now also on series
Sex in which I do that also. But he was
actually at my first gig ever, first gig ever, Like
he randomly showed up at my first gig ever because
he was old, oh, twenty seven and how does he
randomly show up? He was playing after me. I was
(16:47):
like the band that was playing, and he came up
to me, Dallas did, and he said, he goes, I
don't know how long you've been doing this, but you
have really good potential and I'd love to help you
anyway that I can. And I said, oh, tonight, it's
my first gig. And he's like, oh, like your first gig.
I go, no, like really, this is like my first
(17:10):
gig ever. And it was at the Carousel in um Austin,
you know, across from that halfway house. And I know
exactly where Egos is, and I worrying. I'm sure we're
talking about things that, yeah, Mike and I know really well. Yeah,
I mean I lived there twenty years, so I mean
or twenty some years, so yeah, yeah. I was like,
I didn't. I didn't get into music until my first
(17:31):
gig was two thousand and four, which, yeah, which is
older than most to do a first gig. YEP. I
think definitely you had something inside you that made you
sound really educated quickly music music wise, because when I
saw you, it wasn't two maybe two years after what
(17:54):
you just said. I didn't know you don't be doing
a couple of years and I educated. I mean it
felt like you had just learned a whole lot in
a short period of time. Then I feel like when
you're starting all the way with this song, I feel
like songs are written with who they're supposed to be
written with. I feel like, you know, things that you
learn are learned when they're supposed to be learned. I
could have learned guitar. When I was twelve. My stepdad
(18:16):
and you know, begged me to let him teach me guitar,
and I was like, oh, it's for old people. It's
because him and my uncles would sit around and play guitar,
and I thought it was for old people. So when
I went to college, I went to Southwest And then
when I went to college, I graduated and had a
job for like twenty one day something like this is
not what I worked at UM. I worked in a
(18:36):
cubicle at this place called Support Kids, and it's basically
where you would get deadbeat parents to pay their child support.
It was, it was rough, and it was it broke
my heart more than anything, like dealing with some of
the parents that just wanted nothing to do with their kids.
And I, I, thank god, have never had to deal
with that, but I have plenty of friends that you
know have parents in similar situations, and it just broke
(19:01):
my heart, like it's really tragic, and so I just
I just called my stepdad and was like, hey, man,
I think I'm ready to learn guitar. Wow. What did
he say to that? He said, I'm sorry, could you
repeat yourself? And so he went and bought me a guitar,
taught me three chords, and we were coincidentally going on
(19:21):
a family vacation that weekend. So from Austin all the
way to red River, New Mexico or wherever we were
going skiing, I played those three chords in the back
of the suburban, just over and over, and they laughed
now because they were like, you were literally driving us crazy,
but we were so happy that you found something that you,
you know, enjoyed doing. And and I've always sang like
(19:43):
I would sang in church and you know, choir and
all that, and then a minor or. I was going
to minor in musical theater, but then I moved to
New York for two years tool side note, and I
wanted to be a Broadway star. And that's a lot
harder than seems. Everything is, honestly, of course, especially when
you have to be a creative yes, consistent, and different,
(20:09):
because to do all of those to do one of them,
all right, you can be creative, but how are you
going to be different? How are you going to be special?
How are you going to be consistent? And also with
creative people, it's really hard to find consistency because because
we're nuts. Absolutely we have. You have to be nuts
to even get in this business. Yep. And so you're
already nuts if you've decided I'm in and I'm going
(20:30):
to keep going, and so those kind of people like myself,
like you, it's hard to find consistency there, even within ourselves.
You were talking about just to throw some in there,
you're you can tell you're an og like me because
you called a Southwest. It's Texas State, you know, yeah,
it's Southwest, right, Yeah? That When you said that, I
was like, dang, that's og. That's like I went the
(20:51):
last semester before they changed the name, and they asked
if I wanted a new diploma. I was like, no,
I didn't go to Texas State. I went to Southwest's
the collector's item too. You grew up and your childhood
years like five to twelve. What was homelike then? So
my parents got divorced when I was like four, and
(21:11):
so then the family unit was different, do you know
what I mean? And as an adult, it's easier for
me to see how and I've been divorced twice, so
like I see now that, like not all marriage is
meant to be you know, you think it is, you
have this like whatever. So my parents were not meant
to be married, and then they got married to other
(21:33):
people and they're still married to those people a couple
of years after that. And I've always had four parents,
you know. And I sometimes feel selfish saying that because
there's so many people that don't even have like one parent.
But I feel like each of them gave me something,
(21:54):
do you know what I mean? Like, do you feel
like your stepmom and your stepdad obviously two from both units,
do you feel like they both love you? Yes? My
stepfather is I mean, one of my favorite people in
this entire universe. He's his artwork is the one that's
in the Hall of Fame, Like, he means a lot
to me, and he's the one that taught me how
(22:14):
to play guitar. He's the one that you know, the
family life on my mom and my stepdad's side was
bluegrass and country and like Kenny Rogers and Conway Twitty
is my mama's favorite. And then like my dad's house
was more like Crosby Steels, Nash and Young and Tom
Petty and Stevie Nicks, and so I feel like a
(22:34):
lot of both households. It's like by osmosis almost like
when you learn what you like as a child, you
may not even really like it, you just know what
you're exposed to, which is how country music is now.
I feel like people like what they're exposed to. If
they were exposed to my music, I feel like more
people would. You know, it's more like Americana, you know
(22:55):
what I mean? But I think is the world country music?
If we're basing I do too what country music used
to be. I also believe in fluidity and not really
a signing. But when people go, oh, it's American, it's
not country, I'm like, man, it's the countryest thing there is. Well,
so here's the weird thing, and this is the weird thing?
(23:17):
Is this? So I used to say I'm a country
artist and I am. I mean, I'm from East Texas,
I would agree you're a country artist. Yes, yes, But however, however,
the country that is current now is not what I do. Correct.
So when I say I'm a country artist to a
random person on a plane, when they see me with
a guitar and they're like, what do you do? And
(23:37):
I'm like, I'm you know, I'm a secret shopper. I mean,
I'm you know, what do you think? I am? Like,
I'm just carrying this guitar around for fun. But I'm like,
I'm a you know, country singer. And I used to
say that and now I just say, um, I'm a
singer songwriter because I don't want I am. I have
so many beliefs about the way that I make music
(24:01):
and I want people to give it a chance. So like,
if there's someone that doesn't like current music and they
only like older music, I don't want them to not
give me a chance just by putting a label, because
I'm kind of with you, like, I don't think it
should have a label necessarily. But but I am country
and I will always be a country artist. I'll always
you know, my kind of country at least. So it's
(24:23):
a really hard I say your country. I think so
countries could be I think I think so too, But
then for sure that the popular standard of country is
based on who the most popular artists are right now exactly.
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
This is the Bobby Cast. Your mom. You've mentioned her
(24:44):
probably four times and we've been talking for twenty three minutes.
I want to know about your mom because it sounds
like she's still a great influence in your life. She is,
She's awesome. Um, she's actually an israel right now. They
went to Israel to do to go like to the
Holy Land? Wow? Has she ever been before? Now? And
what motivated that? They were at church one day and
(25:06):
their preacher was like, Hey, we're gonna have a trip
to Israel. Who wants to go? And before they even
left church, my stepdad told my mom, Hey, I signed
us up for that. We're going to Israel. My mom
was like, we are, so I am thrilled for them.
Like they went to Nazareth today, it's like eight hours ahead.
I think they went to Nazareth today and then tomorrow
(25:29):
they're going to see Jesus's tomb and like stuff like that.
I think that traveling is the reason that I continue
doing this job. I love traveling. It is my favorite
thing on this planet. Nothing will ever compare to it,
no edge process of it. Though you're like getting to
these places. I don't mind either of it. Really, I'm
not one of those it's so weird. I know, I
don't care as long as I'm in motion. I'm one
(25:52):
of those people that's like a motion person. And like
today when we leave here, I'm literally getting in the
van going into hatching the trailer and then we're driving
a Little Rock and I'm so excited to go to
Little Rock. Hey, nothing on that route. I do it
about six times a year. But good luck to you.
But you know what I mean. So they're in they're
in a Israel and and and my mom is, you know,
(26:15):
clearly my best friend and time every day, all the time,
more more than more than every day. What about what
about her makes her a great friend and a great mom?
And what are you happy that you got from her?
I think she's the one that always told me. You know,
it sounds cliche, but like you can do whatever you
want to do. As long as you really really want
(26:37):
to do something, you can figure out a way and
do not ever let anyone tell you otherwise. So I
think the persistence aspect of it is what I got
from her, like just not giving up the cockroach aspect,
I guess is what we should call it. And you
know her, her humor is really good and like she
(26:58):
she can she can get it no matter what I'm
talking about. We can have like a conversation with our
eyes in a room full of people without even talking.
So to me, that's a pretty big deal. You know,
to have that first call if something goes wrong, oh yeah,
like something like real, like like yeah, fundamentally it's something's wrong,
you call her, absolutely yeah. And is she your first
(27:22):
call and something goes right? Absolutely? Yeah? Her? And I
mean my partner, I call him. I call him, you know,
unless we're together somewhere also with him a lot too,
right Yeah. So I mean, you know, but if if
I'm like by myself and I get good news, I'll
usually text both of them first and be like, can
y'all call me back? You know, I like Sharon good news. Yeah,
(27:46):
And does she text? I don't know, Yeah, she text her?
Oh yeahcause she was a lot of emojis I had
to have the talk with because I would imagine she's
over sixty, she's seventy. Okay, now what's her emoji use? Like?
These are great questions. I love this. I had to
have a talk with her. I was like, mom, one
(28:08):
emoji's fun. You don't have to do you don't have
to do literally seventeen lines of emojis, all different. You know,
I know you know what I'm talking about, and that's
why I ask. And I was being sensitive about you know.
I don't old she was, but I got to the
text question that I was like, I'm going in for
the emojis because I feel like anybody over sixty, like
(28:29):
sixty three, they either don't know how to use somebody
use way too many, and it's either one of the two.
So she uses way too many. She did, and then
I had to have the talk with her because I
was like, if you're doing this to me, you're probably
doing this to other people too. So this is annoying,
So don't do that. And then what do you call it?
A y'all? Or is it a gift or a Jeff? Yeah,
(28:50):
Jeff like a j but it's with a g. Okay,
so a Jeff. She has found the jef. So she
hits a little little work I were glass. It pulls
up all the jeffs you could send. Yeah, oh yeah,
so she is a Jeff user. And she sent me
one the other day and it was so she didn't
watch it all the way through, you know how it's
(29:11):
tough times has words at the end, like a penis
comes up from me. You didn't even see. It's because
I'll do that. I'll send some sometimes too. Well I'm like, oh,
this is hilarious, and I send it. Then I don't
watch it. Why did she send you? Um? It was
it was not good. Um. And I had to call
her and be like, mom, do you remember when because
(29:32):
there was this one time, like back when vhs was
a thing, So she would buy vhs like at garage
sales because you could tape over them, you know, and
she would she would tape her shows on them, you know,
like when you could tape shows before DVR or whatever
it's called DVR. And um, anyway, so I am not
(29:54):
kidding when I say this, this is a joke. In
my family. She was recording stuff and sending it to
her sister, to me, to whoever. Like, you know, she
was like so proud that she could record whatever shows
we wanted, they had porn on them. So oh whoas
at the end, she just didn't get far. It did
not get far. She just like hit record. So it's
a joke in our family now, like she's so like,
(30:17):
thank god her sisters were the ones that saw it.
And then my mom called everyone that she had sent
a thing to and was like, what's in turn it
off five minutes before it's over. I'll tell you how
it ends. That's funny. I was going through your music
a little bit ago and I saw a new song
I popped up and it was Emily Harris cover. And
I'm not familiar with Jamie Lynn Wilson, but I know
(30:39):
you guys did that song together? Why that song? What
about that song stood out? And why her? So Jamie
and I have been friends a long time and we
were touring together in Switzerland in twenty sixteen and it
was just me and her just doing a solo you know,
song swap thing for two weeks and um, we just
on trip, did a lot of driving and we would,
(31:03):
you know, plug the iPod in and just start listening
to music. And we always were leaning towards Emmy and
so we realized that we both had this infatuation with
that record, the Red Dirt Girl record, and it talked
about procrastinator. It took us like what seven years to
actually record it, after we had initially decided, let's should
the song. Sorry, yeah, just the song. No that I'm
(31:26):
saying that you didn't take seven years to record. It's
one song you're talking about. We didn't restart recording it
until about three months ago, So I'm saying it took
seven years to come to fruition. And so then we
just put it out and um, and we I threw
threw it all out there because every answer is going
to be no unless you ask. And so I contacted
(31:47):
Buddy Miller, who is, in my opinion, one of the
greatest musicians and people on this earth. And I was like, hey, Buddy, UM,
I know this is a shot in the dark and
you're probably gonna say no, but if you would possibly
let Emmy hear this, because I know Yellow really close
and if she's interested, would you ask her if she
(32:07):
would maybe want to sing harmony? He goes, oh, I'll hey,
I will get it to her. I will, I will
definitely get it to her. I will let her hear it.
But I don't think she's doing much right now other
than what's kind of on her calendar. I was like, okay,
well if you would just send it to her anyway,
just see so Emmy Lou Harris is a huge dog person,
(32:30):
as am I, and so I wrote her a letter
and I sent her a picture of my dog wearing
a bow tie and she this. Two days later, Buddy
called me. He goes here, you're not gonna believe this.
She's gonna take a swing at it. So and I
was like what, and he I go win and he
said tomorrow. I said tomorrow, okay, And he said would
(32:54):
you like to come over and meet her? And I'd
met her like backstage, you know, fifteen years ago somewhere,
but never like really talk to her. And he goes, yeah,
if you come over at one, we're going to record it.
Come over at one and then you know, you can
meet her. I was like, okay. I went and sat
in a laundry matt parking lot for two hours before
the time when he told me to be there in
(33:14):
case they got finished early, so that I could be there,
And then when I showed up, I was like, oh hey,
oh yeah. I was like I know, I had a
friend that lives near here and me and the laundry
matter my friend, but I was so excited to meet
her and she was so gracious and so sweet and um, actually,
do you know who Radney Foster is? So Radney actually
(33:34):
texted me yesterday and said that he had run into
Emmy Lou a couple days ago and that she was
really really happy with how that turned out. And she came,
you know, saying on it and she said, I'm just
so glad that they wanted to cut my song. That's
just so you know, flattering. And of course my heart's
exploding while I'm reading that text message because I love her.
(33:55):
I just she's the coolest. She's like the ultimate cool,
you know, and it cut me to call a fan.
The whole thing about her too. I don't know if
you if you saw it, but just spending time breaking
down her early life and how different because now we
just go, oh, the great Emma Lou Harris, but what
she was doing was kind of radical at the time. Yeah,
and how she was doing her music and who she
was doing it with and who and I would encourage
(34:17):
anybody just to look her up. I mean, she kind
of at times was like a hippie total like California
but country, and was taking that there and bringing that here,
and like working with Doll. I mean she had the
Albert League guy playing guitar with her too, which was
a totally like I mean, he has a bad ass
and he's just like he's guy's such a great guitar player.
(34:40):
But like that Luxury Liner. Just I mean, if anyone
is caring at all what I'm saying, you should listen
to a Luxury Liner because it is it is like
so radical, like you said, just like it's it's so
above it's time. Yeah. I can only imagine people were like,
what is she doing when she first started doing it,
and then she was so great at combining styles where
(35:04):
it didn't feel like she was combining styles. I felt
like she created her own path. Yeah, that she became
what people tried to be like, and then it just
became normal because she was so wonderful at it. Yeah,
that's very true. It's very true. I never thought about that,
but yeah, that's I recently, I mean, I just spent
a bunch of time like I was at the Hall
of Fame, and then I went back and kind of
deep dove a little more. And it's funny you bring
(35:26):
her up, and I didn't even know that that she
would that she's saying the harmonies on that. Yeah, she's
on the end of it. She's on the bridge and
the last chorus. That's really cool that she agreed to
do that. And it was a dog with a bow
tie for sure, because whatever you wanted for me, if
you had a dog with Boti picture, I was say, yes,
what do you need to Kidney? Yeah, absolutely sing it.
Absolutely a dog in bow tie. I'm in the Bobby Cast.
(35:46):
We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.
You mentioned your very first ever performance. You said you
were twenty seven. Why did it take until twenty seven
or maybe twenty four? I don't even four. Yeah, even
if you were to say nineteen, yeah, for most folks there,
And I say this working on America, and I hope
(36:07):
for four years. I'll be like, I've a waiting a
whole life for this, And I'm like, bro, you're fourteen.
That's what I mean, your whole life. I got an
armpit hairs long older than you. So when did the
music bug bite you? For lack of a better question
about that. Well, so my performance my first performance I
mean that with a band, like yeah, but like a
pay with with a band, where yeah, you're like, this
(36:28):
is my show. I mean I always have done like stage,
like stage has always been where I've been most comfortable.
You know, I did um, you know high school would
you do? Oh every play that was available and um,
but even younger than that, like middle school plays. Um,
(36:49):
That's why I wanted to do musical theater. What was
the dream then? I didn't really I didn't really have
a certain dream. I just knew that my hometown wasn't
where I needed to be to do what I wanted
to do. Your hometown it wasn't specifically Houston. Did you
have one of the suburbs? Law View, Texas is where
I'm from. So Houston's where I was born, and then
we moved up to northeast Texas like when I was two.
Got it. So you don't really remember Houston as far
(37:11):
as like growing up. Yeah, because my whole family still
lived there, so I went there all the time. Got it.
But lawn View is very small and and it's very quaint,
and it's cute, and there's a small little county airport
and I knew that I needed something bigger than that.
How did you know that? Why did you know that?
I don't know. That's the weird thing. So I have
(37:33):
a friend actually that passed away last year. His name
was Heath, and me and him, when we were still
in high school, we both had this whatever this was
where we had this like vision of us leaving this town.
And there was a booking agent over on Gilmour Road,
a booking agent in my hometown. Like, we don't even
(37:53):
know really what she booked, like we laughed about it
as adults, but anyway, he and I went there, I
think our junior year of high school, and we just
sat in her office and it was like Joey from Friends,
you know, with the agent smoking the cigarettes. She was
literally smoking cigarettes talking to me in Heath and she's like, so,
do you have a resume, and we're like a resume?
(38:14):
We don't know. So that was our first experience. We
wanted to talk to her about booking us in movies. Yeah,
but what was she booking? We don't know. I still know,
I'm curious, like what was I don't know that either,
And he's not with us anymore, so we can't even
really honestly figure it out. But um, she was this.
It probably was like a casting agency for who knows
(38:36):
what really, But I mean I remember where it was,
and it was in this like strip center and we
go in there and and Heath and I laughed about
it until you know, the last time I saw him
was twenty nineteen. We laughed about it then because he
is he was an actor, and all of his friends
or actors out in LA and so he was like, hey, yo,
(38:56):
we're the ones that actually left. We're following our dreams.
And so he was kind of like my first person
that gave me the courage to figure out what I
wanted to do. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
So then when I went to college, I did entertainment
pr because I thought, well, I'll be a publicist. That'd
be a great job for me. I'd be great at this.
But then that didn't work out because I got bit
(39:18):
by the wanting to do the performance part of it.
And did you do that at Southwest? No? But productions
there no, because I was just there to finish school,
like my parents really wanted me to finish school, and
I did not want to be there. But I had
an internship at Lone Star Music and the guy that
owned the company's name is Chad, and he's in a
(39:39):
wheelchair and he's a paraplegic, and so he would have
me go out to the venues to find people to
put their merchandise on our website to sell artist. So
I went to this club one night and I called
Chad and I was like, hey man, this guy, Like
I could do what this guy is doing. I just
(40:01):
have to learn to play guitar. Chack goes do it,
and I was like, no, I mean, like, I have
to learn to play guitar. He goes do it. So
that's you know, I just kind of got really interested in, like, oh,
all these people are they're they're writing songs, they're writing
stories and then they're putting them to music. And I
already wrote stories because I'm an English miner in college,
(40:24):
and I'm like, I've written stories, you know for however
long I've been in college six years. If I can
just play guitar, I ben I can figure this out.
So that's when I called my dad, like after I graduated,
and was like, I can I know I can do this,
and Paul, my stepdad, that's his name. He was like,
I mean, I know you can do it. It's like
no question in my mind. Well how long did it
(40:45):
take you to find it? And obviously your voice and
I'm not talking about your physical voice, but your your voice,
who you are, what you say, what you stand for musically?
How long until you kind of found what that was? Initially?
Pretty much since I started, because I know what I like.
I've always known what I like, which is classic country music,
(41:07):
Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. I love that stuff. Now that
being said, I really love Tom Petty. I think he
was the everything. There is a Tom Petty song for
every situation. And Stevie Nicks. I just feel like it
is the biggest style icon that's ever walked on the planet.
And so kind of Lauretta Lens talking about she was
(41:31):
so ahead of her time. Even now, if her songs
came out they came out in the sixties, even if
they came out now, people would still be show I
mean the pill look, dude, I can't imagine that. Then,
I know, you know what kind of uproar that calls no?
I yes, but no, it's I think in my head,
I do I know but I can't imagine we're in
twenty twenty three. You're talking about the sixties, I know.
(41:53):
Putting that out, I know, I would imagine every super
conservative and you're talking about a time when everybody's can servative,
just generally because it was the sixties. Yeah, that they
had to be shutting doors and no where you're not
listening to that, yeah, breaking it, turning the radio. That's culture.
That's as punk as you could possibly be, I know.
And she was. She she's the one that that spoke
(42:17):
for all of us. And she's the she's the reason
that I will write about stuff that's that's taboo. Sure,
she's the one that told me to write about stuff
that's taboo. Well, you know, it was not comfortable for her,
and she kicked down so many kicked up at so
many doors and down so many walls for other female artists.
Oh my god, because of what she put herself through
(42:39):
doing that. She's literally the queen for any woman that
walked behind her. Now that being said, she'll tell you
that Kitty Wells was the queen that kicked every you know,
door down for her. And it just shows me that,
like it's always been a thing with women. It's always
been a thing. It still is. Oh yeah, yeah, and
(43:00):
in twenty years it still will be and there'll be
people like yourself. Like in Katy Walls, you have the
first number one song as a female artist ever. Is that?
I don't know, but yes, it wasn't Guy Too Made
Honky tonk Angels was her big and I think that
was the first. I'd be interested to know that. I
actually don't know that if I know that, Mike, because
we were listening to Jake Ohen and I are big
(43:22):
classic classic. There's classic country, and there's like classic classic
where sometime people forget Kitty Walls is in that and
we we were just listening to that song a few
weeks ago. Is that the first it is? I'm trying
to find the exact song, but she was Katy Walls
was first woman to have a number one. Well, so
whenever Luretta died, um, you know, it was hard for
(43:42):
me to not say, you know the queen, But I
mean for me, she's my queen um and she will
always be and I had the pleasure of meeting her
and she she's the one that gave me so much
advice about writing and like write what you know, right,
what you know? It's that simple, right what you know? Really? Yeah? Right?
(44:03):
What you know? Because if if you know it, then
there's other women that know it. Sure, So why would
you hesitate what's saying calling her the queen? Oh? Because
because she would. She would probably laugh at that and
be like and say somebody else's She was like, oh, baby, now,
Keaty Whales is the queen, you know, But like, Lauretta
is my queen, hands down, She's she She kicked down
every door. Um that I could have ever wanted kicked down,
(44:27):
because I don't think that there should be any I
think just because I'm female, maybe it is considered crass
if I sing about some of the things I sing about,
or maybe it's considered taboo or maybe like I remember,
I had a song UM on my label when I
(44:48):
had a label, UM, Big Machine was my record label. UM.
I remember the the A and R person When we
were discussing songs to go on my record. She said
to me, Um, nobody wants to hear from the other woman.
Someone just want a Grammy. Yeah, Carly and Nashley mcbrian
(45:09):
Yeah yeah, So I feel like it was just a
little early, you know, and that's fine, Like I am
so excited for them like to win that. But I
mean there's been many songs about that, but I remember
ply on the same label. Yeah, no, no, no, that's ironic. Yeah,
but I remember her saying that, and I remember saying,
(45:29):
like it's country music, like you think that? Do you
do you think that just because I'm a female, that
nobody's gonna want to hear me talk about that, because
there are plenty of women over the last ten years
that have come up to me saying, you know, oh,
thank you for that song. You know, so it kind
(45:50):
of does sting a little bit. But also I'm so
excited that there is a time now where there are
women speaking like that, you know, and saying things that
I feel like to be said, you know, And I mean,
we go out, girls go out, girls party. You know,
it's not like tell me more, do you know what
(46:10):
I mean? Like, it's it's um, especially in this business,
like you kind of have to adapt and it's a
it's a male dominated business and you have to kind
of adapt as a woman in this business. And um,
A couple of my friends say that when they go
home to their families that they their their husband will
be like, oh, I see that you've got road mouth, because, like,
(46:32):
you know, girl, it's like you're in a different world
when you're on the road and then you go home.
You know, I don't have a family at home, so
like my life kind of just stays pretty consistent. But um,
that's the joke with them. And but I mean, girls,
girls have we have things to say, we have things
to talk about. I know, I do, you know, and
(46:53):
I don't hold back on those things. And if if
it's uncomfortable for you, I'm very sorry, not you, but
whoever's listening. That's what music is supposed to do, is
bring up emotions. Right, So if I have a song
about one of my friends committing suicide, it's uncomfortable for
me to sing it. It was uncomfortable for me to
(47:15):
write it. But there have been people that have tattooed
these lyrics on their body, you know. So it's just
a very it's a weird dynamic being a woman in
this business, it really is. It's very interesting to navigate.
Hank Tye, the Bobby Cast will be right back. Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast. You signed a
(47:37):
record deal with Big Machine in two thousand and seven,
six six, So did you develop a base through the Texas, Oklahoma,
Arkansas kind of area, touring around and that's why they
found you? Or did somebody hear you and go we
should sign you. This is the weirdest story and you
probably won't believe me, but so I was doing music
(48:00):
down at played at the Poodle Dog Lounge every Sunday night,
you know where that is Jenny's little Longhorn, all the
little dives in Austin, played at Central Market, played at
the grocery store, played anywhere they would let me set
up my pa and um. Then my fans that would
come come to these shows, what they would say, like,
you need to make a CD. I was like, came
(48:21):
a CD. Like They're like, no, really, you need to
make a CD. I had no intentions. I wanted free
beer and burgers, you know, like, and that's I was.
I was eating for free and drinking for free, and
like I was living the high life and um. Anyway,
so I ended up making a CD and somehow, and
I to this day do not know how this happened
(48:42):
because I did not even know this guy. My CD
ended up on Scott Borshat's desk. No clue. How still
I didn't. I didn't like, had not been to Nashville,
and um, so he sends me a message on my Space.
He's like, hey, I own a record label. And I
was like, this sounds creepy. Sound creepy. Totally sounds creepy.
It didn't have a picture. It was just like the
(49:03):
Little Gray Head and I was like, this sounds super creepy,
but um wow. So I looked up the record label
he was talking about and I saw that Jack Ingram
was on that record label. And I've known Jack since
I was fifteen. So I called Jack and I was like, uh,
this dude just sends me a message. He's like, Sonny,
call him back. He's like what are you crazy. He's
like yeah, that's the head of my record label. Call
(49:24):
him back. And I was like, okay, this is kind
of weird. So I called him and I was like, hey,
it's sunny. And he's like, hey, um, could you send
me another copy of this? Um My wife won't let
me have this one back, but we would really love
to see you play. Are you ever going to play
in Nashville? And I was like, Oh, it's funny that
you mentioned that I'm going to play there in like November,
(49:46):
and this was like July. He goes, we're coming. I
was like, okay. He goes, can you put us on
the list? And I was like, which is Billy Block lit?
It was the Billy Block Show. Do you remember Billy Block?
He did like A. It was like A, I don't
even know what. So you did have a plan to
be here in November though, you didn't make that part up? No, No,
(50:07):
it was already planned. Yeah, I was coming to the
Billy Block Show. It was like a showcase. So I
come to this gig, they come and this was one
month before I turned thirty years old. And because I
was born in nineteen seventy six, so two thousand and six.
And at that gig he said, I'd like you signed
(50:27):
to my record label. At that time, it was Jack
and Justin Moore and Taylor and like one or two
other people. And and I said, oh, okay, I mean cool.
I had no idea what I was doing. You have
no like Bobby, I really did not know what I
was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing. I
(50:49):
really didn't know what I was doing. That all being said,
he did everything he said he was going to do.
He re released my album that I had already put out.
He didn't change anything on it, he rereleased it regionally.
I continued touring around Texas and that I jokingly call
that time because I was there for six years and
only put out one record, So I call it my
(51:10):
time on the artist Protection program. Why do you feel
like that happened? I don't know. I wish that someone
could explain it to me. He gave me opportunities that
I never would have had otherwise. He did everything he
said he was going to do. He he moved I
think the tragic mistake that happened because I know Scott
(51:32):
believed in me one hundred percent. He was like, I
really believe in my heart that he believed in me.
He moved me over to Republic and the new guy
did not like anything about me, and you weren't his
find exactly, which happens all the time, all the time,
and not just in music but anything creative. Yea, even
(51:54):
in sports it happens like a new general manager goes
in well gate my quarterback. I'm gonna go get my
own guys to get an allogy. Wow, So you get
it was that? Yeah, so so I was there from
two thousand and six to two thousand ten or nine
on Big Machine, and then Scott called me into his
office when Dan said, oh, there's this new sister label
(52:17):
we're opening, and I'm gonna move you over there. It's
going to be great for you. And I remember the
sinking feeling in my stomach going like, no, no, no,
I've already put in time with you. I want you
to believe in me. And then, as I predicted from
minute one of meaning the person that was the head
of the other label, he didn't like anything about me.
He didn't like my look, he didn't like my voice,
(52:40):
he didn't like like my actual voice, he didn't like
my songs. I wonder why you get put over there
if I don't. It wasn't a conversation, and whomever was
running it, I was hoping you would be able to
tell me, Yeah, it's weird to me that that would happen,
because there had to be a conversation between whomever the
governing bodies of those labels are a lot of times,
(53:00):
you know, things just happen, you know, like choices just
get made, and it was made for you obviously, absolutely,
and you know Um, I'm a big girl. I'm I'm okay.
Like I survived, I continue to survive. That's my whole
thing is survival. What was wrong? What was what was
wrong with you? Um? I didn't sell enough because I
(53:22):
was country. That's why I got drowned. So your style
then was, in my opinion, ahead of its time. I hope,
I hope that I would take that as a compliment honestly.
Oh for sure. You know, people that are so early
are often penalized when they're so right and so progressive
at the time. But it literally is what's about to
be the biggest thing. God, You're you're so spot on.
(53:44):
They're often penalized and treated like they're just garbage being
thrown out because people don't get it yet. It actually
takes other people consuming it over a period of time
to go we like it, we get it for even
them to go, Oh, I mean, Bobby, I feel like,
tell me if you think I'm wrong. People like what
they're exposed to for sure, Like it doesn't matter if
(54:05):
it's what or what it's like. If you listen to
something enough times, it's going to get in your brain right, yes, yes,
with the caveat of it just it just can't be bad.
Well sure, but yes, anything that is in that upper
I've had the conversation with my bosses and I don't
program music anymore. I just go. I just try to
(54:27):
do compelling content, right, I tried it funny. I try
to be compelling in many ways. But I've had the
argument with them, like, if you really believe in a song,
you just played enough time, it's going to be a hit.
That's what I think to you. If you believe in
it and and you literally just play it enough times, yep,
you can pound it into people's head. So I agree
with you in that way. Yes, okay, so that all happens.
So this is when Concrete, my album was out with
(54:50):
it had like from a table away on there. There
was stains worse than Leaving, which I was also told
was needing to be pitched to a man, that no
one would want to hear a woman sing about leaving.
I've made a career on that. Um and then um.
The next one that was on the radio was Drink
Myself single, which is a bar like honky Tonk super
country song. Even for my standards, it's country. So those
(55:11):
are my three singles that were out and um, I
did not. I didn't. I learn as I go with
pretty much everything, and um, in two thousand and twelve, also,
you know, the whole New Faces showcase or whatever. So
I don't know what that is. I have no clue
(55:34):
what that is at this point. And I know that
the labels, the label that I was with, were pushing
other artists. I guess the labels kind of barter or
not barter, but like guard for a jockey, for a position,
they'll put more of their promotion time, money and right. Yeah,
(55:55):
So they did that with a couple of artists that
were on Big Machine and public and not me. And
I had radio people that I had met over the
you know year that i'd been on the road promoting
my single that I had kind of really liked and
like stayed in touch with. And I think I'm pretty
easy to get along with and I love meeting people
and making friends, and so I had stayed in touch
(56:18):
with some of these people. Well, some of these people
were calling me, going, why is your label not putting
you up for these things? And I was like, I
don't even know what you're talking about, but I mean, whatever,
you know, it happens. I'm not gonna be mad about it,
like my time will come. That's always think that. And
so the nomen or whatever it's called come out and
(56:40):
I'm on the showcase without anything nothing, no help, no bartering,
no nothing, and whatever it's called. And so I remember
at that showcase that was when does that happened in
the spring? Happens now it's like in two days here
or now. Okay, so it's spring. So I remember we
(57:03):
did this showcase. It was awesome, and I remember I
had already put three songs out and I knew it
wasn't doing what they wanted it to do. And Scott
came backstage like, you know, oh my god, this was
the greatest show I've ever seen. If you play, we're
gonna put another single out, And I said, really, like,
(57:26):
because I thought I had already kind of felt that,
like I have a little bit of discernment where I
can kind of read people and feel the next move
sort of, and I kind of felt that they weren't
feeling it anymore. And so when he said that, it
kind of gave me a second burst of energy where
I was like, Wow, maybe this is gonna work, you know,
(57:46):
And I got really excited about it, and then he
didn't never do it, and I'd asked. I asked about it,
and he's like, yeah, we decided not too cool, okay,
all right, and then kind of back to square one.
Well then two months later he drops me after I've
been on the news and the two months later, Yeah,
(58:06):
new Faces means that radio label promote that they believe
in you and they've kind of annointed you as one
of the big new faces, like together that I've never
heard of that happening, and then do that show. And
then three months after that is or four months after
that is when I got the ACM nomination without a label,
(58:28):
without a song on the radio. Yeah, that is a weird,
like CRS New Faces, big deal, huge deal. Usually people go,
we need to invest more in that person because obviously
people believe in them. We drop you two months after
that ACMs we shall lift you up again. That's a
pretty up and down a little span of months there. Yeah,
So it was pretty heavy on my heart. I get it,
(58:50):
you know, and it was pretty like if I can
survive that, that's why I laugh now. When you know,
people try to like, um, give you the lowdown on
something that's about you know this person you're about to meet.
Blah blah. I'm like, I got it. Please, I'm good.
I have handled so much worse than this, Like, you
have no idea. Do you enjoy playing shows? Now? It
(59:11):
is my favorite thing on this earth. I feel like
it's almost like when you talk about certain things, your
eyes light up, and when you talk about playing now,
it's almost like you've been reintroduced to how awesome it is.
It is the only thing on this planet. Okay, I
play guitar and I write songs. If my entire world
(59:31):
is taken away from me tomorrow, my band, my house,
my car, you know, my friends, my family. I still
have a guitar and I still have a brain, so
I can literally do this for the rest of my life.
As long as my fingers work and my brain works,
(59:55):
I can travel the world and play music. Now that
being said, I would much prefer to do that with
my friends. You know, we have a great time together.
And I'm one of those people that I don't really
care if I mean, I do care if it's not
a great like crowd, but I I will do the
same show whether you're the only person there or if
(01:00:16):
you brought three thousand friends with you. I love my job.
I like six friends, but if I had three thousand,
we would come. I just don't want you to get confused.
I don't have that many friends, have like six friends too.
So I was just in theory saying that if there's
three thousand people there or three people there, I think
starting out in bars with drunks, and you know, I
(01:00:42):
never assumed that. I when I started, I never assumed
that would have different kinds of fans. I thought it
would be like the one lonely guy in the back
and his drunk girlfriend screaming Tanya Tucker songs at me
from across the bar, or you know. I thought it
would be like the random kind of hipsters that would
(01:01:03):
show up at the carousel. I never imagined that fans
would become so instrumental in my life, especially during COVID.
These people kept us on our they kept a roof
over my head. I am not exaggerating, like I am
really not exaggerating. We did they I sold more merch
(01:01:27):
Darren COVID then I probably sold the year before that.
People got you, we got you, you know, And I
just never figured that. I always knew that fans were
I mean, obviously the only reason that any of us
do our job, because if you don't have people listening
to you, what happens you don't I don't get to
(01:01:47):
talk anymore. So I'm saying, if I don't have people,
you know, listening to me, buying things, whatever, it makes
it really hard to do things. So I know how
important they are. I never knew how important they are,
and COVID really made me see that and made me
feel it more than anything, and it is. It is
the best feeling on this planet, knowing that there's random
(01:02:09):
people in this world that I've never met, that somehow
maybe have been touched by anything that I've done, even
if it's just one thing. Right, I used to have
guilt about that. Where why Well, and here's the reason why.
But here's how I figured out that I shouldn't have guilt.
But I used to have guilt because, like the listeners
(01:02:32):
of the show, people who read my books or whatever
the case is, they've been so generous with lots of
stuff over my career. And again, I'm just a trailer
for our kid. I grew up in a really ruled town,
didn't have anything, and they would always come to shows
or donate to causes that I believed in and using
their own time and their own money, and I would
feel really guilty for the same reason, going, man, they
(01:02:54):
don't even know me and they're doing this, but they
know parts of me that I put out there, and
I would go mad, just feel bad that they're doing anything. However,
then I started to go, Okay, well, let me just
flip the perspective. Here are there people in my life
that I don't really know that if they were like, hey,
of course, yeah, there are people that have been an
influence in my life that I've never met, and if
(01:03:17):
they were having a difficult time or a different time,
and then yeah, and I saw it coming from a
really authentic place, heck yeah I would have. I would
have done that for them. So I think that's that
has a lot to do with heart, your heart too, like,
because I have a sensitive heart and I feel that
way too. I feel I think that may be actually
nail on the head for me. Why I feel that
(01:03:37):
way because it's like I wish that I knew them
all by names so that I could do something for them.
I struggle with accepting it for a long time. Oh God,
even accepting accepting them giving to things I cared about
that were like charities. I still was like, that's your money.
I can't believe. I couldn't believe I feel guilty or
even doing it now until I said, well, what I
do this for people that have been instrumental to me
(01:03:57):
and I would if I had it. Yeah, And so
I don't know. Sometimes I think will have a black heart,
like a deadheart, like there's just a just been through,
been through some crap and it's all numb at this point.
But that to me was what made me feel like
it's okay. I can one hundred percent get behind that
(01:04:18):
because I think that's what it is for me, and
like you know, I did. I've done fundraisers before for
I'm a huge animal person. I mean, oh god, um,
we worked with the Austin Pets Alive on a lee
me too, Bobby. I mean years and years and years
and years and years. So good. Yeah, it's an animal
is like a baby and like it's the most helpless
(01:04:40):
thing on this earth. And they don't have a mouth,
so they don't have words, so they can't tell you
what's wrong. And it's our job as humans, I think,
And that's why I feel like I was put on
this earth is to figure out a way to help animals,
like I just love animals. And I saw this little
kittie in Baton Rouge one time and it had been
hit back car. Its leg was all mingled, Oh oh no,
(01:05:03):
this is the best story ever. Okay, and my band
Sarah McGlocklin starts playing in the background. Go ahead, so um,
my band goes. I said, y'all, this cat screaming at me.
It's only looking at me. They were all standing there
and it's this big, it's like five pounds and it
(01:05:24):
was screaming. And I have video of it that I
will not show you. And and I said, if it's
alive in the morning, we're doing something. This is on
its deathbed. And so these two girls pull up and
we don't have any food in our car. We're in
the middle of like somewhere, no no gas station, nothing,
there's no food. None of us had food ad granola bar,
which wouldn't eat. So I asked these girls panicky. I
(01:05:47):
was like, hey, do you have any food for this
little cat? I think it's about to die. And they
gave me a waffle, so I got it some water,
gave it a little waffle, broke it up in little pieces,
and my drummer called me the next morning at like
seven o'clock. He goes, yo, your little friend is still outside,
and I was like, damn, so all right? So I
got up and I put on Facebook. Hey y'all, there's
(01:06:10):
this cat. Here's a picture of it. Do what you do?
I need. I need a cat rescue in Baton Rouge,
you know. So within ten minutes this guy has written
me back. He said, oh, I'm a cat rescue comes
and gets it. He goes, man, this cat's on its
last leg literally, and I go, yeah, I know, but
(01:06:31):
I can't leave it here to die. It cannot happen.
I can't do anything with it. Can you just take it?
And he goes, you know what, I'm gonna call Angel
Rescue and see if they'll take it. So they take
this cat. They called me two hours later and like
the cat needs its leg amputated, and I think will
be good to go. So I go on Facebook and
I was like, oh my gosh, all aren't gonna believe this. Wow,
(01:06:53):
the cat's gonna be fine as long as they get
its leg amputated. I was ready to put it on
my credit card. Someone started a fun thing for it.
Within minutes, I had six thousand dollars for this cat.
Long story, short cat is now living the high life.
It is named Sunny Sweeners and it is living with
(01:07:13):
my friend John, who we flew it to DC to
live with him. He's now moved to Nashville as of
like two weeks ago, but the cat now lives in Nashville.
It is the man of the house. It is the
most gorgeous cat. It has three legs. It walks on
a leash outside. It is the most gorgeous story. And
(01:07:36):
we made T shirts that were you know, I have
a fan page called the Trophy Room because one of
my records it is called Trophy And anyway, we made
these little trophy t shirts for the cat and we
sold those to give the Animal Rescue that did all
the work the profits from that and anyway, it's a
totally story. That's a great story. That's what I needed
(01:07:56):
to hear. Yeah, I don't need a mangle cat legged
in like that. Well, last we saw of it mangle
then we drove off. Wait what we left it hungry?
I'm feel sad after the Sunny interview. Mike, you're headed
to Little Rock because you have a show there. I'm
gonna just read off some of the cities you're gonna
be in, Um, Little Rock, Stonewall, Texas, Albany, Fort Worth,
(01:08:17):
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Houston, Galveston. We're doing a lot of
a lot down there. Huh. Just actually that's weird this
month we're in Texas. We're usually not but Galveston though. Oh,
we're doing a cruise. That's why so many days in
a row. I was like thank four night, or in Galveston, Austin,
San Antonio. Listen, you're all over the place. And we
had talked about the record and the song with Vince
(01:08:37):
Gill married alone before you came in. And I love
Vince Doo. He's the greatest. He's the best singer on
the planet. Yeah, he's just in just his presence soft
and also not like reading, not a skin presence. It's
also like strong and like comforting, and you just know
(01:08:58):
he's seen it all. I mean, he plays his was
the Eagles and then he goes to them. I saw
him with the Eagles at the Irwin Center. I saw
him with the Eagles at Bridge. It blew my freaking mind.
I know. So you guys check out Married Alone. We
talked about it earlier before you were here. But those
are a lot of those, if not all of them
were unreleased songs that you had had Is that is
that right? Or some of them were what do you
mean on my album? Yeah? On that married was it
(01:09:20):
all new stuff? That Married Alone? Um? It was all
new songs? But had you had any of them written
for a long time? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I Um, I
have a running list of in my phone of songs
that just some of them are fifteen years old. That's
what I mean. Like you had him for a long time,
you just hadn't cut them yet. Yeah. But Mary the
oldest song you had on there? Um, like that you
(01:09:43):
held for so long because it meant so much to you.
You just could easy. Someday you'll call my name. And
when do you think you wrote that? I know when
we wrote it, Me and my friend Brittan wrote that
in like two thousand and eight. And why did it
take so long to cut? Because it wasn't good and
so we rewrote it during COVID. We literally took the
title and rewrote it during COVID. Well, there was something
about it that just the chorus was there and we
(01:10:05):
knew the chorus was good. Um, but I wanted it
to be about something else. It was about something and
we wanted to change the topic of it and so um,
so we rewrote it over zoomed during COVID and the
day we wrote it, I was like, cool, that's going
on our record, Like, it's so weird how that happens?
Sometimes you just know. And then um, before it even
(01:10:26):
came out, that was in that. Do you remember the
movie that came out over the summer called Vengeance with
bj Novak? Yes, he's a posts a podcast. Yeah. I
didn't watch it, but right, yeah, me too, So it
was in that. They put it in that movie. Well,
I have to for sure what Mike keep telling me.
The movie is really good. It's great. And my dad
and I went for Father's Day last year to New
York to try back a film festival to see it
(01:10:48):
for the first time. That was like the premiere of it. Huh,
how how do you get in that movie? Who pitches that?
How's that happened? Um? Somebody hear it. I honestly, it
was one of those things where I was like, what's
not even out like how yeah on Earth? How on Earth?
But yeah, it just got pitched and the music supervisor
(01:11:09):
liked it and put it in the rodeo scene. So
it's pretty wild. That's super cool. How I was really excited.
That's what I would love to get into, is you
know that kind of stuff, like get into you know,
SYNC and like do um TV and film. I have
a friend who is a songwriter in town and he's like,
you know, I'm just gonna take this year and dedicate
it to SYNC. And I was like, so what does
(01:11:29):
that mean. He goes, well, I'll started to create these
relationships with these and so he he kills it. Now
he writes songs for cruise commercials or movies or whoa, Yeah,
that's awesome. He was like, you know, I was writing
a lot of songs and some of them would get
on hold, maybe one would get cut. Yeah, I'm in
a pub deal. And he's like, I'm just gonna write
(01:11:50):
for SYNC for a year. And now it's like five
times when he was making and he's also still getting
control of his life. Yes he does, and he's got
good joal. Yeah, but if you come off the road,
you're not gonna be the same, you want us down
the road. Oh, look, I do everything on the road.
Everyone's always like, for since day one, people have always
you know, I do, you know, writing appointments when I'm
in Nashville or in Austin or whatever. And people are like,
(01:12:12):
when you're off the road or when you're on the road,
do you need to like, you know, just be on
the road. I was like, no, I do a radio
show every morning from the road. I write songs on
the road. I've when I'm under pressure, I am a
much more like productive person. So the more that I
can do. That's why I think I don't mind honestly
(01:12:34):
doing all of the things because freak though I mean
probably I am because I'm scared if I don't do
it won't get done, and if it doesn't get done,
I'll fail. I'll be a failure again. Do you want
me to tell you one thing? Though, I definitely am
a control freak in it's because it's my name. I
want it done right, and I know if I do
it, it it will be done right. I have found there
(01:12:55):
is my tour manager now is the first person that
I have ever trust did to do certain things. And
not only does she do them, she kicks their butt.
She is It is like having another brain and two
more sets of hand, you know, like she is a machine.
(01:13:16):
She has changed my life so and just so dramatically.
And her name is Elisa. If you're listening to Lisa,
she is the best thing that's happened to me as
far as like being able to delegate something and I
know with no question in my mind that it will
get done properly. And if she has a question, she'll
call me and be like, is this how you want
(01:13:37):
it done? Like, actually, no, could you try this? And
she'd be like, oh my gosh, yeah, that's perfect. It
is awesome. I feel the same way about Mike, except
he doesn't ask me if that's how I want it done.
He just does it better than I would have done
at the beginning. But I never trusted anybody with anything
with shows or anything. I was doing that weird ever,
and I was like, Okay, I'm finally gonna give this
baby bird to Mike and say yes, but you but
you then you see it surviving and then all of
(01:13:58):
a sudden, not only driving, it's flying around and beating
people over the head with its wings. Hey I'm here,
And then I feel less end because Mike's better than
I am. And he's like, well I would do I dodd. Well, look,
we've we've been here for hour fifteen minutes. I've enjoyed
this so much too. You're just a jar of fun.
(01:14:20):
You just it's so your spirits just there. Thanks, you know.
So here's what I'm gonna say. You guys, go follow Sonny.
She's you know, getting sweenered on Instagram, but you're your
own name on TikTok, right, yeah, and Facebook, and getting
sweenered is Twitter and Instagram. Yeah, I'm confused, but I
got you. It's all on my website. If it's all,
(01:14:42):
it's linked on my website, just because I didn't realize
when I made those names that those would be like,
I know, so stupid. I wish I could change it now,
I know. But it's been years in the making that
we finally met. I know the two of your shows,
and I've listened to you way before you ever did this.
When you're back in Austin and mikel was like, hey,
Sonny's gonna be and I was like, really that, I'm
(01:15:03):
so happy, super cool. And then when I saw your
stuff with the country to call of fame. I was
going to remember to say it, and then I forgot
and then we start of talk and then I was like, oh, yeah,
that's right, and then it got us on to Dami
Lou Harris. This is all kind of happened organically, which
is super cool. Yeah, so thank you. You ask really
good questions too. I don't know that asks anything. I
just kind of live. But I mean, like you, you
(01:15:24):
don't you do ask like the Actually you ask the
right things. You ask things that make people want to talk. Well,
I appreciate That's what I When I listened to you,
I'm always like, oh, that question is going to make
this person say this. You know, like it's it's good.
You're really good at your job. I know you know that,
but like it's really fun. Same to you, You're really
(01:15:44):
good at your job. Thank you. So, Mike, anything you
want to say, could you teach me how to back
up a trailer? Yes, I want to do it. I
want to do it on a live feed. I want
to do that. I mean I have troubled my forward focus,
so I oh no, it's much easier to back a
trailer into back a regular car. Yeah, I don't think so,
because i'd had I'd pull trailers, boats, mowers, and I sucked.
(01:16:08):
Really yeah, yeah, I messed up a couple of them.
I think I could give you some pointers. I'm sure
you could watch me and like hit your gate on
the way. Hilarious, hilarious. All right, you guys go follow Sonny.
Go to Sunny tweeney dot com. The song they just
went up, Red Door a Girl. It's in Immlu Harris cover.
And then also her album which we just talked about,
which came out Middlelisi end of last year September. Yeah, okay, yeah,
(01:16:31):
I'm Middleshi end of last year. They kind of last
that term lash end. Yeah, married alone, and that song
also has Vince Gill on it and is not only
just the name of the album. Sonny, thank you, Thank
you so much. Thanks for listening to the Bobby Cast.
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Host
Bobby Bones
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