#410 - Bear Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE On The Time He Thought The Band Was Over + Still Liking Each Other After 9 Albums + Opening for Taylor Swift and One Republic + Playing Wide Receiver in High School Then Making The Band 'Watch Tape' - Bobbycast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Ten years in our career. We had just an absolute
meltdown of all kinds for probably two to three years.
There's no encouraging word for the show. It is just
get through it, whatever it takes.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Episode four ten. This is Bear, the lead singer of
Need to Breathe. I'm gonna play a few clips the
top three streaming songs from Need to Breathe. Here's Brother
with Gavin de Graw, here is Multiplied, and here is Testify.

(00:47):
The Caves World Tour is gonna head out with Judea
and the Lions starting August eleventh and Green Bay, Wisconsin,
and their ninth studio album, Caves is due. It's out
September fifteenth. I am a Need to Breathe fan, Bear, Seth,
Josh Randall, Tyler, this group of guys, I mean, they're
really good, that the live show is really good. From Seneca,

(01:08):
South Carolina. He talks about that how he got to Nashville.
I started off Bear and his brother performed at a
coffeehouse at Firman University, where Bear, who talks about why
his name Bear was by the way, it was named
after somebody famous in football and was also a big
football player. The lead singer, So let's hear about it.
That's pretty cool. He came to the house. I don't know.

(01:28):
I guess I thought he seems a lot bigger, like taller. Well, no,
like looking at him, I thought because I was, I
thought he's like six or four. When I sat with him,
not in a picture, I didn't go, I can't believe
he's so big. And then he gets there and he's
Danny DeVito. No, I didn't know how big he was.
And he walked in and I was like, dang, dude's big.
Maybe he was in boots, but he's also like ripped. Yeah,
and then I knew he was like an excellent college

(01:49):
football player. So but yeah, I wouldn't mess with him.
If he would have said I'm five to six in
this interview, I still wouldn't mess with him. Like, yeah,
for sure. His wife was here too. She didn't say anything,
and we did talk about her a little bit later,
but she's sitting right there, right beside him kind of,
and so that was interesting to watch him talk about
her and see her face. I never really went to
her because I don't know if she want to be

(02:10):
on or not. He and not jumping in. Yeah, but
then I learned after the interview they had done an
interview together before, and I was like, thank, I should
have brought her in. But you just never know. You know,
Need to Breathe got a new album coming out. You
can follow them on Instagram and TikTok at Need to Breathe.
And here we go with episode four ten. Good to
see you been a fan for a long time.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Thanks man.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, pretty cool. So I guess how we have been
connected is my PR person, Christy said, hey, will you
have on Bear or Need to Breathe? And I was like, yeah,
when what day? Tomorrow? An hour from now? This is
like a month ago. When she was She's like, well
we just started working with them, and she's awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, And I was like, well, yeah, that's all.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I didn't And I didn't know you guys lived here
in Nashville. Yeah, does the whole band live here?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
No, They're all over the place.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
And that's as a kid, I could never imagine a
band living in different places, or a wrestling tag team,
those like the two things that I thought living together
all the time.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, yeah, it's and it's tougher for sure. And in
the early days, there was there was no way that
would have been possible. We all lived in Charleston together
for about ten years and then Seneca, South Carolina before that.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
One of my I guess, there are a couple of
buddies of mine. They're in a country duo and one
of them lives here now, one lives in Florida.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
But and what they were telling me is when you're
on the roads, you're on the road. You don't have
to ride there together to that you yeah, right, you
kind of just meet there and if you've spent time together,
you already know each other and know. So was that
an issue with you guys when you first when you
guys first started.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, a little bit. I think we just changed
the way. It's mainly recording. It's the thing that's the
tough part, the road stuff like you come in for
a couple of days rehearsals and that's all here, which
is nice for me, and they've chosen to have that
extra part of it. But now we were like we'll
get a house, you know, for a week to ten
days or something and get in there and like do

(04:00):
all the demos you know, that way, and like it
just I mean, it's not even just living in the
same town just growing up. You know, back in the day,
it was like you're in the van together all the time,
and so all the scheming goes on late at night
when you're got nothing else is too and so we
I feel like we have to kind of create that
space now. But they but we kind of love that too.

(04:20):
You know, we've turned your phones off and like stay
somewhere for ten days and don't leave and just get
go back to garage band style.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Do you guys? And then I'm only half kidding, but
you still like each other.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
We actually really love each other. Yeah, it's and that's
you know, that's always an up and flow probably, but
it's a huge I think as we've gotten older. I
mean we're on the ninth record now, it's it's like
it's become such a so important to everybody. So we
put a lot of time into that part. I feel

(04:52):
like the culture around you know, not just the band,
but the crew and everybody just like, you know, if
you don't want to be here and not enjoying it,
you know, so of your family, it's not good for anybody.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Our show is a bit like that, where the radio
show that I do, it's me and basically all my
friends and I didn't know what I was doing, and
I hired what people didn't know what they were doing.
And so like my coast Amy and I have been
together for how long might you think, seventeen years? Yeah,
my best friend Eddie and I have been doing this
for like fourteen Lunchbox another guy on my show for

(05:22):
like eighteen years, and it's kind of it's ebbed and flowed,
very much like human relationships have. We had human relationships first,
which became professional and there have been times with each
individual person that it's not been great. But that's every
friend that you ever have your whole life. You have
a long term friendship with, you have, you go through
good and badges because it's been so long since you

(05:45):
guys have been together. And so I really admire that
in a band who can stay together.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, it's not easy. It's been the hardest part. But
I think early on, like we would meet like bands
that we thought were here at the time, you know,
and they're basically just stay together. That's the hardest thing
to do. And so I think we always had it
in the back of our mind and we are better
at it now. I do feel like we have. I'm
having more fun playing music than I ever have in

(06:13):
terms of just like I know, it's what I love
to do when I'm here to do, and that's comforting.
You know, you don't feel like there's no exit strategy
for it, because like this is your choice. You're in it,
and so that's been good. And then it's just we
keep it light too, man. It's it's and we still
have fun like we're kids when we get together. It's
very you know, summer campy, I guess or whatever. It

(06:36):
is sort of a gang kind.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Of passionate fan bases are often territorial. Yeah, you guys
have a very passionate fan base. They are also very territorial.
And there's balance with loving your fans and going I
appreciate all the support and then also being like, yo, guys,
chill out just a little bit. Yeah, you know, it's
something you got to tell you. My people like, yo,
chill out just a little bit. Like I know you

(07:00):
you're in it, yeah, but but oh like, don't go
as crazy on other folks for me, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Do you ever feel that way that you're because you
have some diehard fans.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, we do, but I would say it's good, it's interesting.
Like they we started this thing, I don't know, ten
years ago, we did started doing compadres tours where we
were like, we'll bring our friends out and and we
found out like it wasn't necessarily the music ties, it
was more culturally the thing that mattered. So we brought
out Ben Rector like it is a good example, you know,
Drew Holkom all these guys that like I was buddies

(07:29):
and played golf and stuff, and our fans really embrace
those artists. And so now I feel like, at least
if they're kind of under our umbrella, you know, like
we kind of welcome them in and then they're really
cool to that. And we haven't done a ton of
the other thing we opened, you know, we've done We've
done two opening tours our whole career, which was well,
i'll say in the last fifteen years, and it was

(07:51):
Taylor Swift and uh One Republic most recently. So that's
the only time is when it's like, you know, and
we'll get on the boards and defend the other bands
because it's like this is ridiculous, you know what I mean,
It just you know what I mean, it's stupid. They're
getting wonderbout was giving us opportunity to play in front
of these people, you know, they're fans, Like that's a
big deal, Like treat them with respect. It's like, I

(08:11):
don't care if you don't like the music or you
don't like the way they do something, and I yeah,
I think that goes it's it's it's that way every way.
I mean, we have a sort of spiritual underpinning to
what we do. So that's always been the tricky part
because it's like, oh, they you played their song on
this TV show. Now we you know, like you shouldn't

(08:32):
have done that, You shouldn't have done you know, a
lot of weird judgment without sort of seeing the reason
behind it.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
I think, yeah, and someone it's just a numbers game too, right.
I Mean, even with like my security issues, I've other
people that try to like kill me. That doesn't happen
because I'm like so good or so bad at why
to do it? Just when you talk to millions of people, Yeah,
you got a couple of nuts in there, and that's
like security. But also with the popularity of you guys,
when you get so big, you're just going to have
some people that you got to be like, hey, you're
don't really representing the brand like we'd like to have. Yeah,

(09:02):
you mentioned Rector is my best friends and so. And
I'm not going to speak for Ben, but with Ben
some people will just insert meaning it in his songs.
Wrote that song. But if that's what that, I want
to fight with him about it. He's like, that's where
you what you find in the song?

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Do you find that that happens a bit with you
guys as well?

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah? I mean, for sure, I think and I think
it's I think we would say this about genre as well.
It's just like, you know, when we were coming up
like the niche things or like Emo or whatever, it
was like my chemical Romance stuff like that. It was
like a very like if you're not one of those bands,
and what are you? You know, And we didn't like that.
So the same we just don't like classification. You don't
want you really don't want borders up to why people

(09:45):
can like the music. That's ultimately and we were saying
that out loud. But then at the at the Christian thing,
it made us like Bristle even more. For some reason,
I think mainly just because the truth is like most
people when they're singing, they're singing in a derogatory way.
They're trying to write all the music by saying it.
But then we kind of had to look at it
ourselves and go like, well, if we say this about

(10:05):
these other genres or these other classifications, that we got
to be able to say it there. So yeah, I
think I think there's been more of an embrace of
the idea of like, if somebody relates to your music,
that's the point, you know, and and it doesn't really
matter to us why. And I think in terms of songwriting,
my whole like philosophy with it is like I come

(10:26):
from like a Springsteen writing school of like, you know,
the meanings are layered in there, and they're personal, and
you hope that like a piece of that line really,
you know, somebody that connects to them in whatever way.
The power of it is that I didn't think of it,
you know, And so I think that that is the
same way. So if I'm if we're at a show
and like someone's like raising their hands to like some

(10:48):
song that has nothing to do with God, really, I
just kind of have to be like, yeah, cool, you're
into it, you want a hula hoop to it. What
do we want to do? I think that's yeah. I
think we just had have gotten better at we Still
I still feel that pinch of like we were playing
the House Blues like maybe a month ago or whatever,
and I heard the bartender together who's playing that? You know,

(11:09):
it's like some Christian band? You know. That stings to
me because it's like, man, we really tried this whole
time to like just be a band, and that feels
like some way you know, limiting us to that. You know.
So yeah, that's probably where the biggest struggle is still.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Man, When someone calls me a DJ, that stings. I
was trying to think of what my what the parallel
was for me, and they're like, yeah, this DJ, And
I'm like, I don't even care about the music I play.
I don't play a whole lot of music. I'm hired
to talk and every once in a while to be like,
I like this song. But most people that came up
the way I came were thought, well, that's called the

(11:46):
DJ who plays music, right, So when I get to
see yeah, it's like I like wind set, Like, oh
I don't like that. But then I have to go Okay,
I can't blame them, sure and what they heard and
how they interpreted, but I I hate it making I
want to punch some me in the face, like me
a DJ. It's like, by the worst, you call me anything,
just don't freaking DJ man, but you and again I

(12:09):
am I guess And also I feel insulted for like
real DJs, like a real talent. It's a real skill.
But when somebody goes to that Christian band, you guys
are I mean, you are a bunch of Christians and
you are a band that was no, but you're not
just that. And I do, I do feel that when
you I didn't until you said that right there, but

(12:29):
I was.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Like DJ DJJ right.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
The first time I saw you, guys was at it
was in Austin, Texas frank Rowin Center. Oh yeah, it's
probably been ten years or so, and I hope this
is not insulting. My friend was like, hey, there's a
really good Christian band coming and I was like, okay, cool,
But I didn't it didn't feel like and I grew

(12:54):
up uh in church and going to a lot of
Christian shows, but I didn't feel like I felt like
a Yeah, I felt like a rock or like a
like a blues type show. And I remember going, oh that,
they're like, that's kind of like switch Foot. At the time,
that's what I was. I was like a switch Foot.
They're not going we're Switchfoot. We're a Christian band. We're

(13:17):
guys who do like freaking good music and we're just
also Christians. I remember thinking that about you guys then,
And I could be totally wrong, but is there any
relation at all to how they did their music like.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
A switch for sure? Career wise, I mean that was
something that so I grew up like when dad was
a preacher, we were and at the time, not now,
it was like very conservative about that stuff. So I
could only listen to Christian music when I was a kid,
And so when something good came out that like had
that crossover or whatever that you know, appeal basically my

(13:46):
friends also liked it. That was a massive thing for
me at fifteen sixteen, it was like, oh, you know this,
this is not just limited to this thing this John.
The truth is at the time I didn't really like
and so seeing them do that and getting to know
them over the years, like yeah, there was a lot
of especially early on it was like, oh, how did
you do it right? And John's like, don't do it,

(14:08):
it's crazy, you know. But I think, yeah, we we
admired the fact that like it was bigger than that
that genre and and uh yeah, so I think that's
probably where it like ends in terms of the comparisons
where you have tour together, you know a good bit and.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I MA asked the really dumb questions and insulted on
my questions. No, no, no, it's not only curious, not at all,
because again I've been to your shows. I've been a fan,
you know, to see this version of you guys even now,
because I don't feel like I feel like now you're
doing things that or the music that you've been making,
even over the past three five years or so, even
like the live stuff that I have. Yeah, it just

(14:44):
feels like anybody could take any message they want to
from it in great difference. Yeah, but you could go
play a show where no one even knows you have
any relationship to Christianity, Buddhism, the forty nine ers doesn't matter.
They just enjoy the music regardless.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Well, and that I mean, I think it just goes
back to the philosophy of like how you make music.
It's like if you I just can't start out with
thinking about like what do I want to teach someone
with this, Like that's that's the end of like good
music for me. If I start thinking about who the
audience is or why they're going to like it, then
it's over. So to me, it's more about like what

(15:17):
am I feeling in this in this time in my life?
And that's changed a ton over twenty years. So record
to record the way we even even I would say,
even the guys in the band going like, yeah, we're
all Christians, like I think there would be there would
be several hands in the band and like, ah no,
actually don't think I want to relate to that right now.
So we just don't make it that way. So I
think that does lead to music that isn't that way.

(15:39):
Really has become a business term.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
That's what mostly for me, and not just in where
you are in spaces where a lot of my friends
and even and I'll bring it back to Ben because
he brought them up. He's like, I don't even know
where I fit yeah, And he's like I don't have
a place, yeah, So I feel like I fit nowhere
and I think what's great about And I don't know
if you and Ben still have a relationship. Oh yeah, okay,
So Ben will come over and we just kind of

(16:03):
talk sense into each other where he's like, I don't know.
I'm like, dude, you're selling eight thousand hard tickets, like
you'll play a send here in town, and so you
will sell that place out, and you're telling me you
don't have a place. There are artists that would give
three fingers to sell eight thousand hard tickets all around
the country. Yeah, And so he's like yeah, but and
then the same way, I'm going, you know, I just
don't know, And he's like, dude, you talk to five

(16:24):
million people every day, you got two TV shows, and
you're like, I don't know where I So it's like
we need that other perspective because we feel a bit
like we don't have a When I was in pop
and hip hop, I was too country to be in
pop and hip hop. Now that I'm a country, I'm
off and her from the really country people. I'm too
pop or I don't it's a hip hop anymore to pop,
you know, to the country, And I can definitely see

(16:46):
where that would also bleed over into the music side.
When you're saying genres are they.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Are they're constructed. Yeah, I'm in industry. Well when you
see it like it's a double edged sword, I think
because of this, Like but but Spotify and all those
but you don't have meetings with them now, it's always like, well,
genres are dead, it's over. It's vibes, you know. It's
like playlists based on whatever they want to do. Which
that is great for a band like us, where it
becomes like, oh, this is this is what you listen
to by the campfire. It doesn't matter what it is.

(17:13):
The other the problem with that is like it's also
the death of bands right because it's like the playlist
is happening. They have no idea who they act is.
And so I would say with Ben, you know, and
with us, like I tell him this all the time, like, dude,
it's it's the craziest thing to have a loyal fan
base that doesn't care if you like, we're not going
to get attacked if we don't play a certain song.

(17:35):
It's not it's just they're not there to see that
one thing. Everybody's not waiting till the end. Like the
fact that you got people showing up and singing every song,
every song, and they live their lives to it, you know,
I tell everybody that's the thing I'm most proud of.
It is like when when people send stuff in like yeah,
birth to my child or this funeral or whatever, it
is like that's the playlist that they're they're going to
this music to lean on in a time like that,

(17:56):
Like that's that's really I have to check myself constantly
about it. But that is the ultimate goal, you know,
Like that's I feel like that's why we're that's why
we're making this stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
I want to check my phone and see the song
I've played from you guys the most. I didn't do
this because I am a fan and I'm very professional too,
So I'm gonna check my phone here because I'm just
curious in my playlist the song that I've played most.
I know it's going to be live, the live because
you guys did a whole live record.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, that record was so good man.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
That's the one. And I always like the little bit
of talking things. Not too much talking on my record,
but I need a little bit of talking. So I
know that you actually were there right really, because anybody
you go on a studio and fake stuff. I mean
you can fake talking, I guess, but the live record
to me because you sound your band. You're so tired, obviously,
but you sound so legitimate on the live record, because

(18:48):
there are a lot of people who shy away from
doing something live because maybe that performance aspect just isn't
there sure, And I think vocally on the live record
most of all, you really show that just how good
you are. Is there a different kind of vulnerability when
you're recording a live record that's different than like cage
it's gonna come out.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, yeah, it's a different art form. I feel like
we've always seen it as the one thing we could control.
I think it was like early on when we signed
with Atlantic first, and it was like, you know, you're
gonna be the biggest thing, and then you're not. You know,
then you realize like, oh, we've got to figure this out.
The only thing we could fit we could like get
a hold of, was like, well, if we can make

(19:29):
this one hundred people, two hundred people next time and
then kind of keep doing that, then you actually have
a career. So I think we put a lot of
weight into I don't feel like I feel pressure about
the live records at all, because I really do believe
like and our fans know this, like there's not nights
off in terms of effort with us. There might be

(19:49):
a night where it doesn't feel you know what I mean,
just like anything going on. But I think in terms
of I'm incredibly proud of that the way how serious
we take it, Like we feel like every night is
is the night, and even the smallest ones are the
most important. Hang tight.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
The Bobby Cast will be right back, and we're back
on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Did you do more than one live record? How many
have you done?

Speaker 1 (20:22):
I have no idea more than two? No, I think
it's either two or three.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, well the one? Okay? Here? You ready to hear
my songs?

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Once?

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I listened to the most sunshine heard of it? Yeah,
what's funny because you didn't hear that? That's not keep
your eyes open? Ye heard of that one?

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Ye?

Speaker 2 (20:42):
And lay them down nice? Yeah, those are the ones
that I've listened to the most. What would that say
about me?

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Oh? Up, tempo positive?

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Nothing talk says me more than that.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
All right, up positive? I don't know any Maybe that's
what you need you gravitating, I think so, but I
do love slow.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
My favorite music though is slow.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, I love slow and sad to ask me too, because.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
I also want to know. I need you to tell
me how I'm feeling sometimes, and I want to feel
I can actually hear the words, yeah, like I can.
I know melodies, but I don't really records.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
That's what I gravitate too. I think. I think when
we're now, like if it were just me right at
my place, it would be it's going to be like
that pretty heavy ballot kind of stuff. But then making
the records, you're trying to put yourself. We do it
way more now than we ever have, Like we will
put pictures up of us playing live somewhere, like just
we're constantly trying to go, okay, put yourself on the moment.

(21:35):
What would you want to play in front of ten
thousand people? And then I think that gets an energy
level because obviously you can't have a show where it's
all ballads if people don't you know.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
That's my perfect show though, I just want to go
and yeah, well sad show. Ever.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
I saw with the Bonny Bear like that it was
so slow and quiet, and I was like I think
my heart rate just slowed down. Just listen to it,
like I'm into that. But I do think there's an
energy level. I love the I played football in college
as a small school, but like, yeah, this this like
sort of on tin. I don't like sports where you're
like have to be passive, you know. At tennis is

(22:10):
one of those where it's like, you know, if you
hit it too hard out but like so I don't
like that. I want to I want to get you're
an aggressive fellow, Yeah, yeah, igro when it's well, I'm quiet.
So when it's like when I'm doing something like that,
I want to just go full on. And the show
is that kind of opportunity for me to like, you know,
people both talk about like the flow state or whatever.

(22:30):
That's that's me when I can't when I forget where
I'm at, it's because I'm on tent. I'm going as
hard as I can go. And I love that feeling.
And so I think that's you need songs vehicles for that,
you know what I mean. So that's probably where the
rock thing kind of like continues to come. That's the
reason for it. I definitely don't think if I have
the songs that play at my funeral. They're not going
to be you know, it's not gonna be kissed, you

(22:52):
know what I mean, It's gonna be something.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Uh where did you see Bonavara? Uh?

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Nine thirty club in DC?

Speaker 2 (22:59):
And so again I'm familiar. I can't say that I've
set and listened to a lot of his music, but
I when the Bonavera Grammy situation happened, I listened to
a lot of for a brief period of time, right, yeah,
and then he did some stuff of tailor and so
I kind of experienced that. But I can't act like
I'm a huge fan for a large period of time.
But his whole show is like the music that I.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Know, oh most beautiful thing. Like I was blown away
by because this is a none thirty clubs like a
thousand seed club in DC and one of the better
live clubs in America, I think. But it was like
like the kick drum would last a long time on
a song and then the next time not you know
what I mean. It's like the like that's like for
live sounds nerdy, but it's like that's a hard thing

(23:43):
to do in a live room because feedback and everything,
so I feel like you go to these shows, they
all sound the same in some ways, Like the band
just sounds like it kind of sounds like a track
because everything's been like notched out and everything. It wasn't
that it was like it could breathe song to song
and I was like that two drummers, strings, trumpets.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
All the brothers.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
It was crazy, yeah, not messy like that. It's just
like they were doing different interesting things. I was. I
was blown away by and still I mean, you're trying
to create that situation for a fan that is personal,
and that's still the challenge of Like I feel like
obviously cold Play does a good job of that now
where if like everybody gets their own light and whatever,
it is, like, that's the idea, that's the reason to

(24:22):
do it. It's like and I've always wanted to be like,
I'm really excited about this whole dome thing. Well they
don't call it a dome, the Vegas thing that you
two is.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Going to basketball or whatever you want to.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
I'm like the idea of like, but the seats literally
shake and there's sound that comes there and they can
blow wind on their face. The idea of having that
just being immersed in it, I think, is what you're
trying to do. So that's the way I felt at
that show, which is I think the reason I gravitate.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Towards them best show You've ever been to is that
we said or one of the I think so.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I think so.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
We were just talking about this. This isn't really on
the spot because I'm not going to catch your scholarship
if you miss it. But you're like top three or
four live shows you've been to.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
I saw Springsteen at Hyde Park when he went over
and got canceled, and it was like they tried to
cut him off, the cut the speakers off, and he
kept playing for another twenty minutes for whatever fee that was.
Paul McCartney was there. It's like all I saw James
Taylor when I was sixteen first started playing guitar, and
I realized I would never be able to do that.

(25:22):
The Black Crows in college first rocker. I was like
into acoustic like Toad, the Wetsprocket and stuff like that
when I was in college and I went to see
them randomly because a friend asked me, and it was
so rock and roll in like the old school way
that I went out and got electric guitar the next day.
It's like, this is this unlocked something to me? Yeah,

(25:43):
I'm sure I'm missing some I saw. I saw the
Food Fighters open for the Chili Pepperts.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Me too. First I went to the same Yeah, they
toured twice, and I went to both of those tours.
The first time they opened, the second time they did
a split headline Foo Fighters got Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I
think we're the same age, and I think just the
music that we like and influence that's just very similar,
you know, from the artists that you're even listing here.
But yeah, the Food Fighters and the Chili Pepper is

(26:08):
one of the greatest tours I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
It was great. I mean, and like I didn't I
was a Nirvana fan, but I wouldn't say I was
like totally immersed in that culture at that time. And
so the girl thing like how big of a star
he was, and that blew me away. He's like running
around the thing. And then they did Hero and Chad
Smith and him were playing drums together. That's like, all
that stuff is incredibly formative. I saw the Chili's in

(26:33):
this awesome We played a NASCAR event. We were on
tour with Train. This is I don't know, eighteen years
a long time ago, and we're playing the infield of
a NASCAR event. But they Chili Peppers played to the
grandstand right before they started and there was only like
three hundred people between the stage, and then there was
the track behind us in the grandstand right and they
come out and do like four songs and it's four TV.

(26:54):
But it's like the most energy I've ever seen anyone
put into a show in my life. And I'm only
there with like three other people. It was I mean,
I'll never forget the way Flee came like this, just
the it was palpable, you know, just like that sort
of anyway, they got me excited for second stuff.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Now, I I think when you mentioned the Food Fighters
for me, I always I'll use the word I feel bad.
But Dave Grohl is such a monster superstar now for
food Fighters, for just the food Fighters. But people so
much want to talk about Nirvana with him. Yeah, when
by the way, he was like the fifth drummer. Sure
he joined right when Nevermind the album was about to

(27:30):
and he was very much a part of that three
or even four piece. If you include Pasmer, you know
with the band, but what he's done with Food Fighters
it's not really paralleled with American rock music in the
past twenty five thirty years. But because he was the
drummer in one of the most yeah influential bands of

(27:51):
a decade, he still is like the drummer of Nirvana
and the lead singer of Food Fighters, where he basically
has two Hall of Fame careers by themselves, and the
Food Fighter one might actually be No, it is bigger.
It's just I watched.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
The little documentary they did the Food Fighter's thing like that.
I can't remember what it was called, but it shows
all those him playing that first tour. They're playing like
you know, First Have and all those kind of places,
and then people are just yelling Nirvana songs like while
he's trying to play the Food Fighter songs just to
make me feel better. I like, you know what I mean,
this guy had knew what he had and no one

(28:28):
else like would give him time for I say, no
one else, but there was still there was naysayers the
entire time. That's comforting to me to know that, like,
you know, whether he knew it was going to be
as big as it was, Like I don't know, but
just the fact that he stayed the course through all that.
I can't imagine nothing that I'll ever face in terms
of that will be as big as that, you know

(28:48):
what I mean, Nothing will be as negative right in
my face as that.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
When you're twenty five, let's say twenty three five, Where
did you think this was going to get you? What
was your prediction?

Speaker 1 (29:00):
But we're not, honestly, like, I don't know if I
thought we were gonna be the biggest band in the world,
but I had an incredible ambition at that time, and
you know, very naive, and I didn't know any we like.
We came from a small town, so so there were
no other bands around us that we like. We were
making every mistake possible we didn't and and so the

(29:23):
good part about that was we have no comparison. For
a long time, I didn't want to move to Nashville
because of that. I felt like people would go there
and they see all these other things, and then they
feel lesser about themselves, and now it's not as confident
on the road. Now it doesn't play in the Midwest
as well. I always had that feeling. So I think
for us, like there was this ignorance that I would
have had at that time in terms of like what

(29:44):
was possible, and so anything was and we really like
in our little garage where we were practicing, we were like,
this is the best, this is the best music, because
anyone is making right now. So yeah, I definitely had that,
and I think I was really naive to about the
business side of of all that, like genres that we
were talking about. And when we when we released the

(30:04):
first record, we didn't have a Christian deal, Like, we
didn't have anything in no business on the Christian side.
When we saw with Atlantic Records, and then we because
I had grown up like going to these little bookstores
and listening to Christian music, you know, I was like
would it be cool? Like should we put that in
there for kids like us, you know, And and we

(30:25):
went to the Atlantic president at the time and we're like, hey,
would it be cool if we do that? He's like,
I don't care. So I mean literally it was that
simple of like. And then so we came down here
the Nashville somewhere, It's like, hey, will you put this out?
And then what happened was that first Christian single that
they put out got bigger than the second one did
first like oh wait, you know, Like so I was

(30:50):
just naive at the time about what we were getting into.
You know that, you know, we've learned a lot.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
But I think being naive but also having huge goals,
if it's the right mix, it works awesomely. Because I
was too dumbed to know what I was doing too,
but I was smart enough to know that if I
just went really hard at it, I was going to
end up somewhere pretty good.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, because I know.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
What I was doing.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, yeah, totally. I love Well, I'll see that like
I've got little kids now, it's like in the that
sort of blind you know, there's there's an awesome confidence
in that. You know that that's hard to get now.
I think it's I think I have to really consciously
get myself in a place where I'm making a record
of like not knowing what the limitations are beyond it,

(31:33):
or like how big could this record be?

Speaker 2 (31:35):
You know?

Speaker 1 (31:35):
All that stuff is really a work where I didn't
have that. I walked into the room every day it's
like we're about to make the biggest song in the world,
and you know, this feels good. This is easy. So
I feel like we're always trying to get back to
that level of you know, blind confidence, which yeah, I
do think it makes it art better.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
The Bobby cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
How big an old boy are you?

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Oh what?

Speaker 2 (32:11):
How big old boy are you?

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Old boy?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
How big old boy are you? Yeah, I'm your aid
to be your big old, big old boy.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Oh I'm six six feet No, that's it. Yeah, my shrinking.
Maybe it's the boots.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Is that okay?

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, Boots.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Maybe it's because I knew you were a college football
player and I just expected you to come in take control.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, but you're but the way one one ninety. That's
pretty good.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah, it's hefty.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
You still hit it pretty good. No, it's not. It's good.
Like I have to go hard all the time to
even just maintain whatever this is.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
It's the opposite for me. I think I'm like, I'm
I'm pretty Uh. I love ice cream a redneck when
it comes to that stuff like I was just raised
like that, you know, pizza, bagels and all that.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Oh, I have like therapy, did not drink four three
letters mountain do a day? Yeah, like we sit in it, Yes.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
And so that, so now I have to kind of
like I have to take my breaks with that. And
also after I got done playing football, working out was
the last thing I ever wanted to do again. I wasn't,
so I mean I was a mess. I didn't, you know,
the first ten years of our career, I wasn't. I
was skinny, but like the unhealthy soft kind of like.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Yeah, I'm skinny, but like he pushed me, and it's
like that's not loan, bro, that's like skinny. So you
played wide receiver?

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Good? How good a high school player? Were you good?

Speaker 1 (33:32):
I mean, you know, all state or something like that.
I don't know. Something it was, it was, it was,
I was. It was a time when wide receivers were
this is too football for.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
This, but it's not.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
But it was a time when wide receivers were like
six five well in Florida State and all that were
really big. Every kid was six five sixty six. So
like I got offers of D one stuff, but it
was all like Miami Ohio or Rice or Duke or
all that kind of stuff, and none of those teams
were good at the time. And so that the reason
I ended up going to firm was like if I'm
gonna go to a smaller school as well go to
a good one. I had enough sense to like, if

(34:05):
I'm gonna get out of this small town, I probably
need as many resources as possible. So that's kind of
what led me there. But yeah, I think these days
I would have had to pick like I was good
enough high school player that and speed wise that like
I would have had gone anywhere I want. You think,
it's just change, It's changed totally, Like there wasn't slot

(34:25):
receiver idea.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
You know, well you're like a high energy, high motor guy.
So what i'd say about white guys high motoring.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, well yeah, I was definitely over the middle guy,
I'll give you that. But really at the beginning, I
was like a four four guy. So I was like,
outside speaking, you can run four four yeah, and and
uh so, and I would track. I ran track at
firm into so like I was just I was a
fast guy. Really, but just that that position didn't really

(34:54):
that you know, like Wing Crabett and all those guys
like they like opened that up. Now every receiver, every
team has a guy like that just wasn't the thing
when I was playing.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
But especially like the slot yeah, you know the Edelman's.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Yeah, it's small routes.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
It's like, you know, it's extremely valuable, but can catch.
But it sounds like you're faster than even those guys.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
For four.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I'm gonna play quarterback in college. Thought four four is rocket?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
What can you do?

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Now? Can you do four? Right now?

Speaker 1 (35:22):
I have no idea. I do not share a hamstring
about race like that. Yeah, it's embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Now do you play ball at all? What do you
do recreation?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
I like golf. I mean I'm getting into it. I
mean I've always been into it somewhat, but like now
I've like, you know, Ben's one of those guys. He's
always like he's annoying. Yeah, but when we toured together,
we were really competitive at the time, and and I'm
very proud of the the fact that, like I took
a lot of his money when he toured with us.
Then good yeah yeah, but now he would he would get.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah he's really good.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yeah, it's annoying, it is.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
And I'm like, so he's like, just we're playing, what
do you mean you just started playing? Like a play
I'm not as good as he's really good. Yeah, it's stupid.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Well, you start video and you're swing and all that.
It's like a different that I don't get you better.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
I got a track man in here right an better
we went. We played a tournament at the same time.
It was Tomlins Chris Tomlin's charity to tournament down at.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
OH four others was that Triuba door that's it.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Tribu And I did this bit at the opery when
I I was doing stand up over there and I
was talking about that and I looked at the entire
list and I was the least famous celebrity on the list.
It's a bad place to be whenever the people that
you're with or like, when's our celebrity getting here? And
you're the celebrity.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
I've been that many.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
So and I was talking about that, and I was like, man,
getting me at a celebrity golf tournament. It's like, you know,
going on a a safari and seeing a horse.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
A horse anyway, you know.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
But I remember seeing you, seeing you were playing that too,
and could you have a name that sticks out?

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Right, so, and then I remember seeing you warming up
and you look like an athlete. So I didn't want
to be your friend. I just stayed away from you. You
completely because I like to be the off in my group. Yeah,
I don't think that would be. That's the case if
you me and so are you a good golfer? Now
can you play?

Speaker 1 (37:15):
I can play. I'm a nine right now. You better
than I.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
I'm an eleven.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
That's okay, that's playing. My thing is like, you want
to be able to play fast so you can play
with people. I think that's the you know what I mean.
But now I've got too many of my friends. I've
gotten good and that and that.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Too many your friends at too much time, and I'm
too competitive. Yeah, I know me too. I hate everybody.
I hate myself when to them playing golf, I hate everything,
but I keep going back. It's the one thing that
I want to get better at that I really don't.
I can feel like I'm getting so much better and
then I go out on a Tuesday and I'm awful.
I'm like, what just happens was a mental thing?

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yeah? Everything for me is so team I think is
like football and then and the band thing is very
much like that that golf. For me, I like playing
myself almost the most, and it's because I'll actually celebrate
a shot when by myself. I'm quiet with other people.
I'm never gonna be like but I'm by myself and
I hate a good one. I'm like bear, yes, I'm
like you know what I mean, I'm having a moment

(38:09):
with myself. It's like therapy to me. It's like finally
I can I can applaud myself or something. So I
do like that element of the singular. There's no one
to blame.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Do you get I'm gonna use the word flat because
my wife doesn't really care. But sometimes if I'm gonna
go play a quick round, it's still six hours before
i'm back.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you have kids.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
I don't have kids. Is it ever like yo, dude?

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah? Sometimes honestly, so this is true. Like a couple
of years ago, I went to I was at a
therapy session. He's talking to me about all kinds of
what do the activities you do that give you life
and all that kind of stuff, and I literally is like, oh,
I've been playing golf on myself recently, and he was like,
you should do more of that. And I came home
with my wife and she was like, I'm in, you

(38:53):
should do more of that. So maybe he should use
that you know, doctor, Doctor, I said, if I'm gonna
be well good husband, this is what it takes.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
So she's like, no, you wrote this, yea, trust me,
trust me. So the new record is coming out of September.
So Caves, I don't know, give me why Caves. Is
there some sort of deeper meaning about Caves?

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, I mean I think it's more and more I
understand this, like because it's so cyclical, like when you're
working on a record. To me, the artist's job at least,
you know, as I see it, is that that you
go into this some sort of subconscious place when you're
trying to like you know, I'll use the word universe
from it of like you're just trying to like receive

(39:36):
and process this information and you try to stay there
longer than most people would want to. I don't buy
into the idea like you got to have a crappy
life to have to write good songs. I don't buy
into that at all. But I do buy into the
fact like when those things happen, you need to marinate longer.
And so that's what the Cave represents to me of
kind of like it's really the song is you know,

(39:57):
the line is coming out of the cave. That's what's
really about of like, Okay, we've spent this time together,
we process all this stuff, we put it on paper.
We don't know what it is here you go, and
now we're gonna all celebrate this together. So I think
that's where it came from. And then yeah, the record
is really interesting. Like we've always had a chip on
our shoulder, I think because of being from a small town,

(40:20):
all the Christian thing, all that. I feel like early
on our careers, like everywhere we went, you know, we
just had this angst about like we're about to dominate this.
You know, it just looked and I feel like this
is the first record, in my opinion, where we were
able to get out of our own way in that way.
Because what I look back and I go, wow, that's
I can see that sort of like ego thing dripping

(40:42):
into this song has no place there. It's not it's
not serving this song at all. And and so I
think when I hear it back, now that's what that's
the takeaway I have from the record, which of just
like there's a little bit of a freedom there. It's thankful,
which is different for a rock and say probably just
in the sense of like we get to do this,

(41:04):
like we get to put the stuff out into the
world and people appreciate it at whatever level that is.
I think that's probably surprising to me, after all we've
been through that, like we still have the opportunity and
the sort of creative freedom to do it.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Are you surprised you guys are still together?

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah? Yeah, now I can see it going a lot longer,
which is crazy, But there was, I mean ten years
in our career we had just an absolute meltdown of
all kinds for probably two to three years of just
like personal relationships are going to crap everything in the band.
It's like my brother was in the band at that

(41:41):
time and it was really rough and both of us
were not good humans anyway. You know, at the time,
we're just like really struggling with all kinds stuff. And
then so it was separate dressing rooms. It was there's
no encouraging word before the for the show. It's it's
it is, just get through it, whatever it takes. At
the same time, you have this crazy ambition driving everything

(42:04):
that's not feeding the yard at all. Just it's absolutely
like if we go harder, if we go harder, you know.
So yeah, I think I think it was a time
there for a while, Like I was sure it was over,
and she was like, well, we'll just play this next
tour and see how far it gets. So I'm yeah,
I'm surprised.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I was talking to Kicks Brooks, who's half of Brooks
and Done. He was talking about playing a show and
him and Ronnie weren't getting along and they had just
been I mean, they're killing They had twenty number one
to be doing in fifteen years or so. They just
were not like any relationship, Like I mentioned earlier, it's
not just a band, it's my friends do a radio show.

(42:42):
It's husband white relationships. Anything has to be nurtured and
you have to go through the bad times to make
the good times even better. And it's a lot of survival.
And he was like, we just want to do it anymore.
Martle Haggard was like, hey, don't be an idiot, like
you see all those people here. Yeah, he was like,
you got to figure that crap out. And so they
broke up. Yeah, but he always remembered that and they
ended up getting back together. And I was like, man,

(43:02):
we don't even feel like we really missed a beat,
but he was like if I could tell people now,
like it's like figure it out, go away if you
need to, Yeah, get therapy for you, get therapy for
other people, and then but stay together because of what
they had with each other. And what you guys have
is so rare, regardless of the relationship and how it
is perfect, to actually find a unit that can do
what you've done is so rare.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
I think it's easier now knowing like being able to
value that or like seeing what we have. There was
a time there where it felt like, you know, even
though the thing was big, there was like some other
future thing that we were trying to be that we
weren't yet. So there was always this like frustration that
I didn't I don't think I could feel back then
that I feel now. So it I mean it's part

(43:47):
of this aging obviously, or just like kind of getting
some perspective.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Do you feel like TikTok's been good for you and
not so far?

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Not so far? I don't hate it. I'm I think
of it as like the new like when I think
of like the what was the Wonders movie?

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Was that like yeah the Wonders, Yeah, that thing you do.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Yeah, that's it. So like when that song plays on
the radio and they go running out in the street,
like our careers changed. That's happening out on TikTok, you know.
And it not just debands like this now a coon
thing that's happening. I feel like this kid in town,
Stephen Sanchez, like I'm watching, I'm watching actually good artists
be discovered that way. Yes, there's a ton of other
crap on there too, but I do think that's incredible

(44:29):
and that's going to drive art in the future. It
just feels like to me, like a kid can go
like it doesn't matter where I'm from. I've got a chance.
If I got something to say and it connects, then
this is a vehicle to get it there. So I
don't hate it.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
And it doesn't matter a genre you are either know
a content great example, what is he bluegrass acoustics singer songwriter?

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah? Is it?

Speaker 2 (44:48):
But he's just so good?

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Great? Yeah, and and and it's just it just like
speeds that process up so much. It's like then it
becomes like who the label is and all that? Does
that really matter?

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Like so but we came in. It's so like when
it was like the beginning, and everybody's just doing dance
videos and stuff, and that was like so off brand
for us, Like even smiling was off brand really at
the time. And I was just so the idea of like,
you know what I mean, just like, oh, we're gonna
get on making cheesy video. It's gonna make it's going
to undermine everything we've said and done up until now.

(45:21):
Now that it feels like more creative in the sense
at least we can put the music on there stuff.
I don't. I don't sort of mind that part. But
like chasing algorithms and stuff is I mean, it's not
for me, actually, you know that's really that's it's definitely
somebody else's job. I can't.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah, I agree, And I think the people that ended
up setting the algorithms are the ones that don't chase them.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
But when I think of you guys as music, I
can just see a lot of people finding you guys
and enjoying it with no expectation because you're just swiping.
I mean, there's an artist that I love, Jackie Vinson's
a blues artist from Austin, Texas, and I just I
watch a videos. I'm just I'm just blown away, right, Yeah,

(46:05):
I would have probably not discovered her other than it's
kind of like the other music that I listened to, Yeah,
and I didn't have to know much about her to
enjoy what she does. And I can feel that with
a lot of artists where it doesn't matter if you
know what kind of music they're doing. What does that
even mean? What kind of music they're doing? Yeah, it's
just a place where if sonically it kind of fits

(46:27):
into what you already liked. I could see you guys
like really really thriving in that space to people who like,
I don't know how to how to explain your music,
but like really authentic instrument based yeah, strong vocals type stuff.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Yeah, I think that's I mean, I think that's we're
trying to learn the language now. It's like when we
first got into it, there was you know, you get
these partners to help you do it, and it's like
now you're doing exactly like some other artists did it
as a work, and so it's the same way your
live show is or the records are or whatever. You're
trying to get a voice on there. And I think
for us that's probably the period of time we're in
where we're kind of like beating up the people that

(47:04):
work with us on it to go, like, dude, if
we're going to do a good acoustic version, put us
somewhere good, and don't you don't need to record this
ninety seven times to get the good Let's just get
one great take of it that'll take five minutes. Let's
put that up like that. So I think that's yeah,
we're just struggling with that a little bit, but we're
certainly using it more and thinking of it more as

(47:25):
an outlet than we ever have.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
This record you did in two phases in my right,
One yeah, Utah, the other yeah Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Well why Honestly.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
The I just had a buddy who had a house
in Utah, and I want we wanted to do a mountainhouse,
somewhere we could get away, we wouldn't see people, and
and it ended up being the perfect We were trying
to do demos, we weren't trying to make the record.
We we'd like take a makeshift studio in there, and
then we got back We're like, this actually sounds really great.
We should build on this. And then the Minnesota thing

(47:56):
we went Actually Nirvana had made a record there. The
package was a studio, but we wanted a place where
we could stay. So there's a house next to the studio.
It could just like you know, get away. We end
up working on the record for a year and a half,
so it's not like all happens in those ten days,
just the bulk of the recording does. But I think
the I think trying to let everybody have a voice

(48:18):
in there is incredibly important to a band. That's what
makes it a band. I always was like, it las up,
one's not good if one of those guys not in it.
That's the way good bands ought to be. If you
look at a band, you go, oh, let's yeah, I'll
take a leave two of those guys, what really is it?
And so and I think getting to a place where
we can not have a credit based situation, you know,

(48:38):
that's hard with bands, that's you know, the easiest thing
to do is like, well I wrote that part I
got It's like, now, I don't know on this record,
whose idea? What was you know? I'm writing most of
the songs bring them into the band. But other than that,
in terms of the production, everything it's really really organic.
So we're putt like we're writing bass parts with the
bass players, and there's no walls. Black people aren't showing

(49:01):
up in different days and all that, which is just
a healthy place to be, I think, and makes the
best makes the best thing.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Do you ever worry about writing the same song or
doing the same album twice accidentally? But it's just so similar?

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Yeah, I really don't. I would say this because I'm
not great with melody, which sounds weird to say. It's
like people are like, you know, But the truth is,
I'm not someone I always had a part time when
they hit the piano, it's like sing this note. I
was always like kind of finding it a little bit.
So I don't have that sort of memory of melody

(49:47):
as well on other people's songs. I've never I never
did a lot of covers, like it's always takes me
a second to get a cover in my brain and
operate it.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
But even your music twice like you yeah?

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Like now that.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
I mean, that's mostly what I'm asking more than accidentally
writing anybody else's song. Are you like I feel this way?
And I felt this way five years ago. I just
want to write the same exact thing about me feeling
this way.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably, but I don't really. The thing
about it is, it's like you find out, like just
like you brought up your three favorite songs, like that
wouldn't be like our three most popular songs. So it's
really hard to see when a song is going to impact.
I think if it's worth writing that day, it's worth writing.
I do think in terms of I've been surprised and

(50:31):
blown away by how something little will feel fresh to
me about the thing. It's like I want to write
a verse where there's a little more spacing between the phrases.
That's it, Like, there's no that's how simple the idea is.
That gets me going that day, and then it becomes
this other thing that's never stopped. First summer I can write,
I mean during COVID, I think I wrote like eighty

(50:52):
songs in a year, just like every day, just pumping
out by myself, and every single day, within twenty minutes
there's like a new angled to something that I feel
like I've never done before. At least that's what it
feels to me. And maybe that's just because I'm not
a good you know, like I'm I'm really thankful that
I'm not so good of a musician, Like you know,
is there some guys that just hear that, Oh that's

(51:14):
the same progression from that song. That's and that's knowing
way too much to me because I wanted to feel
new to me when I did it. And if later
somebody says it's that, I'm like, so what to me?
When I was making it felt it felt really fresh?

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Well, so how did the music thing happen with you?

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Be?

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Like, for example, like a Sam and I'm gonna lump
unfairly all you football players that I'm jealous of and
that are big, muscular and cool in one group, like Sam,
chase yourself, we keep going forever. There's a lot of
athletes that turned Jake who wasn't football, but Jake Owen's
a really good friend of mine who was a golf Yeah,

(51:50):
they all got hurt and they were like, I guess
I'll do guitar and next thing you know, they're a star. Yeah,
where did the music come? In your version of this story?

Speaker 1 (51:58):
It was always going, which is I say a sixteen
I started playing guitar and writing songs. I started writing
right away, and when I went to college, luckily there
had been a guy on our football team on that
same team that played music before me. They kind of
loosened up the coaches to the idea that like, maybe
that's the thing, and they gave me lots of like
you used to call me Sunshine from remember the Titans.

(52:22):
I don't know, is that right with such on Ryan
Gosling or another blond kid that looked like I think
it's a different blonde kid.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
I just love Gosling. He's everything to me.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I have not Actually it's perfect that too, But so
I think that they like gave me a hard time.
But I was playing probably fifty sixty shows a year
when when I was playing college school. So I would
get picked up. We would do all the off season,
we would practice and I would drive forty five minutes
of this prehearsal space for ad we did. I would

(52:51):
get picked up after a game on a Saturday afternoon.
Instead of riding the bus home of the team, they
would let me get in the van with the band
and go play.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
That's a big deal. I mean I don't know a
lot of coaches.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Yeah it's not. Yeah, totally. It was a real and
and they liked it, and I would like play for
the team occasionally and all that, So yeah, it was
always alongside it. I think I knew by the time
I got to college, I knew that music was it,
like that was my thing. But I loved playing foot
I still love watching it and all that, but I
knew that's where I was headed, and it made it

(53:20):
easier of a decision. Like whenever I got done with college,
all these agents started calling. You know, it's like, you know,
you're gonna work out for this team, You're gonna do this,
blah blah blah, And I was. I was so beat up.
I mean, I was not. The thought of doing another
year of that was like, I mean I was. I
couldn't even imagine, like I would have sucked, you know,
It's like there's no way. So that made it an

(53:40):
easier decision. But I think I knew in the back
of my mind anyway, it's like, as soon as this is,
as soon as this chapter is over, music is it.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Did you put that competitive drive because obviously your body's hurting,
like you said, or just worn out, you know, playing
football that long at that level. Do you take that
competitive drive and just go now it's in music, yes,
I'll put it here.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Yeah, and and really good and bad ways, like you know,
it's still great. Like I feel like in the show,
like we I feel like we go hard and I
feel like I just I come off the same way
aftergat like the same. I feel like that after a show.
I just feel like there's just a physicality to it.
But the the like I used to make the band
watch tape like we first got to go.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
On and you imagine like that's funny.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Yeah, I mean seriously, it was like see that bong
goes so that sucks, you know, like it was very
like you know, and but it would put these guys
on the spot like wait, I just you know, like
we made twenty bucks, like what are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (54:36):
So we wanted to wait too?

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Seriously funny as it is like you're driven to get better. Yeah,
And I think that's the thing, like it just art
obviously is a different thing. So there's a there's a
care and sort of you know time it takes to
do it that you don't you know, get to explore football.
But so yeah, good and bad, there's that I had
to learn those lessons early on about like when to
push and when not to. But I would say that

(54:59):
we definitely have that mentality when it comes to rehearsals
and shows and all that. Just we're carrying a lot
of that in.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
There my head. I played football too, probably better than
you were, but anyway, I wash my our football coach.
He finally discovered he could take a marker and actually
ride on the TV, and so he draw it the
first time. He was like, discover the new world because
he did it, and he was like, oh guy wiped
it off.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
He was like, oh, now we have a weapon.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
It was the worst because, for example, I played wide
receiver and let's say I missed like a cracked back block, right, Yeah, okay,
so I'm supposed to take the linebacker out. Fine, I
missed the block. So he'd go, he'd circle me on
the screen, draw the arrow. Why didn't you do it?
Rewind it? You're doing it again. Rewind it. You know
you're showing the same playover again. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing

(55:44):
it again, Like freaking relax.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Yeah, we had he was intents in college. I remember
that we had the whole team on Sundays after a
game get in a film room, and they would do
special team stuff. And that's where like that separates me
boys like running down a kickoff from that kind of
thing that is bad news. It's and if you avoid
a collision for some reason or missed the block or whatever.
So he had a laser pointer, you know, he would
do that and they would make that guy stand up right.

(56:10):
The whole team's in there, ninety guys in there, and
he would be like, do you think you're earning your scholarship?
Do you you are better than this? Don't you think?
Do you think you're better than this? Do you think
you're worth standing? But that kind of like he would
just give it, and uh, I'll never forget that.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Is disciplined part that you were talking about too. You say,
are you handle it differently? Sure, but some aret is
not disciplined. And I think I was able to bring
a lot of discipline from me playing sports into a
creative field where maybe I my touch I wasn't as
general at times, right, but I definitely even though I
was a little too rigid, I definitely had discipline, right,

(56:47):
So I got the benefit.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Like you're saying, it comes down to to me, it
comes down to ownership. Like there's just I mean, that's
culturally not very like a thing right now, because it
seems like but that's that's I was always like with them, dude,
if you make a mistake in there going full speed
and it's not mental, I don't, We're not. No one's
gonna be like that's not that's it. But come back
and be like I blew it. Here's why it won't

(57:11):
happen again.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
It's like we have that sort of culture where guys
like feel like I can lean on. We're all going
out here together. And if it's the same, I would
tell the crew guys that all the time, like this
is such an important thing that we do because in
that night, nobody knows you played the night before. They
don't know that this is a small shy all that
kind of But if we all go out there, spend
all this money, the buses go there, then the MIC's
not plugged in, you know. It's that's where it's owners,

(57:33):
own your job, do your thing, and and yeah, so
I think it's it's definitely beneficial if you can do
it in a you know, in a gracious way, in
that way where it's like I'm not browbeating dudes because
they're because you make mistakes and shows like that's the
way they would laugh about it. But it's if it's
a mental thing or or lack of preparation, then I've
got problems.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
I would agree. I think the same thing with with
my crew. But I wasn't good at dropping a ball
and then forget about it. Took me a couple of plays.
Could you go? Could you turn the page quick?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Uh? No? I still I think I could. I could
play through it. But I still when I wake up
when I think about college that mostly I think about that,
I think about the two or three plays I wish
i'd back.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
It's almost like social media, too, where we only look
at the two or three really negative comments instead of
the five hundred awesome ones because I'm guilty of that
going just instead of allowing the love, which I shouldn't
really invest. I don't look at comments a lot. I
do occasionally, but it's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Let rip your heart out. I remember the bad ones, and.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
I should either look at it objectively and go, let's
look at the percentage of how I should feel right now.
If the percentage has I sucked, then I should really
feel that way, but I don't in the same way
that you just said. You still think back up mostly
about that, Yeah, what does that have to say about
us as people?

Speaker 1 (58:51):
M I don't, you know, like I don't that part
obviously because I don't have to play football anymore. It
does it. It's not one of those things like really
I feel like lives with me in a bad way.
So those those those really will hurt for a bit.
And I have to almost not do it at all,
I mean, because inevitably it's just it's just it's what

(59:14):
what taught me this even more, it's like so during
the COVID thing, we we had one of the first
tours after that, and the thing like sells great because
that's all this anticipation, not like now when everybody's out
at the same time. This was like a windows the
first time we played Bridgetone, like I was like this
is and and we was reading other comments and it
was all about mass no masks, mandates in the city,

(59:36):
that's it, and it's just like getting slammed. How could
they possibly they say they're this. It was just terrible.
And then I would play the show and be like
if I hadn't read that I'd have the zero clue
that exists. It's such a small percentage of the people
out there. So I think that was freeing to me
after that experience of like because I was really going
to that tour just every night just feeling the sort

(59:57):
of crazy waight about how we made the right decisions.
She'll we out here, should we be doing some making
some sort of stance you know that, Like, no, we
should be playing because that's what we do. Like it's
given as many people opportunity to see as can. You know.
So yeah, that helps I feel like I've taken that
into this into consideration at least as we're doing now.
Helps kind of take the sting out of it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Last thing I'll say about this, there's a you know
he talked he's the sports talk guy TV and radio
names is Nick, right, And he talks about how he
doesn't go look at comments anymore because he doesn't want
to go and feel worse or feel bad for no reason,
because that's the only place he goes where people telling

(01:00:38):
me sucks is right online, Like he can look at
every other element of his life. People are not at
the airport, right, Yeah, he said, the only time you
ever feel like lesser than is if I go searching
into the comments, he said, So I just don't do
it because there's no benefit for me there, because I'm
not going, hey, I'm asking a question, Please give me
constructive criticism on this, he says, there's nothing constructive there,
So I stay away from it because it's just not

(01:00:58):
healthy for me. Yeah, and the only place that makes
me feel worse is in that in that section.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Yeah, I think that, I mean, I think that it's easy.
I can't remember the cause I heard a quote the
other day about about the idea of like it's easier
to buy this sort of to get into the bitterness
and buy this dark story, which it really isn't a
dark story, you know, like that's just that's not what
we're living. For some reason, we attached to that part.
And I have the saying, I don't know, you do

(01:01:25):
like the good compliments don't help. I agree. When I
look at those, I'm like, yeah, yep, that's a yes,
that's a yes. That's like expectation already. So now the
first one that actually does anything triggers me at all
is the negative one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
That's a good point too.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Mike, am I really walking away from this feeling great
about how everybody loves the record. When they say that, I.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Don't even take compass from my wife very well, because
I feel like, why are you telling me this?

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Yeah, you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
My wife does not think I'm that funny. I think
she did, but now she's with me all the time,
and I think she's she's seen the Dog and Pony
Show the times, so it's just not that funny to
her anymore. Yeah, well, she's still so funny to me,
and it's annoying in your relationship. Does your wife still
like to hear you sing?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
I think so. I think so, But it's definitely but
going back and forth, I've probably written her like twenty
love songs over my career, you know, Like I mean
literally just every year or two. You're like, I'm gonna
try to gain and there's nothing worse than like, you know,
I'm always playing it to her when she's distracted. I
just wrote it. Now, she's like putting her makeup on

(01:02:28):
the bathroom or whatever. I'm like, what do you think
about this? She's like, I don't know. Could you just
play to me later?

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
Is that? So? There is an element which I appreciate
that level of like coming home, and she's been more
disciplined about which her whole thing now is like she
only listened to it when the record's done. She's like,
no demos, I don't want any of that. Don't tell
me because then I'm just gonna be pissed that it
doesn't sound like that on the record or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
She gets demois for you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Yes, yes, she found some like so now now she
really it's really refreshing to me when we do put
a record. When I hand her the like sort of
finished copy, she spends time with it way more than me,
and she's incredibly encouraging about it, which is awesome to
like see what a real fans experience is of that.
But yeah, she doesn't think. We did interview recently together

(01:03:13):
and she was like she we left, she was like,
it's so weird that they think you're cool. She's like
the way they're talking about she like like you're interesting
or something.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
So that's final three questions. I'm just staying on this.
What I do really like about my wife is that
she I know what she's going to give me is
always her truth. So as much as I'm like, she
doesn't think I'm funny. I think she thinks I'm funny,
but I got to really impress her to get impressive
results from her and is sometimes irritating as that can

(01:03:43):
be to me, that's what I want, Like I really
want that because I don't want her, Oh that's really
good when she thinks, actually not that good. Like I
need somebody to be that person. Yeah, it got to
mean something that I can go to and if they
say it's good, I believe that it's good. And I
think my wife is that It sounds like over the
relationship yours is the same line.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
I think we help. It's I mean, this is a
weird way to say it, probably, but it helps. You
need you need to find the things like for me,
like what I like about a performance is not what
she likes about it, and it's important for me to
really get that in my mind. Like I need to
feel success about Like one Off's really hard for me
because my voice is so loud and I don't talk loud.
It's like next, so I've got to really ramp up

(01:04:22):
is sing a whole. So if I go to a
one off show, I feel like a million dollars. If
I gave a great performance and it was like, really,
but that's not something that she's gonna care about. So
I have to really like almost delineate those and go like,
here's the things for me that I feel really proud of.
They are the hardest work and I know why. And
then I kind of have to so some of those
other things, like like an album, like hey, what do

(01:04:43):
you about this out, like what do you think that?
I can kind of like reserve that for her. It
helps balance out so I'm not looking for her then
now to like say, hey, that was so good I
you did that one off show that I've seen a
million times, you know what I mean. I've got to
like celebrate my own sort of victories in there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Question two of three. I don't know you're gonna put
any music out, and I know we talked about genres,
but will you target anything toward any traditional genre based
that's not Christian?

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Probably it's gonna be mister remains to be seen a
little bit. But I think we put a couple of
country artists on the record, and that's because there was
a time, like, you know a few years ago, I
was looking at like the Coachella lineup and then like let's, uh,
tele blanking on the name Stage Coach. I was like,
we would much rather play Stage Coach than Coachella. Like

(01:05:32):
it just doesn't that doesn't even. So I was like,
that doesn't make a lot of sense. We moved and
when I moved here five years ago, all these country
artists came out of the woodwork of like, hey, I'm
a big fan of the band, and that blew me
away because I did not. I was not aware of
that at all. So I think the idea of us,
like I don't know that we'll go to like country
radio with a song, but the idea that that genre

(01:05:52):
is very wide open and so constantly changing. I feel
like so much of that Zach Ryan stuff, all that
like really singer songwriter stuff that's like somehow in the
country world now is open to us. So yeah, I
think I think that's an idea we had carry on
the last.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Record Old Dominion Carly Pearce around this record. Yeah, yeah,
I mean there's a that's not completely sonically and at
least not vocally, but I mean, you guys an Old
Dominion to me have similar Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
We met them doing Alman Brothers cover thing in New York.
That's and so I didn't and they were fans of
the band before. I didn't know that, but a similar
kind of like this is a band, man, it's like
a vibe.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
You say, vibe. It's just you guys have similar vibes
and you're all individually extremely talented, but then collectively it's
like the sum is greater than the parts that were
already great. Yeah, with both groups.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Yeah, yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
All right, last question here. And you didn't want to
come to Nashville for a long time. What's up with
you in Nashville now? You like it? I struggle at times, Yeah,
but what do you think of the city?

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
You know, it's so it's a complicated answer, but I
love I love being here. I love living here. Family
loves it here. That was a tough move. We moved
from Charleston and my wife was like, what are we
Why are we leaving the ocean? You know, but I've
really felt like a definitely a better community than I
ever had there, and some of my friends I've probably

(01:07:11):
already lived here. You know, that was easy. The ease
of like traveling has been easier. It's really interesting to me, like,
you know, the Broadway scene is not my scene obviously,
so there's certain parts of the pockets of the city.
You know, even how how like staunchly conservative is at
times that's a little like I'm like, that's abrasive to me.

(01:07:35):
But what's been surprising, I think is that when I started,
I signed a publishing dowh. I first came here because
I like write some songs for other people, and I
was like getting in these writing rooms and realizing how
soulful the writers were. That was surprising to me. Like
meeting like a Natalie Hemby, I was like, I can
actually give her a piece, like I can I can
bring this in and trust that she's gonna And so

(01:07:57):
I found more and more and more of those people
here and that's really surprising and fun. And then the
you put in the fact that it's like the talent
level on the hustle is cool to me because Charleston
and me South in general was like very much like, well,
go here for vacation. It's really it's a brunch spot.
You know. It's like the fact that you can run
into people that are just really trying to make it

(01:08:18):
all the time and they've got a million things going.
That's exciting for me. That's definitely where I want to
be you know at this point in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Well, look at us, a Christian ar is in a DJ,
just chopping it up both ways. Slap anybody who says
that about it. A big fan, really big fan.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
I'm really looking forward to the album September fifteenth, and
I think you are you guys playing the show? Are
you guys going to play the show? Do we know that?

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
I don't know. I heard that that's possible.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
I heard that's possible too. I guess you and I
are like that. Somebody said possible.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
Well, yeah, a big fan. And are you are you
guys playing in Nashville at all?

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Yeah? Bridge Stone, I wish you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Knew that you are doing to Nashville shot to date.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Yeah that's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Well I will act like I'm gonna come Okay, Yeah,
I don't know it. Now I've you guys are awesome live,
and that's probably why I'm drawing so much to the
live out. It's all coming to me now I've seen
you live, so I think that's why I'm drawn to
the live album so much. Yeah, I had breakthrough right
here at therapy moment. I hear about need to breathe.

(01:09:20):
You guys check out need to Breathe. It's just as
they spell their band on Instagram and TikTok need to breathe.
And if somebody spells it in lowercase, do you also
want to punch them?

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
No, that was a total marketing move. At the beginning,
we thought it looked better and then we realized that
on a festival lineup it would show up biggest still does. Yeah,
it was brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
Very good to talk to you man too.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production

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#410 - Bear Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE On The Time He Thought The Band Was Over + Still Liking Each Other After 9 Albums + Opening for Taylor Swift and One Republic + Playing Wide Receiver in High School Then Making The Band 'Watch Tape'

Episode Transcript

Host

Bobby Bones

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