Luke Combs turns 33 today! We want to take a look back at when he stopped by the BobbyCast back in 2020. Luke was fresh off of his SNL debut when we sat down to record this. He talks about finding out he was the musical guest just a week and a half out. Luke tells the story of the guy at a record label who told him he needed to go back and write better songs after meeting him. Luke then turns all the songs he played for him that day into No. 1. He also talks about why he is vegan for the next 3 months, his 7 No. 1 songs and why he was hiding cash around his house.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everybody. It's Luke combs birthday today. So we wanted to
share this episode of the Bobby Cast that you might
have missed back from twenty twenty, right before the world
shut down. I mean, I remember Luke being at my
house and sitting there, chatted it up, and right before
we get record, We're like, man, nothing I'll ever stop us.
But it did. But this is right before then. This
is Luke. He just had come off SNL and his
SNL debut. He talks about finding out he was a
(00:20):
musical guest, I mean just a week and a half
out and the guy at a record label who told
him he needed to go back and write better songs,
so let's do it. Luke Combs also stories behind his
first seven songs. It all went number one. Happy birthday,
Luke Combs. Here's Luke Combs a little incase you missed it,
episode two sixty six of the Bobby Cast. All right,
welcome to episode two twenty six with Luke Combs. Good
(00:43):
to see it, Mikewise. I know you've been home in
a while, so I appreciate I got a text from me,
like I didn't know it's gonna take an hour to
get here. Yeah, yeah, so he gets a decent way
because you text me. I finished working out and I
was like, oh, Luke, Luke's gonna be here, and like
so I was throwing on clothes. You're like, he's gonna
be here in like underwear's wet because I was tell
off all the way and then I didn't realize you
(01:05):
live so far away? Yeah, yeah, when did that happen
for you? Did you? We actually able to buy some
landing and yeah, it was probably just about a year ago.
So I've been in my house just over a year now.
So does it feel like home? It does? It does
now for sure. It definitely didn't when we moved there,
you know, just because it was, you know, so far
and from town and all our friends you know, still
(01:26):
living town, and it's it's just it took a little
bit of getting used to, man, but I wouldn't want
to be anywhere else now. Isn't Furniture the worst? Yes,
because you just don't expect it to be that expensive.
Not only that, but you think that like, Okay, well,
if I'm gonna spend X amount on this couch, which
I think is an insane amount, there should just be
(01:47):
one that's there like, you have one in the store
and it's gonna take you six months to get one
to my house. Like, I just don't understand, especially for
a nice one. Right. If you would think they could
move the next one, right, you would think they would
just be like, oh, let's just make this tomorrow. The
things that I buy that are frustrating to me are furniture. Yeah,
(02:07):
and again, I live in a pretty nice house for now,
and but to fill it up with crap. I'm not
even in most of my rooms, right, it's a lot
if you are you in most of your owns? Nope,
not at all. And I don't want to leave them
empty because I'm OCD about that stuff. Right. And then
they're like, this is how much a bad costs? Yeah,
you can't. Refrigerators suck. Refrigerators are mine just broke recently,
(02:29):
which was great. Car tires, it's something else that you go.
You gotta have good ones. You get what you pay for. Oh,
I've got a vehicle that's getting I'm they're now giving
me a new vehicle because it's it's broken like four
times since I've had it. Did you get a lemon
like lemon law? That's the thing right where they just
(02:51):
are like, Okay, well we're just gonna take the loss
and just give you a new one. So the car
that you bought been broken four times? Yeah, I mean
it works, but it's just kind of user error. No,
it's not a user error. No, it's it's great, and
it's just every time, and it always happens right when
I get right when I get home from like a
(03:11):
long period of not being here and I haven't been
a where to drive, and then I get in it
like at the airport, and then it breaks like on
the way home, Like you're just trying to get home, right,
My TV does that with Netflix? Like, I already just
get home. I've been I've been out forever. The only
time I need to use it, it didn't work. So right,
what's the office and just chilling in? It doesn't connect? Yes,
So I don't want them to fix it anymore. Just
(03:32):
just either send me a new one or give me
a refund or something. So you did the last couple
of days, You're in New York doing doing SNL. Well
what was that like for you? Get in the call
and I'm not sure how that call works. Yeah, do
you go? I'd like to be on SNL think about
us or not really. You know, it was like it
was super last minute, and I think it always is.
(03:53):
I think it's like because they booked the hosts. I mean,
I'm not certain, but I feel like they booked the
hosts three weeks out and then the musical act. I
mean it was like a week and a half, so
you didn't know for three or four months that you
were going to be on SNL. Yeah. No, No, it
was like I got called and it was like, Hey,
we're doing SNL. That's in the week and a a half.
(04:13):
And I was like, oh, okay. So we had to
rehearsals scheduled, like we had rented out the space and
like all the crews they're setting everything up and the
band guys had already rehearsed a couple of days and
then they had to up and go to New York
like super last minutes. That's pretty cool though, right. It
was awesome, man, it was really awesome. It was. It
(04:33):
was definitely the coolest, coolest like filming saying experience that
I've had. What's it like walking into that space for
the first time, Because you do you rehearse pre a
day before a couple of days. So we went in
I mean two or three days. We were in New
York for four days, and I can't imagine how long
JJ was there. He was probably there for at least
(04:55):
a week, maybe even the writing meetings. He was in
all the writing meetings and changing the skits and everything
like that. So it was really cool because I grew
up watching sl with my dad and and so it
was really neat. It was very surreal to be there
and like see the set because it's so iconic, you know,
and it was awesome. Man. I was you know, definitely
do it again? Do you do the first because the
first show they do is full, and then they'll end
(05:18):
up moving and cutting sketches a bit, and then they
just go again and do it again live. Yes, when
you do the first one, you do the same two
songs as you do. You run it just as you
were going to run it. And how did you feel
after basically the super address rehearsal. I felt really good
about it. I mean, you know, Lauren came in and
was like, hey, you're holding the mic too high on
the first song and we can because of cameras. Yeah,
and you can't because normally I'm holding it up here
(05:41):
and he's like, well, I can't see your face if
you're holding it up here, so you gotta just kind up.
But that was the only note that he had. But
other than that, it was great. Who did you ask
to take pictures with? I didn't really ask. I'm not
a big like, I'm not a big like take the
picture backstage guy, you know, unless it kind of happens naturally.
Obviously me and Jay J got a picture, but I mean,
(06:01):
obviously I wanted a picture with Lauren because I've been
a fan of his for a long time, and but
that was it. You know. I've never been huge into
the like unless it's a natural thing that happens, you know,
Like I'm not a big like pop in the dressing
room and be like what's up? You know. I mean
I don't mind that at all. I actually love when
people do that. But sometimes I just feel uncomfortable about it,
(06:22):
you know, because you don't really know, Like I didn't
know JJ was gonna be like super nice, awesome guy,
you know. I mean I've never met him, so he
might have been like, who's this guy? You know? What
was Lauren Michael's like? He was awesome, man, he was
super nice. He's definitely a boss. You can definitely tell
he runs the show, but he was. He was very
nice man, very normal, um and just had some great stories,
(06:44):
you know. And then JJ, you know, obviously he's massive.
My experience of the NFL players is they look big
on TV, but then when you meet them, you're like,
oh my god, they're so big like that. To me, yes,
they're so much bigger. They look big on TV, but
everyone on TV's big on the games, you know, so
(07:04):
you don't really like if there's a guy that looks
bigger than the rest of the guys, that guy's really
big and so standing beside JJ, it was. It was
definitely weird. I'm not a small guy, but he was
just massive six ft. So when you did the promos,
I was watching some of those promos because that's those
are the iconic thing where they have Yeah, one of
the cast members, the host and the musical artist. Like,
(07:27):
as far as what I was able to see, that
was one of the coolest things I got to see
you do because I've just seen so many cool people
do that over the years. Yeah, it was neat and
they put eighty Brian on a like an Apple box
because she was because she was like, I mean, she
looked like a child, you know, beside us. They had
her up on an apple box just so she was
like in the frame, you know what I mean. It was.
(07:48):
It was pretty wild. As you're doing the musical performance,
are you at all able to just think about it? Like,
can you get comfortably in place you're singing? You can
be super present? Yeah? You were? I was, yeah, because
I was like, we were only doing two songs, you know,
and they're one at a time, and it's broken up,
so I guess you really never get in like a
(08:10):
groove like you would at a show. But I mean
I've sang beer, you know, million times, so it's I
was definitely comfortable doing that one. Loving on You was
the song that they picked. You know, they were like, hey,
we want we're looking for this out of it, so
they picked that tune. How do you feel about that?
It was great? I mean that was the one I
was I guess least comfortable with, you know what I said.
(08:32):
I mean, I'm sanging that one a thousand times too,
But it was you always get that thought like because
I never really think about it when we're doing the show.
I'm not like, oh, what if I mess up or
what if I do this? And then I was like,
you know, there's a chance that I could just blow it,
you know, like I mean, I usually don't think that way,
but S and L is kind of a huge opportunity.
(08:54):
So I was like, and wouldn't it just be ironic,
you know, if I just got too comfortable and then
on the biggest TV thing that I've done today, I
just let my guard down a little bit too much.
But luckily that didn't happen. So, yeah, we get in
one of these settings that's really big or cool and
it's just the sound just isn't working right, like maybe
an ears out or you're like, god, dang, I gotta
(09:17):
you just have to go, and not really know until
you look back at the feedback at hout went. So
my stage right guitar players ears were out for beer,
and so they were great the whole time, you know,
for every I mean we must have ran it five
or six times over the course of a few days,
you know, and after as we were doing rehearsals and
stuff and sound checks, and the ears were really really great.
(09:40):
And then for some reason during beer, which was the
second song, so we had already done one of the
songs on television where his ears were working and they
just didn't work. So it sounded good though, So did
you have floor monitors and ears or just ears just ears? Yeah?
If he has no ears, he has nothing. Yeah, So
what then is he looking at visual cues? I mean,
how is this working where a guitar player with no
(10:01):
ears is still able to play guitar? I guess it
would just be muscle memory at that point, you know,
I mean, because you know, you just played it so
many times that you know what's going on and and
and you know, luckily you killed it so well. Congratulations,
thank you. It was very cool. Are you able to
kind of see what's happening to your career or is
it moving so fast that sometimes you're able to take
a peek? Like what is it that you're able to Yeah,
(10:24):
it's it's hard to understand, you know, because you know,
I spend most of my time, you know, at home.
If I'm not doing something like SNL, you know, it's
like I just try to not think about it because
it can be really overwhelming to under like try to
(10:44):
understand the scope of it. So I just try to
not I guess not not think about it, but I
try to not bathe in it, you know, as much
as I guess I could. But it's it's crazy, you know.
I I don't think I really fully understand. Honestly, it's
been quite rapid even to watch it happen for you
(11:07):
and know you as is happening. It's it's been rapid
to watch, you know, the ascension of Luke Combs whatever
that is at this point. Yeah, And so you know,
as I'm watching kind of one hit after another, and
it's not even about the hits. It's also the people,
the fan base that that grows at the same time,
(11:29):
because I've seen a lot of people with hits, Yeah,
but they're not selling out arenas. Yeah, what do you
credit that too? I mean, we try to, you know,
do everything we can to to make sure we take
care of the people that come to the shows. Um,
you know, and I'm sure everybody says that, you know,
but our fan club is free, always has been, always
(11:49):
will be. Um. You know, I I don't see really
any real need to monetize that, you know. I think,
you know, letting those people know that you appreciate them
enough to to do something like that form and give
them for the first chance of tickets and give them
the chance to do that without charging them to do that.
I think can invoke a little bit of loyalty as well,
because they're like, oh, this guy's not trying to get
(12:12):
something out of me at every step, you know. You know,
the t shirts are as reasonably priced as they can
possibly be. They're still expensive in my opinion, but there's
not really there's not I can't go any lower. So
we we're constantly doing things like that. The tickets to
the tour. They're the last tour where the cheapest ticket
was twenty five dollars and the most expensive ticket was
(12:35):
one hundred dollars, And so I think keeping ticket prices
were reasonable. Obviously that you know, we do the Ticketmaster
Verified program, which I don't think anybody in the genre
besides Church does, to screen to make sure that it's
actual fans getting the tickets. And then we have to
go back and provoke tickets for people who we think
(12:56):
are scalpers, and and there is a form they can
fill out if their tickets are revoked, and they can
kind of prove that they're actually a fan and get
their tickets back and we can resell those tickets to
actual fans. Sure, the Luke Combs tattoo, they do the
picture of my inner thigh tattoos. Yes, Luke Combs, they
have to show the tattoos. Yeah, and uh but no
we I think it's just little things. It's a lot
(13:17):
of little things that require a lot of work from
a lot of people. But it's paid off. You know.
As I talked about how rapidly you've risen, it's it's
been a bit odd to have you blow up so
quick where I feel like a lot of people don't
know young you yeause you it happened so fast. You
didn't have a lot of time to tell your full
(13:38):
story all the time before it was like you got
so big where you couldn't put yourself everywhere. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
It's it has just been insane, you know. And it's
it's felt that way since the start, like everything just
kind of happened in such quick succession, and it was
always I guess things were always just trending upwards. You know.
(13:59):
I think a lot of the times when people start
out and I can't speak from experience, I guess I'm
just going off my buddies have told me. But you
start going up and something great happens, and then you
kind of hit a plateau for a year or two years,
and then you start and then you get a song
that kind of gets you back on the elevator, the
(14:20):
escalator back up, and then you plateau for a little bit,
and then that kind of keeps going until you're ultimately
at the top of the thing. So mine just seemed
to go like that the whole time. You know, I'm
not really sure why. It's just the way that the
chips fell. I guess what were you like as a kid.
Let's go back to like seven or eight years old? Yeah,
(14:42):
because I felt like even knowing you early on in
this run, we didn't get to a lot of like
what was Holmes like as a kid? But what was
home like? At six, seven, eight years old? Home was
really great. I was living in Charlotte at that time.
I went to Huntersville Elementary School. I was an only child.
Both my parents worked full time. My mom worked as
(15:03):
a mortgage processing officer, so she wasn't a mortgage officer,
but she was kind of like the assistant to all
the mortgage officers within a certain branch of at that
at that time. It was First Union is where she
worked at that time. And your dad and my dad,
um back then he was he was kind of owned
(15:26):
his own like landscaping business. And I don't mean like
a cool, big landscaping business. I mean like it was
just him and his tools and then he would mow
your grass and weed eat and stuff like that, and
that's kind. And he also did maintenance at a at
a different bank in downtown Charlotte, and that's what he
did when we moved to Ashville as well. Did you
(15:47):
learn a lot from your dad as far as if
he's using his hands and you know, mowing weed eating,
which is what I did for many of those times?
Like yeah, could you go and do that now? And
do you do that now on your land? And like
you could you could actually use your hands, and because
I don't, you know, I would I would like to
light everybody and say that I'm you know then I'm
out there, you know, cutting down trees with an axe,
(16:09):
but I'm not, Um, I don't have the time right
now to do those? Could I could teach you? Yeah? Yeah,
how to how to string a weed eater? Yes? I
mean I grew up, you know, doing all those things
out of necessity, you know, because there were a lot
of times when you know, Dad had something even more
you know, annoyingly necessary to do than mow the grass
(16:32):
or weed eat. So sorry, that's my phone? Oh is
that many cool? No? I have the is it? While? Yeah,
you know the tile is so I have one in
my wallet, so it's probably just I probably I don't
know what that. What's the tile? It's like a thing.
So I keep on in my wall. Show you here.
So I got my wallet, handy dandy wallet. Your wallet zips.
It zips because somebody stole my credit card one time.
So this is one of those like r F I
(16:54):
D things. So it's this guy, right. It just looks
like a credit card, but it's kind I don't like
a find my iPhone for my wallet. So but if
I press this, then I should it. Then I know
where my phone is. And this this looks like a
credit card, but you push it, yeah, and then it
makes your phone ring, yeah, and so like, but I
(17:15):
can also if I if I get on my app,
I can make my wallet ring with this, so they
can find each other. Yes, and I lose your stuff
a lot with this, No, I just I've done. I like,
I have one in my passport, I have one on
my car keys, um and just various like I keep
I keep them in my guitar cases too, And so
everyone that has one of these, this thing is constantly
(17:37):
on bluetooth. So if I were to lose it and
you had one and you were near it, it would say, hey,
this thing just picked up Bluetooth on this guy's phone,
and so they're I'd be like, oh, well, it's over
there somewhere. It's close to where that guy was, and
so it would report every step that it's made on
its journey of like going by people who picked it up.
(18:00):
So I originally got them from my guitars. So I
was like, well, if someone ever steals my guitar, I
would at least have some way to like track it,
because there it would be, is hidden in the case,
you know, so I don't steal my guitars if you're
out there. It just it was nothing huge. It was like,
you know, my business manager was like, hey, did you
spend eight hundred dollars at Ace Hardware in Iowa or something?
(18:24):
And I was like no, And so essentially I was
just somewhere and people have those skimmers. And actually it
was in New York City. I was I went to
the Nike store in New York City probably last year,
and then I went to the Adidas store. And my
business manager was like, Hey, did you just buy six
hundred dollars worth of shoes at the Nike store and
(18:45):
then six hundred dollars worth of shoes at the Adidas store?
And I didn't. I didn't buy anything at the stores.
But someone in the store had skimmed my wallet while
I was in there, and then they were in there
buying shit, like literally when I was in there. So
they skimmed your walt You didn't stick your card in
a skimmer. They they somehow magnetize it. They can magnetize
it without even touching it. Now they can just I've
(19:07):
never heard of that. Yeah, it's pretty wild. And so
because of them, you have a zip wallet. Yeah, so
this thing has stuff all in the wallet to keep
the magnetic stuff from being able to go through it.
Is your WiFi protected at your house? Like super? Oh yeah, man,
when where did this all come from? But I mean,
by the way, great and healthy Amy, my coach's husband
is you know, super military, Like, hey, you don't know
(19:28):
what they're like, he's don't cover your whole Yeah, he's
that guy. I'm not that necessarily that he's that guy
because he's seen it and you better cover everything. It
does happen though, And I think you know, like when
you're dealing in intellectual property, you know, which is whether
you're writing songs or composing things or writing a book
or you know, if someone were to have access to
(19:50):
your Internet, I mean, they could steal all of your songs,
your writings, whatever you're keeping on your in your cloud
or whatever it is. I'm not really sure how that
stuff works. But who tipped you off to do that?
Or did something bad happen to you? Nothing bad happened
to me to get tipped off about it. I had
just been like, well, hey, man, like I can afford
to do that, so like I should probably do it,
(20:12):
Like that would be a safe thing to just to
do it. And it's not insanely expensive or anything. Um,
it's just like a series of firewalls. I'm just saying firewalls,
Like I know what that is, by the way, and
we're just question that just sounds like the thing that
it should be. So and they sound scary. So I
(20:35):
was talking to Ronnie Dunne. Him and I become pretty
good buzz in the last six months or so. Yeah,
and he and I didn't know this story, but he
credits you with pretty much making that whole reboot album
for them happen. Yeah, I've heard that. So here is
a little bit of a brand New Man with Luke
and Brooks and done. Here you go. So how did
(21:03):
this come together? In your mind? The story I've heard is,
so their manager, Clarence Spalding is friends with my manager, Cappy,
the guy that cried on the show, and we were
at a show I believe it was at Joe's Bar
in Chicago, probably three years ago or so. We had
(21:26):
a show there and Clarence had come or he was
in town or something, and it had linked up with Cappy.
Cappy was there and he came and watched the show
and stuff, and we did that cover a Brand New Man,
and I talked about in the set how much Brooks
and Doune meant to me and how much they had
influenced my career. And I had no idea what Clarence
was there, but I had just been doing that every night, like, hey,
(21:49):
I grew up listen to these guys. They really shaped
the music that I want to make and things that
I want to do. And I guess that kind of
sparked the idea within him, like, hey, there's probably a
lot out of other artists around my age that grew
up listening to Brooks and dunn Um which is you
know which happened to be the truth. If you were
(22:09):
to Mount Rushmore artists, which is four and we'll do
we'll do fun, we'll do five total, five of your life,
they have to country. They can they can be freaking
any they can be Mozart anyone. Yeah, you get to
Mount Rushmore because and as you think, I'll just kind
of walk you that would put Garth John Mayer on mine.
I'd put Ben Folds, I put so it can be,
(22:30):
it can be from wherever you want. Okay, So who
would be the first artist on your Mount Rushmore? Like
of like influence or like you just you raw taln
there no, not raw talent, but influence you your favorite?
Probably Elton John, Okay, was where I would go first,
for sure, Elton John. All Right, Billy Joel, are you
a piano player? I'm not? Those are your first two. Yeah,
(22:52):
they're so keys. There's there's just like just the songs
are so great. I've always loved keys. I'm not smart
enough to play piano, I don't think. Um, I've just
been honest with myself about that. I've tried and it's
just not there. You know, I'm not a big technical musician, um,
which is why I'm just able to strum enough chords
to write songs and play a couple of them at
(23:15):
the show. But it would definitely be those guys, you know,
Tom Petty, Tom Petty for sure, Brooks and Dunn would
be on there for me. One spot left. That's tough.
That's tough, man. That's hard, you know, because I you know,
I did go four spots really quick. Um, I'm trying
to think of who I just I mean, there were
(23:37):
so many different phases of my music listening since since
that age. UM. I would, Man, it's hard for me
to go against an edge hearing at this at this stage,
I just think the amount of work that he does,
the size of the tours that he does, the quality
of everything he puts out in the volume is just
(24:00):
pretty staggering, and there's not really anybody doing much like that.
Have you met. Let's just kind of go back to
your first people. Have you met Elton John I have not.
I'm gonna a low key flex here. He kissed me
on the mouth once. That's awesome. It was the greatest.
That's so cool. I was sitting next to him at
a charity event. He was showing me pictures of his kid.
He had just adopted this kid. Yeah, and he's like
these in pictures some more and he's going up to play.
(24:21):
It's like two hundred people there, and he's like all right,
and he goes out the plane. He grabs in my
head and just planting on my face. I was like,
that's freaking amaze. You're like whatever, I'm in. I am,
I'm in whatever you want whatever, Yeah, I'm in. I
would have done the same thing. Have you Billy Joel?
I have not meant Billy Joel Favorite Billy Joel song
scenes from an Italian restaurant. Nice. Wow, that's my favorite Bility.
(24:43):
That's how you know you're a hardcore Billy Joel fan. Yes,
that because that song is it's all over the place.
I mean, I feel like it's I feel like it
was three different songs that he just kind of I
think I think I've heard that story, but maybe I mean,
I may be making that up. Don't quote me on that,
but I've not meant Billy Joel. I would like to.
I have a lot of friends that are big Billy
(25:04):
Joel fans, and most of them picked this as their favorite.
Now me, I'm a middle of the road. I've seen
him through a four times sure, and I would always
go with Listen if you if piano manage your favorite,
which is one of mine, you're not as hardcore? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I love piano man, I love it. Yeah, but you're
a hardcore. Like if you come to me and you
say your favorite John Mayer song is Daughters, I'm like,
you're not a hardcore m exactly. Like you can be
(25:25):
a middle of the road John Mayoric exactly, But no
real John Mayer fan picks Daughters or or bubble Dum
tongue does not find you pick as Okay, So those two. Um,
Tom Petty, have you seen the five hour documentary? I
have not, dude, and I want to see it. You
can't watch it in one setting obviously, And just have
(25:45):
this like thing that hurts my hard a little bit
about Tom Petty because I know we hated country music
and that hurts me a lot. So somebody was in
recently talking about oh Ronnie Dunn talking about him and
Tom Petty because Tom Petty was like a was like
a punk guy. Yeah. He talks about Tom Petty when
he met him as being a guy guy who was
(26:05):
playing punk music. Yeah. But I just think there is
a a misunderstanding to a lot of people at what
country music means, certainly because I think Tom Petty would
be a country artist now. I agree with that statement, yes,
because it's such a broad term now, and and to
dislike something artistic because of a taste you have of it,
(26:29):
I believe is unfair. It's like saying you don't like bread.
It's such a huge thing. There's so many different car cheese,
you know, which I'm currently vegan, which is horrible. But
what do you mean current into that currently vegan. It's
odd that someone just goes for a minute, I lost
a bet. I lost a bet. It's it's a whole
(26:51):
thing going I lost a bet and I'm given a
charity a lot. You know, it's like a lifestyle. It
is a thing. I mean, it's like it'll definitely be beneficial.
You know who did you bet with my keys player?
And what was your side of the bet? Though? Head? Okay,
so it's it's this is the oddest, very oddest seed
into a bet. So I'm a big Carolina Panthers fan,
(27:12):
huge die hard. I was living in Charlotte, where was
I in nineteen ninety six, cheering for the Panthers in
the first year. Yeah, and he's a big Atlanta Falcons fan.
So we played each other twice a year in the
same division. Obviously, there's a lot of pride involved. At
the time of the bet being made, the Panthers were
five and two. I don't think they won another game.
(27:35):
Was this pre Cam getting hurt? No, this is Kyle
Allen had won three straight I think Cam was out
in the second game or first game. Um. But Kyle
Allen came in won three or four straight games. Um.
And then I was like, oh, we're gonna smash the
Falcons because they were two and eleven by the time
we played them. They were two and eleven and and
(27:55):
so I was like, and the Falcons just absolutely destroyed,
like dismantled the Anthers, like beat us. I think it
was like thirty four to seven or something. But of
all the terms of a bet, he picked you being
vegan if he won. Yes, yes, well I hadn't made
that bet previously with Cappy. So with Panthers played the
Cowboys and the Panthers won and Cappy had to shave
his beard off or I had to go vegan. Luckily
(28:18):
I won the vet the bet. But it's like to me,
it's like there's nothing like really fun about like betting
money on stuff. You know, why is everybody picking you
to go vegan? Like that's two different people with the
same bet. I think they see me in there, like
this guy loves eating red meat and going hunting and
doing which is a true statement, but I think it's
something that like people think that I can't do, you know,
(28:41):
like they're like, no way he can do that, And
I'm like a super prideful guy. So I'm on, I'm
only on day three. I'm having how long dift to go?
Three months? Oh? You bet three months on a single game? Yeah?
And what was his life if? Okay, so he cut off?
What's happening here this bet? Well? So so he's balda
(29:02):
but he has he can grow like the I call
it the pap hap this circle the circle, so he
keeps his head shaved and wears a hat. His bat
was he had to grow his hair out for three
months and couldn't wear a hat. So it was a
very extreme. So it had to be like he had
to match that with something that he felt was equally
as extreme and better on one game, better on one game.
(29:25):
We almost doubled down on the second game, which I'm
glad we didn't because we lost that game too. Then
what happened? You don't eat for three months, I just
would have been gandhi and nothing. I think it would
have been six months a vegan at that point. And
have you noticed your body being any different? It's only
been three days. I'm definitely not as tired sitting watch
you become a vegan like like Rick Rubin vegan. That happened.
(29:49):
That happened to my, uh my utility player. Are you
just eating no vegan or you no belts you live
in the lifestyle or what? No, I'm not living the lifestyle.
I'm not living the like. No, like I'm I would
go hunt tomorrow if it was hunting season, for sure.
I'm definitely not buying into the like. You know, we
usually send everybody home with the rack of ribs, but
(30:09):
I guess we'll just man. You could do like a
rack of like lentil or something like that would be great.
I don't so we got on that front a funny
bet though we went Tom Petty to veganism. Yeah, and again,
if Tom Petty were around now and making new music,
he would be on that rock getry Cusp definitely. And
(30:30):
I think had you know as a kid, when you
were singing songs, was it country music for you or
was it a mix of a little like what was
it in your mind that you wanted to sing because
you were singing? I was singing, and it was when
I was living in Charlotte, it was country and that
was it was country, and like my parents were listening.
(30:51):
So like my mom loved like Tom Petty, John Mellencamp,
that kind of was the kind of stuff my mom loved.
My dad loved led Zepp when the who I mean
those were classic rock on the radio type live Yeah,
but mostly listening to country radio, okay at that because
my mom loved country too, she grew up listening to
that as well. And so at that time, I was,
(31:14):
you know, you mostly go around with your mom. When
you're a young child, you know dad's working or he's
out doing something on the weekend to make extra money.
Kind of think that's what my dad was doing. So
I spent a lot of time in the car with
my mom, and so she was listening to country radio.
So I listened to Vince Gill. I mean that. I
mean that cassette tape was burned through a thousand times.
(31:35):
Hard working Man Brooks and Dunne Tracy Chapman album from
like I think it's from like nineteen eighty eight, is that,
like give me one reason? Tracy Chapman No Fast Car,
the first first album. And listen to that all the
time with my dad. That's what kind of went me
and my dad would listen. My dad has never been
a huge country fan, except for Dwight Yoakum. Listened to
(31:55):
a ton of Dwight Yoakum with my dad and and
I was listening. And then when we moved from Charlotte
to Asheville, it just kind of stopped, Like I just
my mom just stopped listening to country music for whatever reason.
That was. So when you're eight, you really don't have
(32:17):
your own taste in or for music. Yet you're just
kind of like, whatever's on is what I'm listening to.
You're not going and buying albums and finding stuff that
you like. You're just kind of listening to what your
parents are listening to. And so my mom was just
she stopped listening to country radio at that time. I'm
not exactly sure why. And so I didn't really listen
(32:41):
from then until my freshman year of college. I mean,
so there was ten years where I just I didn't
listen to country like at all. As you're a kid,
what is a you're singing? Do you have an eight
year old rath? Or did? When? Did it? Like when
you no? I was, I was. I had a really
high voice when I was little, So I was. I
mean I was and Vince Gill, you know, I mean
killing that stuff. Uh. And then I just got in
(33:04):
I always liked singing. I always getting trouble in class
for humming or you know, talking or or I was
just constantly making noise. Uh. And then and then I
found a you know, a channel for that through chorus class.
And like the sixth grade, they made us they made
us take every elective in the sixth grade, So you
took like art and homeck and jim and and and
(33:29):
chorus and band, and you took all of those classes
U and then so when I went to pick my
electives for the next year, I picked all my electives
were always gim and chorus class. That was it. When
you started singing, Was it duck to water for you?
It was, But I didn't know it at the time.
It was just kind of like I just liked doing it.
(33:50):
But I didn't think. I thought it was just you
don't understand that there's I just never thought of doing
something like this, you know. It wasn't like I was
the kid that was like, I'm gonna go be Garth Brooks,
I'm gonna do this or that. I never had that
intention in mind at a young age. And I know
a lot of people who do you know they heard
at Tricia Yearwood song and went, I'm gonna be Tricia Yearwood.
(34:12):
That's what I want to do. I just never thought
of that as an option. I was playing sports. I
was horrible at sports, but I was playing sports. I
like doing that, and I was just singing because it
was something to do that I liked to do, you know.
I was just I mean, at that point in time,
truly just living my life. You know. I wasn't playing
for the future at that time, and I didn't really
(34:35):
know I was any good until like ninth grade, probably
until I went to high school and my course teacher
was like, hey, you're pretty good, you know, And I
was like, cool, that's good because I like I like
doing it, so it's cool that I'm good at it,
you know, And then I sang. I was in course
class every day of high school from ninth grade to
time I graduated. You play football horribly? I was horrible? Really? Yeah?
(35:00):
And what position do you play in? Defensive tackle? Did
you like hitting? Loved hitting? Um? I didn't have I
didn't really have the quickness, per se or the aggression.
I wasn't like an aggressive guy, so but I loved
hitting people. You weren't singing Vince Gill like I wasn't
(35:20):
singing Vince Gill in high school in line, No, I wasn't. Um.
I always you know, It's funny. I played rugby in college,
which I was good at and I did enjoy a lot,
But I loved I always wanted to. I was like
a running back stuck in a offensive guards body. You
know what I mean, like I always wanted to have
the ball and run with the ball, but that was
never an option. And the and my my high school
(35:43):
team we ran we were one of the first teams
to run the spread. And so obviously there's your high
school football team. Yeah, you ran the spread, and for
you in two thousand and probably five four or five.
And you gotta you gotta be able to move if
you're running the spread. Yeah, no doubt every musician, because
even even the lineman, you got to get up and go.
And so I wasn't in like in shape enough to
(36:05):
be you know, I didn't have the endurance to to
run with the offense because we had we had two
running backs that ran sub for three forties. I mean
they were just lightning fast, and so we were up
and down the field a lot, I mean, thirty forty
yard play. It was not something that was out of
(36:26):
the ordinary for us. And so yeah, I was just
not cut out for that either. You know, in a
lot of teams we were playing, we're playing we're you know,
we're running the wing tea and like the super antiquated
offenses and stuff like that. So yeah, I was just
I was just not cut out for that particular thing. Now,
looking back in time, I would have I would have
(36:48):
loved to play offensive line. It's one of my favorite
most intriguing positions now and I think I would have
been very good at that. Actually, Um but I was
just I was just not because I didn't play when
I was little. I started playing in high school. So
all of my all of my teammates had been playing
since they were seven or eight years old, you know.
(37:08):
So by the time I was a senior, it was
like there were guys who had been playing football for
fourteen for fifteen years, and I had only been playing
for three. So I was way behind the curve of
you know, strength training and learning the game. And I
just wanted to hit people. That was it. You go
to Appalachian State and as you leave high school and
(37:30):
you go to college. In your mind at that point,
why are you going to college? I just thought that
was what you did because I didn't want to go
to work, I think, you know, but I had went
to I actually went to a chorus camp at app
in probably maybe eighth grade or ninth grade or something
(37:51):
like that. For the summer. I was like one of
those two week you go and stay in the dorms,
and there's kids from all the different schools and everything.
And I just fell in love with that place, you know,
because I grew up in the mountains already, but that
was way I mean, that's way in them as much
in the mountains as you can be in North Carolina,
kind of nestled in this little valley thing, and I
just fell in love with the campus, and like the
(38:14):
and the weather, you know, I like the cold, you know,
I'm fine with being cold, and it's very cold and
it snows a lot there, and I just I absolutely
was enamored with that place. And ever since I went
to that camp, I was like, that's where I'm going
to go to college. I'm gonna go to school there.
And I was not a very good student in high school.
(38:36):
I've always been interested in learning things. I really enjoy that.
I just was never interested in learning things that people
wanted me to learn. So what were you doing in
college for the most part, If obviously you're getting through
because you didn't leave until and you left right before
you graduated, right, which is so, and we'll get to that,
But what were you doing in school? Were you just
keeping the grades up so you could keep singing or
(38:57):
where like why what was your motivating? It was like
it was College was a big time for me of like, okay,
how do you be three hundred pounds and get a girlfriend?
That was what I spent most of my time trying
to figure out. Did you have girls in college? No? No,
I was definitely not a ladies man, you know, not
(39:18):
because I didn't want to be. But in high school
you don't exactly get judged on your great personality. So
those were interesting times for me. But I mean that
was what I did in college. Man. I hung out,
I drank with my buddies. I didn't go to class
a lot. I played rugby. I sang in an acapella group.
My first year and a half of school, I pledged
(39:42):
a fraternity and ended up quitting doing that before I
became an initiated member. I did a bunch of stuff. Man,
I just tried a bunch of stuff, you know. And
I think that's what I'm thankful for in the college experience,
because that's where I found out that this is what
I was supposed to be doing. And you left early
like you were closer graduating, right, Well, I was there
(40:04):
for five years, so I didn't leave early, but you
left right. I stayed late and I didn't graduate. Yeah.
How many hours you think you need? Not even semester
and a half yeah, not even four year? Yeah, but
I could have done like a summer and a semester.
But the problem was I always hated math and I
(40:25):
always hated science. Um, I'm not good at not good
at science, not good at math, um, And so I
never What happened was I loved I was a major,
and I changed my major from business. I started out
at business and I was like, wait, I hate math,
Why am I doing that? That's just something that I
was like, Oh, you could probably get a good job
doing business things, you know. So I tried that for
(40:47):
like a year, and then I switched my major to
criminal justice because do what in criminal justice? Near mind?
I wanted to be a homicide detective is what I
wanted to do. Still am very interested in that, and
so I went balls to the wall in that major,
and I really enjoyed that. So I'd liked go into
my you know, forensic science class and my this and
(41:09):
this and this class. But the things that I the
twenty one hours I was short were all my math classes.
All my science classes, so like basic, like your freshman
year stuff. Never took any of them. I never took
Stats one in Stats two, and then I never took
chemistry or biology because I was like, this is just
(41:31):
I don't want to do any of this stuff, you know.
And so by the time I got to the end
of my major, I kind of ran into this huge
roadblock because I had two or three classes that I
needed for my major and they were like, well, you
can't take this class unless you have Stats one in
Stats two, and you can't take them at the same time.
(41:52):
So that's at least a year of school to take
two classes. So I'd had to do Stats one Stats
to biology or Chemistry one in biology or Chemistry two,
and those were both prerequisites, and then I would have
had to take the classes for the end of my major,
and then I would have had to do my internship
because I couldn't do my internship until I did the
classes for the end of my major. And you've already
(42:13):
done five years and I had already done yeah, it's
like four Yeah, I'd already done like four and a
half years. So I was like, I'm not staying here
for another two and a half years in school. At least.
I ended up living in Boone until I was twenty
four before I moved to Nashville. But I was just like, man,
I just I don't you know at that By that time,
I was already playing music. Were you going back and
forth from Boone to Nashville or did you when you
(42:35):
came to Nashville? Was it you came to Nashville the first.
I came to Nashville twice in those years, and that
was two thousand and at the end of two thousand
and thirteen, and then the summer of two thousand and
fourteen when you came to the first time. Did you
know you wanted to stay? Yeah? Oh yeah, because I
(42:55):
had written a few songs, and so I came at
the end of twenty thirteen and recorded the songs, and
then I met had you know, through the internet, had
met a couple of people. I was like, oh, I
write songs with these guys. So I wrote a couple
of songs when I was there, and then I got
back and I was like, man, like, I got to
play another trip. So I played another trip, wrote some
more songs, and then on that trip and probably aprilish
(43:19):
May of twenty fourteen is when I recorded she got
the best to me? Can I get an outlaw and
share if you want to? And then at that time
after that, those came out in June, and I moved
in September of that year of twenty fourteen. The tweet
(43:41):
you posted what you said, I think the topic was
tell me something about yourself that no one believe. And
the gt of it was that you came to town
and you had some songs and people were like, hey,
they weren't good. And your old thing was don't let
anyone let you stop chasing your dreams. Yeah, those meetings
where you were rejected, are they vivid to you? The
early meetings definitely. The one in the meeting in particular
(44:07):
was with somebody It was, you know, they have like
the artist like writer reps at like b and I.
So I had a friend that had a rep there
and I went in and I was like very excited
because I had just moved to Nashville at this time
and I didn't know anybody, you know, I knew a
couple of writing buddies and was going out and playing
a few writers rounds and writing songs every day. And
(44:30):
because by that time. I was living off of those
songs that I had put out the previous year, and
I went in and it was kind of like this
this person was like, we'll play me three songs. And
I was like, oh cool, Like this person's gonna be
like I'm gonna play these three songs and like they're
gonna walk me into the best publishing thing and they're
(44:50):
gonna be like this guy's great, Like how could you
not love this guy? Give him a publishing deal? So
I played Hurricane When It Rains in one Number Away,
which were my first three number ones, and they were like, Okay,
here's the deal. You gotta get better a songwright and
you gotta write better songs and you're never gonna be
an artist. So that's it. And I was like, and
(45:15):
I wasn't like mad, do you know who said it? Yeah,
but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say it. I
would never ask you to say it, but I'm just
asking if you know who's that? Oh? I know? Yeah?
Have you seen them since? Yeah? I've ran into them
awkwardly at actually the bm My Awards. Do you think
they remember telling you that? Or do you don't get it?
Just someone that was coming through the churney to the system.
(45:36):
I don't think so at all, which is fine, you
know I have I have nothing against that person, you
know what, because I get it. Man. I mean it's
it's like if you look at it, would I would,
I would equate it to at that level, you know,
because you're not even screened at all. At that level,
like any Tom Dick or Harry can walk in off
the street pretty much to be am I and get
one of those meetings. So I can't imagine the pressure
(45:59):
of like, Okay, well, I've got six kids that moved
to town yesterday that want to come in and they
all think they're awesome, and I've got to be able
to figure out which ones I think are good enough
to go on to the next thing. And so I
wasn't mad about it at all. I'm actually very thankful
for that meeting because I did go out and feel
like I wrote some of the best songs that I
(46:20):
had ever written, because I was like, man, I gotta
I gotta write more and do better, Like I'm not
even close to as good as I need to be.
And so I just kept my head down and I
went and wrote a ton of songs, and then the
kind of the rest is just kind of fell into place.
I mean, I know that's, you know, summarizing a big
(46:42):
chain of events, but that's kind of how it felt like.
Got a few minutes left her. I wanted to run
a couple of other things about you that I heard.
First of all, a lot of folks come in myself
included that worked retail because we kind of had to. Yep,
you gotta pay the bills somehow as you're chasing your
creative endeavor. Yes, and I worked at hobby lobby. Mike
who was in Michael Hobby from Thousand Horses worked at
(47:05):
the Buckle. Okay, you worked at isod I did? I did?
How'd that go? I was not a great fit at
izod um, but I had you know, I had as
much fun with it as you could possibly have folding
people's golf sweaters, you know. Um. It was in an
outlet mall, like one of those like Tanger outlets or
whatever they call it. They had one in Blowing Rock,
(47:26):
which is right down the road from Boone, So it
was I mean, it was pretty pretty miserable. If how
long did you do that? I probably worked there for
I mean close to a year, probably, I would think.
And whenever you are walking past a table of shirts
that are messy, does it bother you? And will you
refold a shirt? No chance, no chance. But I'll tell
(47:51):
you what I do. I do fold a mean shirt,
you know, when I'm when I'm doing the laundry at home,
which I'm sure people are spied. Do do laundry my fiance.
It does handle the brunt of the laundry, um, but
I do. I do chip in quite a bit, and
you know, help fold stuff. And you know I'm not
I'm not afraid to do laundry. I don't. I don't
mind it at all. But you separate it, or do
(48:13):
I If I wasn't in a committed relationship, I would
throw it on. Yeah, But I do separate it now
just because that's what. But now it's like her stuff's
in there, which is the thing. Like mine are just old,
like gross t shirts and jeans really, so I'm not
too worried about them like shrinking or like. But now
there's this whole like don't wash this thing with that thing,
(48:37):
and don't dry this thing, but it's gotta be tumble dried,
but don't put it in with this thing that has
to be high heat and then some stuff is like
cold water, and so it's I mean, it gets pretty
matthey to me, you know. And we know you don't like,
I don't left school because you didn't even take a
laundry that was like year three and that was year
(48:59):
three and I skipped aundry class, that's for sure. The
bank bag I'm curious about to use to save the
money in yep. So you went and bought one of
those bank bags at Zips, Like it's kind of your
wallet with the lock on it. Yeah, so what was
that about? And where was this money coming from? You
were sticking in the bag. So I had I had
started playing shows and when Cappy moved to town after
(49:20):
he started managing me, he had never managed anybody before. Um,
you know, he kind of blew through his life savings
like trying to build my career, and so he made
a promise to me. He was like, hey, man, I'm
not gonna take a commission until you're actually making enough
money to like live off of. And so at the time,
(49:42):
you know, the gigs were I mean, they could have
been two hundred and fifty dollars a night. They could
have been a thousand dollars a night, and those were
a thousand dollars was really good, you know. And so
we would go and do those gigs and excuse me,
I would take, you know, t shirt money, whatever was
left over. And and Cappy was great because he would
always go settle the show. You know, he would run
(50:04):
me through the statement every night and they here's what
we got, and here's what we did, and here's the
tickets and this and and there would always we were
we were selling out everything, you know at that time,
which is great on those club gigs because usually they'll
they'll kick you back a pretty like sweet bonus and
it's always cash. And so that's where the money was
coming from, was that these sellout bonuses on these club shows.
(50:26):
And so I would I was like, I remember getting
to thinking I had like five or six thousand dollars
in my apartment, you know, and I was like, man like,
so I could just walk in here and like take
this if they wanted to. So I had like a
folder's can, and instead of putting just the money in there,
I put it in the bank bag and then rolled
the bank back up and put it in there. It's
(50:46):
a back like behind my microwave on my counter. My
microwave kind of sat like in a corner, so it
was kind of there was that space behind it, yeah,
because it was diagonal. Yeah, and so that's what that's
what that's where the money was coming from. And that's
what I did with it. That time I saw Cappy,
he was in the Delta Lounge. I was walking through.
I wasn't going of the Delta Lounge. We know kevin't
know each other obviously, and he was on the phone
and I just touched his show. I was like just
(51:09):
saying high to him, not pulling off his phone, and
he and he was talking about, um, some of your technology.
He's on the phone talking about the shore. He's like yeah,
he's like, and he goes, I'll call you back to
him hang this, hangs up on him and just like
how you doing, man? And I was like, you don't
have to hang up a phone call. But it's such
a testament to like how present minded that he always
wants to be, Yeah, definitely, and just how giving of
(51:31):
his time. And we sat there and talking and I
was like, happy, why don't you get back on the
phone and handle your business. I'm gonna go get like
a one of these little fancy Delta chocolate bars, right,
and then someone else walked in that I knew he
did the same thing. It's really one of the sweetest guys.
He is man and he um. He and I are
very similar. I mean, people think he's my dad all
the time. How'd you guys meet? We met? So his
(51:52):
best friend from growing up. They went to high school
together and then went to college together, joined the same
fraternity as a guy by the name of Bradley Jordan
uh And he books a ton of a ton of
clubs in the Southeast as a promoter. He had a
he used to own Peastree Tavern in Atlanta in the
early like mid two thousands, like Luc Brian used to
(52:12):
play there Swindel fgl That was kind of one of
those big clubs where like when you went and played
Atlanta and you were coming up you played Bradley's place
U And when he eventually sold that, he started a
company h called Peastree Entertainment, which he still runs, you know.
And and so he books, you know, right now he's
booking shows with like you know, Hardy Werega Wall and
or Riley Green, like those kind of guys. And so
(52:34):
Bradley was had booked me on one or two shows
and then you know, obviously him having known Cappy his
whole life, he knew that Cappy's ultimate goal was to
always be a manager. He had just never found the
right guy, or it wasn't the right time, or the
stars didn't line up. And so he called Cappy and
was like, hey, I got the guy. And so he
showed up at my show at Zydeco in Birmingham and
(52:57):
we talked and he was like, I live in Atlanta
and all this, and I'm gonna move. And I was like, dude,
this guy's fucking crazy, Like he's gonna like he's just
gonna up and like walk away from his entire life
to do this. And I was kind of like a
little like apprehensive about it, you know, like I was like,
am I getting involved with like some like sharky guy
who's gonna come and like, because you always hear the
(53:18):
stories like, well make sure who you do business with,
because they're everyone in the music business is trying to
you know, steal from you or get something out of
you kind of thing. So I was like my thinking
was like, man, you get one shot, you know, like,
do I want to take my risk with this guy
who I don't know, who's never managed anybody before, or
do I want to try to get a proper management
(53:40):
deal at a you know, at a big firm, or
do this? And and so I met with a couple
other managers, and you know, everybody had kind of passed
on me in that situation too, And and Cappy's you know,
we stayed in touch about things, and he sent me
this huge email. I mean it was like five or
six pages long, and I remember reading it. I was
(54:03):
I was like reading it like in my car, and
I had just come home from a ride or something.
And and I remember and he had heard that I
had met with some other manager type people, And essentially
this was a six page letter of like why he
was going to be the best manager, you know, for
not only for me, but he wanted to become, you know,
(54:25):
a great manager, and and this is how we're gonna
do things, and this is why we're gonna do them,
and this is why I believe in you, and this
is why I'm willing to sacrifice everything for you, you know,
to do this. And after I read it, I was like, man,
there's nobody's going to care more about it than this guy,
you know, so then it then it just we instant.
I mean he up and moved. Like the next week
(54:45):
was that. That was two thousand and fifteen, probably late fifteen.
I would think I did fifteenth A great story, it is. Yeah,
the last thing we're gonna do is walk through these
number ones and just give me a couple of sentences
about what they like when you hear them back, Like
(55:07):
what was happening around the time that either you wrote
it or number one? Like what story we'll start. We'll
start with hurricane here you go? Here's that? When that plays?
I mean, it just is a flood of like things
were just really happening at that time, you know, And
(55:28):
and that song was around it for you know, in
my life at that time a long time. You know,
it had been out for you know, by the time
it went number one, it had been out for two years.
And so I played that song in a lot of clubs,
and and I just could I I can just feel
the like the momentum when you play that song, because
(55:49):
it's you know, I owe kind of everything to that song,
you know, I mean, I wouldn't be sitting here talking
to you, if it wasn't for that moment in time,
you know. And I just remember, you know, playing all
these shows and man, we're selling everything out and people
were all these important you know, business people were coming
out and we want to see the show and we
(56:11):
want to talk to you about this, and and just excitement,
I guess would be the word that I think of
when that song comes to mind. All right, number two
here is your second one one number away. That's just different,
you know, it was. It was the most different thing
(56:34):
that I had done at that time, especially when we
wrote it. You know, I had never written to a
track before, didn't know what that was, um, and it
was just it was it was cool, man. It was
kind of like I was like, man, this thing is
just so cool. It's such a risk for me I
felt at that time to put out, you know, and
so made me and luckily it worked out. But that
one is is definitely I would like risky, I think,
(56:56):
is how I would felt. I felt about that one
when it rains a poor yeah, man, I mean just
I mean, I just think that's probably my It just
makes me happy when I hear that song. Man. You know,
I remember shooting the video and and uh and Charleston
(57:17):
and uh, you know me and my uh you know
now fiance had had just really got into the throes
of our relationship at that time, and it was just
really fun. That was just a really fun time for me.
You know, that song brings back a lot of of
really cool, fun memories for me. All Right, number four
here she got the best of me? Why did you
(57:42):
laugh right there? What what happened up there? Was? I mean,
it's just that's full. It's like full circles the word
I would use because I wrote that song in college. Um,
I wrote it here in Nashville, but it was on
one of my trips and it just the way it
all came together was, um, you know, I wrote it
with Rob Snyder and Channing Wilson at that time. They
were both, you know, doing the revival thing together at
(58:05):
Tin Roof, and a buddy of mine that I went
to Nashville with had you know, kind of walked up
to those guys and was like, Hey, let's write a
song thing and and so they were like sure, man,
you know, we're in town for a couple of days
and they're like, oh, well, we can write tomorrow or whatever.
Me and my buddy got super drunk that night at
the Tin Roof and and you know, we played revival
that night, and and so he called me in the
(58:28):
morning and was like, hey, man, like, I'm too hungover
to go to this right, will you go instead? And
I was like sure, man, like I'll go right with these,
you know, two complete stranger guys, you know. And so
I went over to Rob's apartment. Me and Rob were
kind of sitting there writing and this. I mean, Rob
and Channing are both like big dudes. They're both taller
(58:50):
than me, they're both even broader than I am. And
and Channing walks out in this like bath towel, you know,
He's got his long hair and his big beard and everything.
And Rob was like, dude, come come get on this
song with us. Man, I should come write this song
with us. And he was like, man, I'm not feeling it,
you know, And he said, well play, he said, dude,
just just play him something. So I played night Moves
(59:13):
on my guitar by Seeger and he was like, yeah,
I'll come right with you, guys. And then so we
wrote we wrote she Got the Best of Me that
day and I ended up recording it in college when
I'm still in college, putting it out, and then when
it came time to record the deluxe version of the album,
you know, Lynn was like, this song is just great
and your fans love it at the shows, and I
(59:35):
really think it deserves a chance to you know, to
be recorded with the proper equipment and the proper proper
band and and get a shot at being a single one.
So it was definitely a full circle experience for that one,
beautiful crazy. I mean definitely, my fiance comes to mind
more than anything, and that song really just changed a
(59:57):
lot for me. I mean it was seven week number one,
which is crazy. I would have never imagine that that
to you, that song to me put you on a
whole different Like it's you have to have a massive
song to actually make the jump. You can have eleven
number one and sometimes you don't make the job, but
if you get that one definer, yep, you can make
a jump. I think for you, that's when it launched
you up. And that's what I was thinking, is this
(01:00:19):
is the one that took us from like, I mean,
we had four number ones and things were awesome, and
then it was all of a sudden, it was like next,
it was the next gear after that song, you know.
And you know, I think of obviously winning Song of
the Year here recently, and you know, all the accolades
and and and things. There's so many really positive, you
(01:00:40):
know memories. I mean, I wouldn't be you know, I probably.
I mean, I would like to think I would still
be with my fiance without that song. But I mean,
this is the song that I played for her, you know,
after we weren't even officially dating yet when I wrote
this song about her, and I remember playing it for
like two days after I wrote it, and I was
like so nervous. That's vulnerable there, because I was like, man,
(01:01:01):
what if she thinks I'm just a total creep, like
you know, because it was like, I mean we're hanging out.
We were hanging out a good amount at that time,
but it was still like, man, it was such a
risk in my mind, like to play her that What
did she do? She was working at BMI, No, what
did she do when you played the song? Did she
get emotional or did she Well? I played it smart
(01:01:22):
because her one of her friends was there, and so
I had actually bought her a record player as a gift,
like a Crosley record player with like the legs and
like its own little speaker and stuff, and so it
had an ox chord jack and I plugged my phone
in and played the work tape and her friend was
in there, and her friend was like, oh my god,
like this is just wow, you know, And so I
(01:01:45):
was like, I know, if I can like hook the
friend and the friend thinks it's sweet, she at least
has to pretend like she likes it so that I'm
not in this awkward situation where both like, well, we'll
just stop hanging out now, because do you think I'm
super weird? So it was she, but no, she loved it.
And I mean she obviously loves that tune. All right,
Bear never broke my heart. I don't just feel the
(01:02:12):
live show on that one. Yeah, I mean, it's just
like it just feels like, you know, it just feel
like I can imagine what the environment would have been
like a an ACDC concert, you know, like and not
that that song sounds anything like an ACDC song, but
it's the most rock and thing that we have, you know.
It has those heavy like chugging guitars and and just
(01:02:36):
it just feels like an arena rock like anthem song,
and that's what it feels like every time we play it.
And I think that song, you know, if Beautiful Crazy
was important, I think beer is just as important because
we followed Beautiful Crazy up, which was this very vulnerable,
like low you know, finnel like violin kind of acoustic thing,
(01:03:00):
and then it just polar opposite is this song and
this song. You know, I think this gave us a
jump too, because you know, a lot of and like
you said, we did have hits, but a lot of
the hits we're kind of like mid tempo, e Like,
there wasn't that like kick you in the teeth thing
in the set, and I think that song brought that
to the table for us. And the last one before
(01:03:21):
we go, even though I'm leaving the seventh number one
in a row as we record this right now, this
is the one multi week number one. Yeah, when you
wrote this, how do you feel, I've man, this was
a crazy right. So actually one of the guys I
wrote Beautiful Crazy with White Drette. This was the first
song that we wrote together, and me and him and
(01:03:46):
a good friend of ours, Ray Fulter, wrote this together
and it was one of those things. I love to
get into a rite and just not go until I
feel like it's perfect, and I feel like sometimes the
Nashville environment can be we got three hours, We're walking
out with a song. I don't care if it's terrible.
(01:04:06):
I don't care if it's the best song that anybody's
ever written. I just want to get it done and
turn it into my publisher and get on with my life.
You know, which is great if that's what you want
to do. And I understand that, and I enjoy that
sometimes too, but I have to go into it with
a different thing because I'm writing it as something that
(01:04:26):
could potentially be a humongous part of my life forever.
You know, that song is never gonna go away. It's
never not gonna have been at number one. I'm never
not gonna play it every night. And so I love
to go in and make sure that if I'm going
to record something and I'm going to put it out
there for people, that it's something that has the stamp
of approval. And so that was a rite that took
(01:04:48):
probably eight hours, seven or eight hours and one day,
and we were in the little like we were in
like the little office rooms at Southern Ground in the studio.
We weren't in the studio, but there's a little spot
next door where there's like, you know, just a little
fluorescent bulb like offices. And Whyatt's son at that time
(01:05:12):
was you know, getting ready to you know, he was
getting to the age where he was going to be
graduating from high school very soon. And that was his
only a child at that time, and he was like, man,
I want to write my son a song and let
him know that I'm gonna be there for him no
matter what, you know, like just because he's not living
at home, he doesn't I don't want him to feel
(01:05:34):
like he can't still call me or he can't still
you know, be my son or ask for help if
he needs it. And so that's how that song started.
Uh and uh, man, we had trouble getting through it.
You know, I'm lucky enough to still have my my
parents in my life and so I haven't you know,
had to deal with that you know, horrible day yet.
But we were all, you know, very emotional, like you
(01:05:57):
didn't sing in the work tape, like got a little
choked up. I was like, man, this is like and
I knew, like if that's happening to me, Like that's
going to happen to a lot of people with that song.
So um, that song is just you know, it's it's
really powerful for a lot of folks. All right. See
what you see is what you get towards Ashington McBride
and Drew Parker is happening lots of festival dates. You
(01:06:18):
and Eric Church are headlining Rock to South. You're torn
with McGraw. I don't even know how you have a minute.
It's like every day on your calendar there there's something
on it. You know. That's what I call music. Seventy
three Yeah, holy crap, man, it's crazy man, you know,
but it's it's I just think, you know, you only
get this chance, you know once, if you ever get it.
(01:06:40):
And you know, I don't want to look back when
I'm you know, sixty years old, you know, and and
go man, I could have done more. I should have
done more. I wish I would have done that, or
I wish I would have worked harder, you know, because
I don't want to lose this. You know. It's it's
it's a special feeling, you know, to go on, man,
people are really loving me right now. I'm hitting some
(01:07:01):
kind of I'm hitting some kind of vain somehow, some
way that maybe somebody else isn't doing, and that's a
neat feeling. So I don't, you know, I'm not prepared
to lose that, and I know and inevitably will come.
There will be a time when, you know, the next
guy that's really awesome will come along and go, l Combs,
(01:07:22):
that guy's old news. You know. I was talking with
in the last few days, a plus plus artist, just
we're hanging out a little bit, and he had brought
you up because that he was a plus plus still
is massive, yeah, and he was confident. He was like,
you know what, it's Luke Combs the time. Now Yeah,
He's like, I had my time, and he goes, it's
Luke Holms the time. She said, I'm still gonna do
massive shows. But now it's Luke's time, and Luke's gonna
(01:07:43):
have his time, and then hopefully Luke will look at
the next person to go, yeah, you know what, I'm
still gonna play big shows. Yeah, he goes, that's just
how this works. And the people who don't, who are miserable,
who don't embrace what they have when they have it,
and what they had when they had it and roots
for the guys that are coming next. Yeah, and you
got to man, you know, because I've had a lot
of really great experiences with with people here in town,
(01:08:05):
with other artists who've said, man, you know you're gonna
do this, and everybody's thing is always enjoy it while
it's here. You know, do the thing that you go
to the after party that you're too tired to go
to go, you know, hang out with Ed Sheering or
you know, any a cool opportunity you should go do
(01:08:27):
that because you're not always going to have those opportunities.
So um, that's something that I've always taken to heart. Now,
I do enjoy a good nap sometimes, you know, it's
just hard to pass up on that sometimes. But so yeah,
I'm just trying to I'm just trying to do it
the best I can. And uh, and you know, enjoy it.
Well it's here. Well listen, I appreciate time. Likewise, just
a big fan of you. Thank you. I think over
(01:08:52):
your artistry, Like I got to know you a little
bit before you had a bunch of s. Yeah, I
always liked your honesty when you came. Thanks man, and
and it's very often, so area is Luke Combs Episode
two twenty six. Um, this thing's gonna be listen to forever.
The single right now is does to me, but this
one's gonna be around for years and years of the podcast.
So whatever. His ninety fourth number one, and we'll have
to do another one, another one. Good to see him,
(01:09:13):
My Friend, episode two twenty six, So Luke Combs, there
we go.
Everybody. It's Luke combs birthday today. So we wanted to
share this episode of the Bobby Cast that you might
have missed back from twenty twenty, right before the world
shut down. I mean, I remember Luke being at my
house and sitting there, chatted it up, and right before
we get record, We're like, man, nothing I'll ever stop us.
But it did. But this is right before then. This
is Luke. He just had come off SNL and his
SNL debut. He talks about finding out he was a
(00:20):
musical guest, I mean just a week and a half
out and the guy at a record label who told
him he needed to go back and write better songs,
so let's do it. Luke Combs also stories behind his
first seven songs. It all went number one. Happy birthday,
Luke Combs. Here's Luke Combs a little incase you missed it,
episode two sixty six of the Bobby Cast. All right,
welcome to episode two twenty six with Luke Combs. Good
(00:43):
to see it, Mikewise. I know you've been home in
a while, so I appreciate I got a text from me,
like I didn't know it's gonna take an hour to
get here. Yeah, yeah, so he gets a decent way
because you text me. I finished working out and I
was like, oh, Luke, Luke's gonna be here, and like
so I was throwing on clothes. You're like, he's gonna
be here in like underwear's wet because I was tell
off all the way and then I didn't realize you
(01:05):
live so far away? Yeah, yeah, when did that happen
for you? Did you? We actually able to buy some
landing and yeah, it was probably just about a year ago.
So I've been in my house just over a year now.
So does it feel like home? It does? It does
now for sure. It definitely didn't when we moved there,
you know, just because it was, you know, so far
and from town and all our friends you know, still
(01:26):
living town, and it's it's just it took a little
bit of getting used to, man, but I wouldn't want
to be anywhere else now. Isn't Furniture the worst? Yes,
because you just don't expect it to be that expensive.
Not only that, but you think that like, Okay, well,
if I'm gonna spend X amount on this couch, which
I think is an insane amount, there should just be
(01:47):
one that's there like, you have one in the store
and it's gonna take you six months to get one
to my house. Like, I just don't understand, especially for
a nice one. Right. If you would think they could
move the next one, right, you would think they would
just be like, oh, let's just make this tomorrow. The
things that I buy that are frustrating to me are furniture. Yeah,
(02:07):
and again, I live in a pretty nice house for now,
and but to fill it up with crap. I'm not
even in most of my rooms, right, it's a lot
if you are you in most of your owns? Nope,
not at all. And I don't want to leave them
empty because I'm OCD about that stuff. Right. And then
they're like, this is how much a bad costs? Yeah,
you can't. Refrigerators suck. Refrigerators are mine just broke recently,
(02:29):
which was great. Car tires, it's something else that you go.
You gotta have good ones. You get what you pay for. Oh,
I've got a vehicle that's getting I'm they're now giving
me a new vehicle because it's it's broken like four
times since I've had it. Did you get a lemon
like lemon law? That's the thing right where they just
(02:51):
are like, Okay, well we're just gonna take the loss
and just give you a new one. So the car
that you bought been broken four times? Yeah, I mean
it works, but it's just kind of user error. No,
it's not a user error. No, it's it's great, and
it's just every time, and it always happens right when
I get right when I get home from like a
(03:11):
long period of not being here and I haven't been
a where to drive, and then I get in it
like at the airport, and then it breaks like on
the way home, Like you're just trying to get home, right,
My TV does that with Netflix? Like, I already just
get home. I've been I've been out forever. The only
time I need to use it, it didn't work. So right,
what's the office and just chilling in? It doesn't connect? Yes,
So I don't want them to fix it anymore. Just
(03:32):
just either send me a new one or give me
a refund or something. So you did the last couple
of days, You're in New York doing doing SNL. Well
what was that like for you? Get in the call
and I'm not sure how that call works. Yeah, do
you go? I'd like to be on SNL think about
us or not really. You know, it was like it
was super last minute, and I think it always is.
(03:53):
I think it's like because they booked the hosts. I mean,
I'm not certain, but I feel like they booked the
hosts three weeks out and then the musical act. I
mean it was like a week and a half, so
you didn't know for three or four months that you
were going to be on SNL. Yeah. No, No, it
was like I got called and it was like, Hey,
we're doing SNL. That's in the week and a a half.
(04:13):
And I was like, oh, okay. So we had to
rehearsals scheduled, like we had rented out the space and
like all the crews they're setting everything up and the
band guys had already rehearsed a couple of days and
then they had to up and go to New York
like super last minutes. That's pretty cool though, right. It
was awesome, man, it was really awesome. It was. It
(04:33):
was definitely the coolest, coolest like filming saying experience that
I've had. What's it like walking into that space for
the first time, Because you do you rehearse pre a
day before a couple of days. So we went in
I mean two or three days. We were in New
York for four days, and I can't imagine how long
JJ was there. He was probably there for at least
(04:55):
a week, maybe even the writing meetings. He was in
all the writing meetings and changing the skits and everything
like that. So it was really cool because I grew
up watching sl with my dad and and so it
was really neat. It was very surreal to be there
and like see the set because it's so iconic, you know,
and it was awesome. Man. I was you know, definitely
do it again? Do you do the first because the
first show they do is full, and then they'll end
(05:18):
up moving and cutting sketches a bit, and then they
just go again and do it again live. Yes, when
you do the first one, you do the same two
songs as you do. You run it just as you
were going to run it. And how did you feel
after basically the super address rehearsal. I felt really good
about it. I mean, you know, Lauren came in and
was like, hey, you're holding the mic too high on
the first song and we can because of cameras. Yeah,
and you can't because normally I'm holding it up here
(05:41):
and he's like, well, I can't see your face if
you're holding it up here, so you gotta just kind up.
But that was the only note that he had. But
other than that, it was great. Who did you ask
to take pictures with? I didn't really ask. I'm not
a big like, I'm not a big like take the
picture backstage guy, you know, unless it kind of happens naturally.
Obviously me and Jay J got a picture, but I mean,
(06:01):
obviously I wanted a picture with Lauren because I've been
a fan of his for a long time, and but
that was it. You know. I've never been huge into
the like unless it's a natural thing that happens, you know,
Like I'm not a big like pop in the dressing
room and be like what's up? You know. I mean
I don't mind that at all. I actually love when
people do that. But sometimes I just feel uncomfortable about it,
(06:22):
you know, because you don't really know, Like I didn't
know JJ was gonna be like super nice, awesome guy,
you know. I mean I've never met him, so he
might have been like, who's this guy? You know? What
was Lauren Michael's like? He was awesome, man, he was
super nice. He's definitely a boss. You can definitely tell
he runs the show, but he was. He was very
nice man, very normal, um and just had some great stories,
(06:44):
you know. And then JJ, you know, obviously he's massive.
My experience of the NFL players is they look big
on TV, but then when you meet them, you're like,
oh my god, they're so big like that. To me, yes,
they're so much bigger. They look big on TV, but
everyone on TV's big on the games, you know, so
(07:04):
you don't really like if there's a guy that looks
bigger than the rest of the guys, that guy's really
big and so standing beside JJ, it was. It was
definitely weird. I'm not a small guy, but he was
just massive six ft. So when you did the promos,
I was watching some of those promos because that's those
are the iconic thing where they have Yeah, one of
the cast members, the host and the musical artist. Like,
(07:27):
as far as what I was able to see, that
was one of the coolest things I got to see
you do because I've just seen so many cool people
do that over the years. Yeah, it was neat and
they put eighty Brian on a like an Apple box
because she was because she was like, I mean, she
looked like a child, you know, beside us. They had
her up on an apple box just so she was
like in the frame, you know what I mean. It was.
(07:48):
It was pretty wild. As you're doing the musical performance,
are you at all able to just think about it? Like,
can you get comfortably in place you're singing? You can
be super present? Yeah? You were? I was, yeah, because
I was like, we were only doing two songs, you know,
and they're one at a time, and it's broken up,
so I guess you really never get in like a
(08:10):
groove like you would at a show. But I mean
I've sang beer, you know, million times, so it's I
was definitely comfortable doing that one. Loving on You was
the song that they picked. You know, they were like, hey,
we want we're looking for this out of it, so
they picked that tune. How do you feel about that?
It was great? I mean that was the one I
was I guess least comfortable with, you know what I said.
(08:32):
I mean, I'm sanging that one a thousand times too,
But it was you always get that thought like because
I never really think about it when we're doing the show.
I'm not like, oh, what if I mess up or
what if I do this? And then I was like,
you know, there's a chance that I could just blow it,
you know, like I mean, I usually don't think that way,
but S and L is kind of a huge opportunity.
(08:54):
So I was like, and wouldn't it just be ironic,
you know, if I just got too comfortable and then
on the biggest TV thing that I've done today, I
just let my guard down a little bit too much.
But luckily that didn't happen. So, yeah, we get in
one of these settings that's really big or cool and
it's just the sound just isn't working right, like maybe
an ears out or you're like, god, dang, I gotta
(09:17):
you just have to go, and not really know until
you look back at the feedback at hout went. So
my stage right guitar players ears were out for beer,
and so they were great the whole time, you know,
for every I mean we must have ran it five
or six times over the course of a few days,
you know, and after as we were doing rehearsals and
stuff and sound checks, and the ears were really really great.
(09:40):
And then for some reason during beer, which was the
second song, so we had already done one of the
songs on television where his ears were working and they
just didn't work. So it sounded good though, So did
you have floor monitors and ears or just ears just ears? Yeah?
If he has no ears, he has nothing. Yeah, So
what then is he looking at visual cues? I mean,
how is this working where a guitar player with no
(10:01):
ears is still able to play guitar? I guess it
would just be muscle memory at that point, you know,
I mean, because you know, you just played it so
many times that you know what's going on and and
and you know, luckily you killed it so well. Congratulations,
thank you. It was very cool. Are you able to
kind of see what's happening to your career or is
it moving so fast that sometimes you're able to take
a peek? Like what is it that you're able to Yeah,
(10:24):
it's it's hard to understand, you know, because you know,
I spend most of my time, you know, at home.
If I'm not doing something like SNL, you know, it's
like I just try to not think about it because
it can be really overwhelming to under like try to
(10:44):
understand the scope of it. So I just try to
not I guess not not think about it, but I
try to not bathe in it, you know, as much
as I guess I could. But it's it's crazy, you know.
I I don't think I really fully understand. Honestly, it's
been quite rapid even to watch it happen for you
(11:07):
and know you as is happening. It's it's been rapid
to watch, you know, the ascension of Luke Combs whatever
that is at this point. Yeah, And so you know,
as I'm watching kind of one hit after another, and
it's not even about the hits. It's also the people,
the fan base that that grows at the same time,
(11:29):
because I've seen a lot of people with hits, Yeah,
but they're not selling out arenas. Yeah, what do you
credit that too? I mean, we try to, you know,
do everything we can to to make sure we take
care of the people that come to the shows. Um,
you know, and I'm sure everybody says that, you know,
but our fan club is free, always has been, always
(11:49):
will be. Um. You know, I I don't see really
any real need to monetize that, you know. I think,
you know, letting those people know that you appreciate them
enough to to do something like that form and give
them for the first chance of tickets and give them
the chance to do that without charging them to do that.
I think can invoke a little bit of loyalty as well,
because they're like, oh, this guy's not trying to get
(12:12):
something out of me at every step, you know. You know,
the t shirts are as reasonably priced as they can
possibly be. They're still expensive in my opinion, but there's
not really there's not I can't go any lower. So
we we're constantly doing things like that. The tickets to
the tour. They're the last tour where the cheapest ticket
was twenty five dollars and the most expensive ticket was
(12:35):
one hundred dollars, And so I think keeping ticket prices
were reasonable. Obviously that you know, we do the Ticketmaster
Verified program, which I don't think anybody in the genre
besides Church does, to screen to make sure that it's
actual fans getting the tickets. And then we have to
go back and provoke tickets for people who we think
(12:56):
are scalpers, and and there is a form they can
fill out if their tickets are revoked, and they can
kind of prove that they're actually a fan and get
their tickets back and we can resell those tickets to
actual fans. Sure, the Luke Combs tattoo, they do the
picture of my inner thigh tattoos. Yes, Luke Combs, they
have to show the tattoos. Yeah, and uh but no
we I think it's just little things. It's a lot
(13:17):
of little things that require a lot of work from
a lot of people. But it's paid off. You know.
As I talked about how rapidly you've risen, it's it's
been a bit odd to have you blow up so
quick where I feel like a lot of people don't
know young you yeause you it happened so fast. You
didn't have a lot of time to tell your full
(13:38):
story all the time before it was like you got
so big where you couldn't put yourself everywhere. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
It's it has just been insane, you know. And it's
it's felt that way since the start, like everything just
kind of happened in such quick succession, and it was
always I guess things were always just trending upwards. You know.
(13:59):
I think a lot of the times when people start
out and I can't speak from experience, I guess I'm
just going off my buddies have told me. But you
start going up and something great happens, and then you
kind of hit a plateau for a year or two years,
and then you start and then you get a song
that kind of gets you back on the elevator, the
(14:20):
escalator back up, and then you plateau for a little bit,
and then that kind of keeps going until you're ultimately
at the top of the thing. So mine just seemed
to go like that the whole time. You know, I'm
not really sure why. It's just the way that the
chips fell. I guess what were you like as a kid.
Let's go back to like seven or eight years old? Yeah,
(14:42):
because I felt like even knowing you early on in
this run, we didn't get to a lot of like
what was Holmes like as a kid? But what was
home like? At six, seven, eight years old? Home was
really great. I was living in Charlotte at that time.
I went to Huntersville Elementary School. I was an only child.
Both my parents worked full time. My mom worked as
(15:03):
a mortgage processing officer, so she wasn't a mortgage officer,
but she was kind of like the assistant to all
the mortgage officers within a certain branch of at that
at that time. It was First Union is where she
worked at that time. And your dad and my dad,
um back then he was he was kind of owned
(15:26):
his own like landscaping business. And I don't mean like
a cool, big landscaping business. I mean like it was
just him and his tools and then he would mow
your grass and weed eat and stuff like that, and
that's kind. And he also did maintenance at a at
a different bank in downtown Charlotte, and that's what he
did when we moved to Ashville as well. Did you
(15:47):
learn a lot from your dad as far as if
he's using his hands and you know, mowing weed eating,
which is what I did for many of those times?
Like yeah, could you go and do that now? And
do you do that now on your land? And like
you could you could actually use your hands, and because
I don't, you know, I would I would like to
light everybody and say that I'm you know then I'm
out there, you know, cutting down trees with an axe,
(16:09):
but I'm not, Um, I don't have the time right
now to do those? Could I could teach you? Yeah? Yeah,
how to how to string a weed eater? Yes? I
mean I grew up, you know, doing all those things
out of necessity, you know, because there were a lot
of times when you know, Dad had something even more
you know, annoyingly necessary to do than mow the grass
(16:32):
or weed eat. So sorry, that's my phone? Oh is
that many cool? No? I have the is it? While? Yeah,
you know the tile is so I have one in
my wallet, so it's probably just I probably I don't
know what that. What's the tile? It's like a thing.
So I keep on in my wall. Show you here.
So I got my wallet, handy dandy wallet. Your wallet zips.
It zips because somebody stole my credit card one time.
So this is one of those like r F I
(16:54):
D things. So it's this guy, right. It just looks
like a credit card, but it's kind I don't like
a find my iPhone for my wallet. So but if
I press this, then I should it. Then I know
where my phone is. And this this looks like a
credit card, but you push it, yeah, and then it
makes your phone ring, yeah, and so like, but I
(17:15):
can also if I if I get on my app,
I can make my wallet ring with this, so they
can find each other. Yes, and I lose your stuff
a lot with this, No, I just I've done. I like,
I have one in my passport, I have one on
my car keys, um and just various like I keep
I keep them in my guitar cases too, And so
everyone that has one of these, this thing is constantly
(17:37):
on bluetooth. So if I were to lose it and
you had one and you were near it, it would say, hey,
this thing just picked up Bluetooth on this guy's phone,
and so they're I'd be like, oh, well, it's over
there somewhere. It's close to where that guy was, and
so it would report every step that it's made on
its journey of like going by people who picked it up.
(18:00):
So I originally got them from my guitars. So I
was like, well, if someone ever steals my guitar, I
would at least have some way to like track it,
because there it would be, is hidden in the case,
you know, so I don't steal my guitars if you're
out there. It just it was nothing huge. It was like,
you know, my business manager was like, hey, did you
spend eight hundred dollars at Ace Hardware in Iowa or something?
(18:24):
And I was like no, And so essentially I was
just somewhere and people have those skimmers. And actually it
was in New York City. I was I went to
the Nike store in New York City probably last year,
and then I went to the Adidas store. And my
business manager was like, Hey, did you just buy six
hundred dollars worth of shoes at the Nike store and
(18:45):
then six hundred dollars worth of shoes at the Adidas store?
And I didn't. I didn't buy anything at the stores.
But someone in the store had skimmed my wallet while
I was in there, and then they were in there
buying shit, like literally when I was in there. So
they skimmed your walt You didn't stick your card in
a skimmer. They they somehow magnetize it. They can magnetize
it without even touching it. Now they can just I've
(19:07):
never heard of that. Yeah, it's pretty wild. And so
because of them, you have a zip wallet. Yeah, so
this thing has stuff all in the wallet to keep
the magnetic stuff from being able to go through it.
Is your WiFi protected at your house? Like super? Oh yeah, man,
when where did this all come from? But I mean,
by the way, great and healthy Amy, my coach's husband
is you know, super military, Like, hey, you don't know
(19:28):
what they're like, he's don't cover your whole Yeah, he's
that guy. I'm not that necessarily that he's that guy
because he's seen it and you better cover everything. It
does happen though, And I think you know, like when
you're dealing in intellectual property, you know, which is whether
you're writing songs or composing things or writing a book
or you know, if someone were to have access to
(19:50):
your Internet, I mean, they could steal all of your songs,
your writings, whatever you're keeping on your in your cloud
or whatever it is. I'm not really sure how that
stuff works. But who tipped you off to do that?
Or did something bad happen to you? Nothing bad happened
to me to get tipped off about it. I had
just been like, well, hey, man, like I can afford
to do that, so like I should probably do it,
(20:12):
Like that would be a safe thing to just to
do it. And it's not insanely expensive or anything. Um,
it's just like a series of firewalls. I'm just saying firewalls,
Like I know what that is, by the way, and
we're just question that just sounds like the thing that
it should be. So and they sound scary. So I
(20:35):
was talking to Ronnie Dunne. Him and I become pretty
good buzz in the last six months or so. Yeah,
and he and I didn't know this story, but he
credits you with pretty much making that whole reboot album
for them happen. Yeah, I've heard that. So here is
a little bit of a brand New Man with Luke
and Brooks and done. Here you go. So how did
(21:03):
this come together? In your mind? The story I've heard is,
so their manager, Clarence Spalding is friends with my manager, Cappy,
the guy that cried on the show, and we were
at a show I believe it was at Joe's Bar
in Chicago, probably three years ago or so. We had
(21:26):
a show there and Clarence had come or he was
in town or something, and it had linked up with Cappy.
Cappy was there and he came and watched the show
and stuff, and we did that cover a Brand New Man,
and I talked about in the set how much Brooks
and Doune meant to me and how much they had
influenced my career. And I had no idea what Clarence
was there, but I had just been doing that every night, like, hey,
(21:49):
I grew up listen to these guys. They really shaped
the music that I want to make and things that
I want to do. And I guess that kind of
sparked the idea within him, like, hey, there's probably a
lot out of other artists around my age that grew
up listening to Brooks and dunn Um which is you
know which happened to be the truth. If you were
(22:09):
to Mount Rushmore artists, which is four and we'll do
we'll do fun, we'll do five total, five of your life,
they have to country. They can they can be freaking
any they can be Mozart anyone. Yeah, you get to
Mount Rushmore because and as you think, I'll just kind
of walk you that would put Garth John Mayer on mine.
I'd put Ben Folds, I put so it can be,
(22:30):
it can be from wherever you want. Okay, So who
would be the first artist on your Mount Rushmore? Like
of like influence or like you just you raw taln
there no, not raw talent, but influence you your favorite?
Probably Elton John, Okay, was where I would go first,
for sure, Elton John. All Right, Billy Joel, are you
a piano player? I'm not? Those are your first two. Yeah,
(22:52):
they're so keys. There's there's just like just the songs
are so great. I've always loved keys. I'm not smart
enough to play piano, I don't think. Um, I've just
been honest with myself about that. I've tried and it's
just not there. You know, I'm not a big technical musician, um,
which is why I'm just able to strum enough chords
to write songs and play a couple of them at
(23:15):
the show. But it would definitely be those guys, you know,
Tom Petty, Tom Petty for sure, Brooks and Dunn would
be on there for me. One spot left. That's tough.
That's tough, man. That's hard, you know, because I you know,
I did go four spots really quick. Um, I'm trying
to think of who I just I mean, there were
(23:37):
so many different phases of my music listening since since
that age. UM. I would, Man, it's hard for me
to go against an edge hearing at this at this stage,
I just think the amount of work that he does,
the size of the tours that he does, the quality
of everything he puts out in the volume is just
(24:00):
pretty staggering, and there's not really anybody doing much like that.
Have you met. Let's just kind of go back to
your first people. Have you met Elton John I have not.
I'm gonna a low key flex here. He kissed me
on the mouth once. That's awesome. It was the greatest.
That's so cool. I was sitting next to him at
a charity event. He was showing me pictures of his kid.
He had just adopted this kid. Yeah, and he's like
these in pictures some more and he's going up to play.
(24:21):
It's like two hundred people there, and he's like all right,
and he goes out the plane. He grabs in my
head and just planting on my face. I was like,
that's freaking amaze. You're like whatever, I'm in. I am,
I'm in whatever you want whatever, Yeah, I'm in. I
would have done the same thing. Have you Billy Joel?
I have not meant Billy Joel Favorite Billy Joel song
scenes from an Italian restaurant. Nice. Wow, that's my favorite Bility.
(24:43):
That's how you know you're a hardcore Billy Joel fan. Yes,
that because that song is it's all over the place.
I mean, I feel like it's I feel like it
was three different songs that he just kind of I
think I think I've heard that story, but maybe I mean,
I may be making that up. Don't quote me on that,
but I've not meant Billy Joel. I would like to.
I have a lot of friends that are big Billy
(25:04):
Joel fans, and most of them picked this as their favorite.
Now me, I'm a middle of the road. I've seen
him through a four times sure, and I would always
go with Listen if you if piano manage your favorite,
which is one of mine, you're not as hardcore? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I love piano man, I love it. Yeah, but you're
a hardcore. Like if you come to me and you
say your favorite John Mayer song is Daughters, I'm like,
you're not a hardcore m exactly. Like you can be
(25:25):
a middle of the road John Mayoric exactly, But no
real John Mayer fan picks Daughters or or bubble Dum
tongue does not find you pick as Okay, So those two. Um,
Tom Petty, have you seen the five hour documentary? I
have not, dude, and I want to see it. You
can't watch it in one setting obviously, And just have
(25:45):
this like thing that hurts my hard a little bit
about Tom Petty because I know we hated country music
and that hurts me a lot. So somebody was in
recently talking about oh Ronnie Dunn talking about him and
Tom Petty because Tom Petty was like a was like
a punk guy. Yeah. He talks about Tom Petty when
he met him as being a guy guy who was
(26:05):
playing punk music. Yeah. But I just think there is
a a misunderstanding to a lot of people at what
country music means, certainly because I think Tom Petty would
be a country artist now. I agree with that statement, yes,
because it's such a broad term now, and and to
dislike something artistic because of a taste you have of it,
(26:29):
I believe is unfair. It's like saying you don't like bread.
It's such a huge thing. There's so many different car cheese,
you know, which I'm currently vegan, which is horrible. But
what do you mean current into that currently vegan. It's
odd that someone just goes for a minute, I lost
a bet. I lost a bet. It's it's a whole
(26:51):
thing going I lost a bet and I'm given a
charity a lot. You know, it's like a lifestyle. It
is a thing. I mean, it's like it'll definitely be beneficial.
You know who did you bet with my keys player?
And what was your side of the bet? Though? Head? Okay,
so it's it's this is the oddest, very oddest seed
into a bet. So I'm a big Carolina Panthers fan,
(27:12):
huge die hard. I was living in Charlotte, where was
I in nineteen ninety six, cheering for the Panthers in
the first year. Yeah, and he's a big Atlanta Falcons fan.
So we played each other twice a year in the
same division. Obviously, there's a lot of pride involved. At
the time of the bet being made, the Panthers were
five and two. I don't think they won another game.
(27:35):
Was this pre Cam getting hurt? No, this is Kyle
Allen had won three straight I think Cam was out
in the second game or first game. Um. But Kyle
Allen came in won three or four straight games. Um.
And then I was like, oh, we're gonna smash the
Falcons because they were two and eleven by the time
we played them. They were two and eleven and and
(27:55):
so I was like, and the Falcons just absolutely destroyed,
like dismantled the Anthers, like beat us. I think it
was like thirty four to seven or something. But of
all the terms of a bet, he picked you being
vegan if he won. Yes, yes, well I hadn't made
that bet previously with Cappy. So with Panthers played the
Cowboys and the Panthers won and Cappy had to shave
his beard off or I had to go vegan. Luckily
(28:18):
I won the vet the bet. But it's like to me,
it's like there's nothing like really fun about like betting
money on stuff. You know, why is everybody picking you
to go vegan? Like that's two different people with the
same bet. I think they see me in there, like
this guy loves eating red meat and going hunting and
doing which is a true statement, but I think it's
something that like people think that I can't do, you know,
(28:41):
like they're like, no way he can do that, And
I'm like a super prideful guy. So I'm on, I'm
only on day three. I'm having how long dift to go?
Three months? Oh? You bet three months on a single game? Yeah?
And what was his life if? Okay, so he cut off?
What's happening here this bet? Well? So so he's balda
(29:02):
but he has he can grow like the I call
it the pap hap this circle the circle, so he
keeps his head shaved and wears a hat. His bat
was he had to grow his hair out for three
months and couldn't wear a hat. So it was a
very extreme. So it had to be like he had
to match that with something that he felt was equally
as extreme and better on one game, better on one game.
(29:25):
We almost doubled down on the second game, which I'm
glad we didn't because we lost that game too. Then
what happened? You don't eat for three months, I just
would have been gandhi and nothing. I think it would
have been six months a vegan at that point. And
have you noticed your body being any different? It's only
been three days. I'm definitely not as tired sitting watch
you become a vegan like like Rick Rubin vegan. That happened.
(29:49):
That happened to my, uh my utility player. Are you
just eating no vegan or you no belts you live
in the lifestyle or what? No, I'm not living the lifestyle.
I'm not living the like. No, like I'm I would
go hunt tomorrow if it was hunting season, for sure.
I'm definitely not buying into the like. You know, we
usually send everybody home with the rack of ribs, but
(30:09):
I guess we'll just man. You could do like a
rack of like lentil or something like that would be great.
I don't so we got on that front a funny
bet though we went Tom Petty to veganism. Yeah, and again,
if Tom Petty were around now and making new music,
he would be on that rock getry Cusp definitely. And
(30:30):
I think had you know as a kid, when you
were singing songs, was it country music for you or
was it a mix of a little like what was
it in your mind that you wanted to sing because
you were singing? I was singing, and it was when
I was living in Charlotte, it was country and that
was it was country, and like my parents were listening.
(30:51):
So like my mom loved like Tom Petty, John Mellencamp,
that kind of was the kind of stuff my mom loved.
My dad loved led Zepp when the who I mean
those were classic rock on the radio type live Yeah,
but mostly listening to country radio, okay at that because
my mom loved country too, she grew up listening to
that as well. And so at that time, I was,
(31:14):
you know, you mostly go around with your mom. When
you're a young child, you know dad's working or he's
out doing something on the weekend to make extra money.
Kind of think that's what my dad was doing. So
I spent a lot of time in the car with
my mom, and so she was listening to country radio.
So I listened to Vince Gill. I mean that. I
mean that cassette tape was burned through a thousand times.
(31:35):
Hard working Man Brooks and Dunne Tracy Chapman album from
like I think it's from like nineteen eighty eight, is that,
like give me one reason? Tracy Chapman No Fast Car,
the first first album. And listen to that all the
time with my dad. That's what kind of went me
and my dad would listen. My dad has never been
a huge country fan, except for Dwight Yoakum. Listened to
(31:55):
a ton of Dwight Yoakum with my dad and and
I was listening. And then when we moved from Charlotte
to Asheville, it just kind of stopped, Like I just
my mom just stopped listening to country music for whatever reason.
That was. So when you're eight, you really don't have
(32:17):
your own taste in or for music. Yet you're just
kind of like, whatever's on is what I'm listening to.
You're not going and buying albums and finding stuff that
you like. You're just kind of listening to what your
parents are listening to. And so my mom was just
she stopped listening to country radio at that time. I'm
not exactly sure why. And so I didn't really listen
(32:41):
from then until my freshman year of college. I mean,
so there was ten years where I just I didn't
listen to country like at all. As you're a kid,
what is a you're singing? Do you have an eight
year old rath? Or did? When? Did it? Like when
you no? I was, I was. I had a really
high voice when I was little, So I was. I
mean I was and Vince Gill, you know, I mean
killing that stuff. Uh. And then I just got in
(33:04):
I always liked singing. I always getting trouble in class
for humming or you know, talking or or I was
just constantly making noise. Uh. And then and then I
found a you know, a channel for that through chorus class.
And like the sixth grade, they made us they made
us take every elective in the sixth grade, So you
took like art and homeck and jim and and and
(33:29):
chorus and band, and you took all of those classes
U and then so when I went to pick my
electives for the next year, I picked all my electives
were always gim and chorus class. That was it. When
you started singing, Was it duck to water for you?
It was, But I didn't know it at the time.
It was just kind of like I just liked doing it.
(33:50):
But I didn't think. I thought it was just you
don't understand that there's I just never thought of doing
something like this, you know. It wasn't like I was
the kid that was like, I'm gonna go be Garth Brooks,
I'm gonna do this or that. I never had that
intention in mind at a young age. And I know
a lot of people who do you know they heard
at Tricia Yearwood song and went, I'm gonna be Tricia Yearwood.
(34:12):
That's what I want to do. I just never thought
of that as an option. I was playing sports. I
was horrible at sports, but I was playing sports. I
like doing that, and I was just singing because it
was something to do that I liked to do, you know.
I was just I mean, at that point in time,
truly just living my life. You know. I wasn't playing
for the future at that time, and I didn't really
(34:35):
know I was any good until like ninth grade, probably
until I went to high school and my course teacher
was like, hey, you're pretty good, you know, And I
was like, cool, that's good because I like I like
doing it, so it's cool that I'm good at it,
you know, And then I sang. I was in course
class every day of high school from ninth grade to
time I graduated. You play football horribly? I was horrible? Really? Yeah?
(35:00):
And what position do you play in? Defensive tackle? Did
you like hitting? Loved hitting? Um? I didn't have I
didn't really have the quickness, per se or the aggression.
I wasn't like an aggressive guy, so but I loved
hitting people. You weren't singing Vince Gill like I wasn't
(35:20):
singing Vince Gill in high school in line, No, I wasn't. Um.
I always you know, It's funny. I played rugby in college,
which I was good at and I did enjoy a lot,
But I loved I always wanted to. I was like
a running back stuck in a offensive guards body. You
know what I mean, like I always wanted to have
the ball and run with the ball, but that was
never an option. And the and my my high school
(35:43):
team we ran we were one of the first teams
to run the spread. And so obviously there's your high
school football team. Yeah, you ran the spread, and for
you in two thousand and probably five four or five.
And you gotta you gotta be able to move if
you're running the spread. Yeah, no doubt every musician, because
even even the lineman, you got to get up and go.
And so I wasn't in like in shape enough to
(36:05):
be you know, I didn't have the endurance to to
run with the offense because we had we had two
running backs that ran sub for three forties. I mean
they were just lightning fast, and so we were up
and down the field a lot, I mean, thirty forty
yard play. It was not something that was out of
(36:26):
the ordinary for us. And so yeah, I was just
not cut out for that either. You know, in a
lot of teams we were playing, we're playing we're you know,
we're running the wing tea and like the super antiquated
offenses and stuff like that. So yeah, I was just
I was just not cut out for that particular thing. Now,
looking back in time, I would have I would have
(36:48):
loved to play offensive line. It's one of my favorite
most intriguing positions now and I think I would have
been very good at that. Actually, Um but I was
just I was just not because I didn't play when
I was little. I started playing in high school. So
all of my all of my teammates had been playing
since they were seven or eight years old, you know.
(37:08):
So by the time I was a senior, it was
like there were guys who had been playing football for
fourteen for fifteen years, and I had only been playing
for three. So I was way behind the curve of
you know, strength training and learning the game. And I
just wanted to hit people. That was it. You go
to Appalachian State and as you leave high school and
(37:30):
you go to college. In your mind at that point,
why are you going to college? I just thought that
was what you did because I didn't want to go
to work, I think, you know, but I had went
to I actually went to a chorus camp at app
in probably maybe eighth grade or ninth grade or something
(37:51):
like that. For the summer. I was like one of
those two week you go and stay in the dorms,
and there's kids from all the different schools and everything.
And I just fell in love with that place, you know,
because I grew up in the mountains already, but that
was way I mean, that's way in them as much
in the mountains as you can be in North Carolina,
kind of nestled in this little valley thing, and I
just fell in love with the campus, and like the
(38:14):
and the weather, you know, I like the cold, you know,
I'm fine with being cold, and it's very cold and
it snows a lot there, and I just I absolutely
was enamored with that place. And ever since I went
to that camp, I was like, that's where I'm going
to go to college. I'm gonna go to school there.
And I was not a very good student in high school.
(38:36):
I've always been interested in learning things. I really enjoy that.
I just was never interested in learning things that people
wanted me to learn. So what were you doing in
college for the most part, If obviously you're getting through
because you didn't leave until and you left right before
you graduated, right, which is so, and we'll get to that,
But what were you doing in school? Were you just
keeping the grades up so you could keep singing or
(38:57):
where like why what was your motivating? It was like
it was College was a big time for me of like, okay,
how do you be three hundred pounds and get a girlfriend?
That was what I spent most of my time trying
to figure out. Did you have girls in college? No? No,
I was definitely not a ladies man, you know, not
(39:18):
because I didn't want to be. But in high school
you don't exactly get judged on your great personality. So
those were interesting times for me. But I mean that
was what I did in college. Man. I hung out,
I drank with my buddies. I didn't go to class
a lot. I played rugby. I sang in an acapella group.
My first year and a half of school, I pledged
(39:42):
a fraternity and ended up quitting doing that before I
became an initiated member. I did a bunch of stuff. Man,
I just tried a bunch of stuff, you know. And
I think that's what I'm thankful for in the college experience,
because that's where I found out that this is what
I was supposed to be doing. And you left early
like you were closer graduating, right, Well, I was there
(40:04):
for five years, so I didn't leave early, but you
left right. I stayed late and I didn't graduate. Yeah.
How many hours you think you need? Not even semester
and a half yeah, not even four year? Yeah, but
I could have done like a summer and a semester.
But the problem was I always hated math and I
(40:25):
always hated science. Um, I'm not good at not good
at science, not good at math, um, And so I
never What happened was I loved I was a major,
and I changed my major from business. I started out
at business and I was like, wait, I hate math,
Why am I doing that? That's just something that I
was like, Oh, you could probably get a good job
doing business things, you know. So I tried that for
(40:47):
like a year, and then I switched my major to
criminal justice because do what in criminal justice? Near mind?
I wanted to be a homicide detective is what I
wanted to do. Still am very interested in that, and
so I went balls to the wall in that major,
and I really enjoyed that. So I'd liked go into
my you know, forensic science class and my this and
(41:09):
this and this class. But the things that I the
twenty one hours I was short were all my math classes.
All my science classes, so like basic, like your freshman
year stuff. Never took any of them. I never took
Stats one in Stats two, and then I never took
chemistry or biology because I was like, this is just
(41:31):
I don't want to do any of this stuff, you know.
And so by the time I got to the end
of my major, I kind of ran into this huge
roadblock because I had two or three classes that I
needed for my major and they were like, well, you
can't take this class unless you have Stats one in
Stats two, and you can't take them at the same time.
(41:52):
So that's at least a year of school to take
two classes. So I'd had to do Stats one Stats
to biology or Chemistry one in biology or Chemistry two,
and those were both prerequisites, and then I would have
had to take the classes for the end of my major,
and then I would have had to do my internship
because I couldn't do my internship until I did the
classes for the end of my major. And you've already
(42:13):
done five years and I had already done yeah, it's
like four Yeah, I'd already done like four and a
half years. So I was like, I'm not staying here
for another two and a half years in school. At least.
I ended up living in Boone until I was twenty
four before I moved to Nashville. But I was just like, man,
I just I don't you know at that By that time,
I was already playing music. Were you going back and
forth from Boone to Nashville or did you when you
(42:35):
came to Nashville? Was it you came to Nashville the first.
I came to Nashville twice in those years, and that
was two thousand and at the end of two thousand
and thirteen, and then the summer of two thousand and
fourteen when you came to the first time. Did you
know you wanted to stay? Yeah? Oh yeah, because I
(42:55):
had written a few songs, and so I came at
the end of twenty thirteen and recorded the songs, and
then I met had you know, through the internet, had
met a couple of people. I was like, oh, I
write songs with these guys. So I wrote a couple
of songs when I was there, and then I got
back and I was like, man, like, I got to
play another trip. So I played another trip, wrote some
more songs, and then on that trip and probably aprilish
(43:19):
May of twenty fourteen is when I recorded she got
the best to me? Can I get an outlaw and
share if you want to? And then at that time
after that, those came out in June, and I moved
in September of that year of twenty fourteen. The tweet
(43:41):
you posted what you said, I think the topic was
tell me something about yourself that no one believe. And
the gt of it was that you came to town
and you had some songs and people were like, hey,
they weren't good. And your old thing was don't let
anyone let you stop chasing your dreams. Yeah, those meetings
where you were rejected, are they vivid to you? The
early meetings definitely. The one in the meeting in particular
(44:07):
was with somebody It was, you know, they have like
the artist like writer reps at like b and I.
So I had a friend that had a rep there
and I went in and I was like very excited
because I had just moved to Nashville at this time
and I didn't know anybody, you know, I knew a
couple of writing buddies and was going out and playing
a few writers rounds and writing songs every day. And
(44:30):
because by that time. I was living off of those
songs that I had put out the previous year, and
I went in and it was kind of like this
this person was like, we'll play me three songs. And
I was like, oh cool, Like this person's gonna be
like I'm gonna play these three songs and like they're
gonna walk me into the best publishing thing and they're
(44:50):
gonna be like this guy's great, Like how could you
not love this guy? Give him a publishing deal? So
I played Hurricane When It Rains in one Number Away,
which were my first three number ones, and they were like, Okay,
here's the deal. You gotta get better a songwright and
you gotta write better songs and you're never gonna be
an artist. So that's it. And I was like, and
(45:15):
I wasn't like mad, do you know who said it? Yeah,
but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say it. I
would never ask you to say it, but I'm just
asking if you know who's that? Oh? I know? Yeah?
Have you seen them since? Yeah? I've ran into them
awkwardly at actually the bm My Awards. Do you think
they remember telling you that? Or do you don't get it?
Just someone that was coming through the churney to the system.
(45:36):
I don't think so at all, which is fine, you
know I have I have nothing against that person, you
know what, because I get it. Man. I mean it's
it's like if you look at it, would I would,
I would equate it to at that level, you know,
because you're not even screened at all. At that level,
like any Tom Dick or Harry can walk in off
the street pretty much to be am I and get
one of those meetings. So I can't imagine the pressure
(45:59):
of like, Okay, well, I've got six kids that moved
to town yesterday that want to come in and they
all think they're awesome, and I've got to be able
to figure out which ones I think are good enough
to go on to the next thing. And so I
wasn't mad about it at all. I'm actually very thankful
for that meeting because I did go out and feel
like I wrote some of the best songs that I
(46:20):
had ever written, because I was like, man, I gotta
I gotta write more and do better, Like I'm not
even close to as good as I need to be.
And so I just kept my head down and I
went and wrote a ton of songs, and then the
kind of the rest is just kind of fell into place.
I mean, I know that's, you know, summarizing a big
(46:42):
chain of events, but that's kind of how it felt like.
Got a few minutes left her. I wanted to run
a couple of other things about you that I heard.
First of all, a lot of folks come in myself
included that worked retail because we kind of had to. Yep,
you gotta pay the bills somehow as you're chasing your
creative endeavor. Yes, and I worked at hobby lobby. Mike
who was in Michael Hobby from Thousand Horses worked at
(47:05):
the Buckle. Okay, you worked at isod I did? I did?
How'd that go? I was not a great fit at
izod um, but I had you know, I had as
much fun with it as you could possibly have folding
people's golf sweaters, you know. Um. It was in an
outlet mall, like one of those like Tanger outlets or
whatever they call it. They had one in Blowing Rock,
(47:26):
which is right down the road from Boone, So it
was I mean, it was pretty pretty miserable. If how
long did you do that? I probably worked there for
I mean close to a year, probably, I would think.
And whenever you are walking past a table of shirts
that are messy, does it bother you? And will you
refold a shirt? No chance, no chance. But I'll tell
(47:51):
you what I do. I do fold a mean shirt,
you know, when I'm when I'm doing the laundry at home,
which I'm sure people are spied. Do do laundry my fiance.
It does handle the brunt of the laundry, um, but
I do. I do chip in quite a bit, and
you know, help fold stuff. And you know I'm not
I'm not afraid to do laundry. I don't. I don't
mind it at all. But you separate it, or do
(48:13):
I If I wasn't in a committed relationship, I would
throw it on. Yeah, But I do separate it now
just because that's what. But now it's like her stuff's
in there, which is the thing. Like mine are just old,
like gross t shirts and jeans really, so I'm not
too worried about them like shrinking or like. But now
there's this whole like don't wash this thing with that thing,
(48:37):
and don't dry this thing, but it's gotta be tumble dried,
but don't put it in with this thing that has
to be high heat and then some stuff is like
cold water, and so it's I mean, it gets pretty
matthey to me, you know. And we know you don't like,
I don't left school because you didn't even take a
laundry that was like year three and that was year
(48:59):
three and I skipped aundry class, that's for sure. The
bank bag I'm curious about to use to save the
money in yep. So you went and bought one of
those bank bags at Zips, Like it's kind of your
wallet with the lock on it. Yeah, so what was
that about? And where was this money coming from? You
were sticking in the bag. So I had I had
started playing shows and when Cappy moved to town after
(49:20):
he started managing me, he had never managed anybody before. Um,
you know, he kind of blew through his life savings
like trying to build my career, and so he made
a promise to me. He was like, hey, man, I'm
not gonna take a commission until you're actually making enough
money to like live off of. And so at the time,
(49:42):
you know, the gigs were I mean, they could have
been two hundred and fifty dollars a night. They could
have been a thousand dollars a night, and those were
a thousand dollars was really good, you know. And so
we would go and do those gigs and excuse me,
I would take, you know, t shirt money, whatever was
left over. And and Cappy was great because he would
always go settle the show. You know, he would run
(50:04):
me through the statement every night and they here's what
we got, and here's what we did, and here's the
tickets and this and and there would always we were
we were selling out everything, you know at that time,
which is great on those club gigs because usually they'll
they'll kick you back a pretty like sweet bonus and
it's always cash. And so that's where the money was
coming from, was that these sellout bonuses on these club shows.
(50:26):
And so I would I was like, I remember getting
to thinking I had like five or six thousand dollars
in my apartment, you know, and I was like, man like,
so I could just walk in here and like take
this if they wanted to. So I had like a
folder's can, and instead of putting just the money in there,
I put it in the bank bag and then rolled
the bank back up and put it in there. It's
(50:46):
a back like behind my microwave on my counter. My
microwave kind of sat like in a corner, so it
was kind of there was that space behind it, yeah,
because it was diagonal. Yeah, and so that's what that's
what that's where the money was coming from. And that's
what I did with it. That time I saw Cappy,
he was in the Delta Lounge. I was walking through.
I wasn't going of the Delta Lounge. We know kevin't
know each other obviously, and he was on the phone
and I just touched his show. I was like just
(51:09):
saying high to him, not pulling off his phone, and
he and he was talking about, um, some of your technology.
He's on the phone talking about the shore. He's like yeah,
he's like, and he goes, I'll call you back to
him hang this, hangs up on him and just like
how you doing, man? And I was like, you don't
have to hang up a phone call. But it's such
a testament to like how present minded that he always
wants to be, Yeah, definitely, and just how giving of
(51:31):
his time. And we sat there and talking and I
was like, happy, why don't you get back on the
phone and handle your business. I'm gonna go get like
a one of these little fancy Delta chocolate bars, right,
and then someone else walked in that I knew he
did the same thing. It's really one of the sweetest guys.
He is man and he um. He and I are
very similar. I mean, people think he's my dad all
the time. How'd you guys meet? We met? So his
(51:52):
best friend from growing up. They went to high school
together and then went to college together, joined the same
fraternity as a guy by the name of Bradley Jordan
uh And he books a ton of a ton of
clubs in the Southeast as a promoter. He had a
he used to own Peastree Tavern in Atlanta in the
early like mid two thousands, like Luc Brian used to
(52:12):
play there Swindel fgl That was kind of one of
those big clubs where like when you went and played
Atlanta and you were coming up you played Bradley's place
U And when he eventually sold that, he started a
company h called Peastree Entertainment, which he still runs, you know.
And and so he books, you know, right now he's
booking shows with like you know, Hardy Werega Wall and
or Riley Green, like those kind of guys. And so
(52:34):
Bradley was had booked me on one or two shows
and then you know, obviously him having known Cappy his
whole life, he knew that Cappy's ultimate goal was to
always be a manager. He had just never found the
right guy, or it wasn't the right time, or the
stars didn't line up. And so he called Cappy and
was like, hey, I got the guy. And so he
showed up at my show at Zydeco in Birmingham and
(52:57):
we talked and he was like, I live in Atlanta
and all this, and I'm gonna move. And I was like, dude,
this guy's fucking crazy, Like he's gonna like he's just
gonna up and like walk away from his entire life
to do this. And I was kind of like a
little like apprehensive about it, you know, like I was like,
am I getting involved with like some like sharky guy
who's gonna come and like, because you always hear the
(53:18):
stories like, well make sure who you do business with,
because they're everyone in the music business is trying to
you know, steal from you or get something out of
you kind of thing. So I was like my thinking
was like, man, you get one shot, you know, like,
do I want to take my risk with this guy
who I don't know, who's never managed anybody before, or
do I want to try to get a proper management
(53:40):
deal at a you know, at a big firm, or
do this? And and so I met with a couple
other managers, and you know, everybody had kind of passed
on me in that situation too, And and Cappy's you know,
we stayed in touch about things, and he sent me
this huge email. I mean it was like five or
six pages long, and I remember reading it. I was
(54:03):
I was like reading it like in my car, and
I had just come home from a ride or something.
And and I remember and he had heard that I
had met with some other manager type people, And essentially
this was a six page letter of like why he
was going to be the best manager, you know, for
not only for me, but he wanted to become, you know,
(54:25):
a great manager, and and this is how we're gonna
do things, and this is why we're gonna do them,
and this is why I believe in you, and this
is why I'm willing to sacrifice everything for you, you know,
to do this. And after I read it, I was like, man,
there's nobody's going to care more about it than this guy,
you know, so then it then it just we instant.
I mean he up and moved. Like the next week
(54:45):
was that. That was two thousand and fifteen, probably late fifteen.
I would think I did fifteenth A great story, it is. Yeah,
the last thing we're gonna do is walk through these
number ones and just give me a couple of sentences
about what they like when you hear them back, Like
(55:07):
what was happening around the time that either you wrote
it or number one? Like what story we'll start. We'll
start with hurricane here you go? Here's that? When that plays?
I mean, it just is a flood of like things
were just really happening at that time, you know, And
(55:28):
and that song was around it for you know, in
my life at that time a long time. You know,
it had been out for you know, by the time
it went number one, it had been out for two years.
And so I played that song in a lot of clubs,
and and I just could I I can just feel
the like the momentum when you play that song, because
(55:49):
it's you know, I owe kind of everything to that song,
you know, I mean, I wouldn't be sitting here talking
to you, if it wasn't for that moment in time,
you know. And I just remember, you know, playing all
these shows and man, we're selling everything out and people
were all these important you know, business people were coming
out and we want to see the show and we
(56:11):
want to talk to you about this, and and just excitement,
I guess would be the word that I think of
when that song comes to mind. All right, number two
here is your second one one number away. That's just different,
you know, it was. It was the most different thing
(56:34):
that I had done at that time, especially when we
wrote it. You know, I had never written to a
track before, didn't know what that was, um, and it
was just it was it was cool, man. It was
kind of like I was like, man, this thing is
just so cool. It's such a risk for me I
felt at that time to put out, you know, and
so made me and luckily it worked out. But that
one is is definitely I would like risky, I think,
(56:56):
is how I would felt. I felt about that one
when it rains a poor yeah, man, I mean just
I mean, I just think that's probably my It just
makes me happy when I hear that song. Man. You know,
I remember shooting the video and and uh and Charleston
(57:17):
and uh, you know me and my uh you know
now fiance had had just really got into the throes
of our relationship at that time, and it was just
really fun. That was just a really fun time for me.
You know, that song brings back a lot of of
really cool, fun memories for me. All Right, number four
here she got the best of me? Why did you
(57:42):
laugh right there? What what happened up there? Was? I mean,
it's just that's full. It's like full circles the word
I would use because I wrote that song in college. Um,
I wrote it here in Nashville, but it was on
one of my trips and it just the way it
all came together was, um, you know, I wrote it
with Rob Snyder and Channing Wilson at that time. They
were both, you know, doing the revival thing together at
(58:05):
Tin Roof, and a buddy of mine that I went
to Nashville with had you know, kind of walked up
to those guys and was like, Hey, let's write a
song thing and and so they were like sure, man,
you know, we're in town for a couple of days
and they're like, oh, well, we can write tomorrow or whatever.
Me and my buddy got super drunk that night at
the Tin Roof and and you know, we played revival
that night, and and so he called me in the
(58:28):
morning and was like, hey, man, like, I'm too hungover
to go to this right, will you go instead? And
I was like sure, man, like I'll go right with these,
you know, two complete stranger guys, you know. And so
I went over to Rob's apartment. Me and Rob were
kind of sitting there writing and this. I mean, Rob
and Channing are both like big dudes. They're both taller
(58:50):
than me, they're both even broader than I am. And
and Channing walks out in this like bath towel, you know,
He's got his long hair and his big beard and everything.
And Rob was like, dude, come come get on this
song with us. Man, I should come write this song
with us. And he was like, man, I'm not feeling it,
you know, And he said, well play, he said, dude,
just just play him something. So I played night Moves
(59:13):
on my guitar by Seeger and he was like, yeah,
I'll come right with you, guys. And then so we
wrote we wrote she Got the Best of Me that
day and I ended up recording it in college when
I'm still in college, putting it out, and then when
it came time to record the deluxe version of the album,
you know, Lynn was like, this song is just great
and your fans love it at the shows, and I
(59:35):
really think it deserves a chance to you know, to
be recorded with the proper equipment and the proper proper
band and and get a shot at being a single one.
So it was definitely a full circle experience for that one,
beautiful crazy. I mean definitely, my fiance comes to mind
more than anything, and that song really just changed a
(59:57):
lot for me. I mean it was seven week number one,
which is crazy. I would have never imagine that that
to you, that song to me put you on a
whole different Like it's you have to have a massive
song to actually make the jump. You can have eleven
number one and sometimes you don't make the job, but
if you get that one definer, yep, you can make
a jump. I think for you, that's when it launched
you up. And that's what I was thinking, is this
(01:00:19):
is the one that took us from like, I mean,
we had four number ones and things were awesome, and
then it was all of a sudden, it was like next,
it was the next gear after that song, you know.
And you know, I think of obviously winning Song of
the Year here recently, and you know, all the accolades
and and and things. There's so many really positive, you
(01:00:40):
know memories. I mean, I wouldn't be you know, I probably.
I mean, I would like to think I would still
be with my fiance without that song. But I mean,
this is the song that I played for her, you know,
after we weren't even officially dating yet when I wrote
this song about her, and I remember playing it for
like two days after I wrote it, and I was
like so nervous. That's vulnerable there, because I was like, man,
(01:01:01):
what if she thinks I'm just a total creep, like
you know, because it was like, I mean we're hanging out.
We were hanging out a good amount at that time,
but it was still like, man, it was such a
risk in my mind, like to play her that What
did she do? She was working at BMI, No, what
did she do when you played the song? Did she
get emotional or did she Well? I played it smart
(01:01:22):
because her one of her friends was there, and so
I had actually bought her a record player as a gift,
like a Crosley record player with like the legs and
like its own little speaker and stuff, and so it
had an ox chord jack and I plugged my phone
in and played the work tape and her friend was
in there, and her friend was like, oh my god,
like this is just wow, you know, And so I
(01:01:45):
was like, I know, if I can like hook the
friend and the friend thinks it's sweet, she at least
has to pretend like she likes it so that I'm
not in this awkward situation where both like, well, we'll
just stop hanging out now, because do you think I'm
super weird? So it was she, but no, she loved it.
And I mean she obviously loves that tune. All right,
Bear never broke my heart. I don't just feel the
(01:02:12):
live show on that one. Yeah, I mean, it's just
like it just feels like, you know, it just feel
like I can imagine what the environment would have been
like a an ACDC concert, you know, like and not
that that song sounds anything like an ACDC song, but
it's the most rock and thing that we have, you know.
It has those heavy like chugging guitars and and just
(01:02:36):
it just feels like an arena rock like anthem song,
and that's what it feels like every time we play it.
And I think that song, you know, if Beautiful Crazy
was important, I think beer is just as important because
we followed Beautiful Crazy up, which was this very vulnerable,
like low you know, finnel like violin kind of acoustic thing,
(01:03:00):
and then it just polar opposite is this song and
this song. You know, I think this gave us a
jump too, because you know, a lot of and like
you said, we did have hits, but a lot of
the hits we're kind of like mid tempo, e Like,
there wasn't that like kick you in the teeth thing
in the set, and I think that song brought that
to the table for us. And the last one before
(01:03:21):
we go, even though I'm leaving the seventh number one
in a row as we record this right now, this
is the one multi week number one. Yeah, when you
wrote this, how do you feel, I've man, this was
a crazy right. So actually one of the guys I
wrote Beautiful Crazy with White Drette. This was the first
song that we wrote together, and me and him and
(01:03:46):
a good friend of ours, Ray Fulter, wrote this together
and it was one of those things. I love to
get into a rite and just not go until I
feel like it's perfect, and I feel like sometimes the
Nashville environment can be we got three hours, We're walking
out with a song. I don't care if it's terrible.
(01:04:06):
I don't care if it's the best song that anybody's
ever written. I just want to get it done and
turn it into my publisher and get on with my life.
You know, which is great if that's what you want
to do. And I understand that, and I enjoy that
sometimes too, but I have to go into it with
a different thing because I'm writing it as something that
(01:04:26):
could potentially be a humongous part of my life forever.
You know, that song is never gonna go away. It's
never not gonna have been at number one. I'm never
not gonna play it every night. And so I love
to go in and make sure that if I'm going
to record something and I'm going to put it out
there for people, that it's something that has the stamp
of approval. And so that was a rite that took
(01:04:48):
probably eight hours, seven or eight hours and one day,
and we were in the little like we were in
like the little office rooms at Southern Ground in the studio.
We weren't in the studio, but there's a little spot
next door where there's like, you know, just a little
fluorescent bulb like offices. And Whyatt's son at that time
(01:05:12):
was you know, getting ready to you know, he was
getting to the age where he was going to be
graduating from high school very soon. And that was his
only a child at that time, and he was like, man,
I want to write my son a song and let
him know that I'm gonna be there for him no
matter what, you know, like just because he's not living
at home, he doesn't I don't want him to feel
(01:05:34):
like he can't still call me or he can't still
you know, be my son or ask for help if
he needs it. And so that's how that song started.
Uh and uh, man, we had trouble getting through it.
You know, I'm lucky enough to still have my my
parents in my life and so I haven't you know,
had to deal with that you know, horrible day yet.
But we were all, you know, very emotional, like you
(01:05:57):
didn't sing in the work tape, like got a little
choked up. I was like, man, this is like and
I knew, like if that's happening to me, Like that's
going to happen to a lot of people with that song.
So um, that song is just you know, it's it's
really powerful for a lot of folks. All right. See
what you see is what you get towards Ashington McBride
and Drew Parker is happening lots of festival dates. You
(01:06:18):
and Eric Church are headlining Rock to South. You're torn
with McGraw. I don't even know how you have a minute.
It's like every day on your calendar there there's something
on it. You know. That's what I call music. Seventy
three Yeah, holy crap, man, it's crazy man, you know,
but it's it's I just think, you know, you only
get this chance, you know once, if you ever get it.
(01:06:40):
And you know, I don't want to look back when
I'm you know, sixty years old, you know, and and
go man, I could have done more. I should have
done more. I wish I would have done that, or
I wish I would have worked harder, you know, because
I don't want to lose this. You know. It's it's
it's a special feeling, you know, to go on, man,
people are really loving me right now. I'm hitting some
(01:07:01):
kind of I'm hitting some kind of vain somehow, some
way that maybe somebody else isn't doing, and that's a
neat feeling. So I don't, you know, I'm not prepared
to lose that, and I know and inevitably will come.
There will be a time when, you know, the next
guy that's really awesome will come along and go, l Combs,
(01:07:22):
that guy's old news. You know. I was talking with
in the last few days, a plus plus artist, just
we're hanging out a little bit, and he had brought
you up because that he was a plus plus still
is massive, yeah, and he was confident. He was like,
you know what, it's Luke Combs the time. Now Yeah,
He's like, I had my time, and he goes, it's
Luke Holms the time. She said, I'm still gonna do
massive shows. But now it's Luke's time, and Luke's gonna
(01:07:43):
have his time, and then hopefully Luke will look at
the next person to go, yeah, you know what, I'm
still gonna play big shows. Yeah, he goes, that's just
how this works. And the people who don't, who are miserable,
who don't embrace what they have when they have it,
and what they had when they had it and roots
for the guys that are coming next. Yeah, and you
got to man, you know, because I've had a lot
of really great experiences with with people here in town,
(01:08:05):
with other artists who've said, man, you know you're gonna
do this, and everybody's thing is always enjoy it while
it's here. You know, do the thing that you go
to the after party that you're too tired to go
to go, you know, hang out with Ed Sheering or
you know, any a cool opportunity you should go do
(01:08:27):
that because you're not always going to have those opportunities.
So um, that's something that I've always taken to heart. Now,
I do enjoy a good nap sometimes, you know, it's
just hard to pass up on that sometimes. But so yeah,
I'm just trying to I'm just trying to do it
the best I can. And uh, and you know, enjoy it.
Well it's here. Well listen, I appreciate time. Likewise, just
a big fan of you. Thank you. I think over
(01:08:52):
your artistry, Like I got to know you a little
bit before you had a bunch of s. Yeah, I
always liked your honesty when you came. Thanks man, and
and it's very often, so area is Luke Combs Episode
two twenty six. Um, this thing's gonna be listen to forever.
The single right now is does to me, but this
one's gonna be around for years and years of the podcast.
So whatever. His ninety fourth number one, and we'll have
to do another one, another one. Good to see him,
(01:09:13):
My Friend, episode two twenty six, So Luke Combs, there
we go.
Host
Bobby Bones
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