PARMALEE: How Through Life and Almost Death, This Brotherhood and Band Never Quits

Parmalee’s resilience is one of the most inspiring aspects of their journey. From the early days of playing music as kids with their dad to becoming one of country music’s most successful bands, they’ve faced countless challenges—but they never gave up. They’ve had their fair share of struggles, whether it’s overcoming internal band conflicts, navigating the pressures of the music industry, or literally surviving a robbery and gunshot, they always always push forward together.

Parmalee’s story is a testament to their unwavering determination and the power of brotherhood, and it’s that resilience and conviction that has helped them connect with fans all over the world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Cary Line.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
She's a queen and talking, and so.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
She's getting really not afraid to feel the.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Episode or soul.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Just let it flow.

Speaker 5 (00:22):
No one can do were quiet, cary Line, it's time.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
For Caroline.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (00:31):
So good to be with harmally.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
What's happening? What's having us?

Speaker 5 (00:35):
Y'all roll in an entourage all the time we do.

Speaker 6 (00:37):
There's always four of us, a lot of us.

Speaker 5 (00:39):
Yeah, that's a lot. So I'm super familiar with band life.
I was in a band for like ten years, and
then my husband's in a band and they it's just
like it's you're never alone, and y'all have never been
alone your whole life, because y'all started this from your kids,
right pretty much?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (00:56):
Well, Scott's my brother, barries, our first cousin all together.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Father, Yeah he is.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
How do you keep everyone in line? As the father?
I just let him run wild, that's the ticket. Yeah,
you can't control him.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
We just we just do what he does.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
You know, the leader, you're the friend. You have no
blood in this, but you're the relative.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
I feel like they've adopted me.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
So how many years have y'all been together?

Speaker 6 (01:26):
Twenty five? Yep, us twenty five years?

Speaker 5 (01:29):
Yeah, and you guys started playing with your dad. So
did y'all start when y'all are how old? Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:36):
Well, like ten eleven, yeah, something like that.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
My first gig was elementary school, fifth grade, really playing
the drums with my music teacher.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, it's your first real gig was when the guitar
player got drunk and you had to take his place,
you know mine dad? Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah, about sixteen.

Speaker 6 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, Well we got official members of his band,
like we would grow up kind of jam within him.
But he had a guitar player that, I mean, great
dude and just so influential on my playing.

Speaker 7 (02:05):
But he got drunk at the gig one night and
didn't show up.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
We got needed pre party and he never showed up
to the gig and my dad I'd been out there
kind of learning the songs and all that, and so
he called me up. He's like, all right, you're up,
I know you know the songs and uh. And so
from that point on I was in his band. And
then we eventually got Scott in there because the bass
player ended up going to uh jail for selling weed

(02:29):
and something happened to.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
The bass players and the drummer of my dad's band
played bass, so I got on drums. Yeah, that's where
it started.

Speaker 6 (02:37):
So and then we got buried in there too, playing percussion.
I mean, it's just always been a family thing for us.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
Were you all doing school or it was school rarely.

Speaker 6 (02:47):
I mean like I would go out there and let's
watch my dad and then rehearse, and and I'd be drinking.

Speaker 7 (02:51):
Like back then it was George Dickla Mountain Dew George.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
This is in high school. Yeah, young ways.

Speaker 7 (03:01):
Of the world we did.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
We got a great education on like life and clubs
and things like that from early age, and just you know,
comedy and just all kinds of just you know, because
my mom and dad were separated growing up, we never
did get a chance to hang out with him until
we started playing music, and then it.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Was like old enough to drink.

Speaker 6 (03:17):
Yeah, well we were still old enough to drink, but
we would go to school and sleep on the disk
and just can't wait to get home to play guitar.

Speaker 7 (03:24):
And that was kind of how we did. Josh, you
played very similar.

Speaker 8 (03:28):
My dad was in a band too, and I grew
up living in a Volkswagen van going around to bluegrass festivals.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
And playing in the band with him.

Speaker 8 (03:36):
And then as I got into like middle school, I
met some other people that played music. I joined a
couple of bands that weren't necessarily a kind of music
I liked, but it was the only other people that
played So I played a couple of punk bands and
hardcore bands and then eventually met these guys meet in Greenville,
North Carolina.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
Yeah, that's a lot happens in Greenville.

Speaker 6 (03:56):
Now you sure you know about Greenville, North Carolina, not
South Carolina.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
Oh wait, there's a difference to Greenville is a big
South Carolina is a big one. Yeah, what's North Carolina?

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Like it's a little one.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
That's yeah.

Speaker 7 (04:07):
It's a great school, East Carolina University.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
It was like back in the day, like rated it
like the number one party school and Playboy magazine and.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
All it so things that really matter, most important.

Speaker 7 (04:16):
It was great.

Speaker 6 (04:18):
Yeah, it's a great music scene then and uh, you know,
I think it was like three girls the one guy
at the college. So it was like good odds good, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:26):
It might be six okay in South Carolina, North North Carolina.
Eastern girls are very beautiful there, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
They are, uh huh yeah.

Speaker 6 (04:36):
Green We did a lot of shows in green with
South Carolina too. When we first started Parmally, Yeah, we
would go there. We had a manager there, and so
we drive from Greenwealth, Carolina Agreen with South Carolina. That
was our biggest like thing. Our biggest markets was upstate.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, we're y'all kind of like the band of the
Carolinas for a little while. Do you feel like you
got go? Like I got a little reputation. How did
you become a ful band?

Speaker 7 (05:01):
I mean just I don't know.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
You are playing with your dad?

Speaker 7 (05:04):
Yeah, and he was playing.

Speaker 8 (05:06):
Yeah, we were so we were all living in Greenville.
They played in the band with their dad. I played
in another local cover band and we played all the
same places, okay, And they were looking to get out
of their dad's band and play some younger music and
start writing some music. And I was The guys I
was playing with were a lot older than me, and
I was looking to, you know, start an original band.
So we all went out. They invited me out of

(05:27):
this practice barn one night in Parmley, North Carolina. I'd
never heard of it.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
There it is, And we drove.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Out there and we started practicing. We were like, yeah,
this is it.

Speaker 8 (05:34):
We need to start a band and you were already there.
And that's where I met Barry and Scott for the
first time.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Okay, so you guys have met Matt, you had met Josh.

Speaker 6 (05:43):
I met Josh because I was hanging out at the
club and help him out there and we played shows
and I was like, he plays piano keys and plays
great guitar. I was like, we needed THK sing, we
need like a double threat there, so let's get Josh
in the band. And it's just everything just started kind
of coming togethers We retired of playing for the old
heads and you know, playing all the cover songs and
classic rock stuff, and it's like, man, this we want

(06:05):
to play something.

Speaker 8 (06:06):
Like graduating to your own band instead of being in
your dad's band anymore.

Speaker 5 (06:10):
So what was the plan back then? Because like in
that day, you know, not that we're that old, but
it's like there's a whole new world of how people
break into music. Now. It's all on social media. It's
all like digital, you gotta go viral. But when we
were growing up, it was like you got to get
in a van, you got to go drive around to
ship clubs, you got to play the like the latest

(06:32):
hours of like three people.

Speaker 6 (06:33):
In the room.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Yeah, and you gotta do it over and over and
over again, and it's exhausting, but it's amazing. But it's
like it's kind of like a lost art.

Speaker 7 (06:41):
I hate to say that.

Speaker 6 (06:43):
I guess you know, we're sounding like old people bitching
about you know, I.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
Just really broke recently. We're not that old, right they
all talk.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
I mean, no, we did it. We put you know, hour,
I did flyers, I did mailing this. I would send
out mailers to everybody you get. If you sounded in
my melanieus, I would we would address you a little
card and you would get it, and I would make
it try to look as big as I possibly could,
even though it was only like playing in the next
town is like two hours away at the.

Speaker 7 (07:08):
Part furthest you know, we're on tour.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
But I mean, we did that religiously, and we plastered
up the town when we played.

Speaker 7 (07:14):
We made sure we did.

Speaker 6 (07:15):
I designed posters, you know, I'd book shows, we promote
the shows. I'd hire my door guy, we'd pay for
the PA, We'd bring in stages, we'd do everything. We
brought in fireworks. We almost caught the club on fire.
We'd done everything.

Speaker 8 (07:27):
We'd get in trouble every show because the police would
come and make us come pick all the flyers up
off the ground where we'd put them under everybody's windshow wipers.

Speaker 6 (07:34):
And other clubs, you know, like the people in the
other establishment parking lots. We would you know, fly them
up for the show and they get pissed at us.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
But that's what you do so much too, though, Like
I feel like you truly learn how to weather the
industry because if you can make it when you are
literally every single piece of the puzzle and it's that hard,
did it prepare you for actual success when y'all got
into Nashville and like you got into the system, Like
was it was there? Was it easier once you got

(08:03):
here or was it harder, because like grinding it out
is hard when you're young.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
It was a different kind of hard.

Speaker 5 (08:09):
Tell me the difference.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
I mean, if you think.

Speaker 8 (08:12):
About it, just well, I mean, like we still play
and travel all around all the time, but we don't
have to pick our own amplifiers up anymore.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
So, so that part of it's great.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
That was the biggest deal. I mean it was for
the longest time, it's just us four and whatever you know,
a person we had come with, it said, was a
friend who could take off for the weekend or do
like merch or maybe you get a lighting guy, or
you get just a friend that always wants to come.
So if you had that one person, it was just
us five, and we would go in to club. Like
I said, you know, we'd rely on the local sound guy.

(08:41):
You know, he'd make friends with the sound guy first,
and then you know, you play your show and your
buddy would do merch. And at the end of the night,
you can see how fast you could pack the gear
up so you could go to the after party and
you party all night somewhere and you wake up in the
morning and you drive wherever else was next slip. Yeah,
but yeah, we'd load our I mean, you know, obviously
the biggest deal was getting here is in a bus.
But I mean it took us a minute two, you know,

(09:02):
like we didn't have any we didn't have any well,
we had must have had a good time. Was kind
of on the cusp when we got it. We didn't
we didn't move to Nashville until we signed a record
deal because we had our back home stuff kind of.
I had houses and families, and everybody's We just had
to uproot everything to come here, and we just broke
the ship when we got here.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, and we truly didn't know publishing songwriters.

Speaker 9 (09:23):
We thought you were a band. You got in the
barn and you played music.

Speaker 7 (09:27):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
That whole business side.

Speaker 9 (09:28):
We did not know, Like you can go to school to.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Be a songwriter, you can do this.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
We were like, what, we've never heard of. Nobody in
our town knew anything about the business, so we we
didn't know anything about it. You played in bars, the club,
the bar, and then one day a record a record
company guy will come in and sign you, and then all.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Your dreams.

Speaker 6 (09:54):
Wracked up credit cards on credit card.

Speaker 5 (09:57):
That just you know, oh yeah, you had you house,
could you forty kids? You're not making any money cards?

Speaker 10 (10:02):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
And we work full time jobs five days a week
and we play Friday Saturday and come home hung over
Sunday and start over on Monday.

Speaker 6 (10:10):
Talk about depressed?

Speaker 5 (10:12):
Was it all depressed or did you feel like you're
living the dream?

Speaker 7 (10:15):
Both both?

Speaker 6 (10:17):
When you're headed dealership, when you get off work on
Thursday afternoon and you're you know, you got to play
Friday night, you boy, you're so excited, you're on top
of the world. You play shows and you party all weekend,
and then when you're driving home Sunday on that last
like five mile driven is.

Speaker 7 (10:30):
The worst sight. What am I doing?

Speaker 5 (10:32):
What is my life?

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Life?

Speaker 7 (10:34):
How are we going to pay the rent?

Speaker 6 (10:35):
Yeah? I got to get up at six and go
work into logging woods. I gotta go do construction, framing,
I gotta go repot furniture. It was just miserable, you know,
that last rite in and then you're there with no
support system of anybody that can help you, scept me
in this one guy that was kind of helping manage
us at the time booking shows, and it's like, you
don't have any prospects of what we learned how to

(10:56):
do was we learn and we figured out just find
one positive thing, no matter what that is. Whether it's
one person that might can help you write a song,
or one person that would work with you as a producer,
or one person that knew somebody who knew somebody who was.

Speaker 7 (11:09):
An intern in Sony Publishing. It didn't matter anything.

Speaker 6 (11:13):
Anything that spark sparkle of hope and you just follow
that and you chase that and screw everything else. We're
chasing this sparkl of hope. And that's how it eventually
ended up parlaying itself into what got us the song
that got us the record deal and and ended up
where we are now.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
And what was the actual song that like started the
whole thing. We're really.

Speaker 6 (11:34):
Well Carolina was, oh yeah, that was your first number one.
Yeah yeah, but you know before that we had we
were you know, we're out there, we're doing half covers
and we're throwing in some This was right when the
band got started.

Speaker 7 (11:45):
We're doing like, you know, because you got to get gigs.

Speaker 6 (11:48):
You got to play a menu venue for six hundred
bucks or whatever, three hundred whatever to pay you, which
barely does.

Speaker 5 (11:53):
It even cover your cross now.

Speaker 6 (11:54):
No, bring your own pa, and you're bringing all the stuff,
you're loaded in and you're like, you know, but it's
a great time. And so we all made a pack
that we're gonna not.

Speaker 7 (12:04):
Do covers anymore.

Speaker 9 (12:05):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
So we went from making maybe six hundred dollars a
night from doing the cover gigs restaurants to making one
hundred dollars a night maybe or nothing.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
Touch a good gamble. You're gambling on yourself.

Speaker 6 (12:17):
Even have we as matter of fact, I'll never forget
the day we we had to barn in Parmale where
we practiced rest in peace. The barring up burnt down recently.

Speaker 10 (12:25):
It blew up.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
How did it blow up?

Speaker 6 (12:29):
It was a taxidermy place, a little barn about the
size of this room.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
Is there a bunch of animals in there?

Speaker 6 (12:34):
I think so? But this has been years since. Well no,
it just happened recently. But we've been out at things
for twenty years. But I guess he started a taxidermy
places and uh and freeze regerator freeze or exploding.

Speaker 7 (12:48):
So was going down. But back to my story.

Speaker 6 (12:52):
We had this burn barrel outside that was a big
like we, you know, go to work and we come
out there at night and we burned fires or whatever
Jos shouldring us scraps from the construction burna fire just
to stay warm, and we talked and we all made
a pack. We were like, all right, what are we
doing here? Are we gonna keep playing other people's songs?
Are we going to like do our own thing? And

(13:12):
so we worked and worked and we wrote this song
called Broken Records that got us the attention of the manager.
That was kind of about an hour and a half
from town, and he was tied into the business. So
that was our.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
First real connection, real moment.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, he would try and try to get us a
record deal.

Speaker 6 (13:30):
So yeah, that was kind of our end. But and
that got us working in and like knowing some people
that had something happening, and so we were like, whatever
you want us to do, we'll do it.

Speaker 7 (13:41):
Okay, we need to go record here here put it
on his credit card. Yeah, we just did that.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
You just can't worry about it, No, you can't.

Speaker 6 (13:48):
You gotta believe in yourself. We all and we all
worked equally. Nobody was nobody grew up rich, nobody had money,
nobody had any connection other than what we made in
anything music that's really phenomenal.

Speaker 5 (14:01):
They don't make him like that anymore. Y'all are a
rare breed. This kind of band is like I wonder
if they even can exist anymore now with like how
people are forming bands and getting in like the internet
and like I said before, social media, I just don't
know if people will ever know what it's like to
be this kind of band.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
One of our my friend's dad said, he asked that question,
did you used to play at bars and I was like, oh,
he was on Broadway. We were hanging out, but here
he was just asking questions. He loves us anyway. I
was like, yeah, we've done every bar gig you could
ever think of. He's like, really, how long did you
do it? And I was like, over fifteen years in
these bars? And then he I means, y'all dropped because

(14:38):
he's like adding up the years too. Yeah, you're in
your thirties and people are like, why aren't you getting
a real job?

Speaker 5 (14:44):
I was like, yeah, would you need that question for
so long? Why did you have a real job? And
you've been doing it now for what like ten fifteen
years or whatever, and you're like, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
But he really said it's a real job. He said
the same thing you said. He said.

Speaker 9 (14:57):
He said, nobody's doing it like you guys did it
any more.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Not that you're the last of a dime. No, no,
he said. He said, you're the last of your kind.
Yeah and yeah, and I kind of he said it
not straight on, he kind of said in my ear,
and I kind of turned around and hit me. I
was like, oh, we really And I was like, we
kind of are. Because it's all about socials. Now it's

(15:20):
all about It's actually all.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
About social I know. And I feel like now people
who are making it, they wake up every day instead
of going and playing the clubs, they wake up and
they like record a video, you know, not that y'all
aren't doing social media. I know, right, social I feel
the same way. I'm like, man, social media. It's like,
y'all do great on it. By the way, y'all, social
media is very engaging and very fun way to go.
But I mean it's a whole another world and a

(15:43):
life and a job and like an energy suck. But
it's awesome. But it's like, oh my god, you'd rather
play clubs?

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I think I would.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah I was fun.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Oh yeah, more fun.

Speaker 7 (15:52):
No, but joke.

Speaker 6 (15:53):
But it's just the truth. I'm like, the social media
content person is the new lead singer.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (15:58):
If you've got a band and you don't have that
person in the band who is savvy on social media
or who can get to great content or knows how
to manage it and engage with it, then you're already
a step behind somebody who's a shitty band who has
a great social media person. Oh for sure, But you
still have to have the song. I mean, this are
the songs, but you still have to have that song
that's gonna be that's gonna break you through.

Speaker 7 (16:20):
Then you have to have more that's gonna you know.
I mean, you see how it goes.

Speaker 6 (16:23):
But yeah, it's a the social media person is a
rock star in the room.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
You know, what do you guys think just from like
having to hang on to like that sliver of hope
Because now you're in Nashville, y'all established, and I mean
I know y'all had ups and downs and we'll get
into them, but it's like when you're at that point

(16:50):
in your career, it's literally like one tiny sliver of
a thread of hope. You know. It's not like it's
a really big connection. It's not like it's anything that could.
It doesn't feel game changing to us now. Probably what
is life altering back then? But what do you think
that taught y'all? Because it's such a less enough stamina
and perseverance too, you know, especially like when you're don't

(17:10):
have any way to get in you don't even know
what it is how to get started.

Speaker 8 (17:14):
I think it's just we loved being in a band
like this was even if nothing ever happened. It was
fun and it's what we did four nights a week,
even if we didn't have any shows, we'd be out
there practicing. And then things did slowly start to happen,
and it was always like it was no overnight thing
where everything changed, but there was always like, you know,
so and so's coming to play here in a couple months.

(17:36):
We should talk to the owner and see if we
could get to open for them. And then it started happening,
and like you started having things to look forward to,
and it wasn't anything that was making any money, but
it was always there was something to look to get
you to the next step.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
I guess, yeah, I think it was just about being
in the game, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
We were in the game.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
We were all focused on the same thing, and when
you're in it, there's opportunities and we followed them, and
you know, that.

Speaker 6 (18:02):
Was our only hope to to you know, not be
doing the jobs we were doing, Like we this was
our only like chance a like doing something big or
making money. Really everything else was like you know, working
day jobs, doing what we're doing, Like we're not gonna
we're not gonna settle into this and and like just
accept that, like we got an opportunity, we can possibly

(18:23):
write a great song, we can be in a band
for a living. And that was like that aura of
that was enough to drive us like to do anything.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
And being a little naive, you know, knowing what you
know now you look back going, whoa, that actually did happen.
But you know, being in the business now you see
how other things happen is like, wow.

Speaker 5 (18:43):
It's a miracle when it all comes together.

Speaker 6 (18:44):
Yes, for a lot of reason, I'm telling you, And
but we did it. So the chances weren't zero. They
were something. Yeah, happened.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
So keep grinding and grinding. And today we're still grinding
and we're looking for the next thing. It's not on stop.

Speaker 7 (19:00):
But I think I thought about this the other day.

Speaker 6 (19:02):
It was like we had an r of excitement around
us all the time that people will gravitate to.

Speaker 7 (19:06):
That was we just love to have fun. We love
to be at the party with them, throw parties.

Speaker 6 (19:10):
We love to just let's let's do this, all right,
Let's do it, man, Let's let's go build a stage
and like put a show on in the back porch.

Speaker 7 (19:17):
Come on, let's go do it.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
And we'd always just say yet everything, and we all
helped each other, and we have friends that were around
us that were encouraging us. Even though the songs weren't
quite quite that good. We made people believe that, you know,
there's always a party when it was around us. Always
was there ever.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
A moment before you guys really got your first break
where you're like, Okay, we got to call it. We
can't do this. This isn't gonna work like we've we've
we've gone in a good go, but we need to
like not once, never.

Speaker 7 (19:45):
Never, not once.

Speaker 6 (19:48):
Glimpse of it, not yet.

Speaker 5 (19:50):
I think it's not gonna happen, not ever.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
There was one time that it was asked me. I
remember talking to Tolly Kennedy on the phone. This was
right after Scott had been shot. I don't know if
you know about that, yes, story.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Of getting that, but but.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
He called me up and we were in talks with
the record label here in Nashville, and he was like,
the label just wants to know y'all still going to
be a band. And I think Scott was still in
a coma and I was like you damn right, like
damn right, we're going to be a band.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Yeah, that was the only time was ever questioned by anybody.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Well in that situation, that's like every band's nightmare, Like
what happened to you? Like, you know, because here you
guys especially that was I feel like, when did that happen?
Twenty ten nailed it And that's really even before Like
I feel like shootings were hurt of a lot. You know,
it's like you weren't really like I were you thinking
of going to show and worrying about that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
No, not at all.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
You had your pie.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
About it.

Speaker 7 (20:51):
I mean, no disrespect town. That had nothing to do
with it.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
You know what I'm saying. People might be carrying itself.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Well, we were kind of on an r V at
that time. We stepped ourself up to it.

Speaker 9 (21:06):
We caught it a tour bus, but it was an
RV that's a.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Tour It was like, yeah, so I felt like it
was our home. So there was always a pistol or
something in there.

Speaker 5 (21:13):
So yeah, especially when you're playing.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
All this, you're just sleeping in the middle of nowhere,
you just we we crash anywhere. But uh, the way
it happened, we wouldn't have really thought it would happen
that way, but it did.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
So, so y'all are just on the bus after a show.
I'm sure I've talked about this so much. You're so
awesome to be talking about this, I.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Mean part of the story. And now the video really
set it free, and we're like, just let's just do
this to show everybody, you know, what we've been through.

Speaker 9 (21:41):
So if you're going through something hard, you can say, oh.

Speaker 5 (21:44):
Damn, yeah not was your lace Number one Gonna Love
You is when y'all did that, which, oh my god, Okay,
I was like crying during it, obviously, but what was that?
What was that like? Because like, y'all hadn't gotten your
record deal yet.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Yeah, I'll set it up. So we're you know, we're struggling,
you know, trying to get us a record deal, and
we finally so we had the song Carolina and we
released it. If you don't mind all going this discn
sayle minute, but it makes it better. So we had, Yeah,
we were struggling for years trying to make anything happen.

Speaker 7 (22:12):
We couldn't get a record deal.

Speaker 6 (22:13):
Nobody would sign us, you know, And we wrote the
song Carolina and we released it independently on this little
EP and it was it did great for us for
about a year and everybody was around and maybe we'd
get a record deal and know nothing happened. And so
this country artist was going to put the record, wanted
wanted to do Carolina and put it out as a
country version named Benon Blunt and he was from Greenville,

(22:36):
South Carolina, that area. The record label was out of there.
So anyway, they started the label here in town and
they signed Benton and that was gonna be his first
song country radio. And so we knew about it, and
our manager at that time says, you guys should be
out there writing like you guys are songwriters on this.
You need to go out there as songwriters and see
what can happen. So we did. We came out here

(22:57):
I think in May of that year of twenty ten
when the flood happened, and we you know, asked anybody
to please write with us, and we had a handful
of people that were in town and they wrote with us.
One who's our manager now, David Fanning. Tina Crawford hooked
it up. Who was with our management team, Greg Galloh
was here.

Speaker 7 (23:14):
If you got in town, he did all of it.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
You know, we're living in that army.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
We lived in the r V and the part we
actually lived, Oh my god, living in the so many
things made I would like have a ten room so love.
I don't know if you know special that place.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
That place is amazing, so much fun, but that that
parking lot was all ragged, but you could partner arm
That was a.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
Good parking lot. Yes, yeah, I know me too.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
Okay out Diana used to sit on the street with
the pink Calgary hat.

Speaker 5 (23:51):
Oh heck, yes, yes.

Speaker 6 (23:55):
So anyway, we're living in the r V and we
meet David and he's part of New Voice, which is
Jason Audane's band. They producing and they bring in artists.
They just had like Thompson Square then oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
so all that was happening. It was you know, it
was on the verge. And so he we wrote, must
have had a good time, and we'd already had Carolina
the parking lot in the parking lots had a good time.

(24:18):
So anyway, we go meet the guys from New Voice
and their tidy and we're broken Bow.

Speaker 5 (24:22):
And that was kind of a new newish label.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah it was, yeah, ja on it.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
He was just popping off.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, okay, and they love Carolina.

Speaker 7 (24:32):
Yeah, they loved the song Carolina.

Speaker 6 (24:34):
But actually he was I think Lobel was going to
sign Benton on that song.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
So you guys have been were kind of like neck
and neck with all the line.

Speaker 6 (24:42):
Yeah, and then luckily something happened with their label and
they folded and it came.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
Back to us, and he was going to take Carolina.

Speaker 7 (24:48):
Yeah, it was already kind of come out of radio.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
Okay, so released independently. Then he kind of scooped it
up and then he folded and I all get it again.

Speaker 6 (24:56):
Yeah, we get it again.

Speaker 5 (24:57):
That song is out of life.

Speaker 6 (24:58):
And we we came back in June and re recorded
it then you know the version you hear now, and
then we also recorded must have had a good time.
So we had these two songs that finally, after being
in this band for over ten years struggling paying, this
was it.

Speaker 7 (25:11):
This was it.

Speaker 6 (25:12):
We had these two songs. We're coming back in October.
We're going to get you all record.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Deal.

Speaker 6 (25:16):
That was okay, Okay, that was it.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
That was the deal.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
That was the moment.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
That was so and so we're gonna shop around Nashville.

Speaker 5 (25:24):
But you were like feeling like this was the moment.

Speaker 7 (25:28):
We had a production deal that was.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
My oh yeah with a label.

Speaker 6 (25:32):
Yeah, and Carolina and must have had a good time.
Two songs that were like really they were great songs,
you know that time. They were really doing some people
were reacting to it. So anyway, we were out in
like September, like we got to go back to Nashville.
Let's let's take the RV and let's just do like
some weekly shows and just try to get greased up
and do some new songs that we've written out here
and try to revamp everything.

Speaker 7 (25:53):
And and yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:54):
We were playing a Monday night at at the Money
in rock Hill, South Carolina, just to pick up gig.

Speaker 7 (25:59):
And just to play for rehearsals and whatever.

Speaker 6 (26:03):
And I think we made fifteen bucks that night after
we paid the sound guys and all that stuff. I mean,
it might have been twenty people there. I don't know,
but yeah, so, you know, and we had just gotten
this RV that you know, we were so excited because
it was just a it's just a twenty five that
much nicer than the van.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, oh my.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
God, you can sleep and you got a kitchen with
the oil.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, there was a toiletwer.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Yeah, I mean y'are high falutin at this point. Oh yeah, yes,
we got your production deal. I mean y'are feeling good.

Speaker 6 (26:31):
And we figured out if you could park at the
Best Western, you can.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
Get free breakfast.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
Yeah, and you could use the laundry and they had a.

Speaker 7 (26:38):
Dumpy right there.

Speaker 5 (26:40):
I mean you got to buy the tricks of the
trade out there. You're making fifteen dollars a night, I'm
telling you. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (26:45):
So we played the show and Scott and I are
on r V. We kind of pull it up to
the club and Burry and Josh are wrapping cables because
we got to load our gear in.

Speaker 7 (26:53):
It's just us four r somebody else get a knock
on the door.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
I think it's Josh and Barry, and so open the
RV door and there's a gun at my head. Give
me your F and cash, you know, gun right in
my head.

Speaker 7 (27:04):
Push me up in the ARV.

Speaker 6 (27:05):
Just like the video if you watch it, it's pretty
and so yeah, you know I'm going to panic immediately,
hands up and the guys give me your F and
cash and just you know, fires the gun right.

Speaker 7 (27:18):
By my head.

Speaker 6 (27:19):
Boom, and I'm screaming, God, I need help, And he
comes from the back and concealed carrier and hesitate one
bit and engages both of them, shoots both guys.

Speaker 5 (27:30):
You always wonder how you'd be in those moments, and
that's incredible that you were able to.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Like fast, I mean three seconds. I'd say, wow, to
make a decision.

Speaker 5 (27:39):
Well, because it's your brother, You're thinking they're going to
shoot your brother when you.

Speaker 6 (27:43):
Yeah, already fired and it was already deafening, and then
all of a sudden, you know, all the bullets go off,
and how I didn't get shot as a miracle really close.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
It was kind of like a whole situation having gunfire everywhere.
Oh oh my god.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
I think one guy had a knife and the other
guy had the gun, but he took care of both
of them.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
It was literally five seconds to go. I got two
guys seven bullets. How am I gonna get them both?
That went through my brain. You had to think that
fast and then walked up to do it.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
That's like a moment you could never dream of.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, and then I was like, Okay, I got close
enough to this guy that had the gun. I wasn't
really worried about him anymore. I was worried about the
guy that I didn't know if he had anything. He
could have had a shot gun, anything, and I shot through.
But what happened was it's not like the movies. When
I shot this guy, he didn't just fall out. He's
still alive and he's still shooting, shooting as many as

(28:45):
he can. And I'm I was done with him. I
moved over here and then I got hit three times.

Speaker 5 (28:50):
Do you are you scared at this point? Are you
just in a reaction?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Oh no, he's just kind of in reaction mad, And
you know I wasn't scared. You just by the flight,
I guess.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
Do you remember like exitting your body, like passing out?

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (29:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (29:07):
The last day I remember is Josh holding me, you know.

Speaker 8 (29:10):
Because I was smacking him in the face because his
eyes were starting to roll back instead.

Speaker 9 (29:14):
I do remember the police officer coming in because the lights.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
That was kind of scary part of all the lights,
and I'm just like, don't let me die, and he's
got we got you, we got you. And then I
was out for so it was your shoulder that I
had no one in the chest, one through my stomach,
and one hit my artery, which.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Was in his ass for more Y.

Speaker 6 (29:33):
That's when that was he'll shot. But luckily there was
a cop next door. Shout out to you, yeah, oh,
first responders, because the cops were there so fast, and
then the ambulance was there fast, and then they airlifted
him out of there. But you know, they took him
to the hospital. We're sitting there going through all this
trump like what's going on? And then they take him away,

(29:55):
and then you know, think about all this all this
crazy settles, and then it's just us three sitting in
this parking lot with the r V sitting there and
they're like, where's he at?

Speaker 7 (30:02):
Yeah, Charlotte's Medical Center.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, how do we get there?

Speaker 7 (30:04):
We got to get in Josh's little Ford Rangers.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
I just had happened to drive to this show for
some reason.

Speaker 8 (30:09):
I think I was going to visit my parents or something,
so I drove separate in my truck, which if I
wouldn't have I don't know what we would have done,
because they wouldn't let us have our videos of crime scene.
So we all got in the front seat of my
pickup truck and drove forty five minutes to an hour
to the hospital to where then we didn't know when
a gunshot victim is admitted, they don't use their real name,

(30:32):
so we didn't know how to find him. Once we
got there, we were freaking out.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
You don't know if he had died.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
No, we didn't know anything.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
Oh my god.

Speaker 6 (30:41):
But we did see one of the guys that his
parents went in the waiting room when the doctor came
to get us. So that was weird.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Oh of the oh yeah, suit yeah, Oh my god.

Speaker 6 (30:52):
Well, I mean we're all like, it's all happened in
like Sun's been shot.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
So here are the people who came to shoot their parents.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
I had been taken.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
To the hospital.

Speaker 7 (31:03):
He was taking the hospital too.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
Did you guys talk to them?

Speaker 8 (31:05):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (31:05):
No, they knew. I can figured they knew.

Speaker 6 (31:07):
But the worst part was when the doctor came to
get us and he's just like, I mean, a doctor's
looking at us and we're all the straw. He's like,
he's like, most most go ahead to you boys. Most
people with these injuries have about a five percent chance
of living. That's what he told us walking down the hallway.
And I was like, well, what's going on?

Speaker 5 (31:25):
You know?

Speaker 6 (31:25):
And then I swear the next month was probably felt
like a blur. I mean, he was in a coma
for ten days, had to have three surgeries. Everybody from
back home was there, and you know, this is four
and a half hours from home, but everybody showed up
to the hospital and it was like just pins and needles,
like he's gonna lose his leg. For sure, he's gonna
lose you know, Boley funk. I mean, it was just
like it because they have to tell you the worst

(31:47):
case scenario. So we're, you know, living at the hospital
taking shifts. I mean, you know, these guys are coming
up the elevators, some of the gang stuff.

Speaker 7 (31:59):
I don't know what it would be. There was like
that tension was they were.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
In the you're dealing with that at the same time.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
The waiting room.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
So the guy who didn't pass away was on the
same floor as Scott in the hospital.

Speaker 7 (32:14):
They rolled him right by me and Josh.

Speaker 5 (32:16):
Did y'all ever have communication with him? Like, did he
ever speak to y'all?

Speaker 4 (32:20):
No, No, we just kept kept our distance, stayed in
our little area, you know.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (32:28):
They did stop him right in front of us from
the elevator that one day, and I was looking around
I was like, I.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Don't see no cameras.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
I mean, it was what a wild situation? Did you
cross over? Like did you go into the next level?

Speaker 10 (32:44):
No?

Speaker 2 (32:45):
I didn't. I asked them though. At the hospital, I
was like, man, did y'all play me some music or
do something?

Speaker 1 (32:50):
You know?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
While I was out there, we played you music every day.
I didn't hear it, so I, unfortunately was upset. But
when I woke up it came out.

Speaker 9 (32:59):
I did remember for everybody, and I was definitely you know, on.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Drugs and stuff. But I remember telling them. I was like,
we're not playing any more shitty gigs.

Speaker 6 (33:08):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Then I was, okay, that's the first thing you said
first they pulled the tube out, said we're not playing
any more shitty clubs. We still do so and I
like them, so I even go back to them.

Speaker 10 (33:24):
I still love them.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
Do you have fear of like that happening again or
have you just gotten to a place where y'all have
like surrendered that, like you can't live in fear.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
I think you do have a little bit all along,
but you you know, I'm working on it, and they
probably have their things, or.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
About just remembering that it happened. You know, it's always
it's always sitting there like this is a possibility.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
Well, you know, we tell our you know, guys, make
sure you lock the doors on the bus, be aware
of your surrounding jail. We tell our crew that, like,
which you know they didn't know. You tell them the story.
They're like, oh really, Like yeah, you know, be aware
there's people out here, and they're like, oh.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
Wow, how do you feel like you've changed as a
person since that happened?

Speaker 3 (34:23):
A lie?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
I think and all you we just appreciate everything, so
grateful for everything, every little thing.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
Because you know how fast it can literally go.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, and what it.

Speaker 6 (34:32):
Took to get to where to get it, you know,
all the struggles we went through and all everything that
that we sacrifice to get to where we are, just
to get a shot.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
You know, every song, every even this podcast, just all
of it just grateful, just like that, look look what
we get to do now.

Speaker 6 (34:50):
So going back to the story, I love you're giving
us on track here. Yeah, So going back to the story,
you know, we had the Carolina come out and we
finally got it back and then we went and got
us production deal and we re recorded you know, the
songs and we were coming to Nashville, I mean literally
and being in a band doing everything. When you finally
got something happening.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
This happens.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
This, this, this happens right right when you're just so
excited and finally after all this a struggle, you're finally
going to get a record deal and off and then
that happens.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
Yeah, like literally, when you finally get there, it's like,
oh my god, now we might not even it might
all be over.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
Literally yeah, And it was, you know, it was tough.
I mean, he he couldn't walk. We had to go
on pete. It was bad, like his leg was messed up,
had dropped foot. I mean it was like, but we
got in there and we did double pt. We had
friends that were motivational. Everybody's you gotta get your ass
out of here. You're gonna get staff and face.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
We gotta go.

Speaker 6 (35:47):
We ended up bringing him home. We had to open wounds.
We became nurses.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
You know.

Speaker 6 (35:51):
It was like you got to get we got to
get you better. And we just worked on it.

Speaker 7 (35:55):
Every day a little bit all along.

Speaker 6 (35:57):
You know, you were on pins and needles because this
thing get infected or this could happen and then it might.
It was just it was. It was a nightmare. But
we got worked through. It worked through, And I said, okay.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
How long was that process?

Speaker 7 (36:08):
Four months?

Speaker 5 (36:09):
Four months we.

Speaker 6 (36:09):
Got out of the hospital.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, so and they still hooked up to machines. If
they let us take home, yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
And stuff they trusted y'all.

Speaker 7 (36:17):
Then we were killing We had all.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Our well, we had an in house nurse, but he
didn't like her, so he said he would do it.
Why didn't you like her?

Speaker 6 (36:25):
I don't know a good job like cigarettes, and I
don't know. We got this what you're doing, We got it.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
You know.

Speaker 6 (36:33):
We've been at the hospital for forty days. We figured it.

Speaker 5 (36:36):
Out, like, and you care more than anybody.

Speaker 6 (36:38):
Yeah, I wouldn't let all the refraff coming here and
seeing none of that, I was like, nah, we're shutting
it down.

Speaker 7 (36:42):
We're getting him better because we.

Speaker 6 (36:43):
Got a goal. We got to get back out the
nashye and we got to get this record deal.

Speaker 5 (36:47):
So you still had the eye on the prize. Were
you ready to go to Scott like?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Were you like that?

Speaker 5 (36:51):
It's probably great.

Speaker 7 (36:52):
Motivation saved us, saved us all you knowing that was
on the.

Speaker 5 (36:56):
Because of what what if that wouldn't have been on
the table, you know, that would have been a really
dark no. I mean not that you couldn't find a
glimmer of hope, but the fact that you all had
such a big hope waiting for you.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
It was the biggest hope. That was it.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Hope is everything, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (37:10):
Everything?

Speaker 5 (37:10):
Hope can change your whole life.

Speaker 6 (37:11):
Yeah, got to find it wherever you can find it. Now,
it's been been the key for us. So so we
go and we talked to the label and everybody, I mean,
and thank god. We had great fans, We had a
great family, We had great friends, and people raised money.
They raised like the golf tournaments, people in Nashville, even
the label. They signed guitars and.

Speaker 7 (37:31):
We auctioned them. I mean, it was great. And they
paid the credit card bills that we had to pay and.

Speaker 5 (37:36):
Oh man, that's awesome. Oh yeah, yeah, like your credit
card bills, like because it was insurance not covering it.
Oh my god, we had band bills, everything had so
much debt.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yeah oh yeah, oh my god, luckily I did this
is crazy, like literally two months before got my health insurance.
It might have been it might have been one month before,
because back then, did you get it when.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
You're a young healthy guy.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
I was a logger, so I did a lot of
dangerous work, and I was sitting there going, it's not
worth I'm seriously one hundred and fifty bucks a month.

Speaker 9 (38:16):
But back then that's that's a lot, because it's just
adds to it.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
I was like, well, if I get hurt for one
hundred and fifty bucks, I'm gonna be in big trouble
because I can't afford to get hurt. And uh so
I got it and they told me, okay, whatever. For
whatever reason, it took a twenty thirty days to before
to kick in. Yeah, so I got it on whatever

(38:39):
what it would be, August whatever, it was September fifteenth
that kicked in. Yes, I got shot on September to
twenty first, No you did not. Yeah, six hundred over
six hundred thousand dollars in medical bills.

Speaker 5 (38:56):
Mm hmm, holy cow. I mean not that any telling that.

Speaker 9 (39:00):
Maybe I'm insurance salesman now, but.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
You feel, looking back, you see that any of this
was divine, because like sometimes you can look back and
you can see how something terrible actually was.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
That dead would be on me for life. I mean,
was that way? You know?

Speaker 5 (39:15):
But do you think that that moment changed y'all again
as a band? Though that if y'all wouldn't have had that,
maybe your trajectory would have been different.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
I will say this, I don't think he would have
got when I know he wouldn't have He would have
not gotten the treatment that he got by having insurance
if he didn't have insurance, the extra specialty like the
world back stuff and all that stuff that wasn't upgrade
on it, which we're so thankful for obviously, but.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
It should be.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
You know, did it bring y'all together in a way
that you or we all already so close that this
was just like a deepening that like y'all's bond was
already we.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Brought definitely brought us together even more. Yeah. Yeah, and
then gave us even more drive, I think. And that
was my motivation workout, get back on the drums. That's
all I had to think about.

Speaker 5 (40:02):
Yeah, that's awesome that you had such a goal. Okay,
so you have this goal.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
Four months four months and we were gonna we set
up a showcase here in Nashville, and.

Speaker 5 (40:11):
My got it. After that story, I bet people were
freaking out.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
We kind of kept it under wraps. You did the
news did something, but the Nashville since we're so far
away North Carolina. We just didn't want the label to
know how bad it was.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
You didn't why not. We didn't want him to give
up on anything like.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
This guy, These guys aren't gonna make it. You know.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Really, it's like the most heroic, incredible story of all time.

Speaker 7 (40:35):
Oh yeah yeah.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
But at the time, you're like, you don't want anything
to mess it up. So you're like, okay, we're fine,
We're fine. Okay, so no one really even knew you
just come back out walking.

Speaker 6 (40:43):
Well, there's funny things we'd say. We did the showcase
and and they had to kind of help Scott get
on stage.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Because Scott still couldn't have okay, the drums.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
I had this little foot brace on. I think I
played with it on. Maybe I took it off just
to play.

Speaker 11 (41:00):
I love to stay show. He said, whose thing is Elvis?
Because it looks like somebody with the cape like it.
They did Elvis and putting me back here who this drummer?
Thank you?

Speaker 6 (41:12):
But we had we had our friends that that were
around us a lot that you know, help out with anything,
and they they looked out for us, and uh but
so so we did the showcase and and.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
A bunch of friends came to the showcase.

Speaker 7 (41:24):
It was a celebration.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I realized that people don't ever go to showcase.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Fifty people from North Carolina came.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
Oh my god. Okay, so it was a packed So
the label's feeling great. There's energy are So this is
your first show back, okay pretty much?

Speaker 6 (41:38):
Yeah, yeah, okay, the first live show and we're playing
in Nashville for the record.

Speaker 5 (41:42):
Lots of pressure, lots of pressure.

Speaker 7 (41:44):
Six songs, original.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
Song, your development deal. So is this going to take
it to their full record deal? This is thing is
this is the moment everything hinges.

Speaker 7 (41:53):
Right here, everything hinges.

Speaker 6 (41:55):
And really what it hings on was, you know Bennie
Brown on the label, he's great, great dust, but you know,
he want us to make sure we cut outside songs.
And yeah, so he had this song called My Montgomery
that he really loved and he loved our harmonies. And
we played it that night and he gave us a hug.
He said, your boys passed a test. Give you all record. O.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
God, you guys, this is like an absolute like moment
of all times, Like you're coming out of almost dying,
you're rehabbing, you're playing your first show back. You've been
doing this for all these years, like what fifteen years
at this point. Yeah, yeah, like just like grinding it out.
You get your slimmer of hope. You think it's gonna
go away because you literally almost die and now you

(42:37):
have this goal to work for and it's the biggest
show of your whole life. Talk about a moment. Oh yeah,
did you even know how big this moment wasn't?

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Oh yeah, I have tears in our eyes. Yes, that's
how big it was.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Oh, the story continues.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
That's so good.

Speaker 6 (42:56):
Hold on, yeah, talk about what happened afoord the show.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Yeah, okay, so where were we at? Where we liking
at the We were at the hotel or whatever. We're
me and Matter in the car, my car driving down to.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
The Rutledge for the showcase. Okay, heck yeah, we're like
almost there.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
I think we pull up.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Matt's like, I gotta take a ship.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Really, yeah, I gotta go just go back to the
hotel and we're riffing.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
We're ripping down. You must have been with me somewhere drinking.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
I won't drinking.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yeah, we made it.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
Hers or whatever, but but no, it's even funnier. So
so we get you know, being he tells us, we
get the record deal. Everything's great after right.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
After he told you he didn't make you.

Speaker 6 (44:01):
Wait, got nice and the boys passed it to test.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
That's how he said he boys passed test, get his
record deal.

Speaker 5 (44:08):
On rush to this moment, because this is the moment.
How do you feel like after everything I've been through?
Like he comes up says, you've passed the test. You
are now going to have a major label deal. After everything,
do you just feel like the heaven's open up and
the angels are singing?

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Yes, it felt unreal.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Really, it was like.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Really, this is just what's happening.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
And we were so nervous. Then we just wanted to
see the contract to sign. So that's the next thing,
sign the actual contract.

Speaker 5 (44:39):
We like, I'll sign anything, or did y'all like have
a little believe it when.

Speaker 6 (44:42):
I see it and live today somebody says the songs
are smashed.

Speaker 7 (44:46):
Don't you tell me a song?

Speaker 6 (44:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:48):
I believe it.

Speaker 5 (44:48):
When I see you've seen too much.

Speaker 6 (44:50):
I've seen too much. Even that I believe it when
I see it. We're gonna go to Nashore. It's gonna
be fu great. Well are we you know, it's like
I believe it when I see it.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
And we were waiting to see that paper. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (45:01):
So so then so this is February, right, Okay, moving
into like you know, the next few months. Like we're broke,
Like we don't have any money. We haven't signed a deal.
He's not giving us money. They don't have any jobs
that me and him don't have a job because we
were working a logging job and we got taken off.

Speaker 7 (45:18):
So that's moved on.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
Okay, So that broke.

Speaker 7 (45:20):
We don't play any shows, there's no money income.

Speaker 6 (45:23):
But one night, though I'll never forget it was.

Speaker 7 (45:28):
It was a few months after he told us we
can get a record deal.

Speaker 6 (45:30):
We're back home and as my sister's wedding or something, well,
we're partying.

Speaker 7 (45:34):
We're having a good time. I mean, this is before
we sign up.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
But we were told we were waiting on this piece
of sign contract. We just want a contract.

Speaker 6 (45:42):
You need to proof what we need.

Speaker 7 (45:43):
We need to proof.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
And so we're partying that night and we had a
studio up the street, and everybody's in there jamming and
you know, we're smoking, joke and doing whatever. You know,
we had a good time.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
And uh.

Speaker 6 (45:53):
And I wake up the next morning and I get
a phone call from our producer and I'm hungover ship
party till probably four in the morning. And this is
probably like ten.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
I'm on the We're very excited because you know, we're
on our way to getting this big record deal.

Speaker 6 (46:07):
Yeah, and I get a phone call from Fanning. He's like,
hey man, He's like, oh, no, Barry on something.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I was like what.

Speaker 6 (46:15):
He's like, yes, Barry on something. I was like, nobody
saying own nothing. Like we we already and we you know,
have fun, but nobody's like strung out or nothing. It's
like wow. He's like, well, Ben, he heard some songs
that you guys turned in demo demos and he uh,
you know, he had this one band he was working
with and they went off the rails and he heard
some stuff about uh, addiction and drugs and all this

(46:37):
other stuff that he wants he won't shout if somebody's
owned something.

Speaker 7 (46:40):
I was like, no, nobody's owned nothing. Like dude, work
out like jo. He said, he wants you to come
take a drug.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
Test thirty days or is it like the next day.

Speaker 6 (46:51):
Well, I don't know, clear my ear, I said, I said,
hey man.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
That' said another. This is another big traumatic time.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
You're right there now drugs, I mean, don't support them,
but like you're like, no.

Speaker 7 (47:05):
Well, I mean we've done our share. I mean, trust me.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, we have to be the only band that's ever
been drug testing.

Speaker 8 (47:12):
It freaked the whole staff at the record level out
because they were like, is he gonna start testing us?

Speaker 5 (47:17):
I mean, yeah, what kind of songs are you turning in?

Speaker 4 (47:19):
Barry so about somebody else? As a matter of fact,
it was a song about that I wrote about Uncle Jerry.

Speaker 7 (47:24):
Yeah, damn uncle Jerry.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
I mean it's just a song, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 6 (47:31):
It had some uh what you call them trigger words?
I guess many didn't been particularly like.

Speaker 5 (47:36):
It was pretty. He's pretty like pure and yeah.

Speaker 9 (47:40):
He was a businessman and he had a band you
don't want to band.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
There was a disaster.

Speaker 5 (47:45):
He had a band that edition can ruin everything.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
So that and.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
There was no thirty day waiting period. We had to
come to Nashville.

Speaker 6 (47:53):
Well, I see I need I said, we need at
least a week or two because we're working.

Speaker 7 (47:57):
Because I guess we got one.

Speaker 6 (47:58):
We got some gigs booked, don't We were doing some
hustle work or something.

Speaker 7 (48:03):
But I was like, I need two weeks. So we went.
I mean, imagine the panic.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
What did you like?

Speaker 5 (48:08):
Weed in your system?

Speaker 7 (48:09):
What finding weed in our system?

Speaker 6 (48:11):
We went through all the green juices and every cleanser
you could get anything. We tested before we go.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
We shaved our arm pits.

Speaker 6 (48:20):
I was, I was out there sweating it out. We
had like water gallons. I mean, we did everything we
could and then we finally we got to go.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
So we got we went and got a drug test
from the store so we would test ourselves pretest.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Oh yeah, we do.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
Tests like what if you drink a gallon of water,
will you test positive after that?

Speaker 5 (48:38):
You know, well wheelingers in your urine for like ninety days?

Speaker 3 (48:41):
No, I don't, Oh it does, Okay, what we did.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
I came out.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
I came out lucky because I was only on prescription drugs,
so that was good.

Speaker 9 (48:52):
I got to use the being hurt thing. They were
gonna freaked out.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
We had like whatever and a half hour.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, we had to drive.

Speaker 6 (49:01):
Eleven and Caroline all the way out of Nashville, getting
a hotel in which that night we're all in there.
I'm like, what if he plucks the hair and figures out,
you know, they do all that kind of forensic ship
like that hair follicle, we'll.

Speaker 5 (49:12):
Be hair also bald, like shave it off. There's no
hair in the test.

Speaker 6 (49:18):
They can pluck a hair from your head, you know,
taking straight anyway.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
I can't believe it all now, hinges on this. It's
like it's like right when you get one thing, it's
like here comes a ball right behind it, and y'all
really tested.

Speaker 6 (49:32):
We're freaked out, and so we were like, wonder where
does drug test gonna be? He's gonna send this is
some like high tech lab in Nashville downtown.

Speaker 7 (49:38):
We're freaking out. He sends us to this consenter right
up the street and we go take the piss test
that you do when you're.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Going or something.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Do they do blood test here?

Speaker 6 (49:47):
Just ones, same ones we were taking, you know, the
same one, same one, same exact package and everything, and
so we all passed it.

Speaker 7 (49:56):
We were like we went in there.

Speaker 6 (49:57):
I went in and slammed it on the girl's desk
d up being part of our management team, and she
always told me you were the biggest.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
Ah.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
I was like, do you know what we've been through.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
It's like, here's your drug tests.

Speaker 7 (50:06):
We passed it, give me my record deal.

Speaker 9 (50:09):
And then we really wanted the record deal.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
The piece of Yeah, I can't believe y'all had one
last barrier before, like you got the record deal and
then that of all things, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
I'm telling you, yeah, just over some lyrics and stuff.

Speaker 5 (50:22):
That weren't even about yourself.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Yeah, oh my god.

Speaker 5 (50:36):
Okay, so then what happens? How much longer to y
I'll get the deal?

Speaker 6 (50:39):
July and we were broke, Like I was out there
selling cars and y'all washing cars doing whatever. But that
was that. It took a few months and we finally
would call in every every other week, We're like, hey,
when's this thing ready? When's the same He said, okay,
we'll be ready, like tomorrow's like, we'll be there. So
as soon as they tell us it was gonna be ready,
we all hopped in the truck and we drove all
of us together all the way out here, and finally

(51:00):
it got us thirty five hundred all the signing bonus
to split between.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
Us four thirty five. That was your advance.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, then we used that day.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
Those were the days of like the million dollar advance
and still back then it right before, we.

Speaker 7 (51:13):
Don't owe it, so who cares, you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (51:15):
I mean, you know then that was his money, says
I'm not hating on that, but yeah.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
So that that's when you get publishing deals at the
same time too, or we opt it out.

Speaker 6 (51:24):
You opted out, offered something, but we were like, nah, we'll.

Speaker 5 (51:29):
Just keep it so we know how to be broke
and survivor.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
I was like, it was it was off, it paid off.

Speaker 6 (51:35):
We can go back to North Carolina and make enough
gigs to pay our rent and live not like everybody
else ouse here's living. But we found us a house
out in the country and we hold up and we
rented it from all four of all four of us,
and we and we live broke until we could figure
out how to start making a little bit. And then
next thing you know that that must have had a
good time, got on the highway ended up being a
highway fine, and then all of a sudden it goes

(51:57):
number one for four weeks and we're in a game.
It's like, okay, and we're getting paid, you know, over
five grand a show. Now this is great, and go
people from you are rich?

Speaker 5 (52:06):
Yes, I mean what do you even do with all
that money?

Speaker 6 (52:09):
So that's that's what you know started.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
And just were y'all responsible spending or did y'all to
spend it all when you got it?

Speaker 4 (52:14):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (52:15):
Very respond y'all are budgeting like we got dollars and
we're going to make sure he's last. All that's good.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
And luckily kept our publishing for for all those songs
on that first record, and y'all.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
Have publishing dolls an hour draw publishing about too.

Speaker 7 (52:31):
But I mean I have.

Speaker 5 (52:32):
Negotiate it in a way, Yeah you have.

Speaker 7 (52:35):
I do.

Speaker 6 (52:35):
But yeah, that was just kind of a thing.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
That's very smart of y'all. Not everybody knows that most
people just go and sign their whole life away because
they're so eager to have any kind of.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
First manager that we met the first time in the
bars and worked with him for a couple of years,
he kind of.

Speaker 6 (52:51):
That's awesome, and we signed some some things before and
you know, but like I said, we knew how to live,
knew how to.

Speaker 5 (53:01):
Make a skill set you know how to have credit
card debt. You know how I live broke. It's a
skill set.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
You never forget it either. Oh no, no, no.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
I'm married to my husband. He's got the same skill
set as y'all. I'm like, damn it. It was like
y'all it is. It's a talent.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
I'll tell you a funny story too.

Speaker 8 (53:19):
So when we decided to move out to Nashville, the
only thing we had to move with was that r V.
We still had the r V, so we put all
our stuff in it and drove it all the way
out here. All those bad memories of that r V,
that bad night and everything.

Speaker 5 (53:32):
With the same RV, you couldn't get a new one, right,
so we still have.

Speaker 8 (53:36):
We still had to pay for it. Barry's dad longest money.
We're paying him a loan.

Speaker 5 (53:41):
We're still touring and and stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
And we're not.

Speaker 8 (53:43):
We had it been touring, but it was a way
that we could get all of our gear to Nashville.
And then we found a house on craigslist. We all
lived together. We left the RV. We couldn't couldn't use it.
It was just too many bad memories. Tried to sell
it couldn't get anybody interested, and we're.

Speaker 7 (53:57):
Still one good offer on it.

Speaker 6 (53:59):
You remember the guy it came and offered us like
twenty one for it or something like that.

Speaker 7 (54:04):
We're like, no, we can get more.

Speaker 6 (54:05):
It's not it's worth more in the hands. We were
broke right because we couldn't like, you know, we just
were like, if it's worth twenty five, I'm not taking
less than twenty five for it, you know.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Oh now we're still owed over seventeen grand.

Speaker 10 (54:19):
On it too.

Speaker 8 (54:20):
Yeah, like it was a it was a big expense
that would have but this is crazy. So we're out
here in Nashville and we get a gig somewhere that
takes us out of town for the weekend, and we
come back and this massive tree in the yard has
fallen and crushed the RV in the driveway.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
Did you all have insurance on that?

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (54:37):
Yes, hold on, okay, So we had insurance, We thought
we had insurance. We were not sure we had insurance.
We knew we had paid it, but we were not
sure if we had kept it up.

Speaker 5 (54:47):
So there was that how much is it worth on paper?

Speaker 7 (54:50):
On paper? Like twenty eight grand?

Speaker 5 (54:52):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (54:52):
So this is good old seventeen, So there was like,
you know, like even dollars.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
That's good now.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
So we got it.

Speaker 6 (55:01):
We figured out. I called a guy and he was like, yes,
your insurance is up to date. I don't know how
we were paying to draw what.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
Drafted right some thank you, and then we commenced to
making sure it.

Speaker 6 (55:14):
Was totally If you go look at our must have
had a good time original video on YouTube, you'll see
us doing donuts in the front yard of that thing
and that.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Whole back.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
It was total smash.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
Get what you get for total twenty eight? Okay, so
we didn't.

Speaker 4 (55:31):
We got thirty one grad Yeah, I remember the because
I was I was on the insurance call. But what
we did when the tree fell down on it, like
we gotta we got total of things. Yeah, we got
ratchet straps and strapped around the tree and.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
Do what you gotta do. Listen, it was divine intervention
that that tree fell, and you just got to help
the process to get there.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
The insurance agent.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
Was awesome because he was asking me questions like does
it have this up grade? And I was like yeah,
I think so. He's like, well, if it has that,
it probably has this right absolutely, Yeah, he was like,
well it has the turbo.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, so he gave it a thirty one grand.

Speaker 5 (56:11):
For that thing, so things started looking up.

Speaker 7 (56:13):
Yeah, but we paid the rent for that.

Speaker 6 (56:15):
Year, so that covered some rent, yeah, which was straight
to rent, no messing around something light live out there
for another year.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
Gut wrenching moments. That's the thing with these careers, especially
when you had one like y'all that you started so young.
It's like, yes, y'all are in this part of your
life and we've already been talking in an hour, so
I probably should start trying to wrap this up, which
I want to hear more of your whole story.

Speaker 9 (56:35):
But it's like.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
You know, people like you, guys who have this career, it's, yes,
y'allre in this moment where things are like super popping,
Like you know, everything's so great, Like the momentum is flowing.
You have the record deal, you have five number ones,
like a billion streams, your new album's coming out, new
single Cowgirl, which is so fun. Yes, and like things
are just like feeling great and fun and you're doing

(56:58):
big shows and you're nominated for awards and all these things.

Speaker 7 (57:01):
But it's like, oh no, we didn't get nominated.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
You've never been nominated for awards.

Speaker 6 (57:05):
We didn't get nominated for a Group of the years today.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
Y'all did not get nominated for nominated My shirt snubbed again?
Who got who could not? Who could be nominated? Why
would y'all not be nominated?

Speaker 6 (57:18):
And we don't have to write people voting for so
we don't have a right amount of people.

Speaker 5 (57:22):
All the groups out there because nominy groups have five
number one.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
I don't don't.

Speaker 7 (57:28):
I don't think that matters anymore.

Speaker 6 (57:29):
I don't. I think they changed the rules so it
doesn't have anything to do with radio anymore.

Speaker 7 (57:33):
How can you radio?

Speaker 5 (57:35):
How can you? Shouldn't it be about like how much
airplayer getting and how many tickets you're selling? Like when
you think that would determine Group of the year?

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Probably, I mean, I think it all, it all counts in,
But it also determines how many people you got on
your voting payroll or your voting.

Speaker 5 (57:49):
Ta you know, does this hurt your feelings or push.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
You off motivation?

Speaker 6 (57:53):
Motivated?

Speaker 3 (57:53):
Don't bother me at all?

Speaker 5 (57:54):
No, you're not sure. It's just for fun.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
Somebody bought the shirt and they were like, you should
wear it?

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Yeah, I wore it last time we got snub from
the ACMs. Today I wore it again and I had
Matt Wright again up there, So why not?

Speaker 6 (58:09):
I think the only time we got nominated for a
group of years was in twenty.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
Fifteen when I first came out with Carolina.

Speaker 7 (58:15):
No, that was that was when when Roots came out.

Speaker 6 (58:17):
Before that was two years after Carolina Ever said you've.

Speaker 5 (58:19):
Had number one, you'll have never been nominated. I'm actually shocked.

Speaker 7 (58:22):
We had two of the biggest songs of the year
most played.

Speaker 5 (58:24):
On Bill, Like twenty twenty three was the biggest, right in.

Speaker 6 (58:27):
Just the way, and then we had Girl of Mine,
Gonna Lovey, Take My Name all that.

Speaker 5 (58:32):
Yeah, yeah, So what I when you when that happens
are what do you do in your brain with that information?
Because like, obviously you know you deserve it, and I'm
sure you see other people and you like just comparing,
You're like, man, okay, if we're like going statstat here,
this doesn't make a lot of sense probably on some scenarios,
how do you handle that?

Speaker 4 (58:50):
Like, because it's exactly how our whole career has never been.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
It's not surprised, you know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (58:58):
Yeah, And I guess that is what preps you for
these kind of things. Like even though you would you
love the success and the accolades, clearly that's not why
y'all are doing it.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (59:07):
Yeah, I love doing what we do and love touring
and just being out on the road.

Speaker 5 (59:13):
Okay, so fell in love with the Cowgirl that tour starting.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
It's done, It's done.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
I thought you were starting a second leg of it.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
We are.

Speaker 7 (59:19):
Oh yeah, well yeah, I guess that is.

Speaker 6 (59:21):
We kick it off yet is it not the same? Yeah,
it's not the same tour, like because we had Avery
out with us and Dylan, but we're going to continue
that throughout the year.

Speaker 7 (59:29):
Everything we do.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
Have y'all done a lot of headlining tours for.

Speaker 6 (59:32):
A while now, is this one we've We've always done
headlining tours, I mean pretty much. Well, we always do
our own thing, you know, whether it's a tour or not.
Like not, not a whole lot of headlining.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Just we've never been off tour.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
Yeah, y'all get on tour with other people. Y'all do
major tours with other people.

Speaker 6 (59:49):
Last year, Oh and train Train that was cool.

Speaker 5 (59:52):
I thought you kind of look like train do people?

Speaker 4 (59:54):
Tell me?

Speaker 5 (59:55):
Yeah? Do y'all do you get that?

Speaker 1 (59:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (59:58):
It might be the hair. He sings actually higher than me,
which is crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
Was that fun?

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
Is my all time favorite song of all times in
the whole world.

Speaker 7 (01:00:09):
We do that every night.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Yeah, Yeah, we play that song in our set. He
that might be how we got the gig, Yeah, train gig?

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Really what kind of what is it like? What is
it like when you tour something like that? Who's like
just so kind of a different world.

Speaker 6 (01:00:24):
I love it, and you know what, it's it's a
world that we fit in.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
I feel like too if we were doing like performance
arts centers and places that we wantn't normally play, but
it was we fit in.

Speaker 7 (01:00:33):
It was right. You know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:34):
It's just that eye opening thing. There's so many different
venues and so many different audiences for everybody, and it's
really was eye opening to see and those guys just
jammed every night. It was just awesome and you're hearing
all the songs. And he brought me up to sing
hold on loosely about thirty eight Special, which was one
of my favorite songs. And it's just cool man like
just being a part of it. So, you know, like

(01:00:58):
I said, drops of Jupiter is one of the songs
that as a band like, damn, we got a right one.

Speaker 7 (01:01:05):
We need we need one of those still.

Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
Oh yeah, that's like the song of your lifetime.

Speaker 6 (01:01:11):
Yeah yeah, And it's not their biggest one at the show,
believe or not really massive, but yeah, that was really cool.
Going out with Cane last year was cool. We went
out with Walker Hayes for a little.

Speaker 7 (01:01:23):
Tour with him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
I love him jad back in the day and back
in the day, y'all.

Speaker 5 (01:01:31):
Just gonna do this forever.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Just let it rolling stones this thing on out.

Speaker 5 (01:01:36):
That's just keep going and going and just let it
all happen. I love that, like because like it's all happening,
but it's just all happening. It's like you're just letting
it all be what it is. You're never gonna quit
do y'all. How do y'all work in like romantic relationships?
Because you just got married? Yeah, anyone else married?

Speaker 6 (01:01:54):
Matt?

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
You're still single, right, Matt? Who's the one?

Speaker 6 (01:01:58):
What are we looking for? I don't know. I mean
it's tough.

Speaker 5 (01:02:02):
It is tough because not only they have to marry you,
they have to be with all of y'all. Oh, yeah,
it doesn't work with the band. I mean, it's really
not going to work out.

Speaker 9 (01:02:09):
Oh, Josh and Daniel, she's always like, she gets.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
So you're married to the band, you have to yeah,
all four of them.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
Yeah, but I mean it really is like if your
significant other can't like jive with y'all's lifestyle.

Speaker 9 (01:02:24):
It takes a certain type of person.

Speaker 5 (01:02:26):
It is. I've been a band wife now for like
fifteen years, and it's like we are all married, so married,
and one of them just got divorced and I'm like,
we all just got divorced, and we all have kids
and we're like we're all raising these kids. It is
like it is a special group. It is a it
is a magical thing, but it is like a special person. Okay,
so we're just waiting, Matt, are you wait? Y'all all

(01:02:48):
took me up.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
I'm married, I'm done.

Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
You're married.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
No, I'm not anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Okay, so you've gone, you've done soon anymore?

Speaker 5 (01:02:57):
Yeah, Okay, I mean that's work. I know, you know,
it's it's brutal out there. I experienced my first divorce
or first manned family divorce, and it is like, oh
my god, I didn't realize how awful it is. But
are you feeling like you're getting on the other side
of it?

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Oh, it's some of the best days of my life.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
Okay, well, I did know awful for us, but he's
getting on.

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
I did know. Joll's album is kind of split, like
y'all have some true love songs, but then you also
have some like I can see the jaxxaposition we got
going on here, and then you're just waiting Matt waiting.
Who are we waiting for?

Speaker 7 (01:03:32):
I don't know. I'll know when I find her.

Speaker 9 (01:03:33):
Okay, Okay, he's got to find him.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
That's just what happens.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
Okay. Does anybody have kids?

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
I do, like a four year old boy. Oh, he's awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
I have a five year old daughter. It's like the
greatest Yeah. Okay, Well, I'm going to wrap up. I
always wrap up with and can y'all stick around. I've
already talked on ourco stick around for ten more minutes
to do like a little tiny bonus episodes? Yeah, okay,
you like, please get me out of hearing. We don't
want to talk about this.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
Okay, day long.

Speaker 6 (01:04:03):
It's a long story. It's a long podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
I know.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
Well, Okay, just tell me a little bit about the
new album before we wrap up. Tell me what we're
excited about, how this is different, how we love it.

Speaker 7 (01:04:11):
I mean, it's fun.

Speaker 5 (01:04:12):
It is fun.

Speaker 7 (01:04:13):
Yeah, we wanted to have some fun with it.

Speaker 6 (01:04:14):
And we you know, with fell in Love to Cowgirl,
it's just like that's we had that song, and like
we got to come out of gate with this and
and name the tour of that and the other songs.
We kind of got into the breakup thing a little bit,
but we also wanted to do I want to make
sure we nodded our head to to like just away
take my Name, Girl of Mine vibes, we have a
song for that, and you know, we had like five

(01:04:36):
songs for each each like place and then we all
wheedled them down or like, let's just do seven.

Speaker 7 (01:04:42):
It's not bombard everybody with thirty songs, like sounds just
seven Lucky.

Speaker 6 (01:04:49):
I'm here for trying to wear everybody out, you know what.

Speaker 5 (01:04:52):
I kind of appreciate that. When I got y'alls album,
I was kind of excited for someven because you know,
you always want to hear album, but it's kind of
like when you get a big one you're like, okay,
I need a gear up. Yeah, they're all great, Like
every single one is great.

Speaker 7 (01:05:04):
Thank you, Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:05):
Okay, So Lucky seven, is this all's favorite one yet?

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Yeah, we're pretty excited.

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
I'll think that this was my favorite one, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Yeah, well true for all of them.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
We love just excited about what's very excited.

Speaker 5 (01:05:20):
Birds here and looking on the horizons, y'all look on
the horizon. Y'all make big plans or y'all just roll,
kind of just roll.

Speaker 6 (01:05:28):
I think we kind of just roll with it, you know,
we may I mean, obviously have goals and plans. What
are some goals, you know, obviously like to tour and
just just you know, stepping it up from from this
kind of venue to this kind of venue.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
To sell more tickets and yeahs been the same one
since ago.

Speaker 6 (01:05:48):
Yes, And to have more uh songs that connect with
the fans that makes the show way more fun. That
kind of thing, and just be happy doing what you do,
enjoy yourself and you know, don't think about all the
struggles you went to to get hear, just try to
enjoy what you were fighting for all those years.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
It makes a beautiful story, It really does like y'all.
Story is really amazing. It's really profound, and it is
really unique. And I hope y'all know how rare and
exceptional you guys are to have stayed together, to have
gone through all these things, to weather to all the storms.
I mean, it's a brotherhood like no other, truly.

Speaker 6 (01:06:24):
It's a good title.

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
There you go, you can have it. Yeah, it's all yours.
You can take it. Hey, my pleasure. I'm glad I
can contribute something I always wrap up with Leave your Light,
And it's super and open ended. It's just basically drops
some wisdom. What do you want people to know? Some inspiration?

Speaker 6 (01:06:42):
M If you put your mind to something and you
work hard at it, you can achieve it. It's not guaranteed,
but you can. You can achieve what is considered you know,
zero chance at a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Yeah, I think, and get in the game and work hard.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
Preach I feel you on that.

Speaker 6 (01:07:11):
Yeah, yeah, but try to work on the right things.
Spend so much time wasted on just the wrong things,
but you didn't know learn like you're like I spend
all his time.

Speaker 7 (01:07:22):
This demo and the song is just sitting here.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Like people always tell you, enjoy the moment, and you
have to keep telling yourself, enjoy the moment and joy
where you're at. Enjoy And I just keep saying that
my head. Enjoy the moment. You have to keep saying
because you're worried about this, and you're worried about that,
and everybody else is too. We're all worried about.

Speaker 5 (01:07:39):
None of it matters ultimately, Just like, stop.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
And enjoy where you're at.

Speaker 6 (01:07:43):
Right, get some cocktails right now that Yeah, I'm thinking,
enjoy your moment.

Speaker 5 (01:07:47):
What I'm saying, it's a good moment right here downtown.
I think you should, y'all should go have a little
celebration of life. You got anything for us, You're gonna
wrap us up.

Speaker 8 (01:07:56):
What I've learned with my journey with these guys. If
you do something long enough, then that's what you do.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
Thank you, dad.

Speaker 9 (01:08:10):
Amazing?

Speaker 7 (01:08:11):
Oh my god, what's the other one?

Speaker 6 (01:08:12):
Your mom told you the best one of all?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Uh? I don't remember. You get what you get what
you get and you don't fuss a bit.

Speaker 5 (01:08:22):
That's amazing, doesn't y'all? Tell y'all just keep trucking, keep.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Keep plugging. That's like training along. Just keep it going.

Speaker 9 (01:08:31):
I mean, whatever you're doing, slow and steady.

Speaker 6 (01:08:33):
We'd always ask him, what do you think we should do?
You know he was a weekend player and worked in logging.
Was he just keep what you're doing, keep doing what
you're doing. Boys, keep doing, keep doing what you're doing,
keep plugging.

Speaker 7 (01:08:45):
Just keep on plugging, Just keep on plugging.

Speaker 5 (01:08:47):
I mean it's pretty basic, but it really sums it up.

Speaker 7 (01:08:49):
Yea, I love it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
Thank you for coming in. I know you have a
lot to do. Okay, and y'all don't forget we're gonna
have They're gonna answer some very intimate questions and it's
gonna be bout this episode on Thursday, So get excited, okay,
A specu