August 21, 2023 • 35 mins
Danae Hays (@Danae.Hays) sits down with Brooke Taylor for a conversation about life! They remenisce on growing up in a simpler world and why you shouldn't give into A.I. (artificial intelligence). Danae also opens up about meeting Tim McGraw and the viral video of it happening at his album release party. She also chats about her country comedy songs, including Rode Hard, who we can expect to hear collabortations from in the near future and so much more.
Grab a drink, let's go backstage!
Follow on Instagram: @BackstageWBrooke
Grab a drink, let's go backstage!
Follow on Instagram: @BackstageWBrooke
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Daly. Let's do it. Let'sdo it backstage. Welcome to the backstage
with Brook. You're all access passto music City, where nothing is off
limits. Grab a drink, let'sgo backstage. Heys in the building,
y'all. I gotta say, youget a great radio voice. Oh gosh,
(00:20):
thank you do it sounds good,it was smooth, it was nice.
Listen. Everybody's like, do yourradio voice, and I'm like,
this, this is it. Thisis me, y'all. God just bless
you with the perfect voice. No, if you if you want me to
be really honest with you. Rewindmyself like twelve years ago when I first
started in radio embarrassing, Like soI feel when I look at like Facebook
(00:42):
posts I made back in twenty andI'm like, hang, y'aut or tap,
I'm like, did I really soundlike though? And my thing too,
is like you know, kids thesedays thrive off of social media.
It's like their lives, which obviouslyit's like, you know, it's our
lives too, But being that youngand like seeing other people do things and
like having to critique myself, Iguess did Thank god. My parents were
(01:06):
like, you're not getting Facebook untilyou're I think I was. I want
to say, I was seventeen whenI got it. My parents were like
really, especially my dad. Hewas like, you were not going to
be on social media where I don'tknow who you're talking to. Yes,
I dude. I saw this girlthe other day. She was six.
She had an iPhone and then Iwas watching her make TikTok dances. So
(01:26):
I walked over to her and Iwas like talking to her as if she
was six. I was like,Hey, is that your TikTok account?
And she was like, yeah,you want to do a dance with me?
I was like six during and thenshe showed me six years old.
And then she showed me a videothat she had on her phone where she
was doing it get ready with meand putting makeup on her Yes, okay,
So I don't know why. Youknow how the four you page on
(01:47):
TikTok does whatever it wants to doevery once in a while. Yeah,
for some reason, it's like teenagersgetting ready for their first day of high
school, and I'm like, whyam I seeing this? Like? Why
are these on my page? Notget ready for my freshman year of high
school? Consistent of chapstick a sportsbra. Yes, and some ashes mine.
I remember I had this this Tshirt because I played softball grown up
too. I it was softball islife, The rest is just details,
(02:10):
and it was like a big softball. I wore that thing until it started
ripping holes and it was softball islike the rust is just details. Was
eat, breathe sleep. Yes,I had one of those. I had
volleyball ones. Man. It's justlike if you the fashion they get Ready
with Me videos back in the daywould have just been like, hey,
I got this at Goodwill, hollerat me. That was so fun.
(02:35):
Though. You'd go to Goodwill andfind like a funny, quirky shirt that
like you could wear that was originaland it was twenty five cents yep,
because it was disgusting. Well,and nowadays too, I feel like it's
such a weird dynamic because these Isay kids, but these young adults,
Yeah, there's so much pressure onthem to feel like they have to have
an expensive bag or they have tohave this because so and so was getting
(02:58):
this on the social media, andit's just like, I'm so glad we
got to be kids, amen,you know, and got to like actually
have like the ugly phase and likegrow up because the glow up for these
kids. Now, I'm like,where are you gonna go? You're already
really awesome and like focus on justlike playing outside. I mean, like
(03:19):
maybe this sounds weird, but likeI love just being outside all the way
up until, like all through highschool, like going outside, playing basketball
with your friends, being disconnected fromthe social media world. It is scary
though, because it's like social mediais starting to become people's reality, and
reality is becoming a small piece oftheir life, which is a scary concept
to think about. Well, andwe were just talking about AI, and
(03:42):
I feel like like melts together withthat, like what the world is like?
Not the world anymore. It's weird, dude, It's a bunch of
damn robots. Yeah, Like wewere just talking about though. I think
you know, if you give into AI now because it helps make your
like we're talking about this, ifit helps make your job easier, now,
you're gonna be the first person tolose your job because AI only learns
(04:02):
and get smarter and smarter and smarter. So if you give it any piece
of your of your career path,even if it's a small piece, is
editing your your videos yea. Eventuallyit's gonna learn more than you know because
AI's smarter than we are and it'sgonna overtake you. Which that's a whole
another episode. Like, but freak. All I can say is, do
not give in to AI. Imean, listen, I'm not on board.
(04:24):
There's so many people in the industrythat use it for editing videos or
you know, audio clips and stufflike that, and I'm like, Okay,
maybe I'm wasting my time, butlike, at least I know that
I'm secure and like my amen workand job because I don't want it to
learn my stuff. Amen, dude, Like we can talk. You can
talk about that for four hours.I'm very passionate about anti AI, but
(04:46):
maybe I'm an anti AI, Karen. You know, I mean this is
this could be a whole new personalityin Dnay stand up, Okay, don't
give me started. I would Icould do a whole hour segment. How
bad. I'm just telling it freaksme out, dude, Okay, that's
all I'm gonna say. It freaksme out. We are both in here
like sweating thinking about robots taking ourjobs. Just stay where you are.
(05:10):
Yeah, I just don't don't comeover here, amen anyway, Okay,
I want to talk to you aboutthis video of you meeting Tim McGraw,
because when I tell you that,you had me cackling, because did he
know was he in on this orwas he a little He wasn't here?
Was it on a little bit?He didn't. He just said, Hey,
I know we're gonna make a videotogether. What's it about? And
I go, well, it's afunny video, and I don't think it'd
(05:30):
be funny if I tell you whatit's about. I said, but if
at any part of the video itmakes you uncomfortable, we'll just cut and
we'll do a different idea. Hewas like, oh, it'll be hard
to make me uncomfortable. Perfect.Let me tell you this though. Oh
gay, I am as gay asgay comes like. I've never looked at
it like this is so funny,even as a kid. I've never looked
at a man and thought, damn, I'd like to climb him like a
(05:55):
tree. I was so embarrassed bythose feelings because it was like a straight
awakening. For like fifteen minutes,I shook straight. I told Mandy,
I go, Mandy's my wife.I go, Mandy, I've never felt
that way, but that was themost attractive man I've ever seen. It
was Tim mccrawl is not real inmy opinion, So so my blood for
(06:20):
Tim mcgrawl runs deep. Okay,my grandma was obsessed with him, like
barbecue standing on my white T shirt, Like that was Nanny's jam. I
like it, I love it.That was her favorite song. So growing
up, like since I was likefour, Tim mcgrawl was in my vocabulary,
okay, like I knew this manand watching his like the glow up
(06:40):
of Tim He's I can't even putit into words, girl, I'll put
him into words for you. Whenhe walked in the room and I saw
him for the first time because sowe went out to LA for his album
release party, yeah, and hewas doing a lot of press before the
release party, so we were gettingto you know, watch him do interviews
and stuff, and so he walksin and I just looked at him,
(07:01):
and I was like, in myhead, I was like, damn,
that's a good looking man, Likehe just takes care of himself. But
like Mandy and I were talking aboutit. We were walking back to our
hotel after his show, and Iwas like, I think the reason I
think he's so good looking is becausehe has the perfect balance of masculinity with
(07:25):
femininity, and it is like insane. Mandy calls it polarity. I love
that word whenever in my head.But she's like, it's polarity today,
and I'm like, okay, well, whatever it is, it's a beautiful
balance where he's a great listener.Okay, sorry, man, hate to
break it to you, but there'sa lot of men out there that just
cannot fucking listen. Tim is lookingat you in your eyes, and he's
(07:48):
asking questions and he like genuinely cares. He asked Mandy and I how long
we've been married. How Just avery like carrying man. Yeah. But
Lenny also has that look about himwhere it's like, if you were to
say something nasty about fate, Iwill, yeah, I will, but
you know what I mean, Like, it's just a beautiful balance. And
(08:09):
I think a lot of men arescared to lean into that femininity to but
it's it's a beautiful thing when youcan do both. It is. And
I'll speak to that because my husband, when I first met him, he
had like, you know, thesebaggy like jeans he's had for twelve years,
Like he's can't fit in them,and all his friends are like,
man, skinny jeans are like itright now, and he's like, oh
never. We were dating for fourmonths and I got him in a pair
(08:31):
of skinny jeans and I'm like,see there's He's like they're kind of grout
and I'm like, yeah, seethey're great. You gotta lean into that.
Okay, it looks good. Showon the booty. Absolutely, Tim
does a good job. All Right, I'm gonna stop. We could go
on and on. He's also likea phenomenal showman, so like on a
professional level, I'll be a professionalOkay, now, sorry about that.
(08:54):
Sorry, Tim, if you're watchingthis, I took it to a different
level, but on a showmanship hisstage presence, yeah, and his voice,
Like I feel like, if you'vebeen in the business as long as
he has singing as much as he'ssung, like, eventually you tarnish your
vocal cords a little bit. Butthat man must be doing all the right
things. He is, and he'sjust kind. He's kind of you know,
(09:16):
he's just a kind guy. AndI feel like the first time that
I interviewed him, I was nervousas I'll get out because it's tim a
crawl right like. And I wasI don't know. It was a couple
of years into my career, andI was just like, Okay, this
is cool, this is my thisis my moment. My Grandma's up and
heaven watching this, Like let memake sure this is good. And he
like just like props his foot up, puts his and he's just like leans
into the interview, and I'm justlike, okay, man like so sweet,
(09:37):
so sweet, likes just a dolland a phenomen like so multi talented.
He's he's just as good as asan actor as he is a singer.
Yes, and that's that's amazing.That's a huge thing to do.
He does it all anyway. Countrymusic is your new venture of life.
Kind of country comedy. Yeah,it's like country music. Have you been
(09:58):
a country music fan your whole life? Or countries all I listened to growing
up? Well, I say allcountry was always on the radio. I
was really lucky because my dad wasa huge musical influence in my life.
He loves music. The man islike an open encyclopedia when it comes to
like what year a song came outor lyrics and he loves all genres.
(10:22):
But being that I grew up inthe middle of nowhere, Alabama, country
was a way of life. Butit was also what we listened to because
it's just you know, it's storytelling. So you listen to a song about
working hard and wiping your brow andgoing home to dinner, and you're in
the middle of doing that Monday throughFriday. It's your job. So I
always listen to country music. Iloved listening to Verne Godston, Vince Gill,
(10:48):
Conway Twitty, my dad just thoseare like the big three that my
dad always had one, especially withcassette players and DVD or CD soap players.
Man, we're old, we're gettingall new just hit thirties. So
oh I'm four years ahead, wellfive years ahead of you. Dang it.
I'm old d thirties or thirties orthe new twenties. But I'm telling
(11:09):
you everybody, like everybody gets scaredof it. They're like, oh,
I don't I'm my mid thirties andI'm like, dude, I'm having fun,
Like this is the best time inmy life. Yeah, because you
finally found your partner who you wantto settle down with, Like you got
money in the bank, you havea quick career that you know that you
that you're actually excited to pursue.Twenties are hard. You got no money,
you got no person at home supportingyou, ye, and you really
(11:30):
don't know what the fuck you wantto do with it. Really is like
that weird moment where you're in lifeand you know you you grow up wanting
to grow up, which is theweirdest thing ever, where you're just like,
I just want to be older.I want to be eighteen so I
can, you know, buy cigarettes. I want to be twenty one,
so I go to the bar.I want to do this. And then
you get to your mid twenties andyou're like, so rents expensive, you
know, Yeah, you're you're likeworking to live, whereas I feel like
(11:54):
now you're you're living and you don'tmind working because you found what you like
to do. Yeah, that's sotrue. All right, we I want
to talk about your country comedy situation. Yeah, just a minute, but
I want to kind of go backto those roots you're talking about growing up
in Alabama and just kind of youknow, you're submersed into like southern roots
and lifestyle and your your story withMandy and how you guys met. I
(12:15):
was like, I know, sortof your guy's story, but maybe somebody
who listening, who's listening, tellus how you guys met and your guy's
a story. It's so funny wheneverI think about like fate and destiny,
which ten years ago I would havethought that was so cheesy, like,
yeah, oh, she's my soulmate, but she is. Though you
guys are the best. But now, like I truly believe, like I
(12:37):
really do believe that when God's creatingyou, he has a partner in mind.
And I just, without a doubt, Mandy's Mandy's that for me.
She is, uh, she's mykickstand. She props me up and anything
you see about me like that,what I'm doing, it doesn't happen without
Mandy. But no, we meton Instagram and it was funny because I
(13:00):
was living in Alabama, my hometownselling real estate. My mom was a
is a real estate agent. Mydad was always around the real estate game,
and I grew up in a townof thirteen hundred people, went to
the same high school that my grandparentsgraduated from. I used to sit under
my dad's graduation picture in the lunchroom because they all had their picture,
which is so funny. That's howsmall it is when you have a picture
(13:22):
in the lunch room. Yeah.But man, he was living out in
southern California, which is where she'sfrom, and I saw her on Instagram.
She just popped up one day andI was like, something so special
about this picture that I'm looking at, and so I followed her and she
she didn't follow me back, Solike a month later, I was like,
I know, I was like inall of her stuff, she just
(13:43):
didn't seem interested. So I unfollowedher. She didn't show me any time
a day, so I was like, this is weird that I'm liking this
girl's stuff. So I'm just gonnalike unfollow her because and just like exit
quietly. Yeah you know, yeah, just leave. Then the universe put
her picture back in front of melike a month later, and I saw
it. I followed her again,and then she followed me back. Let's
go. So I was like,we in it. I had no idea
(14:05):
if she was gay ORed on it. Yeah, but she played colored softball,
so there was like a seventy percent, which is so funny because I
remember growing up playing softball, andmy dad would always be like, make
sure that's where you want to go, and always like what are you talking
about that? And then like youget to college and you're like, oh,
yeah, no, I would say, like I would say there's for
(14:26):
sure. I don't want to sayseventy percent. I would say at least
fifty percent. Like it's like halfmy half my college team we're gay,
so it's like there's there's a bigchance. So when it was, we
just started talking on Instagram and onething led to another and she came and
visited me in Alabama for a weekendand I literally knew that weekend that's awesome.
(14:48):
I was gonna come out. Iwas still in the closet. Okay,
I was like I'm gonna come out. Yeah, I'm this girl is
worth risking it all for. Andit turned out to be the greatest thing
I've ever done. So I can'timagine, like that conversation with family and
friends and people that you grow you'vegrown up with has got to be like
the hardest and it shouldn't be,but it shouldn't be, but it is,
especially in the culture that I wasraised in. Right, So yeah,
(15:11):
no, I've definitely lost relationships andit's been tough. But I also
believe that when somebody chooses to leaveyour life based off of us, based
off it is just who you you'rein love with. Yeah, obviously,
I think we can all agree thatit's pretty shallow, but I also believe
that when somebody leaves again it's avery cliche, but when room is made,
(15:33):
something better is able to come in. Yes, And I know that
if I was still in the closetbut also trying to have a relationship with
Mandy, our relationship would eventually reacha stopping point because you can only grow
in the shade, right, youknow, you can only grow so much
in the shade, Like you gottaget out in the sunshine, and you
gotta put yourself out in some vulnerablesituations to to do well. I forget
who said it, but somebody saidthat. I heard once. You have
(15:56):
people in your life that are therefor a reason, a season and then
life first, and it's just likethere's three categories where it's like, yeah,
they were in your life for areason in the beginning and then had
to you know, come to anend. But like you said, you're
making room for growth and I justI love that you have that perspective.
I will say this, the supportfar outweghs the few people that are no
longer in my life. So forlike the younger generation that's listening, or
(16:19):
somebody that's already just listening and isafraid to pursue whatever it is they're trying
to pursue because they're afraid of losingsomething, just know that what you gain
is tenfold of what you lose.Totally, I do it a thousand times
over again the exact same way thatI did it if it meant being in
a relationship with my partner Mandy andhaving the career and the life that I
(16:41):
have now. And here's the thingI always tell people, like we are
called in this life to love Godand love people, and like that's not
hard to do. And I alwayslike I've played like this little bit.
I feel like I would want toput it in a comedy show. But
it's like, do we really thinkat the end of the day, when
we choose not to love somebody unconditionally, that we're gonna get to the pearly
(17:06):
gates of heaven and God's gonna lookat us and he's gonna say so how
many people did you ostracize in orderto get here? And they're gonna go,
well, all the homosexuals, that'sfor sure, and God looks at
him and goes, well done.You know, I mean, like,
well done, my good and faithfulservant, you know what I mean.
And I'm a Christian. That's anotherthing that like, I get questions about
(17:29):
my faith and my spirituality all thetime because people think you can only have
one or the other, and that'sso not true, and I'm like,
it's just not. In fact,my relationship with God has gotten I use
the word colorful, a lot morecolorful and more vibrant now than when I
was in the closet, because howin the world are you supposed to worship
your higher power when you're full ofshame and fearfulness? And a quote that
(17:55):
I listened to this quote on likea Sunday and on Monday I came out
and the quote was nothing rooted infear comes from God. Yeah, so
when you can get to the placeof saying like, nothing that I'm afraid
of that's not from God, that'sfrom outside sources. Yeah, that was
back in twenty eighteen, heard that, and I was like, well,
all right, we'll see you laterexactly well, and I hate it too
(18:18):
because I feel like faith and youknow, any type of personal decision is
such a personal thing with you anda creator, right, like what you
and what you do. And soit's like if Karen's over here, you
know, hurting people are like cussinor you know, doing whatever the sin
is. It's like, what whatshe's doing, that's for her? And
(18:40):
you know what I mean, Yeah, that's it's nobody else's business. Amen,
And like it's not like I'm askingpeople to come in and like watch
me make out with my wife.No, I'm like, this is my
wife that whom I love dearly.We are respectful citizens, we pay our
taxes, we love people, We'rekind of people. I say, yes,
ma'am, No, ma'am. I'mas patriot at as they come.
Yeah, but you just don't likethe fact that I chose to marry a
(19:03):
woman and not a man. It'slike, dude, I can't. And
that's another thing, Brooke, isI don't want people shoving ship down my
face. So I'm not forcing peopleto accept me. Yeah, you don't
have to accept me, just respectme. That's it. Period. That's
it. Just respect because there's alot of a lot of things that people
do in our society. Our society'sfucked up, but there's a lot of
things that people do that that Ido not accept and I don't like.
(19:27):
But I'm not going to revolt againstI'm just gonna respect them and choose to
live my life the way that Iwant to live. Right, And I
feel like everything's so black and whitethese days, where it's like, oh,
you're a Democrat, well I hateyou. Oh you're a Republican,
well you must hate me. Andit's just like there's so much hate in
the world. And like I said, like, just love people. It's
not hard to not be an asshole. Yeah. Just again, like it
(19:48):
just goes back to the fundamental principleand respect people. Yeah. Respect,
Okay, just turn out, Franklinand let's just have a day. Okay,
Well I want to that's a goodtransition and talking about your hot wife,
because I want to play this clipto get road hard and put every
time. We were just talking aboutyour grandma and how you had to have
(20:11):
this conversation with a family member becauseshe really thinks it's about a boat.
Yeah, shout out to Grandma.Grandma, I played it for one time
in the truck. It was thedemo before I got ready to release it,
and I was like, Grandma,first of all, I just want
you to know then, I'm puttingout a country comedy album. She goes,
you can sing. I said,well, I don't know if I
(20:32):
can sing good, but I'm puttingit out doing it, and she's like,
well, you got any songs Icould listen to? So I said,
yeah, check this one out.So I played road Hard. Yeah,
And when it got to the partwhere it was like the Booies word
bounds and I was uping and downand she was like Booies and I was
like, yep, Booies. Butyeah. No, she got a She
(20:53):
got a phone call from her sister, and her sister was like, you
know, didn't I put out aprovoct and my grandmother, you want to
talk about going to war? Mygrandmother's like, it's about about baby,
and I was like, hmm,thank you, Grandma. I don't know
it's about don't no, I don'tknow. You had to listen to it
(21:15):
to figure it out. I guess, well, I just love that you're
unto entering this space because I feellike there's a couple of people that kind
of like do the comedy songs andstuff, but your perspective and just you're
already funny as hell, Like yougo into your social media and there's no
chance that you're not laughing, right, So you doing this like coming into
like I guess my world of youknow, the side of things country music
(21:38):
and just being hilarious and funny.I cannot wait for your first live show,
Like I don't even know if that'sin the works yet. It is
about it is in the works.Yeah, We so some really big I
can't really get into all the logisticsyet. We're still negotiations with everything,
but some really cool things are happeningright now. That's gonna allow me to
(22:00):
go on tour. We're doing what'scalled a one woman show, and so
all those characters that you see onmy social media, they're gonna be in
the show. So it's gonna beDenay, it's gonna be Sharon Jean,
my southern alter ego. It's goingto be Karen the HLA President what a
queen? Yeah, or Immicate Gracethe girl that's Russian at Bama, who's
a freshman. So all these charactersare going to be in the show.
(22:22):
And the reason I want to writethis album is because I'm a big storyteller.
That's mostly my comedy. Yeah,I'm not a stand up comic.
I never claimed to be. It'sa lot of storytelling and long format of
that. And then once I getdone with a story, I'll be able
to go right into song and thatsong is going to match what that story
was about. So some songs arenot based off of stories that are going
(22:45):
to go into the show, andothers are. But yeah, I can't
wait for you to come to alive show. It's gonna be it's gonna
be gonna be so fun. Sowhen you're in you know mode of like
you know, creating a song asopposed to you know, just spewing off
the head like on a video onInstagram or TikTok, what is is that
like such a weird different process foryou or did you find it was like
an easy transition? I think theformat, Like I going into songwriting,
(23:11):
I had no idea what how itlooked like. Verse one, then pre
course, then chorus, then versetwo, rush, then the bridge,
then the outro. So that wasthe biggest hurdle just because I was trying
to learn the lingo in the songwritesyeah, I'm by no means a professional
now, But now I understand atleast the format of what a song looks
(23:33):
like. But the thing that's beenpretty easy is thinking of a story that
I gravitate too, and then takingit to my friends who are songwriter.
Isn't us all sitting down and comingup with a song based off of that
story? So that part seems prettyeasy to transition to and really really fun
because it's like, hey, thislike Okay, for instance, we wrote
(23:53):
a song. This girl comes upto me at a party at at a
girls house that you'd know. Butwe're at this party and I walk in
the door, haven't met anybody yet, and this girl just bombards me and
she goes, are you denied fromTikTok? And I talked like this because
this is this girl was from Kentucky, Okay, East drink Kentucky, And
(24:14):
I said I am. I said, I'm Denay. She goes, my
name is Kansas and I'm from Kentuckyand I went, well, hey,
Kansas from Kentucky. So we getto talking and uh, I'm still trying
to make my way through the entryway to meet everybody, and she's she's
still there, and we're having agreat conversation until I say, I noticed
you have some camo on. You'vebeen hunting. And she looked at me
(24:37):
and she said, well, Iwouldn't say what me and my boyfriend were
doing out in the woods was hunting. And I go, me be in
the dumb media, I go,what were y'all doing? Shouldn't I ask
that out? Oh? No,she told me. So. We wrote
a song called Waiting on a Buckand it's about getting sucked in the woods
while you're deer hunting, you knowwhat I mean. So like so like
(24:59):
Kansas from Kentucky Man, So likein the live show, I'll tell that
story, yeah, in a muchmore polished way, and then I'll go
into that song and sing that song. Oh my gosh, how fun to
like, you know, take somethingyou love and really just run with it.
And I'm so excited. I'm ithas been the coolest creative outlet I've
ever had. It's been amazing.If you could rewind back to your young
(25:22):
self where you're I mean, you'restill young, but you know what I
mean, Like ten years ago,or even maybe even sooner than that,
selling real estate, saying you knowit, one day you're going to be
writing songs that make you so freakinghappy. What would you say to yourself?
It's so weird, Brooks. I'veI've been asked this question, and
I never wanted to come across aslike I always knew I'd be where I'm
(25:42):
supposed to be, because if you'veseen my journey, there's been a lot
of heartbreak in my journey. SoI don't ever want to discredit that it's
been a long, long way toget to this point. Yeah, but
I also believe in the power ofyour knowing. I think God gives you
a knowing of like what you wereput on this earth to do. And
(26:03):
I have videos at home on DVDsthat I made when I was ten years
old of at home videos long beforeTikTok was ever around. So I've been
doing this since I was a littlegirl, and I just I just know
that God put me on earth tomake people laugh, like that's that's my
superpower. That's and even when Iwas as far away proximity wise and career
(26:26):
wise as what I'm doing now sellingreal estate, in a town of thirteen
hundred people. Yeah, there wasjust something in my power that said,
I don't know how you're going toget to this point. I don't know
where it's gonna look like. Idon't know what it's gonna look like.
But I know at the end ofthe day, you're gonna do something that
you love and you're passionate about.And I think that's God gives you that
northern star, and it's up tous to either allow it to be loud
(26:48):
and go for it, or eventuallywe quiet it and we dim it and
we shut that door. And that'swhat regret looks like. I mean,
let's do an inspirational comedy to ourHoly cant Man. I don't know,
I don't know. It's just oneof those things you just you just know
when you know, you know totally. And I agree with that because I
feel like my journey kind of similarlylike you know, you you just feel
(27:10):
like there's something more and you'll walkaway from things that are hard to walk
away from. And I always tellthis story about how I was living out
in la I was making more moneythan I ever had. I was like
twenty four years old, and Ijust like God was like, quit your
job, and I was like,no, why, And then you you
know, I ended up quitting likefour months later and moving out to the
(27:30):
Midwest, and then now I livein Nashville, which has been a dream
of mine since forever. And it'slike the steps that you take to get
to where you're going, it's justlike they're gonna be hard ones to take.
But if you just put one footin front of the other, like
he'll, He'll lead you right towhere you're supposed to be. Amen.
Yeah, And you know, whetheryou whether you're religious or spiritual or not,
(27:51):
you know, if you're gone,is the universe whatever that looks like
to you. Yeah, energy isreal and uh yeah, you just gotta
you know, only you, yeknows what you want to do and what's
best for you. And like yousaid, Brooke, hard decisions that should
be really hard to become easy becauseyou know you're making a decision based off
the greater vision. Yeah, somethingelse is coming something like you said in
(28:15):
the beginning, you're making space forsomething greater to come along. Man,
I freking love that I needed tohear that. Okay, so comedy tour
in the works. Yeah, moresongs in the works. I know you've
been teasing us on social media aboutmore songs, but collaboration on songs,
yeah, I mean we uh.I actually wrote a song with Terry Clark
(28:38):
couples ago. Yeah, She's thatwas That was a dream for sure.
But we're going to cut a newone with Terry uh, probably in a
couple of months when she gets backfrom Canada. There's other people in the
works. I don't want to saytheir names just yet in case it were
not to happen, but the goalwould be not to have a feature on
every song, but to sprinkle insome features because it's always so fun when
(29:02):
you hear some of your favorite artistsand they're they're singing a funny song.
It scratches a different part of yourbrain totally. So I think that's a
big superpower on the album and Iwould love to have definitely maybe half the
songs have some big features. I'mso excited for you. I know we
haven't known each other long, butevery single time I see you, I
feel like there's always something new andexciting coming. And I know that this
is just going to be such acool thing that you already got so many
(29:25):
fans already. But it's just thatyour your circle's gonna keep growing and you're
gonna keep making people smile and makingpeople laugh, which is what you want
to do. I really appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay,
we gotta end this with the gumballmachine next to you. Oh,
this is our kind of like littlegumball of random random questions right there at
the bottom. It's waiting for you. Perfect. Oh. I painted all
(29:48):
weekend, so my hands are onfire. I painted this weekend, did
you really? Yeah? Yeah,I painted my kitchen island. Oh nice,
dark black coh. Yeah, shewent for it. Yeah, we
just we just bought a house,so we're doing all the fun renovation.
Just went through that for a yearand a half. All I can say
is, have a marriage counselor onspeed. My husband's always traveling, so
(30:11):
it's like you have a little I'lljust do it when he's when he's gone,
you know. Nice. It's justsuch a cute concept. Okay,
what is something you wish high schoolyou would have known? Oh? Ooh,
high school. M I feel likeI loved seventh grade. I don't
high school was fine, but Ifeel like I was a middle school gal.
I love middle school too. Yeah, high school me, I wish
(30:37):
I would have known back then notto stress so much this. This is
not going to be applicable to everybody, So I apologize because not everybody's a
flaming homosexual. But I wish highschool me would wouldn't have stressed so much
about my sexuality. Yeah, becauseI always was always in my thoughts of
the future. I wish I couldhave been a little more present. But
I was always so scared that Iwas gonna eventually let people down, or
(30:59):
that I wouldn't find somebody that yewould be my partner, or I'd have
to marry a man and then justforce myself to be happy. Yeah,
So I wish I could go backand tell me. I know, hindsight,
it's always twenty twenty, but Iwish I could just go back and
say, hey, chill out todaybecause everything's gonna unfold the way it's supposed
to, and you're gonna find theperfect partner and Okay, so I'm gonna
I'm gonna tell you something that nobodyhas ever heard this on the internet,
(31:19):
Like this is something that I feltlike in my walk with God, my
like I guess spiritual, you know, walk has just it's just always stayed
kind of like on the back burners. So like I feel like God has
put me through so many situations tolike teach and like give me a graceful
heart in certain, you know,situations. So when I lived out in
(31:42):
La, I was dating a femalefor a year ish maybe, and those
feelings of like not feeling like youcan tell people like those just like hard
feelings of like shame and just discomfortand feeling like you're loving life, but
you're also like, holy shit,I can't tell anybody that you know,
(32:05):
And it's just such a weird feelingbecause I feel like those feelings are so
many people are feeling that. Sofor you to say, like I wish
I wouldn't have honed in on that, like those gut wrenching feelings of like
I'm not sure, I'm not sure, but then like you're like, but
I am sure, you know,and it's just like it's okay, right,
And like like the fact that Ihave to even tell you thank you
for sharing something like that, yeah, because it's like that is such a
(32:30):
vulnerable piece to you, you knowthat maybe you've kept quiet out of respect
of that former partner, or outof respect of your husband now, or
worried whether or not somebody's gonna viewyou different, Like like Mandy and I
have to think about do we holdhands in our neighborhood because our neighborhood is
an older generation. We don't wantto make them upset, like why you
know what I mean? Or likeor like we we rented a dumpster for
(32:54):
our driveway and the man was like, is your husband gonna pay for it?
Or are you gonna pay for it? And I was like, do
I let Do I say my wife'sgonna pay for or do I just say
I'll pay? Like you know whatI mean? Because you have to think
of these things in the split secondmoment. Yes, but I will say
there's always people that are surprising Mandyand I because we just dealt with a
(33:15):
contractor the other day and when Ihad him on the phone, he was
like, I just want to He'svery southern, He's from Smyrna. He's
like, I just want to tellyou that you and your wife are two
of the funniest ladies I've ever watched. So it's like, yeah, I
could have judged him because he hada really thick Southern accent, but he
surprised me. Yes, but Iappreciate you saying that, because really,
(33:37):
until you've you've, you know,until you feel some of those feelings,
whether it's about your sexuality or not. Yeah, well, and that's like
the same thing with like wait too, because like, growing up, I
was an athlete, I was workingout twice a day, I was doing
all these things. And then Ihad a kid, and then I became
a size fourteen sixteen, and I'mlike, I've never felt like what it's
to feel like in this body,and I'm like, why are there so
many of these challenges? And I'vejust started to like really hone in on
(34:00):
why as is happening to me?And I'm like, God's giving me such
a big heart to understand, Ifeel like, what people are going through
and to be able to like stewardthem through those hard things, because it's
really hard to say, oh,yeah, I understand when you don't you
know what I mean, or liketrying to empathize with somebody when you're like,
no, you don't. You'll neverunderstand what it's like to not be
(34:22):
able to fit in clothes or notto be able to tell your parents that
you love someone or stuff like that, and it's just like, just be
nice. Just be nice, literally, that's it. Just be nice and
respectful. And if you don't agreewith what somebody else believes or does,
that's fine, a man. Justkeep it yourself and move on and love
them, love them through it,you know what I mean. And it's
all a learning journey too. It'snot a it's not a perfect journey.
(34:44):
I want to say that. Yeah, you're never going to be perfect about
certain situations. It's about just learningand trying to be better the next day
than you were today. Learning journey. I love that so much. All
Right, we're gonna go out withRoad Hard, Road Hard. Y'all excited
for you. Thank you, Brooke,
Daly. Let's do it. Let'sdo it backstage. Welcome to the backstage
with Brook. You're all access passto music City, where nothing is off
limits. Grab a drink, let'sgo backstage. Heys in the building,
y'all. I gotta say, youget a great radio voice. Oh gosh,
(00:20):
thank you do it sounds good,it was smooth, it was nice.
Listen. Everybody's like, do yourradio voice, and I'm like,
this, this is it. Thisis me, y'all. God just bless
you with the perfect voice. No, if you if you want me to
be really honest with you. Rewindmyself like twelve years ago when I first
started in radio embarrassing, Like soI feel when I look at like Facebook
(00:42):
posts I made back in twenty andI'm like, hang, y'aut or tap,
I'm like, did I really soundlike though? And my thing too,
is like you know, kids thesedays thrive off of social media.
It's like their lives, which obviouslyit's like, you know, it's our
lives too, But being that youngand like seeing other people do things and
like having to critique myself, Iguess did Thank god. My parents were
(01:06):
like, you're not getting Facebook untilyou're I think I was. I want
to say, I was seventeen whenI got it. My parents were like
really, especially my dad. Hewas like, you were not going to
be on social media where I don'tknow who you're talking to. Yes,
I dude. I saw this girlthe other day. She was six.
She had an iPhone and then Iwas watching her make TikTok dances. So
(01:26):
I walked over to her and Iwas like talking to her as if she
was six. I was like,Hey, is that your TikTok account?
And she was like, yeah,you want to do a dance with me?
I was like six during and thenshe showed me six years old.
And then she showed me a videothat she had on her phone where she
was doing it get ready with meand putting makeup on her Yes, okay,
So I don't know why. Youknow how the four you page on
(01:47):
TikTok does whatever it wants to doevery once in a while. Yeah,
for some reason, it's like teenagersgetting ready for their first day of high
school, and I'm like, whyam I seeing this? Like? Why
are these on my page? Notget ready for my freshman year of high
school? Consistent of chapstick a sportsbra. Yes, and some ashes mine.
I remember I had this this Tshirt because I played softball grown up
too. I it was softball islife, The rest is just details,
(02:10):
and it was like a big softball. I wore that thing until it started
ripping holes and it was softball islike the rust is just details. Was
eat, breathe sleep. Yes,I had one of those. I had
volleyball ones. Man. It's justlike if you the fashion they get Ready
with Me videos back in the daywould have just been like, hey,
I got this at Goodwill, hollerat me. That was so fun.
(02:35):
Though. You'd go to Goodwill andfind like a funny, quirky shirt that
like you could wear that was originaland it was twenty five cents yep,
because it was disgusting. Well,and nowadays too, I feel like it's
such a weird dynamic because these Isay kids, but these young adults,
Yeah, there's so much pressure onthem to feel like they have to have
an expensive bag or they have tohave this because so and so was getting
(02:58):
this on the social media, andit's just like, I'm so glad we
got to be kids, amen,you know, and got to like actually
have like the ugly phase and likegrow up because the glow up for these
kids. Now, I'm like,where are you gonna go? You're already
really awesome and like focus on justlike playing outside. I mean, like
(03:19):
maybe this sounds weird, but likeI love just being outside all the way
up until, like all through highschool, like going outside, playing basketball
with your friends, being disconnected fromthe social media world. It is scary
though, because it's like social mediais starting to become people's reality, and
reality is becoming a small piece oftheir life, which is a scary concept
to think about. Well, andwe were just talking about AI, and
(03:42):
I feel like like melts together withthat, like what the world is like?
Not the world anymore. It's weird, dude, It's a bunch of
damn robots. Yeah, Like wewere just talking about though. I think
you know, if you give into AI now because it helps make your
like we're talking about this, ifit helps make your job easier, now,
you're gonna be the first person tolose your job because AI only learns
(04:02):
and get smarter and smarter and smarter. So if you give it any piece
of your of your career path,even if it's a small piece, is
editing your your videos yea. Eventuallyit's gonna learn more than you know because
AI's smarter than we are and it'sgonna overtake you. Which that's a whole
another episode. Like, but freak. All I can say is, do
not give in to AI. Imean, listen, I'm not on board.
(04:24):
There's so many people in the industrythat use it for editing videos or
you know, audio clips and stufflike that, and I'm like, Okay,
maybe I'm wasting my time, butlike, at least I know that
I'm secure and like my amen workand job because I don't want it to
learn my stuff. Amen, dude, Like we can talk. You can
talk about that for four hours.I'm very passionate about anti AI, but
(04:46):
maybe I'm an anti AI, Karen. You know, I mean this is
this could be a whole new personalityin Dnay stand up, Okay, don't
give me started. I would Icould do a whole hour segment. How
bad. I'm just telling it freaksme out, dude, Okay, that's
all I'm gonna say. It freaksme out. We are both in here
like sweating thinking about robots taking ourjobs. Just stay where you are.
(05:10):
Yeah, I just don't don't comeover here, amen anyway, Okay,
I want to talk to you aboutthis video of you meeting Tim McGraw,
because when I tell you that,you had me cackling, because did he
know was he in on this orwas he a little He wasn't here?
Was it on a little bit?He didn't. He just said, Hey,
I know we're gonna make a videotogether. What's it about? And
I go, well, it's afunny video, and I don't think it'd
(05:30):
be funny if I tell you whatit's about. I said, but if
at any part of the video itmakes you uncomfortable, we'll just cut and
we'll do a different idea. Hewas like, oh, it'll be hard
to make me uncomfortable. Perfect.Let me tell you this though. Oh
gay, I am as gay asgay comes like. I've never looked at
it like this is so funny,even as a kid. I've never looked
at a man and thought, damn, I'd like to climb him like a
(05:55):
tree. I was so embarrassed bythose feelings because it was like a straight
awakening. For like fifteen minutes,I shook straight. I told Mandy,
I go, Mandy's my wife.I go, Mandy, I've never felt
that way, but that was themost attractive man I've ever seen. It
was Tim mccrawl is not real inmy opinion, So so my blood for
(06:20):
Tim mcgrawl runs deep. Okay,my grandma was obsessed with him, like
barbecue standing on my white T shirt, Like that was Nanny's jam. I
like it, I love it.That was her favorite song. So growing
up, like since I was likefour, Tim mcgrawl was in my vocabulary,
okay, like I knew this manand watching his like the glow up
(06:40):
of Tim He's I can't even putit into words, girl, I'll put
him into words for you. Whenhe walked in the room and I saw
him for the first time because sowe went out to LA for his album
release party, yeah, and hewas doing a lot of press before the
release party, so we were gettingto you know, watch him do interviews
and stuff, and so he walksin and I just looked at him,
(07:01):
and I was like, in myhead, I was like, damn,
that's a good looking man, Likehe just takes care of himself. But
like Mandy and I were talking aboutit. We were walking back to our
hotel after his show, and Iwas like, I think the reason I
think he's so good looking is becausehe has the perfect balance of masculinity with
(07:25):
femininity, and it is like insane. Mandy calls it polarity. I love
that word whenever in my head.But she's like, it's polarity today,
and I'm like, okay, well, whatever it is, it's a beautiful
balance where he's a great listener.Okay, sorry, man, hate to
break it to you, but there'sa lot of men out there that just
cannot fucking listen. Tim is lookingat you in your eyes, and he's
(07:48):
asking questions and he like genuinely cares. He asked Mandy and I how long
we've been married. How Just avery like carrying man. Yeah. But
Lenny also has that look about himwhere it's like, if you were to
say something nasty about fate, Iwill, yeah, I will, but
you know what I mean, Like, it's just a beautiful balance. And
(08:09):
I think a lot of men arescared to lean into that femininity to but
it's it's a beautiful thing when youcan do both. It is. And
I'll speak to that because my husband, when I first met him, he
had like, you know, thesebaggy like jeans he's had for twelve years,
Like he's can't fit in them,and all his friends are like,
man, skinny jeans are like itright now, and he's like, oh
never. We were dating for fourmonths and I got him in a pair
(08:31):
of skinny jeans and I'm like,see there's He's like they're kind of grout
and I'm like, yeah, seethey're great. You gotta lean into that.
Okay, it looks good. Showon the booty. Absolutely, Tim
does a good job. All Right, I'm gonna stop. We could go
on and on. He's also likea phenomenal showman, so like on a
professional level, I'll be a professionalOkay, now, sorry about that.
(08:54):
Sorry, Tim, if you're watchingthis, I took it to a different
level, but on a showmanship hisstage presence, yeah, and his voice,
Like I feel like, if you'vebeen in the business as long as
he has singing as much as he'ssung, like, eventually you tarnish your
vocal cords a little bit. Butthat man must be doing all the right
things. He is, and he'sjust kind. He's kind of you know,
(09:16):
he's just a kind guy. AndI feel like the first time that
I interviewed him, I was nervousas I'll get out because it's tim a
crawl right like. And I wasI don't know. It was a couple
of years into my career, andI was just like, Okay, this
is cool, this is my thisis my moment. My Grandma's up and
heaven watching this, Like let memake sure this is good. And he
like just like props his foot up, puts his and he's just like leans
into the interview, and I'm justlike, okay, man like so sweet,
(09:37):
so sweet, likes just a dolland a phenomen like so multi talented.
He's he's just as good as asan actor as he is a singer.
Yes, and that's that's amazing.That's a huge thing to do.
He does it all anyway. Countrymusic is your new venture of life.
Kind of country comedy. Yeah,it's like country music. Have you been
(09:58):
a country music fan your whole life? Or countries all I listened to growing
up? Well, I say allcountry was always on the radio. I
was really lucky because my dad wasa huge musical influence in my life.
He loves music. The man islike an open encyclopedia when it comes to
like what year a song came outor lyrics and he loves all genres.
(10:22):
But being that I grew up inthe middle of nowhere, Alabama, country
was a way of life. Butit was also what we listened to because
it's just you know, it's storytelling. So you listen to a song about
working hard and wiping your brow andgoing home to dinner, and you're in
the middle of doing that Monday throughFriday. It's your job. So I
always listen to country music. Iloved listening to Verne Godston, Vince Gill,
(10:48):
Conway Twitty, my dad just thoseare like the big three that my
dad always had one, especially withcassette players and DVD or CD soap players.
Man, we're old, we're gettingall new just hit thirties. So
oh I'm four years ahead, wellfive years ahead of you. Dang it.
I'm old d thirties or thirties orthe new twenties. But I'm telling
(11:09):
you everybody, like everybody gets scaredof it. They're like, oh,
I don't I'm my mid thirties andI'm like, dude, I'm having fun,
Like this is the best time inmy life. Yeah, because you
finally found your partner who you wantto settle down with, Like you got
money in the bank, you havea quick career that you know that you
that you're actually excited to pursue.Twenties are hard. You got no money,
you got no person at home supportingyou, ye, and you really
(11:30):
don't know what the fuck you wantto do with it. Really is like
that weird moment where you're in lifeand you know you you grow up wanting
to grow up, which is theweirdest thing ever, where you're just like,
I just want to be older.I want to be eighteen so I
can, you know, buy cigarettes. I want to be twenty one,
so I go to the bar.I want to do this. And then
you get to your mid twenties andyou're like, so rents expensive, you
know, Yeah, you're you're likeworking to live, whereas I feel like
(11:54):
now you're you're living and you don'tmind working because you found what you like
to do. Yeah, that's sotrue. All right, we I want
to talk about your country comedy situation. Yeah, just a minute, but
I want to kind of go backto those roots you're talking about growing up
in Alabama and just kind of youknow, you're submersed into like southern roots
and lifestyle and your your story withMandy and how you guys met. I
(12:15):
was like, I know, sortof your guy's story, but maybe somebody
who listening, who's listening, tellus how you guys met and your guy's
a story. It's so funny wheneverI think about like fate and destiny,
which ten years ago I would havethought that was so cheesy, like,
yeah, oh, she's my soulmate, but she is. Though you
guys are the best. But now, like I truly believe, like I
(12:37):
really do believe that when God's creatingyou, he has a partner in mind.
And I just, without a doubt, Mandy's Mandy's that for me.
She is, uh, she's mykickstand. She props me up and anything
you see about me like that,what I'm doing, it doesn't happen without
Mandy. But no, we meton Instagram and it was funny because I
(13:00):
was living in Alabama, my hometownselling real estate. My mom was a
is a real estate agent. Mydad was always around the real estate game,
and I grew up in a townof thirteen hundred people, went to
the same high school that my grandparentsgraduated from. I used to sit under
my dad's graduation picture in the lunchroom because they all had their picture,
which is so funny. That's howsmall it is when you have a picture
(13:22):
in the lunch room. Yeah.But man, he was living out in
southern California, which is where she'sfrom, and I saw her on Instagram.
She just popped up one day andI was like, something so special
about this picture that I'm looking at, and so I followed her and she
she didn't follow me back, Solike a month later, I was like,
I know, I was like inall of her stuff, she just
(13:43):
didn't seem interested. So I unfollowedher. She didn't show me any time
a day, so I was like, this is weird that I'm liking this
girl's stuff. So I'm just gonnalike unfollow her because and just like exit
quietly. Yeah you know, yeah, just leave. Then the universe put
her picture back in front of melike a month later, and I saw
it. I followed her again,and then she followed me back. Let's
go. So I was like,we in it. I had no idea
(14:05):
if she was gay ORed on it. Yeah, but she played colored softball,
so there was like a seventy percent, which is so funny because I
remember growing up playing softball, andmy dad would always be like, make
sure that's where you want to go, and always like what are you talking
about that? And then like youget to college and you're like, oh,
yeah, no, I would say, like I would say there's for
(14:26):
sure. I don't want to sayseventy percent. I would say at least
fifty percent. Like it's like halfmy half my college team we're gay,
so it's like there's there's a bigchance. So when it was, we
just started talking on Instagram and onething led to another and she came and
visited me in Alabama for a weekendand I literally knew that weekend that's awesome.
(14:48):
I was gonna come out. Iwas still in the closet. Okay,
I was like I'm gonna come out. Yeah, I'm this girl is
worth risking it all for. Andit turned out to be the greatest thing
I've ever done. So I can'timagine, like that conversation with family and
friends and people that you grow you'vegrown up with has got to be like
the hardest and it shouldn't be,but it shouldn't be, but it is,
especially in the culture that I wasraised in. Right, So yeah,
(15:11):
no, I've definitely lost relationships andit's been tough. But I also
believe that when somebody chooses to leaveyour life based off of us, based
off it is just who you you'rein love with. Yeah, obviously,
I think we can all agree thatit's pretty shallow, but I also believe
that when somebody leaves again it's avery cliche, but when room is made,
(15:33):
something better is able to come in. Yes, And I know that
if I was still in the closetbut also trying to have a relationship with
Mandy, our relationship would eventually reacha stopping point because you can only grow
in the shade, right, youknow, you can only grow so much
in the shade, Like you gottaget out in the sunshine, and you
gotta put yourself out in some vulnerablesituations to to do well. I forget
who said it, but somebody saidthat. I heard once. You have
(15:56):
people in your life that are therefor a reason, a season and then
life first, and it's just likethere's three categories where it's like, yeah,
they were in your life for areason in the beginning and then had
to you know, come to anend. But like you said, you're
making room for growth and I justI love that you have that perspective.
I will say this, the supportfar outweghs the few people that are no
longer in my life. So forlike the younger generation that's listening, or
(16:19):
somebody that's already just listening and isafraid to pursue whatever it is they're trying
to pursue because they're afraid of losingsomething, just know that what you gain
is tenfold of what you lose.Totally, I do it a thousand times
over again the exact same way thatI did it if it meant being in
a relationship with my partner Mandy andhaving the career and the life that I
(16:41):
have now. And here's the thingI always tell people, like we are
called in this life to love Godand love people, and like that's not
hard to do. And I alwayslike I've played like this little bit.
I feel like I would want toput it in a comedy show. But
it's like, do we really thinkat the end of the day, when
we choose not to love somebody unconditionally, that we're gonna get to the pearly
(17:06):
gates of heaven and God's gonna lookat us and he's gonna say so how
many people did you ostracize in orderto get here? And they're gonna go,
well, all the homosexuals, that'sfor sure, and God looks at
him and goes, well done.You know, I mean, like,
well done, my good and faithfulservant, you know what I mean.
And I'm a Christian. That's anotherthing that like, I get questions about
(17:29):
my faith and my spirituality all thetime because people think you can only have
one or the other, and that'sso not true, and I'm like,
it's just not. In fact,my relationship with God has gotten I use
the word colorful, a lot morecolorful and more vibrant now than when I
was in the closet, because howin the world are you supposed to worship
your higher power when you're full ofshame and fearfulness? And a quote that
(17:55):
I listened to this quote on likea Sunday and on Monday I came out
and the quote was nothing rooted infear comes from God. Yeah, so
when you can get to the placeof saying like, nothing that I'm afraid
of that's not from God, that'sfrom outside sources. Yeah, that was
back in twenty eighteen, heard that, and I was like, well,
all right, we'll see you laterexactly well, and I hate it too
(18:18):
because I feel like faith and youknow, any type of personal decision is
such a personal thing with you anda creator, right, like what you
and what you do. And soit's like if Karen's over here, you
know, hurting people are like cussinor you know, doing whatever the sin
is. It's like, what whatshe's doing, that's for her? And
(18:40):
you know what I mean, Yeah, that's it's nobody else's business. Amen,
And like it's not like I'm askingpeople to come in and like watch
me make out with my wife.No, I'm like, this is my
wife that whom I love dearly.We are respectful citizens, we pay our
taxes, we love people, We'rekind of people. I say, yes,
ma'am, No, ma'am. I'mas patriot at as they come.
Yeah, but you just don't likethe fact that I chose to marry a
(19:03):
woman and not a man. It'slike, dude, I can't. And
that's another thing, Brooke, isI don't want people shoving ship down my
face. So I'm not forcing peopleto accept me. Yeah, you don't
have to accept me, just respectme. That's it. Period. That's
it. Just respect because there's alot of a lot of things that people
do in our society. Our society'sfucked up, but there's a lot of
things that people do that that Ido not accept and I don't like.
(19:27):
But I'm not going to revolt againstI'm just gonna respect them and choose to
live my life the way that Iwant to live. Right, And I
feel like everything's so black and whitethese days, where it's like, oh,
you're a Democrat, well I hateyou. Oh you're a Republican,
well you must hate me. Andit's just like there's so much hate in
the world. And like I said, like, just love people. It's
not hard to not be an asshole. Yeah. Just again, like it
(19:48):
just goes back to the fundamental principleand respect people. Yeah. Respect,
Okay, just turn out, Franklinand let's just have a day. Okay,
Well I want to that's a goodtransition and talking about your hot wife,
because I want to play this clipto get road hard and put every
time. We were just talking aboutyour grandma and how you had to have
(20:11):
this conversation with a family member becauseshe really thinks it's about a boat.
Yeah, shout out to Grandma.Grandma, I played it for one time
in the truck. It was thedemo before I got ready to release it,
and I was like, Grandma,first of all, I just want
you to know then, I'm puttingout a country comedy album. She goes,
you can sing. I said,well, I don't know if I
(20:32):
can sing good, but I'm puttingit out doing it, and she's like,
well, you got any songs Icould listen to? So I said,
yeah, check this one out.So I played road Hard. Yeah,
And when it got to the partwhere it was like the Booies word
bounds and I was uping and downand she was like Booies and I was
like, yep, Booies. Butyeah. No, she got a She
(20:53):
got a phone call from her sister, and her sister was like, you
know, didn't I put out aprovoct and my grandmother, you want to
talk about going to war? Mygrandmother's like, it's about about baby,
and I was like, hmm,thank you, Grandma. I don't know
it's about don't no, I don'tknow. You had to listen to it
(21:15):
to figure it out. I guess, well, I just love that you're
unto entering this space because I feellike there's a couple of people that kind
of like do the comedy songs andstuff, but your perspective and just you're
already funny as hell, Like yougo into your social media and there's no
chance that you're not laughing, right, So you doing this like coming into
like I guess my world of youknow, the side of things country music
(21:38):
and just being hilarious and funny.I cannot wait for your first live show,
Like I don't even know if that'sin the works yet. It is
about it is in the works.Yeah, We so some really big I
can't really get into all the logisticsyet. We're still negotiations with everything,
but some really cool things are happeningright now. That's gonna allow me to
(22:00):
go on tour. We're doing what'scalled a one woman show, and so
all those characters that you see onmy social media, they're gonna be in
the show. So it's gonna beDenay, it's gonna be Sharon Jean,
my southern alter ego. It's goingto be Karen the HLA President what a
queen? Yeah, or Immicate Gracethe girl that's Russian at Bama, who's
a freshman. So all these charactersare going to be in the show.
(22:22):
And the reason I want to writethis album is because I'm a big storyteller.
That's mostly my comedy. Yeah,I'm not a stand up comic.
I never claimed to be. It'sa lot of storytelling and long format of
that. And then once I getdone with a story, I'll be able
to go right into song and thatsong is going to match what that story
was about. So some songs arenot based off of stories that are going
(22:45):
to go into the show, andothers are. But yeah, I can't
wait for you to come to alive show. It's gonna be it's gonna
be gonna be so fun. Sowhen you're in you know mode of like
you know, creating a song asopposed to you know, just spewing off
the head like on a video onInstagram or TikTok, what is is that
like such a weird different process foryou or did you find it was like
an easy transition? I think theformat, Like I going into songwriting,
(23:11):
I had no idea what how itlooked like. Verse one, then pre
course, then chorus, then versetwo, rush, then the bridge,
then the outro. So that wasthe biggest hurdle just because I was trying
to learn the lingo in the songwritesyeah, I'm by no means a professional
now, But now I understand atleast the format of what a song looks
(23:33):
like. But the thing that's beenpretty easy is thinking of a story that
I gravitate too, and then takingit to my friends who are songwriter.
Isn't us all sitting down and comingup with a song based off of that
story? So that part seems prettyeasy to transition to and really really fun
because it's like, hey, thislike Okay, for instance, we wrote
(23:53):
a song. This girl comes upto me at a party at at a
girls house that you'd know. Butwe're at this party and I walk in
the door, haven't met anybody yet, and this girl just bombards me and
she goes, are you denied fromTikTok? And I talked like this because
this is this girl was from Kentucky, Okay, East drink Kentucky, And
(24:14):
I said I am. I said, I'm Denay. She goes, my
name is Kansas and I'm from Kentuckyand I went, well, hey,
Kansas from Kentucky. So we getto talking and uh, I'm still trying
to make my way through the entryway to meet everybody, and she's she's
still there, and we're having agreat conversation until I say, I noticed
you have some camo on. You'vebeen hunting. And she looked at me
(24:37):
and she said, well, Iwouldn't say what me and my boyfriend were
doing out in the woods was hunting. And I go, me be in
the dumb media, I go,what were y'all doing? Shouldn't I ask
that out? Oh? No,she told me. So. We wrote
a song called Waiting on a Buckand it's about getting sucked in the woods
while you're deer hunting, you knowwhat I mean. So like so like
(24:59):
Kansas from Kentucky Man, So likein the live show, I'll tell that
story, yeah, in a muchmore polished way, and then I'll go
into that song and sing that song. Oh my gosh, how fun to
like, you know, take somethingyou love and really just run with it.
And I'm so excited. I'm ithas been the coolest creative outlet I've
ever had. It's been amazing.If you could rewind back to your young
(25:22):
self where you're I mean, you'restill young, but you know what I
mean, Like ten years ago,or even maybe even sooner than that,
selling real estate, saying you knowit, one day you're going to be
writing songs that make you so freakinghappy. What would you say to yourself?
It's so weird, Brooks. I'veI've been asked this question, and
I never wanted to come across aslike I always knew I'd be where I'm
(25:42):
supposed to be, because if you'veseen my journey, there's been a lot
of heartbreak in my journey. SoI don't ever want to discredit that it's
been a long, long way toget to this point. Yeah, but
I also believe in the power ofyour knowing. I think God gives you
a knowing of like what you wereput on this earth to do. And
(26:03):
I have videos at home on DVDsthat I made when I was ten years
old of at home videos long beforeTikTok was ever around. So I've been
doing this since I was a littlegirl, and I just I just know
that God put me on earth tomake people laugh, like that's that's my
superpower. That's and even when Iwas as far away proximity wise and career
(26:26):
wise as what I'm doing now sellingreal estate, in a town of thirteen
hundred people. Yeah, there wasjust something in my power that said,
I don't know how you're going toget to this point. I don't know
where it's gonna look like. Idon't know what it's gonna look like.
But I know at the end ofthe day, you're gonna do something that
you love and you're passionate about.And I think that's God gives you that
northern star, and it's up tous to either allow it to be loud
(26:48):
and go for it, or eventuallywe quiet it and we dim it and
we shut that door. And that'swhat regret looks like. I mean,
let's do an inspirational comedy to ourHoly cant Man. I don't know,
I don't know. It's just oneof those things you just you just know
when you know, you know totally. And I agree with that because I
feel like my journey kind of similarlylike you know, you you just feel
(27:10):
like there's something more and you'll walkaway from things that are hard to walk
away from. And I always tellthis story about how I was living out
in la I was making more moneythan I ever had. I was like
twenty four years old, and Ijust like God was like, quit your
job, and I was like,no, why, And then you you
know, I ended up quitting likefour months later and moving out to the
(27:30):
Midwest, and then now I livein Nashville, which has been a dream
of mine since forever. And it'slike the steps that you take to get
to where you're going, it's justlike they're gonna be hard ones to take.
But if you just put one footin front of the other, like
he'll, He'll lead you right towhere you're supposed to be. Amen.
Yeah, And you know, whetheryou whether you're religious or spiritual or not,
(27:51):
you know, if you're gone,is the universe whatever that looks like
to you. Yeah, energy isreal and uh yeah, you just gotta
you know, only you, yeknows what you want to do and what's
best for you. And like yousaid, Brooke, hard decisions that should
be really hard to become easy becauseyou know you're making a decision based off
the greater vision. Yeah, somethingelse is coming something like you said in
(28:15):
the beginning, you're making space forsomething greater to come along. Man,
I freking love that I needed tohear that. Okay, so comedy tour
in the works. Yeah, moresongs in the works. I know you've
been teasing us on social media aboutmore songs, but collaboration on songs,
yeah, I mean we uh.I actually wrote a song with Terry Clark
(28:38):
couples ago. Yeah, She's thatwas That was a dream for sure.
But we're going to cut a newone with Terry uh, probably in a
couple of months when she gets backfrom Canada. There's other people in the
works. I don't want to saytheir names just yet in case it were
not to happen, but the goalwould be not to have a feature on
every song, but to sprinkle insome features because it's always so fun when
(29:02):
you hear some of your favorite artistsand they're they're singing a funny song.
It scratches a different part of yourbrain totally. So I think that's a
big superpower on the album and Iwould love to have definitely maybe half the
songs have some big features. I'mso excited for you. I know we
haven't known each other long, butevery single time I see you, I
feel like there's always something new andexciting coming. And I know that this
is just going to be such acool thing that you already got so many
(29:25):
fans already. But it's just thatyour your circle's gonna keep growing and you're
gonna keep making people smile and makingpeople laugh, which is what you want
to do. I really appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay,
we gotta end this with the gumballmachine next to you. Oh,
this is our kind of like littlegumball of random random questions right there at
the bottom. It's waiting for you. Perfect. Oh. I painted all
(29:48):
weekend, so my hands are onfire. I painted this weekend, did
you really? Yeah? Yeah,I painted my kitchen island. Oh nice,
dark black coh. Yeah, shewent for it. Yeah, we
just we just bought a house,so we're doing all the fun renovation.
Just went through that for a yearand a half. All I can say
is, have a marriage counselor onspeed. My husband's always traveling, so
(30:11):
it's like you have a little I'lljust do it when he's when he's gone,
you know. Nice. It's justsuch a cute concept. Okay,
what is something you wish high schoolyou would have known? Oh? Ooh,
high school. M I feel likeI loved seventh grade. I don't
high school was fine, but Ifeel like I was a middle school gal.
I love middle school too. Yeah, high school me, I wish
(30:37):
I would have known back then notto stress so much this. This is
not going to be applicable to everybody, So I apologize because not everybody's a
flaming homosexual. But I wish highschool me would wouldn't have stressed so much
about my sexuality. Yeah, becauseI always was always in my thoughts of
the future. I wish I couldhave been a little more present. But
I was always so scared that Iwas gonna eventually let people down, or
(30:59):
that I wouldn't find somebody that yewould be my partner, or I'd have
to marry a man and then justforce myself to be happy. Yeah,
So I wish I could go backand tell me. I know, hindsight,
it's always twenty twenty, but Iwish I could just go back and
say, hey, chill out todaybecause everything's gonna unfold the way it's supposed
to, and you're gonna find theperfect partner and Okay, so I'm gonna
I'm gonna tell you something that nobodyhas ever heard this on the internet,
(31:19):
Like this is something that I feltlike in my walk with God, my
like I guess spiritual, you know, walk has just it's just always stayed
kind of like on the back burners. So like I feel like God has
put me through so many situations tolike teach and like give me a graceful
heart in certain, you know,situations. So when I lived out in
(31:42):
La, I was dating a femalefor a year ish maybe, and those
feelings of like not feeling like youcan tell people like those just like hard
feelings of like shame and just discomfortand feeling like you're loving life, but
you're also like, holy shit,I can't tell anybody that you know,
(32:05):
And it's just such a weird feelingbecause I feel like those feelings are so
many people are feeling that. Sofor you to say, like I wish
I wouldn't have honed in on that, like those gut wrenching feelings of like
I'm not sure, I'm not sure, but then like you're like, but
I am sure, you know,and it's just like it's okay, right,
And like like the fact that Ihave to even tell you thank you
for sharing something like that, yeah, because it's like that is such a
(32:30):
vulnerable piece to you, you knowthat maybe you've kept quiet out of respect
of that former partner, or outof respect of your husband now, or
worried whether or not somebody's gonna viewyou different, Like like Mandy and I
have to think about do we holdhands in our neighborhood because our neighborhood is
an older generation. We don't wantto make them upset, like why you
know what I mean? Or likeor like we we rented a dumpster for
(32:54):
our driveway and the man was like, is your husband gonna pay for it?
Or are you gonna pay for it? And I was like, do
I let Do I say my wife'sgonna pay for or do I just say
I'll pay? Like you know whatI mean? Because you have to think
of these things in the split secondmoment. Yes, but I will say
there's always people that are surprising Mandyand I because we just dealt with a
(33:15):
contractor the other day and when Ihad him on the phone, he was
like, I just want to He'svery southern, He's from Smyrna. He's
like, I just want to tellyou that you and your wife are two
of the funniest ladies I've ever watched. So it's like, yeah, I
could have judged him because he hada really thick Southern accent, but he
surprised me. Yes, but Iappreciate you saying that, because really,
(33:37):
until you've you've, you know,until you feel some of those feelings,
whether it's about your sexuality or not. Yeah, well, and that's like
the same thing with like wait too, because like, growing up, I
was an athlete, I was workingout twice a day, I was doing
all these things. And then Ihad a kid, and then I became
a size fourteen sixteen, and I'mlike, I've never felt like what it's
to feel like in this body,and I'm like, why are there so
many of these challenges? And I'vejust started to like really hone in on
(34:00):
why as is happening to me?And I'm like, God's giving me such
a big heart to understand, Ifeel like, what people are going through
and to be able to like stewardthem through those hard things, because it's
really hard to say, oh,yeah, I understand when you don't you
know what I mean, or liketrying to empathize with somebody when you're like,
no, you don't. You'll neverunderstand what it's like to not be
(34:22):
able to fit in clothes or notto be able to tell your parents that
you love someone or stuff like that, and it's just like, just be
nice. Just be nice, literally, that's it. Just be nice and
respectful. And if you don't agreewith what somebody else believes or does,
that's fine, a man. Justkeep it yourself and move on and love
them, love them through it,you know what I mean. And it's
all a learning journey too. It'snot a it's not a perfect journey.
(34:44):
I want to say that. Yeah, you're never going to be perfect about
certain situations. It's about just learningand trying to be better the next day
than you were today. Learning journey. I love that so much. All
Right, we're gonna go out withRoad Hard, Road Hard. Y'all excited
for you. Thank you, Brooke,
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.