August 23, 2024 • 26 mins
Claire Bowen (Scarlett) & Charles Esten (Decon Claybourne) from the hit tv show, "Nashville" are back with a few of thier fellow costars to bring the show back to life. The show has gained even more popularity thanks to streaming, even more than when the show was running. We tlak what makes this show so special and what it meant to them to be a part of it. We also ask the tough question...does "Nashville" ever make a return?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, listen, I'm excited because they are doing big things.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's Nashville related.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We'll talk about that in a few But Claire Bowen
and Charles Essen, but every time I talk to him.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
He's like, Chip, yeah, that's what everybody knows me calling me.
But if you just read it off the credits, it's Charles.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
First of all, does it feel good to be I
feel like you guys are never a part. But does
it feel good to be back together making magic?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Absolutely? Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
We're dear friends and we see each other all the time.
But it's different than getting to get on to get
up on that stage and play these Nashville songs with
Jonathan Jackson and Sam Palladio.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So it is a real reunion for all of us.
Why what was so special?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Because you guys have both If you go up and
down the IMDb page, y'all have stayed busy in your careers.
What's so special about that Nashville show and that Nashville
experience that y'all have kept it alive?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
It's just wild. I mean, we're like family, and it
this town. Being in a town called Nashville filming a
show called Nashville. We were so lucky to be embraced
by people because you know, you understand why people would
be like, what are you gonna what are you gonna
do about my town? And on the town.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Don't make us look stupid, everybody said, and then we weren't.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
We're already us, not you, and uh, I don't know.
There was just something about being here that it was
a very special time and we worked very hard all
the way through it, loved it and we don't want
to let it.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Go, and that's why we never left either. Claire and
I are still here. Sam is here for the most part.
Jonathan is here for the most part. I think he's
back working on General Hospital now. But there's also something
about Nashville that our characters went through a lot, and
they and endured a lot of suffering that life can bring.
(01:45):
But along the way, you know, found their way through
it with their faith, with their family, with their friends,
and with country music. And what we found is that
our audience, therefore, they attached on a deeper level because
they knew somebody going through that, and they knew somebody
going through that, and these songs were the final ingredient
(02:05):
that other shows don't get to have these these incredible
songs written by the best songwriters in Nashville that we
got to sing. And so there's some sort of attachment
between Nashville and the Nashville fan base, the Nashi's as
we call them, that just doesn't seem to fade.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And we're grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And there's something about like the last tour that we
just did a tour in the UK and it was
incredible as the Nashville cast again and like so much
of the audience were new fans, so we met so
many new friends, and the people who've been there since
the beginning have said, like, please keep touring and that
feels so special, like that's an honor for us. Oh
so why not?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, And it's funny to be a fan of something
and then meet somebody in real life, right, And one
of the first things that popped out was and forgive me,
I was a fan of the show, but up until
yesterday I didn't realize you were Australian job. But it's
funny because I'm sure you'll do something and meet a
(03:00):
fan in public or something and you're like, in You're
I'm not going to be insulting and do your accent.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He'd be like, hey, top of the morning or whatever.
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
When you meet you said you weren't going to be insulting,
and then suddenly you were.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You know what you mean. People were shocked when they
when they when they hear her right, like what's what's
the reality is it? Like? What's wrong with your voice?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You sound funny?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I'm sorry, which, by the way, is a testament to
how well she did the American accent.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I can promise you I could never have.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Gone to Australia and played an Australian guy named Deacon
as well as she did. By the way, I did
figure it out years ago. I had a small role
on a TV show. This is before the internet, this
is before cell phones or anything, and I had about
a paragraph of Australian to speak. I was played this
Australian guy, barely had a scene at all.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You never heard this.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
So I learned how to say this paragraph. And I
got there on the day and they said they love
what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They wrote you two more scenes and.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I didn't have an idea how to say any of
these words in Australian.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So you know what, I did.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I got on the phone and I called the highest
regency in Sydney, Australia, and I got the concierge and
I said, I'm an actor in a.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I'm on the lot right now.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I'm at Warner Brothers, and I'm screwed because I don't
know how to say these things.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Can you please say these words for me? And I'll
be damned.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
He stood there and I recorded him off the phone
saying the words I needed the word.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So that's just what true story that.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, well, so we'll get her American accent eventually. What's
your Australian accent?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Hold on? I gotta call Sydney bloody? How that out there?
Which you cast him.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Hanging out with him?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, that's the good part. Uh So.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
The funny thing about TV shows now, especially in the
streaming universes, things that you didn't think could live forever
now do and get these like cult followings.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And it's funny enough.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
We just talking to a member of our staff here
and she goes, before I moved to Nashville, I've binge
watched that show, so like I kind of knew what
to expect.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Exact words. Fact, that's true. Exact words did they give
you a quiz at the border?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They asked you various questions just to make sure you're
allowed to come on in.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
They do ask a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, when you but when you hear something like that,
and you know the cult following that this show has,
and it was popular in its run and it's almost
more popular now, do you feel.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
That, Yeah, it's been. This is why we feel so honored,
like to have the fans be like, we want more
and we've told our referends and we couldn't go out
for such a lie because of the pandemic that people
couldn't leave their homes. They were like, I've finished Netflix,
what do I do?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, it definitely gets wider because everything keeps streaming, but
it also seems to get deeper as well, because it
was sort of a golden moment.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
One of the things I love about it.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It's an absolute document of this town at that moment.
I mean, if you look at twenty twelve to now,
how much has this city changed, how much has Broadway changed,
how much is every part?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well, if you watch that show, you're going to see.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
How it was golden in that moment right then, And
it really meant a lot to us to be a
part of that and that people are still listening. And
by the way, other shows to get together, they have
to do an actual reunion, they have to shoot a
whole season. Might be good, might not. You're borrowing on
something that you're not sure you're gonna make better, you're
certainly getting something out of it. But with us, we
have this music, so it's a lot sort of simpler.
(06:28):
Let's just get up on a stage with this incredible band.
By the way, the band that is up there is
led by the guy named Colin Linden, and Colin was
the voice of Deacon's guitar. When you heard Deacon playing,
when you heard him singing, that was me singing. But
when you heard him playing, that was Colin. So there's
a real family aspect to all of it. We're all
back together and we get to do this again.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Out of everything you've done, and if you just have
a different answer, that's that's fantastic. But out of everything
you've done, you look up and down your career, regardless
of what level it was, are you the level of
your involvement. Are you surprised that this is what has
has lasted like maybe it did something else. You're like, Oh,
this is gonna be something that lasts forever.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, let me say, I'm gonna jump in and say no,
I'm not surprised, and I'll tell you why, because I've
been a part of a whole lot of things. I
had a small role on the Office That's gonna last,
that's unbelievable. But I was a guest star on that
recurring guest star.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I promise you.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I saw the script and I knew there was something
special about this script written by Calli Curry. I heard
t Bone Burnett was doing the first season of Music
and I knew.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
How incredible that was.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It wasn't until I saw the pilot episode I knew
how good some of the scenes I was able to
be a part of, was how great Connie Britton was
in those scenes with me.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It wasn't until I saw the pilot.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Just like everybody else that I saw, like Sam and
Claire singing, was.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Your first song? Was it fade into You?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
If I didn't know better, the second one was fade
into You. They had these two singles, one on top
of the other, like an episode or two a part,
and that's the stuff I hadn't seen while we were shooting.
When I started to see these other characters just so alive,
so gifted, so talented, that I was surrounded by this thing.
I promise you, I don't know much about this business,
(08:11):
but I said this could be special, this could last,
and it was right.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And we're going to talk about the show coming up
here at the Ryman shortly. But I want to talk
about acting and singing because there's not making it sound easy,
but there's plenty of people that can act right, can
get in front of the camera, can deliver.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Their lines, bring the lines of the life.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
But how much harder is it when you have to
sing and act? Is there an extra level of stress?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Is pressure? Or is it just have to sing? Then
get to sing?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It wasn't something we were fortunate to We were all like,
we get to sing too, Yeah, every day.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It's crazy. We've both done musical theater before. This is
the last thing you did, was Buddy, and I did
bring Awakening back, and that's part of what got me here.
I was late to my audition because it rained in California,
and everyone forgets how to drive when it rains in California.
But they me in the costing room because they knew
that I'd played Wendlines Bring Awakening. So to get to
do like to get to tell stories, because it all
(09:08):
is just storytelling. It's just a different medium. Acting and
singing is such a dream come true. So when this
role came up, I was like, sorry, what.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yes, please, I'll tell you something else too. I don't
think there is.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I don't see the difference really between them, so I
see so many of the commonalities. In fact, whenever I
see a musician or a singer songwriter that either can't
act or think they can't act, I'm like, I don't
understand that, because when you stand on that stage so
often you're singing a song. I don't know if you
know this, but Johnny Cash was really not named Sue.
He was playing a character who was a boy named Sue,
(09:43):
and so as such, he was acting throughout that song,
and that has how every singer songwriter does. So to me,
there's so many commonalities. The biggest one is how.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Truthful are you being and you're acting? How real?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
What are you bringing that's authentically human? And it's the
same thing in songwriting and song singing. Are you being
authent all those people we love the most when they
sing a song, you're like, that's it, that's the real thing.
And finally, when you do a show and you're doing
a scene, in every scene, you go about as far
as you can. What we found is when you now
get to sing a song on top of that, you
(10:15):
get to go deeper. There are things that Deacon never
would have said to you, but you put them behind
a guitar and he'll tell you anything. You know, that
whole three chords in the truth. So I've always thought
they go together perfectly, and Nashville was the perfect showcase
for that.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Those characters get to come back to life.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Anytime a fan approaches you, or anytime you get to
do a show like you're about to do at the
Rhyman and then also go on tour as well.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
How hard was it to say goodbye.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
To that character as things raps, because obviously you get
attached to that role you're playing right, and you get
to put and it becomes really a part of you.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So how hard was it?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
You guys are doing the last the last scene the
last show, it's wrapped.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
R Yeah, scene of the entire series. Yeah, we did
the last scene together of the whole show. Yea, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Deacon was always with Scarlet and she was helping him
and he was hopefully helping her.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
But when you left, when we left, I tell you this,
it was.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
What people might not understand is even more important than
I want this to go on forever. You don't ever
feel that because you know it won't. What you think
is I want this to end. Well, I want to
land this airplane. I mean the most important.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Part of any airplane journey's landing.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And so you wanted to feel like we left these
characters in a good, special, wonderful, real place. And because
we both did that. There there's a moment in the
final scene where Deacon is having a dream and in
it Raina is giving him He finally pictures Raina. It's
so real and it's so clear, and she gives him
(11:54):
some advice that soothes his soul and calms him as
she always did. And in that moment, he's about to
go on stage at the Ryman where we're blocked from
the Ryman, and in walks Scarlett and she sees him
in some places.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
She says, are you okay? And Deacon looks at her
and he says, yeah, I'm okay.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And it was the smallest line. The line meant, are
you all right to go on stage? But what it
really meant was these two people had been together forever
and Deacon had never been okay. The final line is
are you okay? And he says, yeah, I'm okay, And
I thought that was perfection. So that gives me the
cold chill still, and that lets me it's hard to
(12:31):
step away, but we have I still have his guitar
right there. I have his boots at home. I have
a bunch of his shirts so I can put on
Deacon anytime I want. Until then, we get to stand
up on stage at the Rymann Auditorium in Atlanta as
well on the twenty second and twenty third of November
and get to for a little bit be these characters again.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So we get to see the show here in Nashville.
We're lucky, like you said the night before, you're in Atlanta.
Let's say everything is about a reunion in right now,
right like a full like reunion or extra episodes or whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Do you see that ever?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And I'm not asking behind the curtain question right but
if you get approached to ever bring this show back
short run five episodes, see where everybody is now something
like that, or even test the waters.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And just run with it again.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
My think on that, and I'd love to hear Claire's,
is that what we have now is a bank account
that we built up with our fan base, with the
people that love that show.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
There's this massive bank account. If I ever saw.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
A script or any concept or idea that I thought
truly would add to that bank account of goodwill, I
would be down. I think virtually all of them would
honestly be just making withdrawals, would just be taking from
what was to give us a little more fun right
now and a little more time in the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I would never want to do that.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
It would have to serve all of the work that
we did is six years of our lives, maybe more,
I don't know. And so as long as it didn't
take away from that, both for us, but mostly for
the fans, because they're the ones who it's about. They're
the ones who keep coming back and filling the seats
and asking us to come to wherever they like, whatever
the nearest city to them is to sing the songs.
As long as it didn't take away from any of
(14:14):
that for them, then I think it would be wonderful,
it'd be so fun.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I'll give you one more hint too. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You can find where these if you want to kind
of know where Deacon's gone, it's not the exact answer.
If you want to find where Scarlet's gone, it's not
the exact answer.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
But we all have our own music, all of us.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
If you follow Sam Palladio has an album coming out,
Claire's with Bow and Young with her incredible husband Brandon, who,
by the way, she introduced to the Nashville audience in
that final episode. There was Brandon and Clara and Scarlet
on Brandon's arm and they were talking about getting married
and lo and.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Behold they did.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
So you can listen to Bow and Young and some
of those songs, you'll go, that's Scarlet. And if you
listen to my I have an album out called Love
Ain't Pretty. I promise you listen to a couple of
these shows. The songs you tell me, you'll go that
one's Deacon, and you're not wrong. There's a piece of
those people and all of us that continues in our art.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Is that intentional to that you know of that character voice,
and that.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Means no we're never you never went. I think I'll
go write a scarlet or sing a scarlet song. I'm
just saying, we walked in these boots or she walked
in these heels with the now you walked in boots.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, And honestly, she's barefoot ninety percent of the time,
so she walked in those bare feet of scarlets a
long time.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So that part of us is it sticks its head
out again.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
I think for me, scarlet was always a part of me.
I learned to do her accent from a hospital bed
as a child because I couldn't go anywhere. I had
cancer when I was kidding a fine out, but I
watched Fried Green Tomatoes and The Wizard of Oz until
I wore like I think it went through three VHS
tapes of the Wizard of Oz, and that's how I
learned the accent when I was about five, I think
when I learned it. And so when the casting came along,
(15:52):
I walked into the room as Southern person, having never
met a Southern person. So I really hope it didn't
upset too many people.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Who seemed happy.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
So she was always in there, and I think Deacon
was always in there.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, sure, And it was just.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Waiting for the right project, the right inspiration for them
to come out. So when we do go out on stage,
we bring them. We bring them with us wherever we go.
We don't pretend to be them. They were always there,
and I sound completely and I think.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
When we're all together, they're conjured even more. They start
coming out even more. Sam gets a little more gunner
around us, and Jonathan gets a little more avery. So
I'm really just so proud of everybody and all the
music they've made since then too. I knew how good
they were, but then you see their independent projects and
I'm like, yeah, God, they're so good.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
They're so good.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Last thing I want to ask about the show, and
then we're going to talk about what people can expect
as y'all hit.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
The stage here.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Sure, let's say they bring the show back, but let's
say they're interested in recasting, right, let's bring this back
to life. It's a prequel, right, or let's fast forward
to years down the line. Sure, and it's with respect
to the characters you brought to life, but like, let's
see what they are now with a different voice behind them.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Who would you know? You're gonna ask your goals. Oh
my gosh, that's tricky.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't see anybody else playing Deacon.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Come on, yeah, somebody younger that's really kind made.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Him who he was, Like you, you embody him when
you walk out on stage.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You're so kind.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I will say this though it's it's twenty twenty four.
We don't need to go find younger, more famous us.
We can use AI and I can be fourteen in
Deacon and we can make that happen. Just a few
more years, we will have that technology to go be.
It'll be a cartoon called Lil Nashville and they'll be
all little, big headed children of.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Hey, we might need to clip this out, because that's
a hell of an idea.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Saturday morning, my son gets up, we pull my cereal.
I'm going to watch the Little Next.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Whatever, always crying where's cartoony.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I will trauma that leads to alcoholism.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And I will say to piggyback off of what you
just said. I've heard other people say that before.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Obviously, we've met a few times of press games with you,
hanging with the with the bandering intermissions and our.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Buddy Jansen, Yeah and Janson.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I've heard more than one person say that you that
character is like career defining for you.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Do you feel that way, Oh?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Absolutely, there, there's definitely a ad. After Deacon was a
different time in my life than before Deacon, including the
show outer Banks. I know for a fact that they,
maybe not they, but their wife and their children saw
Outer Banks and said you need to I mean so
at Nashville and.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Said he'd be great for Ward.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
And they knew it would be a good mislead because
Deacon was basically a good guy, so they brought me
into be this good guy in quotes that went sideways.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So it changed my life in all.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Those ways, but mostly it brought music back into all
of our lives. And here we are in music city
for a reason. This place just had all our hearts instantly.
There's a line in a John Denver song coming home
to a place he'd never been before.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That's exactly what.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I felt like immediately, and every place I go I
see that show. I was at the Opry the other
night walking down the hallway and I remembered my friend Claire,
who I'd barely known a day or two, just sitting
barefoot in one of the hallways waiting for her scene.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
And so every place we go. I can walk right
down Broadway.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And see moments that had something to do with this show.
So yeah, it's the most beautiful thing to get to
be here and be a part of that. So maybe
that was definitely career defining, but more importantly was life defining.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, so you guys are hitting the stage, at what
point did you decide because this isn't your first reunion
show or back to two shows?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Right?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
We did last year and it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, well I think we were shocked then about the
the response effect.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
The response, Yeah, especially even also over in UK, like
we have no reason to space. It's spent a couple
of years by now. I don't know if you know
that we finished up. The last episodes were in eighteen.
Here we are in twenty four, so that's six years
ago with no real new shows, and my goodness.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It was crazy to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
We played Chicago last year and that was the first
one we did and it was like it was like nuts.
It was sort of like Beatlemania kind of fun thing.
So that's why we're doing it. The show here last
year sold out like in three four minutes at the Rhyman,
which is lovely.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I mean, like I love making people happy. It means
people are so happy, and we met we met so
many of them. Goodness that we did meet.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Absolutely and we've never been We've never really done it
in Atlanta. Will be at the Roxy on the in
the twenty second and then here on the twenty third,
so that we get to jump back in these waters again.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Is a thrill? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Is it something that you plan on? This will be
something you guys do yearly and just pick different cities.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
I think we're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Cool and go well whatever, But I think, looking at
each other, if we could do, if we could do,
if we could do.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
This every so often for the rest of our life.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
I'd love to play the ryemand once a year for
the rest of my natural life until they had to
wheel me off that stage.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
You'll be the one wheeling me.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
But that's a little aware, is he now exactly?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Well?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
And it's and it's funny because that stage is so
there's a lot of stairs, so I'll help you.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The Rhyman is such a special spot when you decided Nashville,
it had to be because of the history of the
show and the Ryman being what it had to.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Be right, and we're so so lucky to be invited back.
Everyone wants to play the Rhyman. But they were just like, yes, well,
you know.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You know the three, the trifecta, the trinity in this
town is the Opry, the Ryman, and.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
The Bluebird Cafe.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Originally, Steve Buchannan, the brilliant mind behind thinking that there
even needed to be a show about Nashville, thought it
might be set at the Opry, backstage at the Opry,
because it's an amazing, magical place. But I think you
can't live backstage at the Opry. It's too special, it's
too singular. So but you can live in and around
the Bluebird Cafe, so it was sort of based around there.
(21:57):
Initially we started out in the real one, and then
they built us one that was so immaculately exact as
the other one that even Erica Wallams Nichols, who runs
the place over there, would say she was shocked by
how real it was.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
That was a place we could live.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Scarlett could work there, Deacon could play there all the time,
Gunner could work there, and we always went back there
all the time. Then for special times we would go
to the Opry and Raina would be playing the Opry
or at a time in his life when Deacon needed
music more than ever, the Opry reached out and asked
Deacon to come play at the Opry. So those were
extremely special moments. But perhaps the most special ball is
(22:33):
the Mother Church being on stage at the Rhyman, and
in fact that we got to close out the entire
show of Nashville on stage at the Ryman with the
entire cast, past and present.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Singing the song of Nashville.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
A life that's good means that we have a connection
now that place is historically connected to so many that
we get to have that sort of flag planted on
that stage. Is that's where we ended at all? Because
there's no place else we could think of that would
be so perfect?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
What does a fan get out of this show other
than just great songs? Is there a lot of storytelling
about the characters the show?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Like do you are? Do you just hate? The show?
Is on lights up? Let's rock.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
It's more like interacting with people with like a room
the size of the Rhyme, and it's big, but it's
small enough where you really are. You get to get
close together. Chip and I always go flying off the
front of the stage and we can't help it. We
just really like our fans. We have the best fans
in the world. Like I will always say that they're
just they're so they just keep coming back and they
(23:35):
say the loveliest things. And for me, being a storyteller
and an artist, I just want to make people feel good.
There's so much stuff going on in the world that's
really scary and yucky, and there are things that happen
in each play everyone's lives personally that are not necessarily fun.
So we get to give them this like it's suspended reality.
(23:56):
Maybe we're giving them words, but maybe we sing a
song that they were going through.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We've heard again and again that so many of these
songs are sole medicine for people. Whether it's a life
that's good or a song like Sanctuary or a friend
of mine, there's different songs that people latch onto. So yes,
you're gonna get to hear those songs. But the other
two things that are have become so important about it
is number two. Steve bu Can and our producer originally
(24:22):
of the show, also produces this, and he and we
all agreed that we have the kind of fans that
also want to hear some of our songs. So you're
gonna get to hear some bow and You and you're
gonna get to hear some Charles Aston, You're gonna get
to hear something we mix and match the two. They
jumped up with me on my songs. I have a
song called down the Road we finished with at last tour,
and to have all my cast mates up there singing
(24:43):
my song. So that's the second part. The third part,
the third part of the Secret Sauce is we make
sure it's not a train that has a schedule.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yes it is, but when we're out there, we have.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
These moments where we're just interacting with each other and
we're just talking.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
With each other.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
They want to just be and step inside the show
a little bit and sort of hang out, and so
do we. We want to let them into that place.
So all those things. It's sort of a hangout and
we get to play all this different music and no,
because no audience is the same, so they are they
are a major. That's the one part that we didn't
have in the show Nashville is our audience was out
(25:20):
on their.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sofas all across the world.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Not interacting. This is different that now. Now, this is
the beauty of live is now you're.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
A part of it. You're a little louder for this song.
Oh okay, they like that one, and it's just really special.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
By the way, I've been on stage singing a Deacon
song that I haven't sung in a while, and I'll
forget a line and I'll hear the line, and I'll
hear the line come back to me through the audience
and I'll hear them sing it, and I'm like, okay, guys, yeah,
all right, this is their show as much as it's ours.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I love that there are songs. There's one in particular
called he Ain't Me that you wrote it with Deacon
in mind, and they said it was going to be
on the show, and for some reason it didn't end
up on the show. But the fans when he plays
it live, they go absolutely insane, and they treat that.
They treat our songs just like the Nashville songs. It
(26:10):
is clearly meant to be on the show. But I
love that you get to do it because it's.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I mean, yeah, they have a it's it's just it's
just sweet. And if you're and by the way. It's
last time we asked who here is an old Nashville fan.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
You hear this enormous roar, and we go who's streamed
it recently during COVID or after?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
And there's this other roar.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
So what you said at the beginning of this thing
is there's more people coming to Nashville every day, not
just this town, but the show. And we hope that
if you're out there listening now, come be a part
of this community. You might have the train came back
around the station, so hop on this time.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I love that Freese at the time, and oh my pleasure.
All right, listen, I'm excited because they are doing big things.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's Nashville related.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We'll talk about that in a few But Claire Bowen
and Charles Essen, but every time I talk to him.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
He's like, Chip, yeah, that's what everybody knows me calling me.
But if you just read it off the credits, it's Charles.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
First of all, does it feel good to be I
feel like you guys are never a part. But does
it feel good to be back together making magic?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Absolutely? Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
We're dear friends and we see each other all the time.
But it's different than getting to get on to get
up on that stage and play these Nashville songs with
Jonathan Jackson and Sam Palladio.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So it is a real reunion for all of us.
Why what was so special?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Because you guys have both If you go up and
down the IMDb page, y'all have stayed busy in your careers.
What's so special about that Nashville show and that Nashville
experience that y'all have kept it alive?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
It's just wild. I mean, we're like family, and it
this town. Being in a town called Nashville filming a
show called Nashville. We were so lucky to be embraced
by people because you know, you understand why people would
be like, what are you gonna what are you gonna
do about my town? And on the town.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Don't make us look stupid, everybody said, and then we weren't.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
We're already us, not you, and uh, I don't know.
There was just something about being here that it was
a very special time and we worked very hard all
the way through it, loved it and we don't want
to let it.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Go, and that's why we never left either. Claire and
I are still here. Sam is here for the most part.
Jonathan is here for the most part. I think he's
back working on General Hospital now. But there's also something
about Nashville that our characters went through a lot, and
they and endured a lot of suffering that life can bring.
(01:45):
But along the way, you know, found their way through
it with their faith, with their family, with their friends,
and with country music. And what we found is that
our audience, therefore, they attached on a deeper level because
they knew somebody going through that, and they knew somebody
going through that, and these songs were the final ingredient
(02:05):
that other shows don't get to have these these incredible
songs written by the best songwriters in Nashville that we
got to sing. And so there's some sort of attachment
between Nashville and the Nashville fan base, the Nashi's as
we call them, that just doesn't seem to fade.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And we're grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And there's something about like the last tour that we
just did a tour in the UK and it was
incredible as the Nashville cast again and like so much
of the audience were new fans, so we met so
many new friends, and the people who've been there since
the beginning have said, like, please keep touring and that
feels so special, like that's an honor for us. Oh
so why not?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, And it's funny to be a fan of something
and then meet somebody in real life, right, And one
of the first things that popped out was and forgive me,
I was a fan of the show, but up until
yesterday I didn't realize you were Australian job. But it's
funny because I'm sure you'll do something and meet a
(03:00):
fan in public or something and you're like, in You're
I'm not going to be insulting and do your accent.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He'd be like, hey, top of the morning or whatever.
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
When you meet you said you weren't going to be insulting,
and then suddenly you were.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You know what you mean. People were shocked when they
when they when they hear her right, like what's what's
the reality is it? Like? What's wrong with your voice?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You sound funny?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I'm sorry, which, by the way, is a testament to
how well she did the American accent.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I can promise you I could never have.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Gone to Australia and played an Australian guy named Deacon
as well as she did. By the way, I did
figure it out years ago. I had a small role
on a TV show. This is before the internet, this
is before cell phones or anything, and I had about
a paragraph of Australian to speak. I was played this
Australian guy, barely had a scene at all.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You never heard this.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
So I learned how to say this paragraph. And I
got there on the day and they said they love
what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They wrote you two more scenes and.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I didn't have an idea how to say any of
these words in Australian.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So you know what, I did.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I got on the phone and I called the highest
regency in Sydney, Australia, and I got the concierge and
I said, I'm an actor in a.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I'm on the lot right now.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I'm at Warner Brothers, and I'm screwed because I don't
know how to say these things.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Can you please say these words for me? And I'll
be damned.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
He stood there and I recorded him off the phone
saying the words I needed the word.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So that's just what true story that.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, well, so we'll get her American accent eventually. What's
your Australian accent?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Hold on? I gotta call Sydney bloody? How that out there?
Which you cast him.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Hanging out with him?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, that's the good part. Uh So.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
The funny thing about TV shows now, especially in the
streaming universes, things that you didn't think could live forever
now do and get these like cult followings.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And it's funny enough.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
We just talking to a member of our staff here
and she goes, before I moved to Nashville, I've binge
watched that show, so like I kind of knew what
to expect.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Exact words. Fact, that's true. Exact words did they give
you a quiz at the border?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They asked you various questions just to make sure you're
allowed to come on in.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
They do ask a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, when you but when you hear something like that,
and you know the cult following that this show has,
and it was popular in its run and it's almost
more popular now, do you feel.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
That, Yeah, it's been. This is why we feel so honored,
like to have the fans be like, we want more
and we've told our referends and we couldn't go out
for such a lie because of the pandemic that people
couldn't leave their homes. They were like, I've finished Netflix,
what do I do?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, it definitely gets wider because everything keeps streaming, but
it also seems to get deeper as well, because it
was sort of a golden moment.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
One of the things I love about it.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It's an absolute document of this town at that moment.
I mean, if you look at twenty twelve to now,
how much has this city changed, how much has Broadway changed,
how much is every part?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well, if you watch that show, you're going to see.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
How it was golden in that moment right then, And
it really meant a lot to us to be a
part of that and that people are still listening. And
by the way, other shows to get together, they have
to do an actual reunion, they have to shoot a
whole season. Might be good, might not. You're borrowing on
something that you're not sure you're gonna make better, you're
certainly getting something out of it. But with us, we
have this music, so it's a lot sort of simpler.
(06:28):
Let's just get up on a stage with this incredible band.
By the way, the band that is up there is
led by the guy named Colin Linden, and Colin was
the voice of Deacon's guitar. When you heard Deacon playing,
when you heard him singing, that was me singing. But
when you heard him playing, that was Colin. So there's
a real family aspect to all of it. We're all
back together and we get to do this again.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Out of everything you've done, and if you just have
a different answer, that's that's fantastic. But out of everything
you've done, you look up and down your career, regardless
of what level it was, are you the level of
your involvement. Are you surprised that this is what has
has lasted like maybe it did something else. You're like, Oh,
this is gonna be something that lasts forever.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, let me say, I'm gonna jump in and say no,
I'm not surprised, and I'll tell you why, because I've
been a part of a whole lot of things. I
had a small role on the Office That's gonna last,
that's unbelievable. But I was a guest star on that
recurring guest star.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I promise you.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I saw the script and I knew there was something
special about this script written by Calli Curry. I heard
t Bone Burnett was doing the first season of Music
and I knew.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
How incredible that was.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It wasn't until I saw the pilot episode I knew
how good some of the scenes I was able to
be a part of, was how great Connie Britton was
in those scenes with me.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It wasn't until I saw the pilot.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Just like everybody else that I saw, like Sam and
Claire singing, was.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Your first song? Was it fade into You?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
If I didn't know better, the second one was fade
into You. They had these two singles, one on top
of the other, like an episode or two a part,
and that's the stuff I hadn't seen while we were shooting.
When I started to see these other characters just so alive,
so gifted, so talented, that I was surrounded by this thing.
I promise you, I don't know much about this business,
(08:11):
but I said this could be special, this could last,
and it was right.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And we're going to talk about the show coming up
here at the Ryman shortly. But I want to talk
about acting and singing because there's not making it sound easy,
but there's plenty of people that can act right, can
get in front of the camera, can deliver.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Their lines, bring the lines of the life.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
But how much harder is it when you have to
sing and act? Is there an extra level of stress?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Is pressure? Or is it just have to sing? Then
get to sing?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It wasn't something we were fortunate to We were all like,
we get to sing too, Yeah, every day.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It's crazy. We've both done musical theater before. This is
the last thing you did, was Buddy, and I did
bring Awakening back, and that's part of what got me here.
I was late to my audition because it rained in California,
and everyone forgets how to drive when it rains in California.
But they me in the costing room because they knew
that I'd played Wendlines Bring Awakening. So to get to
do like to get to tell stories, because it all
(09:08):
is just storytelling. It's just a different medium. Acting and
singing is such a dream come true. So when this
role came up, I was like, sorry, what.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yes, please, I'll tell you something else too. I don't
think there is.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I don't see the difference really between them, so I
see so many of the commonalities. In fact, whenever I
see a musician or a singer songwriter that either can't
act or think they can't act, I'm like, I don't
understand that, because when you stand on that stage so
often you're singing a song. I don't know if you
know this, but Johnny Cash was really not named Sue.
He was playing a character who was a boy named Sue,
(09:43):
and so as such, he was acting throughout that song,
and that has how every singer songwriter does. So to me,
there's so many commonalities. The biggest one is how.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Truthful are you being and you're acting? How real?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
What are you bringing that's authentically human? And it's the
same thing in songwriting and song singing. Are you being
authent all those people we love the most when they
sing a song, you're like, that's it, that's the real thing.
And finally, when you do a show and you're doing
a scene, in every scene, you go about as far
as you can. What we found is when you now
get to sing a song on top of that, you
(10:15):
get to go deeper. There are things that Deacon never
would have said to you, but you put them behind
a guitar and he'll tell you anything. You know, that
whole three chords in the truth. So I've always thought
they go together perfectly, and Nashville was the perfect showcase
for that.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Those characters get to come back to life.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Anytime a fan approaches you, or anytime you get to
do a show like you're about to do at the
Rhyman and then also go on tour as well.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
How hard was it to say goodbye.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
To that character as things raps, because obviously you get
attached to that role you're playing right, and you get
to put and it becomes really a part of you.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So how hard was it?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
You guys are doing the last the last scene the
last show, it's wrapped.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
R Yeah, scene of the entire series. Yeah, we did
the last scene together of the whole show. Yea, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Deacon was always with Scarlet and she was helping him
and he was hopefully helping her.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
But when you left, when we left, I tell you this,
it was.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
What people might not understand is even more important than
I want this to go on forever. You don't ever
feel that because you know it won't. What you think
is I want this to end. Well, I want to
land this airplane. I mean the most important.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Part of any airplane journey's landing.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And so you wanted to feel like we left these
characters in a good, special, wonderful, real place. And because
we both did that. There there's a moment in the
final scene where Deacon is having a dream and in
it Raina is giving him He finally pictures Raina. It's
so real and it's so clear, and she gives him
(11:54):
some advice that soothes his soul and calms him as
she always did. And in that moment, he's about to
go on stage at the Ryman where we're blocked from
the Ryman, and in walks Scarlett and she sees him
in some places.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
She says, are you okay? And Deacon looks at her
and he says, yeah, I'm okay.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And it was the smallest line. The line meant, are
you all right to go on stage? But what it
really meant was these two people had been together forever
and Deacon had never been okay. The final line is
are you okay? And he says, yeah, I'm okay, And
I thought that was perfection. So that gives me the
cold chill still, and that lets me it's hard to
(12:31):
step away, but we have I still have his guitar
right there. I have his boots at home. I have
a bunch of his shirts so I can put on
Deacon anytime I want. Until then, we get to stand
up on stage at the Rymann Auditorium in Atlanta as
well on the twenty second and twenty third of November
and get to for a little bit be these characters again.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So we get to see the show here in Nashville.
We're lucky, like you said the night before, you're in Atlanta.
Let's say everything is about a reunion in right now,
right like a full like reunion or extra episodes or whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Do you see that ever?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And I'm not asking behind the curtain question right but
if you get approached to ever bring this show back
short run five episodes, see where everybody is now something
like that, or even test the waters.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And just run with it again.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
My think on that, and I'd love to hear Claire's,
is that what we have now is a bank account
that we built up with our fan base, with the
people that love that show.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
There's this massive bank account. If I ever saw.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
A script or any concept or idea that I thought
truly would add to that bank account of goodwill, I
would be down. I think virtually all of them would
honestly be just making withdrawals, would just be taking from
what was to give us a little more fun right
now and a little more time in the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I would never want to do that.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
It would have to serve all of the work that
we did is six years of our lives, maybe more,
I don't know. And so as long as it didn't
take away from that, both for us, but mostly for
the fans, because they're the ones who it's about. They're
the ones who keep coming back and filling the seats
and asking us to come to wherever they like, whatever
the nearest city to them is to sing the songs.
As long as it didn't take away from any of
(14:14):
that for them, then I think it would be wonderful,
it'd be so fun.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I'll give you one more hint too. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You can find where these if you want to kind
of know where Deacon's gone, it's not the exact answer.
If you want to find where Scarlet's gone, it's not
the exact answer.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
But we all have our own music, all of us.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
If you follow Sam Palladio has an album coming out,
Claire's with Bow and Young with her incredible husband Brandon, who,
by the way, she introduced to the Nashville audience in
that final episode. There was Brandon and Clara and Scarlet
on Brandon's arm and they were talking about getting married
and lo and.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Behold they did.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
So you can listen to Bow and Young and some
of those songs, you'll go, that's Scarlet. And if you
listen to my I have an album out called Love
Ain't Pretty. I promise you listen to a couple of
these shows. The songs you tell me, you'll go that
one's Deacon, and you're not wrong. There's a piece of
those people and all of us that continues in our art.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Is that intentional to that you know of that character voice,
and that.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Means no we're never you never went. I think I'll
go write a scarlet or sing a scarlet song. I'm
just saying, we walked in these boots or she walked
in these heels with the now you walked in boots.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, And honestly, she's barefoot ninety percent of the time,
so she walked in those bare feet of scarlets a
long time.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So that part of us is it sticks its head
out again.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
I think for me, scarlet was always a part of me.
I learned to do her accent from a hospital bed
as a child because I couldn't go anywhere. I had
cancer when I was kidding a fine out, but I
watched Fried Green Tomatoes and The Wizard of Oz until
I wore like I think it went through three VHS
tapes of the Wizard of Oz, and that's how I
learned the accent when I was about five, I think
when I learned it. And so when the casting came along,
(15:52):
I walked into the room as Southern person, having never
met a Southern person. So I really hope it didn't
upset too many people.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Who seemed happy.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
So she was always in there, and I think Deacon
was always in there.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, sure, And it was just.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Waiting for the right project, the right inspiration for them
to come out. So when we do go out on stage,
we bring them. We bring them with us wherever we go.
We don't pretend to be them. They were always there,
and I sound completely and I think.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
When we're all together, they're conjured even more. They start
coming out even more. Sam gets a little more gunner
around us, and Jonathan gets a little more avery. So
I'm really just so proud of everybody and all the
music they've made since then too. I knew how good
they were, but then you see their independent projects and
I'm like, yeah, God, they're so good.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
They're so good.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Last thing I want to ask about the show, and
then we're going to talk about what people can expect
as y'all hit.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
The stage here.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Sure, let's say they bring the show back, but let's
say they're interested in recasting, right, let's bring this back
to life. It's a prequel, right, or let's fast forward
to years down the line. Sure, and it's with respect
to the characters you brought to life, but like, let's
see what they are now with a different voice behind them.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Who would you know? You're gonna ask your goals. Oh
my gosh, that's tricky.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't see anybody else playing Deacon.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Come on, yeah, somebody younger that's really kind made.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Him who he was, Like you, you embody him when
you walk out on stage.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You're so kind.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I will say this though it's it's twenty twenty four.
We don't need to go find younger, more famous us.
We can use AI and I can be fourteen in
Deacon and we can make that happen. Just a few
more years, we will have that technology to go be.
It'll be a cartoon called Lil Nashville and they'll be
all little, big headed children of.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Hey, we might need to clip this out, because that's
a hell of an idea.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Saturday morning, my son gets up, we pull my cereal.
I'm going to watch the Little Next.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Whatever, always crying where's cartoony.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I will trauma that leads to alcoholism.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And I will say to piggyback off of what you
just said. I've heard other people say that before.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Obviously, we've met a few times of press games with you,
hanging with the with the bandering intermissions and our.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Buddy Jansen, Yeah and Janson.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I've heard more than one person say that you that
character is like career defining for you.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Do you feel that way, Oh?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Absolutely, there, there's definitely a ad. After Deacon was a
different time in my life than before Deacon, including the
show outer Banks. I know for a fact that they,
maybe not they, but their wife and their children saw
Outer Banks and said you need to I mean so
at Nashville and.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Said he'd be great for Ward.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
And they knew it would be a good mislead because
Deacon was basically a good guy, so they brought me
into be this good guy in quotes that went sideways.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So it changed my life in all.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Those ways, but mostly it brought music back into all
of our lives. And here we are in music city
for a reason. This place just had all our hearts instantly.
There's a line in a John Denver song coming home
to a place he'd never been before.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That's exactly what.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I felt like immediately, and every place I go I
see that show. I was at the Opry the other
night walking down the hallway and I remembered my friend Claire,
who I'd barely known a day or two, just sitting
barefoot in one of the hallways waiting for her scene.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
And so every place we go. I can walk right
down Broadway.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And see moments that had something to do with this show.
So yeah, it's the most beautiful thing to get to
be here and be a part of that. So maybe
that was definitely career defining, but more importantly was life defining.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, so you guys are hitting the stage, at what
point did you decide because this isn't your first reunion
show or back to two shows?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Right?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
We did last year and it was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, well I think we were shocked then about the
the response effect.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
The response, Yeah, especially even also over in UK, like
we have no reason to space. It's spent a couple
of years by now. I don't know if you know
that we finished up. The last episodes were in eighteen.
Here we are in twenty four, so that's six years
ago with no real new shows, and my goodness.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It was crazy to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
We played Chicago last year and that was the first
one we did and it was like it was like nuts.
It was sort of like Beatlemania kind of fun thing.
So that's why we're doing it. The show here last
year sold out like in three four minutes at the Rhyman,
which is lovely.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I mean, like I love making people happy. It means
people are so happy, and we met we met so
many of them. Goodness that we did meet.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Absolutely and we've never been We've never really done it
in Atlanta. Will be at the Roxy on the in
the twenty second and then here on the twenty third,
so that we get to jump back in these waters again.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Is a thrill? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Is it something that you plan on? This will be
something you guys do yearly and just pick different cities.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
I think we're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Cool and go well whatever, But I think, looking at
each other, if we could do, if we could do,
if we could do.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
This every so often for the rest of our life.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
I'd love to play the ryemand once a year for
the rest of my natural life until they had to
wheel me off that stage.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
You'll be the one wheeling me.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
But that's a little aware, is he now exactly?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Well?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
And it's and it's funny because that stage is so
there's a lot of stairs, so I'll help you.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The Rhyman is such a special spot when you decided Nashville,
it had to be because of the history of the
show and the Ryman being what it had to.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Be right, and we're so so lucky to be invited back.
Everyone wants to play the Rhyman. But they were just like, yes, well,
you know.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You know the three, the trifecta, the trinity in this
town is the Opry, the Ryman, and.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
The Bluebird Cafe.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Originally, Steve Buchannan, the brilliant mind behind thinking that there
even needed to be a show about Nashville, thought it
might be set at the Opry, backstage at the Opry,
because it's an amazing, magical place. But I think you
can't live backstage at the Opry. It's too special, it's
too singular. So but you can live in and around
the Bluebird Cafe, so it was sort of based around there.
(21:57):
Initially we started out in the real one, and then
they built us one that was so immaculately exact as
the other one that even Erica Wallams Nichols, who runs
the place over there, would say she was shocked by
how real it was.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
That was a place we could live.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Scarlett could work there, Deacon could play there all the time,
Gunner could work there, and we always went back there
all the time. Then for special times we would go
to the Opry and Raina would be playing the Opry
or at a time in his life when Deacon needed
music more than ever, the Opry reached out and asked
Deacon to come play at the Opry. So those were
extremely special moments. But perhaps the most special ball is
(22:33):
the Mother Church being on stage at the Rhyman, and
in fact that we got to close out the entire
show of Nashville on stage at the Ryman with the
entire cast, past and present.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Singing the song of Nashville.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
A life that's good means that we have a connection
now that place is historically connected to so many that
we get to have that sort of flag planted on
that stage. Is that's where we ended at all? Because
there's no place else we could think of that would
be so perfect?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
What does a fan get out of this show other
than just great songs? Is there a lot of storytelling
about the characters the show?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Like do you are? Do you just hate? The show?
Is on lights up? Let's rock.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
It's more like interacting with people with like a room
the size of the Rhyme, and it's big, but it's
small enough where you really are. You get to get
close together. Chip and I always go flying off the
front of the stage and we can't help it. We
just really like our fans. We have the best fans
in the world. Like I will always say that they're
just they're so they just keep coming back and they
(23:35):
say the loveliest things. And for me, being a storyteller
and an artist, I just want to make people feel good.
There's so much stuff going on in the world that's
really scary and yucky, and there are things that happen
in each play everyone's lives personally that are not necessarily fun.
So we get to give them this like it's suspended reality.
(23:56):
Maybe we're giving them words, but maybe we sing a
song that they were going through.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We've heard again and again that so many of these
songs are sole medicine for people. Whether it's a life
that's good or a song like Sanctuary or a friend
of mine, there's different songs that people latch onto. So yes,
you're gonna get to hear those songs. But the other
two things that are have become so important about it
is number two. Steve bu Can and our producer originally
(24:22):
of the show, also produces this, and he and we
all agreed that we have the kind of fans that
also want to hear some of our songs. So you're
gonna get to hear some bow and You and you're
gonna get to hear some Charles Aston, You're gonna get
to hear something we mix and match the two. They
jumped up with me on my songs. I have a
song called down the Road we finished with at last tour,
and to have all my cast mates up there singing
(24:43):
my song. So that's the second part. The third part,
the third part of the Secret Sauce is we make
sure it's not a train that has a schedule.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yes it is, but when we're out there, we have.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
These moments where we're just interacting with each other and
we're just talking.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
With each other.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
They want to just be and step inside the show
a little bit and sort of hang out, and so
do we. We want to let them into that place.
So all those things. It's sort of a hangout and
we get to play all this different music and no,
because no audience is the same, so they are they
are a major. That's the one part that we didn't
have in the show Nashville is our audience was out
(25:20):
on their.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sofas all across the world.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Not interacting. This is different that now. Now, this is
the beauty of live is now you're.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
A part of it. You're a little louder for this song.
Oh okay, they like that one, and it's just really special.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
By the way, I've been on stage singing a Deacon
song that I haven't sung in a while, and I'll
forget a line and I'll hear the line, and I'll
hear the line come back to me through the audience
and I'll hear them sing it, and I'm like, okay, guys, yeah,
all right, this is their show as much as it's ours.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I love that there are songs. There's one in particular
called he Ain't Me that you wrote it with Deacon
in mind, and they said it was going to be
on the show, and for some reason it didn't end
up on the show. But the fans when he plays
it live, they go absolutely insane, and they treat that.
They treat our songs just like the Nashville songs. It
(26:10):
is clearly meant to be on the show. But I
love that you get to do it because it's.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I mean, yeah, they have a it's it's just it's
just sweet. And if you're and by the way. It's
last time we asked who here is an old Nashville fan.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
You hear this enormous roar, and we go who's streamed
it recently during COVID or after?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
And there's this other roar.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
So what you said at the beginning of this thing
is there's more people coming to Nashville every day, not
just this town, but the show. And we hope that
if you're out there listening now, come be a part
of this community. You might have the train came back
around the station, so hop on this time.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I love that Freese at the time, and oh my pleasure.
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