Chase Rice

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It was unbelievable though, and fun enough, I don't know the ins and outs of it, but took us 13 years to still have my lanyard on, like I had a night at stagecoach last night. Did you stay up late? Till about three. Oh my God. Geez. I got here on, I think I played Friday, so I got in on Thursday. Okay. I was awesome with my discipline all weekend, you know, it was like, I didn't, I had a good time. Yeah. But I got what I worked. You were right. Last night was my first night to, like, I'm, like, fun. Yeah. I ended up in Gen Pop Watch. I'd never seen Post Malone before, so. Oh, cool. I've never seen him either. Really? No. It was cool. It was like classic country covers, but I was out in the wild last night and out in the wild. There's a man out in the wild surviving. It's difficult out there, but people doing festivals is, uh, it's hard. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of money. There's a lot that goes into a full-blown festival like that, um, but it took us 10 years to agree on the slot. I, you're always trying to figure out like, where, where am I going to play? Yeah. I'm not sure if Stacy runs a festival and my team could agree on anything. That's fine. And then finally this year she was kind of like, guys, do you want to be a part of the stage good family or not, and my team came to me, they're like, we just, we need to do this. And she, she did give us a cool slot. It was four o'clock on Friday. That's good. But we wanted to play later. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I'm happy for no one to agree with me, but the only way we're doing anything anymore is we have to see, kind of see the poster and like it. You got to earn it. And I looked out at the slot that we were trying to get and it's, we just gotten a long story short. We got this big battle of like, I'm not going to play stage coach unless it's the right spot. And at the end of the day I played at four o'clock, played for 45 minutes. And that is not what I remember at all about the weekend. I hung out with unbelievable people. Had an absolute blast solved. Wyatt Flora as play last night was still a lefty and, and saw my old agent, saw my agents that I have now, saw my manager spent. I just spent time with a lot of people that mattered so much more than the 45 minutes that I was on stage. And I told Stacy yesterday, I was like, I get it now. I was great. I was genuinely grateful to her for us finally figuring it out. She said, do you want to be a part of the stage coach family? And I said, you know, we finally said yes this year. But now after seeing it, staying, not just getting on stage, getting off leaving, but being around the people and being around the festival and being around all the different artists, the stage, the giant that stage coach is, it is a special thing. And I was just grateful to be a part of it this weekend. It's awesome. I think stage coach is the best, one of the best festival experiences. Yeah. It was awesome in the modern festival landscape. Yeah. And there's giants out there. I mean, they nailed it. It's sand in my boots. We did it last year. Watershed is a big one out in Washington. Love that one. Tortuga. Massive. Awesome. But stage coach has just this thing about it. I don't know what it is, but it was blessed. And then I got to enjoy it yesterday, like me and Shay Mooney from Dan and Shay, do you know him? Yeah. Yeah. We golfed all day with a bunch of football guys. And then we just went straight to the festival. Shayne was Sidney Swini. That was cool. You're sitting there looking at her like, this girl's an absolute superstar, but then you get on stage with her and she's just genuine, cool, awesome, can actually sing, which has shocked me. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. That's cool. Scooter was awesome. Yeah. It was just a really, really fun weekend. And the weekend was, I knew I had a shitload of stuff to do on my plate and schedule, but I just felt like conversations with me and God going into the festival was, don't be in a hurry. Do not try to do everything. If you try to do everything, you're not going to get shit done. Do not be in a hurry, slow down and just be where you're at. And that's what I felt like I did a good job of doing that this weekend. And it's like. Do you usually hurry? Yeah. You get in a hurry and you miss out on everything except FOMO. And when I don't hurry, there's a book, Ruthless, I'm elimination of hurry. And I read that and it's just kind of clicked with me this weekend and for whatever reason stuck with me. But when you're in a hurry, you just, you don't get shit done. You don't enjoy anything. And when you slow down and you just accept where you're at and who you're with, there was a guy named Tim. Tim was this guy at Madison Club and he invited me into his house and he was the only one there this weekend. His house is giant. I mean, this place is 12,000 square feet, one story, giant pool and Tim and I ended up having breakfast every single morning. We'd have our avocado toast, our fruit and our coffee together and just hearing him talk just this guy, I don't know exactly what he does or how much money he has, but it didn't matter. He was just a really cool guy. And let me stay this place. That's cool. And we just sit there and have breakfast every single morning and that this morning's the only day we didn't, but I'm just grateful for the whole weekend and the experience man. It's been, uh, yeah, sounds like it's really fun. That's a great weekend. It was. It was. I'll never forget it. It was one of them weekends. And the cool part was I took it seriously like I grinded my ass off and worked and people call it networking. At the end of the day, what I've learned a lot lately is just be friends with people. Yeah. If you're just, and you can't be friends with somebody and you don't job, you don't get along with whatever, they're just not your person. Don't worry about it. Send them on their way. You go on your way and you're better for it, but just being nice to people, being a good person. Yeah. And friendly with people as it goes a long way. Yeah, I agree with that. So the experience you just described to me, it sounds great, but also kind of sounds right. Yeah. Sounds like that's what you should, that's the experience you should have. But although I will say I understand when you are in this, you know, line of work, when you're going to call it a career of any kind, but especially in music, you can run through it and rush through it and over book and over do it, but anyone can do that in any career. And it's a mindfulness. It sounds like that starts to think that's one part mindfulness. It also sounds like a little bit of like self acceptance, I think there's a struggle in our business to feel like we should be there or we belong there or like we're important enough to be there or we're whatever. Which is a real thing. Like if I'm not, I guess you would call it networking if you felt that the only reason you were there was to meet people, but that wasn't why you were there. You were there to perform. So you were invited and you were on the main stage and you played in a good slot and people came and they watched you and like you said, you have this career of huge accomplishment. And I was also looking at your back story and I thought it was really interesting. You were a former former NCAA linebacker at UNC, okay, so you have to be a competent enough football player to play in college and then to make the team and then UNC, which is a great sports school. And then to be good enough to do that, you have to work really hard and be competent, which takes dedication, practice, and talent is one thing, but then talent with no all the other stuff, some drive, some figuring it out, I think, right. And then your former NASCAR pit crew member, which also take competency, you have to be fast too. Right. Change the tires. You've got to work hard. It's a thing so you can do it fast, do it well so you don't get fired off the crew after the first race, right, or killed or killed or get someone else killed. So there's a lot of competency involved there that takes dedication, work, focus. And you're a successful artist. Well, for songwriter and artist, which is two different things, very different. But they believe they blend together, but we know plenty of songwriters who can't go and be the frontman and we know plenty of frontman who can't write a song. And there's nothing wrong with either one. And so what I see is someone who got some level of drive to do things well and to succeed. And then you have to have a certain work ethic to then do those things and show up for them. And then likely someone who problem solves and can work through and around obstacles and all that. So there's no doubt in my mind that aside from talent and work ethic, you're probably a thinker. Very much. You see a Rubik's cube and you start on trying crazy, which is also a lot artists were in our head a lot. It's a blessing on a curse. Exactly, and that can really help us in certain situations. If we have drive, we have talent, we have work ethic, and we're not afraid to think around on a problem, we usually can solve it. Yeah. Where it can get in our way is overthinking. Yeah. And then for the law. You know what I mean? Like we start thinking around on your present life is not a guy who needed to make it, who needed to write a hit song, needed to make it, whether it was financial or whether it was proving yourself or all the likely a bunch of things. But now you're no longer need it. You're here because you belong here. Yeah, that is so well said. I know exactly what you're saying. And that's what I had to process all the way until one day and I think in our 40s, we start to arrive in our mind. We're like, oh, I've had an incredible life and I'm blessed. But at the end of the day, if I don't think I belong in a room, I'm not gonna be comfortable in that room. And if I get to my, if I'm in touch with my emotional experience about how I feel before I go somewhere, like I got invited to that dinner party and so and so and so and so and so and so and so are gonna be there and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, mm, I'll stop and go like, why do you, are you apprehensive about going to this? Yeah. And I'm like, maybe because I just don't feel like I'm along. Are you worthy? Are my worthy? Should I be in this room? Who am I? And then I go, well, do you feel that way? And I'm like, eh, kind of. And I'll have a therapeutic conversation with myself. I'll be like, if my therapist was talking to me, he'd be asking me the same question. Do you feel that way? I'd be like, yeah, kind of. I'm like, why? And I'm like, is not good enough? Yeah. Meet new groupie setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day comfy grip. Try new groupie setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Maybe it's Maybelline. It blows down to that. It's why they believe you are not. Good enough for what? Well, I don't know to say next to Zonda. And then you go all the way around on it until you either go, eh, you know what? I'm just not going to be comfortable being there and I'm not going to go. Or actually, whatever, I'm going to go. And either way, I either arrive at who fucking cares I belong in that room or I don't. I want to be there or I don't. And I get past this like injured kid who's like, eh, eh. Am I a big enough rock star to be with these rock stars? Yeah. 'Cause they're real rock stars. It's all comparison to it. It's like, why are we comparisons the enemy of joy or something like that? Be for joy. Be for joy, Nick. Be for joy, comparison. Is it be for joy? You're kill yourself. All I see is a badass kind of like experienced country, dude, who's had a ton of success. You could go through the details of what that success means and we could talk about it a hundred different ways. And we'd still arrive at the same word success. And then you sharing your experience, which is what I got. I love it because actually we're all everyone is having that moment unless, God, unless they're just, there are these people that are just so fucking developed in that self-esteem category, which is an amazing thing to just be so comfortable in your own skin. But that's just not the case for like most of us. Most of us are like still figuring ourselves out as we go in real time. And no matter how figured out we get, we still have more to figure out. That's the work. But it's cool to hear that because that's actually the kind of probably the same kind of weekend I would have. But again, I think you arrived to this stage coach experience. You had success. People liked it. You had fun. - Show was great. - And you made a bunch of friends. - Yeah. - And those friends aren't going to hurt your life. - Yeah, not us. - You know what I mean? And the cool part about it is like you're talking about walking to the room, do you belong there? You know, do you belong at stage, goes to you belong wherever whatever it is? If you walk into that room and you're just good to people and you're nice to people and you're happy and you're not using them, that's why I hate the word networking. I just feel like you're using people right away. - Yeah. - You're just good to people. You're genuinely a good human. I just started watching the show's in. It's based on Jesus. It's his life. So yeah, the chosen on Prime. - I think they have their own station for it. - Oh, okay. - But. - 'Cause I just watched House of David. - I love that too. - That was good. - Unreal. - David was there. - Who was a gangster? - It was a G. - But it humanizes the most important human that's ever lived. - Yeah. - And you get to watch him teach kids, hang out with kids, teaches disciples, teach people. And also laugh and struggle. And, you know, be an absolute misery. It just humanizes the most important human that's ever existed. And that's not really the argument. Whether you believe it was the son of God or not, is not what I'm talking about. - Yeah, and absolutely. No, I am not disagreeing with you. - But that watching that has in my head realized, like if he could walk in the room and just be good to people, what he was, why can't I? And don't, I don't need anything from these people. I don't want anything from them. I just want to be around good people. So if I'm walking into a room and I'm not comfortable, and it's just a shit show or whatever the situation is, it could make you feel bad inside. You also got to consider you maybe in the wrong room. - But I also know that the best way that I meet people is usually when I show up somewhere on purpose. - Yeah. - Gun there, you know what I mean? So that is how I started defining, should I go or not? It's either I feel yes or I feel no. I walk around on both, and I know it's probably sound, like you, I'm an overthinker. I overthink everything. God bless my wife 'cause she's to deal with me talking about it with her so that I don't talk to anyone else about it 'cause I talk so much, I will talk around one little decision with someone for a fucking two hours. - I'm the same way, man, I like, especially if I smoke a joint or something. - That's not a joint, you don't, don't be, I turn into the happiest, nicest human being on the planet, but I'm not sure it takes you all to get the point. - What about drinking like, what kind of like drunk are you? - Happy. - Happy drunk, me too, a little too happy I think. - Yeah, yeah, at some point, I've got at the point, I'm four years old when I get to where I'm all a sudden drunk. Also, I'm in different settings now than I was. If I'm hammered at a bar, everybody's hammered at the bar. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you just let this, yeah. - I'm in a lot of different settings these days where it's like, if you're the drunk dude there. - At the dinner party, you shouldn't be there. - Nah, I had to learn that the hard way. - So you start putting yourself in it, yeah, it's not fun. - It's not fun. - You start putting yourself in situations, you can tell when you're drinking or talking to somebody, it's like in your two gone and they're not. And I've also been the other side of that. I've been sober, I did 75 hard last year or two years ago and I was sober and I'm like around people that wouldn't shut up and they're hammered and I just sort of walk it away. - That's also one of the reasons why I stopped drinking was just health. - Yeah. - Just I found as I got older, a few years ago I stopped, only like two years ago. - Yeah. - Just one day I was like, God, I always feel like shit after I drink and I need to be healthy and then I stopped. - It's a game changer. I felt amazing when I went in for you. I get this clarity at like 2 p.m. every day. Almost felt like I was high but I was eating healthy and drinking water all the time. It was your brain function, you know, finally functions the way that it's supposed to. It's like, it's not rocket science. - Also, I did a lot of work on myself, therapy and stuff for me personally. Drinking was some people, I think they have a different relationship with it. Like how they kick back. It's done how I kick back. There's something dark in me that likes to drive fast. - For me, it's just very similar thing. I don't know if this would make sense to you but I'd self sabotage. - Yeah. - Why? I think when you live, for me, when I live in shame, you know, and you get ashamed of the things you've done in your past, which you can't even freaking change, which is crazy. But you get shame and fear into my life and I, Drankin's gonna help you for a little bit 'cause you're gonna. - Can run away from it and you get away from it but it's not gonna help you in the end 'cause you're gonna have to face it at some point or you never face it and you don't get to live a fulfilled life. But there's two different types of drinking I'll do too. Or disappearing at some point where it's like one's happy and fine, you're golfing with the boys. It's good. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And then in others, I want to run from this problem. I'm ashamed of decisions that I've made in my life. I fear people are gonna find me out. Like, at the end of the day, I said that to Tyler Huffman's time. Tyler's the Georgia guy, I have Florida, Georgia Lon. - Yeah. - Which I think they're gonna get back together which is sick. - I like those guys. - Yeah, they're good dudes. And I said, man, I'm just, I fear people are gonna find out in this town, things that I've done in my past. Which is just who gives a shit. We've all made crazy mistakes in our lives. And we all have some sort of crutch in our life that's gonna put that fear in that shame in our heads. - Yeah. - And he said, man, I know who you are and I know your heart. And Shaymoon, he said that yesterday, which meant a lot to me. And we were talking about something that happened years ago. He said, I didn't care about what you did. I knew who you were as a person. and I knew your heart and I knew you were good dude. And Tyler, go back to Tyler, he said, you might be surprised that if who you really are gets out, people might actually like it. And he said that and I was like, shit, that's a cool thought. Like, just being myself, being good to people, you know, I've struggled a lot over the years with women. It's been, that's my biggest crutch in life. And-- - Just struggle how? - Just not taking relationships seriously, using women for sex. Stuff like that is, and you realize like-- - That you feel like that's encouraged though, like in music-- - It is. - And I thought it was what you got to do. - And you buy into the fantasy. You kind of buy into the lie or the fantasy that like, oh, you become a rock star. And this is what you do. - Yeah. - And it's never ending and it fills the hole. - And it is so unfulfilling. - Yeah, it can be very unfulfilling. It was for me. And through the fall, my life has changed a ton since October. - By how did it change? - I was living in my air stream or my Capri camper, which is a camper, a rodeo camper that goes in my truck. And I just traveled around a lot. And I wanted to spend a lot of time alone. And I wanted to spend a lot of time out west in Montana. And I wanted to spend a lot of time with my duck hunting buddies. And it was just a lot of deep real conversations. And you can't bullshit these guys. They don't want that. I don't want that. But through a select group of duck hunting buddies, I had a lot of real, very real conversations. And it just pulled out, I think it made me grow up. A lot with just these honest real conversations with these guys of not surface level bullshit, but real life stuff. And it just essentially made me take life more seriously. And that's where my mindset, it changed this weekend completely. But that's where the mindset of just walk into a room and be friends with people and be yourself. Don't make, don't try to make friends. Your friends are going to find you. But always just be good to people. And then you leave people with a good experience. And that really happened a lot this fall, where you're just a lot of growing up. And I think that happens naturally too in life. All my friends, you find out your friends are really, and I think 30s. Yeah, you do. I think you keep in touch with a couple of high school buddies, which I have, which is awesome. I started getting back in touch with those guys, really a lot in the last couple of years. You keep in touch with a couple college buddies and you get into your 30s. And a lot of times kids get involved in your friends with who your kids are friends with their parents. Right. And one of my best buddies, Ranjo Hanson, he played for the National Predators forever. And his dad was sitting with me at a bar one night. That's what he said. He said, you find out who your real friends are going to be the rest of your life, really in your 30s. And those are the guys that you're going to stick with forever. And I've found my dudes that are just encouraging good people and great businessmen. And that's really what my life has turned into is music is great. And now for the first time in my life, I'm proud of the music I've made. Even when we wrote years ago, I joked. I was like, I didn't know I did what I was doing. I really didn't. Like I wrote crews when I was 26 years old, 27 years old, which ended up being one of the biggest country songs of all time. But I was, that was the biggest blessing and curse that I could ask for because I had a massive hit. Everybody wants to be in the room with you now. And we didn't mean to write that. We just stumbled across it. And it became this massive thing that I all of a sudden now have to live up to. And for 10 years, that shaped, oh, I got to do that again. I got Flores George Lawrence blown up. I want to blow up. I got to make my sound like theirs. Sam Hunts blown up, oh, OK. Now I'm going to go try to sound like that. Morgan Wallens blown up. Oh, now you got to sound like that. Where my true joy in music started was when I sat on a couch again 10 years after all that with a guitar and wrote a song that only I could write. And then I wrote an album that only I could write. And then recorded the album that only I could record. And then I did that three times. And they're continuing to evolve. But it's turned into like, I'm the only human on the planet who could make this music. I've gotten to that point this year. I'm taking my first year off of full touring and 13 years. And it's changing my life. Good for you. COVID happened. We all took time off. That changed my career and life in a way. But I slowed down and started writing songs on the guitar again, changed a complete way of how I make music. This year, that's going to happen again. When I step back, I have conversations with people. You hear these conversations. And I put them into music. I actually live experiences and I write about the experiences as opposed to being in Nashville three days. I toured this week. I came home Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I wrote every single person in the room talked about what's radio playing. How are we going to write a good song? Then I went back on the road for three days. That was my life for the last 13 years. And now taking time away. It's like you actually write about real experiences as opposed to what you think people want to hear. Pretty cool. But it's-- I wake up in the morning. I drink coffee. I got a thing called the blue book, which is a devotional that I go through. I go like a daily devotional. It goes along with the Bible. I sit there, I have a fire. But if you've found that the Bible and more devotion to that part of your life, do you find it gives you-- I'm sure it does a lot of things. So I'm not going to answer the question for you. But what does that do for you? If I am living life right, which I can be interpreted a ton of different ways it does, but if I feel like I have a relationship with Jesus, you don't want to go screw around and do the things that you do that lead to the shame and the fear that I was talking about earlier. If I don't do that every morning, I want to go hide. I want to go hide from Jesus. I want to hide from God. I want to hide from myself. And what's hiding is that consist of a difference between isolation and solitude. Like isolation for me is like-- and it doesn't even have to be something extreme. But like sitting on the couch all day, eating like shit, watching TV, binging, some TV show. Withdrawing from the world. Withdrawing from the world as opposed to going out. In a negative way. In a negative way as opposed to going out. Solitude sounds so much better than isolation. It is so awesome. Solitudes where I get that-- I get it in the mornings, and if I start my day that way, my day is going to go pretty good. And then you get around people. And you're better to people. You don't-- you're not using them for what can you give me. It's more-- then they get a good version of you. And when they're around you, they experience some sort of joy that they may not even understand why. But they know that they're happy when they're around you. And that's what that does for me. That's the solitude that I'm getting this year. That's what happens when I go out to Montana a lot. I can fish. I go 100 miles an hour and everything I do. But when I'm on a river in Montana with a fly rod, my elk hunting buddies make fun of me. They're like, you need to come. They basically hunt fish. I don't even know what they fish because I've never done it. But nature is like the closest thing to spirituality in the physical form. But solitude, it's interesting how when you say isolation with drawing alone-- solitude's also alone. But it's interesting because it sounds so much better because it's a state of mind. And it's also like you're not alone because you're in meditation with God. And from what you're describing, which sounds like what's prayer, silent reading, meditation on God. Oh, that's kind of like prayer. But it's like solitude is something like that, which is meditation, meditation also has a positive connotation to it versus with drawing and being in isolation. And there's a lot of things that are all the same practice, right, which they say gratitude, right? What do we do when we pray? First thing we do, we usually thank God. Like most people, thank God. Thank you God for this day. Thank God. God, thank you. You're coming to him with an offering of thanks so that he hears you, or life is just not to be happy, feel good, get what you want. That there's something else higher is like the transcendence of the design of the whole thing. 100%. And then that's the journey. It's how do we get to that transcendence so that we're transcendent people so that a hit song doesn't make or break me or change me or make me happy or sadder. An award doesn't affect me, you know, so that I am the same in failure as I am in winning so that I'm the same on a good day as I am a bad day so that I can be, that's true to me, that's transcendence is to be immune to fame, money, all the things, right? And so all that to say, I feel to me like you're in the process of like this self discovery because I saw that you went independent, which is wild. Which is cool. And the label that I was with was awesome. Yeah, but you felt I wasn't giving them anything that they could take the radio. And in my opinion, the main reason you need a label at the end of days, they pay for everything, but they give you a horrible loan. Yeah, I mean, they give you a couple million bucks to promote, make, promote the album and then, uh, then you have to pay that back. They give you your own money that you have to pay back and, uh, I wasn't giving them anything that they could been to get you on radio. Radio award shows, yada yada yada. Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't giving them a product that they could even work with. Yes. And you said something that triggered a thought in my head. Like, why do I want my new music to be heard so bad? I've been racking my brain about that. But since we've been sitting here, because if you know me for a song called Eyes on You, drinking beer, talking about it, man, a song called Ready Set Roll that I wrote probably back in the same year that we wrote, I wrote it with this stuff now, if that's what you know me for, then you don't know me at all. And if you listen to some of this new stuff, then you're going to get to finally know who I am as a man. But if you only know these hits, you don't have a clue who I am. You're not my fan and I'm not your artist. Right. But if you know my new stuff, you actually get to know who I am as a man. So that at the end of the day is why, like at the end of the day, like you said, if it blows up and you're the biggest artist on the planet or nobody cares, but you're happy with it, you won. You literally won. And I think it was some artist Picasso, maybe one of those big time artists didn't have a, you know, well known name until after he was dead. A lot of artists. But was he happy when he was alive and if he was, then he won. Yeah. And after he died, now he's appreciated. If my music, you know, last three albums I put out, if they're appreciated in 10 years, I don't want to look at that in 10 years and be like, Oh, finally, I want to look at that 10 years and be like, it was their whole time, y'all. And cool. It blew up all of a sudden, done, really changed my life because I've been living in the present. I've been enjoying it while it happened. I've been enjoying it ever since it happened 10 years ago. I think that's all that is your way. I think that's the figure it out part. And now we live in a world where everyone's famous, right? You're going to be famous at some point in your life if you go forth and try everyone's famous. You don't really get to choose anymore if you are or you aren't. So I feel like when I see you, you're like this good looking big guy who like look, you like look, you could handle yourself, right? Look like kind of tough. And you're like handsome and tall and like you're, you play football and you play country music. Keep me up. It's a fucking man. This is the man over here. I feel like you have more pressure to be whatever represents a man. There is like a balance, I think of finding like what's my version of being a man. I think a good man shows up and tries his best and like you can count on him. That's a good man. Got to be able to count on him. I look at my dad and he grew up in a tough situation. The money wasn't there, I don't think his dad wasn't great to him, which is wild because his dad was big Paul to me and he was the nicest, coolest, awesome grandpa in the world. Yeah, you got the older calmer version that had figured some shit out. Exactly. And I got and then I got my dad who by all means should have never built the life that he built with what he was given. And he got out of that and chose his own life and decided I'm not going to smoke cigarettes. I'm not going to smoke weed. I'm not going to get in a drugs. I'm going to marry her Connie Lou, my mom, you call it Connie, Connie Lou, Connie Lou. That's we just wrote a song. Is your dad Paul? He's Dan. Dan. Dan. When you said big Paul, I was like, well, where is Lou Paul? Oh, PA, like Paul, big Paul, low Paul was actually my mom's dad, Harold. He had a shit together. But he chose her, married her, had three boys, you know, didn't dive into the hole. I'm going to crave success the rest of my life. He dove into the hole. I'm not going to miss a game for these kids. That's awesome. And when his parents came around, his sister, all that side of the family, it was you're not smoking cigarettes around my kids. You're going to be good, good to them. You're going to be a good aunt. You're going to be good grandpa. And he laid the rules for his own life to the man that didn't treat him like he should have as a dad. And that's who I got to see as what a man is. And, you know, I use a picture of him for an album cover two albums ago called I Hate Cowboys and All Logs Go To Hell. It's a picture of my dad double fist and two course bankwits, sideburns, mustache, cowboy hat. That's a fucking man in that picture. Yeah. But that's the Hollywood version of who my dad was. Who my dad actually was was, you know, when Big Paul died, he took me to Cracker Barrow with my mom, tells me in the Cracker Barrow that Big Paul passed away. No, it was tough. How old were you? Losing my grandpa wasn't the hard part that I'm dealing with right now. I lost him when I was 22. Hmm. My dad. You lost your dad? Yeah. No, I'm sorry. But what I'm dealing with right now is the memory of the day that my grandpa died. I sat with my dad, hurt, stood with my dad in the living room and hugged him. And he cried for the first time that I'd ever seen. So seeing such a strong dude deal with, he's the man. He is the man, you know, he's the, he's my dad. And yeah, your dad's like your hero. Yep. And seeing him weak in that moment was what made me realize looking back like that was the strongest I'd probably ever seen him. To be able to hug me, cry, I start crying and that was the most manly. Looking back that I think my dad ever was and a special memory to have. Yeah. It's sweet. Yeah. As painful as it is. Yeah. But 22's young to lose your dad. Yeah. And when you lose your dad, you're in, it's a weird feeling because even my dad, we were, we were estranged for a long time. Yeah. And then I didn't get to know him until later. And then we were really good friends. And he was always, it was weird because I didn't know, I didn't know how to admit it because I was, I had so many different feelings. I was angry at him for a long time, but I regretted it so much being so angry at him because I realized when I got older, I realized how hard it is. And then his dad was similar. His dad, my granddad passed away when I was 20 or 21, but he was tough. He was a World War II bed. He was like, he was, and he, my dad got all of it from him. My dad got all the stuff. And then so he had a really tough, tough upbringing. And then I could see him struggle. He did not want to do that to us. And he, but he would have, his alcohol thing was tough. He was, he was an alcoholic and, but he didn't want anyone's help. That was the thing that I think the toughest part was like, I think he could have got help, but he would never take any help, but all he did his whole life was help people. He was like, he worked like a dog and he was at his funeral, was hundreds of people and they were all had a story about, he redid their bathroom, he redid their kids nursery, he redid their kitchen, he worked with his hands. And so on the weekends, he would help, he would do stuff for people. He wasn't even like making money on the side. Like, you know what I mean? Like, he was, and he worked like manual labor his whole life and he was just like a hard working old school dude, tough, tough as, as you could be, but had a side like me that was sweet and sensitive and artistic and like didn't need to be tough and he struggled with it because he never let, I see myself, I am my father's son and where he's like a tough version of me, like he's a tough guy, but I'm like a sweeter, more sensitive, more emotional version of him. He never got to have the experience that I had when we were older, we laughed about it because like, as we got closer before he died and then he died suddenly and it was, it sucks, but I was like, man, dad, you should, you should go to a therapy. He's like, or I'd be like, hey, dad, why don't you go to dad? I'm not saying rehab, but like, it's called rehab. It is rehab. So like, I don't want to say that we're rehab, but like, you could go to a treatment facility and you could get off the alcohol and like, it would make your life better and you could experience some more, and I saw him so badly he wanted to like be artistic or be more like sensitive or emotional or whatever that I think I am. Compared to him, I'm like freaking the sweetest, most sensitive, most, and to some guys, maybe I'm not, but I think I am. So with him, I would say you could go to rehab and he's like, nah, man, I'm good, I'm good, you know, don't worry about me, this is, you know, whatever. And then when he died, it was sudden and I was heartbroken. Yeah. I kind of always had this like high hope that we would just keep getting closer and closer and closer and we would be best friends and eventually he would get sober and eventually we'd live in a castle on a cloud and you know, my kids would, you know, to be like, we have these high hopes like for these, and I'm not saying that that was impossible. But even my dad who I love and respect and I think he was, I'm very careful about saying anything that makes him sound like a degenerate of any kind because he was a good man. You could count on him. And he gave me, in the years he was around before he left when I was young, he gave me a good example of a bunch of things out of work hard, good manners, respect for people, hating the right things, like real bad guys, guys who hurt people, bad people, things that are evil. It's different than things that are flawed. Yes. You understand? Oh, yeah. And then now he explained that to me. He's like, a man has his flaws and he makes his mistakes. You help him back up and you try to encourage him because I think he was that guy and I think he was in his own way telling me he would always tell me about that. And as I got out, I was like, oh, you were talking about yourself and you just wanted your son to never judge you. And because he had his stuff, you know, he drank and all the other stuff, you know. What do you think you are to your kids? That's a good question, man. I hope that they just see me as their dad is a guy who loves them. more than he loves anything else that's all the matter and just chooses them yeah and then it is there for whatever doesn't matter I always tell him like you're a human I'm a human we all have a lot to learn always yeah so all I want you to do is try your best and whatever it is we'll figure it out better bad sounds like you flip the script from the way you were raised and now you're doing it a different way that is a lot more healthy and in the right way which is badass best I can yeah you know you're wise enough and and most artists that have careers careers the thing is like you don't have a career if you were only in this for a year right some people sit and they're and they run from it and they're smart too sometimes yeah a career is something like just working at something a long time and becoming proficient competent at it enough to make a living doing it and also be able to stay in it yeah and people this year for me when I told them I was taking a year off of touring somehow that turned into national news of I'm stepping away from music and I never said that so I don't know how that turned into that yeah you know shit works these days well that sounds more interesting yeah they want that line yeah and then a year off brandly Gilbert texted me and he said but what's going on with you whatever I was like dude I'm just taking a year off from touring I don't know how that turned into that he said good because you're too good at this to quit and that got me thinking like why would I ever step away from this like making music for a living getting paid to make music for a living it's the coolest job in the world like I love what I do and I love writing songs there's nothing else I'd rather do in the world so the fact that I've taken this time off and and realize that through a couple texts was awesome because then you get to appreciate like how unbelievably blessed my life has been and I don't feel like I've worked ever in my life I don't like my brothers I feel the same yeah the my brothers go to their jobs in their office every single day and I one of my brothers just left his job to go do do an underground utility you know becoming an owner in that and he's just happier he's probably working as a soft harder but he's not sitting in office every day and he just seems happier and that's the way I feel every day and you know there's some negatives to it too like the the lack of a schedule the lack of the nine to five the lack of the routine that's the negatives to it for me they can be just I don't try to let them be because I try to get a routine of the cold cold plunge the sauna go hit the range go hit the gym I've gotten big in a golf lately um me too I think golf is the best game in the world it's the best it brings people together in a way that's just the best thing I ever did we start playing golf yes I look back on my early career it was I was investing in I want to fucking party yeah that was my investment it was just like I want to beat a bar I want to be drunk I want to raise and I want to hang with the boys I want to find a girl take her home cool now what then you do that long enough and I look at it I'm like I am the reason why I haven't been as successful in my career as I could shoot or want to be that's on me but I also picked a career that I can do my whole life and now I'm investing in friends family god golf me too but also how often do you play about four days yeah I play two or three times a week but I'm investing in these different things the scenery is way different now I there's a bar called ten roof and Nashville onto murmuring street what I would be there if it's a friday or saturday send text out what's going on night I'll see it ten see it nine whatever I haven't been there in two and a half years haven't missed it haven't even thought about going to it because I want to go to the golf course I want to go to my buddy Ryan's house and sit in the backyard and drink beer and sit around the fire and hang out with his son Hank hang out with my dog I want to be on a elk mountain doing that I want to kill ducks with my buddies in the fall and if we don't kill a bird that day it doesn't matter way the best day anyway I'm investing my time that's really cool your your return on investment imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs meet new grippy setting mist from maveling New York gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip no tightness no stickiness no residue just plump dewey hydrated skin that still feels like your skin tried new grippy setting mist from maveling New York maybe it's maveling you will get it back and it's already showing yeah through the relationships that I made this fall through this weekend I invested in spending time with people at not being in a hurry that was my biggest thing this whole weekend was I'm not going to be in a hurry I'm not going to try to do everything I'm going to do what I want to do in that moment or what I'm scheduled to do show up do the job and I don't know what that returns going to be from this weekend but I know that I had a blast I met a lot of really cool people white floor I was played last night with a girl named still a lefty came up on stage talk to her for a little bit afterwards I think she's going to be the biggest star on the planet in a year and the coolest part about that was like I got a chance to talk to her last night she was with there's another blonde artist friend of hers I can't remember her name met both of them last night I walked up both of them I was just like hey are you two like are you two genuinely friends they said oh my god we love each other so I said hold on to that like if I'm going to give advice and I don't like giving advice to people without them asking but I took the liberty last night because I had 17 course banquets yeah and walked up to him and just told him what I thought I don't know why in the moment I just felt like I need to tell him that but hold on to that whatever success comes both the else way because you're both probably going to crazy successful stay friends I think you told him because you have experience and you wish someone had told you that and I think we do that when we're older yeah we see we say I don't know if I'm gonna get to see that kid again so I'm gonna tell him everything I fucking think it maybe he'll take something away with it from it but and why it's going to come to my house at some point and why it flora is a great artist at Oklahoma and I said dude I got zero plans or writing we don't need to write a damn song come sit on the front portion we'll drink coffee yeah because he's 24 or something like that and he's exploding and that's not easy let's just sit there and drink some coffee man and you know me and Florida George line years ago we lived together we were best friends we wrote songs together we had amazing success together and then everybody started hating each other so why did we do that it's because of competition it was because of jealousy on my part on Tyler's part and just overall letting other people get in your year the managers they get in your year yeah just any any third party any handler third party it could be any any of these characters it can be agents managers friends it can be tour managers it's going to be all it's people who are afraid it's all beer based right and including why we would get jealous of each other and insecure it's insecurity itself a steam and it's fear so if I'm afraid that I'll lose what I have if I'm feeling like I come come from a kind of a poverty and so I had to fight against it as well as like if I'm afraid of losing this because it's the only one I'll ever have I'm gonna act out of insecurity and fear and then I'm gonna do things that insecure insecure afraid people do and again in the same mindset if he's getting the only one so if he's getting the only hit song if he's getting the only arena tour if he's getting the only girl in town or the only whatever thing whatever good thing there is the truth of life is abundance of all of that as much as we want the success is more a byproduct of doing stuff that you enjoy you know what I mean yeah what I'm doing now with the music in my career wise if the music I'm making how I'm making it the quality of songs if that's not appreciated as much or more and I believe it will be and I don't believe it has been yet if that's not appreciated more than what I was known for the first 10 years then I don't want everything to do with it if everybody collectively comes together as fans of music and says this isn't good enough we don't like it then I'll go do something else yeah I'm not gonna go back to what I was doing to just try to make them like it I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing now and if that's not good enough then they'll decide that fans listeners of music will decide that and I'll go to join the PGA well the the beauty of it is is you get to do you get to do what you want when you want yeah so you don't have to choose any of it and that's part of being independent that's the cool part about being an artist and being independent but you can do whatever you want however you want and see I know what you're saying and I would say that that's a way of living so when you feel compelled and called you do it yep and when you're not you don't actually have to explain yeah for me older you get the more you realize like I think for me it's like there was a time in life where I was very afraid of losing my what I had yeah I thought it was a gift that was given to me and it when it was it's a blessing but it was more like a lottery I won versus like something that I could achieve and work hard and earn which I did and now I feel like I'm in this spot where I feel extremely grateful every day I'm very grateful to the people who made my music matter which is just the fans period but at the end of the day I can also be that grateful person who's also honest about where I'm at and I go you know it we did tour for seven years because wasn't there didn't want to leave Yeah, I wanted to be with my kids. Yeah, and I understand if that took me out of the game I was I was willing to risk it. Yep. I have a bunch of memories that I would never sell Yeah, they're not for sell. Yeah, and what I had to do to get those memories was stop basically stop touring Yeah, and now I'm back touring a little bit and it's cool. It's fun I don't know if I could ever do it like we did Yeah, but we're gonna do it as much as we can as long as I I said the only way I'm not playing a show If we overdo it and I don't want to be there, it's going to kill the joy for all of us But if we all show up and we really want to be there and we're excited to play and we give people our best That to me became that bar for me was shows is like I no longer thankfully I have to do it Yeah, but I worked really hard to build some other businesses so that I could be that way But I don't have to do it so I only want to do it is it if I feel like we show up and we give 100% and we feel like we're excited to be there. We're grateful. We're there and we show up on stage and people are getting whether they realize it or not They're getting their money's worth. Yeah, like every dollar's worth I didn't even really have a decision to make It was about last September as funny because like summertime I did an interview and somebody said I said in the interview You know at some point I'll probably take some time off from this thing. Yeah, I had no idea a few months later I'd be I was on my tour bus and I looked around and I was miserable I was like I hate being on this bus right now I hate that I have to go walk around the stage and sing right now and so it didn't even become a decision for me It made it the decision made itself Where I talked to management talked to agents and say guys. I'm done I'll do the shows I'm committed to for next year But I'm not going on a full tour next year and through that I played for 45 minutes at stage coach and I enjoyed it again I took the time. I loved it. You were psyched. It was psyched. Yeah, I was playing my first stage coach and I had a blast doing it because I knew that I don't have to go fly somewhere tomorrow and play again like I just got the hyper focus on one show and Well two days before that was red rocks. So it's like red rocks and stage coach in the same week That's a good week and it was badass and I enjoyed it And I loved it and I got on stage and had fun making music again I wasn't in a hurry on stage. I wasn't flying through a set list. Half the set list was just made up on the spot and We I really had a fun time doing music again And I don't know if I'll ever go back to a full tour like that. Will I I don't know But if I do you bet your assets can be because I want to it'll be Honest yeah, which is good But there's a bunch of stuff you give up building this thing and and then you find yourself in a spot where you're like Okay, I built this thing. It's not it's not it's not going away. Yeah, now you can turn your attention to some other stuff Yep, so anyways, I think we're all at our age looking for that like your forties is for that. Yeah, start looking for that It's just just started for me, but it's been a long journey to get to where I'm at now, and it's gonna be a long journey But that's the whole point. Yeah, I love this saying enjoy the ride. You get one trip in life and enjoying it is Not always the easiest thing to do, but when you can figure out how to For me, it's slowing down slowing down and actually enjoying the moments and and there's a quote from a book one of my favorite books ever Align trackers got life in the whole book. He says it a million times in the book and it says I have no idea I have no idea where I'm going But I know exactly how to get there and That's because when you're tracking a lion you don't know where the hell lines going But you keep stay on the tracks of Instagram find the line and where I'm at right now is a lot of fun Good man. I'm happy for you. Yeah, good to see you again. Good to see you too, man I'm excited to hear you new music too as you go down the road here. It's Getting better good and you know to some people it may be getting worse and they're like what is he doing? Why is he why is he not making what I want to hear on the radio and the answer is because I'm making the music But I want to make it if it ends up playing on the radio that's even better But I'm not chasing nothing anymore. I'm just yeah, dude. You're on the journey, man. That's the path dude making music that you like yeah, and Likely some of it will end up on the radio But it's a winding road the artistic kind of like like artist development never stops You got to follow that feeling you have of going down over here because it's taking you somewhere. You just got to do it Everything I've ever done in life where for me it was God saying it almost like God puts you in this corner and says There's no other doors. That's the door There's only one door in this room. If you want out of the room walk through that door Everything in my life where I've felt so much conviction when I don't have choices and That's the only option for me. It's always fulfilling and That to me comes from God and put that on your heart of like hey man. This is what you need to do I'm not there's no riddles anymore. This is the way out or this is the way through That's when you're at a fun place and you can make that decision You don't have to make that decision by the way but To choose what you know is right No matter what that is in life to go through that door and make decision to go through the door And I'm gonna go through this. I'm gonna go get to the other side and I don't have one choice and I'm doing it again That question of who am I? What do I like? Who am I today? I'm not the same guy that started this thing out and then who do I want to be? Yeah, you know, yeah And you get to choose. Yeah, I had a lady tell me one time. She said chase you Do you want to know what a version of hell would be for me? I said, I'm not sure. I do About to find out I guess and she said you die you go to heaven God lets you in and they sit you down and says okay Now I'm gonna show you what your life would have been like if you'd have gone by my plan and That's what I'm trying to avoid in my life is my plan is probably not even close to his cool Is whatever God really has for if you just listen to him. That's right and that's where it's at Yeah, and that's that's a really freeing fun place to be. That's cool. This was good talk, man Yeah, it was awesome, man, fucking awesome. Yeah, it's been a it's been a wild week But it's been a really good one. I mean like I said I played freaking Red Rocks on Wednesday Stagecoach Friday had the weekend. It's been a blast sounds like a lot of highlights and a lot of time to reflect Yeah, I've had a lot of that and then also you go from there reflecting thrown back into the fire this week I'm like holy shit. I forgot. This is what my life is like when I'm working. That's a crazy life But it's a crazy life, but it's all it's none of it's on accident. Yeah, and it's an awesome life. Yeah, yeah I picked the coolest job in the world Yeah, I did pick me. I don't know. Yeah, well, I'm whenever you're around in LA and you ever want to play golf hit me up I will I'll probably be back here at some point this summer Anytime good. This was washed. Thanks, bro. Thank you Thank you for listening to this episode of artist friendly You can also watch the episodes on Spotify Spotify premium users get no commercial breaks on my show Make sure to follow like and comment because I always read the comments