Kylie's Husband at the Olympics & Chris Stapleton on Anthem Tears, Drinkin' Whiskey, & More | Ep 180

Twinsies Same Jersey Yeah, baby U.S. Hey, U.S. Hey, U.S. Hey, where'd you watch the game? What'd you do for the game? Yeah, it was up in New York watching it, man Just a nice. Yeah, catching it me and Tay watch the entire game, man, and it's just so F***ing epic, man, when from the first drop of the puck, man, that game was non-stop action and just had me at the edge of my seat at 805 in the morning or 810 in the morning, whatever it was, man, it loved every bit of it, man It was big-ed Kelsey's birthday shout out to big Ed. All right, making another big-ed Hell yeah, man, we're one more fitting for the big guy on his birthday, and so we gave him a shout and talked to him a little bit During the game and just Exploded when I saw old Jack Hughes fucking put it right right between the legs, man. How about a nice five hole? Nice little Lloyd Christmas look-alike rendition with the teeth. Yeah, dude. He did. Yeah, you had the F***ing chip tooth, man. I figure earlier. It looked like he had lost that tooth once or twice before. They crushed it. USA was so much fun to watch throughout the entire tournament, man That that semi-final game that you went to, I'm sure we'll get it to and the rundown, but absolutely epic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Peter Slovakian heritage. They're not Slovakian. We are Slovenian. What? Croatian? We're Croatian. I think there's some Slovenian on Mountside too. Is there? Yeah, Slavs. I don't know that. You got a little Slavs in this. I mean, it's all like Balkan territory, I believe. Yeah, I think there's a little checky as well. Checky? I think we're a little checky. So fucking we definitely got some Eastern European bank. F***ing heritage. I've seen some like Slavic area people that I'm like, yeah, they kind of look like. Did you put a babushka on or those f***ing furry things on man? You would f***ing fit right in Russia. You got the eyebrows. I got the eyebrows. I brought Russians known for thick eyebrows. I think Russians know like which Russians are you thinking of? It is a very big country. No, dude. It's an epic game. Shout out to Canada too, man. There's obviously that team is so f***ing stacked. I've never seen that many close calls not go in for a team. Helly beers, man. Wild. Helly beers. Not f***ing guy. Yeah, he played out the game. The defense man. I forget who was was in the net freaking. He was stopping shots. It was crazy. Sometimes the force is just with you, man. There is just something about hockey, whether it's playoff hockey or national hockey, when guys are like going all out, it's just the most fun sport to watch on the planet. Bro, that was a f***ing intense game from this start. How much the f*** a puck was moving? It was like, there were a few passes. I was just like, how the f*** did he even know the guy was over there? You know what I mean? It was like the puck was moving so goddamn quick. Those guys are both on both teams. Those guys are like so and sick. Well, USA. Yeah, we should probably start this thing. Hockey capital world. I mean, dude, we're men's and women's gold medal best country on the plan in hockey. I don't want to hear any arguments. I know you guys had a lot of shots on goals and put up the hell of a performance and got to get back on defense, man. Most important person. Gold center. Helly beers. If the chief didn't have patch of my home's, I don't know how many shoe balls they went, but they have patch of balls. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I'm playing hypotheticals here. Welcome back to new Heights Ladies and Gentlemen Boys and Girls of Wondry Show brought to you by Expedia, the one place you go to go places. That's right. The place you go to places. We are your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey. My big brother Jason Kelsey out of the US of A Cleveland Heights, Ohio. And University of Cincinnati love set up that a bear cats taken down the fucking Jay Hawks at Alan Field House. I've been there a few times. Not an easy place to play. But shout to the cat's mint. He'd make it a fucking run boys. Yeah, they make it a fucking run boys. Got about four or five games left in the big east and I'm fucking them. Dowdy. And I'm watching every one of them, especially got my eye on those BYU Cougars. We got a play coming up to all you Cougars that are in the Kansas City Chiefs building. I'm talking you big red. We're coming for you. Subscribe on YouTube. Once you plus wherever you get your podcast, it follows show at new Heights with 1s for fun clips. They're out the week on all social media channels. Jason, why don't you tell the people what we have coming up? Knowing we've had a lot going on these past two weeks. Yeah, I mean, we've been off from podcast, but we haven't been off from getting out of the house. 90% is we're going to get into everything these last couple of weeks, including from our time after the Super Bowl, where Kyla and I went to the Olympics and Travis had an absolute awesome moment at Pebble Beach with his absolute unit of a caddy. And we're also going to get into a great conversation with country music superstar Chris Stapleton. Before we get into all that, we're obviously going to get into some of that news news news is brought to you by American Express. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Alrighty. We are in a full blown blizzard. That's the new news I got here. I'll send a little text to the group chat. This is my front yard this morning. Yeah, I'm looking at the snow coming down right baton and yeah, they weren't lying. I'm up on the East Coast right now. And it is. It's coming down. It is coming down right now and I fucking love it, man. When you haven't seen snow fall in a while and like it get heavy and just turn the entire place white and bright, it is so magical. It looks gorgeous. Hard to get around if the city isn't taking care of it, but it is beautiful. That's my problem is that this we have seen snow for a while now. It's we it has been missing for those of us in Philadelphia. So I'm I'm kind of over the snow. I'm not going to lie. It looks gorgeous. Love looking at it, but shoveling it, doing all that stuff and then trying to freaking get around. It is a pain in the fucking ass. Dude, you don't have the old snow blower? Snow blower? No, I don't. No snow blower. Dude, that is an investment I need to make. You got to stop. You got to start working smarter. For sure. Smarter and out harder. Yeah, all along with them. Yeah. Dude, do you remember fucking shovel and snow our entire childhood? And then when we went off to the University of Cincinnati, we come back and dad has a snow blower. Yeah, I mean, why would he invest in a snow blower when you get two kids in a shovel? It's such a high-calcy move. He ain't shoveling snow with that back. No chance. But then it's also like, yeah, dad, do you want me to go like use the snow blower to shovel to get the snow? No, I got it. It's like, it's like he like, dude, it's one of the funnest things you can have. I'm pro-manual labor for kids. Yeah, not 100%. You appreciate it when you're the one doing it, and then you get to tell another fucking kid to do it. God, can we? We also dropped some film breakdown for Eagles fans wondering what to expect from new office. According to Sean Mann, yeah, I saw that, Jason. That was a pretty good breakdown. It wasn't bad. Hitches left and right. Hitches all over the field. It wasn't as organized as I would have liked it to be. But I think it turned out great. Aaron did a fantastic job shout out to our producer, Aaron. I think we can do a lot more stuff like that. That can be really insightful. I'd love to do it with you, try out because I know you know a lot more about route concepts in the passing game. Yeah. I think there's a thirst for me learning a lot of that aspect of the game that I've never really known. So anyways, we had a lot of fun with this one. I'm excited about some of the things that come with Sean Manion. We had some comments we were going to go through. I love this. We need more of this from Jason. It brings in his knowledge. And genuinely, I really love watching film. Oh, okay. It is fun to watch film. You know what film also is? It's expensive as fuck. The NFL is, they're not, they're not fucking around. We've had the license to write this shit. And they're making you pay for every fucking minute of it. Well, not every minute. But they're going to, you do a lot. They're going to start charging. And that's the one reason that's really difficult. We had another comment left my ass off. Good one stating, starting out the breakdown of a hitch point. That was all intern Brandon's idea. Shout out to intern Brandon. Thought it was an awesome way to start it off. Who doesn't love a good hitch route? By everyone. If you know when everybody, when you know when everybody runs a hitch, what it's called, you know, yeah. So it's called spacing. You ever heard that? You ever heard that when being called a model? Spacing concept, yeah. Spacing concepts. Yeah, soft and off outside. You're ripping those guys all day. And then if it's press outside, then you go inside. And then side guys kind of have to have like a nice little feel on where to find those zones. Where to find those voids. You don't want to run to get covered. And that was a great job. By what was it? Messenger? Or the tight end on a green bay of finding that void on that arc release? Yeah. There we go. Love it, love it, love it. It was a good solid though. Solid stuff though. And I thought it was a great timing on the issues. Jason sounding like a man who would be a great addition to the coaching staff in the offensive line room. Yeah, he would. Jason is 100% a coach in offensive line room. The Eagles just don't pay him. I wish I had time to do more stuff like that. I really think it would be fun. But those coaches, as we saw with Mike McDonald, they spent a lot of time in the offices. Oh yeah, a whole lot of time. That is something that I don't have that much of a desire to do. Well, it was awesome to see you break down some film. I know I had some fun with it. But I'm sure the 92% would love to have an input on what we should break down next. Like who's film we should break down next? We want your guys' suggestions. So please throw some suggestions out there. And do we have a segment name? Have we named this segment yet? We got some. We don't have no segment name. We got some comments underneath the post that we already put out there. If you break it down the film from Alison Rose Barnum. All 22 with the 92? Not a bad one, not a bad one. it all not bad at all. I like this one a little bit more though. Joe Courtney 13 X's and bros X's and bros. It's not a bad one at all. That was pretty good. We got one more from a wiki wall or the obvious Kell see what I did there or Kell see what they did there. Sorry about that. I can't read. But that was a solid one in. I just like his profile pick of AI with the throw. I think maybe you would just throw that out to the suggestions as well. I bought it 92 percenters. Oh, that's Mike Wallace. Yeah. Apparently. Like the Mike Wallace. Like wide receiver Mike Wallace. No, Mike Wallace is in the main producer. I have how my individual stuff. Oh, that Mike Wallace. Yeah. That'll be very nice of humbling Mike. Anyway, shout out to Mike. Mike did a great job with the Bob said video that came out this past week. You can't wait to get into that. We're going to get into that in a second. That was fantastic. Also, this Friday dropping some bonus content. The heights hotline off topic off season. How about it? Got some great voice mails from the 92 percenters that you guys are going to hear us. Answer and available on YouTube. One tree plus or wherever you get your podcast this Friday. So make sure you check that one out. Once again, new news is brought to you by American Express. Let's keep it moving to out of the house. Brought to you by Pipsy. Oh, man. I mean, all the fucking USA gear because we're champions. Did you know that Norway was that fucking far ahead of everyone? No, why are you saying Norway? What is it? What do you mean? Is it not Norway? What do you mean? Don't they have like the fucking most golds of everyone? Oh, you're talking about in the limit. I did not know that. But I mean, Norway is always up there because they're. Dude, they came into it with 70 more medals in us. They came into it? Yeah. Like all-time medals? Yeah. I was like. Listen, there's not a lot to do up there, Norway. I mean, cross-country skiing is just how you try. It's just going to work. Yeah, exactly. That was once in the Olympics of non-stop and you were at them so you didn't see a lot of the broadcast, but in between they were talking about they were showing why Norway is like always like one of the best in the winter games and they said they call it the Norway. It's the way of Norway. And they say they get them on skis and skates and get them down the slopes and into the games when they're really, really young. It's like their way of like competing in a lot of ways. Yeah. Either way, let's keep this thing moving. USA won Golden Hockey and men's and women's and stuff like that. Out of the house is brought to you by Pampsy before we get to the Jason in Italy, Jason and Kylie in Italy. Hey, tell us about your time with the Bob Sled team. Jason out in Utah. Dude, it was awesome. I got to. I got the. for those of you that didn't see the YouTube video that dropped last week. I got the very fortunate experience to go up to Team USA Bob Sled's headquarters out there in Park City, Utah and got to see what it feels like to go down a track in a Bob Sled with Team USA Frank Dale Ducca, the driver and captain of the Team USA unit that I was with as well as some awesome Olympians, Kaylee Humphries, who won bronze. I believe in the Mono Bob Sled, which is just one man Bob Sled. Yeah. They were kind of all up there and the whole crux of the video is like, hey, what does it take to make this team or to like kind of be considered? So we started it off by putting me through the ringer testing. Does it see if I'd even qualify for that? To which that I was borderline at best. I don't think they would have given me another shot, but they they definitely they appeased me every time. Every time they said you got to hit a number, you hit the number. Yeah, but I was also way below what they would like hit those numbers. Oh, okay. All right. Well, they said between on the on the would you run a 20 or a 40? It was a 30 meter sprint, so it's like a little bit less than a 40. It was like 30 whatever yards. And you ran that at 3.9 and it looked like you were jogging. It didn't look like you were spreading. I definitely can do better than that. And but why didn't you? It was the vertical jump test that was really the telltale sign. The 30 the 30 didn't count at your weight and your power. I don't. Here's the thing. They did say went wild. So after we got done with this, we did what I really wanted to do, which was to see how these guys train. So we got on the dry land sled up top and we started working on pushing, getting into the sled, how they get out of the break, the cadence. They use the cadence to know when to time it up. So they all hit the sled in unison. It was awesome. It was a blast learning all the different techniques and whatnot. I would love to do this more. I mean, it was humbling experience, but they did say you're you're you're coming off of some power definitely coming off of some power. We know if there's anything Jason kills is got. It's the power. I think you would be a lot of fun to do it more and to actually they wouldn't let me push and do it on the ice for liability concerns. You have to be better. I think on dry land and really go at it, jumping into the thing first before they didn't have a fucking waiver. They had some waivers, but there are also three people. I mean, one of the sleds in the video, the driver didn't make it in there. So they're like, yeah, we're not doing that with you, but they did say if you want to come up to the track and like plastic, the indoor will let you potentially try and push it and jump in. So maybe that's a future video in the making because I would like to see that full experience, but it is the timing required. The athleticism that these guys have, all of these guys are former like athletes and usually big skills. Some of them are former lacrosse players, most of them are former track runners. Most of them weigh anywhere from 225 to 250 somewhere in that ballpark range. I'd be really curious to see what it feels like. The problem is I'm really built to be a third or second guy, but you have to be running full at full speed. That thing is moving already 21 miles an hour down the track. You got to be keeping up with it off the jump. Well, not by the time you're jumping in, that thing is moving 19, 21 miles an hour with all four of you pushing it. So that was a big thing. That was harder, even though that's moving. They weren't even, they weren't even like really getting after it. It is hard to keep up with the back. If you're especially if you're the last person to jump in, you can't slow that thing down. So you have to be running to keep up with it. So shout out to all those Olympic athletes that are doing that. They are world class explosive top-end speed runners. I would be curious to see a lot of linebackers and running backs would do. That feels like the best or tight ends. A little Travis Kelsey moving on that thing. Sounds like I'm like a 19 to 20 mile an hour like top-end speed right now. I don't know about I'll try it and you can get that thing going. Yeah, they're long legs. I hear it. I hear it. Yeah, I've actually recorded myself. I'm only going 19, 20 miles now. I know these numbers. That's pretty well. Well, either way, it was an awesome experience. It was great to meet all them, to learn how it all happens in a very intro novice way. Yeah. And then also just the ride itself way more intense than I imagine. I think I thought it would be like a rollercoaster. I really doubt. I thought, oh, we'll go around the fence and you know, the energy that you are moving down this thing at over 80 miles an hour. And when you go into these bank turns, it pushes you into the bottom of this thing. And on the bottom of the sled, there's like these metal rails in my ass is so fucking wide. I'm they're sitting on those metal rails. I'm I'm being pitched down out of these metal beams. I'm trying to keep my head up so I can see. Are you not allowed to put a seat on this thing? Huh? I have no idea how Frank was Frank Del Duke of the driver. I have no fucking idea how he was even knowing when to do the turns and everything. But you have to memorize it. Yeah, you have to know the course. That makes sense. It is going by so fast like just so anyways, it was it was a hungry experience to see the level which those athletes perform that they teach you how to drive it at least. No, I saw in there and they showed me how so there's a pretty cool video that Kayleigh Humphries showed me how they train the turns before you get into it. So obviously they were going to let me steer in it. Yeah, but she basically was kind of showing you how you push and pull and lean and how it feels but you it's it's a cable steering system. Yeah, two things in here. And when you pull this one, it turns the front skis this way or that way. And that's basically how you're steering it. The skis, I thought would be like like ice skate. I saw you I saw you talking about them on there. That's insane that they're yeah. So they're not really getting into they're just kind of they're kind of just gliding on the curve a little bit smoother. Yes. Yes. They're not really like turning it. Yeah, I mean, they are, but it's not like it's not cutting into it the way I thought it would. It's like driving on snow. It feels like I guess. Yeah, but either way. Awesome, awesome, awesome experience. Before in the the old two-wheel drive. All right, let's keep this moving. I've never done that. Here's the real question. Next year Olympics, are we doing the double lunge? Double lunge. I'm not a loser. I got no inches in illusion. How do skeletons before lose? Which one's the lose versus skeleton? Lose is like you're on your back and you're looking I get my belly's too big. I want to even see where I'm going. The double the double lose is the weird one ever what's talking about. Yeah, yeah, where there's like there's a picture right here. Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, even the single lose. I'm not I'm not a loser. You atop her bottom guy. I'm a zero zero guy. I'm not a loser. I deal. I'm not a one man loser, though. I'm not against being that close to another man. I'm perfectly comfortable in my sexuality. I'm just not a loser. closure. Thank you to our presenting spots or expedient when it comes to travel. We're all about keeping it simple. 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I don't think that's just you, man. I think everybody is in line with that. And that's why people who travel a lot talk about the American Express Platinum card. Because when you're a card member, the airport doesn't feel like the airport, it feels like part one of the vacation, talking about the lounges. Yeah, the lounges because with MX Platinum, you can enjoy access to the largest global lounge network compared to other credit card companies as of July 25th. Yeah, it makes sense. You stroll in, find a peaceful place for relax and enjoy a spot to recharge, giving you travel confidence you need through comfort. All right. Now with premium travel benefits and award-winning services, there's nothing like Platinum terms apply learn more in American Express.com/withplatinum. Thank you to our partner, Claude. Ever notice how everyone just wants the quickest route these days? Always skimming for hot takes the headline and then they move on. Yeah, but that is not how we do it. No, whether it's breaking down a game, figuring out a big decision to go down a rabbit hole at midnight. The best ideas come through thinking them through. And that's what Claude is built for. That's right. It's from Anthropic, a company founded to help people think not just keep you engaged in this world. Claude works through problems with you, pushes back when something doesn't hold up and it also helps you get to the real answer and get this. Claude has a new live sports functionality that shows real time scores, standings, and players stats across all major leagues. Check it out at Claude.ai/newhide for problem solvers who keep thinking. We know someone you're really, really comfortable with and that's your wife and CBS Olympics throughout there that Kylie Kelsey and her husband are supporting the USA women's hockey team. That's right. That's good to call you. The plus one is essentially the plus one. Sometimes being the best, the best feeling in the world. Kylie was there on behalf of NBC and YouTube. I really was just there to have fun and enjoy the Olympics. So I was a hundred percent. This is the correct way to say it. And I thought it was hilarious. Hell yeah. I wanted to tell him I prefer ball and chain. But yeah, that was a first USA women's game for the first day that we were there. That was awesome. Oh yeah. Dude, and you finally met Yoko Apollo Ono, the speed skater, minus the Yoko. That's well forever be one of the funniest things. Dude, Apollo, I mean, we watched them all growing up. Hell yeah. Unbelievable speed skater. Dude, he's been to the heights, dude. Did you talk about him coming to the heights? I didn't actually ask him that. I'm pretty sure he did. At least that was ward around town and you already know how word gets around. I believe you're right, because I think that's when that the first year that the new ice trick was built. It was an Olympic rank and they could do all the speed skating stuff. Yeah. Speed skating was electric shit. Let me tell you. So we went to the things that we did there. We saw four Olympic hockey games, two female and two male games. We saw figure skating and we saw, we saw speed skating, short track speed skating, which is the law. The long tracks are fun and it's cool to see everybody get pick up speed. I want to see short track. I want to see short track too, but I sometimes it pisses me off when they start off real slow when they're doing the like longer races. We weren't doing. We saw the 1500 meters was longer. Sometimes that piss me off, but these were these things were were fast paced. They were moving. They're doing push pushes because we saw the relay version of it where they get in there and they push the ass of the guy in front of them. Yeah. The thing that was nice. So I felt like this watching WrestleMania and then going to WrestleMania was in Philadelphia. When you're at WrestleMania, they don't have the announcing and you realize when you're in the venue, when you're just watching two guys wrestle, how much you need like the shit talking and you need Pat McAfee saying like, Oh, fuck the top rope. Like if unless you have that, like it's just not that fun to be at in my opinion in the venue, which I think wrestling needs to incorporate the announcing in the venue. I don't know how you got to figure that out, but it would make it so much more exciting. Yeah. I kind of felt the same way watching figure skating. If I'm not going to like, like I would have liked to have heard Terrell Pinsky and Johnny, we're announcing it live. Like you kind of when you don't have that, especially someone that doesn't is kind of newer to the sport, you like hearing the excitement and the announcer's voice that they just did something difficult, they just nailed a routine or like they just missed something. So I in speed skating, but it is a goddamn party in that speed skating arena. That's awesome. It is like you're there for there's DJs playing music. It's fast pace. There's bells ringing. It is zero. It is high stakes action in the speed skating. I love it. That shit was fun as hell to be at. You got to see some women's hockey like we said. You got to meet the great Cleveland Heights native Leila Edwards. Best athlete out of Cleveland Heights. That's what she said on the other podcast as I should say. Not going to lie with Kylie Kelsey. And I'm just going to say, Leila, I've got two banners up in the Cleveland Heights hockey rank. I'm not sure how many banners you have. That's a young Travis Kelsey looking like as tall as all the adults on there. That's a hefty boy right there. There he is. Looks like I might have fucking got some teeth knocked out or they just fell out of that age. A little squirt double a division champion. Don't forget the band-of-double as well. Cleveland suburban hockey league champs right there. Two time, two time champs. I don't know. I haven't been back. I saw you where Mighty might. You probably moved on to Triple A before she went to Baron's or real quick. Yeah, she went to Baron team or maybe fandom who knows which Triple A team she played on. I think she went Baron's. I think I looked it up before. Well, that was the closest Triple A to Cleveland Heights, but I'll let you have them because you're the only one that have gold. So a little tip of the cap to you, Leila. That was awesome to see you go and get it. And I'll tell you what, man, she has a fucking shot. She was sniping multiple. She's ripping the wrist out, dude. And she's setting up people in front for the tips. Oh, yeah. She was very, very good throughout the Olympics and through the games. One of the things after talking to her, like you realize she is from the Heights, man, there's just like this humbleness, but also like she's a great person and it comes across very apparent. When you speak to her, we got a chance to meet that whole team. Kylie had four of the girls on after the game. They seem like they were all just so close, man. That's what I was about to say. We hung out with them two after the men one gold in the little back room. They're a great team, man. They got their tight knit. They're playing jokes on one another. Just so proud for all of them. And you know, it's it's an incredible moment to win a gold medal. I can only imagine what that feels like, man, especially in a team sport like that. You know, you got everybody in the United States watching. Yeah. Shout out to Layla one more time for for bringing home some gold to not only the USA, but the old Heights, baby, because you know how how proud we all are once you once you grow up in Heights. No doubt. Well, how much do you credit the women's hockey team of winning gold to Kylie turning around. She's going to do everything she can. She puts her superstitions first. Yeah. And she's making me participate. What were you wearing in this? That is a hat that was sold exclusively for the Olympics. I believe there's actually a children's hat, but I'll start to put my pins around it and it was like a flower. We were having a lot of fun, man. It was it can to got out to the quick lead and it made it very stressful. Man, once you get into that elimination run, do the ref and the refs in that game. I don't know what the fuck they were doing. And that was after Megan Keller's goal. Little dangled to the backhand underneath the blockers. So happy. It was so happy. But anyways, yeah, it was an electric game. Then obviously, we got to see USA men dismantle Slovakia. It got yeah, six one, I believe. It got ugly. It was five nothing real quick. And I was sitting with the Kachuk family. Nice. Keith Kachuk was over there on the end of it. Got to shake the hand of a fucking legend. That was awesome. That's so fucking cool, man. I was sitting next to Anthony Rizzo. Shout the Riz. He let me know he was over by a man. That's so fucking cool. You got to see all these guys up there, man. We were right by the Hughes family too, Jack Hughes, who had the golden goal for the US gold medal game. Did you get a chance to meet the Hughes brothers? I don't think so. I saw Jack's dad. in his mom, I think. I don't think I saw the brothers. Maybe I did. - Absolutely, let's do the, the Olympics need to sell larger beers, Jason. Do they need larger beers? 'Cause this beer looks like it's like a beer shot. - We can't talk too much shit. These are the exact bottles. Garage beers coming out with coming down the line, which are, one of the reasons I've wanted to not do those bottles because I like the long neck. - Oh, there's a little long neck in there. It's a little baby long neck. - Well, that's what we're going with. That same exact shape. But it's gonna look really stupid in our gigantic hands. Whenever I like hold a beer, I can. I was like, man, that can is so small. It's like, no, it's actually a normal size can. (laughing) - Do you want me to say, I do think the beers might have been a little bit smaller though. I couldn't tell. - Either way, it's just like illicit areas. Are there any other highlights from the old Milan Olympics that were missing Jason? - Um. - Best Fuji 8. - Man, I can't pronounce any of the restaurants we went to, but we took the metro down into near the Dremel area, ate in a couple of restaurants that Susan Schuster, Rich Eisen's wife, recommended some of these spots. - Nice. - We had some unbelievable food, but I did have a cheeseburger promptly. Once I got back to the United States, man, there's just something like, don't get wrong. I love traveling, but I just like, I was like, man, all this pasta and everything is great, but I'm missing a cheeseburger. - Just a burger and fries or some fucking American style, fucking pizza, you know? There's nothing like an American style pizza. - Well, I didn't mind the Italian pizza. It was very good. Had a pizza with anchovies on it. - Oh, big anchovie guy now. - I'm not. I usually hate anchovies, but this pizza was good. - Nice. - What else do we do? Salted Domo, which my god. Have you ever seen that? - Nope. I have no idea what you're talking about. - Ian said just big church that, I mean, it's just like breathtakingly ornate. I don't know if it's a Gothic. I don't know what, I guess the architecture style that it would be, but it's just, it's incredible. I don't even know how to describe it. Pictures do not do it justice. Do you see a thing in person? It's just all stone carved out. Fucking points and shit. Carved into it, it is fucking insane. Yeah, it was a Milan was gorgeous. - Mmm, I've seen that on "Tacious" (laughs) - You're hilarious. - Yeah, I mean, dog ran on to a track, which dogs are always the star of the shows. - Canada catching a bunch of heat for cheating, which, listen, you know my Rubien cheat, you ain't trying. (laughs) - This is hot out the cannon. - I have no problem, they didn't even get the deduction. They gotta slap on the wrist after the deal. I don't give a shit. I respect it. (laughs) I like his reaction too. He knew he wasn't supposed to be doing it. They'd call him out and say, "No, I fuck you, what are you doing?" (laughs) - He's gotta be fired with fire as we're conscious of that. Hell yeah. - Yeah, they're gonna fuck you, I didn't cheat. - No one damn willing to do that. (laughs) - You got him fucking me force the force, man. - The nods, the nods, the nods. (laughs) (laughs) (laughs) - They fuck you. (laughs) - Even the ref comes up, the ref comes up to me. He's like, "Hey, hey, just make sure you let him go. "Oh, was I doing that? "Was I holding him?" - I didn't think I was, sorry, sir, I didn't know I was holding him. No, and damn well, I just held the fuck out of that guy. - I just go the other way. - I mean, he's holding me. - He's holding me. - Yeah. - You saw him holding me for example. - Exactly, exactly. - Ref, I was trying not to hold him, but he just couldn't disengage. He was grabbing on to me. - Oh man, that's fucking hilarious. - God damn, that was an epic Olympics. Shout out to all the Olympians. That was a fucking, I enjoyed every single bit of it from all the ski and snowboarding to the speed skating. Even saw a bunch of the figure skating. And man, it was a fucking show. Shout out to Alyssa Lou for bringing home the gold. - Absolutely, yeah. - And yeah, shout out to both hockey teams, bringing it home for the red, white and blue. - When I was watching the figure skating, we were at the short program night. - Nice. - I was standing in, I was sitting in front of Nathan Shen and he was describing to me like all the things that they needed to hit somebody at the end of it. - You knew what to look for and everything, yeah. - Like if somebody missed it, you knew what the review color was. If it was green, it was good. - Well, they were showing that on the TV too. I was like looking at it like, ooh, we got to review that one. - That's not good, it's a yellow. - Is the heel at six o'clock or is it at nine o'clock? - Great Scott Hamilton, I'm sure. - Dude, how cool was it meeting that guy? - Unreal. - That was mom's favorite. We always used to watch Scott Hamilton, yeah. Well, Touche, but she was the one that was like, he's the best when we were coming up. And I just remember, I don't know what it was. Was it the gala that we always watch Scott Hamilton do the flips in because you can't flip during the Olympic games? - I asked him this too. I thought that he was the reason the flips were banned. Apparently they were banned before him, but he was, he was do it. He just never did any competition. - Right. - Which now they let him do it. This is the first year I think that they change the rule. You can do flips now. - Oh, I didn't even see anybody do flips. - Yeah, he would do it. And yeah, I mean, he was the star of figure skating. And he brought up a point too. Like now, there's not really a lot of opportunity for figure skating outside of the Olympics. So a lot of these Olympians, they do like five or six years. They start so young, but then they were tired like 26. Scott had like a professional career touring figure skating for like 20 years. And he's like, this is like, it's just changed a lot since he was around. You know, I think that all the figure skating would like it to get back to that, right? They're really trying to push to make it something that is a touring professional circuit that it used to be on a large scale. And that was one of the reasons I think that we remember him so much as like he was doing it for so long. - Nice, well, now that the Olympics are over, what do you do next, Jason? What do you need to do? - Well, we are doing a little, I'm doing TGL. - What? - That's right. - Dude, I have always wanted to go to TGL. - Same. And thankfully, it's a part of ESPN. So I get to go down there and work. Nice man, do you get a plus one? - Yes, I would love to have you. If you're willing to come now. - Yeah, I've heard from everybody how state of the art and incredible this technology is. So I can't wait to check it out first hand. You know, with Tiger and all those guys that done a TGL just remarkable. - So epic, man. - Gonna be really cool, we'll get heading down there. And then after that, I'm taking some much needed relaxation time. - Yeah, I mean, you're the king of getting out of the house, Jason. I love how this all started where I was like, you couldn't keep me in my seat. - I didn't have the opportunities I had back then. Now I'm over here going to the Olympics because there's more than all this time to say. - Sure, a lot of it is contractually obligated to be in strict negotiations. - Oh no, I gotta go to TGL. - I mean, I live a very silly life where doing all this really fun, awesome stuff is also part of my job, right? And you know, it's a joy. I get to reconnect with hockey, which obviously we all are going to do things with golf, which you know, we've been fans of that sport for a long time. I mean, it's just, it's wild. It really is. - Travel, let's talk about you. - Oh fuck. - Little Pebble Beach Pro Am. - Yeah, dude. - How was that? - Pebble Beach is one of the most epic tournaments I've ever been to. I can't tell you how amazing it was, you know, seeing that course, Pebble on the water. The first two days, they split courses. The, as the Pro Am is going on as well. Play spyglass one day and then play Pebble the other day. It's just so well done, man. AT&T does a great job of bringing in, you know, the best golfers in the world playing at some of the most beautiful golf courses. I didn't get to play Cyprus, which is right around the corner that everybody who is raving about. And I'm fucking pumped to go back and play that one, man. But that little area over there by Carmel and Monterey Bay, man, it is absolutely unbelievable breathtaking views. And then you just get to see some of the most epic golf holes of all time and some of the best players around hidden some of the best shots. But I got to play with my guy Cash Beer Keith is unbelievable, unbelievable golfer man got to see him get dialed in and make a run. And it was just all around fun opportunity. And I also got to play against my guy, Alex Smith for two days, man, you have to get back into Smitty. Yeah, he was the one that kind of threw the invite out there. It was just cool to always reconnect with with old teammates, especially one that I admired and loved as much as Alex Manning. He got me, he beat me in the games we were playing. But I couldn't, I couldn't fucking put man. I got to figure out how to fucking get on the green. But these three puts are absolutely ruining my day. That was one day I didn't know it was a northern, I guess it's not northern California, but it's up there by San Francisco, right? It's up there. It's up there. Yeah, I think it's in between San Fran and L.A. But so is it like north or south of like Sonoma and Napa and all that stuff? I think it's like Southwest. Southwest stuff. Yeah, too. I'm telling you, you would fucking love this area. You would actually love it. No doubt. It's like it's like this calm hidden world over there. There's not a lot of like movement going around. It just seems like it's like one of the best places in the world. Also got to run into my guy Jim Nance, one of my favorite. One of my favorite. He's one of my favorite guys, one of my favorite play collars of all time, announcer, you know, and man, just and then on top of that man, just the all around professional. Obviously, listening to his calls on the PGA tour, as well as the NFL, it's been such an honor to be able to be a part of the games and him handed me the mic of the ASC Championship games. And it's just, it's absolutely epic every time I run it to him. I got to meet him and him and his kids and his wife. So it was pretty cool walking off 18 and getting to say hi to everyone. Well, I was very jealous watching it. I've always wanted to go out. It was the one off week I had before. Olympics. So I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna take this time to go back with the fan before we head out again, but I'm glad you enjoyed it What happened on the first tee? Can we talk about that? Yeah, you know, I I was told by somebody. I'm not gonna throw anybody under the bus, but let's play this video first I work as me too I Then found out the more I the more I saw Kashmir Keith Rip it that it's his game is as smooth as Kashmir as his as his swagger, so you're sweating like you give right now, Triumph I appreciate that, but I'm starting to really play too much golf What do I got to do to get a smooth swing like that? I mean you and I have always been opposites. You've always been the smooth athlete I've always been the like fucking tight wound Run through a brick wall with the zero finesse. How do I get this? I think you got to loosen loosen up And I that's obviously the clear thing to say, but it seems like you're pretty wound Like you want your muscles like firing at all times. Yes, and I like my muscles firing at certain times when you loosen up You get more on the backswing in terms of rotation and then you can really start to start to like strength in the transition up top I also get way too quick at the top because I do that and And I fucking yank the ball into the ocean, but I will say Losing a lot of weight will help you loosen up as well. Go in the opposite. I was just an idiot Dude, I got down to 250 the truth sick. I got down to 260 last off season felt really good about it I am already back up to 2.85 dude. I am dude your 85 already between the season and holidays Going on all these vacations and pasta and my quad getting torn so I can't run. It's been a bad stretch for your boy But I'm gonna get it down quick. We'll go right back down three months of dedication I can be decked out back down to 260 lickety split. Well, I believe it and I think The more you watch yourself and start to figure out this golf world the more you'll start to dial in those fundamentals That uh, that you need when I try to like swing the club and I'm not really trying to step on it I'm just a kind of like letting it go up and then just kind of like bringing it down almost by my hip I just feel like I really get in the pocket and it's consistent and it's replicable. Yeah, I just For some reason I stray I stray you do what I like to do you like to hit the fucking levy piss out of the ball And that's just how we were taught playing baseball and playing hockey is fucking it They can't catch it if you hit it as hard as you can and we like that feeling of connecting With the ball as hard as we can and seeing it fly as far as it can go I mean just in that's that's the fun and golf and I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I like don't do that at least Half of the holes when I play golf Like if I got a straight fairway and I got the driver out I get a driver I'm going to at least on 90% of the holes Do just that and it's be and it's the one or two times that I actually connect and see that thing fucking go 340 that I'm I'm just loving life and I love playing the game and that's what keeps me coming back Amen to that brother and that wraps up out of the house brought to you by Pepsi Thank you to our partner Pepsi Pepsi. Oh, Jason. Would you consider yourself a creature of habit? My yes, yes, I would how many times do we stick with something just because it's what we've always done Pretty much more life Yeah, you know, you're so used to one thing But when you actually think about it, you realize you've been missing out on something better That's what Pepsi calls the Pepsi paradox When you take away the labels and just go off the taste people across the country prefer the taste of Pepsi It's been proven over and over again and blind taste tests They just proved it again 50 years ago the Pepsi challenge revealed people preferred the taste of Pepsi in last year And a revival the challenge 66% of people preferred the taste of Pepsi zero sugar Here's what they're saying. Maybe it's time to question what you think you know about soda is Your preference really about taste. Mm-hmm. Go on and try Pepsi zero sugar today Let your taste decide Thank you to our sponsor Hills pet nutrition Ever wish you could trade places with your pet. Yeah, they don't work They don't have to worry about deadlines and don't overthink things. They're just doing try They're just living their life because their dogs, but pet parents have to balance work family their health and a million other things This is all true, but going through life is even better with your pet Especially when you're doing right by them and all their nutrition needs to give them a long healthy life That's where Hills comes in Hills science-led nutrition helps you give more love than Humanly possible their formulas are designed to support your pets health so you can focus on all the other things in moments like playtime Couch cuddles and celebrity milestones together because you're only human There's Hills find the right food at Hills pet dot com slash science does more Thank you to our sponsor all state checking all state first could save you hundreds on Consure it's that smart not checking we're recording before starting the episode Brand-in not smart happens a little bit more often than you think Sometimes I'm so out of breath from a screaming our guest in chose and then I have to do it again Yeah checking first is smart so check all state first for a quote that could save you hundreds You're in good hands with all state potential savings very subject to terms conditions and availability all state North American insurance company and affiliates in North Brook Illinois Let's get to our conversation with the old Chris Stapleton this incredible conversations brought to you by Claude Also fun game to play during this interview see if you can tell when Chris is 121 proof whiskey hits us Already our guest today is six-foot songwriter singer and country music superstar from staffers bill Kittucky That's right techie nineteen time country music award won a twelve time Grammy award winner including his most recent win for best solo country performance For bad as I used to be you know from his hits like Tennessee whiskey white horse Paris shoot nobody and blank broken halos and it takes the woman 92 percent is please welcome the man that performed a National Anthem so good it brought me to tears all right now The one and only Chris Stapleton How many people do you venture you've made cry just from singing the National Anthem at least two well on it You know, I haven't seen much statistics on that beyond that. Yeah, it was it was an incredible performance as only you could have done Seriously, I appreciate that. Thank you. We were just talking to Julian Edelman about how much the National Anthem for some reason, especially in the Super Bowl But it's like that moment that just like even now going to a regular game. I still get goose bumps. Oh man. I'm getting goose bumps I'm saying about it. Yeah, but it's like you know, this whole thing everybody's together. They got the jets going over. Yeah, it's a production and I'm you know It's it's heavy. Yeah, it's a unifying thing. Yeah, but you made it your own and like the most perfect way Dude, it was so fucking magical man. It got me fucking fired up. I came out hot in that game That's the photos room. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Fucking epic man. And it was some great TV editing to have to say of course You guys, you know, right moments man, you know, all the aircraft carrier and all this stuff. It was really great. She was awesome, man Well, you're on basically a football podcast. You play some ball back in the day. Yeah, like 30 years ago Listen, I know a ball. I know a major there when I see one. Yeah, look at that haircut right there You already know I didn't have a haircut to you. Yeah, you played Tim couch in high school. I did That was the first football jersey. I owned actually actually I did it back I had a drone bet a jersey first and then took out when they brought the browns back That was a number one pick. We played couch several times how to go. We lost What was this as you were playing? I was linebacker Let's go middle outside. We're yet inside inside back Yeah, look like you had a little neck roll in there. Yeah, that little cowboy Those big shoulder pads. Those shoulder pads. We're back in the day. That's right. I love it. Who'd you grow up watching? Oh, I mean I grew up in like Joe Montana Jerry Rice era. That was oh, yeah, Amorino those guys very fitting that we're on same friend Yeah, dude my uncle has a crazy story about how he played Notre Dame He went to Purdue and he played Notre Dame and he got to see the first glimpse of Joe Montana's like two minute at the end of a game Winning it as a freshman at Notre Dame and I asked Joe Montana about that game And he said that I my uncle didn't even mention this He threw like three picks and got taken out of the game and then a quarterback got injured and he gets put back in to go Save the day afterwards. That was like all right. I got those three picks out the way. I'm good to go baby Nobody remembers the picks if you win the game. You're a Lauren before we continue We've been told you have some gifts. I do I brought some weapon for you. Oh, yeah, baby. There's that Pass it on down Is it okay if we open this right now? Wait, we've got them swapped swap. Okay. Yeah, they're good there. Okay, you got it And how do we get lucky dude? We got gifts for Chris, right? Yeah, damn it. I'm like you're the first - That's one that has ever came on the show with gifts. - Dude, fuck yeah. - Yeah, baby. - Christmas and February. - 62 personalized bottles. - This is awesome. - Travels was-- - This happens every Christmas. He always opens and opens them faster than me. - Then we got some glasses. - Dude. - Coaster? - This is nice. - You guys are the first people we've ever done that for, but we got in a gravy machine, we just broke. - Oh fuck yeah. - So I don't even wanna open it. - Why? - Yes, and you open yours and I'll drink it. - That's the 90 proof, that's what we have been selling, but this is new coming out. This is one 21 proof. - One 21? - Not here, those were the 90s, this is not out yet. But I brought this today, if you guys were up for it, we could open it together. - Yeah. - This is the first bottle that I will ever have opened of this and have with anybody. I am now turning that down. - For a second, please. I'm being honored for you to-- - No, no, no, no, this has to be-- - You gotta open that thing. Dude, this is so bad, man. - This is awesome. - There's some glasses in there too, I think. - How long you been in the whiskey game? - Oh, I guess it's a couple of years now. We've been doing that, but it depends on what you call in the games. (laughing) Making it and selling it a couple of years. There we go. - I just do like a tasting for it first of you guys, man. - I might not have should have wrapped things. - Dude, this is awesome, man. Are you kidding me? - What do we call in the one 21 proof? - It's full proof. - Full proof. - Full proof. - It's a travel full proof. - Love it. - It'll be out very soon in limited quantities, but-- - Oh yeah. - Ooh, that smells good. - You guys ready to go? - Cheers for the first one. Hell yeah, baby. - Oh yeah. - Get the same going. - Yeah. - It's a separate for me, but you guys do what you want with it. - Well, if I didn't already have enough hair, I might just-- - That is fantastic. - Dude, that is-- - Very good. - That is a full proof. - Full proof. - 121, it is smooth. - Dude, thank you for this bottle. This thing's definitely going up on the bar, man. - Thanks for having me. - That's so good. - Lucius, I've never been in a box. - I'm like, "Hey, how about this one?" - Lucius, I've never been in a box, guys. Here we go. - I gotta ask you a more about it. So, being from Kentucky, it's always just been in like your backyard, right? Like a lot of the stories are-- - Yeah, well, you know, as I became an adult and played music, it's been a big part of what we do. I've always enjoyed Buffalo Trace product, which is exactly what we do. That's who makes this travel whiskey. - That's awesome, man. - You know, I always had a bottle of something that they were making in the room, for every record we've ever made. And so, I had the opportunity to work with Harlan, who's the master of stillerong, Pape and Weller and all these, you know, things that you can't get. - Right. - To do this, it was something to jump at. And it's been really good to us, and I think this is gonna do well too. - Yeah, well, it's amazing. - I haven't found one with it. - That's right. - We jumped in the beer world, but the whiskey world's a whole new world for me. If every one of them tasted as good as this, that bottle's gonna be going real quick. - Well, that's gonna sneak up on you. It's 121, but the naughty would be-- - I can feel it, you know, all right? - It's good, in a great way. - Warming me up with the first one. - No doubt, that's the best part. - All right, so the last time I ran it to you has at the George Strait concert, I've been to a bunch of your shows. - No, the last time you came to a show, you had a tiny baby. - That's what I was about to say. So, you don't know this, Chris met Finley before you met Fin. At his show, if she was so new and so young, we couldn't leave her at home, and we wanted to go to the show. - You can't miss the show. - Is that the length? And Chris gave me one of my favorite things, and I've stolen it since you've said it, 'cause I love it so much, that you miss like the smell of like newborn babies. - There's like maybe smells, there's a great thing. - It's gonna sound like a weird creepy dude talking about it. - No, it's not creepy at all, 'cause it, I mean, anybody that's held a kid, a infant like that, you know what you're talking about, yeah. - Yeah, when you're a new parent and you hold a baby, it's the smell of your own child there, and your hands, it's a great thing. - Absolutely. - Beautiful thing there. - I also like to smell other people's babies. (laughing) - That's what it's gonna sound creepy. - Pardon me, sir, can I smell your baby? - Please hand this over, okay. So, you're going back out on a tour though, right? - Yeah, we got some tour dates coming up. Nashville's Nissan Stadium. Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium. Hershey Park Stadium in Pennsylvania. Pay course stadium since an ad. - Yeah, yeah. - We've been there a few times. - Fenway Park, two nights. Have you ever played Fenway? - No. - Well, I've played, they have a smaller venue in Fenway that we play. - Okay, okay. - We've never played the park rock. - In the big, okay. - Oh man. - And then Casey's Morton Ampitheater. Do you like the big giant arenas? Or do you like more, like what do you like more performing in? - They all have their strong points. I mean, I like that we can get more people than the bigger places. - I get it, yeah. - But I also, you know, some places that, like Fenway, are magic in ways that they have historical significance. - Fuck yeah. - You know, just plan to ring the field. Or, you go to these places that have been around while those places have ghosts in them. Or even, you know, playing the film over here where it's San Francisco right now. But like playing some over here has a lot of music history. And you do those things and you feel like you're, you know, part of the ethos of music. - Yeah, okay. - Absolutely. - I've talked to Taylor, my Taylor about this a few times, but she grew up in that country world in Nashville and in high school and coming up. And she was underneath a lot of these big country singers. And she raised about how together they are, how they maneuver on tour and stuff like that. How was it rocking with George Straight around the country? - George is the best, man. - George doesn't play a lot of shows, but we played as many as we could with him. And I think I almost talked to him and the pseudo coming out of retirement. He was, he was playing. - Convincing a lot of shows. - And we had a lot of fun playing a few shows with him. I was like, "Hey, man, many of these is you want to do. Let's do them." So we picked up and played more. And I think he had fun doing it too. And I don't know, we just had a good time. - Favorite city? - I mean, I like a lot of cities with reasons. My favorite venue to play in is probably the forum. - Okay. - And Los Angeles. - Yeah, just because it sounds so good. - And it also has, you know, you walk in the, down the hallway and it's like, they have all the people that have played there on the walls. - That was hell. - Just like crazy shit. - You're just like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go play the forum." - You can feel history in some, in some of these arenas and stadiums. The forum feels like it was made for that. You know, obviously the Lakers and everybody. - That's the wood and all the, just, yeah. It has the sports history too, but the music history of it is incredible. - Wonderful. - I haven't heard that when you had the forum. - Do you remember your first concert? - My first concert was probably Bon Jovi at Reparina with Skid Row opening. - Oh, wow. - And Skid Row was so loud. - Yeah. - I had to go out in the hallway. I was like, I was maybe, maybe I was eight, eight or nine. - Okay. - Cameron. - Yeah. - That's amazing. - That was fun. - So, Big Jet Bon Jovi fan. - Yeah, I like Bon Jovi. - I mean, I grew up in the '80s, man. - Oh yeah. - All that stuff is, is good. - I was, I had this pair, so growing up, Bon Jovi were in the rock world, the country world, all the above. - Yeah, I mean, I grew up in a rural part of the country too. So, you know, we have, yeah, all the, my dad listened to all the, outlaw music, you know, like, - Oh yeah. - Wailing and Wailing. - I'm a rocker guy. - I'm a rocker guy. - You know, but also, you know, old-armed being stuff like that. So. - Oh, nice. - I had it from all directions. I, and I don't, you know, if it's good, it's good. There's two kinds of music, good and bad. That's it. - So, we always talk about some sports, actually. Like, we don't, to be a great athlete, it's best to play a bunch of different sports. And before you narrow down into one sport, do you think it's similar? Like, do you think playing and listening to all these forms of music, and then narrowing down into like a specific genre, makes you a better musician, or do you think it's best to stay in like one thing? - I have to share this just 'cause it pops in my head as you were saying that. - Okay. - When I was a kid, I went to Rick Patino basketball camp. - Oh, that's cool. - Look at that action, hell yeah. - And Rick Patino, you know, he spoke to us before, we had the camp, or what, I'm sure you guys went through camp for the day. - Oh, you know how it goes, yeah. - And he's like, now, didn't order to be a good basketball player, you have to play three sports. One-on-one, basketball, three-on-three basketball, and five-on-five. (laughs loudly) - And that's amazing. - That pops in my head as you were saying that, but I do think there's something that can strengthen you as a musician if you can, you know, kind of, at least have a working knowledge of a lot of different kinds of music. - Absolutely. - But at some point, all these influences kind of converge into whatever it is that you are, and that's what that is, you know? - I love it. - That's awesome, right? - Do you remember your first concert you played? - I don't. - No. - And so I'm probably in church, so that's not a concert. Like, are you just singing church? - Yeah, no, I don't, yeah. - A couple of times in high school, we, you know, I owned a PA, so we'd randomly get hired by somebody that needed a PA to open for 'em sometimes. - Okay, yeah. - Yeah. - In high school, it's hard to get people to take things seriously and like, try to work as a band. And then you think you're gonna go to college for a minute like me, and then you do that, and that doesn't work out for you. And, well, what am I gonna do is you get random jobs driving trucks, or delivering pizzas, or whatever it is. And then until you find out what it is that you do. - Yeah, so now I gotta, as you gotta be going down a rabbit hole, dude, you were fucking, you were, you were a pizza driver? - I was not that high up in the totem pole. - Still though. - I was the guy, have you ever had been in a parking lot? I don't know if they did that, this is where you guys were from, but, and you go into a store or something, you come back and there are coupons on your windshield. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah, I was the guy that put the coupons on my windshield. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah. - Hey, man. - Go around in the parking lot, that's fucking goal, man. - Basically, I mean, given people money, essentially. - Is it like Santa Claus? - It's a Robin Hood, man, this is sweet. - What process of music making do you enjoy the most? - Oh, yeah. - Writing, working out the sound and melody, I mean, I guess that all kind of goes the same thing. - I was gonna say it even. - Performing? Like, what's the best part? - Oh, it's all part of one wheel for me. I like it all when it's working. I'm frustrated by it all when it's not, you know. But, you know, I do enjoy writing, But I don't do a lot of that. anymore. I do enjoy going to the studio and the studio is probably my favorite part. Okay. Really. Although I don't have any plans to go do much of that these days really either, but they all feed into each other and it's not really a separate thing. Right. And you have to do all of them in order to once again be whatever it is that you are. Oh yeah. I just have to say this. The tiny desk of you and your wife was one of the most magical like tiny desk that I've seen. That's the closest thing I get during the season to seeing live music is like doing like just surfing on the web and watching everything like that. Like when you're you're in an intimate setting like that like does it change how you're performing or is it or is it just kind of like take you back to like just I don't know what I would assume is like the beginning stages of you and a guitar and just making well we try to maintain that even you know as we play larger venues like we still set up the same. Oh yeah. On a big stage that we would set up in the club or we don't change our setup you know I'm kind of tethered to a chord I don't do a lot of moving around or anything that's not my deal. It doesn't change my mentality and we're still just playing songs. But somehow it feels like a little more pressure sometimes to play very intimate things more than a massive things you know because you can see the reactions of the five people in the room or you know there's a little more pressure there in an odd way. Oh yeah yeah absolutely. I know you say you're not doing much songwriting anymore but how many songs do you venture you've probably written. Oh yeah more than a thousand for sure yeah. The head is incredible. What is the process for you to is it always the same? No strikes in different ways. Well I mean I grew up as a salary songwriter. I grew up I came up in the business as that's the song you've written or insane. Yeah songwriting and to the point that I you know I was a salary songwriter in an publishing house and so we would show up at the you know crack of noon or something and we make appointments and this it feels very not sexy when I describe it that way but that's that's what we did we worked it like a job you know and you come in it's a very workman mentality and early on I would do that three or four times a day I would have different points with people and I would come out with songs and crank and crank and crank trying to figure out how to do it and how to be good at it. Oh yeah. And eventually you figure something out or you get lucky enough to make people think that you did yeah and that's kind of what that is but the process can be different. For me if I'm sitting by myself I'll probably just have a guitar and hum and strum. Does the melody come first and then the lead a lot if I'm by myself that would or something you know I'm I've I've dreamt choruses before or wake up. I'm writing a song right now not necessarily but I would be if something if you said something or you said something or something you know something struck me a lot on the wall that would you know start to start the wheels turning. Hell yeah. So you can't avoid it if you are a songwriter but you're always writing a song yeah even if you're not material writing so yeah yeah that's cool. I wish I had the fucking brains to be able to just put words to music like that's insane stuff man it is I can't even write a full sentence out finish this and you won't be able to do that. All right does every country western song need to mention the following. Mama's trains prison getting drunk. You're talking about the perfect truth in western song. It is one of my favorites about Steve Goodman. That's right. Is there some truth to that like I feel like that's a caricature almost now in a lot of country music where it's like I don't think you have to do that but certainly when you do those of us who know that as the list of things that are supposed to be in there yeah would go all right cool good job. Cover the bass is nice. At this point in your crew do you go to places for like honest feedback from like where you're at or do you well I'm like you're I'm married to my wife. The biggest honor is the most honest person shot I've told me of something sucks immediately and not she doesn't pull too much. I don't need to go anywhere else for honest feedback coaches right there Lynn you know that's awesome. I mean places you want to play that you haven't played yet. I'm sure there are but I don't know what they are. Have you ventured much out of the states in terms of a we've played in Europe a little bit in Australia but we have never been to South America to play. In terms outside of the US what's your what was your most like accepting crowd the ones that got the craziest. They've all been wonderful. Everybody in Europe is great and Australia is great. Everybody's you know really nice to us and oh yeah we don't do it that much we don't you know it might be three or four years before we do those kinds of things and so people really show up. That's awesome. It's a really nice feeling to think that whatever you've done has crossed an ocean and gone to the other side of the world you know. Do you feel like for country music in general too like those opportunities overseas are becoming more like the genre is growing like it feels like way bigger than it was when I was growing up. I do think that's true. I mean there's always been some element particularly in Europe and in Australia has a very you know kind of Australian country music scene of the zone. Yeah but yes I think as a whole there's probably more of a market for it than there ever has been. I was over in Ireland and this young kid was a cadding force. He got him his car when he was leaving and he was blaring. I forget what the culture song was but it was exactly it was. So this is fantastic. Thank you. And you guys also have a car this year in NASCAR? Yeah we have a car the Daytona 500 is the second year for it. Okay. It's a partnership with Junior Motorsports which is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Fuck yeah. And yeah we're going to Daytona 500 together. Oh man. Is there a cooler past time in any sport than what NASCAR was like originated from like running from the cops is the past time of the soul sport. There's nothing top side. There's nothing boot lagging. So I think there's a good history between whiskey and what NASCAR has has come from and so I think it made sense. It was kind of a crazy idea. I'm friends with Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Racing and I think we kind of floated his way. He's like well you know Junior was looking to get into maybe running a running car into 500 and and he kind of put us together and I think that's how that happened. It all just kind of came to this head of we wanted to do it and they wanted to do it and I you know last year I sat you know in the pit with the headphones on and listened to all the stuff that nobody gets to hear and watch the race with in that inside kind of way and it was intense. That is cool. That's really super intense. Yeah. Have you always like been in the NASCAR like growing up and everything? Not necessarily. I think the race cars are cool. I like going fast. Fuck yeah. Not as fast as those guys. I was gonna say if they go to guys are different animals. Have you gotten in one of them cars? No. No. Is there a desire to? No. So did you like going fast? No I don't have that I don't have that gene. I appreciate the the stamina and the will and the lack of fear that it takes to get in one of those things. We went to a bowl game. Was that how you went there? You were on the lead. So we went to a bowl game in Charlotte and I was the NASCAR Hall of Fame's out there. So part of the bowl game in college was that we got to go experience like going around the track in one of those cars and you're basically sideways going around those turns. Yeah. Like that is a steep steep turn and you're hugging the outside of the car and somebody else is behind the wheel and it's a fucking wild ride. I took a hot lap with a race car driver in a track car that wasn't like a race car and he was telling me how much more it could do if it was like outfit for the race and I was about to puke. I was just like I'm okay I'm good man. Let me out. Well I've been a major fan of yours for a long time really started when you were still with the steel drivers playing with that group like that was the first time I heard your voice. I mean this guy just has a something about him that I just love listening to and then it went from there when you started doing your solo thing and really took off and you've gone so far do you have a welcome give a moment when it all initiated where you're like where I'm really I'm really doing this like I'm in the music industry. Yeah. I mean I was in the music industry as a rider that was my goal when I moved to town I met a guy that was a songwriter named Steve Leslie and who was kind of enough to introduce me to some people and the instant you know I was a salary songwriter working in the music business sitting in the room making up songs for a living and that was making it to me. Oh yeah. You know I'm playing a guitar for a living what more could you want. That's right. Was there anybody walked in those rooms or you took those meetings with that you were like oh shit I'm I got to create something with this. I got to ride. Maybe somebody's performing it and you're like I just wrote a song that somebody like I don't know. I did early on I went into the room with a veteran songwriter guy because I was really lucky to get in the room with some of those guys you know yeah and I sat down in the room with him. Never met the guy and he goes hey man you must have a pretty big ego. I was like what do you mean. Well you 23 you walking in here thinking you can do this with us and you know make a living doing it. You must have a pretty big ego and I'm just like well that's how you want to look at it. I can't get to say no. I'm not going to say no. Let's see what that's what we can do. That is awesome. Doc thank you for the stories. Appreciate the wisdom. I appreciate you taking the time and even coming over here. Appreciate the gifts. Appreciate the whiskey. - Yeah, they're absolutely amazing. We got one of those more to do today, but you probably do. We don't have much more. We only got, I think, a little bit longer. Yeah, but this is just sitting down and talking. This isn't work. Yeah, I suppose we get to hang out with guys. When the talking becomes easier when you're just flows. That's right. Oh, man, appreciate you coming on and cheers. One last time, brother. Thank you, man. Thank you to Chris Stapleton. Once again, the conversation's brought to you by Claude. It's just the best dude, man. He's so down to Earth, so just himself, man. I got to see him two days later. And at an NFL event, absolutely tearing it up, man. And something about him that just makes you want to know more about him, like the more conversations you have with him, because he's such an interesting guy, man. For sure. Appreciate him coming on and share some stories with us. That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you to Chris Stapleton for being here and check out his tour, "The All-American Road Show." Yeah, baby. Go get you some traveler whiskey today, whatever proof you want. It's all going to be good. All right, man. And make sure you subscribe to the New Heights channel on YouTube and follow New Heights on the Wonder Rap or wherever you get your podcast. You know what's in the New Heights ad free right now by joining Wonder Rap Plus on the Wonder Rap or on Apple Podcasts. Once again, New Heights, a Wonder show brought to you by Expedia, the one place you go. To go places, how about that? And I follow the Show Them All Social Media ad New Heights show with 1S Thank You to the New Heights production team for always keeping us organized and making us way more professional than what we really are. And thank you again to all those 92% of us. We wouldn't do this without you. We can't do this without you being. Love you guys. And we'll see you guys next week or this Friday. Peace. [MUSIC PLAYING] We've been over here. It's fresh of beers for the past three hours and we had one of those. I'm just sitting here like, dude, I got to tell you about this tiny desk you did, man. I don't know if you remember, but--