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

6:45Jason Kelce:Can't wait. We also dropped some film breakdown for Eagles fans wondering what to expect from new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. That's right.

6:52Chris Stapleton:Ooh, I saw that, Jason. That was a pretty good breakdown.

6:55Jason Kelce:It wasn't bad.

6:55Chris Stapleton:Hitches left and right. Hitches all over the field.

6:59Jason Kelce: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, Trav, because I know you know a lot more about route concepts and the passing game. And 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 Mannion. We had some comments we were going to go through.

7:31Jason Kelce:I love this. We need more of this from Jason. It brings in his knowledge. And genuinely, I really love watching film.

7:36Chris Stapleton:Oh, okay. It is fun to watch film.

7:39Jason Kelce: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 they have the licensing rights to that shit and they're making you pay for every fucking minute of it well not every minute but they're gonna you do a lot they're gonna start charging and that's the one reason it's really difficult we had another comment left my ass off good one stating starting out the breakdown uh of a hitch point that was all intern brandon's idea shout out to intern brandon thought it was a awesome way to start it off who doesn't love a good hitch route by everyone you know when

8:11Chris Stapleton:everybody when you know when everybody runs a hitch are you asking when you do yeah so it's called spacing you ever heard that you ever heard that one being called a space 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 the inside 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 uh that was a great job by, what was it, Messenberg or the tight end out of Green Bay of finding that void on that arc release.

8:44Jason Kelce:Yeah. There we go. Love it, love it, love it.

8:47Chris Stapleton:It was solid, though. Solid stuff, though, and I thought it was great timing.

8:51Jason Kelce:Jason sounding like a man who would be a great addition to the coaching staff in the offensive line room. Yeah, he would.

8:58Chris Stapleton:Jason is 100 % a coach in the offensive line room. The Eagles just don't pay him.

9:03Jason Kelce: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.

9:16Chris Stapleton:A whole lot of time.

9:17Jason Kelce:That is something that I don't have that much of a desire to do.

9:21Chris Stapleton: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 %ers would love to have an input on what we should break down next, like whose film we should break down next. We want your guys' suggestions, So please throw some suggestions out there. And do we, do we have a segment name? Have we named this segment yet? We got some,

9:43Jason Kelce:we don't, we got some segment name.

9:45Chris Stapleton:We got some comments underneath the, 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.

9:59Jason Kelce:Not bad at all. Not bad at all.

10:01Chris Stapleton:I like this one a little bit more though. Joe Courtney, 13, X's and bros.

10:07Jason Kelce:X's and bros. It's not a bad one at all. That was pretty good.

10:11Chris Stapleton:We got one more from WikiWall or the obvious Kelsey what I did there. Or Kelsey what they did there. Sorry about that. I can't read. But that was a solid one. And I just like his profile pic of AI with the fro. I think maybe you would just throw that out to the suggestions as well. How about it? 92 %ers. Oh, that's Mike Wallace. Yeah, apparently. Like the Mike Wallace? Like wide receiver Mike Wallace?

10:37Jason Kelce:No, no. Mike Wallace is in the main producer I have on my individual stuff.

10:41Chris Stapleton:Oh, Mike Wallace. Yeah.

10:44Jason Kelce:That'll be very nice of a humbling Mike. Anyway, shout out to Mike. Mike did a great job with the bobsled video that came out this past week.

10:50Chris Stapleton:Shout out to Mike and Joey. I 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. and how about it got some great voicemails from the 92 percenters that you guys are going to hear us uh answer and um 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 should have worn my patsy hat hey kelsey rocking all the fucking usa gear because we're champions did you know that norway was that fucking far ahead of everyone nor why are you saying norway what is

11:36Jason Kelce: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 i did not know that but i mean norway is always up there

11:45Chris Stapleton:because they're dude they came into it with 70 more medals than us they came into it yeah like all-time medals yeah i was like listen there's nothing there's not a lot to do up there in norway cross-country skiing is just how you try it's just going to work yeah exactly i was watching the olympics non-stop and uh you were at them so you didn't see a lot of the broadcast but in between they were talking 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 and um and they said they get them on skis and skates and get them down the slopes and into the games when they're real real young it's like their way of like competing in a in a lot of ways so yeah either way let's keep this thing moving uh usa one golden hockey and men's and women's that's all i care about uh out of the house is brought to you by pimps before we get to the jason in italy jason and kylie in italy hey uh tell us about your time with the bobsled team jason out in utah dude it was awesome i got

12:52Jason Kelce: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 bobsleds headquarters out there in Park City, Utah, and got to see what it feels like to go down a track in a bobsled with Team USA. Frank Del Duca, the driver and captain of the Team USA unit that I was with, as well as some awesome Olympians, Kaylee Humphreys, who won bronze, I believe, in the mono bobsled, which is just one man bobsled. 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?

13:31Jason Kelce:So we started off by putting me through the ringer testing to see if I would even go qualify for that. And to which that I was borderline at best. I don't think they would have given me another shot, but they definitely appeased me. I don't know.

13:42Chris Stapleton:Every time they said you got to hit a number, you hit the number.

13:45Jason Kelce:Yeah, but I was also way below what they would like at those numbers.

13:49Chris Stapleton:Oh, okay. All right. Well, they said between on the, would you run a 20 or a 40?

13:54Jason Kelce:It was a 30 meter sprint. So it's like a little bit less than a 40. It was like 30 whatever yards.

13:59Chris Stapleton:And you ran that at three nine and it looked like you were jogging. It didn't look like you were sprinting.

14:04Jason Kelce:I definitely can do better than that.

14:06Chris Stapleton:And, uh, but why didn't you,

14:10Jason Kelce:it was the vertical jump test. That was really the telltale side. The 30,

14:14Chris Stapleton:the 30 didn't count at your weight and your power.

14:18Jason Kelce:Here's the thing they did say. 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 a humbling experience. But they did say, you're coming off of some power. Definitely coming off of some power.

14:49Chris Stapleton:We know if there's anything Jason Kels has got. It's the power.

14:53Jason Kelce:I think it would be a lot of fun to do it more. and 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 let you do it on ice. They didn't have a fucking waiver? They had some waivers, but there were 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 in Lake Placid, the indoor, we'll let you potentially try and push it and jump in.

15:22Jason Kelce: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 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 at full speed. That thing is moving already 21 miles an hour down the track. You got to be keeping up with it.

16:04Chris Stapleton:Off the jump?

16:05Jason Kelce: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.

16:11Chris Stapleton:Man.

16:11Jason Kelce:So that was a big thing that was hard. I didn't know that.

16:13Chris Stapleton:That's moving.

16:14Jason Kelce:They weren't even really getting after it. It is hard to keep up with the back. 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 how a lot of linebackers and running backs would do. That feels like the best. Or tight ends? Will Travis Kelsey moving on that thing?

16:43Chris Stapleton:Come on. It sounds like I'm like a 19 to 20 mile an hour top-end speed right now. And I don't know about.

16:50Jason Kelce:Once you start striding, you can get that thing going. You got them long legs. I hear you. You got those bird legs, right?

16:54Chris Stapleton:I hear it. Yeah. I've actually recorded myself. I'm only going 19, 20 miles an hour.

17:00Jason Kelce:I know these numbers actually 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.

17:13Chris Stapleton:Yeah.

17:13Jason Kelce:And then also just the ride itself, way more intense than I imagined. I thought it would be like a roller coaster. I really did. I thought it would be, oh, we'll go around the fence. 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, and my ass is so fucking wide. They're sitting on those metal rails, so I'm being pitched down onto these metal beams. I'm trying to keep my head up so I can see. Are you not allowed to put a seat in this thing?

17:47Jason Kelce:huh i have no idea how frank was frank del duca the driver i have no fucking idea how he was even knowing when to do do the the turns and everything well you gotta know you have to memorize it yeah you gotta know the course that makes sense it is going by so fast like just so anyways it was sounds it was a humbling experience to see the level which those athletes um perform that did they teach you how to drive it at least no i mean i saw in there and they showed me how so there's a pretty cool video that kaylee humphries uh showed me how they train the turns before you get into it so they obviously they're gonna 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 uh 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.

18:44Jason Kelce:The skis I thought would be like ice skates.

18:47Chris Stapleton:I saw you talking about them on there. That's insane that they're – So they're not really getting into – they're kind of just gliding on the curve a little bit smoother. Yes. They're not really like turning it.

19:00Jason Kelce:Yeah, I mean they are, but it's not like – it's not cutting into it the way I thought it would.

19:05Chris Stapleton:It's like driving on snow, it feels like.

19:07Jason Kelce:I guess, yeah. But either way, awesome, awesome, awesome experience.

19:11Chris Stapleton:the old two-wheel drive all right let's uh keep this moving i've never done that um here's the real question next year olympics are we doing the double luge double luge i'm not a

19:24Jason Kelce:luge i got no interest in illusion i would do skeleton before luge which one's luge versus skeleton luge is like you're on your back and you're looking my belly's too big i wouldn't

19:34Chris Stapleton:even see the double double luge is the weird one everyone's talking about yeah where there's like they're like laying on each other oh yeah there's a picture of it right here yeah that's pretty good even the single luge i'm not i'm not a loser you're a top or bottom guy uh i'm a i'm a zero

19:50Jason Kelce:zero guy i'm not a loser all right deal i'm not a one-man loser though i'm not against being that close to another man i'm perfectly comfortable with my sexuality i'm just not a loser

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21:56Chris Stapleton: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?

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22:49Chris Stapleton:Oh, we know someone you're really, really comfortable with, And that's your wife and CBS Olympics threw out there that Kylie Kelsey and her husband are supporting the USA women's hockey team. That's right. They made sure to call you the plus one is essentially it. You're the plus one, Jason. And sometimes being a plus one is the best feeling in the world.

23:14Jason Kelce:Kylie was there on behalf of NBC and YouTube. I really was just there to have fun and enjoy the Olympics. so i was 100 this is the correct way to say it and i thought it was hilarious hell yeah i wanted

23:26Chris Stapleton:to tell him i prefer ball and chain um but yeah that was the first uh usa women's game for the first day that we were there that was awesome hell yeah dude and you finally met yoko apollo ono the speed skater minus the yoko that's will forever be one of the funniest things dude

23:47Jason Kelce:Apollo, I mean, we watched him all growing up. Hell yeah. Unbelievable speed skater. Dude, he's been to the Heights, dude.

23:53Chris Stapleton:Did you talk about him coming to the Heights?

23:55Jason Kelce:I didn't actually ask him that. Dude. You're right, though.

23:57Chris Stapleton:I think you did. I'm pretty sure he did. At least that was word around town, and you already know how word gets around Cleveland Heights. I believe you're right, because I think that's when the first year that the new ice rink was built,

24:07Jason Kelce:it was an Olympic rink, and they could do all the speed skating and stuff.

24:10Chris Stapleton:Yeah.

24:11Jason Kelce:Speed skating was electric as 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 speed skating, short track speed skating.

24:26Chris Stapleton:Which is the best. The long tracks are fun and it's cool to see everybody pick up speed.

24:31Jason Kelce:I want to see short track.

24:33Chris Stapleton:I want to see short track too. But sometimes it pisses me off when they start off real slow.

24:38Jason Kelce:When they're doing the longer races. We saw the 1500 meters was longer.

24:43Chris Stapleton:Sometimes that pisses me off.

24:44Jason Kelce:But these things were fast-paced. They were moving. They were doing tush 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. 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 the shit talking and you need Pat McAvee saying like, off 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 i'm not gonna lie like i would have liked to have heard tara lapinski and johnny weir announcing it live you know what i mean like you kind of when you don't have that especially someone that doesn't as is kind of newer to the sport you like hearing the excitement in the announcer's voice that they just did something difficult.

25:47Jason Kelce:They just nailed a routine or like they just missed something. So in speed skating, bro, it is a goddamn party in that speed skating arena.

25:57Chris Stapleton:That's awesome. It is like you're there for, there's DJs playing music.

26:02Jason Kelce:It's fast pace. There's bells ringing. It is high stakes action in the speed skating short track arena.

26:10Chris Stapleton:I love it.

26:10Jason Kelce:That shit was fun as hell to be at.

26:12Chris Stapleton:You got to see some women's hockey, like we said, and you got to meet the great Cleveland Heights native Layla Edwards.

26:20Jason Kelce:Best athlete out of Cleveland Heights.

26:21Chris Stapleton: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, Layla, I've got two banners up in the Cleveland Heights hockey rink. I'm not sure how many banners you have. that's a young travis kelsey uh looking like uh 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 at that age little squirt double a division champion don't forget the bantam double a 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 were mighty might you probably moved on to triple a before She went to Barron's real quick.

27:09Chris Stapleton:Yeah, she went to the Barron team or maybe Phantom. Who knows which AAA team she played on.

27:14Jason Kelce:I think she went Barron's. I think I looked it up before.

27:17Chris Stapleton:Well, that was the closest AAA to Cleveland Heights, but I'll let you have it because you're the only one that have gold. So a little tip of the cap to you, Layla. That was awesome to see you go and get it. And I'll tell you what, man, she has a fucking shot.

27:29Jason Kelce:She was sniping multiple.

27:31Chris Stapleton:She's ripping the wrist shot, dude.

27:33Jason Kelce:And she's setting up people in front for the tips. Hell yeah. She was very, very good throughout the Olympics and through the games. One of the things, after talking to her, you realize she is from the heights, man. There's just this humbleness, but also 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.

27:54Chris Stapleton:They seemed like they were all just so close, man.

27:56Jason Kelce:That's what I was about to say. We hung out with them, too, after the men won gold in the little back room. They're a great team, man. They're tight-knit. They're playing jokes on one another. Just so proud for all of them. And, you know, it's an incredible moment to win a gold medal.

28:11Chris Stapleton:I can only imagine what that feels like, man.

28:14Jason Kelce:Especially in a team sport like that.

28:15Chris Stapleton:You know, you got everybody in the United States watching. Yeah. Shout out to Layla one more time for bringing home some gold to not only the USA, but the old Heights, baby. Because you know how proud we all are once you grow up in Heights.

28:30Jason Kelce:No doubt.

28:31Chris Stapleton: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?

28:43Jason Kelce:That is a hat that was sold exclusively for the Olympics, I believe. It was actually a children's hat, but I was starting to put my pins around it, and it was like a flower. We were having a lot of fun, man. It was—Kanada got out to the quick lead, and it made it very stressful.

28:59Chris Stapleton:Man, once you get into that elimination round.

29:03Jason Kelce:Dude, the refs in that game, I don't know what the fuck they were doing.

29:10Jason Kelce:And that was after Megan Keller's goal. A little dangle to the backhand underneath the blocker. So epic.

29:17Chris Stapleton:So epic.

29:18Jason Kelce:Yeah, it was a sick goal. But anyways, yeah, it was an electric game. And then obviously we got to see USA men dismantle Slovakia.

29:25Chris Stapleton:It got, yeah, 6-1, I believe. It got ugly. It was 5-0 real quick.

29:29Jason Kelce:And I was sitting with the Kachuk family. Keith Kachuk was over there on the end of it. Got to shake the hand of a fucking legend. That was awesome.

29:37Chris Stapleton:That's so fucking cool, man.

29:39Jason Kelce:I was sitting next to Anthony Rizzo.

29:41Chris Stapleton:Shout out to Riz. He let me know he was over by you, man. That was so fucking cool. You got to see all these guys up there, man.

29:47Jason Kelce:We were right by the Hughes family, too. Jack Hughes, who had the golden goal for the U.S. gold medal game.

29:54Chris Stapleton:Did you get a chance to meet the Hughes brothers?

29:55Jason Kelce:I don't think so. I saw Jack's dad and his mom, I think. I don't think I saw the brothers. Maybe I did.

30:03Chris Stapleton:Absolutely. Do the Olympics need to sell larger beers, Jason? Do they need larger beers? Because this beer looks like it's like a beer shot.

30:12Jason Kelce: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 wanted to not do those bottles because I like the long neck.

30:20Chris Stapleton:Oh, there's a little long neck in there. It's a little baby long neck.

30:23Jason Kelce:Well, that's what we're going with. that same exact shape, but it's going to look really stupid in our gigantic hands. Whenever I like hold a beer can, I was like, man, that can is so small. It's like, no, it's actually a normal size can. You wanted me to say, I do think the beers might've been a little bit smaller though. I couldn't tell.

30:39Chris Stapleton:Either way. It's just like, it looked hilarious. Are there any other highlights from the old Milan Olympics that we're missing, Jason? Best Fuji 8.

30:48Jason Kelce:Man, I can't pronounce any of the restaurants we went to, but we took the Metro down into near the Duomo area. Aided a couple of restaurants that Susie Schuster, Rich Eisen's wife, recommended some of these spots.

30:59Chris Stapleton:Nice.

31:00Jason Kelce: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 me 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

31:17Chris Stapleton:or some fucking American style fucking pizza.

31:21Jason Kelce:you know there's nothing like an american style pizza i didn't mind the the italian pizza it was

31:26Chris Stapleton:very good had a pizza with anchovies on it oh big anchovy guy now i'm not i usually hate anchovies

31:32Jason Kelce:but this pizza was good nice what else do we do saw the duomo which my god have you ever seen that nope i have no idea what you're talking about in sense this 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 the architecture your style that it would be but it's just it's it's incredible i don't even know how to describe it pictures do not do it justice you see a thing in person it's just all stone carved out fucking points and shit carved into it it is fucking insane but yeah it was uh milan was

32:06Chris Stapleton:gorgeous i've seen that on pictures you're hilarious dog ran onto a track which dogs are

32:15Jason Kelce:always the star of the shows canada catching a bunch of heat for cheating which listen you know my roof you ain't cheating you ain't trying shout out to canada no problem they didn't even get deduction they got a they got a slap on the wrist after the deal i don't give a shit i i respect it i like i like his reaction too he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing it they call him out he's like no fuck you what are you talking about he's gotta be fired with that hell yeah i did yeah fuck you I didn't cheat no one damn well he just cheated

32:49Chris Stapleton:you gotta fucking meet force with force

32:52Jason Kelce:man deny deny deny

33:08Jason Kelce:fuck you the ref comes up the ref comes up to me you say hey just make sure you let him go oh was i doing that was i holding him i didn't think i was all right sir i didn't know i was holding him knowing damn well i just held the fuck out of that i just go the other way i'm like but he's holding me he's holding me you saw him holding me first exactly exactly ref i was trying not to hold him he was i just couldn't disengage he was grabbing onto me oh man that's fucking that's

33:34Chris Stapleton:hilarious god damn that was an epic olympic shout out to all the olympians that was a fucking i 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 Liu for bringing home the gold.

33:52Jason Kelce:Alyssa Liu. Yeah.

33:53Chris Stapleton:And yeah, shout out to both hockey teams bringing it home for the red, white, and glue.

33:59Jason Kelce:When I was watching the figure skating, we were at the short program night. Nice. I was standing and I was sitting in front of Nathan Shen and he was describing to me like all the things that they needed to hit. So by the end of it, you knew what to look for and everything. Like if somebody missed it, you knew what the, the, uh, the review color was. If it was green, it was good.

34:21Chris Stapleton:Well, they were showing that on the, uh, on the TV too. I was like looking at it like, Ooh, we're going to have to review that one.

34:26Jason Kelce:That's not good. It's a yellow.

34:28Chris Stapleton:Is the heel at six o 'clock or is it at nine o 'clock?

34:31Jason Kelce:The great Scott Hamilton, I'm sure.

34:32Chris Stapleton:Dude, how cool was it meeting that guy?

34:34Jason Kelce:Unreal.

34:35Chris Stapleton: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 watched Scott Hamilton do the flips in? Because you can't flip during the Olympic Games.

34:51Jason Kelce:I asked him this too. I thought that he was the reason that flips were banned. Apparently, they were banned before him, but he would do it. He just never did it in competition. Right. Which now they let him do it. This is the first year, I think, that they changed the rule. You can do flips now.

35:05Chris Stapleton:I didn't see anybody doing flips.

35:07Jason Kelce: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 retire at 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.

35:46Jason Kelce:And that was one of the reasons I think that we remember him so much is like he was doing it for so long.

35:50Chris Stapleton:Nice. Well, now that the Olympics are over, what are you doing next, Jason?

35:55Jason Kelce:What are you doing to do? Well, we are doing a little, I'm doing TGL. What?

36:00Chris Stapleton:uh that's right dude i've always wanted to go to tgl same and thankfully it's a part of espn so i

36:07Jason Kelce:get to go down there and work nice man do you get a plus one yes i would love to have you if you if you're willing to come down 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 firsthand um you know with tiger and all those guys have done a tgl uh it's just remarkable so epic man gonna be really cool heading down there. And then after that, I'm taking some much needed relaxation time.

36:35Chris Stapleton: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.

36:41Jason Kelce:I didn't have the opportunities I had back then. Now I'm over here going to the Olympics and the Super Bowl and all this stuff.

36:46Chris Stapleton:Touche.

36:47Jason Kelce:Sure. A lot of it is contractually obligated village and strict negotiations.

36:52Chris Stapleton:Oh no, I got to go to TGL.

36:54Jason Kelce: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 love growing up, you know, 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. Trav, let's talk about you.

37:14Chris Stapleton:Oh, fuck.

37:15Jason Kelce:Little Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

37:17Chris Stapleton:Yeah. 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 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 Cypress, which is right around the corner that everybody was raving about. I'm fucking pumped to go back and play that one, man.

37:57Chris Stapleton: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 hitting some of the best shots. I got to play with my guy, Cashbeer Keith. Hey! He's an unbelievable golfer, man. got to see him get dialed in and make a run. It was just an all-around fun opportunity. And I also got to play against my guy, Alex Smith, for two days, man. I was about to say, did you want him to Smitty? Got to get back into Smitty, yeah. He was the one that kind of threw the invite out there.

38:31Chris Stapleton:It was just cool to kind of always reconnect with old teammates, especially one that I admired and loved as much as Alex, man. He got me. He beat me in the games we were playing, but I couldn't fucking putt, man. I got to figure out how to fucking get on the green. But these three putts are absolutely ruining my day.

38:50Jason Kelce:That was one thing I didn't know was a northern, I guess it's not northern California, but it's up there by San Francisco, right?

38:54Chris Stapleton:It's up there. It's up there. Yeah, I think it's in between San Fran and LA.

39:00Jason Kelce:So is it like north or south of like Sonoma and Napa and all that stuff?

39:05Chris Stapleton:I think it's like southwest.

39:07Jason Kelce:South of that stuff? Okay.

39:08Chris Stapleton:Dude, I'm telling you, you would fucking love this area. You would absolutely love it. No doubt. It's like this calm, hidden world over there. There's not a lot of like movement going around. It's, it just seems like it's like one of the best places in the world. Also got to run into my guy, Jim Nance, who, uh, one of my favorite, he's one of my favorite guys. One of my favorite play callers 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, his calls on the PGA tour, as well as the NFL has been such an honor to be able to be a part of the games and him handing me the mic and the ASU championship games.

39:44Chris Stapleton:And it's just, it's absolutely epic. Every time I read it to him, I got to meet him and his kids and his wife. So it was pretty cool walking off 18 and getting to say hi to everyone.

39:54Jason Kelce:Well, I was very jealous watching it. I've always wanted to go out. It was the one off week I had before the Olympics. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to take this time to go back with the fam before we head out again. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. What happened on the first tee? Can we talk about that?

40:08Chris Stapleton:Yeah. Yeah, you know, I was told by somebody, I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus, but let's play this video first. First on the team from Three Islands, Georgia, is Keith Mitchell. I wear cashmere too.

40:32From Cleveland, Ohio, Travis.

40:44Chris Stapleton:I then found out the more I saw Kashmir Keefe rip it, that his game is as smooth as Kashmir, as his swagger. Your swing's looking good right now, Trav. I appreciate that, bud. I'm starting to really play too much golf.

40:59Jason Kelce: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 zero finesse. How do I get this?

41:13Chris Stapleton:I think you got to loosen, loosen up. And that's obviously the clear thing to say, but it seems like you're pretty wound up. Like you want your muscles like firing at all times. 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 the strength in the transition up top. I also get way too quick at the top because I do that. That's what happened for me. 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.

41:49Jason Kelce:Going the opposite. I was just in it. Dude, I got down to 250. I got down to 260 last offseason. Felt really good about it. I am already back up to 285. dude you're 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 go right back down three months dedication i can be back down back down to

42:17Chris Stapleton:260 lickety split well i believe it and i think uh 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

42:29Jason Kelce:And I try to swing the club, and I'm not really trying to step on it. I'm just kind of letting it go up and then just kind of 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.

42:45Chris Stapleton:Yeah.

42:46Jason Kelce:I just, for some reason, I stray. I stray.

42:49Chris Stapleton: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, they can't catch it if you hit it as hard as you hand 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 it's it that's that's the fun in 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.

43:25Chris Stapleton:And it's the one or two times that I actually connect and see that thing fucking go 340 that 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. Aw, Jason, would you consider yourself a creature of habit? Yes, yes, I would. How many times do we stick with something just because it's what we've always done?

43:56Jason Kelce:That's pretty much my whole 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.

44:07Chris Stapleton:That's what Pepsi calls the Pepsi paradox.

44:10Jason Kelce:Oh.

44:10Chris Stapleton: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 in blind taste tests.

44:21Jason Kelce:They just proved it again. 50 years ago, the Pepsi Challenge revealed people preferred the taste of Pepsi. And last year, in a revival of the challenge, 66 % of people preferred the taste of Pepsi Zero Sugar.

44:33Chris Stapleton: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?

44:42Jason Kelce:Go out and try Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Hey, let your taste decide. Thank you to our sponsor, Hills Pet Nutrition.

44:51Chris Stapleton: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 just do them.

45:00Jason Kelce:That's right. They're just living their life because they're dogs. But pet parents have to balance work, family, their health, and a million other things.

45:08Chris Stapleton:This is all true, but going through life is even better with your pet.

45:12Jason Kelce:Especially when you're doing right by them and all their nutrition needs to give them a long, healthy life.

45:16Chris Stapleton:That's where Hills comes in. Hills Science-Led Nutrition helps you give more love than humanly possible.

45:23Jason Kelce:Their formulas are designed to support your pet's health, so you can focus on all the other things and moments like playtime, couch cuddles, and celebrating milestones together.

45:32Chris Stapleton:Because you're only human, there's Hills.

45:35Jason Kelce:Find the right food at hillspet.com slash sciencedoesmore.

45:40Chris Stapleton:Thank you to our sponsor, Allstate.

45:43Jason Kelce:Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. That's smart.

45:47Chris Stapleton:Not checking. We're recording before starting the episode. Brandon, not smart.

45:53Jason Kelce:Happens a little more often than you think. Sometimes I'm so out of breath from screaming our guest intros, and then I have to do it again.

46:01Chris Stapleton:Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate.

46:10Jason Kelce:Potential savings vary. Subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate, North American Insurance Company, and affiliates in Northbrook, Illinois.

46:17Chris Stapleton:Let's get to our conversation with the old Chris Stapleton. This incredible conversation is brought to you by Claude.

46:25Jason Kelce:Also, fun game to play during this interview. See if you can tell when Chris's 121-proof whiskey hits us. alrighty our guest today is 6 foot songwriter, singer and country music superstar from Staffordville, Kentucky that's right, 19 time country music award winner, 12 time Grammy award winner including his most recent win for best solo country performance for Bad As I Used To Be, you know him from his hits like Tennessee Whiskey, White Horse, Parachute Nobody In Blank, Broken Halos and It Takes A Woman, 92 % please welcome, the man that performed a national anthem so good it brought me to tears Right now.

47:00Jason Kelce:The one and only Chris Stapleton! Yes, sir! How many people do you venture you've made cry just from singing the national anthem? At least two. Well, I know two.

47:09Travis Kelce:That's it. You know, I haven't seen much statistics on that beyond that.

47:14Jason Kelce:Yeah, it was an incredible performance as only you could have done. Seriously. Well, 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 goosebumps. Oh man, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it, yeah. But it's like, you know, this whole thing. Everybody's together. They got the jets going over.

47:36Travis Kelce:Yeah, it's a production and a, you know, it's heavy.

47:41Jason Kelce:Yeah, it's a unifying thing, yeah.

47:43Chris Stapleton:But you made it your own in 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.

47:50Jason Kelce:Get the photos from that one? Oh yeah, oh yeah.

47:53Chris Stapleton:Fucking epic, man.

47:54Travis Kelce:And it was some great TV editing too, I have to say. Of course. That caught you guys.

47:58Chris Stapleton:Those were the right moments, man.

48:00Travis Kelce:You know, all the aircraft carrier and all this stuff. It was really great.

48:03Chris Stapleton:She was awesome, man. Well, you're on basically a football podcast. You played some ball back in the day. Yeah, like 30 years ago. Oh, no. In high school. Listen, I know a ball player when I see one. Yeah.

48:16Jason Kelce:Look at that haircut right there.

48:18Chris Stapleton:Dude, you already know.

48:19Jason Kelce:I did have a haircut too, yeah. You played Tim Couch in high school? I did. That was the first football jersey I owned, actually. Well, actually, I had it back. I had a Jerome Bettis jersey first, and then Tim Couch was the second.

48:31Travis Kelce:When they brought the Browns back, that was the number one pick. We played Couch several times. How'd it go? We lost. What positions you were playing? I was linebacker. Let's go.

48:41Jason Kelce:Middle, outside, where were you at? Inside. Inside back. That's awesome, man. Taking on fullbacks.

48:46Chris Stapleton:It looked like you had a little neck roll in there. You had that little cowboy. Those are those big shoulder pads. That's just how big those fucking shoulder pads were back in the day. That's right. I love it.

48:53Jason Kelce:Who'd you grow up watching? Oh, I mean, I grew up in like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice era.

48:58Travis Kelce:That was kind of.

48:59Chris Stapleton:Oh, yeah. Dan Marino, those guys.

49:01Jason Kelce:Very fitting that we're out in San Fran. Yeah.

49:02Chris Stapleton: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, 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. Everyone's like, all right, now I got those three picks out the way.

49:34Travis Kelce:I'm good to go, baby. Nobody remembers the picks if you win the game. You ain't lying.

49:38Jason Kelce:Before we continue, we've been told you have some gifts. I do. I brought some WIFI for you guys. Oh, hell 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 specific to you. Okay, got it. And how do we get lucky, dude?

49:55Chris Stapleton:We got gifts for Chris, right? God damn it. I'm like, you're the first one that has ever came on the show with gifts, dude. Fuck yeah. Yeah, baby. Christmas in February.

50:05Jason Kelce:62, personalized bottle. This is awesome. Woohoo! Travelers with -

50:09Chris Stapleton:This happens every Christmas. He always opens them faster than me. Then we got some glasses. Dude.

50:14Travis Kelce:Coaster. This is nice. Nice. You guys are the first people we've ever done that for, but we got it in a gravy machine. We just... Oh, fuck yes. I don't even want to open it. 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 121 proof. 121. Right 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 had with anybody. I am not turning that down for a second, please.

50:45Chris Stapleton:I'd be honored for you to... No, no, no, no, this has to be... You got to open that thing. Dude, this is so badass. This is awesome. There's some glasses in there too, I think. How long you been in the whiskey game?

50:53Travis Kelce:Oh, I guess it's a couple years now. We've been doing that, but depends on what you call in the games. Making it and selling it a couple years. There we go. I'll just do like a tasting pour if you guys are here. I might not have should have wrapped things. Dude, this is awesome, man. Are you kidding me?

51:12Jason Kelce:What do we call in the 121 proof?

51:14Travis Kelce:It's full proof. Full proof. Full proof. This is Traveler Full Proof. Love it. It'll be out very soon in limited quantities, but... Oh, yeah.

51:22Jason Kelce:Ooh, that smells good. You guys ready to go? Cheers for the first one.

51:25Travis Kelce:Hell yeah, baby. Get this thing going. Hell yeah. It's a simpler for me, but you guys do what you want with it.

51:31Jason Kelce:Well, if I didn't already have enough hair on my chest. That is fantastic. Dude, that is smooth as shit. Full proof. 121, and it is smooth. Dude, thank you for this bottle. This thing's definitely going up on the bar, man. Thanks for having me on. That is so good. Loosest I've ever been in a podcast. I was about to say. Loosest I've ever been in a podcast.

51:48Chris Stapleton:Here we go. I got to ask you even more about it. So being from Kentucky, it's always just been in your backyard, right? Like a lot of the distilleries or what?

51:56Travis Kelce: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 what we do. That's who makes this travel whiskey. That's awesome, man. We always had a bottle of something that they were making in the room for every record we've ever made. And so when I had the opportunity to work with Harlan, who's the master distiller on Pappy 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 going to do well, too. Yeah. Oh, this is amazing.

52:28Travis Kelce:And I'm having fun with it.

52:29Chris Stapleton:That's right. We jumped in the beer world, but the whiskey world's a whole new world for me.

52:33Travis Kelce:If every one of them tasted as good as this, that bottle's going to be going real quick. Well, that's going to sneak up on you. It's 121, but the 90 would be.

52:41Jason Kelce:I can feel it. you know already that's good in a great way um it wore me up no doubt that's the best part all right so last time i ran into you as at the george straight concert i've been to a bunch of your shows now 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 come again chris met finley before you met fin at his show we she was so new and so young we couldn't leave her at home and we wanted to go to the show 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 because I love it so much that you miss like the smell of like newborn babies.

53:19Jason Kelce:There's like a smell coming off.

53:20Travis Kelce:It's a great thing. I'm going to sound like a weird creepy dude talking about it.

53:24Jason Kelce:No, it's not creepy at all because I mean anybody that's held a kid, I think an infant like that, you know what you're talking about. Yeah.

53:29Travis Kelce:Yeah. When you're, when you're a new parent and you hold the baby, it's the smell of your, of your own child there in your hands. It's a great thing. Absolutely. Beautiful thing, man. I also like to smell other people's babies. That's what's going to sound creepy. Pardon me, sir. Can I smell your baby?

53:44Jason Kelce:Please hand this over. So you're going back on a tour, though. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got some tour dates coming up. Nashville's Nissan Stadium, Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium, Hershey Park Stadium in Pennsylvania, Pacor Stadium, Cincinnati. We've been to that a few times. Fenway Park, two nights.

54:00Travis Kelce: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 proper. In the big, okay. Oh, man.

54:09Jason Kelce:And then Casey's Morton Amphitheater. Do you like the big giant arenas or do you like more, like what do you like more performing in?

54:16Travis Kelce:They all have their strong points. I mean, I like that we can get more people in 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 playing Wrigley Field or when you go to these places that have been around a while, those places have ghosts in them or even, you know, playing the Fillmore here. We're in San Francisco right now. Like playing the Fillmore 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.

54:52Chris Stapleton:Yeah, absolutely. I've talked to Taylor, my Taylor, about this a few times, but she grew up in the country world in Nashville and in high school and coming up, and she was underneath a lot of these big country singers. And she raves about how together they are, how they maneuver on tour and stuff like that. How was it rocking with George Strait around the country?

55:18Travis Kelce: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 him into Sudo coming out of retirement. He was playing less and less shows. And we had a lot of fun playing a few shows with him. I was like, hey, man, many of these 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. That's awesome, man. Favorite city? I mean, I like a lot of cities for different reasons. My favorite venue to play in is probably the Forum in Los Angeles.

55:48Travis Kelce:just because it sounds so good. And it also has, you know, you walk down the hallway and it's like they have all the people that have played there on the walls. Like, let's up.

55:57Chris Stapleton:Just crazy shit. You're just like, yeah, I'm going to go play the Forum. You can feel history in some of these arenas and stadiums. The Forum feels like it was made for that. You know, obviously the Lakers and everybody.

56:10Travis Kelce:For music, it has the wood and all the, yeah, it has the sports history too. But the music history of it is incredible. That's awesome, man. Wonderful. I haven't heard that one yet at the Forum. Do you remember your first concert? My first concert was probably Bon Jovi at Rupp Arena with Skid Row opening. Oh, wow. And Skid Row was so loud, I had to go out in the hallway. I was like, I was maybe, maybe I was eight, eight or nine.

56:39Jason Kelce:Okay.

56:39Travis Kelce:They were hammering.

56:40Jason Kelce:Yeah. That's amazing. I love it. But it was fun.

56:44Travis Kelce:So big Bon Jovi fan. Yeah, I like Bon Jovi. I mean, I grew up in the 80s, man, so all that stuff is good. I had that.

56:53Chris Stapleton:So growing up, Bon Jovi, you were in the rock world, the country world, all the above.

56:57Travis Kelce:Yeah, I mean, I grew up in a rural part of the country, too. So, you know, we have, yeah, my dad listened to all the outlaw music, you know, like Waylon and Willie. Oh, yeah. I'm real high. But also, you know, old R &B and stuff like that. Oh, nice. I had it from all directions. 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.

57:19Jason Kelce:So we always talk about this in sports, actually. Like, we don't, to be a great athlete, it's best to play a bunch of different sports 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?

57:41Travis Kelce:I have to share this just because it pops in my head as you were saying that. Okay. When I was a kid, I went to Rick Pitino basketball camp.

57:48Chris Stapleton:Are you kidding me? Oh, let's go. Louisville action. Hell yeah.

57:51Travis Kelce:And Rick Pitino, you know, he spoke to us before we had the camp. I'm sure you guys went to camp. Yeah. Oh, you know how it goes. Yeah. And he's like, now in 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 basketball.

58:09Travis Kelce:That's a banger. 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.

58:21Jason Kelce:Absolutely.

58:21Travis Kelce: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.

58:30Jason Kelce:Do you remember your first concert you played?

58:33Travis Kelce:I don't.

58:34Jason Kelce:No.

58:34Travis Kelce:I don't. Probably in church. That's not a concert. Like, are you just singing church? Yeah, no, I don't. A couple of times in high school, I owned a PA, so we'd randomly get hired by somebody that needed a PA to open for them sometimes.

58:46Jason Kelce:Oh, hell yeah.

58:47Travis Kelce:In high school, it's hard to get people to take things seriously and try to work as a band. And then you think you're going to go to college for a minute like me, and then you do that, and that doesn't work out for you. And you're like, well, what am I going to do? And so 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.

59:07Jason Kelce:Yeah.

59:07Travis Kelce:So now I got to ask you, you got to be going down a rabbit hole. Dude, 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. 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 the windshield. Hey, nice, man.

59:33Jason Kelce:Running around in the parking lot, that's fucking gold, man. Basically, I mean, giving people money, essentially. That's right. Like Santa Claus.

59:39Chris Stapleton:Like Robin Hood, man. This is sweet.

59:41Jason Kelce:What process of music making do you enjoy the most?

59:44Chris Stapleton:Oh, yeah.

59:45Jason Kelce:Writing, working out the sound and melody. I mean, I guess that all kind of goes the same thing.

59:49Chris Stapleton:I was going to say, do you even just -

59:49Travis Kelce: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 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. Right. 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.

1:00:19Chris Stapleton:Oh yeah. I just have to say this, the tiny desk of you and your wife was one of the most magical like tiny desks 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 in an intimate setting like that, like does it change how you're performing 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.

1:00:53Travis Kelce:Like we still set up the same. Oh, yeah. On a big stage that we would set up in a 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. We're still just playing songs. Somehow it feels like a little more pressure sometimes to play very intimate things, more than a mass of 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.

1:01:25Jason Kelce:Yeah, absolutely. I know you say you're not doing much songwriting anymore, but how many songs do you venture you've probably written?

1:01:31Travis Kelce:Oh, thousands? Yeah, more than a thousand for sure.

1:01:35Jason Kelce:That is incredible. What is the process for you? Is it always the same? No. Is it strikes in different ways?

1:01:42Travis Kelce:Well, I mean, I grew up as a salary songwriter. I grew up. I came up in the business as that's -

1:01:47Jason Kelce:The songs you've written are insane. Yeah.

1:01:50Travis Kelce:Songwriting. Yes. And to the point that I was a salary songwriter in a publishing house. And so we would show up at the crack of noon or something. and we make appointments and it feels very not sexy when I describe it that way, but 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 appointments 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.

1:02:29Travis Kelce: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.

1:02:40Jason Kelce:Does the melody come first and then the lyrics? For me, a lot.

1:02:42Travis Kelce:If I'm by myself, that would. Or something, you know, I've dreamt choruses before or wake up with, you know, just 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 struck me a lot on the wall that would start the wheels turning. Hell yeah. So you can't avoid it if you are a songwriter. You're always writing a song,

1:03:08Chris Stapleton:even if you're not writing a song. Materials all around you, yeah. Yeah. That's cool as I heard. I wish I had the fucking brains to be able to just put words to music like that. It's insane stuff, man. It is. I can't even write a full sentence out.

1:03:21Travis Kelce:Finish this and you won't be able to do it.

1:03:24Jason Kelce:All right. Does every country western song need to mention the following? Mamas, trains, prison, getting drunk. You're talking about the perfect country western song. It is one of my favorite songs.

1:03:38Travis Kelce:Written by Steve Goodman.

1:03:39Jason Kelce:That's right. Is there some truth to that? I feel like that's a caricature almost now in a lot of country music where it's like...

1:03:45Travis Kelce: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 would go, all right cool good job cover the bases nice at this point in your career do you go to places

1:04:00Jason Kelce:for like honest feedback from like where you're at or do you well i'm married to my wife the biggest

1:04:06Travis Kelce:honest who is the most honest person she'll tell me if something sucks immediately and not she doesn't pull punches i don't need to go anywhere else for honest feedback there you go coaches right there letting you know that's awesome yeah i mean places you want to play that you haven't

1:04:21Jason Kelce:played yet.

1:04:22Chris Stapleton:Ooh.

1:04:23Jason Kelce:Huh.

1:04:23Travis Kelce:Um, I'm sure there are, I, but I don't know what they are. Have you ventured much out of the States in terms of, uh, we we've played in Europe a little bit and Australia. Um,

1:04:34Chris Stapleton:but we have never been to South America to play in terms of outside, outside of the U S what's your, what was your most like accepting crowd? The ones that got the craziest.

1:04:43Travis Kelce:Oh, they've all been wonderful. Uh, everybody in Europe is great and Australians are 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

1:05:03Jason Kelce: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

1:05:12Travis Kelce:was when i was growing up i do think that that's true i mean there's always been some element particularly Europe and Australia, has a very, you know, kind of Australian country music scene of its own.

1:05:24Jason Kelce:Yes, yeah.

1:05:25Travis Kelce:But yes, I think as a whole, there's probably more of a market for it than there ever has been.

1:05:31Jason Kelce:Like I was over in Ireland and this young kid was like caddying for us. He got in his car when he was leaving and he was blaring. I forget what the country song was, but it was. One of mine, right? Exactly. It was. Yeah. So this is fantastic. Thank you. And you guys also have a car this year in NASCAR?

1:05:51Travis Kelce:Yeah, we have a car at the Daytona 500. This 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.

1:06:03Jason Kelce:Is there a cooler pastime in any sport than what NASCAR was like originated from? Like running from the cops is the pastime of the sole sport. Nothing tops that. Not just running from the cops.

1:06:14Travis Kelce:Bootlegging. Bootlegging. Sorry, yes. Running from the cops. So I think there's a good history between whiskey and what NASCAR 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 car in the 500. And he kind of put us together. And I think that's how that happened. And it all just kind of came to this head of we wanted to do it and they wanted to do it. And, 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 in that inside kind of way.

1:06:57Travis Kelce:And it was intense. That is cool. That is really cool. Super intense. Yeah. Have you always like been into 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 going to say, those guys are different animals.

1:07:15Jason Kelce:Have you gotten in one of them cars?

1:07:17Travis Kelce:No.

1:07:18Jason Kelce:No?

1:07:19Travis Kelce:Is there a desire to? No.

1:07:21Jason Kelce:Said you like going fast.

1:07:22Travis Kelce:No, I don't have that gene. I appreciate the stamina and the will and the lack of fear that it takes to get in one of those things.

1:07:35Chris Stapleton:We went to a bowl game. Was that? You weren't there. You were in the league. So we went to a bowl game in Charlotte, and obviously 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. Steep trade. And you're hugging the outside of the car, and somebody else is behind the wheel, and it's a fucking wild ride, man.

1:08:06Travis Kelce:I mean, 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 outfitted for the race. And I was about to puke. I was just like, okay, I'm good, man. Let me out.

1:08:21Jason Kelce: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'm like, man, this guy just has 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 do you have a moment when it all initiated where you're like man i'm really i'm really doing this like i'm in the music industry yeah i mean i was in

1:08:46Travis Kelce:the music industry as a writer that was my goal when i moved to town i met a guy that was a songwriter named steve leslie and who was kind enough to introduce me to some people and the instant um you know i was a salaried songwriter working in the music business sitting in a room making up songs for a living that was making it to me oh yeah you know i'm playing a guitar for a living what what more could you want that's right was there anybody walked in those rooms or you

1:09:10Chris Stapleton:took those meetings with that you were like oh shit i'm i gotta create something with this i

1:09:14Jason Kelce:gotta rise to the occasion and you're like i just wrote a song that somebody like i don't know i did

1:09:19Travis Kelce:early on i went into the room with a uh a veteran songwriter guy because i was real 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'm just like, what do you mean? He's like, well, you're 23. You're 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, if that's how you want to look at it, I guess so.

1:09:45Chris Stapleton:I'm not going to say no. I'm not going to say no.

1:09:48Travis Kelce:Let's see what we can do. Well, that is awesome.

1:09:51Chris Stapleton:Doc, thank you for the stories. Appreciate the wisdom. I appreciate you taking the time and even coming over here. Yeah, man. Appreciate the gifts. Appreciate the whiskey.

1:09:59Travis Kelce:I hope you guys don't have much more to do today, but you probably do.

1:10:03Chris Stapleton: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 doesn't work. You already know. Especially when we get to hang out with guys like you.

1:10:10Jason Kelce:When the talking becomes easier when you're... It just flows. That's right.

1:10:13Chris Stapleton:Oh, man, appreciate you coming on, and cheers one last time, brother. Thank you, man.

1:10:19Jason Kelce:Thank you to Chris Stapleton. Once again, that conversation was brought to you by Claude.

1:10:23Chris Stapleton:Just the best dude, man. He's so down to earth, so just himself, man. I got to see him two days later at an NFL event. Absolutely tearing it up, man. Something about him that just makes you want to know more about him. The more conversations you have with him, because he's such an interesting guy, man.

1:10:40Jason Kelce:For sure.

1:10:41Chris Stapleton:Appreciate him coming on and sharing some stories with us.

1:10:44Jason Kelce:That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you to Chris Stapleton for being here. And check out his tour, the All-American Roadshow. Yeah, baby. Go get you some Traveler whiskey today. Whatever proof you want, it's all going to be good. And make sure you subscribe to the New Heights channel on YouTube and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

1:11:06Chris Stapleton:Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show brought to you by Expedia, the one place you go to go places. How about that? And follow the show on all social media. Add New Heights show with one S. 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 percenters. we wouldn't do this without you. We can't do this without you. We love you guys. And we'll see you guys next week or this Friday. Peace.

1:11:42Chris Stapleton:We've been over here crushing 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.