E473 Jelly Roll & Ernest

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31:08That's S-H-I-P-S-T-A-T-I-O-N.com, code Theo. Is it weird? Because, yeah, thinking about that kind of stuff, do you start to feel more like you have to be... Wait, and did you get any songwriting awards this year? I know you got... Did you win any CMAs or no? No CMAs, no. Okay. Is that weird to say? I know you won a ton of other awards. Oh, no, hell no. It was like a date night, and I got to sit and cheer my friends on. Yeah. Ernest got drunk. Let me tell you what happened. I like dressing up. Every time Ernest walked by me at the CMAs, he was... I was bringing Zach a drink each time I came back to...

31:44Well, who was the other three for, Ernest? Me, me and me and Delaney. He would look like a bartender. He would have two drinks in each hand. Well, they ought to have somebody doing that for us. Parker McCullum was like that too. Every time I seen him one, he'd have him and his wife one. And every time he's just walking by. It's for safety measures, though, because you don't know how long you're going to have to sit. Like, it might be the last chance you ever get to get a drink. You're waiting for a commercial break like a drug addict. Really? I swear, bro. You're waiting for it like chow in prison.

32:13you're sitting there and you're just waiting I don't know what that's like challenge a new Chinese inmate who's getting this cutie and you're just sitting there and they're like commercial break and you're just like you just watch everybody stand up and just immediately start shuffling really? it's like recess at school it's like when the bell rings and you got five minutes to get between classes it's funny how I went to a jail reference before I thought of school fuck well that's it you went to jail i went to college oh it's the song again it's exactly the song that's so funny man i think but back to the nashville thing theo i think that's what made it so beautiful that my first number one was written with ernest and keep in mind that we're already like ernest is on his seventh or eighth number one at that point in his career and i'm calling him now we're looking at a decade plus of real friendship so i'm calling ernest and And I'm like saying it.

33:09You know how I talk. People, y 'all know, how y 'all see me on here is how I am. My friends attest that. 100%. I'm a very straightforward, like, hey, I need help. Can you, I call Ernest, like, the first time I got on Theo and Brennan's podcast, I hit him like, yo, I really need this. This is a good look for me. They were like, come on. But the same thing with Bussin' with the Boys. But I call Ernest. I'm like, Bubba, I'm treading new water here. Come over here and drop some of that sauce off. Wow. You know what I'm saying? I was like, fuck with your boy, man. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I'm like, it's just me and my dude.

33:37Me and my dude that wrote Save Me. We're friends of 20-something years. David Ray. Yeah, he's from a trailer park in East Nashville. Grew up piss poor. Neither one of us dreamed of being songwriters. We just dreamed of not being drug dealers. Yeah. You know? So we're just in there piddling around, and we're like, we don't really. We can't even read. Yeah, for sure. I'm like, we're not qualified to try to write. No offense, David. You don't know the guy. I'm like, we're not qualified to write a radio song by ourselves. You know what I'm saying? I was like, I only know one person. How are we going to write this song?

34:08You can't even write it. There's only one hit writer in town that'll take my call. Let me call him. Yo, Earn, do me a favor. Pull up. He's like, I got you. Are you there all week? I'm like, I'm here all week. And we've told the story. But he was going to get ribs next door at the barbecue pit. He really just came to sit. That's so earnest, too. Earnest is that good. He's like, you know what? I got to pick up some ribs in about an hour. But I'll stop buying right a hit. No, no, he did them while they were smoking. He came in, he was like, I got like 30 minutes to kill or something. That's exactly what happened.

34:36He wrote a piece of the song. He just like poured out an idea. I was like, love y 'all. Let me know how it goes. I looked at our text thread after it went number one because that night I text Ernest at like four in the morning because I was up. You sent back a demo. Yeah, a demo at four in the morning. I was like, we might actually have something here. Yeah. I remember it felt so good when I left. Like, because we had the longest son of a sinner. And that shit was just tattooed in my brain from the second I left until now. And then I had to double back with the favorite, Theo, because then when we get the song done, I'm like, well, fuck, we don't know nobody to produce a radio song neither, right?

35:15So I call Ernest. I'm like, you got to produce that. He called him that. Hey, I'm one for one on producing country songs and them going to the top, baby. That's your first produced one? Yeah, it's the only thing I produced. The best part was I had to gas him up, Theo. You're like the Rudy Rudiger. literally one play one sack that's me i had to gas him up bro i had to be like yo man you can do this he was like i've never done it i was like i definitely can't do it if we have to pick right now who's the most qualified to do it it's fucking you man you got to figure it out he was like all right man fuck i'll figure it out i was like all right cool crazy that is crazy hearing it out loud again though because you know i almost had to bully him into it i was like you got this i i felt imposter syndrome being around you know the producer all the time but uh singing that song it's in my set every night and i i love it like one of mine like because uh and i say every night i give a brief overcap of knowing him and then how special it is that one's that's all the time when people ask me what my favorite number one is it's that one because of that reason because it's homegrown 100 homegrown three nashville dudes three nashville dudes that 10 years before you could have never told us we would be hit songwriters.

36:28Any of us. You know what I mean? And we put real, real, real stuff in a song vulnerable that country radio accepted. Yeah. And, like, that's cool. Like, pills and, you know, addiction and just weird lingo that most country songs don't have. Well, yeah. Well, nowadays, that's your dog in your truck. You know what I'm saying? If you ain't get pills. The dog's on blocks. The truck's on blocks. We're moving on to opiates. The genre has evolved. No, man, I remember because I went to the Opry, and I saw you performing, and then you played that song. I was like, I just didn't know. That's where it was.

37:09That was when it was. And I was like, wow, because I just love listening to that song. You know what? You did me a solid, Theo, The Holler. It's a big country-themed YouTube social media site, and they did like one of them 30 second things with you and they said what's a country song you can listen to non-stop and you said Son of a Sinner by Jelly Roll and you said no never mind Save Me by Jelly Roll oh nice thank you for that I got both the titles in there yeah you threw me a big alley-oop because that motherfucker because you did it it went very well everybody said that to me I love see yeah where you at right now where you at with Lainey on that we're number two we're number two yeah we should be pushing next week Save Me should be the number one song on country radio whenever this comes By the time this comes out, I should be able to say this.

37:52I'm a Jessie Murph fan, too. I've been a Jessie Murph fan. She's so good. I feel scary even saying it because she's like a young girl, you know? But it's like I am a – She's awesome. I know all of her songs, dude, which is really alarming to say, and I might even – I don't want to hear this. I'm glad I'm not – I can't hear that good. If it makes you feel better, if you were like me, I heard the voice before I seen her, and nothing about her voice says she's a 19-year-old girl. Right. Like her voice says she's a 37-year-old woman that's been through a lifetime of pain and anger. You know what I'm saying?

38:26It's like when you hear just the voice, because I just heard the music. And then I found out who it was. And then I was like, oh, this is dope. But you'd love her, man. She's like a little sister, man. She's like immediately. I got to meet up with her one night. Her and this guy, Shay, no. He's like a light-skinned dude. He writes music. Shy? Shy. Shy Carter. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah. Shy Carter. Yeah, dude, it was awesome. So I got to meet up with them in Los Angeles. I was a huge fan of hers. And then her manager, I think, Ben, knew about it. And he's like, oh, Jesse's in town if you want to stop by and get to say hey.

39:01And so I got to stop by and meet them. Sick. God, that's awesome. And she played some of her new music and stuff. It's so good, man. Yeah. She don't miss, man. Baby, while you're at it, why don't you rap this time? I need to tap in. I only know two songs. But once you get on it, though, dude, her TikTok shit is so like once you get on it it's like you're all it's like you it'll be weird because you'll just be like at the cvs or something and you're just standing there by yourself singing jesse murph and these kids start looking at you like this guy's a pervert let's get this guy out of you know but he's a pervert that listens to good music isn't he pervert true good taste absolutely that was the funny part when they sent me wild ones i was like somebody suggested like you should do a verse on wild ones and i was like yeah yeah i'm gonna sing about my wife though like i'm not getting on any song with a young woman and not talk about the most important woman in my life.

39:52They were like, cool. I was like, whatever, as long as the label don't trip on my verse. Because I sent a verse in just like, I thought they were rejected because I'm talking like shit a little bit, right? You know what I'm saying? I was like, yeah, they're not going to let me fly it. And they were like, this is it. I was like, fucking let's go. So far. Yeah, it was so good. Bunny is my, what's that line? Bunny is my holly, Quinn. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Any fun getting back to getting to the freedom of getting a rap verse? Oh, dude, it's like it feels so I've been in a situation lately where I've got to go write a bunch of stuff by myself or like in two ways again, like save me or you know what I mean?

40:26Like that style. And it's been a ball, which we should do. I pulled up to a lot of places and just been thrown into like a feature category again when they're just like, well, just write something for this. And I'm just like, hell, yeah, good stuff. Yeah, it's normally like we write in like twos or threes because it's easier to bounce ideas off each other that way. yeah and but like when you go do a feature for somebody especially in the hip hop world they just you just gotta beat and you're just like writing something and you're like by yourself again and it's the coolest most dangerous thing ever because you go back to what you think's cool yep you know what I mean it's like I don't give a fuck what nobody thinks I'm wigging out about this I think this is sick I'm in my little I'm on my kitchen table I still write at the kitchen table like I did when I was a kid I got my little headphones on my wife's out there and then finally I'll be like come check this out you're pen to pad too right yeah I'm still pen to pad I'm still old school I love that.

41:12I can't. Well, because fuck, I also don't know how to play the music and go to my notes at the same time on my phone. My hand don't work fast enough. Like when I try writing, A, it's either illegible because, is that how you pronounce that? Yeah. Or something. Illegible? Yeah. Yeah. My handwriting's so bad because I'm trying to write so fast because my thoughts and like I'm afraid I'll forget it by the time I get done. I've never seen you write anyways, though. You've never. I rarely do. I've never seen you be the scribe in the room. Nobody believes you write anything and people just believe you just show up.

41:39Yeah, literally. Somebody pats you on the back and a hit falls out of you, dude Name one time you've been the guy with the laptop Typing the fucking lyrics, Ernest Never the guy with the laptop But sometimes I do write complete ideas in my notes on my phone And then bring it and put a guitar to it But often it is just like music Somebody get a voice note going Blah Somebody type that out Yeah, I need scribes What's that line I remember seeing you get so excited about It's like map dot Oh, Hardy said that. Ain't that a map dot shame? He said in More Than My Hometown. Ain't that a map dot shame?

42:18Ain't that a map dot shame? Yeah. I mean, I added nothing to that song that night other than the room we wrote it in. And then when he said that, I about ran through a glass wall. I remember you saying one time. I was so fired up. I was so excited you were about that lyric. I don't know. I mean, it caught me off guard. Ain't that a map dot? Ain't that a map dot shame? Ain't that a map dot shame? Yeah, it was so good. That's such a cool way to speak. And I like that lyric. I took some pills. She took the dogs. Oh, it's all gone to hell. That's a hell of a one. She's gone to her mom's. God, dude.

42:52And I took up drinking since she took the time to tell me I took the best years of her life. God. Sad. It is sad, man. Sad songs make me happy. Yeah. I wonder if people relate more now to sad. Do you think overall that music's sadder or different than it was when we were growing up? You and I are probably more closer to AIDS than Ernest, but I just wonder sometimes. I think so. Is there more sadder music now? I think there's more vulnerability. Okay, there you go. It was so curated. So music used to be curated. The labels were in the power, and they would curate songwriters. They would pick the songs.

43:34They would make the artists record the songs. It was a big deal when artists got to start picking their own songs in this town. There was a time where labels were like, this is your song. I get in trouble every time I do this, by the way. Fuck it. I call it the Build-A-Bear system. Nashville was like Build-A-Bear. They would find a bear. They would put cowboy hat on bear, cowboy boots on bear. They would give bear a song, give bear a guitar, make bear have a band of bears behind bear, put bear on tour, put bear on radio. and it was completely like they were these dudes were like fucking robots they were muppets right you know what i mean for the the system and the power and what we've seen in light of the internet and i always compare stuff to like other things for connectivity and comedy we've seen it as well right and podcasting and and the ability to y 'all to go direct to consumer right like like the idea that a guy like zach brian can be writing songs in the military and sets up his phone and just sweating just singing his ass off and can connect with people with with no in-between right and that's why sometimes the establishment don't like him because they had absolutely nothing to do with his success but we've gotten to a place where like we're back this the last time this really happened and somebody's going to argue with me but fuck them was in the 60s and the 70s the singer songwriter movement yeah right where you would see guys that were like writing their own songs and sing their own songs.

45:04Willie Nelson, Waylon, Dylan, James Taylor. They're outlaws. But, I mean, it went over. I was playing, you know, Jackson Free? Have you wrote with him yet? Oh, yeah. I love that kid. Yeah, Jackson's badass. I think he's going to be, he's 23. In the next 10, 15 years, remember we said this name, this kid's going to have 30, 40, number one. Jackson Free? Jackson Free. Spells it with an X. But he didn't realize how deep Dylan's catalog was. Because, like, if you're like, I don't know, Do you ever get into Bob Dylan? Bob Dylan? Yeah, no. So was it the nasal thing that threw you off? I don't remember.

45:39I just don't remember him that good. But it's like you've heard some of his songs without knowing, right? Searching for a heart of gold. Is that him? That sounds like Tom Petty. Yeah, for sure. Oh, yeah, I like Tom Petty. Bob Dylan was kind of hitting on a top of the ass. Hit on a top of the ass. Hit on a sailman. I don't know if that did. He doesn't have a song. Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine. and now I'm on the page. He was kind of rapping. Thinking about the government. Yeah, I think. Oh, wow. Bob Dylan was kind of rapping. But he also wrote Along the Watchtower. Yes. Right?

46:09And Jackson didn't realize this, and I'm playing him all these big records. I'm like, you know 10 Bob Dylan songs. I could do it for you right now where you're like, no, I don't. I'm like, I play them, and you're like, oh, fuck, I do know 10 Bob Dylan songs. I just didn't know Bob Dylan wrote them. Yeah. But it was a different era. These guys were like writing their own songs and singing them. And then we went through the 20, 30-year curated space. and now it's like there's a lot of guys that are singing their own stories again and that's why i think the connectivity is different and i think the vulnerability shows because it's just men being honest in their music so it might seem a little sadder but i think it's just more more authentic yeah that's a good that's a great answer yeah i agree with that for sure jesus christ that's a good answer thank you bro same to save the music too more like not even just the lyrics like Like, I don't know, pop was so synthesized.

46:59It feels like synthetic would be the word. But, like, now real instruments and, like, not being so on the grid. When I say on the grid, like a Pro Tools session literally locked in on the grid. Guys like Zach playing how it feels more so than just everything's got to be perfect. Yes. And, like, that just opens up a yard for people that are willing to do it, you know, kind of break the mold and go play in that yard and that's like yeah sad songs are gonna happen in there i love steel guitar steel guitar is all over my record and there's not a sadder sounding instrument than steel guitar so i consciously write a lot of times to cater to steel guitar like what i you know i think that to give you your flowers though outside of the genius you are as a songwriter as the artist earnest that's what makes you special though bubba it's like Like you focus not only on the top line and the lyric.

47:52There's a sound that you want. You're bringing like you're years ahead of your time with bringing that sound back around. Just like Hardy was years ahead of his time with bringing in the really rock heavy metal country. It's like guys like that is when you think about the guys who really went on to win, it's because their sound was so different as well. Not just the shit they were singing about. Like that. Like when I see an earnest show, it's like nostalgic. but with new concepts written over the top of this super old nostalgic sound you know what I mean it's just really sick to me and it's the same thing I hear when I hear Hardy like listen I bang truck bed like me and Bunny are beefing and me and Herb we don't argue at all it's my best friend you know what I mean I love my wife we don't have any problems but I still wake up and bang truck bed like I'm fucking ready to get divorced you know what I'm saying like that song just fucks in every way and it's because it breaks every rule in Nashville Oh, yeah.

48:45Not just Nashville, but every ruling. Like he said, there's a system in music, Theo, that's like, okay. And he knows the number system better than me. He'll explain this. I don't know the number. Well, you mean like one, four, five? Yeah, it's like, so, okay, here's the one. I got to go to the four because that's what's supposed to happen next. Yeah. It's like, can't you go to the five? It's like, nope, got to go to the four. Yeah, so Matthew. And Ernest's like, fuck you, going to the five. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know. Yeah. Well, yeah, I think there's an overall system in the world like that, that kind of like, you know, the powers that be kind of feel like they've got everything down to an algorithm.

49:15But I think it's, again, proof that originality and that there's something inside of us that wants to be original, not just individually, but even as a species where it's like we don't, you know, don't confine everything into that space. You can't lock us into an algorithm as humans, you know, like we're going to find a way out of it, you know. And I think that's one thing that's great about a lot of the music right now. Like you say, even some of the artists, when you're saying who is even up for best new artist, I don't even know if I would say half those people are country music. I wouldn't put them just as a country music.

49:50It's good. That's a great term. Yeah, yeah. But it's like Zach Bryant, to me, it's like he's a, some people could say he's their Bob Dylan. Yeah, genres are totally skewed right now. Yeah, like Jesse Murph is, she's in seven genres. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's like Most people, if you just said 10 years ago Is he a country It's like he's a country motherfucker You know, in the sense that But all things are true for him When he's rapping, when he's singing country songs Or rock songs The story never The story's the same It's just a matter of what furniture you're dressing a room with Stop it, Ernest Clip that for me, somebody What did you say again?

50:32I was saying the story stays the same no matter the genre or the furniture changes in which you're decorating the room with. Damn, bro. That's fucking hard. I needed that. Thank you, brother. I needed that. But I'm country. First of all, I love country music as a fan. I'm obsessed with country music. I have been my whole life. Because being from this town, I was always fascinated with it. When I was a kid, there was no other job in this town. You were either a layman or a bartender or you worked in country music somehow. Yeah, for sure. 100%. And it's like, you know, and my mother was a bartender, so she took like great pride in like this, like the country music scene being in this town and coming to the bars.

51:12And like it was like I remember CMA week would come fanfare is what they called it back then. And it would be like an economic shift. Like our families would plan vacations around it. Like, all right, well, we can't go to July because fanfare is in June. We're going to have the money then. they put back Christmas money because it was such a, this town only had 300 ,000 people in it then. So you got to think we're bringing an extra 50 ,000 people to town for fanfare. It was like a sixth of our population, a fifth of our population was just showing up to spend money in one week. The bartenders celebrate, they called it hell week.

51:47They were like, this is going to suck, but we're all going to get back rolls. You know what I'm saying? Like, don't worry. We're eating steak on Friday, baby. You know what I'm saying? We're going to afford that divorce next Monday. That's got to be the worst. you can't get divorced because you can't afford it. It's like, ah, fuck. You imagine waking up every day like, I would leave you if I financially could. If I had$640, I'd leave you. I'd foul right now. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard you say it, I'd leave you. I'm surprised I haven't seen more GoFundMes about divorces. For divorces.

52:21Like just looking for$1 ,000 to foul. That's hilarious. That'd be a great reality show. Facebook Marketplace. They want three grand to get a newer point.

52:32that's so dude the crazy thing about touring is you still you're like you meet people like oh we're from Dippin Dot Alabama and you're like where the fuck is that oh I'm from uh mixed breed uh Arkansas you're like yeah yeah did you see that video about the most racist town in America being in Arkansas and the guy from I can't remember I shouldn't I'm too high to talk about this might have been Eric Andre maybe who went to no no no it was it's a you it's a famous YouTuber. I follow his channel. I'm just fucking can't remember his name right now. The black dude went into him and was trying to interview the guy?

53:04Yeah, he was. Did you see him? No, it was somebody else. I can't remember dude's name, but I've seen the video. I can't remember his name. He's got dreads and he went to like Alaska. He always goes to weird places, but it was fucking super cool, too. Super cool. He wore like a Trump shirt or something and he went to the most racist town in the world. Theo, you would piss yourself. I know your personality. People were trying to be, for the most part, people were trying to be pretty nice and like be like, hey, do you know where you're at? He'd be knocking on the door or something and an older white couple would come out and be like, oh, hey, you probably shouldn't be in this town.

53:39Like a fair warning, not like we're going to do anything, but I can't speak for my neighbors. They're like, oh, you shouldn't be out after dark. I mean, you shouldn't be out dark. Yeah, either, both. Dude handled it like a champ and he obviously knew he was going into the fire but it's good content. He talked to one old toothless man boy, and I pissed myself. It was so funny. One of my favorite videos I've ever seen in my life. I think if you want to be racist, I think you should at least have to have all your teeth. I feel like. Because otherwise, you're not even taking care of your end of the deal.

54:14You should at least have to fix yourself up. Who are you? There should be a criteria for racism. For a guy who doesn't like blacks, you have a black space in your smile. which is really interesting that you'd let a nice white tooth expire. Kind of hypocritical. You and your interracial grin over there. Oh my God. That's crazy, dude. If you got hair, you want to keep it. That's it. And so unless you don't, but most of you do. And if you do, then you're like me. I'm keeping mine around keeps is an online subscription service that makes it easy and more affordable. for men to treat their male pattern baldness from the comfort of their home.

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57:56Visit BetterHelp.com slash T-H-E-O today to get 10 % off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com slash Theo. But yeah, I think what's happening with guys, there's always guys that come along and evolve this thing. I think it also is an evolution of what men... It's not just the dog and the... Some of those old... What are those things called? Euphemisms? That's killing it all. Euthanizationisms?

58:33Analogies. Metaphors. Tropes. Something like that. I think those are even evolving. It's like what a man is. You know, it's like now a guy's sitting on horseback, but he's playing Nintendo Switch. Yeah. You know? Yeah. The furniture's changed. Right. The furniture's changed. The furniture's changed. But it is cool. Like I was saying about there being a fresh yard to play in. As a writer, it is way more freeing to write songs now than it was when I first started writing songs. And I think part of that is with some success comes more freedom to get to do it. But like, yeah, like, you know, the options of guys that will cut songs now is different.

59:13Like, you know, you got he's willing to say way more shit than so-and-so is willing to say. Or like, you know, if Post is coming and wants to make country songs, like there's an option for like you really got some more freedom to say stuff that, you know, so-and-so over here would never say or never even be able to say that has a little more swag or a little more sauce on it. Right. And that, for guys like me, I love that because then I really get to exercise the fun muscle in my brain. That's true. When artists start to, like, collab and stuff, it's like anything could kind of happen. And then you still have guys like John Party that's kind of like Fun Tree, you know?

59:50Yeah, and writing for a guy like that is so much fun, too, because then you get to step into, like, a honky-tonk world. Yeah, it's fun. And you know, oh, this sounds like a party thing. It's so cool. That's the greatest compliment you can pay an artist in life. When you're thinking of something and you're thinking of a song in your head and you're like, man, that's more of a party record. That shows how much of a brand he's built with the specific. How do you say? Don't hurt yourself. Sorry, fuck. I'm blowing it. Specific. Yeah, like he's so specific. Why did it take me that long to get in? Dude, just.

1:00:27I hate you, Theo. Need some Narcan over here, dude. Only if they hit Jelly with some Narcan and get a word out of them.

1:00:39Dude, that'd be crazy. Imagine if, and this is separate, you're just trying to get a word out, but what if there was somebody here in town that were so kind of like illiterate that if they couldn't get a word out of it, you'd fucking hit them with some Narcan. A little popper. Yeah, we say it's Rick. Extracurricular. Extracurricular. He's looking wide awake. Anyways. But he's so specific. It's like, I think about it. When we were kids, we would go on, what was it called? Was it called SoundClick? SoundCloud. No, no, the beats. Oh. SoundClick, I think. I don't know. What was it? So there was a website called SoundClick.com.

1:01:16To get instrumental? And it would have beats. And it would be like producers would make these beats, and they would lease them to you. But they would title the beats like, and I dreamed of the day this would happen for me, Drake-type beat. Yes, yes, yes. Eminem-type beat. Yes. And it was like, that spoke so, and it goes back to the sound we were talking about earlier in the pod. It's like, great artists build sounds, not just great songs as well. They build great sounds behind them. So like, the greatest dream is to be like, oh, that's a John Party sounding song. That's a Kid Rock sounding song.

1:01:47That's a Jelly Roll sounding song. That's a like, that is the greatest compliment. Because there's a lot of artists in music on pop and country that's like, there's four artists that could cut the same song because their sound is just that sound. you know what I mean it's just a big it's a big like yeah it's just kind of like down the middle sound it's gonna work people are gonna like it yeah people are gonna like it but it's not polarizing which is you know there's artists you know what I'm talking about and then you have the other artists it's like oh that sounds like J. Cole should be rapping on that yeah that sounds like Jelly Roll would be singing a song like that like that's what you go for as an artist and any young artist watching this that's what I challenge you to do I challenge you to write a thousand songs and I challenge you to make production around it in a way that it's your thing.

1:02:31Yeah. So what he's saying is you're going to need to go to prison. Yeah. Or college. You're going to want to do a stint. You're going to need to go to college. Yeah, you're going to want to go to college just for long enough to drop out of it. Or prison. Yeah, because otherwise nobody will buy the music, at least if you're not a college, if you're not a dropout. You know? You got to have a story with it. Yeah, you can't be singing about pills and dogs and have a degree in business. You're like, pick your life. Pick your life. Yeah, and also, dude, shout out the producers. like Joey specifically, Joey Moy, just one producer of the year.

1:03:01I mean, he's been crushing. Let me see a picture of him. Can we bring a picture of him up, please, Alex? So Joey's our producer, me, Morgan, and Hardy. I've met him before. Yeah, you've met Joey. So he's like. Joey moi Delaney took that picture but um he's the goat goat though he has done such a good job of for years even since nickelback he's been able to build several different brands within the same genre and make each of them unique like how different me morgan and hardy are within the same exact format is he also did florida georgia line yeah florida georgia line chris lane big stuff yeah it's like yeah joey joey built all of this and i mean i'll give hardy credit too and he's very hands-on on his sound and um and what he wants to sound like they're very what's the word collaborative uh hardy and joey are but yeah yeah kudos to him that's amazing you know to have to be able to have that those ability you know that ability to to be able to organize not only like put something together but then find different places for things that are really great that can be close to each other and stuff it's yeah it's insane.

1:04:14Is it true that on the Nickelback record that what the hell is on Joey's head? That's Joey. It was about Joey? That's Joey. So yeah, I think he had like a fake Stanley Cup on his head in this photo and they were like stoned and I think Joey's on the cover of High Times or something like that with Chad at one point but yeah look at this photograph every time and what the hell is on Joey's head Oh that was it? That was him. But think about this while we're giving him his flowers is Joey think about this Joey did Nickelback and like created the sound that made Nickelback the icons they are then went on to do it with Florida Georgia Line Hardy, Ernest and then Morgan so it's like his spectrum of decades worth of just re-inventing that's a genius dude it's outside of him inventing artist sounds he's reinventing himself like he's like there's something different happening with that dude you know what I mean?

1:05:11Yeah, to be able to change. Yeah, I can't even. It's hard enough for somebody to do something well once. Yeah, for sure. To produce a song like Animals or Something in Your Mouth by Nickelback and then also have like Seven Summers and how different they are. I think about Last Night. Exactly. Shout out Charlie Hansen, too. Yeah, crazy. Yeah, Charlie Hansen. Shout out young Charlie. He's so fucking good. I got to have a talk with Charlie. Yeah. Charlie's a cool cat. Yeah, what are you going to tell him, man? Let's get it out. Just how much I love him. Okay, damn. Just how much I love him. I thought it was going to be about his use or something.

1:05:48I love... Dude, I was like, yo, is this where we're going? I was like, fucking... When I met Charlie, it was 2018. We were at the Universal Studios, the recording studios, not the Disney World. And he's a songwriter, just so people know. Charlie Handsome. Producer, songwriter. Let's bring a picture of him up. And truly one of the greatest. Yeah, truly. He started out like a hip-hop producer, but he's one of the greatest musicians. He plays all instruments. He kind of was the first producer to do that acoustic trap stuff, like the early on Post Malone stuff, Go Flex, stuff like that. That's his gut string guitar.

1:06:23And he does all these crazy vocal effects. So anyways, I met Charlie in 2018 when I was kind of rapping. That's one guy is Charlie. Yeah, one guy on the left. Yeah, that's Charlie. Those are handsome Charlies, dude. Yeah, for sure. I fuck with that dude with four cigarettes in his mouth, though. But that dude is a fucking icon. Shout out that guy, too. Yeah, that's Charlie. But Charlie's the man. And so we met doing some rap stuff, and we talked that day about, he was like, yo, I got to come to Nashville. He was like, I want to get into country. And I was, at that time, had a foot in both doors, and I was kind of ready to go the country route.

1:07:01Foot in what door? Rapping in country? Yeah, like, that's why I was out in L.A., just, like, making rap beats and doing hooks and stuff. I didn't know that. I was just making the rounds out there and then coming back here and doing country. And I already was boys with Morgan for a couple years at that time and Sam Hunt and FGL. So Charlie came into town and we started doing tag team in all these sessions together. And that's when If I Know Me for Morgan came Heartless for Morgan, more than my hometown. And it all started happening. And my first number one ever was a song called I Love My Country with Florida Georgia Line.

1:07:34Me and Charlie did. And we kind of sat there and accidentally manifested the whole thing. What we talked about that day was like, I feel like we could go really organically blend these two sounds in Nashville. And it's happened. I mean, it's not like we're the first to ever put 808s with a country song because Joey was doing it with Cruz back when FGL was doing it. But I think it's happened. I got to give my boys flowers too. Zach Crowell did it with Breakup in a Small Town. Zach Crowell did it with Breakup in a Small Town. He might have been the first to do it. Probably so. Yeah, straight up.

1:08:08So the way it's evolved organically, though, to where it's like, it doesn't sound like such a mess. It just sounds like one brand, and then it's the voice that's pulling it home. Well, it's probably getting into people's systems, too. After it gets in their system a little bit, they're kind of used to hearing it. Putting a frog in warm water, so to speak. Charlie's really one of those special ones, man. Shout out to that crowd, too. Shout out to Ernest, by the way. it's funny how Ernest always finds himself and he's so humble about it he's like yo this guy this guy and this guy but it's like you always be in the room too motherfucker I know you I've been in with you you're fucking he's something special I sneak into a live room Ernest don't sneak in I always love Ernest that he always makes me laugh he's one of the funniest guys to be around he's fucking hilarious he's my favorite FaceTime if I look down at my phone and it's a FaceTime it's worth it every time you're like I don't know what this is but it's going to be fucking awesome.

1:09:02You know what I'm just saying? It could be a hit song idea. It could be a hit song idea. He could be up fucking partying on his bus at four in the morning. He could just have a bit, call with a joke, like, yo, check this out. Just fucking like, just like. I know if Coe Wetzel's on with him on the same FaceTime, then I'm going to need to call my sponsor. It's getting even better. Yeah, I'm going to merge calls with my sponsor. The idea of Coe Wetzel makes my liver and nose hurt. Just hearing his name, I just got PTSD. We got to get Coe on here, man. Coe is a good fucking dude. Everybody loves him so much.

1:09:35I'd probably do an afternoon with him. He's not awake. If he's awake, he's hunting right now. I've just seen a picture of Gary Darrell posted that him and his dad have been out killing shit. He's an afty. I love Coe, man. He's such a good dude. His whole crew is cool. He's also, man. Shout out Dre. Dre is the dude. Dre Rocha? Fucking the dude, man. but I tell you something else about Co that I think gets overlooked because he's so fun and the party and just who he is it's just also man he's incredible dude like if you see him with just a guitar I mean I've seen him blowed out of his mind pick up a guitar and just kill it's like so second nature to what he does he's so ingrained in the music side of it you know like we were in a writing room one day and he was trying to he was like no here here just hand it to me Brantley Gilbert's like that too.

1:10:28And Brantley will throw that guitar on and just, man, I mean, I always, you're a great guitar player in a room. You know what I mean? It's like you notice the ones that are like different. You're like, and I think maybe Coe caught me off guard because I didn't expect it. Yeah, yeah. Because we partied all night the night before, like all night till like nine in the morning or something. It was like fucking got dark. It was fucking deep. And I was just like, we got to the studio like four the next afternoon. We're both like shaking. You know what I mean? We're both in really bad shape. It's a tough feeling.

1:10:55You've been there. and it's like and I'm watching this dude just pour a song out of him I'm like this is crazy yeah I brought no value I had to leave I was like yo I'm out that's me dude I'm fucking I'm feeling so bad trying to have sex on cocaine that's me buddy I'm gonna bring nothing to the table yeah let me uh yeah I can't even bring the tape I'm getting this up the stairs I've already sold the table you were talking about somebody um like Joey getting to live a few people get to do it once and we were talking about tyler hubbard for a second yeah tyler i'll tell you a great story about tyler so i went to i don't know this actually isn't a great story but it is a story and um i just realized it wasn't that great okay but we went to see uh we saw hardy and morgan and earnest at um fenway park right and it was beautiful like beautiful day great set wait place to see a show because you're inside fenway park where you've seen baseball but you've never seen a show in there yeah and like hardy's up there with the American flag and like Ernest's kid runs out on a stage with him.

1:11:55Oh, Rhymin'. Yeah. Twinkle, twinkle. Yeah. Second he heard a song though, he's like, I'm out of here. He really came and got me. He's like, dude, this guy's fucking punk, right? It's his dad. I was like, dude, that's your father. I need a cigarette. He'll be there. Yeah. I think he really liked the music. He just wanted some nicotine. Yeah. But anyway, afterwards I'm leaving and I'm like, shit, I stayed a little too late to be able to beat like Like we had to just walk back to my hotel. So, and it was a way, it was probably a half a mile. So I'm like, so I get out there and I'm kind of start to argue with this cab driver a little bit.

1:12:31He does, we don't, we neither want to speak the other guy's language. Right. So we're trying to figure out how far I need to go. And Tyler pulls right up, dude, with his family. Oh, incredible. And an SUV. He's like, you want to get in? Yes, dude. And I was like, thank you. Man. Cruise, bro. Cruise. Cruise. I think he's going to be one of the few that got to live his dream twice. Wow. It looks like it with the songs he's putting out. He's a sweet guy. Yeah, the hits he's getting on country radio. He's always been good to me. Yeah, it's been great. And I think I told him that one night. I was like, man, very few men in life get to live their dream once, and I think you're fixing to get to do it twice.

1:13:08Wow. Technically three times, because then you and BK will get back together later and go do the blowout reunion thing, and it'll be fucking big again. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, what will happen with them? Yeah, can that happen, that Florida Georgia Line could get back together, do you think? I don't, you know, he knows them better than me. I just met BK the other day who I think was sweet as chest pie. They have both always been so, they've both always been so good to me. Like I said, bro, when I was, when I was still snow, they had me come. That was your rapper name? Yeah, I was just like, and nickname.

1:13:36It was just that era. I marked that era. It was like 2014, 2011 through 2014 was the snow days. And those were like, Brian and Tyler had, I had no business being in a room writing songs with them. Right. and Big Loud and them took a way early chance on me years before I needed it. Well, that's another nod to people changing genres and thinking of something different. Because who would think I'm going to get a white rapper? Yeah. Or who would think? A lot of guys probably weren't thinking, hey, I'm going to get a rapper in here to try with me. Right. Yeah, it's cool. And then having the rapper mentality and then having also signed a country writing publishing deal kind of forced my hand to just start doing a weird hybrid where I was like I was really rapping like I would be like doing 16 bar verses like a rap would but I was adding melodies and doing it over acoustic and stuff like that and then you know that was just like I said putting the frog in warm water I was the frog in warm water as far as finally fully committing the brand and craft to like country songwriting.

1:14:46And like, I think I shied away from it for so long. Cause I thought you had to be redneck to be country. And I'm not the most redneck guy. I've done redneck shit with my friends. I got redneck friends for sure, but I'm country and I'm, and it took me a while to even realize that. Cause you know, I didn't grow up on a farm. We moved to 13 acres my senior year, which was not because of poverty. You know, it was like, I had a pretty decent, um so i like shied away from the country things i don't want to be fake but i see some of my favorite songs ever written ain't got nothing to do with big trucks and mud it's like love or heartbreak and pain and it's like oh being a country artist can just be telling your story and the music is my favorite music anyway so like once i wrapped my head around that and wasn't a shame to be country and realize I am country, then I was like, yeah, let's go.

1:15:43I'm not a redneck. Dude, I'll never forget the first time my mama played a looking for trouble and I found a son right down a barrel of a long man gone. Ain't living long like this. Ain't living long like this, my baby. And I was like, yo, this is fucking country? Who sang that? Waylon Jennings. That sounds like you. That's what's crazy. I mean, it sounds like something That's the shit that's the shit he's talking about. That's what inspired me, though, right? That was the stuff that I was like, yo, this is awesome. You know, it's like, to me, Willie Nelson's Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, these, like, classic records.

1:16:21Angel flying too close to the ground. Dude, man. And Lucas doing it at the birthday party was insane, too. Oh. That's one of my favorite songs. Just, the whole catalog of Willie was, Willie inspired me to understand that But the pain, I used to think because I was like a bubbly big dude that I couldn't sing sad songs, but all I wrote was sad songs. You know what I mean? And then you look at guys like Willie, you know, the braids, the guitar, the headband, and then he goes, he's like famous stoner, like who Willie is outside of the music. And then he would get on stage and sing the saddest song ever.

1:17:01You know what I mean? It was like that inspired me so, so much. but just high enough to come back around. I think they'll get back together. Florida Georgia Line, I think their impact was too big. I don't know if it's in the next five years or 10, but it's just like I'm still holding on to hope. I just listened to Andre 3000's Flute album. I was just high enough to really dig it, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was thinking to myself, there's no way, even if we don't see an OutKast album ever again, that there's not going to be a day where something's going to come along that we're going to see OutKast on a stage again.

1:17:34I hope so. That'd be so sad. Unless you plan to buy. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I just don't think. I think their cultural impact was too big. Oh, Dirt is a song I'll play a lot of times, man. Yeah, for sure. Dirt, Confession, Anything Goes. Yeah. Hey, I'll show you Chris Tompkins' demo of Anything Goes. It's just him and a keyboard. Really? I'll show you. I'll show all y 'all one day. I'm trying to think of what else is something I was going to think about asking you boys. Let me show you this new hat I got. You like this hat I got? Yeah, tell me about it. Lane. Lane, it's a, this Lane, this Lane Frost.

1:18:11He is a, his daddy was a, will you bring him up, D.A.M.I.D.? If you get a chance, Alex. Lane Frost. I got to make a phone call really quick. No sweat. I'll talk to Jelly. I love that Ernest is so Ernest. He's like, I got to make a phone call. He's like, I'm just high enough to remember. I was supposed to call my doctor at 12. He's like, fucking. He's like, dude, I'm doing, obviously I don't need to be in here. Lane Frost right there, celebrating a bull riding legend, one of the best bull riders of all time. Yeah, can we get it on his Wikipedia at least? It might help us some, yeah. Oh, he died in 1989.

1:18:45Yeah. Well, he died young. His parents lived in La Pointe, Utah. His father was on the rodeo circuit. Yo, hold on, hold on. This is crazy. He sustained severe injuries at the 1989 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. I played that before. It's a huge deal, dude. Me and Co Wetzel played that. Really? Dude, I'm headlining Cheyenne Frontier Days this year, Theo. Oh, nice. If you're off that day, you should come out and see it. It is the wildest fucking shit. It's so legendary. Really? It is like seeing that just gave me goosebumps. You know, think about George Strait's. I can still make Cheyenne. Think about Garth Brooks' Beaches of Cheyenne.

1:19:26He drew a bull in Wyoming. No man could ride. I'm getting goosebumps, bro. This is crazy. All this was about this guy. Look at that. Big goosebumps, bro. Wow, that's true, huh? Yes. It must have been about him. Look. Oh, damn. Oh, those are real, right? That's some fucking buzzards you got going, baby. Damn. That's the power of music and stuff. You had some buzzards right there. Go back to Lane Frost real quick and go down a little bit more on him, early life. On January 5th, Frost married Kelly Kyle, a barrel racer. And then how did he pass away? on July 30th at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming, after completing a successful 85-point ride on a Brahma bull named Taking Care of Business, Frost dismounted and landed in the mud.

1:20:13The bull then turned and pressed his right horn on Frost's back and pushed him against the muddy floor. He was rushed to—he fell to the ground, causing his heart and lungs to be punctured by his ribs. Oh, he died on the way to the hospital. He was 25 years old. Man. You got to come with me this year if I do it. That's crazy, dude. I will. That's amazing, man. I appreciate you saying that. I'll have to. This sounds really, really cool. Oh, there's a movie, Eight Seconds, where Luke Perry, RIP, played the role of Frost. And he has a son, though. Lane Frost, I think, is maybe this hat line might just be named after him.

1:20:53Frost's parents. Oh, they played tribute to him with the dance video that Garth Brooks put out. This is crazy. Wow, country music star Zach Bryan's middle name is Lane after Frost. Wow, that's even cooler. What are the odds, bro? Somebody just gave me this hat randomly the other day. I see it across the room. I go put it on, and we're back down to Zach Frost. I want one now. And his 2022 song, Open the Gate, is a tribute to his namesake. Wow. Man, that's awesome. Gosh, dude, there's something about storytelling, man. There's something about that people just, you know, you want people to relate to things and feel something.

1:21:29Yeah. you know have you because what does music look like do you think moving forward for you you know do you think like more about it i mean do you think like about staying more in a certain lane you all good earnest okay cool no worries we'll just go a little bit longer man do you think about staying in a different lane or doing it do you have any thoughts like or is there new stuff you working on or what's yeah man i'm actually i'm actually proud to say this i've got more demos in my phone right now than i've ever had like i've wrote more this year than i've wrote in a year in a long time. I just rode on the tour this year.

1:22:01I've been gone all year. I've only slept in my bed 36 days. I don't know if we got that on the early part of this or not. Yeah, that's insane. I've been gone like that much this year. So it's like, I've just been writing wherever I can and whenever I can and it's really ignited a flame in me again about the writer's side. I've been writing a lot of songs just by myself again. With folks? Oh, by yourself? Yeah, with folks too. But I've been doing a lot of just like, falling back. You've been so busy too. I bet you ain't slept in your bed 90 days this year. No, it has been crazy. But you're touring so unorthodox.

1:22:32You're on tour this week. You got shows in two days or something. But see, we tour different. You're doing like the pop. I'm doing a rock and roll tour. Yeah, rock and roll. I'm gone for four months and not home at all. And we go out every weekend. You know, we're back Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I hated that, though. Let's talk about that. It stretches it out for your stuff, too. I'm kind of sporadic. Yeah, I'll do like four days in a week, and then I'll take off a week. Or I'll do two weeks, four, four days, five days, and then take off for two weeks. See, what they're doing that I don't like is, that's cool.

1:22:59That's actually the way to do it probably. The way they do it, and I don't like this respectfully. Everybody does it their own way, but it's not my way. They do probably, no shit, Ernest, you're doing 47 weekends this year, if I had to guess, out of 52 weeks. Jesus, that's a lot. Yeah. No. 45 at least, I'd say. We started the first week of March and then pretty much every weekend until this, with the exception of when Morgan had to cancel a few shows. I got a couple extra weekends off. You still picked up some gigs during that? Yeah, we filled that up. I played a lot of shows. So probably 38 weekends.

1:23:36It's like for me, I would never get in the rhythm, Theo. It's like when I'm gone that much, by the time I came home Sunday and slept, Monday I'd get rid of the hangover. Monday, I'd be like, all right, I'm feeling better. Tuesday, I'd start rotating in the world. But Wednesday night at midnight, the bus left again. You know what I mean? So it's like I prefer the rock and roll style tour where like I just went out and did 11 weeks and did five shows a week and did 55 shows in 11 weeks. I never tried that. Which is another option. I've never tried that. I don't know if I can handle it. Personally, I don't know.

1:24:07I think we just get too burnt out probably. How many buses you got now? Four? No, we did, I guess, eight or nine, maybe ten. On your tour, buses? Yeah. So you got your own. Bunny's got her own. Yeah, and then we did seven, so it was nine. Jesus Christ. You got one bus. I don't know. I think we did ten tractor trailers, too. Yeah, bro. Big tour, man. I mean, you got to think we did arenas. It was a big deal. Your production's insane. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we did. And I wanted to make sure that, like, I'm very a stickler about doing it right. Like if I have to take a haircut and lose a little money, but I know that the show is going to look that much better.

1:24:43Like I bought content for my show. Nobody buys content for their shows. Everybody uses stock content because it costs a million dollars. You know what I mean? And I was like, I'm buying content, though. Like I want to create my own. It's insane. Yeah. I want I want I know it's a one of a kind show because they're so hard to do one of a kind shows. Right. Nothing news under the sun. Everybody's done it twice. You know what I'm saying? It's like we all got the same video walls to some degree. Yeah. We only get so much room to play with. You know what I mean? and I was like, at least if I create content.

1:25:09It took nine months to build the content for the tour. Yeah, we're building an animation right now to play. We just got some screens in some of these venues. I may go back, though, to just not doing, like, we just started doing some arenas this week, like some smaller kind of, I mean, the word arenas is kind of loosely, but a lot of them are like college basketball places. We call them hockey arenas. Yeah, and then hockey arenas. Are you doing Arizona State? We might. I don't know. We did Pikeville That was actually a tough room Some of the audio in the rooms is not We're bringing our speakers and stuff But some of it's not built for Verizon, is that the Verizon Center Or whatever it is, right there in Pikeville It's that little arena in the middle of downtown Pikeville, Kentucky And Pikeville is beautiful It's beautiful It's like nestled in the mountains It's sexy It's like this perfect little place Did you drive up there?

1:26:03We bussed in, yeah I drove up there because the drive, when we played Pikeville that day, I was like, I had to, dude. It was fucking incredible. You drive through that little, because Pikeville's up there in like the corner of Kentucky and West Virginia, right? It's like right there in that little like mountainous area right there. Beautiful. It's fucking awesome. We went for a nice hike before, but that audio was, I felt like sometimes I just kind of felt like that venue, the audio was kind of tough at it. You ever have some of those where some of them you're just like, man, this just. Yes. And you feel disappointed because you're like, it's not helping me as much.

1:26:37Here's the deal, though. I knew that you were going to have to start picking up arenas when I was seeing the two or three theater shows in a day pop. And you're in a weird spot, man, where it's like, how do you feel about this? Because the problem you're going to run into if you don't start playing big arenas is everybody who wants to come ain't going to be able to come. There's still people not getting a ticket to see you, and you're playing 8 ,000 cap arenas. There's still people in that market like, damn wish I could have went to go see Theo Friday without a ticket you know yeah I don't know I think I think part of it is I'll just keep doing the tour and I'll just come back instead of trying to do it that's one nice thing it's like okay we realize this area we could more people want to come see it then we'll come back again I'd rather do the same like not the same material but you know let it evolve over time yeah but do that for five years and by the end of it it's a whole new show or you know might be a new show and a half by then yeah but it's like yeah I don't think feeling like I need to hurry and then get an hour out and then it's like, you know, we'll come back.

1:27:35I tell people all the time if tickets are too expensive, if it's aftermarket, we'll come back. Might be a year and a half, you know, you might not be alive. You might not even be alive. You might die before I get back here, but I'll be back. That's your issue. I'll be back. How do you... Some of that's on them. If you don't mind talking about it, where are you at with your hour? I'm good. Yeah, we're doing like, I'm doing like an hour and 20 minutes on stage right now. You feel like you've got a new hour? Yeah. What are you thinking about filming? I don't know if I will. I think I'm just going to tour for a while and not hurry myself into that next space.

1:28:05You know, me and David Spade wrote like a movie we might want to try to get made. So we talked about maybe getting you to get you as a... Anything you need. Yo, I'll do something too, man. I'm in. We're a package deal now. We just hired you. You're hired. Frickin' fried over here. But yeah, I was going to present at the CMAs. Actually, they asked, but I had a show that night in Greenville, South Carolina. And it was awesome. I just got back from Greenville. It's beautiful. Where did you go? Where were you? On the college. No, no. Okay. We just did the Blind Horse Saloon. It's hockey-tonk. That place was awesome.

1:28:41I love it. That place was. Did you play Coyote Joe's the night before in Charlotte? No, we didn't do the Tucson. They didn't route it that way? Greenville is from Rockingham. Greenville is beautiful. There's so many cool places. I played that arena down there on this tour. It was incredible. You played the way? Yo, we did our tour party in Greenville. Oh, I got a story. This is a story. I don't know if it's a good one, but it's a story. I love the honesty. But we played Greenville, and we had the night off before. So what they did was they let us load in the arena the day before. And then we rented this place.

1:29:09God, they're going to be so mad. I can't remember their name. But it was the coolest thing ever. It was an adult playground, kind of. They served booze, and they had pizza. Alex and I. Yeah, they had a putt-putt golf center in it. You could throw axes. they had like beer pong games they had ping pong like it was like one of those like adults yeah but it was like adult like we were all in there we rented the whole place and got blackout drunk and most of the crew did whippets and blow and it was just crazy I mean it got really crazy dude it was and it was all 75 people from the tour because it was like a 75 person crew all the drivers came because we parked the day before so the truck drivers and the bus drivers got to get drunk.

1:29:55It was like watching the bus drivers get drunk, nothing tickled me more. Yeah, oh yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because they live a real kind of like regimented, sober. It's crazy. You know what I mean? It's like the one night where it's like, y 'all don't have to drive for 40 hours. Like just give your, the buses were already parked at the venue. Yeah. The venue had been loaded in. Bus drivers were fixed. I hired IVs for everybody the next day. So I had like a 10 person nursing staff backstage. Oh, amazing. So when everybody got to the venue, like truck drivers are getting IVs. It was the night we gave away the bonuses for the tour.

1:30:24Oh, what a night, dude. It was special. Social attitude. No, no, no. This place is way cooler. That place sucks. When you find this place, dude, you're going to be blown away. That's like a burt - Oh, brother, this guy stinks. Yeah, it's like a mini putt-putt golf. They got axe throwing inside of there. Oh, they got damn baby burping in there out there. It was that karaoke. We were getting drunk doing karaoke. We all karaoke'd struggle songs. It was awesome. Oh, that's so good. It was really cool, man. It was awesome. What else did we have in the news? What was in the news in there? How did – did y 'all think Morgan was upset about not getting that award?

1:31:00Do you think he cared? I mean, I don't know. They didn't even let him go there last year, right? I'm not sure. I don't know if he was there or not last year. I think he performed. I think I remember him performing. Yeah, probably so. I think I remember him performing. I think he did U-proof. But it was really cool. That boy's pockets are fine. Yeah, he's fine. He's got some of the best fans. He's the most, him getting 11 Billboard Music Awards were deserved. I mean, he's the most. Because that one is not up to anybody except. Isn't that just stats? I think Billboard is stats. It's just stats. Right, so that's the truth.

1:31:33Him, Taylor, and Zach are the juggernauts of streaming. Like, it doesn't even get close. Morgan Zach and Luke Combs are the three biggest streamed artists in country music Zach and Morgan and Luke to some degree in the world of all artists but Morgan and Taylor are by far the two juggernauts I mean it don't get no bigger than Morgan Wallen on earth like he's bigger than Bad Bunny he sold more records than Bad Bunny you know what I mean it's like all that shit you think was doing great Morgan just came in and was like hold my beer so it's like Like, he's so, you know what I mean? He's in such a stratosphere of his own.

1:32:16I tell people, this is the way I tell them. You have Luke, streaming-wise, Morgan, Zach, and Luke, in that order, of the three biggest streamers in country music. And on Spotify alone, the gap between them and the next biggest streamed artist in country music, which would probably be Bailey, Kane, or maybe me, weirdly enough, the gap between us three and them, us three and those three, is probably a billion streams this year. That's crazy. On Spotify alone. It's crazy. Does that make sense? Like, that's how far. Four, five, and six are a billion lower than one, two, three. It's crazy. It's crazy.

1:32:52It's like, imagine if I do end up being the fourth most streamed artist in country music. Somebody said, how far away from the third were you? I'd go 1.3 billion. You know what I'm saying? A light year. On Spotify alone. You know what I'm saying? It's like, we're never going to get there. You know what I'm saying? To some degree, these award shows have to be a little different because there'd be no sense of nobody else showing up. You know what I'm saying? It's like if we were really grading it on that, it's like just give them all to fucking Morgan and Taylor. You know what I'm saying? That's actually a great point.

1:33:23You have to make it a – yeah, that's a good point. The show itself has to make things kind of exciting. And there's other award shows. There's like the billboards that it's based on the stats. So there's no like rigmarole. Was there an after party or anything you guys get to go to? I had Busco. I had to go. That boy had an after party. We partied. Me and Lainey had our own party. Shout out Lainey Wilson. We love Lainey Wilson, by the way. Shout out Lainey Wilson, dude. And I don't know if anybody's worked harder. We saw her. I got to take my niece to her first concert, right? And it was Lainey.

1:33:51We took her to her and Lainey and Hardy in Baton Rouge. And it was cool, man, you know? She's great. And it was just so much fun. She got to meet her and it was just. But, man, she was. You could tell that she was getting burnt out. She'd worked hard. She slept in her bed last year 17 days. 17 days of all of 2022 is how many days she slept in her bed it's in like wow this is what i say i'm willing to do the stuff nobody else in this town's willing to do as far as like work like media go spend three weeks in new york or whatever like i go do that that's just what i do i'm into it she's willing to do the stuff i won't do like laney i've never seen nobody work genuinely harder than her.

1:34:34Her schedule gives me anxiety. You know what I mean? And my schedule would give the average human anxiety. And her schedule gives me anxiety. Like, she has, she is utterly fearless. Nope, dude. I think she stood on stage 160-something times this year. 170 times this year. That's just for 45 minutes being the smallest set, 90 being the biggest all year. It's insane. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's wild, man, because all the things, radio, all the streaming things. Oh, the Yellowstone obligations. She is. Make a gumbo, babysit your cat. She'll have everything on her schedule. Yeah, well, we talked about this the other day.

1:35:15I think she's obviously, and you two, are going to be able to say no a lot more than you were able to in the last year or two. And saying yes is like you've got to for a lot of those things. And obviously it's like paid off, and people are recognizing it, the work. and I would be remiss not to say that dude when I called thank you when I called Laney for Save Me I said Laney I'm gonna be honest man I'm I've said this a thousand times but I'm hitching my trailer to your train here I took this song as far as it can go this song was a double platinum song that's kind of true in an interesting way because that song I'd heard it I'd listen to it a bunch and it still had it's place in my heart in moments where I was by myself and I like to listen to it but it kind of that was you got to hear a different perspective a different voice a woman's perspective I was like and as hot as she is at country radio I was like this is all you even when we got to the last chorus when she did all the ad libs and extra stuff she was like you want to come in here and sing back and forth I was like not at all as far as I'm concerned this is now your song you know what I'm saying I was a double platinum record when I gave it to her I was like yo I've done all I can do with this song but I think this song could still help so many people if you would just be a part of it and she was like yeah I'm totally in And there's no way that this was a number one in 16 weeks by myself or 20 weeks or whatever it ended up being.

1:36:34That's cool. You know what I mean? So she definitely came in and put her sauce on it. Yeah, she really, I mean, we got to have her come in, and she's from Louisiana. She's from Bastrop, I think. Will you look that up, please, for me? Sounds right. Yeah, bumfuck. Baskin, yeah. She's from like Baskin Robbins, Louisiana. She's from like, yeah. She's from Dippin' Dot, Louisiana. Dippin' Dot, Louisiana. Baskin, sorry. Baskin. Baskin. Carol Baskin. Yeah, huh? Fucking bitch killed her husband. Remember that? Remember when for no reason, for no reason, America, somebody wrote online, yeah, Carol Baskin killed her husband and everybody for two years, like that bitch killed her husband.

1:37:16Joe Dirt still wants her dead from prison. And now she's doing... Or not Joe Dirt, Joe Exotic. Same difference, dude. Literally the same guy. Same guy Joe Exotic Joe Exotic That dude's always DMing me all the time man Joe Exotic's in your DM Whoever's in his Instagram account is fucking ridiculous I used to know the person that ran it Really? They're fucking ridiculous There's no way he's running it Was it a male? It was a female It was okay He felt this female energy issue Yeah He did too I didn't know Oh yeah He was a, he's probably the most gangster gay dude that ever lived. Gangster spelled G-A-Y-N-G-S-T-E-R.

1:38:01He's a gangster. Yeah, dude, that's fucking crazy. Oh, dudes would be real scared. If you're scared, somebody's going to shoot you and then make love to you and you're not into it. Yeah. That's going to really spook you. It gets interesting out. Yeah. Jesus Christ. What other cool things have you turned down this year besides Joe Exotic? Presenting at the CMAs. Yeah, and Joe Exotic. besides Joe Exotic.

1:38:26sorry to repeat your joke man i just i repeated it too i wanted to make sure it got hurt yeah um i don't know that was probably about the maybe one of the neatest things that came along kind of where they were like do you want to do this but i'd already we already had a sold out show and i just felt bad yeah and i'm glad i did the show the show was awesome you know there were some moments where i felt bad about it it would have been fun you know i know peyton manning was there you guys were there. All your friends. This town loves you, dude. I still want you to do the Opry, bro. Do it one of the nights I'm doing it.

1:38:58Let's do the Opry together. Let's all three do the Opry together. Oh, we got all three do the Opry one. We'll support you. I'll call Jordan about that right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I leave you. Well, you know they want you there. You can't make your mind up about that. Maybe if my, I think I would, my mom would probably like to go. So maybe if she's going to be out, I would have her maybe come in for that. We should do like the grand old Opry and do a night of it for real. I'm not, if y 'all are cool, I'll call Jordan about it right now. I could do some clean material of it, Eric. You just got to keep it pretty clean.

1:39:20Yeah, but I mean, it can... Students can't cuss. They don't mind if it's risky. Yeah, it can be risky. They mind about the cuss words because it's on the radio. Yeah. It's still the actual... I finally asked him, I was like, yo, what's the real story here about the cuss? And he was like, it's on the radio. Yeah. He's like the FCC. He's like, it's a live radio show still to his day. So what's the actual deal here? And I was like, well, that's... No, all those... There goes that. The people that are... The Opry fans would love a little risque. I mean, dude, think about it. Hee Haw. We were talking about this there.

1:39:50We saw Jamie Johnson back there. The Grand Ole Opry has a history of, you know, iffy comedy. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Hee Haw, man. Did you know? So I went to see the Arizona Diamondbacks play a game one time, and they had the manager, his dad, LaRuza, I think his name is. No way, Tony LaRuza. No, it's not him. Okay. It's a Diamondbacks manager. Tori Lovullo. His father produced Hee Haw. This dude comes up to me and goes, hey man, we're tossing out of Nashville. Is that the dude that gave you the Diamondback jersey? Yeah, he gave me a cool one that says Rat King on the back. But anyway, just kind of an interesting piece that his father, Sam Lovullo, there you go, was a producer for Hee Haw.

1:40:34That was a great show. They still had the Hee Haw stage there. I played the Opry last night. I did the Opry last night. Did you? Yeah. Me, Chris Jansen, Riley Green, and Nelly did Friendsgiving for the Big 98 here. Wow. Perfect. Yep. Dude, you work hard, bro. You do so much stuff, Jelly. Man, I'm just so blessed to be here, though, Theo, man. You, like. I feel you there, man. It's so different when I get to hang out with you in earnest because y 'all, like, remember when it wasn't like this for me, and it's like, this is all I wanted it to be, though. So, like, now that I'm in it, like, I just feel like I don't even want to disrespect God like that kind of.

1:41:11Like, I prayed for this for so many years and so many. Dude, I'm filming a special for a television show, CBS Sunday Mornings, what they call it. Big, big deal. And they took me back to my old jail yesterday. Oh, wow. The jail that I found out I had my daughter in. Like, the jail I was in when she was incarcerated. They took me back to my old cell. What was that like for you? One, I walked in there certain I wasn't going to be emotional because I walked in so happy and in such a good mood. And, dude, I walked in the unit still happy. We're chatting. and I'm telling them stories. We walk upstairs and as soon as I walked in that cell, I cried like a baby, dude.

1:41:46I mean, like I lost it completely because it was like every memory, I'm getting choked up now, it's like every memory from that jail cell, like every song I wrote, I spent like a year and a half in that cell, dog. Like the hearing I had a daughter, every song I wrote, everything I went through and you're just sitting there like, man, this is unreal, dude. Thank you, brother. It's just sad. It makes me sad. I mean, it doesn't make me sad, but it makes me, yeah, it's powerful to think of somebody being caged up and then being as free as you are now. No, it's unreal. And I walk out of there. I'm getting choked up too.

1:42:16And I'm like, I leave there and go back to my old halfway house at the Men of Valor. I go see them boys. And it's like such a humbling thing for me. And then I go do a show with Nelly and Riley Green, and I'm on fucking the biggest podcast on earth the next day. Like it's you and Rogan, dude. You know it. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, you know, I'm just like, man, this is just such a – I'm so like blessed, dog. And that's why I do all the give back stuff. Yeah, yeah. It's like, how could God bless me so much and me not want to bless somebody? You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, I know you have a toy drive that's going on right now that people can hit.

1:42:47Yeah, any Walmart in Middle Tennessee. Okay. They got a box right there that you could just drop off toys at the box. I'm going to put a couple hundred grand up myself. We're going to do over 100 ,000 toys. It'll be the biggest one in Nashville. I mean, just look who got behind us, dude. It's crazy. The Predators, Coca-Cola, Hasbro, the Nashville Fire Department. Walmart has been a partner in this. I mean, my dream is in the next five years for this to be a national thing that I do with Walmart. And we raise millions and millions of toys for underprivileged kids. Oh, I love that. So what's the deal?

1:43:16I go in there and buy toys and put them in a box? Yeah, yeah. Just drop them right in the box, man. Yeah, just drop them right in the box. And it's cool because it's convenient. We're all in and out of Walmart all season. You know what I mean? So it's like all you got to do is just buy an extra toy. Dude, going to Walmart, that used to be fun, dude. I'll tell you a story if you don't mind me getting. Yeah, you're right, huh? Sometimes there's nothing else to do on the road but go to Walmart. My daughter wanted to do this. And she started this five, six years ago at a local bar in White House, Tennessee with her aunt.

1:43:43Where they would just pick them up from the bar staff and people. And she'd go give away 20, 30 toys. She was doing this at nine years old. This was her thought. And I looked back at it. And when I got out of jail.

1:43:59Give me a second.

1:44:05I came home like December of 2009. I didn't have any money for toys, you know. In the halfway house, the Men of Valor did a toy drive for the guys that just came home. And I remember dropping off a truck of toys I couldn't afford for her Christmas. And I didn't even get to meet her at that time. I wasn't by court. I wasn't even allowed to see her. I just got home. Wow. So her heart to want to do this toy driving and then me to be able to be in a situation amplified is like, it's really cool. That is amazing. Fuck, I said I wasn't going to cry today. I was like, I'm not going to be fucking emotional today.

1:44:51I've had an emotional week, dude. I got nominated for a Grammy. I'm having a fucking weird couple weeks. Damn, dude, you're the only dude I know who's been nominated for a gram and a Grammy.

1:45:03I'm going to be honest. I love you, Theo. That's so good. That's so good. And they split one of them with you. Yeah, they split one of them with me. No, no. Yeah, that's incredible, bro. But it's crazy. So it's like to see this thing come to life is like, I think that's why I'm so passionate about giving back to juvenile. And I'm so passionate about going to jails and rehabs and singing for people and investing in rehab facilities and like a meeting with our mayor and our governor about the fentanyl epidemic and a plan. and you know what I mean? It's like, because these are the things that affected my life.

1:45:37You know what I mean? Like the shit that touches you the closest to home. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, we want to build a center. That's one of our goals next year is to try to find some land and build like a halfway house. Like, I don't know if it'd be a halfway house or a detox. Yeah. Probably a place where you could also have meetings at, you know? Where would you do it at? I don't know. Somewhere close enough. Like, somewhere here. Let me tell you this. And I'll say this on your show publicly. Whatever I can do. Like, whatever you want to do, like I don't care if we maybe we do like a string of fucking shows or something that I'll put together and just donate the money or what like I'm into that in a way you'll never understand thanks like if you like if nobody else like and this is what I say and off camera too I'll say it to you but like not even just on some like raise money shit like I'll cut a fucking check yeah same like I fucking I hate people that go step just raise money you know what I mean like if you're not that's why I tell everybody I'm don't worry I'm putting money into this toy drive I'm going to write a big check because I'm not just going to be a face of one.

1:46:34My face can help bring more attention to us. That's the only reason I even talk about this stuff. We did philanthropy for years. I never spoke about it. But I realized that our platform is so big that we can help bring attention and money to the cause. But it's still important to me. My daddy raised me, man, shut the fuck up and cut a check. You know what I mean? That's just something I learned from a kid, you know? Yeah, no, I appreciate that, man. And we're going to do the same thing. We want to make, yeah, we just want to do something, a place I can go to meetings, you know, where other guys can go.

1:46:58So that'd be neat where people, maybe we could do a songwriter night where songwriters come by and play some songs with the guys. But yeah, it's a big goal of mine, man. It's just so important. I have just so many friends of mine and myself, so many people in my own family, just so many people struggling. That's why I think I can feel when you talk about that kind of stuff. I know what it's like to not be caged up by walls, but to be caged up by even just somebody's own, their own life. Caged up by their own feelings. you know man when you're just locked inside of yourself you know can't get outside of your own head that's the worst prison i've been to a lot of jails and the worst one on earth is between the ears man yeah you know um let's let's check a news thing or two and then we'll get you guys out of here we've that's the funny thing about because you just never know where it's gonna get you don't really know what's gonna happen you know i love that's why i love them yeah because it is just like yeah we have microphones on but this is just conversation we'd be having at coffee.

1:47:56We might not even get this deep over coffee. That's what I like about it. The movie wouldn't have enough time, we'd be rushing to our next thing. Right. That's what I think is the beauty of being friends now with homies, like having homies like Theo and you that like we have crazy years where Theo's rocketed into arenas. I did my first arena tour. You came off a stadium tour into your first big theater tour, two nights at the Ryman. You know what I mean? Like all these things, you're still writing. It's like we don't get to talk the way we want to. So we get to sit down for homies for two hours with a microphone in front of us, and it's almost like catching up.

1:48:26Yeah, it's really cool. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it really is. It's interesting. It's really cool. It's deeper than just what's going on in your life. It's like the shit we'd do on the phone if we had time to. Yep. You know what I mean? Yeah, I realized that one time I left out of Joe Rogan's podcast, and he's a super busy guy, you know, and he just is. It's just his life. He's built a busy life, and he has a busy life. He's not too busy for you. He just has a busy life, and he has a lot of friends. And I was like, man, I wish I'd have spent more of that time when I was talking with him.

1:48:54Like, cause sometimes you think, oh, I'm on a podcast, but then sometimes you're just like catching up with a buddy, you know? Right. I was like, I need to make sure that I spend that time like catching up with a buddy because sometimes your life is busy and that's all the time you get, especially as you also get older. You have, both of you guys have children. It's like, yeah, there's shit going on, you know? It's like, so yeah, the time you get with people, this is important, you know? And even though it is on a podcast, it's like, it's still, that's the time. Oh, for sure. That you have. I had Cam Haynes flew down here to the show last night.

1:49:21Oh, did he really? Yeah, Cam Haynes. We were talking about you last night. Cam Haynes, not the... Cameron Haynes. Keep Hammering. Keep Hammering. Oh, Cameron Haynes. Yeah. Yeah. I love that he was like, the underwear guy? Fucking rock. No, Cameron Haynes, Keep Hammering. Yeah, yeah, Keep Hammering. Oh, that's right. He said you guys were going to see each other. Yeah, for sure. He came out here and we spent all night together last night. At least I'm not surprised when I'm an idiot anymore. He's like, the underwear guy? I used to feel bad when I was a kid. And I got confused because I was like, maybe Cam has an underwear deal I didn't know about.

1:49:55He's on fire. He wrote a book. I was like, fuck, maybe he did do an underwear deal. If he could write a book, he could make some fucking deal. I reckon he could have a goddamn pair of underwears. He could make some drawers. Listen, I don't think there's anything on earth Cam Haynes can't do. Here's a guy that would be working on one of your – this could be working on one of your deals. Tennessee man arrested for DUI meth while driving a lawnmower Santa's train full of kids. Whoa. So was the DUI for meth or did he get caught with meth and a DUI? I mean, see, this is what's wrong with the U.S. Listen, if he was drunk and had meth on him, I kind of understand.

1:50:32Yeah, that's fair. That's a balance of an equation. But if he was just on meth, I feel like he'd have been pretty dialed at driving, dude. Yeah, for sure. It's like, I'd be low that. Definitely not falling asleep behind the wheel. We've done two different kind of meths. That's for sure. Yeah, I think, first of all, this is what's wrong with the U.S. postal system. I want to say that. This is it. That this is how they're delivering mail now. He was acting erratically. What did it say? Henry Mead was driving Santa's train, a motorized lawnmower, pulling carts of children. Which, first of all, seems like a bad idea.

1:51:04Oh, they found meth. Narcotics and a serene. I wonder what the narcotics are. I hope they took them. Pills? Probably pills. I hope they took them. I hope they took the blade off that thing. That's all I'm hoping. Officials noted that Meade was not a town employee. That's what the mayor wanted to make that. It's definitely clear. Tazewell Police Department responded swiftly to the incident, ensuring the safety of the attendees in the event. 14 police officers. Jesus. It was a parade, I guess. It was a parade. He went to a parade. With a bunch of kids. He was driving the kids. Heated out on crystals.

1:51:40Hey, that's one way to do it, dude. Oh, my goodness. What else we got? Anything else popping? That's so Tennessee. Florida couple charges a felony after public sex. It was always a dream of mine. That shouldn't be a crime. Look, why does she look so sad if you just fulfilled a dream? I know. Me and Bunny would look the polar opposite right now. We'd be on that motherfucker. Jesus. Jesus. Me and Bunny would be fine. You guys do seem like a public sex type of group. I will say that. It's giving public sex. Listen, Bunny is a wild woman, y 'all. Man. What do you get money for Christmas? Do you know, Jelly?

1:52:14Do you know what you'll get for Christmas, you think? I got something cooking for her, man. So we quit doing the gifts a couple years ago because we realized that it was just getting stupid. Like, as far as, like, you know. Yeah, what are you getting? Yeah, what are we going to do? You know, like, whatever. So, like, now we do trips. Like, we'll, like, put our money together and be like, all right, this is what we would have bought each other. Let's go to, so we're going to go somewhere and just spend some time together, man. Like she is still my favorite human to be around. Like we've been married almost eight years.

1:52:44I'm sure you feel like that about Delaney. But it's like when I have a free moment to hang out with somebody, that's the first person I think of. I'm like, I wonder what my wife's doing. You know what I'm saying? Like she's like, there's nobody in life I want to be alone with more. The homie. The homie. You know what I'm saying? Like I just want to spend like every minute I can. Like she's like my favorite Hank. She's funny. She's goofy. She's a fucking wild bitch. You know what I'm saying? She's fucking wild. She's like, she's the perfect woman, man. She's like for me. So for like short, we'll probably take a trip somewhere.

1:53:17I am going to get her a little something just because I got, it's like a real personal thing. But she's a, we're going to probably just go out and do something like just me and her. What about you and Delaney, brother? We're going our first, we're going to Mexico. Whoa, damn, brother. We're going to Mexico. I've never been to Mexico other than off the FGL cruise. Delaney, as far as gifts go, it's like she wants, I think, new forks and knives and a dope espresso machine. We call that the house gift because we'll do that too. We'll be like, all right, what do we need? We bought a fridge last year.

1:53:50That's how old and married we are. It's like, we need a new fridge. Yeah, that's what your appliances is. I'm getting her countertops and I think we're getting 20, 15 foot tall trees in the backyard. Yeah, for sure. There, Merry Christmas. See you. It's Christmas trees. Buddy doesn't want roses. She wants a rose bush. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It's different, you know? Yeah. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? I'm going to go. What am I doing? I'm going down to see. Dustin Poirier does a fundraiser thing every year. They hand out hams. On Thanksgiving? Down there in Louisiana called the Good Fight Foundation.

1:54:20Yeah. And so I'm going to go down there and do that. And then we've got a show the day after Thanksgiving at the Lake UNO, where I saw my first concert at UNO Lakefront. Really? God, that's awesome. Are you excited about that one? Yeah, I am excited. I know that other people, I know that a lot of my friends are excited. So I think I'm almost more excited for them, I think, in a weird way. Like, just because I know they're excited. Is it nerve-wracking having a bunch of people you know in the audience? I think my fear is that they're going to, like, yell out and stuff the whole time, which for music is fine.

1:54:50But, like, with comedy, you want people kind of just being more silent and stuff. You think they just aren't going to know how to act? Is that kind of where you're at? Well, we had a show. I shot my first, like, I shot a comedy special in Louisiana one time, and people had never been to a comedy show before. They don't even have a comedy club like in New Orleans. So people didn't know what to do. People were like, there were people in the crowd. I remember this one lady just yelling defense the whole time. Like she was at a football game. Yeah, like a bunch of LSU fans. Yeah, like people had. That's like one of those shows.

1:55:19That's the most rattling. That's got to be great. How do you crowd work with that? Unreal. And I think she even had one of those fence cutouts. No way. Man, do you know where you are right now? I thought my career was over after I shot that. I was like, this is... They had one of the dudes with that helmet with the two beer cans. I was like, what the fuck are we doing, dude? Fuck the Packers! What? So that was kind of wild. What about thankful, man? What are some things maybe you guys are thankful for? Sometimes I make gratitude lists in the morning, you know? So I'm trying to think of something that I'm thankful for.

1:55:57You know, I'm thankful that I don't give up on myself. You know, I think if that's something that I had to be thankful for. You know, I'm thankful that I don't give up on myself when, or I give up on myself less than I used to. Right. Yep. You know? That's a good one. Each day, I'm more thankful for my son Ryman and Delaney being the badass she is. Like, as much as I'm gone.

1:56:52and not able to be there. And trains are damn dangerous. The damn track is always. Train track, yeah. Well, shit, I'm a boy. I'm out playing chicken with a train, and he's playing train with mama.

1:57:04And a guy just got arrested for driving a kid's train smoking meth. It's a lot different than when we got a train work. I was wondering why he didn't call me back yesterday, too.

1:57:17His phone died. I'm thankful for my relationship with God of my higher power. It's really anchored me this year to be present. Because like having such a successful year, it's really like I've never been more present than where I am. You know what I mean? Like even in this conversation, like I'm more relaxed and laid back now and just more like just being more present. Like I thought I lost my phone yesterday and I realized I think I lose my phone every day now because I'll just set it down and wherever I'm at in that moment is just where I am. And then I'll go look for the phone at the end of the day.

1:57:51You know what I mean? is kind of where I've been at in my life, and I'm just really thankful for that. I'm thankful for my family, my wife, of course, my children, but I'm thankful for my presence because I've been present around them but not present. Man, I want to get to that point, bro. I'm so bad about being present. I live in the future and in the past in my head so much, and Delaney is so good about being in the present. It's like I notice how bad I am at it when I'm with somebody that's so good at it. Yeah, that's why I thank my higher power. That's why I thank God because, like, I truly, like, that's my anchor.

1:58:27That's my meditation. It's, like, my prayer and my ability to just be, like, today I'm just going to, like, I just want to be wherever I'm at today. I just want to be there. You know what I mean? Like, that's all that really matters is, like, right then. And I'm just thankful that I haven't achieved it completely yet, but I'm getting fucking so close, and it's awesome, dude. It's a really cool feeling. How do you keep that going? How do you kind of nurture that relationship with God kind of for you? Just more praying and just more trying to clear my mind, just more meditation and grounding myself.

1:58:56When you pray, kind of what's it like? Well, you know, I pray an old traditional Southern Baptist prayer. It's just my praying ways. Of course, you know, I'll always say the serenity prayer every day just because that's like just so anchoring too. But, you know, I'm an old school guy and it's just like, God, I just want to thank you. And I just want to ask you for the ability to just care and love. And I just want to be, I want you to help me be conscious today of the way I am in this room. You know what I mean? And I want to be prepared. And I want to be like, man, I heard the coolest thing the other day, Theo, that said, if we're searching, if we think our purpose in life is to be happy, how much more narcissistic can we be?

1:59:36Our purpose in life is to be useful. And so now it's just more like, man, I'm a tool, dude. Yeah, make me of service. You know what I mean? Like, what can I be a man? You know where I'm getting this from. You know what I mean? We'll talk. But it's like, how can I be of service? Like, what can I do to actually be useful to somebody today? You know what I mean? Like, and in every little scenario, like, can I do something cool here? Can I, like, I believe firmly that that spirit, the day of the CMAs, not to get weird and hokey, but I walked out of my front yard and my boxer's in a T-shirt, no shoes, no socks, boxers now, neighbors driving by waving, and I put my bare feet in my front yard grass.

2:00:12And I just looked up at that sun and I just said a little prayer and I just thought like, you know what, God? I won being here. Like, I don't care if I win an award. Just like, help me to open the show. Let me do it right. Let it be a moment. You know what I mean? Just like, and let me enjoy tonight. Like, regardless. Man, I set my phone down at the house. When I walked out, I didn't have my phone with me. I didn't check my phone until the next night. You know what I mean? Like, I was present in every situation. And because of that, I think when I got on that stage and it seemed 58, 57, something inside of me was like, You thank God, you thank your wife, you thank your label, and you say something that fucking matters is what was going through my mind.

2:00:50You know what I mean? Because that was that presence of like I was just so grounded in the present of that moment. I knew in that moment I wanted to thank Parker McCollum. I knew I wanted to tell Zach Bryan I thought he was the GOAT, and I knew I wanted to tell my wife I loved her, and I knew that I wanted to say something that would at least make a motherfucker go, man, he blessed me with that. You know what I mean? And I didn't think it would do what it did. I was up out of my seat. I saw a silhouette of me just like, as you elevated, I was like, fuck you. Fuck you. I had tears in my eyes, bro.

2:01:22I mean, the faces on the audience, all around me, some were like, oh, my God. Some were in tears. I was literally, you would have thought Derrick Henry just took off for a 98-yard touchdown run. I was losing my mind. And you were a vessel. That's, you know, being a tool or whatever, being a vessel. I think when you are that present and that in tune. Nobody's more of a vessel, I think, than you, Jelly. Yeah, truly, truly. I think you really do. I think you inspire so many of us, man. Yeah. Yeah, you just have a gift. I don't even know if it's a gift, but it's not a gift that you have, but it's just a gift that you are.

2:02:01Right. You feel like a gift, I think, to so many people. You know what I love about you? The same dude that could say something that eloquently, just thought Cameron Haynes was the underwear guy. You know what I'm saying? That's what makes Theo proud. Well, we're retarded, man. A little bit. I've got a little bit of it. We've all got a little bit of it. I'm thankful. I'm thankful for both of y 'all. Thank you for letting me come on this with you guys. I'm thankful for both of y 'all. It's been great getting to know you over the last couple of years. Thanks for always being somebody that can make me laugh, dude.

2:02:35You call me, too. You check in on me every now and then. Why? Because you make me laugh. I was like, fuck, I don't feel good. I need to call somebody and make me laugh. That's awesome. You were so damn good at it. I had no choice. Perfect. That was the truth. That's awesome. I was like, you did not. You were so good at it. I didn't have a choice, but like, God damn. Have I let you down? No, yeah. I don't know. Once or twice. Once or twice. And thankful for your art, Theo. Yeah. Like, outside of our friendship, like, I'm thankful for your art, dude. Like, I watch the pod. Like, I'm a fan. Like, I have been.

2:03:00That's what drew me to you. One thing I've learned in life is never be too cool to be a fan You know what I mean Never be too cool to be a fan I'm a fan, I can tell you as a brother I think you're fucking brilliant And my cousins Addison Prope, my Prope family side They love you The girl and her daughter I saw them at breakfast yesterday You did just see them the other day I've just seen Ernest and Ryman and Delaney I was like that's crazy They told me they loved you I said I'm going to see Ernest tomorrow He's like, that's what he said. I was like, yeah. And they were like, we can't believe you're going with Theo.

2:03:34And like, you know, my wife, I mean, we all just find a lot of, you bring a lot of smiles to people, man. And it's like, man, in a world where smiles are so rare, where there's no compassion in America right now, there's no middle ground, nobody finds any calm, and there's so much tension in so many ways. You have found a unique way to constantly break that and make people smile and feel really good. And, man, that is your gift, brother. You need to know that too You ain't heard it recently I'm sure you hear it every day But I want you to hear it from me brother You're special man Thanks dude I appreciate it Yeah sometimes I have a tough time Feeling proud of myself You know And that's okay Some of that's okay Because you don't want your ego To get crazy you know But sometimes I do have a tough time Feeling proud of myself But Well we're proud for you Thank you For what it's worth I appreciate that Anyone you lack in it We're proud for you Amen We were like hype Thanks I got to get you and a wife together It's like a must Yeah I know I know I've been thinking about People always asking me if Bunny's going to come on or if I'm going to go on Bunny's.

2:04:32People ask me a lot. We'll make it happen this year. She had a clip go viral and the meme was the female Theo Vaughn because she said, it was so funny, she said, that's garbage. She said, you know what that is? French for trash. It was like such a thing. But yeah, y 'all would be cool. I got to get y 'all together. I'd love for y 'all to do the pods together, but I think it would be fun, man. And we'll have to do, I'll make sure that I do it with her in the new year. Yeah. That we'll do one. Y 'all will be a lot of fun. And yeah, I think, you know, even us just sharing about some of our thoughts and stuff about each other.

2:05:07I think it's just like, and how music is changing. I think it's like, there is some evolution in the way that men communicate and feel and like, you know, and need, you know, need to be supportive of each other. You know, I think, I don't know why we're in that space as a society where it's like, I don't know if it's like that. We used to be all like around the fire in the woods and we were like right there for each other and like in tribes and small groups. And then now it's there's but we're there's an element sometimes that's missing, you know. And so, yeah, man, today was awesome, man, just to be able to sit and kind of, you know, share and and reflect on the year.

2:05:42And and yeah, and say something nice about each other. You know, it's important because people because people need to hear that stuff, you know, because sometimes there's something wrong with us that we can't say it to ourselves. Right. You know, it just. won't the cyst of the the the cul-de-sac is fucking broken or something right you know for sure so um congratulations man on great years dude and just on creating cool stuff and uh to everybody man yeah praise god man big ups merry christmas dude merry christmas happy holidays happy holidays yeah happy holidays y 'all get y 'all levels tested Yeah, yeah.