Jelly Roll

28:59And if I do an incredible show, everybody in the audience will feel like I brought it to them and I brought them to me. And if I have the best show of my life, they won't see me at all. They'll just see us. It's just a bird's eye of the whole thing. Because everybody's the same. We're all in here together. It's one pain. It's one heart. It's one band, one sound. That's what I'm going for up here. It takes a lot of like intense connection. Yes. The music's that way in there even when i'm training and there's not a soul in here and i'm lost in that i'm so lost in that i am and it's over so fast it is you want it to start again so quick you're so sad it's over i did a 10 minute segment on uh smackdown the other night 11 minute segment and it was the fastest 11 minutes it was a roller coaster fast and it's like a roller coaster as soon as you get off you're like can we do one more just real quick just one more just we could just don't i don't Just leave me strapped in and let me go do it one more time.

29:59Wait till after you work in the ring. I can't. I'm scared. It's going to be great. I'm scared. I'm worried I'm going to have the Bad Bunny thing happen where I'm sure he was like, I'm just going to take one match at WrestleMania to scratch my itch. And then he went on to have like five matches. You know what I'm saying? He was amazing. Are you ready to hold WWE history in the palm of your hand? Tops is bringing you closer to the action than ever before with WWE Tops Now. highlighting the biggest matches and milestones from WWE shows and PLEs throughout the year. Topps Now is enhancing the fan experience by connecting collectors to the superstars and spectacles that ignite their passion.

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31:28So being that this is a podcast in partnership with WWE and Fanatics, I know that you are a huge fan of the Tennessee Titans. So what piece of merchandise historically, currently, or who's your favorite Titans player of all time? Who would you want their autograph? Like what, what piece of, of memorabilia would you love to have? Oh, there's so many. Good question. Lifelong Titan fan. I would say I'm torn between they, so we did the red jerseys every now and then, but not very often. So anytime the Titans do the red jerseys, I'm like elated that we're doing the red jerseys. And why? Just because it's different.

32:09You know, it's like when you like a team for so long, the light blue jerseys, the white jerseys, the dark blue jerseys, that's all. And you got and you get a different, like it's red, you're like, oh, thank you. It's a different kind of a flavor. If I could own a piece of memorabilia or like find it like as a fan, when Kevin Dyson, and he might have it, he still lives in Nashville, caught the Music City Miracle that sent us to the Super Bowl, if I could get that football, if I could, man, imagine if somebody has that football with Steve McNair and Kevin Dyson's signature on it, God rest Steve McNair's soul, Like that is like as a Titan fan, I can't think of another.

32:47Because between us, I'm such a fan. Everything else I kind of want. I got all my Derrick Henry stuff, Chris Johnson stuff, Eddie George stuff. Jeffrey Simmons is my boy. You know what's cool? Somebody I own right now I'm excited about. Jeff Simmons gave me his All-Pro jersey and signed it to me to hang up at the bar. I have a bar downtown Nashville. Yes, I heard about that bar. And that was like a really big deal for me for Jeff Simmons to give me that. I was like a kid. Now, is that in the front part of the bar or in Buddy's in the back? I think, ooh, I love you, Steph. I love you so much. It'll be in the front part of the bar.

33:17He said he wanted everybody to see it. I wanted to be selfish with it, but he requested. He said, this is the All-Pro jersey. You got to put this on Main Street. I said, I got you. I'll put that on Broadway. Jeff Simmons is, you know, Jeff Simmons makes Drew McIntyre look small. So when he asks for something, you're like, yes, sir, yes, sir, Jeff. Yeah, that's it, though. Probably something like that. Big Titan guy. Anything Titan, though. You can always get big slag. But you know what I really want, Steph? A winning season. Okay. I'll take a winning season. A winning season.

33:47From your lips to God's ears, right? Hallelujah. Here we go. I have yet to meet a truly successful person. Me personally, I'm in the entertainment business though, right? So obviously I don't meet a lot of CEOs that are normal people. You know what I'm saying? Even the ones I meet with y 'all aren't fucking normal people. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, you know what I mean? And what is normal anyway? So it's, you know, I don't meet, I don't have tech CEO friends. So, but all my friends are passing people. Yeah. It's not, this isn't what I do. This is who I am. Music's not what I do. It's who I am.

34:23I am music. I live music. I love music. It's all I want. I was coach bloom. Sweetest dude ever had a talk to me one day. He said, I just want to talk about business for two seconds. And I was like, yeah, whatever coach. And I was kind of really in. He's got my undivided attention in life right now. obviously nobody else. I'm like, yes, sir. What's up? And he's like, just one piece of business. I'm like, yes, sir. And he goes and he asked me a music question. And I was like, that's not business. He's like, I just don't want to be the guy that talks to you about music. And I was like, there's nothing else I want to talk about.

34:56And I was like, and I appreciate that's how you feel because that means a lot to me that you care. But like the day that somebody comes up to me and wants to talk about music and I'm annoyed by it, I should quit doing music. Yeah. like the day I don't go walk on stage I did a show in my not North Dakota Saturday coolest thing happened first one of these in my life Sunday I had a Logan Paul suck sign in my crowd it was awesome it was so cool I stopped the show for it I was like I'd like to bring attention that's so great but it's like I'm in my not North Dakota it's my second time playing this fair um it was one of my favorite shows a couple years ago which why I wanted to do it again and hour before the show i'm getting my normal nerves 15 20 minutes before the show i mean you would think i pissed in my palms you know what i'm saying you would think i'm trying to hold a cup of water i mean i'm just you know and it's i have guys friends of mine who would say it's just a sunday fair in north dakota dude like that's a phone-in show and i'm like dog these are 19 000 souls with a story.

35:59What's your story? This is 19 ,000. What's your stories? Yeah. And they have a story why they're here. It's not just a story in life. Their life stories brought them here. I know that because I know what kind of music I make. I don't phone in shows. I'm petrified. I'm going to go out here and not, not only serve these people what they deserve, but make sure they get the dose of God that I told him I would give them. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? I got an agreement with my relationship with this guy too, where I'm like, I got you. I fuck up a lot and cuss a lot, but I make sure to spread the bread and let people know how I feel, you know.

36:31And it's a big deal to me. And that is passion. Because it's about the people. I'm sorry. You talk about passion. I went on a 12-minute fucking monologue. But that obviously, I mean, showing, not telling, right? Like that you could feel your passion, right? I love this shit. Yeah. And that's how I feel, too. And what I want wrestling fans to know is that I am a wrestling fan. I think they get that. They are now. I had the coolest moment with my management where I was like, look, y 'all need to know something about this. First of all, inside baseball, you can imagine not a soul on my team was for this idea.

37:03You know what I'm saying? Like inside baseball, probably a complete shoot. There wasn't one person that works with me that was like, it's the best idea you've ever had. You know what I mean? They were all like, let me get this right. We gave you a month off finally because you begged for it to the point of threatening people. and then you want to use it to go put yourself in danger

37:27right before you go on a european tour they're like you know you're our bread and butter right they were like dude you've got quite a year ahead of you like maybe you should just spend that month resting the body instead of beating it to absolute shit but i was like look man i love this and then they sat down and they were like and then they did some research they're like what do you see any upside in this? I was like, y 'all are missing this. Like, y 'all don't, this is how I know we got a disconnect here. You know what I mean? Like, first of all, I need to warn everybody then, since I see the disconnect.

37:57When this announces, there's going to be a small group of wrestling purists that are going to attack me. And they're going to seem a lot bigger than they actually are, because they're going to be super loud. They're very loud. They're very loud. But, they're passionate. So passionate. Which I can respect. And the real passionate ones, not the troll ones, that you can never satisfy. We'll dig into this storyline, and less than one week into this storyline and I know what's coming up the next two weeks but less than one week into this storyline we'll turn them because they'll see that I care yeah they're just so used to celebrities coming in here and not caring well they'll not only will they see it but they'll feel it and that's the intangible you know and I think that when we talk about people finding themselves or whatever it is to me it is that vulnerability it's letting them in and that's the difference when you can figure that out, how to actually let them in and allow yourself to be vulnerable.

38:53And you're connecting with them because you're letting them in and they're feeling it and they can feel you're a fan. You're one of them. One of us. That's it. That's my favorite chant at shows. My shows, it's a quote we have on our tour bus, is like when we call you one of us, there is no greater terminology than we can like inside baseball with my boys. You see my boys smiling over their ear to ear. yeah because that's how we'll talk to each other i'll be like yo one of us yeah just instantly it's like they get it you know what i mean it's like even hearing your stories and knowing your story and being a fan of the pod is like i always joke with people that don't take this wrong but they mistake i'm super white trash and uh they mistake like money and white trash for being two different things and you're a great example of a person who's grew up with some money but it's white trash as fuck you know what i'm saying it's like i'm sorry that's actually the hell well my dad did I grew up in a trailer park as well.

39:47But it's like, dude, you've been in the wrestling business your whole life. My whole life. I didn't expect you to be fucking, you know what I'm saying, fucking Sally Sue. You know what I mean? It's like I knew what I was getting. You know what I mean? And that's awesome to me. It's like you're one of us. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like of my kind, like we look at you as one of us, which is crazy. If we had to just only stereotype you by where you grew up, you wouldn't believe it. But then we get to talk to you like you're one of us. You know what I mean? You're truly one of us. Nobody's better than anybody else.

40:15I think that that's 100 % Nobody's Nobody, I don't care who you are It does not matter No one is better than any other person Listen dude, we're all eating shit sandwiches Looking for some peanut butter That's the truth Well I was told you have to learn to eat shit and like the taste So There wasn't a lot of peanut butter

40:43This is great

40:49so well actually at least i'm gonna let you ask questions i keep going that's fine um i was going to ask before when we were talking about the fans and passion um i recently saw a video of a fan she was holding a sign we couldn't quite figure out if it was her mother or her grandmother that she had lost um and and you just you you shared it all like this this passion i can feel it every song that you sing, like we, again, on the plane, we just, you're always someone we're listening to. Like you feel the message. And if you've been through shit, you, you get it. You know, what is it like to stand up there and just connect with, with someone who you see, like what you're singing about means something to them?

41:35How do you, you know, how do you put that feeling into words? it's have you ever had a cry that was like unexpected or maybe you knew might you were watching something like this could trigger this you know what i mean but it happens and then it's like the most cathartic cry ever that's every night that's i talk i get teary-eyed talking about crying yeah because like i think i y 'all this is why i'm so glad i'm getting to like talk about wrestling with what I do to parallel the two. I think about the signs, right? You seeing that sign is like, this is every night. Like when you go to a WWE event, there are signs everywhere and they're waiting for the moment to put up a sign.

42:16Like when we have the sign moment at our show and they finally pop up, imagine being in a WWE event, but imagine every sign being something like, I beat stage four cancer. I'm not okay, but I'm all right. 217 days sober. it's like damn hard to talk about not cry yeah i mean and i joke because i'm always fucking crying on tv about this shit but it's hard to see it every night and not feel it you know what i mean it's hard you don't i'm not numb to it it doesn't that little girl affected me that way you know what i mean like i felt like a criminal for not acknowledging her pain. You know what I mean?

43:02Like, and I struggle now because you can't acknowledge all the signs. You know what I mean? But it's like crazy signs of like, you know, people still battling cancer, you know, coming through addiction or RIP signs of, when I spoke at Congress about fentanyl one time and I've always wrote songs about addiction because I've just struggled with it. I have it in my family. Child's mother has it. It's just, I'm from a long line of that kind of stuff. But it's like, it still don't hit no different when a little girl's holding a sign that goes, you know, my father overdosed with the date. You know what I mean?

43:32His favorite song was Save Me, where you dedicate it to him, and it's a 12-year-old girl. You know what I mean? It's like you can joke about me crying all the time, but you don't have to feel that. I don't see it. I feel it. Yeah, because that's what it's all about. That's what it's about. And that's why you do what you do. Yeah. It's to give them those moments. For sure. And to let them know they're not alone, right? they're seen and heard in a very special and a very unique way through your music and through the message that you're sending it's really what a sweet look my friend had shared this and the caption was protect jelly roll at all costs because I'm telling you man it's every night Every night, every show Every city It is tens of thousands of people With stories similar Yeah What a gift What a gift It's all God man That's amazing God dude I promised my wife I was going to quit crying on the internet Then they bring up a viral clip Of a little girl and me crying together Sorry That was your fault Why did you give her a question?

44:50Right? You were so much cooler when you were just ad-libbing. No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I had to laugh my way out of that one. I had to laugh my way out of that one. That's all right. You didn't see me almost take a bump out of my chair. That's called a humor. That's called a humor. I call that humor masking in therapy. Oh. Yeah, I had to learn that term because imagine my first 20 therapy sessions, I thought I was a comedian. So just trying to get out of every question like, ha, ha. But I feel it, man. It's passion. It's real. It's honesty. and I also think about vulnerability. We talked about this off camera.

45:23I think it's been my superpower. And I think about the vulnerability it takes to come to this show and make that sign. Right. You know what I mean? Like I think about the vulnerability it takes to come to the show. I tell you what, it takes more vulnerability to come to the show and not make the sign. And just be there. The fight to get there. Yeah. Like I know the fight it is for me to get out of bed some days. You know what I mean? Like the fight to get there with some of the shit. You know what I mean? Like, dude, I mean, it's just crazy. I think about all that when I'm on stage, you know? And which is why I love this, because when I'm doing this, I'm just thinking about tucking my fucking chin or making sure I don't hurt nobody.

45:59You know what I mean? You're just kind of lost in the performance. But when I'm doing what I do, it is it's all about finding finding that story. Would you say it's like a healing? It's healing. It's a hundred. That's why I said it's like the cathartic cry. Yeah. It's not like the funeral day of a friend cry. Right. Where you cry all day and just get a headache. Right. This is like you cry and you leave and you're like, it's all right. Like, dude, I feel better. I think people leave my shows. Feeling better. Feeling better. Like feeling lighter. Like feeling more free. Feeling more like, oh, man, this is a safe place.

46:31Like I had a girl hold a sign up the other day. I'm talking about one that made me get emotional. I just said, thanks for being my safe place. Oh. It's like a teenage girl. You know what I mean? It's like, that's crazy. But I remember my radio being my safe place. Yeah. And that's why it hits so different. because when you look at it, you're like, man, I remember when the radio was my safe place. I remember when I would go, like, I show my age, but we had the cassette tapes and we would go record the radio, the top 10 radio on the cassette. You know what I mean? And then we would play back the songs we liked or make our own little cassette tapes of it, you know?

47:02Oh, yeah, mixtapes, yeah. And I didn't know this at the time, but I'm going to teach all of us old people something. We would do this thing where we would stay up at night because you'd hear the new songs at night. Right. So you could get ahead of everybody. So if you'd stay up late, you'd catch a new song. And by the time it got hot on the radio, you was already been hit. I now, that I've been blessed that country radio has been so good to me, know that is called being put in overnights. When you first get put on the radio, the first chance they give you is an overnight rotation. I didn't know that at the time, but I just knew that if you stayed up late, you'd hear some different shit.

47:30You know what I'm saying? So I was like that kind of a nerd about it. Oh, Jesus. I'm so sorry. Time to feed the dogs. No, it's Gus's liver pill. Yeah. Oh, is that a dog? My boy, he's only a year old, and he was just in the hospital for two nights. He had gotten a bad staph infection. He was put on sulfur drugs, and he was one of the rare dogs that had a reaction, and his liver almost failed. And he's good now, we believe. God, I was like, this podcast keeps getting sadder. No, he's okay. Okay, good. But, yeah, he's the cutest. Do we need to text somebody or remind them to give them his liver? No, I'm on it, but these are my two dogs.

48:12This is Attila and Gus. Gus is the one to the right? He is the one on the bottom. Yep. That was my guess. Yeah. Gus looks like a Gus. He is a Gus. I like Gus. He's 180 pounds. I got a one-year-old. I got a basset hound called Bussey. He's called the Bus Dog. Oh, I love it. When my wife got him, he grew up on the bus with me on the tour bus. So we call him Bussey the Bus Dog. I love it. He's the dude, man. He is, right? Floppy-eared, long. He's the coolest thing in the world. On all the sofas and everything. Oh, dude. Yeah. We're not, you know how that is. where it's white trash. You can imagine.

48:45Sleeps in the bed with us. Just bad. Bad parenting. Well, our dogs are too big to be in the bed. Bussy damn near is, dude. Look at that big dog. Yeah, that's Gus. Dude, look at him. Yeah, that was my father's day post. He's sitting on it. It's mine. He sits on all of us. He loves to cuddle. I love when you got 200-pound lap dogs. Yeah, he does. He really loves to cuddle. He has no clue he's that big. He has absolutely no clue. No, he doesn't. And he's like a total beta. Oh, I love that. He's scared all the time. And he hides behind Attila. You know, like, she's definitely the alpha. A little more gangster.

49:19Yeah, yeah. And then he comes right behind me. He's starting to learn. He's starting to learn. You got dogs? I do. I have two golden doodles. Oh, the doodles. The doodles. Nala and Winnie. They're getting up there. Eight and nine. I feel like all of a sudden. You got a long way to go with them. I feel like they're getting up. Yeah. No, they're the best. My girls before the kids. Keep loving on them, baby. Oh, yeah. They're in our bed, too. Yep, no. Yeah, ours is not on our bed. Not on our bed. My bus dog slept on. Yours cannot be. Yeah, yeah. I'm telling you, no, really, they kick us out of the bed.

49:52Oh, no, for sure they kick over. Yeah, they're huge. Bus dog's big. He's not that big, though. He's like 65 pounds. Well, and, you know, Gus's arms and legs are very, very long. Yeah. You know, he's just. I just seen him sitting on. It's a big dog. He's a big dog. He's a big dog. I saw that one, too. They're like, he's the champ. Yeah. Count to three. The only time Triple H did a job before his dog. That's what I saw. Gus, Gus. That's great. Undefeated. God, that's awesome. So what was your first exposure to wrestling? And what stories do you remember? Who resonated with you the most? Well, of course, I guess I was probably like right before, late seven, eight, nine years old, that era.

50:35I would say that was Ultimate Warrior Hogan days, kind of right around the peak of that. Um, but before that, I remember all the older storylines too, though, you know, Junkyard Dog, Brutus the Barber, Beefcake, like these guys would come to the fairgrounds all the time. I think it was Smoky Mountain Wrestling back then. And we'd either go up to East Tennessee and watch it sometimes, or we would watch it right back at the Nashville Fairgrounds. They had a regular Saturday show in Nashville that we would go see it. I always tell the joke, and I told it the other day, but we would either go to night court or wrestling.

51:07Yeah. That was the two things we would go do. So can you expound upon night court? Because I was actually unaware of this practice. White trash as I am, I didn't know. This is special. I don't know if they still have it. If they do, I should take my son. But back in the days, you would go to the jail, downtown, 448 2nd Avenue North, Nashville, Tennessee. I know because I was there at one point. And we would go down there, and you'd walk in the front door, and then they had a place where you'd walk. And it was pews like a church, concrete like a jail, plexiglass, like unbreakable plexiglass, and then a judge.

51:41And a judge sat behind a piece of plexiglass. And then there was a little box next to him. There was a plexiglass and some bars separating him from this box. And a plexiglass from us. So I would watch like a movie, the judge, and they would bring drunk people in. And they would plead their case to the overnight judge because they couldn't get a bond until in the morning to see if they would set a bond or he'd cut them all loose. Imagine how white trash my mom is, that she puts nine of us, eight of us in an Oldsmobile, lights up a light. Wait, eight of you? Oh, dude, I mean, the whole family. I mean, I had three older brothers and older sister, me, five.

52:19She was six. Probably had two friends with us. I mean, we'd be stacked like a clown car. And just come on, time to go to night court. Hey, come on. We're going to go do something fun. We'd be like, yeah. No, we'd get to wait. What do you know? We couldn't have. Whatever. So we'd go, and we would watch drunk people plead their case. And once we realized what it was, it was the funniest thing. Imagine Judge Judy, but only drunk people. Only people that, like, had car ag. Like, there would be guys that, like, fell asleep in the middle of an intersection drunk. And they're in there pleading there, I haven't had you, Val.

52:49I've been sober seven years. And he's, like, drooling on himself. Or the ones that would come in and just cuss the judge out. Like, it was constant entertainment. Every now and then, oh, the best were the domestic disputes. Uh-oh. Because they would have to bring the husband and wife in separate. Back then, they would just rest on both. They'd go, we'll figure it out in the courthouse. And then they'd come down, and each one would have to come in front of the judge. So the girl comes in first like, that no-good cheating bitch. He's been fucking Cindy. And she's like losing her. And we're like, oh, damn.

53:18And they wouldn't take us out. Wait, now, were you allowed to be interactive? Yeah, no, we were cheering. We never got in trouble for it. Nobody wants, dude, there was weekends. It was packed in there. Really? It was like the club. You would see so many people. Everybody doing the same thing? Dude, my mom started bringing neighbors. We're going to need a bigger car. Yeah, and I'd wonder, finally, I realized if we went down there, it's because we couldn't afford wrestling that weekend. This was free. Yeah, okay. This was free entertainment. All right. You know what I'm saying? But we would go watch wrestling all through, you know, the Ultimate Warrior era.

53:53Sid, it wasn't Sid Vicious. Who was the first Sid? I had three different Sid. Psycho Sid. Psycho Sid, yeah. Sid Vicious. and I don't know if he vicious but they had a went and watched all Psycho Sid was more my era Psycho Sid was a little bit after did you see the footage of him breaking his leg god I cannot watch breaking leg footage by the way it was very very awful ever since that scene Anderson Silva break his leg I was there when he kicked Chris Wyman and it snapped like in the arena I'm haunted by that I can hear the sound It's like bone breaking is one thing. I got a weak stomach. I've got a super weak stomach.

54:33Yeah. Oh, you're super. And then blasting into the attitude era. Yeah. I'm like turning 12. Oh, perfect time. So you can imagine. Yes, yes. What I think when I watch, I loved Jake the Snake Roberts before the gimmick, the religious gimmick, like just as just Jake the Snake Roberts. Loved, loved him. So then he has a religious gimmick. And then, you know, when Austin shoots the big promo and becomes Austin that night and just the beginning of what felt like would be the next decade of just insanity. And it was. You know what I mean? Yeah. Absolute fucking insanity. I came in at the tail end. I remember.

55:10Yeah. No, no, no. I remember. No, it was crazy. No, it was. It felt it like we would because I remember it went from the fairgrounds to the municipal auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. it felt like overnight. Yeah. It just felt like all of a sudden we were going to watch wrestling at the municipal. And back then y 'all were doing dark matches in Nashville, Tennessee. If y 'all were running the South, the Southern circuit, dude, we might get, I'm not making this up. It's five, six, seven shows a year. Sometimes, you know what I mean? Like just, it was always coming through. So it was like, it was just so, so easy to be a fan at the time.

55:48You know what I mean? And it was also, it was so fun, dude. And iconic memories, me and my brother, my oldest brother Scott D Ford nerd out about this all the time now that I'm down here is like and now that me and DJ become friends over the years of like I when you say DJ you mean the rock yeah the rock yeah I remember watching him stand up on that top rope you know what I mean on that second rope and do the rock thing yeah with the eyebrow and 97 96 or 98 or whatever it was and just like him and stone cold and that being thinking wrestling that's fucking love this dude man one of the sweet you know this one of the sweetest souls uh to be the most famous dude on earth he sure don't act like um but just remember like how much it talking about making it feel something like it was different because i remember when i was a kid i would watch hulk and and ultimate warrior and it made me feel something but not like that era you know what i mean and what it's went on to be now i i was one of the other reasons i'm so glad that i got in a situation to do a match with y 'all at this point in my life and career is, I think the storytelling right now is like the last five, six years, especially the Roman era, has been attitude era fire to me.

57:04You know what I mean? I agree. And I'm the old protector. And I know somebody on lines right now, like, how dare? It's like, but look, man, if we're always looking for what happened then. Yeah, this is your experience. Also, y 'all, if we're always looking for what happened then, we're never going to love what's happening now. it's true don't make us don't make us look up 10 years from now and be like damn that roman era was really crazy like except it's crazy now except that we're in it right now and it's fire and it's fire like it's fire right now um i was even looking at like a summer i was thinking about summer slam and all the years of summer slam and Thinking about Brock you know and I think about that walking here earlier I seen that old SummerSlam poster with Brock and I was like even you think about this SummerSlam right now going into two nights like Punk, Gunther, Cody, Cena like just the two the posters already crazy Randy, Drew, Logan, Jelly Roll, I'm sneaking my way in there.

58:04Headlining yeah right sneaking that way in there. Right on there. Yeah, you know what I mean? Just excuse me. Pardon me. Pardon me. You've earned it. You've earned it. I'll tell you this. I am really trying my hardest for it. Yeah. I promise y 'all that, like, if nothing else, everyone in this building will tell you that, like, I'm really trying, Steph. Like, I show up every day with a good attitude. I work all day. I bust ass. I don't complain. yes sir yes ma 'am learn as much as i can like i'm going to show up a lot more prepared than i think people think i'm going to show up and i still want to manage their expectations that i'm not going to be good but i'm trying trying trying and like i think it's going to impress people for the amount of time i put in it but what i learned about this and i knew about this too was that, man, this is a lifelong sport.

58:57Right. You know what I mean? Like these kids, their kids. But there's a really important lesson in what you're saying, and I think that's you get out what you put in. For sure. Right, and that's true no matter what it is in life. Anytime a celebrity's got involved in the WWE, it was always in an effort for wrestling to get the pop culture look it deserves. Yeah, that's true. And I think it's fucked up. It takes working with one of us to do it. Yeah, Tyson for sure. Yeah. When Mike came in, all the moments. The Floyd fight with the big show. Mm-hmm. Our current president was in there throwing a couple punches one time.

59:28You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, you know. That's correct. This is real. Battle of the billionaires, yes. You remember. Yes. It's like, you know, it's, this is, I could bore you with these. You know, it's like, I've watched this my whole life. Yeah. That was my fan moment. It was like when I started to become a musician and famous, I was like, man, I wonder if I'll ever be famous enough as a musician to do one of those wrestling things. You know what I'm saying? like because I know like when we FaceTime Tony Tony's a real fan yeah that's another you want to talk about how me and Tony became friends early no not about wrestling if we'd sit down and talk about the flagship events anytime something happened at Wrestlemania we'd just call each other immediately and be like yo like the night of Wrestlemania not this one the one before we were on the phone all night like kids that's so cool you know what I mean like kids like calling like the last 10 minutes was the craziest you know what I mean it was just like you know that's another takeaway and I'm sorry I'm just rambling but I'm so excited to talk about I don't have nobody to talk to about this I wasn't allowed to talk about it until y 'all announced it so for three weeks I was doing the coolest thing ever couldn't tell a soul but it's um I'm learning that like a lot of my therapy was around inner child you know like a lot of my food addiction we talked about this off camera was about the young man because I got fat really young like um really really young was over 300 pounds coming out of middle school I'm going to be under 300 pounds for the first time since middle school the night I walked to that ring at SummerSlam.

1:00:56That's amazing. That's an exclusive here. I haven't said that in nowhere. Wow. My going there for the first time since middle school, I will be under 300 pounds for the first time since I was, we're talking about literally now, 30 years. Like fifth, sixth grade? Literally. Wow. Wow. Congratulations. Literally. And I should be under 300 pounds. I weigh in once a month. I weighed in right before I got here. We have the scale documented that month. I'm pretty sure I'll, I mean, I'm doing the work. It ain't no way it ain't, you know what I mean? And you want to be on the cover of Men's Health March 26th.

1:01:21That's the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal. You want me to set another big one right now? Please. I haven't set another one in a while. This will make my publicist hate me. I'm sorry. Oh, I like that. I want to do a shirt off cover in 27th. Wow. That's awesome. I mean, I'm a long way from that, obviously. Like, I'm going to have to get my skin cut. I mean, I've got to do a lot of... Do you have to do that? I'm going to have to because it's interfering with me and my daily functions. It's not even an aesthetic thing. Now that I can take my shirt off and not have saggy tits, that's going to be a big bonus.

1:01:53You know what I mean? You know what I mean? But it's just... Tell me about it. TMI. I was trying not to make a date when they sag. It's the worst. While we're oversharing today with each other, I'm just hanging too much. Yeah. And it's like interfering with just daily functions sometimes. I'm having to wear compression clothes just because the shit's just bad. It's a great problem to have. And is it supposed to shrink? I don't know. I haven't done enough. Everybody I talk to that really did it the way I've done it is like, look, man, eventually you're either going to either swole up and it'll.

1:02:30I know a couple of guys who never cut and they did get really jacked and it still sags, but it's not as bad. Right. But I don't know that I'm. Well, you'll see how your skin is. Yeah, I don't think I want to see myself getting really jacked. Maybe later. That's something I want to do later. But when you spend your whole life being obese, morbidly obese or really fat, your first instinct ain't I want to be big. Yeah. It's like I want to actually get as small as I can possibly be. I think you'll be surprised how muscular you are. No, I'm finding that out. Yeah. I'm learning that. Because you're carrying around all that weight.

1:03:01Dude, it took me three weeks to start properly taking snapback bumps. Yeah. Because where I did, I had no athletic background coming in here, Steph. I've had to train and build these muscles. Your neck, yeah. Slowly. I've had to get in this ring every day and do 20 or 30 of these. And like start doing just every day. Coach Bloom was so patient with me, he'll be with Coach Smalls. And they'd just be like, we're just going to do it slow with you, baby. Just lay down. And I'd just do the lay down. Just like do them as you can. Just build that muscle. And then we started doing the mid-ros. And now we're doing snapbacks.

1:03:30So it's like, it's been a real. And it's very unnatural to fall backwards like that. The most unknown. Yeah, it's very hard to learn. And as I even catch myself, now that I know what's happening, I feel so bad for the years I was a fan watching them do it and completely undermining how insane that was. You know what I mean? Like completely just discused. How can you appreciate it if you've never done it? Dude, you think you can appreciate it? Yeah, there's nothing like being in there. Even now when I'm talking to people, they're like, so like how soft is it up there? I was like, it's a piece of plywood, dog.

1:03:58What are you talking about soft? Nothing about that thing is soft. Oh, no, but it's bouncy. I've seen it bounce. Yeah, no. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's got a coiled spring. in a piece of plywood, dog. It's like nobody, come in here. Sign a waiver and let me just put you, I'll just lay you down on it and watch what it feels like. It hurts to, it hurts your knees to rub against it. That's something else is it's not slick. No, the canvas. The canvas. Yeah, the mat burn. It burns. These ropes are cable. They're not rubber bands. This is all stuff I'm having to teach people. I knew this kind of. But they won't get it.

1:04:30No, and even when I tell them it's a cable, they're like, yeah, but like, you know, why does it? It moves so much. And I was like, because a 280-pound man is running into the cable. Right. It's a cable. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, trust me. And the writer's house, I just show him my back. Yeah. Because, you know, the first two weeks I was here, I just had that rip. My whole side was purple and blue. Mine is right here from here from doing, I don't want to say, but doing something I'm going to try to do that's cool. And it's like, if I can do it. But if I can do it, but because of practicing it a thousand times, I mean, if I took my pants off right now, it's all up my ass.

1:05:03Oh, yeah. No, I can picture it. I am bad, dude. My shoulders were so bruised. I tell you how soft I was. I didn't realize how just much of a not man I had became in light of just being a traveling musician for 15 years. Locking up. Yeah. I had a bruise on my shoulder just from it and just having so much. And they're not hitting it. They're not slapping the fuck out of me. You know what I mean? Just enough. But like. Yeah. Just where I haven't done anything. I haven't lifted a weight. I haven't done, every muscle I have is just from years of being fat. But you've been playing basketball. Shooting ball.

1:05:36I've been hooping stuff. You should see me now. I'm pretty good for a big fella. And it makes me, because your knees, like. Yeah, I got good knees. You must, because you're doing a lot of stuff from taking the bumps. Do you wear pads? Yes, ma 'am. Okay. Dude. Yeah. It's still of, that one's healing finally, but that's my, I was talking to. Your body will build up the resistance to it. But I'm learning this about the ropes now because, like, the first two or three weeks, it hurt every time I hit them. And then you just kind of get numb. I don't know what actually happens physiologically. I wonder if it's like when you play a guitar and your finger's callous eventually.

1:06:13Maybe. Probably not a clear callous, but I would assume it's something like that. Yeah, I would assume if Steph was in here, I'd ask her. She'd have an answer. But it's something like, but it's, I've learned a lot. I mean, opening up my child, learning something new. I'm a 40-year-old man that's learning for the first time in a long time. You know, they say there's a part of your brain that actually grows when you really try something new and something challenging. And I'm writing the best songs of my career because of it, I think. Because I'm leaving here so endorphined every day and I'm like so clear-headed.

1:06:45Well, and you said you came off of this tour that it was the best spiritual tour you've ever had. and I'm assuming because of some of these moments that you're talking about and these people who truly have this catharsis when they come to your show and this connection and now here you are having the opportunity to do something for yourself and push yourself in ways that you never, ever have before and that you've always wanted to because you actually went to wrestling school for a little bit, right? Do you remember DLA? The Harris brothers? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Chains had a place in Laverne at the old co-op.

1:07:24And when I was a kid, this was I told, you know, this because I've been telling you and your husband this every time I seen y 'all. This story started whenever I got involved in Monday Night Raw a couple of years ago. Y 'all came to Nashville. And the cool part of this, how God works is when I come in that night to go, hey, we want to get you involved. Dominic Mysterio is doing a match with Randy. Randy had just came back. And there was like, you know, we're going to have a moment where he comes over and you're going to just push him out of the way. And cool. And, you know, we walk through it.

1:07:54And I'm like, oh, this is great. I can't believe I'm going to get involved. And the way we walked through went one way. And then when it actually happens.

1:08:04And the fun, they're laughing. This is real stuff in this business. I'm learning fast. but Randy also is funny. And he's been doing this so long, he's a very relaxed performer. I didn't know this at the time, though. I just met him. And in Run Through, I don't have an interaction with him at all. So I push Dominic, and Randy just sidesteps and lets him go. And then walks over and, you know, daps me up and makes a joke about me smelling like pot. This is all on national television. and you're like wait what and in this moment i was like this is the coolest thing that's ever happened i was like the apex predators kicking it with me it's cool it was just a child of me and i go backstage and he puts his arm around me we do an interview and i thought that was so cool but he intentionally also disarmed you he made you feel at home he made you know and that's that's a psychology trick as well.

1:09:02No. And only the best can really do that. He's made me feel awesome. Yeah. And then I see Neil Lowey that night, y 'all's music director. He's been with y 'all 20 years. Hero in my story with the WWE, obviously. And he's my constant baby face in this scenario. You know what I'm saying? And I go to Neil and I go, Neil, you got to let me take a bump next time. and Neil's like yeah but we're pretty serious about that you got to spend a couple weeks down in Florida and you know whatever whatever whatever I was like I'm in he's like got to get cleared for some medical stuff I was like I'm gonna lose the weight and do it I was like I told Hunter Paul I'm gonna lose this weight I'm gonna do this fast circle circle around I come back to do summer slam you know what I mean I'm down 50 60 70 pounds and I get to choke slam Austin Theory dude man that was the night i caught the bug i left there that night and nobody else knew it but i knew i was gonna lose enough weight to take a match if they'd have me so i walked straight to the back and i'm like completely tone deaf in the moment now i've been around y 'all's business enough to know how wild this was but i walked back like they're not in the middle of producing the show and i'm like everybody stop what you're doing i was like paul if i lose another 100 pounds can i do one of these he was like yeah man i was like for real he was like we'll figure it out dude we love you and I was like you promise and Paul's producing a fucking show and I'm like and I leave and I'm like right then circle back around Wrestlemania this year I'm down about another 75 you know what I'm saying Paul's like dude you're looking good I was like am I looking match ready and Paul goes you're really close man and I was like what about SummerSlam he was like you do your part we'll do ours how cool wow dude like and it was like it really became a North Star from my journey two years ago when I started the process.

1:10:54You know what I mean? That's something people don't know is that I've worked my way to this moment. That's amazing. I have truly, and I know my personality. This won't be my only match because now I'm going to want to see myself do it knowing it and in better shape. I haven't even done the match, and I'm already so inspired down here, Stephanie, that I'm already like, when I lose another 60 fucking pounds and I get to come back, I'm coming off that fucking top rope. Oh, wow. All right. You know what I mean? I swear. You're coming off the top rope. This is bothering me how much I'm falling in love with this shit.

1:11:25I never thought I'd be in a situation I woke up and excited to go throw myself on the ground. I know. It's a crazy thing. There's no other way to say it. You literally just like, I'm going to leave here right after we do this pod and go into the other room and to the, you know, before I go leave here for the day, probably do another 20 just fucking snapback bumps. Just trying to keep trying to build this muscle right here. Yep. Make sure I don't throw my head off the fucking pavement. Yeah. I'm petrified. I'm learning how to tuck my chin. I know I'm still talking about this, but that's something else I'm learning about myself.

1:11:50I've never been this I get nervous before shows And anxious because I care Right But I'm not scared to do a show Right I am scared Every day I walk in here I am petrified I just I know exactly how you feel You know what I mean Because I'm It's not like I'm an avid wrestler You know I've wrestled Maybe 10 Maybe 12 times And every time Is very carefully choreographed And everything else And I've trained my ass off too But I know exactly how you feel You know And I was getting in there with Rhonda You know I'd be out there all the time just trying to listen and learn, you know, because I learned, I've learned different facets of the business at different times.

1:12:28But when I really learned being in the ring and the psychology of, of what everyone was doing, why that was all from, from Hunter, that was all from Paul and getting to be by his side. And he would always teach me, you know, if you would ask, he would, he would always teach me, but everybody's goofing off in the ring and everything when I have to take a bump and it's like, how do I, how do I do this? Can you guys tell me like, do I run into it do I put my hands up like what exactly do I do and it's always oh it's easy no problem you'll be fine okay that was the hard part too is not putting my hands up because like every instinct in you when a 275 pound six foot seven Scottish man is trying to kick you would be to block it you know what I'm saying you know what I mean but I think uh sometimes there is a natural reaction to put your hands up and that's real so you would think you would you know what What I love about this is that's what they've all told me.

1:13:20Yeah. They were like, look, man, the good news is as long as you're honest in what you're doing in that moment, you're going to be okay either way. Yeah. And I was like, wow, because just all these nuances are just, it is, I've watched it for the stories my whole life. Now I watch it totally different. Yep. Like, every little thing is hinting towards something. Like, that's something I don't think even the average fan, we look for these little Easter eggs our whole time, but it's like, no, man, y 'all got to really watch. everything's an Easter egg in there. Yeah. And everything's building. And it never ends.

1:13:52It never ends. It never ends. Is that your favorite part of it, is the actual storytelling part? Oh, yeah. Like, defining the next way to make sure it stays hip again? The storytelling is everything. It just is. That's what hooks you. But I truly believe that, you know, storytelling is, getting back to the beginning of this podcast, it is the best form of communication. And if you can make, if you could take people on a ride, on an emotional roller coaster, like that there's nothing cooler than that what's one of your most memorable experiences from a writer's room you know what's i don't know we have so many good ones like well you were every song has a story you know what i mean um this is what i say this is one of my favorite quotes is every song has a story but every story doesn't have a song and that's why i have a job you know what i mean i love that um oh i love that yeah so every song has a story like I've never talked about this one this when we did need a favor I wasn't this is a fun in the room story I wasn't sure like I wasn't as confident in it as I was some of the others some of the other records and Austin who produced the record is in the room with me and he's like dude I'm telling you man this is like it's a mid-tempo record you need tempo like the song is everything that you I've never done a song with any tempo at all so I was like just nervous to do a tempo record I was just like this don't feel like my core I write pain music I'm a ballad guy he's like bubba this is your message we wrote it like it's perfect this is you like trust me and I was like it just maybe we should just slow it down I know I know it's me but like why don't we just slow it down it's more soulful he's like that's what you always doing you ruin our songs he's like just let this one be that i was like and even then i wasn't fully convinced and this is the only time my record label has ever called me about something jonathan lobe the guy who gave me my first chance at a record label at a record label um calls me and goes him and katie kirk over my anr who's now you talk about how you earn like trust in people how trust is earned they call and they go i'm telling you this will be one of the biggest songs of your life just let us put it out first and i was like how sure of that are you like it's a big this is my career we're gambling yeah and it's your heart it's my heart i love the song but i just don't i love the material i love what we wrote but i wasn't sure the tempo was right and it was just me in my head really you know and they were like just trust us and i was like just know that trust is like earned so like i'll give you this opportunity to earn it but this is a big opportunity you know like please like if this don't work promise me you'll give me a second chance at a single though you know what I mean because sometimes you get a single that don't work and that's it you got to wait till the next album cycle they're not going to spend no more money on a second single that's you you know what I mean and he was like you just you trust me I trusted you that's why I signed you you trust me that's why you signed me that's why you let me sign you and I was like yes sir done and boy I ate my words and I've never said that publicly until today because I wouldn't want nobody to think I don't like the song.

1:17:07I love the song. It was so different. It scared me. It's like being here now. I'm scared. It scared me. It was so different it scared me. Do the thing that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt has a great quote. Every day, do the thing that scares you. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. That's how I darkened your door. Because I'm doing the only shit that scares me right now for sure. I'm scared of Duke Kimmel. I was petrified of Duke Kimmel. I bet. I was so nervous. It's total departure. For sure. I don't know how it's going to go. Yeah, and even then, I don't have, it's kind of like this. I don't have an athletic background.

1:17:39Like, I don't have a comedic background. I have a lot of comedian friends. Like, I have a lot of wrestling friends. But I'm not a wrestler or a comedian. I'm a musician. You know what I'm saying? You know, it's like, I didn't, even the monologue scare me. Yeah, but you're a performer. That is, I think that your, this company, and was counting on that. Knowing that I'm a completely driven motherfucker. Like, I'm an obsessed motherfucker. And I know how to tell a story. Yeah. You know what I mean? You sure do. I'm going to tell a story on August the 2nd or 3rd, whatever day they let me tell the story.

1:18:10I cannot wait to watch it. I'm telling you, Steph. We're going to tell a story. It's going to be like we're coming to steal the show, baby. All right. Oh, yeah. I love it. I love it. We're Team Jelly, Team Randy over here. Yeah, please, baby. You better not be the fucking other guys. Well, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Oh, fuck. Oh, yeah, yeah, fuck it. There goes heel Steph, y 'all. Always working, motherfucker. Always working. Take her off the wood again. We got a worker here. We got a worker here, y 'all.

1:18:40So are you still without a cell phone? Dude, public announcement. I don't know if I should make this announcement. I got a cell phone last week, finally. You did? Okay. I did. And was it a flip phone or was it a cell phone? It's actually, I got a real phone. Okay. I'm not carrying it, which is half the battle I got to do better about, but I do. Because you threw it away, what, beginning of January or December? No, no, it was last November. Oh, even November. I wanted to go a whole year was my goal, and I almost made it. And I'm still not against throwing this one out the window. And this is not new for you.

1:19:09I might do it after summer. You've done it before. I do this all the time. Yeah. I have a horrible relationship with communication. You just get overwhelmed by it? Overwhelmed, extremely stressed. I already have an avoidant personality, and I can use that phone as a great place to get lost and avoid. Sure, sure. I'm just more present when I don't have it. I mean, everybody. That's all. You scroll. It's like mindless. My goal is if I do it right this time, I'm going to have the phone for like phone time, like when I'm in the car and can make calls or like when I'm at the house or on the couch or getting ice treatment.

1:19:40But like when I walk into buildings or go to do something, I'll be deliberate about it. I'll leave it in the car. Like, yeah, I don't like my wife can call somebody that's with me or my daughter. You know, it's like I just don't ever want to get back to where it goes back to the addiction stuff that we talked about. Yeah. You know, we talked about this privately, but like I have such an addictive personality. My food addiction was so prevalent in my life that I will become addicted to anything if I'm not careful. You know what I mean? Is that true of work? I think I'm a workaholic, but I think where I struggle with that is that I don't, I struggle to call what we do work.

1:20:14Because it's not work for you. It's not work. It's like I'm not. You do what you love. Yeah, it's like every now and then. You're obsessive, but not unhealthily. Exactly. Every now and then I do something that feels like work, and that's a part of the job. Like, you know, when you have a 10-hour travel day. Right. Yeah, sure. Nothing about this conversation feels like work for you, I'm sure. No. If anything feels like work for you today, it's going to be the flight. Yeah. Does that make sense? It's like that's where you're like, fuck. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? That's the part, yeah.

1:20:42Everything, the moment you got off the plane until you got back on it, it's everything you love. It's conversation. It's healing. It's helping people. You haven't flown with us. We do. We do have a thing, the three of us. What do y 'all do? We just laugh, basically. We play Switch. You're danced in the air? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's fun. Oh, yeah. We play Nintendo Switch. Okay. We play Mario Kart nonstop. No, we gab. Yeah, we're chatting. Yeah. Yeah. That's the ones I want to hear. What's that story? Yeah, some of those. Yeah. That's the story. What's that story? There's some good videos, too. The campfire story?

1:21:19Yeah.

1:21:23Jackie's turning red

1:21:35She'll wind up telling on herself In like 20 minutes It's the biggest secret ever And you're sworn to secrecy And within like

1:21:48It doesn't take long proud of her by the way yes shout out Jackie shout out to Jackie that's like the story of the day for me this Jackie yeah Jackie

1:22:06you're big glowing for sure yeah oh this whole podcast has been about being a kid again one of Steph's life not lifelong but decade plus friends has lost, Miss Jackie has lost 50-something pounds now. Yep. 50-something pounds. We were sharing our, she was the most honest person I've ever had a conversation with about food addiction ever besides me. That was just like that honest. She's very genuine. That's also when you find like a real peace with it though. It's like when you actually are, you know, you're not ashamed of it anymore. And Jackie runs the entire makeup department for WWE. Oh, dude, I'll kick ass.

1:22:43She schedules everybody. Not only is she an artist herself, but she is in charge of the entire department. She has a creative kitchen. Do you have a creative kitchen? No, I like that it's a creative kitchen. I like it. The writer's room is your creative kitchen. The writer's room is a creative kitchen. That's what I'll call it, too. I just try to stay away from kitchens now. Oh, yeah. That's a good point. I go the opposite way. A pantry is my biggest fear of life is a pantry stock. Actually, Randy and I had a whole conversation about that, sneaking into the pantry. Dude, I would call it. Because I'm married to Triple H, right?

1:23:17And he's always ripped and shredded and always so disciplined. And he never cheats, never really has a craving, never anything. And I love food, too. I really do. And so I will sneak into the pantry. And he laughs because he's like, why are you hiding? Well, I don't want you to think anything of me. It's like chocolate-covered pretzels, like chocolate-covered almonds, whatever. It has to be some chocolate, though. Darker regular, darker mild. Well, I like it all, but dark is my favorite. Me too. Was it always, or did that happen to us when we got older? I've always. It was older for me, too. I was a milk chocolate guy.

1:23:54Oh, you mean in terms of the type of chocolate? Yeah, I was a milk chocolate when I was a kid. I was milk chocolate, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere. You were always dark? You haven't grown up yet. Still milk chocolate. Oh, really? All right. Waiting to grow up. No, I even like white chocolate now, which is, you know, but just a little bit. A little bit. Not too much white chocolate. It can get candle waxy sometimes. Yeah, I like to mix it in. And we get this nut tray. And there's this one friend of ours from a long time. And he sends us this nut tray every Christmas. And his name is Barry.

1:24:24So we're very excited for Barry's nuts every year. And sometimes it's salty and sometimes it's sweet. They'd arrive to the office. Oh, yeah. We're very excited about Barry's nuts. But I like to mix the dark chocolate with maybe four dark chocolate-covered almonds with one white chocolate-covered almond and then a salted almond. And that's like a party in your mouth right there. Yeah, that's interesting. We won't talk about food. We never touch the dried fruit. No, the dried apricots in the middle sat there. Have you ever ate the Who chocolate bars? They're spelled H-U? No. Oh, I've seen them at like a Whole Foods.

1:25:04They're like, I do still eat dark chocolate sometimes. So we'll put some like on some cherries at night. Right. And it's like this who chocolate. It's only got like two ingredients. Oh, that's good. It's awesome. I might have to try that. It's really, really. I'm kind of like you though. Once I have something, then I'm off. I'm derailed. Yeah. No, that's it. I can eat a little piece of this dark chocolate at night if I'm having like the worst sweet tooth or something. And it's not bad. It's like 100 calories or something. It's really fire. It's a brother and sister that started the company out of Austin too.

1:25:34A lot happening in Austin. You might be moving to Austin. I want to go to Austin bad. I'm trying to get my wife down to Austin so bad. Yeah. It is so. Have you been down there? Well, yeah, I've been there. You know, I haven't stayed and hung out. Have you been in the mothership yet? I haven't yet. It is the fucking funniest place on earth. Yeah, I can't wait to go. Any night of the week. Tuesday night, random time, the best comedians in the world are in there working. That's what you were saying. So special. Because you said it's basically Joe Rogan and his friends like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then the best comedians in the world come in through the weekend.

1:26:05And it's always on. It's always on you want to build the music mothership. That's my dream is the music mothership in Nashville because songwriters we don't get to do it Joe and them take the phone they do the yonder bags so they can really go in there and work their material out Like we don't get to do that as songwriters because if I go sing a song at a bar tonight That's unreleased one person's gonna film it. They're gonna put on the internet You know what I mean? It's like I don't get to really get that that kind of a moment, you know where like, I wondered if we brought the, have you ever heard of like a, it's called like a writer's round where it's like three or four guys would stand here, girls with microphones and guitars and we would do what they call a songwriter round.

1:26:44So imagine all three of us are lined up. I got a guitar, you got a guitar. And I go, all right, y 'all, I wrote this song last week with Charlie Handsome and Ernest and this song is called Thorns. And then I play it, just me and the guitar. And then you go, oh, that was great. Thank you so much. You go, all right, my name's Stephanie McMahon because you're ready to do the first round. I wrote this song with such and such and such and such and you tell the story about the song and then you play the song and you play the song and we'll do that three times a piece. It's called a round. And it's fun because imagine...

1:27:13In front of an audience or just the three of you? We'll do it in front of an audience. Sometimes we'll do it with just the three of us and we're pitching songs to each other. Like, what are you working on? It's like we're just kind of showing each other what we're doing. But you do it at like the Bluebird Cafe or like places. It's like, you know, a couple hundred people, small intimate listening room kind of vibes. A place called the listening room. but you know people got phones and it's the songwriters singing all the hits they wrote but they don't get to work out songs very much or if they do they don't get to work it out as much you know it's a it's like giving away the song you can't give away the song because of the phones I was like if we did the music mothership and we locked phones up the same way Joe did yeah where guys could feel comfortable like if Hardy felt comfortable being able to come in here and test out a record on Tuesday night and do a writer's round and play two of his hits and on the third song go yo I wrote this yesterday I don't know how I feel about it yet you know what I mean they'll let you know yeah yeah but you like I love that y 'all say it all the time y 'all have a live demographic test every Monday and every Friday so it's interesting because a lot of our talent and understandably so but they can get very lost in social media and what social media is saying and oftentimes social is negative because it can be very critical and I think for whatever reason that happens but one of the things that I always say anyway just what I think my perspective is as long as the live audience is reacting to you the way you want them to that's what you have to gauge your success off of because there is nothing like that live audience and if they're not into it they'll let you know for sure and if it's cheering awesome if it's booing awesome if they're quiet and it's not supposed to be quiet that's a problem that's when it's a problem yeah But that live reaction, the people in the room, that makes so much sense to be able to do that.

1:29:00And comedians get it. Wrestlers get it. They can go try moves and get a reaction in the house and go, okay, I'm bringing that to the, you know, I'm going to work, you know, like songwriters. We have to go live in our own little weird bubble of a head. I have to record an entire body of work, convince myself it's the best body of work I've ever done, and then put it out and go. Yeah. It's crazy. That's rough. It's a scary thing. I bet. You know what I mean? It's like. And it's your heart and soul and blood, sweat, and tears go into that album. It's so much of my story. My family story. And you can't test it.

1:29:32It's so personal. I have no way to get any kind of reaction to know if I'm on to something. Even then, it's like you've got to be careful. I can't go play it for all my friends because most of them are going to yes me to death. Right. Or they're not going to. Or, you know, you play it for a wrong friend. They give you an opinion. And sometimes they don't know enough about music for you to accept their opinion. And you can't a good song. Right. You know what I mean? Just because you're home, it ain't my cup of tea, and you're like, it sucks. You know what I mean? The song doesn't suck. He just didn't like the tempo.

1:29:57He's such a regular listener. It could have been the tempo that threw him off. Right. You know what I mean? Where it's like he could just not be like me. Like when I was scared of a certain tempo, he could just be a not a tempo guy. You know what I mean? So when you get to play it in front of people and you're doing it with all of us playing songs, I have this idea that like you get three, four songs deep into a writer's round, you start listening and caring if the song's good or not. You start having an opinion kind of quick. you start going, that wasn't as good as their last song they sung. You know?

1:30:24And that's what I love about it. I also love the idea of like, the people who are writing these songs, getting to stand beside and with the artist they wrote it with or for, and do it together. And if the artist felt safe coming in there, like I know Morgan, you know, Morgan can't leave the house without getting videoed the whole way somewhere, to and from somewhere. If I could walk Morgan to the back door and tell him, hey man, Ernest is doing a songwriter session on Tuesday, come in and sing flower shops with him, there's not a camera in the building. Morgan's not thinking twice Morgan still loves that He came up doing songwriter rounds We all have a All of us want them, we love them I love the arenas, I love the big shows But nothing I love more than putting 200 people And sitting in a chair and me sitting on a bar stool And going, y 'all think this is cool or am I tripping?

1:31:06You know what I'm saying? This made me cry, am I tripping? Is it good? You know what I'm saying? I don't know, it's the intimacy, it's the singing It's the same thing with comedy shows You've seen Tony in a small environment You go see him at a big one. It's a great show. But you see Tony in that club with 200 people in Austin, Texas. Well, and to your point, music performances, I always love the smaller, more intimate setting. It's just more fun. You can feel it better, you know, than the big live stadium show, which is still a great experience, but it's different. I've come to say I've done a bunch of stadiums.

1:31:40I've always opened them. And I would love to headline some because that's a dream. but arenas to me are perfect in the sense of if I set my staging right, I can feel like we're all really close. I can still see the 300s and make eye contact. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I can still, I might not be able to fully read it, but I can still see that sign in 310. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like I can still acknowledge the effort. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I can still bring us to a point that we're all sitting together on this stage at some point. because I got to have a moment in the show where we're all just like sitting around a campfire together just having a talk yeah like there has to be this moment and it has to have my show the show has to be an arc right you have to take the audience on a ride I have to take them on and it's one of those things too it's like with the promo if you just yell the entire time you're doing a promo people are going to start tuning it out just subconsciously because you know you're just yelling it's just all one one level yeah but if you're if you utilize that intonation and you yell at some point but then you bring it down and you're quiet at another point or you take a long pause or you switch it up you're taking people on a little ride and then they listen differently it listens differently and you got to know how to get them out of it at the right time yeah that's a big part of what we do is like at some point i got to put you in the box with me like we got to get in here and get really close and get really deep but if i keep you in this box too long i'll bum the night out yeah i gotta get us out of the box at some point we got to pop out of this thing together you know what i mean like that's a big part of the game you have to play up there of like trying to make sure that you create because like if it's too much of a box moment everybody leaves like man i just yeah i was sad you know why do i feel so bad about It's like, if I get you out of it the right way.

1:33:37And what I tell people is I used to want people leaving my show feeling really good. Now I want people leaving my show having conversations and talking. I want them to feel really good, too. I don't want to feel bad, but I want them to feel. I want them to think whatever that feeling is. You know what I mean? I don't even know what a feeling associate with thinking. You know what I'm saying? Right. But like I want people leaving like provocative. Yeah. I want people provocative. I want people to leave and go. You ever like leave the movie theater and couldn't wait to get out and talk to your spouse about the movie.

1:34:12Like those are the best movies when you're like you can't wait. When people used to go to the movie. Yes. Right. Or like even when you're sitting in bed and the movie is so good you don't just turn it off and go that was cool and go to sleep when you're just like you're wired. Or like when you and your partner are watching a movie and y 'all stop it to talk about shit. like when you got to hit the pause like no fucking way right you know what i mean like those kind of moments like i want people leaving my show like that yeah you know what i mean i want them leaving like that was the best movie i've ever seen this part was awesome what'd you think of that part and i want to see this was my favorite part what was this what do you think it's all like what do you think he'll do next you know what i mean it's like that's the that's the goal in that world and i'm finding the parallels of all this in here you know what i mean yeah I've also had so much fun with these young kids where I've been joking with Stax and being the two that get stuck with me the most.

1:35:02I'm like, y 'all keep teaching me how to wrestle and I'm going to teach y 'all how to work. You know what I mean? I can see what y 'all are struggling with the most in here. It's finding yourself. You know what I mean? Like, let me get some more time around you and find out who you are. You know what I'm saying? And then we'll learn how to make that transform into that. You know what I mean? I can take who you are and turn into the performer you want to be. It's like songwriting. This is an artist thing. We talked about this. This is why we keep going back to this conversation with the wrestling and the songwriter stuff.

1:35:33They're like songwriters to me in the aspect of they're all here chasing their dream and they're getting a little bit of money to do it until they can get bigger money if they do it really good. It's the same exact concept. The twist is they also are like the artist where all songwriters aren't artists and all artists aren't songwriters. right as an artist i then have to take this music i wrote as a songwriter i have to write a gray song then i have to as an artist i have to take this song and figure out a way to make it digestible to people right i got to find out i got to find a way to make people connect with it i got to find just my vocals on it alone always isn't enough 50 000 songs a week get uploaded to spotify that's a lot of vocals on nice songs getting uploaded you know what i mean it's conviction it's passion it's honesty you know what i mean it's connectivity yeah it's that people connect with something broader than just the music and when they connect with something broader than just the music they'll give you a chance to miss too sure they'll be patient with you mgk's got a great example of this like his fans which he's never missed but his fans have been patient with him to follow him so when mgk like i so admire him and his art one as a person too but my boy my boy but like as an artist he is so good at being like i'm out he like will take years off of album cycles i never take that much time off writing and he'll do it like no just i got to think about what this next what my next move is what's my next sound like what am i he's always looking to innovate and create and evolve and what's the next i do too but i do it very very slowly and casually and just kind of had a little tempo here and there a little tempo here and there You know what I'm talking about.

1:37:11You know my style. And MGK is like, nope, complete left turn. You know what I'm saying? We're going to go from 75 beats per minute, 808 rap beats to 120 beat per minute pop punk music. Boom. And fearlessly does it. Like when he has a conviction to do it, he doesn't care. You know what I mean? And not all artists have that. You know what I mean? Not all. That is a rare trait that an artist can. The true difference of an artist and a songwriter. 100%. Yes, 100%. And even the career of like, when your fans connect with you outside of just the music, they're willing to give you grace to try something different.

1:37:52Yeah. I agree. There's a lot of artists that are stuck in that same rut. They can't try nothing different because the few fans they have won't allow them to because they're only here for this sound because they never connected to them outside of the sound of the music. Yeah. You know? Well, I think it makes them even more relatable because, yeah, they're going to make mistakes. Right. But if they're with you, they're with you. And they it almost then makes them connect with you even more because you're human. Right. You're not success after success after success. If there's a blip in there that isn't what you want it to be, but they're still with you and they let you know.

1:38:31And then you come out on the other side. That's amazing. And they're a part of that journey with you and they feel that journey. Right. And they'll grow with you. Because, like, we were talking about Megan Maroney off camera about just the rock star that she's becoming. And how I parallel to, like, early Taylor Swift career. And, like, nobody will ever be Taylor. Taylor is truly the GOAT. We said this off camera. She's a once in a lifetime. Amazing. Will never be done. The biggest artist ever. ever bigger than the Beatles like the biggest artist ever undeniable unarguable like take all that Taylor Swift's not the great shit away from here she's the best but the way Megan's connecting with young girls reminds me of how Meg how Taylor connected with young girls and then how they grew with Taylor so when Taylor would go through a heartbreak they would go through that heartbreak because their life was aligned at that same time like we're gonna watch this happen with Megan the next 10 years like i can't the music's the big part of this but i know megan's a songwriting son of a bitch you know what i'm saying so it's like she's gonna be great so it's like as long as megan moroney keeps writing those kind of songs and just telling her authentic truth at the moment you know what i mean like because that's what taylor did taylor was just always true to who she was in the moment it was just like this is what i'm going through what else would i write my album about you know what i'm saying it's like what are y 'all talking about you know it just made so much sense.

1:40:02Megan's in that same vein. And that's what I love about our art is that there's no same point of entry. Like everybody kind of has their own. It's all similar, but it all feels different because it has its unique ways. And I see that with the wrestlers. It's all like a same vibe because it's all chasing a similar dream, but there's a thousand points of entry. Every one of these guys has a different way they think of who they are as a performer or what their gimmick is. Everybody has a different what they will or won't do. You know what I mean? How they go about it. Just like I can tell you artists that don't write their songs, artists that do write their songs, artists that won't write with writers, artists who's never wrote with a writer, artists that only write with writers.

1:40:41You know? Yeah. It's a thousand ways to skin a cat. Amen. And I still think it's crazy that you sat here to say, as Jelly Roll, that you hoped you would be big enough to be able to get that celeb entrance into WWE. no right we're sitting here with jelly like did he say this is this is kind of incredible for us we were so excited for this interview i love like i said i watched the pod i loved it well thank you thank you but one um one of the things that we were talking about is how you give back not only in your concerts not only in everything you do but i was reading and and we have different stories but you go to prisons and and juvie centers and you speak to the kids and you play cards with them before your shows can you talk a little bit about that and how you're inspiring hope in people who you know maybe don't feel like they have any it's um I never I just I came from a place where not a lot of people showed up for me right and um and i don't mean that like in a super like sad way but like in a real way like you know like not a lot of love in your life no a lot of love in the house but like outside of the house it wasn't a lot of people that showed up for me like i wasn't a super popular kid my parents never made it to my little league football games i'm not crying about it but it's like it's just the reality like i just didn't have a lot of people show up for me you know um i still i have childhood trauma that i projected on my daughter i've talked about openly about birthdays i have a real birthday trauma from having birthday parties and nobody came to you know what i mean i'm so sorry that's awful it's the worst feeling that is the worst feeling ever do it early oh you know you give the whole class an rsvp and everybody says they're coming but nobody actually shows oh that's awful you know and it's the first yeah it's the worst fear as a parent i had to live it and since then i was like i've almost kept cutting her birth and i started making her birthdays about me because i hated them so much i hated her doing them like i just projected so much negativity over the years and then she had a sweet 16 and we did a big blowout and I dude I think I got a fucking ulcer so stressed out I've been more stressed about her little sweet 16 than anything and it was awesome oh good hundreds of kids showed up I mean it was a big hit you know but I was just so but I just I come from a place where not a lot of people showed up for me yeah and I remember especially being incarcerated and like you know I had like my dad came to see me you know I love my mama to death my mother never came to see me in jail my mother never made it to a court date you know what I mean this isn't shitting on her and I was a criminal maybe she didn't come see me I need to learn that lesson that's not you know but like her own demons she had her own demons too and I respect I'm not this is no woe is me people have a way worse story this is my story I want your story let me tell my story and um it made me want to show up for people like as soon as I got in a situation to start like showing up for people like it makes you want to show up for people like you because you know what it's like to not have nobody show up for you yeah So now it's like when I'm sitting, I'm at an arena a mile and a half away from the Minneapolis jail.

1:43:49Why would we not go over here and play the guitar and sing for these guys? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like nobody's showing up for them. Like, why would we not go to the local rehab? Why would we not go to the local homeless shelter? Like, this is where Jesus would go. Yeah. You know what I mean? It goes back to my faith. Kind of. You know what I mean? It's like this is, you know, Jesus said you did all of this for the least, so you did it for me. You know what I mean? When Jesus said, thank you, you know, you visited me while I was in jail. You fed me when I was poor. They said, we didn't do any of that for you.

1:44:15He said, you did it for the least, though, so you did it for me. You know what I mean? Like, that's the real vibe. Yeah, this is us at a juvenile right here. This is Pendleton in Indiana. Super fat jelly roll right there, by the way. This denim, that was a 6X denim, and this one right here is probably like a 2. Woo! So proud of that. That's awesome. But those kids were great, man. But we go to homeless shelters, rehabs, jails, juveniles. We just try to show up for people, man. Yeah. And I saw online you after the floods in Texas. That was a fake news story. It was? It was a fake news story. That was one of the ones that got me.

1:44:54Oh, well, you got, like, great. I know. It was real. It was so much of a fake news story they had to do a correction on, like, a hoax. It was an AI story. Really? It's believable. It's believable. Because of who you are. Because I do so much. Yeah. And the shitty part of that now is that now these stories come out every now and then that are like crazy stories that you're like, oh, I wish. But we do not have that kind of money. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No, and not even the money. It was just like how you show up. Actually, the whole thing was that it wasn't about the money. Yeah. You know?

1:45:23Oh, that was that one. They had one that said I donated like$50 million. $25 million I saw. And I was like, whoa. Only$25 million. Yeah, it's like, first of all, I don't know that I would still be doing this if I had$25 million. Five million dollars, frankly. I'm not sure I would be here. I might be at a ranch in Montana smoking a big old hooter. You know what I'm saying? I mean, and it speaks to who you are that, I mean, people would believe. Because you do show up. Like you were saying, why wouldn't you? But people aren't, you know, they don't need to do that. You're making a point to give back, which is, it's just so powerful to see.

1:46:02You just show up for people, man. And it's just do it, do it all we can. I mean, hospitals, children's centers, cancers. I mean, we go everywhere. I mean, we try to, every city almost, we try to make some sort of a stop and impression and let people know what's going on. I don't know. Just spread the love. That's right. I just remember how much, like, we got excited when the ice cream truck came to me. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, does that make sense? Like, that was like, somebody cares. To this day. They're coming to take our dollar. You know what I'm saying? It's like. Ice cream. Yeah, we were excited.

1:46:33I didn't see that. My favorite. We were excited about that. So it's like, I know I was, when I was in jail, I was excited about sack lunches. If they had a banana in my sack lunch, it's like, we got a banana. I ain't had a fresh fruit in a year. What was the food like? Shitty. Yeah. Yeah. You got to eat shit and like the taste of it. Ain't that what y 'all say? Yeah, that's right. That's right. Shit sandwich. Yeah. It's shitty. It's awful. But you do get every now and then you get a bag lunch or is it? You get like a bag lunch. Is it always a surprise bag lunch? Okay. Yeah. Jail comes with three hots and a cot.

1:47:04Okay. That's what they promise you in the county jail. They're going to feed you three hot meals a day, five days a week. You get a cold lunch two days a week, which is your sack lunches on the weekends. Every jail is different, obviously. And then you get a cot to sleep in. But the food's like, imagine school lunch, but not good. You know what I mean? And school lunch wasn't great. Yeah, exactly. But it's like, imagine like a really shitty school lunch. Yeah. Like Salisbury steak. The mystery meat. The mystery meat. Yeah, the Salisbury steak is always greenish. Yeah, we had a breakfast, we'd call shit on a shingle.

1:47:36Oh. You know what I mean? That's nice. I feel like my grandfather would always talk about that in the Navy. Yeah, yeah, shit on a shingle. Yeah, similar. I have learned the parallels of the military and jail scare me. Like when you meet people who have done real military time and done real prison time, they hit it off. Really? No, it's crazy, dude. Yeah. It's very similar. Like both of them have lived kind of - Why, because it's systematic? Just very systematic, just very structured, very siloed, very in a silo. You know what I mean? Do you think you learned any lessons in prison? Man, I thank God I went to jail.

1:48:11Yeah. Steph, I thank God. I regret everybody that I hurt, but I don't, I honestly think that my path was meant to be the way it was. It's just, I think God knew, I always say, I used to say that music changed my life. But I realize now that God changed my life. He just knew music was the only thing that would get me to listen to him. You know what I mean? And I think that when I went my way, he just had to keep sitting me down and try to point me back to the music. When I finally went towards the music, I went his way and it's just been all smooth ever since then. What is it about Fire and Rain?

1:48:51What is it about the lyrics or the song? Ooh, I think about my father and my mother telling me the story about it, just like one of them Constantine songs. And like, I'm a super lyric guy, like really, really love lyrics, nuance of lyrics like story. I love open for interpretation storytelling. like the idea that you can listen to this song and feel it in such a deep rooted way but not be 100 sure what he's talking about right but you know what it what you're talking about right yeah because it means something different to everyone ever and that is the best song stephanie is like when i can i don't i don't i had i did this my first album when i got with the label and i quit doing it because i hated it they would do these like interviews where they want you to explain song lyrics and i don't believe in explaining art at all i don't think art deserves an explanation or needs one i think as soon as you start explaining art you take away from the art like this is open for interpretation like i don't that's why i defend comedians when they say wild jokes it's like yo they're just trying to find funny here sometimes they're gonna miss but like they don't have to explain that to nobody this is their art you know what i mean like uh was it julius that was the pope when michelangelo was was it julius we check that for me right quick so i I don't tell a story wrong because.

1:50:12Notice he didn't look at us. Sorry. Y 'all didn't have a computer in front of you. I just looked straight over at what I would consider. If this was Joe Rogan podcast, I'm like, Jamie, could you pull up? But I believe it was Pope Julius, right? The second maybe. And Michelangelo, there's an old story. And this is parallel to the question a little bit. But he walks out and he goes, yeah, Pope Julius II walks out and Michael Angelo is chiseling away. He hears him chiseling away at a concrete. Have you heard this story? I'm not sure. And he goes out and he goes, why are you? It was like the middle of the night or something.

1:50:53He's like, why are you doing this in the middle of the night? Take a break. Why are you working so hard? And he turns around and he goes, there's an angel imprisoned in here. Can't you see? I must set him free. Wow. didn't crazy plot twist right yeah and it's like to me that's wow what art is wow you know what i mean is like we some it's seen different you know i like open for interpretation so fire and rain to me is i feel like that was one of james's michelangelo moments where he's sitting there with that guitar like there's an angel in here can you not see he's in prison and then you hear and it's like um even it just starts so abstract just yesterday morning oh my god jelly we're talking about you you know what i mean and i'm like suzanne the plans ain't made he put an end to you you're instantly like who is suzanne i remember being a kid going who is suzanne there's a character already here you're back to storytelling i'm immediately and she never comes back around by the way you don't see her again you know and then when you have y 'all ever went down the worm whole about this song?

1:51:59I have not. It's not as fun to go down now because he finally did an interview like in the last 10 years where he was kind of talked a little bit about what it wasn't about but not as much what it was. But they thought that that last verse whenever he said I've been walking my mind to an easy time my back turns to the sun. Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around. We're hours of time on the telephone lines to talk about things to come. Sweet dreams and flying machines and pieces on the ground. Wow. and if you want to look this up for me right quick to make sure i'm not wrong there was a plane crash around that era oh yes it was his girlfriend at the time right that's who suzanne was but there was a plane crash with a bunch of musicians in it that it because the third verse and but he said it wasn't about that later he debunked it but forever we thought he talked a third verse about whoever that band was in the 70s it wasn't jim croce no i wasn't skinner crash in the 70s and so did Croce.

1:52:56A lot of crashes. Croce died in the 70s. That's it. That's what they were talking about. It was the day the music died. That's it. That's what he did. I got goosebumps right there. I'm sorry. The Buddy Holly died. They said it was about that because he said hours of time on the telephone lines to talk about things to come. Sweet dreams and flying machines on pieces and pieces on the ground. Talking about all the dreams that died. You know what I mean? We believed in our heart and that's what's so fun about music is that you listen and like Undertaker greatest gimmick in wrestling history period right the most fearful everything about it because you would you could create storylines within him without him even necessarily being real you know what I mean like so when he had a brother named Kane it was so believable because the pallbearer figure was already so fucking hard to figure out and what their relationship was so you had to y 'all were so good at not blowing that story at first so you just had to kind of watch and figure it out so you speculated and that's what made fire and rain special to me was like it was a song i also love when people do it the opposite way of how i do it i write open for interpretation but not as clear i'm definitely more of a storytelling more of like a i can write um more poetic but i prefer to just capture a feeling um i also prefer to promote music with communication and talking and just being, you know, just kind of being an orator, just like talking.

1:54:27So like I'm a big Weekend fan because he does it the opposite way. He never does interviews at all about anything. He's never explained himself to anybody about anything. He's my favorite artist of this generation. It couldn't be more opposite than the way I'm like, I'll tell you my whole childhood. I told you about my saggy skin today. You know what I mean? It's like, and this guy's like, I'm not even going to tell you my government name until later. You know what I'm just saying? I'm going to be the Weekend. until later in life when I'm finally like, just call me Abel. You know what I'm saying?

1:54:55But James was that. Dylan loved him for the same reason. Croce, another one. The 70s was my era. I just love 70s. Are you a 70s music fan? I am not as much a 70s music fan, but I was born in the 70s. Do you know who I'm culturing on music right now? Kevin Owen. When he went under surgery, I was like, hey, man, this is going to sound corny, but can I send you a playlist? You're going to be trying to kill some time. He was like, dude, please. And I was like, what are you least cultured in? Outlaw country music or Southern rock and roll? And I was just guessing it'd be one of the two. I was right.

1:55:25He was like both. So I put them together as Southern rock playlist. That's cool. We're fixing to introduce him. I love Southern rock. He's going to learn about Leonard Skinner. Yeah. What got you into Southern rock? Gosh. You're an East Coast woman. Did you go to Boston College? I went to Boston University, but both my parents are from North Carolina. And my grandmother was a really big Southern music fan. But I grew up with Motown. I grew up with really everything. but Motown is primarily what I love. My mom would love Motown too. I mean, and that's, I'd be cooking in the kitchen with my mom and just blasting Motown and dancing in the kitchen and I just have some of the best memories that way.

1:56:04What are some of your favorite Motown records? Oh my God. Well, I love Otis. I love Otis Redding. I mean, I think he is my favorite artist ever. I used to sing Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. Did you hear me do it on Howard Stein? No, I haven't heard that one. You'd love it. I think I would. I would love it. Check it out sometime. I did it on Howard Stern. We covered it. It's real fun. Yeah. I love Otis. I'm sorry I didn't hear it. No, no, it's fun. It's fun. We did Otis. I do love a, we listen to a lot of like Motown and 70s music when I'm writing. Because I don't want to listen to nothing current to be influenced by it.

1:56:38So like we were literally listening to Ain't No Mountain High Enough. Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I created an Ain't No Mountain High Enough channel. Yeah. Actually. I'm serious yeah it's awesome my wife took me to like they had a Motown night at the Opera House in Nashville a few years ago and it was one of the best dating nights I bet they just sung old classic Motown records so good we just stood up and danced all night I mean Temptations I mean everything you know everything and I love Marvin Gaye yes Aretha yes you know I mean I had the chance to meet Aretha goodness well she did Wrestlemania and then she did like early Wrestlemania and then And from this at the Silverdome, she sang America the Beautiful.

1:57:22Yeah. Yeah. She opened. And that was when we broke the indoor attendance record, which fans all over the place debunk. But as I remember it, we did at that time. It was at the now Silverdome doesn't exist anymore. Over ninety three thousand. Yes. And they say, oh, you counted every person in the building. Yeah, sure. OK, fine. However, we counted them. Yeah. What are you? Am I fucking not supposed to? We put ninety thousand. I want credit for everybody I put in the building. What are you talking about? It looked like a small city in there because I was a kid watching. It was amazing. It was amazing.

1:57:56And then I had the honor of meeting Aretha. She did something with us in a show much later when I was actually working for the company. And she was so cool. I mean, and I had so much respect for her anyway, but just to actually have the chance to shake her hand. And she didn't disappoint. You know, she wasn't one of those heroes that you meet and you're like upset about it. She over-delivered and her kindness and just her energy and who she was. But let me see if my daughter. Please, I want to hear something. I have to see if she actually sent it. We talked about that so long. I'll add it to my list.

1:58:33Okay, here you go. If you show it to anyone, tell them the phone doesn't pick up my voice the best. She talks like a singer already.

1:59:06Ooh

1:59:31How fast I get there. Ain't it bad? We're waiting on the other side.

1:59:42It's a clock. Ooh.

1:59:47So good. God. Stop it there. How old is she? Stop her that. Good. So good. She's almost 15. When did she turn 15? In August. Dude, that's incredible. Thank you. God, that is so good. I'm so proud of her. What a big song for her to sing, too. Oh, she just picks the... It's bold. Singing Miley? Go, girl. Go. I love that song, though. That's a great song. No, it's a good... Jesse Alexander was a writer on that song, and it was the song that changed her life. Really? Imagine that being your first hit. Yep. So powerful. So next time y 'all ever come to Nashville, I'll introduce her to Jesse. Wow. Yeah.

2:00:24That would be amazing. The girl that wrote that song, she'll love it. That would be amazing. It's a Nashville girl. Hmm. Real fun. She lived where she lived. She's based out in Nashville. She has a great voice, man. Thank you, thank you. I'm sure I see you are. I'm not telling you how to parent. No, no. Please give me advice on how to help her because I don't know what to do. I wasn't even pitchy at that age. I was in the wrong key. You know what I mean? It's the thing that you feel when she sings, and it moves the entire audience. That's what I always notice, right? is not only how I feel, because of course I'm her mom, right?

2:01:01So I'm going to cry and I'm going to be proud because I just am. But it's the way it impacts everyone else in the room. It's just very powerful. Has she shown any love in an instrument yet? She plays piano a bit. Great. But she's very musically inclined. She can play the drums, but she then never, you know, she got, I find she's a little bit lazy because she's good at it, you know? And so I've told her the other day, because my middle daughter plays tackle football, oldest daughter plays softball, and they're like overly dedicated. And I mean, just constantly every waking minute, my oldest is working three jobs coaching softball.

2:01:40She's playing softball in her last year of eligibility. She's doing as much as she can. And then same with my middle daughter, working with other coaches. She's constantly playing football. She's constantly doing everything she can. And I said, I said, Vaughn, if that's what you want to do, if you really want to be a musician and a performer, you have to be living and breathing this. It has to be everything for you. You know, so she's got to tell her what I said is real. It ain't what we do. Yeah. It's who we are. It's who we are. I love that. Musicians are different. It's not what we do. It's who we are.

2:02:13It's not what we do. It's who we are. It's not especially musicians. I can't apply that to any. No, no. I think you can. I think you absolutely can. It's not what we do, man. I don't go. When somebody's like, are you going to go play a show? I don't play shows. I do shows. Yeah. That's what I do. You know what I mean? Yeah. Play sounds like I'm, you know what I mean? We're going to go play. I'm not fucking. We do shows. Yeah. We rock shit. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. We live this. We live the music. That's what I love about here. The coaches see it every day of me now. They're like, where are you going?

2:02:44I'm like, y 'all know where I'm going. I'm going straight to the studio. What are you talking about? I'm going to put an ice pack on my shoulder and write a song. You know what I mean? She's got a good voice, man. Thank you. At 14 and singing to her camera like that, that's special, man. Yeah. Please encourage her. Thank you. I will. Will I see her at SummerSlam? You will. Bring her back and let her spend a few minutes with me. Just kind of let me breathe in her ear. I will. It's a little different. I've even learned this with my own daughter. It's like she's kind of the same way. She wrote a few songs with me, plays the guitar a little bit, and she was naturally good at it, so she just kind of like, got it.

2:03:15Right. It's like, I know you don't got it, though. You know what I mean? Like, you got to really go. But she just naturally was so kind of got it. And then I was like, you got to write more if you want to do this. And she just wasn't listening to me. Right. But then Jessie Jo Dillon. Well, and it's you telling her. Exactly. But then Jessie Jo Dillon, my homegirl that's just won ACM Songwriter of the Year and was nominated for Songwriter of the Year for the last two Grammys, takes her under her wing and is instantly like, girl, you got to write more. Bailey's writing. And now she's like, okay. You know what I'm saying?

2:03:43You feel me? It's like, you know what I mean? So it's so fun because it's different hearing it from somebody else. It's just different when it comes from somebody else, especially when it's in the field too. Cause like I'm in the field, but Bailey's still like, I'm dad. Yeah, of course. This is one more thing I'm griping about. It's no different than you got to clean your room, brush your teeth. That's how it sounds better. Clean your room, brush your teeth, write songs. It just falls into this. You know what I'm saying of things I'm bitching about? And, but when it comes from another peer that's in the space, like, cause if I was a young songwriter, Jesse Joe Dillon is like, Like if I was a young songwriting girl, Jesse Joe Dillon is the girl I'd want to be.

2:04:16You know what I mean? Like if I was a young songwriting dude, I'd want to be Ernest or Charlie Hanson. You know what I mean? Right. Or John Byron. Like these are Ashley Gurley. These kind of characters. Like if I was a young female songwriter, I'd want to be Jesse Joe Dillon. So imagine Jesse Joe Dillon. Yeah. You're like, girl. You know what I'm saying? Right, yeah. We're talking about two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter of the year. That's crazy. For a girl, that's nuts. It's amazing. Amy Allen won this year. Another girl. We should have her on the podcast if she wants to be. Jessie would love.

2:04:44Jessie's awesome. And the fun thing is she doesn't talk about it a lot because she's an old school songwriter. She doesn't sing her songs. She don't play them. She don't do writer's rounds. She doesn't sing with the artist. Like, she's an old school, like... Yeah. Oh, it's generational with her, by the way. You'll really relate to this story. Jessie Jo Dillon's father is Dean Dillon, who wrote about every George Strait song you've ever heard. Really? Yep. Wow. Wow, my grandmother's favorite. Dude, he's my... He's the king. Oh, my God. Your grandmom had good taste She did for sure And she drank vodka and smoked cigarettes Until her dying day One of us She might have known my mom I think that's what my mom's doing right now Well Jelly I can't thank you enough For giving us all this time And dropping so much of your knowledge On us Thanks for letting me ramble for so long I've been wanting to talk about wrestling I can't talk to nobody else about it Well, you can talk to us about it anytime.

2:05:44And it's not, it's who you are. It's not what you do. Yes, ma 'am. This ain't what we do. It's who we are. It's not what you do. It's who you are. That's it. I love that. Yes, ma 'am. Thank you. Thank you. Love y 'all.