#399 - The War and Treaty on the Origin of Their Name + Their Remarkable Love Story and Singing As a Married Couple + Why Michael Joined the Military and Playing Piano and Writing His First Song While Serving in Iraq

00:00:06
Speaker 1: This one particular day, I had lost the battle buddy, remember, and I saw an artist named Lee Bright music video, but I dripped your truck and they changed my life. Never met this guy, never had one phone conversation with him, but that guy saved my life that day.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: Episode three, The Warren Treaty. I'll tell a story before we get going here. So I was at the Grand Ole Opry last night and did a little performance and then also hosted part of the TV show and the Warre and Treaty were playing. So I was with them and I was introducing them and they're really good and you're gonna hear their story in a second. And so they went on, it's second time I've done this, and they allude to the first time that I was at the Opry and was able to introduce them. But I did it again last night, and so I do a thing. They go out and they crush it. It's like multiple standing ovations. He served in the military. He talks about that. You know. One of the cool stories is how he learned to play piano. It was I I don't want to write that. Shouldn't spoil it for a great story, Okay, So I won't spoil that part. But he's up there and he's playing keys and singing and she's singing, and again, I think they got three standing ovations. And at the end, I do a little thing where I interviewed them on camera, and I just couldn't interview them because the people wouldn't stop the ovation because I only have like two minutes because it's basically during a commercial break for the TV show but it's on radio and it's on the stream now. Two minutes maybe two thirty. Never got to ask him a single question because the people would not stop cheering.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

00:01:39
Speaker 4: I mean, it's that powerful of a performance.

00:01:41
Speaker 2: And I was just I was talking to him last night and I was like, have you heard your episode back? Not realizing he hadn't been on yet. Because we do a lot of the we're backed up, people want to come. I didn't realize that it wasn't out yet. So I'm very excited for people to hear this because they're great live, but also just a really.

00:01:59
Speaker 4: It's a really huge.

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Speaker 2: Human story of like struggle and I don't want to say triumph because I don't think they're quite there, but a triumph over a lot of like the personal stuff they were battling with because I don't think I think they're Triumph's coming like in a major, major way. So it's the War Entreaty. It's husband and wife duo, Michael and Tanya Trotter. I'm going to say this, follow them at the War Entreaty, or just see what they look like. That's why I like to do sometimes on a podcast. I need to see what people look like that I'm here and talk. Or I assigned them to look like celebrities, and they never look like the celebrities I think in my head.

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Speaker 4: Here's an example. Let's do some music here.

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Speaker 2: This is the song they performed at the ACMs called blank Page the Lame So good.

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Speaker 4: Here's a little something called Ain't No Harm in Me.

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Speaker 2: We had that on the Country Top thirty Spotlight Artists of the Week in the Countdown. So I've been a big fan for a while. Their album Lover's Game came out in March tenth. They were nominated for their first ACM Award for Duo of the Year last week. And I don't know what else to say except let's just go anything.

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Speaker 4: Mike, What's your Thing? One of the best love stories I've ever heard.

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Speaker 1: I would listen.

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Speaker 4: I would watch an entire music biopic on their life.

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Speaker 5: They've been through so much.

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Speaker 2: I'm writing that down, write it down, develop and produce, and give Mike no credit for a music The War and Treaty Here we Go, episode three ninety nine, Thank you very much. I was watching this thing about Hooting and the Blowfish recently. I was a massive Hooting the Blowfish fan when I was high school and get massive. Yeah, and Darius was like one of the first I think he was my first ever interview that I ever did in my whole life as at seventeen eighteen years old.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 2: And so I'm watching this history of Hoody and they would always go, oh, you're Hoody, that's the Blowfish, And he was like, no, stop saying that, because that was one of his friends was named Hoody. One of his friends's name the Blowfish. It was, but it wasn't Hoody and the Blowfish like the group. Yeah, So Who's war Who's Treaty?

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Speaker 3: It depends on today.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I think I'm all.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me about the name before we really get into each of you and your stories. And I'm just gonna act like I know nothing, because I do know a lot. We have the same management. I think we have the same almost everything's weird. Yeah, I think we have the same pr people too. Yeah, I think we have everything the same. So I know way too much and it's always hard for me to do that's when I know so much. So I'm really gonna dumb it down. The war and treaty. Michael's start with what's up with the name.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean we had seven band names before, and you know, I just looked at him and as like, none of these names make any sense, you know, And I kept changing the name and Tanya was like, this is not how you brand, this isn't how you get professional. I'm like, I don't give a crap up being a professional. I want the name to make some sort of sense. And so we start arguing. We're like going at it in tian It's like, Michael, calm down, this is not the war. We need to come to some sort of treaty about this. And I'm like, we just did. That's the name the war.

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Speaker 4: The name happened, That's literally what happened.

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Speaker 6: I wanted to keep going fussing, but then you know, he was like that's it, and I'm like.

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Speaker 3: What about it, Yeah, because that's cool. We were fans.

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Speaker 1: We're massive fans of a band that used to be called the Civil Wars.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and Joy.

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Speaker 4: I know, Joy really was awesome.

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Speaker 1: Yes, you know, they both were just magical and you know, but I I was like, we gotta have the word war somewhere in the band name because of my background, and and Tell was like, well, you know, we don't need to change it, and I was like, we're not. That's the name right there, the war and treaty, and you know, that's how we got it, and you were just cool with that.

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Speaker 3: I was cool with it. I thought it worked.

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Speaker 4: What was the name before? What did you come off of?

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Speaker 3: Oh? My god, empty Earth?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, empty Earth.

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Speaker 6: We were Trotter and Blunt my maiden name. That sounds like a law firm, So we.

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Speaker 4: Were Todd and what blunt like? A blunt was like a blood.

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Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, we had dear Martin, Martha, who's Martha?

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Speaker 3: Some random names.

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Speaker 4: Well, you know what, Warren Tritty, that's what we're going with.

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Speaker 3: I don't like that.

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Speaker 4: That's good, that's good. I was working at the ACMs when you guys performed.

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Speaker 2: We were let me say, I thought you guys are performance was one of the best of the night, and that one visually was super cool too. How they had you guys sitting across from each other into that microphone in between.

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 2: First of all, I know who sang it and who has the chops. God, I mean, I've been with you guys the opry too, We've been there at the same time.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so you sounded great, you look great. The idea that visual behind that, where did that come from?

00:06:34
Speaker 3: Well, thank you?

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Speaker 6: Came from Patrick and other producers for the show. They had an idea of how they wanted us to perform that song because they come to our concert out in California when we did the show, and it was interesting. When we did it in rehearsal, I wasn't as nervous, but I wasn't as nervous, but when I realized that this was our first time doing any of our own music and it was just us show, you know, that's it, you know, us holding hands. I was squeezing Michael's hands so hard, and if you look at the look back at the film of the show, you'll see him saying, come closer.

00:07:12
Speaker 3: Because I was so nervous. I was like freaking out.

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Speaker 2: I was back there, and so I was right behind the stage because when some artists would come back, I would talk to them just to give producers time to kind of reset the next stage.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and so.

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Speaker 2: While you guys were on, I had an artist walk up to me and they were attracted to what you were doing, both by your sound and also the visual.

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Speaker 4: And they were like, wow, that's great.

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Speaker 2: And I said, you know their cousins, right, and they were like, that looks weird for their cousins.

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Speaker 4: I said, they're married. I'm just getting them married. They're married. So you guys have been married for how long?

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Speaker 3: Twelve years? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And but back to that visual for a second. I've seen that somewhere before, well not somewhere before.

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Speaker 4: And faith I saw a version of that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think.

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Speaker 1: They got up and walked to another set of microphones, which was cool. But I do remember when I first saw them doing that, I was we weren't we weren't together, and I was just dreaming, like, man if I was married, and I would want to like emulate that moment. And and you know, when they came up with the idea of us doing something a variation of that and then standing up and walking to another set, I was like, oh crap, you know, like I'm really goofy.

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Speaker 3: So I'm like, I'm going to fall, I'm going to step into her dress.

00:08:28
Speaker 1: Like something's going to happen here and we're just going to be moment Warren treaty.

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Speaker 2: I didn't feel like it was derivative of the timid and faith one though at all.

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Speaker 3: You know.

00:08:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, and I don't know if that ever was a concern they had that in their temp their love Yeah, loved love whatever that tour. Yeah, like soulda Soul, That's what it was. And I just love to love soulda Soul. But I didn't feel like it was derivative. I felt super fresh, Yeah, felt good. It felt if you were cousins too much married. It felt awesome where you.

00:09:00
Speaker 3: From, it doesn't work here.

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Speaker 2: How'd you feel afterwards you walk off stage, do you guys go to each other like that was amazing or how did it sound? Like?

00:09:10
Speaker 4: What's that conversation?

00:09:11
Speaker 1: So during that moment, I mean when we say we were nervous, we we've I've never ever been nervous to sing, you know, it's been just super fun up until that moment, and I was literally backstage freaking out.

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Speaker 2: That was your first time to be nervous singing ever?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like even as a kid, I mean that moment right there. Leading up to it, I remember calling our managers and our label CeAl and I was like, hey, I'm being completely.

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Speaker 3: Honest with you.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a little terrified, you know, and and and and Tanya was like, I'm not nervous at all, you know, all week. And then we get on the stage.

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Speaker 3: She's she's got like.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: This death grip on my hands, and so I'm already nervous, and I'm like, and I'm sweating.

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Speaker 3: I was like, palms and sweating. It was just gross.

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Speaker 1: I said, I love you. She said, I love you. S let me go.

00:10:01
Speaker 3: Now you're hurting me.

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Speaker 1: I was like, it hurts. And then I'm like, she's like, I don't know what to do. Where are you supposed to She's freaking out, she for getting, she's forgetting cues, and I'm like, Tian, just stop, you know, I think we're gonna be fine.

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Speaker 3: And and when we were.

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Speaker 1: Done, you know, we we were walking off stage and it was so cool because TJ from brothers. Osborne was standing right there waiting for us, and you know, we hugged.

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Speaker 3: And he's like, you did it. That's it, You're good. You know. I'm like, bones, show.

00:10:34
Speaker 4: Your husband here in the world.

00:10:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, why did our promo fire? It's like, okay, next, are we like clued into this show in the studio?

00:10:47
Speaker 4: All right, well that's your time, guy, all right? They are there. So you see t J.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, t J and he he hugs us, and then and then we go around and we see Kaylee Hammock and.

00:11:02
Speaker 3: Ranney Clark and then we saw then we saw John as well.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, they're like big brothers, just you know, supporting us because they knew it was our first time.

00:11:11
Speaker 1: They of course we did thee with them, but already they're not my big brother.

00:11:18
Speaker 3: It was great.

00:11:18
Speaker 4: Do you guys go and check socials? Is your phone blown up? After that?

00:11:21
Speaker 2: I mean, I have to assume that everybody's.

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Speaker 1: Like, well, we weren't scheduled to go do what do you call it? Depressed or nothing like that. And but when we got done, you know, they were like, hey, they wanted you to come to them, and I was just like, are you serious?

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Speaker 3: You know what you know?

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Speaker 1: And we checked our Yeah, we did check socials in the car, you know, just to see I was actually trying to see any clips of it or something, you know, because I just wanted to see how it looked and how we sounded and stuff, and and it was just a flood of just people just really congratulating us and that kind of thing.

00:11:56
Speaker 4: Positivity.

00:11:58
Speaker 2: It really was great.

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Speaker 1: Exactly caught us in the parking lot and Luke call I mean, like the camaraderie that we felt from the artist was like really cool.

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Speaker 3: And I guess yesterday was it.

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Speaker 6: Day before yesterday, we were at the It was our show at the Brooklyn Bowl and the lady was there and she said, I want you to see something because we never of course, you never get to see the back of the room when you're on the stage. And she had a video and she air dropped it to me and she was way in the back and she showed up in the video and I just like literally burst into tears because I didn't know that every it was a standing ovation in an arena, that bit, you know, so that just brought me. I was just like she was crying, I was crying, and I could feel that all over again. So that kind of energy in the room, you know, it's priceless.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and hard to replicate.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and then you accidentally do again and you're like on replicated Nanda and you can't and then you actually do it again. But it was fantastic.

00:12:54
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:12:55
Speaker 2: Whenever we talked about your name, Michael, you mentioned you wanted war because of your background. Is that military service? Is that what we're talking about?

00:13:03
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:13:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, why did you want the military?

00:13:07
Speaker 3: Oh?

00:13:07
Speaker 1: Just I had made a lot of mistakes man, in my life. I mean, I had dropped out of high school. I was done with that, and I had made a baby and my daughter, my sweet honey, and I had another one on the way, and I was just lost.

00:13:23
Speaker 3: I didn't know where to go, what to do, and I just knew.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: I believed that at that time I wasn't school material, you know, I didn't know what kind of material would be period coming from the streets Cleveland, and and but my grandfather, my father, my uncle all served and I knew that I wasn't too far from how jacked up they were. So I was like, I'm I think I'm gonna go and join the army. And you went to Iraq, right, Oh, yeah, what was that like for you?

00:13:52
Speaker 3: For me?

00:13:53
Speaker 1: So, man, I think it's it's it was a gift and a curse, you know. The gift was this the first time I had any kind of relationship with someone who didn't look like me, you know, Like I tell this all the time, even when we're on the stage, Like I had went through my whole life without encountering white people at all, you know, and only reading what they put in the books and what they want you to know, whether it's on TV or whether it's in the books and the history or whatever. But when I got into the army, it's like, all right, here we go. We're doing this, you know. And then you start realizing that the color of your skin is the actual uniform and the flag and you know, and then you start talking and realizing it ain't much difference. And that was the gift for me to be able to serve with those men and women, my battle buddies, you know. And the curse was and then you lose them, you don't realize like, hey, this isn't forever, you know, and you forget sometimes like you're at war because people don't understand war. There's a lot of downtime. It's a lot of quiet, it's a lot of reflecting, and then all of a sudden, boom, there's a explosion on mortar round or ied or something like that. And and then even that gave me a gift because then I started writing songs. My first song I ever wrote was in the war about one of my battle buddies who got killed, and I wrote it. I taught myself to play the piano and to make the song, and.

00:15:28
Speaker 4: They are Adam.

00:15:31
Speaker 3: You know.

00:15:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, this isn't a well known or well publicized fact about him because it would kind of humanize a little bit, this tyrant. But he was a prolific pianist. He had pianos everywhere in Iraq. And we just happened to take over one of the palaces that had his black upright piano and little initials was carved and I'm just singing.

00:16:00
Speaker 3: And learning how to play that kind of thing.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: And I do the song I wrote for this particular soldier's memorial out there, and it brings so much resolution to the soldiers, you know, like the stuff.

00:16:15
Speaker 3: I was putting in it.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: You know, I would talk about the things I would miss and the things I would not miss, you know, like the smell of his feet. You know, it's just a little stuff like that, just trying to lighten the moment. And my colonel at the time shout out to Peter L. Jones, who watched, who's very familiar with your show. He uh, wonder to know if I wrote the song. I said yeah, And he said, well, you know what, that's what you're gonna do for the remainder of your time in Iraq. You're gonna go with me, learn about the falling, and then you want to write the song and perform it.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:16:52
Speaker 1: And that became my job from five to seven when I would get out the military.

00:16:57
Speaker 2: What was your job before that?

00:16:59
Speaker 1: Just I was in the infantry and really it's whatever the army needs, you know. But my sole focus was protecting logistics that kind of thing. And yeah, it's always a difficult part to tap into, you know.

00:17:21
Speaker 4: And I would imagine too with that you talk about a.

00:17:26
Speaker 2: You know, a curse and also something wonderful is that you're getting to do this for them, and it's a wonderful thing, but you're constantly re exposed to the hardest part of it.

00:17:37
Speaker 3: I didn't know.

00:17:40
Speaker 1: Because over ninety percent of the soldiers I was writing about. I knew, you know, so these are friends. But when you're so focused on healing and you're so focused on taking everyone else's mind off of it, you're not focusing where you're putting your mind at the moment.

00:17:57
Speaker 3: And it wasn't.

00:17:58
Speaker 1: Until I got out where I realized I had I had a problem, you know. I had PTSD and depression and anxiety, and it took my life over.

00:18:10
Speaker 3: I couldn't get jobs. I would When I did.

00:18:12
Speaker 1: Get jobs, I lose the jobs because I just freak out a little bit. Fourth of July was always hell, especially in Detroit, because I don't know that their Fourth of July is a little bit different than everyone else's.

00:18:26
Speaker 3: They got stuff that really sounds like.

00:18:28
Speaker 1: No, I know, that's a bomb, you know, like I don't know how a little rocky got that. But you know, and this is when she first discovered there was a real problem with me.

00:18:39
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm I'm six 't two.

00:18:43
Speaker 1: I weighed about one hundred and ten pounds, you know, and trying to dive under the couches, hiding, and my children are crying, and I'm yelling commands, get down, get down, you know, It's stuff that people for years have made jokes out of shell shock, but you know, until you really go through it, you don't realize how real it truthfully is.

00:19:06
Speaker 2: You know, I've done a lot of work with veterans like yourself, and we would get them service dogs through either US specifically or work through organizations. And one of the tools that soldiers would use and they would come back home is that service dog who would always keep them as grounded as possible into what is real.

00:19:27
Speaker 4: Because they've also got to take care of that dog.

00:19:29
Speaker 3: Yep.

00:19:29
Speaker 2: And that's a big part of having a service dog is you can't just let that go take care of it while they're also trained, so like I respect it so much.

00:19:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's a difficult part.

00:19:41
Speaker 1: And even with the service dog, like there's some things that most people don't consider when they offer it up to a soldier because it's very important. Like you asked one unit, you know, with my particular unit, our focus was defusing a lot and most of the situations we would have to diffuse or the bombs we have to diffuse were carcasses or you know, a dog is running up to you and you know, we love dogs, right and you don't realize there's a wire hanging out of his tail, and You're.

00:20:13
Speaker 3: Like, what's going on?

00:20:14
Speaker 1: And it's too late, so, you know, even babies and carriages, strollers and stuff. So I had to really, I just share this with my whole team and my wife. Not that long ago, I said, you know, I, oh, I know what it was in regards to the shooting here in Nashville, right, I had to That situation helped me feel again in a way that I had lost that feeling, you know, because I'm I've seen murder on a different scale, you know, and this year, I can honestly say I started feeling again like I could feel that that pain, I.

00:20:54
Speaker 3: Could feel that loss, you know.

00:20:56
Speaker 1: And I think it's through the love my wife and through treatment, you know that I'm able to get to that point. But so many soldiers, it's just like we got to drive on, you.

00:21:07
Speaker 3: Know, Hang tight.

00:21:09
Speaker 5: The Bobby Cast will be right back, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

00:21:22
Speaker 4: Where did you grow up?

00:21:23
Speaker 3: I grew up in Washington, d C.

00:21:25
Speaker 4: Did you were you always?

00:21:26
Speaker 2: Indeed?

00:21:27
Speaker 4: Were you Maryland at all?

00:21:28
Speaker 6: It was Maryland, not of PG County. Yeah, but there's the Potomac there there's.

00:21:34
Speaker 4: A fine line there, and I've done both.

00:21:36
Speaker 2: I've played the theater like literally in DC, right next to the Capitol, and then I've played the Amphitheater. And there's like city and country and they are that line that's real close to each other, and you go from one to the other and there's no you know exactly where you are. Oh yeah, so yeah, where did you live in the city or the country?

00:21:54
Speaker 3: I kind of lived in both.

00:21:56
Speaker 6: I mean PG County at the time, it wasn't as populated as it is.

00:21:59
Speaker 3: So we moved from Washington, DC.

00:22:01
Speaker 6: My dad was a police officer, Washington DC police officer for twenty five years, and we ended up moving to PG County, which was very you know, suburbs, so they would call us the suburbs girl when we went back to the city, you know, and I didn't realize it until I got older that that was a big difference. And then we would also go to Newbern, North Carolina, where my dad was from, every summer, so I.

00:22:22
Speaker 2: Had I mean, that's the country, that's a real country.

00:22:25
Speaker 6: That was dirt roads and hog pins in front of my grandmama's y'ard and all that stuff.

00:22:29
Speaker 3: So it was very different from me.

00:22:31
Speaker 2: Did you sing as a kid?

00:22:32
Speaker 3: Oh?

00:22:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, how young?

00:22:34
Speaker 6: And I was eight eight years old when I started. My mom was from Panama, so I was listening to all kinds of music. I was like, am I gonna be Cellia Cruz? I might gonna be pay a little Belle, you know, you know, I was just trying to make the difference.

00:22:46
Speaker 3: But eight years old was when I got the bug.

00:22:48
Speaker 2: Did you sing in church or was there a stage for you? Because usually social as artists that come in here, church is always the first place that there's an open stage that an It no't matter how good you are, you can get up and make it joyful noise.

00:23:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:23:01
Speaker 4: So did you sing in church at all?

00:23:02
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, everywhere was a stage.

00:23:04
Speaker 6: I was one of those kids, whether it was a living room, whether it's a church. I was always entering myself in talent shows from age like seven.

00:23:11
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, I was very extravagant as kid.

00:23:15
Speaker 6: I don't know if I was good more if the theatrics of it all is good.

00:23:22
Speaker 2: You know, if you were to be an adult now and see you at seven, not know it was you singing, would you go that seven year old's got real potential?

00:23:30
Speaker 4: To be a great singer.

00:23:31
Speaker 2: Where'd you go That seven year old has got real potential to have potential.

00:23:37
Speaker 6: You know, it's interesting because I was so flamboyant and so wild.

00:23:41
Speaker 3: I would have said that that seven year old is going to make a good entertainer.

00:23:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, because there was just no bars off when I was seven, I mean there was I was free.

00:23:48
Speaker 4: Is that what you wanted to be when you grew up a singer?

00:23:51
Speaker 3: No, I didn't. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to practice entertainment law.

00:23:55
Speaker 6: But then I got the bug and I was like, okay, this is a way for me to kind of, you know, get into music as a lawyer.

00:24:01
Speaker 3: It's to sing.

00:24:01
Speaker 2: When did the bug change direction? Because I apparently always loved to sing, but you thought you would do something else. When did it kind of consume you that, Okay, I'm not going to do that. I am going to sing.

00:24:12
Speaker 6: Very interesting because I had my first record deal when I was seventeen, and I remember being in that and doing the music and putting out a record. I would say that the bug didn't really hit me until the Warren Treaty. Really, yeah, it got me when I started doing with Michael and because I left my record deal and when I was like twenty two, twenty three, and I was like, I don't want to do this anymore.

00:24:38
Speaker 3: The passion wasn't there.

00:24:40
Speaker 6: I didn't have that thing that it takes for you to go through the highs and lows with it.

00:24:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, anything that even though you're getting all the nose, you keep going.

00:24:48
Speaker 3: Yes, that thing. I didn't have that thing.

00:24:50
Speaker 6: And once I got with the Warren Treaty and we were doing like.

00:24:54
Speaker 3: Coffee house tours, and I was so happy.

00:24:56
Speaker 6: We were he being the coffee shops and it's like two people clapping. But the music made me so happy. And it was every genre of music that I just loved that we were kind of, you know, a musical gumbo together. So the Warren Treaty gave me that spark. And when I met Michael out on that field at Laurel's Lake in Maryland, it was him out there in this hot I mean it had to be ninety five degrees outside of here on a big koogie like sweater back then, you know, those were like the sweaters. But he was killing it and his passion for it was just something that I remember at eight years old climbing up in the tree in my backyard writing little notes of my little songs back then that I had at eight years old, but I didn't have at seventeen once I got the deal, but he had it.

00:25:41
Speaker 4: How'd you guys meet.

00:25:43
Speaker 3: At Laurel Lakes? It was a love festival. As cheesy as it sounds, it's so love festival. It's so check. It sounds a little, you.

00:25:55
Speaker 2: Know, but it's not really.

00:25:58
Speaker 3: Maybe in ten years there was a love of the community.

00:26:01
Speaker 1: They were giving out backpacks and they wanted singers. And I was a local local when they were like, you should come sing sing your sing you song.

00:26:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, as a festival that I would do in the city to give backpacks back to the underprivileged kids in the area.

00:26:16
Speaker 3: And Michael was one of the artists.

00:26:18
Speaker 4: So you saw him singing, you were drawn to him?

00:26:21
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:26:21
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:26:21
Speaker 2: Were you drawn to him?

00:26:22
Speaker 4: Like that's an energy?

00:26:23
Speaker 2: I want to be around her, Like that's an energy I want to be a road.

00:26:26
Speaker 3: That's both. It was both, you know.

00:26:30
Speaker 6: I immediately gave him my phone number and he was there with his friend.

00:26:37
Speaker 4: Her approaching it.

00:26:37
Speaker 1: Do you remember, I sure do I remember me approaching her and she was ignoring my conversations.

00:26:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, how about that.

00:26:45
Speaker 4: So what's the real story here?

00:26:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my story. Is a real story, that's.

00:26:48
Speaker 3: Not it's your side, my side down the truth.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: I walked up on Tyan and this lady named Diane introduced us, and Tanya gave me her little hand, her little hand like this, and I was like, oh, Michael, and she said I'm and then turned right around and kept talking.

00:27:02
Speaker 3: I was like, this girlfriend, I peeped the same, you know, let's see what's happening. I'm not gonna.

00:27:08
Speaker 1: However, however, you know, I remember her coming up to me at the end of my my set and she.

00:27:17
Speaker 3: Was like, did you write all these songs? And I said, yeah, yeah, I wrote them.

00:27:20
Speaker 1: And she told me about the project she and her brother were actually working on, and she wanted me to come in as a writer, and she gave me her phone number.

00:27:27
Speaker 2: Right then, just from that one, just I want you to come in as a writer, straight up.

00:27:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, she can't remember. Yeah, I got it. I threw number away.

00:27:39
Speaker 4: Why is you have a girlfriend?

00:27:41
Speaker 3: No, I just I read into it.

00:27:44
Speaker 1: I was like, she don't want, she doesn't want, this is a fake number, you know what I mean? Tanya is beautiful, and I had a lot of esteem issues, and you know, I wasn't paying attention to writing.

00:27:56
Speaker 3: I like, yeah, this, this is gonna be us, you know.

00:28:00
Speaker 1: And I threw the number way and instantly regretted it. And I'm driving my girlfriend at the time home and it was her.

00:28:08
Speaker 3: She's like, you like her, don't you?

00:28:11
Speaker 1: And I was like no, and yeah, She's like I could see y'all together.

00:28:19
Speaker 3: Like I was like, I could too.

00:28:22
Speaker 2: Well, your girlfriend told you, yeah that she could see you, yeah, with another person.

00:28:26
Speaker 1: Surely she said, yeah, she is. She she definitely told me that. She was like I can see y'all. Y'all's energy right there in that convo. Was like, I was like really, because I didn't. I didn't think there was no energy there at all.

00:28:40
Speaker 2: But how did you guys find each other back then? If you don't have her number? I found that police off.

00:28:46
Speaker 4: That's hilarious.

00:28:47
Speaker 3: He's a private detective.

00:28:49
Speaker 6: At the time, I was like, I wish they had face recognition back then.

00:28:53
Speaker 2: That's so funny.

00:28:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, so your dad just type type type got in me.

00:28:57
Speaker 3: You called me all this ninth twenty ten.

00:29:03
Speaker 1: I had literally, I know the exact time it was like two fifteen PM. Was I just got out of church and I looked down at my phone this weird, strange number and I'm with a whole bunch of homies and and.

00:29:15
Speaker 3: I said, hello, it's just like Michael.

00:29:17
Speaker 1: And I'm like yeah. She's like, this is Tanya Blunt. And I'm like, hold on, shut up, ain't I shut up? This is her man?

00:29:24
Speaker 3: She found me, and then I give it for money. Hello, I'm is this Michael's a different place.

00:29:31
Speaker 4: And how long till you guys went out?

00:29:33
Speaker 6: Oh my god, we were connected right away. Yeah, I think we maybe like a week later.

00:29:39
Speaker 3: You came over. No, I came over that Monday. Yeah.

00:29:42
Speaker 1: Next, I came over with her house that Monday and we talked about her story and what she was trying to accomplish with the songs. And I went home and just I was just like smitten, and I just wrote all these songs and I gave them all to her and I was like here, you know, and she was like what you know.

00:30:02
Speaker 3: I'm like they're yours. No, I don't want any credit, I want nothing. You know.

00:30:06
Speaker 1: I didn't understand a lot back then, but I understood that I felt we were we were This was my wife, honestly, and and there's a part of this that we're not talking about.

00:30:17
Speaker 3: Part.

00:30:17
Speaker 1: So Tany I saw Tanya before, ok, and so one of our band names, what one of our band names was called nine years apart, and Tanya and I are nine years apart. I saw her when I was nine years old, and I told my parents that's my wife.

00:30:40
Speaker 4: And that he was zero. You were nine, she was zero.

00:30:42
Speaker 3: No, that I'm a a sable tooth.

00:30:48
Speaker 1: Forget the cougar, and my dad laughed at me, you know. And I saw her in the movies. She was in the movie Sister Act too, and uh yeah, yeah her and will Be Gover Lauren Hill and Tanya and An had that famous scene in the church at the piano where Tanya was like, you take the top, I ticked the bottom and they're singing His Eyes on Sparrow. And I fell in love with Tanya then, and so you know, when I when we started talking, I remember running to my parents' house at like three in the morning, banging on their door and they were like, what Blank's wrong with you? And I'm like, I found her, you know, So.

00:31:27
Speaker 4: What do you think about that story?

00:31:29
Speaker 3: It's true I do.

00:31:31
Speaker 1: I mean, he commends to it.

00:31:33
Speaker 2: He's committed.

00:31:33
Speaker 6: He's committed, and you know, maybe in nine years older than him. Now that I know that this is his thing, he came to me the other day, this is off topic.

00:31:42
Speaker 3: He was like, Tanya, no, like, no, don't do it.

00:31:45
Speaker 6: He does it, do it, And he was just like, Okay. Luckily I can't remember her name, but he was like, hey, I got to have my past, my whole past. I got to show you who she is. And I'm thinking, oh, lose here I am. I'm you know, I'm holding my breath. I'm like, she has to be some young hot chick.

00:32:05
Speaker 1: She's on the cover of sports illustrator Stuart.

00:32:08
Speaker 4: Did you see that by eighty three?

00:32:09
Speaker 6: Yes, that's he is obsessed with anything like forty years older than him. So I was like, oh, I'm going to always be young to him, forever, forever young.

00:32:20
Speaker 4: How long until you guys got married?

00:32:22
Speaker 3: Oh?

00:32:22
Speaker 6: My god, right away? Like we went out. My birthday was a month maybe in a week after we met. Michael came to my birthday party on September thirtieth. We started dating October first and never had a dead.

00:32:34
Speaker 3: Part and we got married in June. Yeah, it was never a dead part.

00:32:38
Speaker 4: You just knew.

00:32:39
Speaker 3: Yep, yeah, that's question. Yeah. I was like, I'm giving you a son, you know that, right? Yeah?

00:32:45
Speaker 2: How did you how did you propose.

00:32:48
Speaker 3: You want to do this?

00:32:51
Speaker 4: Is that cause you both just knew?

00:32:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, just knew.

00:32:53
Speaker 4: It was just there.

00:32:54
Speaker 1: I mean, we had it was it was you know, I never wanted to be apart from Tanya from the moment you know, we connected and and it was just I mean it's still that way even now. She kicked me out of when her acting let classes yesterday and I was so depressed, so hurt.

00:33:12
Speaker 3: I was like, we just did together.

00:33:17
Speaker 1: Why do you want to leave me already?

00:33:21
Speaker 3: Yeah? We we just have fun. I mean, like you know, we and we argue.

00:33:25
Speaker 1: I think when I knew is when we had like a big argument, a big blowout, and then it was over, and I was like, wait, We're not going to have like two days of just continuing this argument.

00:33:37
Speaker 3: And we were just looking at each other like like you're on ice cream. Now, play basketball is over. We're good. What happened?

00:33:44
Speaker 2: You fell off the stage at Ryman. Just so you guys that aren't watching this, because some of you may be watching this. Tanya shaking her head right now because I what happened.

00:33:55
Speaker 3: I could we couldn't avoid. I just thought we would be able to avoid this.

00:33:58
Speaker 1: So the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame they did this this event this year called Rock the Ryman, and it's where you know, artists today would choose two songs to cover from an artist who was in the Hall of Fame but who has frequent the Ryman.

00:34:18
Speaker 3: Tyan. I chose, of course Ray.

00:34:20
Speaker 1: Charles, but it's the second artist that we chose which gives the problems.

00:34:26
Speaker 3: Who was it? Jones Jet and we did.

00:34:29
Speaker 1: I hate myself for loving you, I'm telling you, and I was feeling myself. I had on this browns fringe jacket, I had on the white shirt, and I had on these Eddie Murphy raw leather red pants.

00:34:45
Speaker 3: I just like and we were singing.

00:34:51
Speaker 1: Our first song was the Ray Charles Take These Changs, and we did so well.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: Everybody enjoyed it, you know, it was on their feet the Ryman.

00:34:57
Speaker 1: I was like, yes, we got through that, and now he comes to rock roll song and we're doing great, and I find I get like a what I call a warning shot, because I I'm supposed to stand with Tanya, and Tanya kept going this way on the stage, and so I decided to go around the piano to come up on her side so I can.

00:35:19
Speaker 3: Stay with her, and I trip.

00:35:23
Speaker 1: This is the warning shot I get that should have said, Michael, take your big butt back over where he's supposed to be and just stay there and finish the song.

00:35:31
Speaker 3: You're killing it.

00:35:32
Speaker 1: But no, I just keep going and I get over to Tayan's side and we're almost done. I hate my note and we're doing this hire. I'm like, that's why, that's why, and I'm digging into it and I go down and I never come up. Yeah, I'm like, what was in my head? I'm like, what's happening? And I go back and I hit my head on the piano.

00:35:56
Speaker 3: I'm out. I'm actually out for about forty seconds. Yeah, we counted. I'm out cold.

00:36:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they're like, is your head okay? When I come to my head's fine.

00:36:11
Speaker 4: The show they did well.

00:36:13
Speaker 6: I didn't stop singing because he's such a trickster. So I thought he was doing like a Stone Colt Steve Austin move or something. And I'm like, oh, he's down, he's he's feeling those red pants today. So when he went down, you know, I didn't think anything of it until he was out. When he hit his head on the piano and I looked down. I was like trying to shake him and he wouldn't wake up.

00:36:33
Speaker 2: Ye yeah, yeah, And the people tell something's wrong in the crowd.

00:36:38
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, you could hear it because they thought it was just a part of the show too, but you could hear go all wind Arlie.

00:36:45
Speaker 3: Yeah. He thought I was doing like a James Brown. So he's like, oh, like down then.

00:36:50
Speaker 4: Back up, You're gonna come back up slow.

00:36:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:36:52
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm like, I don't remember James Brown falling straight.

00:36:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember going down on the knee and getting the k put over and they're coming back up.

00:37:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he but Bobby, it's so weird because the band is like digging into it. Once I dig into it. When I fall, it's like it's slow. It's like boom boom, boom boom, and it sounds even slower to me. I'm like, what is it? And then so they finally Lord Ryman curtains and step older picking up.

00:37:21
Speaker 3: You have you have fans holding up. Yeah, they're looking what you broke? Myphibia.

00:37:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, and but don't I didn't need surgery. And the way I broke it, it didn't destroy any like real cardish or anything like that.

00:37:38
Speaker 3: But it was so weird, you know. And it's not it's not a pain.

00:37:43
Speaker 1: It's not a painful injury, honestly, it's just a lot of soreness, you know.

00:37:48
Speaker 3: And and when.

00:37:49
Speaker 1: You turk it a little bit to to to the left, because my injury was that way, I'm reminded like, oh, yeah, I did do something.

00:37:57
Speaker 3: You know. He's been milking it. He's milked it on this tour.

00:38:01
Speaker 1: So on man, wheelchairs, baby, I will.

00:38:04
Speaker 3: Never I have all kind of fitness clothes. Now. Pushing that wheelchair, I'm like, I just I got PTS different.

00:38:10
Speaker 1: They leave me in the middle of BNA sitting in this wheelchair. Man, I'm like, can someone come push me to the daggoning gate?

00:38:18
Speaker 3: Like what about? And it makes me sit there like this. I'm like, he just looks so pitiful. He's been milking every minute of this injury.

00:38:27
Speaker 5: The Bobby Cast will be right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

00:38:40
Speaker 2: Did you get together singing or in like a deep relationship?

00:38:44
Speaker 3: First relationship for relationship. Yeah.

00:38:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't sing together, I want to say until about four years into knowing each other.

00:38:54
Speaker 2: Wow, even though you saw him sing, you knew, she saying, obviously you gave her some songs, you were involved, and you didn't sing together for that long.

00:39:05
Speaker 3: Why she was only.

00:39:06
Speaker 1: Doing it for her brother? She was over music, and I felt that was a tragedy, you know. Tony was like, no, I don't want it. And then when it didn't worry out with her her brother, she was just done. And then we had a baby, and so she was like really enjoying.

00:39:23
Speaker 3: Motherhood all over again.

00:39:24
Speaker 1: And I was just trying to make a life for us, you know, I mean we counted it.

00:39:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, we weren't about to say, right, this is a weird thing.

00:39:35
Speaker 1: From two thousand and ten all the way to about twenty the end of fourteen, we lived in twenty two different places.

00:39:46
Speaker 3: We were like.

00:39:47
Speaker 1: Home was struggling and bouncing from house to house, staying with friends. And I was a struggling artist and Tanya actually became my manager. So I was trying to like make it, you know. I tried everything. I tried Christian music, I tried R and B. Because all of these styles were inside of me, and I even went and tried. You know, I never tried, but I had a country persona in these country songs.

00:40:12
Speaker 3: And my country name was Trotter Michaels. Very clever. Yeah, it needless to say. Yeah, but we were done. We were we were, you know.

00:40:27
Speaker 1: And then a friend of ours I wrote a song called I Am Love, and I was teaching it to Tanya for her and her brother. I was like, I think y'all should try this again. And the friend hurt us and she was like that that's not normal. You all need to really investigate this. Tanya, you're great alone, Michael, you're good, but together, you know, you guys have something that could shake.

00:40:59
Speaker 3: Some stuff up. Yeah.

00:41:01
Speaker 6: And that's the way I actually learned about his military service, because I didn't know we were married for what three four years, and I didn't know he had served in the military. I didn't know he'd gone to war. I just knew something was wrong, you know. I knew that there was something going on with him. I didn't know if he was depressed or what. But once I found out, as with the war and treaty, the song started really letting me into his world.

00:41:27
Speaker 3: So That's how I found out. And that fourth of July, July, that was the last one.

00:41:31
Speaker 1: You're like, okay, we can't do this anymore, like you need to talk. And that was you know, I was embarrassed of my service because when I came home, it wasn't a welcome party for me.

00:41:46
Speaker 3: You know.

00:41:46
Speaker 1: In fact, there are a lot of people angry that I even joined the army and I served under My commander in chief was George Bush, who I felt guilty for because I loved you know, I actually loved Bush, and and you know, we were serving and I remember coming home, I flew into BWI and there were signs and people were booing and throwing stuff at us, and I'm I was like, oh, our country is not not happy because you know, over in the war we're away from all of that. We don't hear it.

00:42:21
Speaker 3: It's not on.

00:42:22
Speaker 1: We don't really have TVs in certain parts of the war, so computers and all that stuff. And you know, you imagine you get home and you see you hear booze in a real way. So I decided, you know what, I'm going to keep this quiet. And even going after jobs, I remember with this one company, me and a guy we were only too interviewing, and we were sitting there and he looked well put together. I looked well put together. And we just wanted to scope each other out. Honestly, We're just trying to see which one was going to get this job, you know. And I'm like, so, what's your background?

00:42:57
Speaker 6: Man?

00:42:57
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, I just got out of prison. And I was like, I got this job, you know. And he's like, yeah, man, what's yours? I said, oh, I just came home from Warren.

00:43:08
Speaker 3: I didn't know.

00:43:09
Speaker 1: He was tallying over there as well, and he's like, you ain't no different from me.

00:43:12
Speaker 3: Bro.

00:43:13
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I begged the different. In my head, I'm like, I begged the different. But he's like three hots in the cot. I was like three hots in the cot. He said, you know, at the top of your your position, bob wire and guards and they aiming in right.

00:43:27
Speaker 3: And I was like, wow, yeah, he said, uh I hope you do well. Man. He got the job over me. I could not believe it. I was like, how did that happen?

00:43:40
Speaker 1: And then I understood that it was an incentive in our country to hire X cons. First, you know, the employers were getting little. You hired the ex cons, rehab them and everything over a soldier who has valiantly fought and decorated. So I just decided I got to figure something else out. And I decided to go play the piano for churches. And I told Tyan, you know, at one point, I said, honey, I can't do it no more. I was making one hundred and twenty five dollars a week, ain't bringing in nothing. And I told her, I said, honey, I can't do it no more. And she said, well, I think we should sing now.

00:44:22
Speaker 3: That That was the day. That was, Yeah, that was.

00:44:25
Speaker 1: And she introduced me to Civil Wars. She showed me Civil Wars. She showed me this band called the Lone Bellow. She showed shovels and ropes, monfering and sons and but it wasn't until this one particular day I had lost the battle, buddy, remember, and I saw an artist named Lee Brice music video called I Drive Your Truck. And it changed my life. It changed and I still I still feel it because I really needed him right then. There never met this guy, never had one phone conversation with him, but that guy saved my life.

00:45:13
Speaker 3: That day, Lee.

00:45:14
Speaker 1: Brice, I dropped your truck and I told Taya, I said, Tanya, somehow, some way, I just want to do music that puts us in these circles with people like that, because he's got to he's got to have some sort of connection with what I'm going through.

00:45:30
Speaker 3: That we got to.

00:45:30
Speaker 1: Know these kind of folks. And then Bradley Gilbert, that's one hell of a name. Man like country music started really pulling me out of my stupor. I mean I was, I was there, bro like, you know, I had my letters goodbye, you know, and Tanya convinced me to go get treatment and yeah.

00:45:53
Speaker 6: And that was when we were able to The VA really stepped in for us right then and there, and we it stabilized us a lot, so we didn't have to live from house to house. And you know, country music was the one music when we listened to it we could drink a beer half wine and say God at the same time, you know, and have faith at the same.

00:46:10
Speaker 3: Time as our whole experience everything.

00:46:12
Speaker 6: You know, because every other music in every other genre kind of you know, you're hitting and if you want to do Christian music, you better not have a beer.

00:46:19
Speaker 3: You know, if you want to do gospel music, it's the same thing, but you better not. Yeah, exactly, So you know, country, you can do it all. So we loved it.

00:46:30
Speaker 5: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. This is the Bobby Cast.

00:46:43
Speaker 2: So you guys, you just start bucking shows. You say, coffee houses? Are you just showing up? Like, how does that start? Because that's the hardest part.

00:46:51
Speaker 3: That's well.

00:46:52
Speaker 6: Michael ended up getting us a turtle top band conversion band, which I thought was like a tour bus.

00:46:59
Speaker 3: I mean, you can't tell me seven hundred bucks.

00:47:02
Speaker 1: You couldn't tell.

00:47:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. So it had the seats that go back.

00:47:06
Speaker 1: Bucket seats, you know, the big old turtle top and conversion bands. Luxury had a little old TV at the top. I thought we were doing it. We were doing it, and Legend just was in heaven.

00:47:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, he named it Rocket And I would be up all night long. I went through this thing, and I was just calling every coffee house a ninety five quarter because we were in the Maryland area.

00:47:28
Speaker 3: So we would just do open mics.

00:47:31
Speaker 6: Coffee houses, whatever would let us play, you know, and I would I created a little thirty city tour.

00:47:37
Speaker 1: Oh, our first gig here. We made it all way up to Nashville. Our first gig here it was Tennessee. Our first gig here was Tennessee brew Works.

00:47:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:47:47
Speaker 1: They want us to play for four hours for tips.

00:47:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was like, sure, you know, it's Nashville. I don't even care.

00:47:56
Speaker 1: This was in twenty fifteen and we we we literally got through three songs before we we had to quit this gig because we were being heckled in a real way. It was horrible. I mean they were heckling us. Boom, go back to where you came from.

00:48:14
Speaker 3: This is awful.

00:48:16
Speaker 1: And do you want to know who it was? It was our four year old son Legend. He's throwing salt up like confetti. He's like, oh that sucks, look at me and squirting to ketch up. And I'm like, I'm trying to sing this. So I'm looking at you, like, get your son. He's your son today, And I'm like, oh, myke And we pause and we go give him a talking to in the bathroom. I'm like, if you don't stop, I'm going to rain down off fire on you. Do you understand, yes, sir. We go back out there and he's like he's worth.

00:48:53
Speaker 3: He's like.

00:48:57
Speaker 1: You suck and I was like, oh my god.

00:48:59
Speaker 3: And people were like laughing and to be in there because we didn't have a baby babysitter.

00:49:05
Speaker 1: Tod, I said I'll go take care of it. And I went and told the person that booked. I was like, hey, man, he was like, just go, just go man.

00:49:15
Speaker 3: I understand.

00:49:16
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm so sorry. And I told Thomas will never be ever.

00:49:23
Speaker 3: That was wild. That was wild. Times.

00:49:25
Speaker 6: We have to go like on nanny dot com to find nanny's to watch them for like two hours at the venue.

00:49:30
Speaker 1: It was hard, you know, but we no one believed. Our families didn't.

00:49:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, no one thought that.

00:49:35
Speaker 1: They thought we were cool cool. I mean like we would go play shows. I remember our parents came to one show and there was like four people in the audience.

00:49:43
Speaker 6: And my dad was like he called me the next day he was like, is this what you really want to do?

00:49:49
Speaker 3: He's like, I don't think this is a good idea. We had a violinist, a piano, and a tambourine, like stopping at the little floor stop. My dad was like, I don't know if this is a good idea. You you know, you went to college and Americanna.

00:50:05
Speaker 4: When did it start to be the right idea America?

00:50:08
Speaker 1: We were President Trump got elected? Was that twenty sixties?

00:50:15
Speaker 3: Yea sixteen.

00:50:17
Speaker 1: I remember we did a show in Tampa and at the Palladium. Remember this President Trump just got elected. And it was mean Tanian and our cellist. He was a white guy, till and Benham. Hello Tillman. And I said, I don't know what we're going to walking to because we're in Tampa, Florida, and I'd been hearing like some mumblings, and I'm like, but we're here to unite.

00:50:45
Speaker 3: I said, that's our purpose, that's what we're here for.

00:50:48
Speaker 1: And when we walked through the curtain, we were met with all these cheers. We sold it out. I couldn't believe that, like we sold it out. However, I swear you would have thought you were in the sixties. All the black people were on this side and all of the white people were on that side.

00:51:10
Speaker 3: It was split in half. And I just couldn't believe it.

00:51:14
Speaker 1: And we I said to the band, I said to Titian until I said, you know, we can't do a show like this, And they were like, what.

00:51:22
Speaker 3: Are you gonna do.

00:51:23
Speaker 1: I said, everybody stand up, and they were all cheering and standing. I said, okay, I said, meet me in the center. I said, now shake a person's hand who you don't know, and then y'all decide where you're gonna sit.

00:51:36
Speaker 3: And that's how we're gonna do the show.

00:51:37
Speaker 1: And everyone sat with someone they did not know, and who didn't you couldn't sit with a person that looked like you, you know. And we did the show that night, and for me, the reviews of that show and what people were saying, that was when it clicked. And then the next day and Delasi from wdet in Detroit called us, blowing our phone up. She said, Don Was is looking for you and why are you serious? And everything just changed from there. Don Was got us to Buddy Miller, who got us to Nashville. You know Buddy Miller. You know Buddy Miller. Buddy Miller is a he's like an Americana god, like the America, the genre Americana.

00:52:22
Speaker 3: And he used to play in.

00:52:24
Speaker 1: Emmy Lou Harris's band and then he became like this good great producer. He and his wife, Buddy and Julie Miller and Buddy he was the music executive over Nashville the TV show for for some time. Buddy produced our first album and he taught us so much, but he said, Nashville is about collaboration, and he said, I want you to know you have a place here.

00:52:52
Speaker 3: You've been long here, we need you here.

00:52:54
Speaker 1: And Emmy Lou Harris, Yeah, just she made me brownies for my birthday and brought them to our very first recording session and she just held our hands and just breathed, and I was like, holy crap, this is happening. All of that just shifted and changed things for us. The McCreary's sisters, who are a Nashville staple, just the Americana community really started embracing us and really started giving us the confidence we needed.

00:53:28
Speaker 3: When would you say that? Yeah, definitely.

00:53:30
Speaker 6: I think that was the turning point for us because ours record was playing in Tampa where we had our show. They were promoting it and that's how Don Wats heard it. So when he called, I was like, well maybe if we have the attention of a Don Waz who produced such big acts of the Rolling Stones and stuff like that, I'm like maybe we have something.

00:53:49
Speaker 3: So it was great, Yeah, do.

00:53:50
Speaker 4: You guys live here now we do. When did you move to Nashville twenty eighteen?

00:53:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, kicking and screaming.

00:53:58
Speaker 4: I did not want to so right before the pandemic.

00:54:01
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, Why did you not want to listen? I didn't want to move here either.

00:54:06
Speaker 4: I did.

00:54:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, now it's great, but I was the same way.

00:54:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really didn't want to move here.

00:54:13
Speaker 3: I didn't want to move here. We lived in a small town.

00:54:15
Speaker 6: We were just coming together after all the homeless and different things like that. We were living in a little town called Albion, Michigan, where everybody knows your name, you're always gleducating, you know, kind of town. And I loved it so much, and Legend loved it. And I could walk to the post office.

00:54:30
Speaker 3: She was kicking the scream and going there too. I was, I was anyway. And it was cold, Yeah it was cold. I was like crazy. I don't like the co so.

00:54:39
Speaker 6: I literally when we moved to Nashville never went outside for like nine months. I didn't go. I would go Michael would go to the grocery store. He loved it. And then you know, we would tour and stuff like that. And when we had some time, off and we ended up moving to the other part of town. I ended up liking it.

00:54:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all about the part of town.

00:54:59
Speaker 3: See yeah, I mean you.

00:55:01
Speaker 1: Know, because then she started going out in Nashville and was like, oh my god, I love Nashville.

00:55:06
Speaker 3: I'm like, I try to blame this to you.

00:55:09
Speaker 6: It's like Dallas and uh, what do I say? Dallas in somewhere mixed together California without the water. I mean, Nashville is like it is good food. Everything's bigger, you know.

00:55:21
Speaker 1: I took her line dancing that was fun that the Nashville Palace. I got video of me dancing.

00:55:27
Speaker 3: He was getting I was looking crazy. She needs help. Yeah he's pretty good, pretty smooth.

00:55:34
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Lover's game. Obviously it's the track, But why did you choose that to name the record?

00:55:42
Speaker 1: Just the our love affair with Nashville in my opinion, you know, we talked about stuff in there like Marguerite, the Hot Chicken, strawberry wine, you know, and court see if Dave copp But you know, everyone moves here chasing the dream.

00:55:55
Speaker 3: You know, it's a songwriter's dream, it's an artist dream.

00:55:58
Speaker 1: And I remember our first bout Ashviield was walking through the Country Music Hall of Fame. We were there to help induct Dottie West, and it's.

00:56:06
Speaker 3: Just this love affair.

00:56:07
Speaker 1: I loved it, Tanya hated it, and there was a game to play in order to stay here. And from that moment on, I just thought about, you know, Tony, this is I feel like this is setting up our life in a way that our lives haven't been set up before. And songs from there just followed, like the journey blank page, just starting from a blank canvas and building your own story. You know, we know the stories that come up in Nashville, but to be a part of making a whole nother story, you know, and then realizing there's no harm that can be done to you when you're staying true to yourself, ain't no harm in me? And then Yesterday's burned, just leaving that baggage behind and so on, you know that.

00:56:49
Speaker 2: Ain't no harmony. We played down on the Countdown, right, put that? Yeah, that's a good one. I put that on the National Countdown. Thanks March Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well we played some stuff before you guys came in the intro and talked about you know, all of the you know, the technical stuff people needed to know. I just want to kind of get to know you guys and want our audience that didn't know you already to get to know you guys. You guys can go to uh Instagram, TikTok the War Entreaty, which good for you for having your own name. Man, it's so hard, somebody you gotta grab it. I still don't have at Bobby Bones. Yeah, I still have to have mister Bobby Bones. Like I think I'm something someone worthy of having to be called mister. Well, that's just putting some respect. But I had to put it on my own name. That's a problem. Ye, nobody else put it. Nobody else put that on. You know that That meme is so funny cause Charlotte and the God it's one of my dear friends and that happened on the Breakfast Club.

00:57:40
Speaker 4: Put some respect on my name.

00:57:42
Speaker 2: Okay, congratulations guys, really congratulations, and congratulations on I don't know, creating a fighting chance for yourself.

00:57:50
Speaker 4: That's what we're all doing.

00:57:52
Speaker 2: I still feel like I'm doing the same thing, like my win is still being in the arena, make my own story and now, wow, you guys have accomplished that where now you're doing it your own way. You're getting big opportunities and taken advantage of them, and it's really cool to see.

00:58:10
Speaker 4: It's so congratulations.

00:58:14
Speaker 1: I think artists they get a chance to say these kind of things to you after they've had several successes or record spend or something like that. But I just wanted to tell you something from from me and Tanya. We're massive fans of yours. Even your story, right, your story is very reminiscent of for me, if you took my head off of my shoulders and put them on yours and reversed it, I don't think you could really tell the difference in the stories. But the thing for me is when we were at to operate that time, and when you announced us and and and and told folks that that they were going to feel things, you know like me and I couldn't get myself together because to have somebody massive as you to help validate.

00:59:13
Speaker 3: Us in the performance space.

00:59:16
Speaker 1: You know, people get that often from like Ryan Seacrest, or they'll get it from back in the day Dick Clark, and it's like you're our version of this. And to be able to do that for us. You know, it means so much. And you know, I heard Lanny Wilson say this one time. She said, I'm not I know a lot of people don't know me, but you know, thank you for the opportunity.

00:59:38
Speaker 3: And I promise I.

00:59:38
Speaker 1: Won't let you down, you know, Ty and I we feel like saying that here, you know, because especially in the temperature of today's society where people don't understand radio personalities, they have to believe in you too in order to help build you. But you know, whatever you believe and feel in Warren Treaty, we don't want to let you down. I don't think we will, you know. And and just thanks for the opportunity to be on your show and to talk to you and let your listeners get a chance to hear us.

01:00:11
Speaker 3: We don't take it light, so.

01:00:12
Speaker 4: I appreciate that.

01:00:13
Speaker 2: And you just have to make a joke and make fun of myself and do some sort of self deprecating humor to get out of the situation. But I'm just gonna say thank you. That's very kind of you. And everything I've ever said either here with you guys, or about you guys, or playing you on the Countdown like I mean it.

01:00:26
Speaker 4: I got ten thousand people, I could play.

01:00:27
Speaker 2: It anytime, and I don't owe anybody any favors, right, and so I get to do what I want to do. And you know the way I talk about you guys, You guys now get to create your own story like I'm doing that too, and sometimes I choose to do it about you guys because I want to.

01:00:41
Speaker 3: I appreciate that.

01:00:42
Speaker 4: So yeah, so really.

01:00:44
Speaker 2: We're it's just the beginning, that's what's crazy. Yeah, it's just the beginning. And you've lived two lives already, you live two lives worth the life, and it's just still the beginning.

01:00:54
Speaker 4: That's what's crazy about it.

01:00:55
Speaker 3: I know. Crazy, you've worked so hard.

01:00:57
Speaker 2: Now you get to really work hard, Like you've worked so hard that now congratulations, it's time to work even harder. But that's like a luxury. The luxury is you get to go into the arena and work even harder. So I'm proud for you guys, And that's you, guys. Go at the Warren Treaty, you guys, hit up Lovers Game and mike.

01:01:16
Speaker 4: Anything you want to say before we go.

01:01:17
Speaker 3: This is awesome.

01:01:18
Speaker 4: I don't know how to I'm not good with compliments. I don't know how to end it now. I'm just kinda like, we just turn it off.

01:01:23
Speaker 1: I don't know.

01:01:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, you guys go follow at the Warren Treaty and check out their music, and we'll see you guys soon.

01:01:32
Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.