Talking With Ty Herndon About Old Times, Touring Together and His New Album

<v Speaker 1>Standing by three two.
<v Speaker 2>Let's go. Here's talking with Thompson Square.
<v Speaker 1>It's a podcast.
<v Speaker 3>Her ass are blue, her hair was long, six to pocket.
<v Speaker 3>She was born in.
<v Speaker 4>Bad and Roach.
<v Speaker 3>Her favorite song was in My Life a Mila ras
<v Speaker 3>Ever Moon.
<v Speaker 2>I knew her books were covered close.
<v Speaker 3>Oh happy, No.
<v Speaker 2>She wasn't madst.
<v Speaker 5>I never asked, oh my gosh, and she never said
<v Speaker 5>I love that song.
<v Speaker 2>It's so good. I love that song and I love
<v Speaker 2>my next guest. I tell you what.
<v Speaker 5>We had the privilege of touring with this guy for
<v Speaker 5>probably I don't know, five years or more. It was
<v Speaker 5>my first gig as a as a side guy, and
<v Speaker 5>at some point I got to hire my wife to
<v Speaker 5>go out on the road with him, and man, we
<v Speaker 5>learned so much from this guy. Singing three part of
<v Speaker 5>Harmony with him was absolutely a dream because he's seriously,
<v Speaker 5>in my opinion, in a lot of people's opinion, one
<v Speaker 5>of the best, one of the finest country music singers
<v Speaker 5>in country music history. I have nothing else to say
<v Speaker 5>about this guy except for great, great things.
<v Speaker 2>So please, if you.
<v Speaker 5>Would please welcome the one and only, coming live from
<v Speaker 5>his living room, brother Tyrndon.
<v Speaker 2>What's up, my man? How you're doing.
<v Speaker 3>Cheers, man, cheers.
<v Speaker 2>It's good to see you recording in progress. It has
<v Speaker 2>been a long long time, man, long time.
<v Speaker 6>Sorry I had I had a little little android lady
<v Speaker 6>talking to me.
<v Speaker 3>There I clicked except.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, good.
<v Speaker 5>Well, yeah, we're going to record it just in case
<v Speaker 5>we have something cool to say.
<v Speaker 3>You know. Well, you know, between you and I, if
<v Speaker 3>we ever not had cool things to say, never never,
<v Speaker 3>We always have true.
<v Speaker 5>But we cool things and tons and tons of cool stories.
<v Speaker 5>Some we can say and some we probably can't say, right,
<v Speaker 5>probably most we can't say.
<v Speaker 6>Oh man, you know, I'm living it pretty authentic these days.
<v Speaker 3>I'm fearless. So you know, waitue, let me think about it.
<v Speaker 5>Maybe a few, maybe a few, maybe maybe keep a
<v Speaker 5>couple of bodies buried, you know what I mean.
<v Speaker 2>They don't have to be exhumed.
<v Speaker 3>That's right.
<v Speaker 2>Well, man, you know it's holidays.
<v Speaker 5>It's yeah, happy holl of days. Man, It's it's exciting
<v Speaker 5>around here. We were I think we're on our twelfth.
<v Speaker 2>Tree putting up. Uh. Yeah, I'm tired of decorating.
<v Speaker 3>Trees. You got to take down?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, man, all the lights and everything, it's crazy. How
<v Speaker 5>are you preparing for Christmas three four year old. Wait, hell,
<v Speaker 5>he's five, dude. He's gonna be six in January.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god. Time flies.
<v Speaker 6>So you know, Santa shows up around here, but he
<v Speaker 6>probably shows up a lot more of your house, so
<v Speaker 6>that's pretty awesome. Yeah, he better you're in you're in
<v Speaker 6>the middle of Santa Land.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, absolutely, man.
<v Speaker 5>You know, I think this year is probably my most
<v Speaker 5>favorite year so far, simply because he's at the age
<v Speaker 5>to where he, uh, well.
<v Speaker 2>He believes in everything.
<v Speaker 5>That's awesome, but he's getting it. Well, No, of course
<v Speaker 5>I do, of course I do. But you know, you
<v Speaker 5>know what I'm saying. He gets excited about everything.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I believe more than ever.
<v Speaker 2>Actually, well, and I think you have to.
<v Speaker 5>I think it keeps you young. You know, when you
<v Speaker 5>believe in it, that's what makes it fun. If you don't,
<v Speaker 5>if you don't engage, what's the point, you know what
<v Speaker 5>I mean.
<v Speaker 3>My nephew just turned eighteen, you know, Jackson.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, god, my god, don't say that.
<v Speaker 6>He's eighteen and he got into three colleges, so we
<v Speaker 6>were happy about that. Santa was real good and uh
<v Speaker 6>he's a but he chose close to home. Of course,
<v Speaker 6>boys always do that. Uh, so he's a I keep
<v Speaker 6>I keep waiting for the bunk. Oh what can I
<v Speaker 6>can I have a party at your house?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you can buy me beer.
<v Speaker 3>Of course I'll say yes.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, he's gonna, he's gonna. He's gonna be asking you
<v Speaker 5>to buy beer and everything else soon.
<v Speaker 3>I was actually kind of proud of him, man, because
<v Speaker 3>he's he's uh you know, I don't I don't want
<v Speaker 3>to say that he's had a beer or he hasn't.
<v Speaker 3>He's very responsible.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, well I was not responsible. I was asking everybody
<v Speaker 5>to buy me beer at that age.
<v Speaker 3>Oh I remember a stubborn beer truck story too.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I think statutes around on that. But yeah, I
<v Speaker 5>got some travel man. Thanks for bringing that up.
<v Speaker 3>Oh no, that was one of my favorite stories.
<v Speaker 2>That's a good one.
<v Speaker 3>I know you can't tell it right now. Yeah you
<v Speaker 3>fans ask him in person.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, you know, that was a different time, a long
<v Speaker 5>long time ago, when I was really really bad. I'm
<v Speaker 5>not the angel that you see before you today. I
<v Speaker 5>wasn't always this angel.
<v Speaker 3>Same man, I got true words. Here's might a bit
<v Speaker 3>of beer truck. I think mine was mine was stolen pigs.
<v Speaker 5>That's more country man. That's a way more country than
<v Speaker 5>stone beer. If we knew each other, we would have
<v Speaker 5>pork stolen pork and beer.
<v Speaker 2>That would have been an awesome fire.
<v Speaker 3>Pit marinated and beer been amazing. Man.
<v Speaker 2>So how are you guys preparing for the holidays?
<v Speaker 3>Man?
<v Speaker 2>Where you going to spend it this year? And and
<v Speaker 2>all that good stuff?
<v Speaker 3>That's my tree?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah all right, Oh man, you're lazy, you lazy.
<v Speaker 6>I am kidding by last year, year before last, my
<v Speaker 6>mom said, because you know, Mama, Peggy, she she said,
<v Speaker 6>why don't you have a tree, Because I was living
<v Speaker 6>in the gulch. I'm like, well, Mom, we travel, I'm
<v Speaker 6>home for two days, right, So next thing I knew,
<v Speaker 6>three trees showed up this little one and then I
<v Speaker 6>put six foot.
<v Speaker 3>She goes, oh, you got to do this plug it in?
<v Speaker 3>And I said, I love her, Peggy, She's awesome.
<v Speaker 6>They're on top of I've got a little a baby
<v Speaker 6>grand in there, and they're both but the other two
<v Speaker 6>on top of the baby grand and right, it's so
<v Speaker 6>easy to just plug it in and.
<v Speaker 2>There you go, instant, instant Christmas, Christmas. Your mom is
<v Speaker 2>so awesome.
<v Speaker 3>Man.
<v Speaker 2>I missed seeing her too.
<v Speaker 3>You know what she just turned eighty one, and she's
<v Speaker 3>she's in really great health. Really, she just got a
<v Speaker 3>little hard thing going on.
<v Speaker 6>But other than that, you just moved her into a
<v Speaker 6>brand new house. We had we had to do that
<v Speaker 6>because there were ninety steps going up to the house
<v Speaker 6>before and seventeen steps in the house. So she was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 6>she's gonna kill me for telling me the story. But
<v Speaker 6>we ordered her one of those little uh there's little
<v Speaker 6>things that go on the stair roads.
<v Speaker 3>Did you really lost her mind on us?
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I'm sure she did. Man, that's for old people.
<v Speaker 6>Mom's great, you know, she we you know, she gets
<v Speaker 6>the six pack of Miller Lite on Friday. She's like,
<v Speaker 6>she looked at me, she said, the only thing that
<v Speaker 6>will go on that is my beer going upstairs.
<v Speaker 2>That's for old people, man, you know better than that.
<v Speaker 3>She but most stiletto. She's pretty. She's pretty, she's pretty, pretty, great.
<v Speaker 2>She's all woman.
<v Speaker 3>She's all of them. But so we u. My brother
<v Speaker 3>in law is one of the number one builders in town.
<v Speaker 6>So he happened upon this place over in Bellevue that
<v Speaker 6>has she can she can get in her car. She
<v Speaker 6>goes to the dollar store to uh to Hearty's Kentucky
<v Speaker 6>Fried Chicken and the gas station where she gets your
<v Speaker 6>beer and she doesn't have to do any stairs.
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<v Speaker 3>Live is good in Herndon world.
<v Speaker 5>I need to come and have a beer with her. Man,
<v Speaker 5>I didn't know she drank beer. That's fantastic.
<v Speaker 6>Oh yeah, man, you know, she'll she's she's she's she's
<v Speaker 6>a god fearing woman, you know, godly woman. But she's
<v Speaker 6>you know, it's uh, she's never had a problem with
<v Speaker 6>the with the beer.
<v Speaker 2>Nothing wrong. I ain't nothing wrong in the beer. Why
<v Speaker 2>is it so much?
<v Speaker 3>I myself had a lot of problem with the beer.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, oh, I know, I had some close calls. Why
<v Speaker 5>is it so much cooler when when older people.
<v Speaker 6>Drink and us, well, you knew, I agreed that, you know, agreed.
<v Speaker 6>It was a former Ford model.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know. She she just left us last year.
<v Speaker 3>She she you know, she went out pretty critically, almost
<v Speaker 3>at eighty seven years old. You know, I've always said, I,
<v Speaker 3>you know, I'm you know, I'm going to be sixty
<v Speaker 3>my next birthday, which is kind of crazy, but I
<v Speaker 3>made it this far, and so I don't I've never
<v Speaker 3>really given a number much you know, value, but that's
<v Speaker 3>what I thought about it. I looked at it. I
<v Speaker 3>was like, hmm, okay, here we go.
<v Speaker 6>So Bonnie Rate said, Bonnie Rate said sixty to seventy
<v Speaker 6>were her best years. I'm saying, I'm going to say
<v Speaker 6>sixty to eighty are going to be my best year.
<v Speaker 6>So it's interesting, man, getting older and getting older in
<v Speaker 6>this business. And Reeva mcintar told me something a long
<v Speaker 6>time ago. She goes, you know, you you you stay,
<v Speaker 6>your talent stays the same, man, she said, but you
<v Speaker 6>have to reinvent yourself.
<v Speaker 3>But I always wondered what that meant, right, and what
<v Speaker 3>I finally found out was you know, I stayed tie.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I'm a I'm a country singer. I can
<v Speaker 3>I can sing a lot of things. But what I
<v Speaker 3>found out was, you know that that you go in
<v Speaker 3>the studio and the sounds change.
<v Speaker 6>You know, awesome new musicians that are creating these new sounds,
<v Speaker 6>and it's just really about the sound of your record
<v Speaker 6>and to me and what's you know, there's some there
<v Speaker 6>in writing with cool writers. You have to be open
<v Speaker 6>minded to to what's going on in the world and
<v Speaker 6>stay authentic to what's going on with you and which.
<v Speaker 2>Is struggle, which is tough to do. Sometimes it's tough
<v Speaker 2>to do.
<v Speaker 6>I've had a very interesting story, so it's it's been
<v Speaker 6>staying relevant for me. It has has many rooms. But
<v Speaker 6>I I thank goodness you guys. As you all know,
<v Speaker 6>I'm I'm a sober boy.
<v Speaker 3>But my Aunters always says, hey man, there has to
<v Speaker 3>be a brick Mason living inside of you.
<v Speaker 6>And I think that I tell this to kids when
<v Speaker 6>I go talk to them. I'm like, you know, you
<v Speaker 6>get up every day. I've got two jobs. I'm a
<v Speaker 6>musician and I'll have this great job of getting up
<v Speaker 6>and putting on my sober coat, right and and uh,
<v Speaker 6>you know, my sober job comes with bonuses and great
<v Speaker 6>trips and all this stuff as long as I stay sober.
<v Speaker 6>In the minute i'm not sober, you know, I'm on
<v Speaker 6>the I'm on the I'm probably on the retirement life.
<v Speaker 6>Just say, okay, man unemployed, All right, that's not that's
<v Speaker 6>not pretty on you.
<v Speaker 3>But the brick Mason, I love to tell the kids
<v Speaker 3>just because you know you you you get to you
<v Speaker 3>get the opportunity to build this town inside of you,
<v Speaker 3>and each brick that goes in and you're in charge
<v Speaker 3>of what's in the in the straw and the and
<v Speaker 3>the mud, and it keeps you grounded and you're in
<v Speaker 3>charge of of what room you're building. Right.
<v Speaker 6>I love connecting the dots of that because I get
<v Speaker 6>the opportune to work.
<v Speaker 3>With kids and adults.
<v Speaker 6>But at the end of the day, I'm a musician man,
<v Speaker 6>and and I have some pretty cool stories, some great,
<v Speaker 6>some not so great. But it's all the it's all
<v Speaker 6>the brick road that built me. Right, and today it
<v Speaker 6>makes sense. I think when you're growing up, you're like,
<v Speaker 6>oh my god, why this happened to me? And I've
<v Speaker 6>got some some some pretty horrific trauma that I've had
<v Speaker 6>to deal with in my life. But dealing with that
<v Speaker 6>trauma and getting it out of you and replacing it
<v Speaker 6>with I'm gonna have to take something that's that I
<v Speaker 6>don't talk about a lot because we're friends, but replacing
<v Speaker 6>trauma and getting bad things out there, Actually the bad
<v Speaker 6>things become your friends. And when you when you kind
<v Speaker 6>of shove them out, you're rid of them and you're like, oh,
<v Speaker 6>I missed my friend.
<v Speaker 3>You know. I had to learn how to live and joy, right,
<v Speaker 3>learn how to sanamon too, feed and just and just
<v Speaker 3>be the sheriff of my own town, right. And it's
<v Speaker 3>it's been a really cool journey to get to get
<v Speaker 3>to that place and then putting it in music. I'm
<v Speaker 3>very chatty with you today. That's good. I like it.
<v Speaker 2>That's what we're here, man.
<v Speaker 3>I love I've got a new the record, my nineteen
<v Speaker 3>studio album, Wow, and it's it's called Jacob man with
<v Speaker 3>with the journey that I've been on in my life.
<v Speaker 3>I love the story of it. It's not a Christian record,
<v Speaker 3>but I love the story. Uh, you know, Jacob and
<v Speaker 3>Isaiah just you know, have God. You can't wrestle with God.
<v Speaker 3>You're gonna lose man.
<v Speaker 6>You know you get this cripple them and and that
<v Speaker 6>and that limp and that crippled became his story and
<v Speaker 6>he went out in the world and did great things
<v Speaker 6>that people interpreted many different ways. But for me, there's
<v Speaker 6>not a song on the album called Jacob It's it's
<v Speaker 6>it's a concept right now about changing your ending. Right,
<v Speaker 6>all have power within us to change our ending if
<v Speaker 6>it's a good end, and you don't need to mess
<v Speaker 6>with it. But we all go through crap in our lives.
<v Speaker 6>So and you're in control of of what you want
<v Speaker 6>to do that you actually are in power, in the
<v Speaker 6>seat of power. And I love talking to kids and
<v Speaker 6>the like and they're like, what you know, but just
<v Speaker 6>the bad thing had of me.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, man, you're you're in complete control of that.
<v Speaker 3>What are you going to do with it? Well? Story?
<v Speaker 2>And I don't think you. I don't think you can think.
<v Speaker 5>I think it's impossible to even realize that and learn
<v Speaker 5>that until you have some age on you, because when
<v Speaker 5>you're in the moment, it's just like that girl that
<v Speaker 5>breaks up with you or whatever in the twelfth grade
<v Speaker 5>or eleventh grade and you're like, this is I'm going
<v Speaker 5>to go kill myself because I can't.
<v Speaker 2>I can't.
<v Speaker 5>I can't do it, you know, I really and I
<v Speaker 5>think that, you know, I think that I've always I've
<v Speaker 5>always thought it'd be interesting, as someone who doesn't suffer
<v Speaker 5>from addiction to go to like AA or go to
<v Speaker 5>therapy because I think some of the principles that they
<v Speaker 5>teach in those meetings. From what I've heard, I have
<v Speaker 5>friends that are recovering addicts and situations like that, and man,
<v Speaker 5>the principles, it's it's kind of like it's almost kind
<v Speaker 5>of like the Bible, you know, I mean, the stories,
<v Speaker 5>if you.
<v Speaker 2>Believe it or not.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, the content is still is so rooted in common sense.
<v Speaker 5>And the common sense, especially nowadays, is becoming a very
<v Speaker 5>rare commodity amongst everybody. And it's seen the whole world
<v Speaker 5>has lost all train of common sense. But you know,
<v Speaker 5>I think I think with age that comes, you know,
<v Speaker 5>and that's a struggle.
<v Speaker 2>Man. The hardest thing to do is be yourself.
<v Speaker 5>And even for some even for someone who you know,
<v Speaker 5>you know, I've you know, had some issues in the past,
<v Speaker 5>but never to the point where you know, I had
<v Speaker 5>to I couldn't get a hold of it.
<v Speaker 3>And you know that brings me to the thought because
<v Speaker 3>my grandmother told me I was I was at a
<v Speaker 3>very early age. I was singing when I was six
<v Speaker 3>years old, and at twelve years old, I was called
<v Speaker 3>to be a preacher. Wow, preach and teach and so
<v Speaker 3>interesting at this stage in my life, how true that
<v Speaker 3>is because every situation really for me, it's a teaching moment.
<v Speaker 6>But good, bad and the ugly. What am I where's
<v Speaker 6>my individuality in this moment?
<v Speaker 3>And what am I going to learn? And and I've
<v Speaker 3>also learned that I never have to be right, never
<v Speaker 3>have to be wrong. It's just what is in this
<v Speaker 3>moment that's going to give me a teaching moment for
<v Speaker 3>someone else? And and that that little preacher and teacher
<v Speaker 3>has that little preacher kid has now turned into a
<v Speaker 3>teacher with a little bit of preaching involved. It's not
<v Speaker 3>a guy. You know that about me?
<v Speaker 6>I am and uh, you got you know, I would
<v Speaker 6>say it's sobriety, always say you know, you just find
<v Speaker 6>you knew if you're dow a sobriety, we always tell
<v Speaker 6>the cause you know, just find something a little bit bigger,
<v Speaker 6>need to believe in if it's a tree, you know,
<v Speaker 6>but that tree always comes back to God. But are
<v Speaker 6>something that that's on this planet that gives you spirituality.
<v Speaker 6>And it's so cool today to be able to I
<v Speaker 6>love what you said. You know, we we are. We
<v Speaker 6>are a floundering society right now. And I always considered
<v Speaker 6>myself to be doing that earlier on. I was like
<v Speaker 6>I was the flounder.
<v Speaker 5>Today and by today's definition, you are not a flounder.
<v Speaker 3>If Maddy no back then, let's saying in this time
<v Speaker 3>that I would. You know.
<v Speaker 6>Also, I found sometimes found out really late in light
<v Speaker 6>that life that we didn't have these tests back then,
<v Speaker 6>that I was managed by polar I had no idea
<v Speaker 6>that was going on. So I love talking to young
<v Speaker 6>adults and kids, going, hey, you know there where there's trauma,
<v Speaker 6>whether it's something you've gone through, there's there are reasons
<v Speaker 6>that you land here right and some are big, summer, small,
<v Speaker 6>it doesn't matter, but there also are solutions.
<v Speaker 3>And I like to live my life that way, man.
<v Speaker 6>You know, because in this crazy time where there's so
<v Speaker 6>many opinions, uh, families or families are split apart by politics,
<v Speaker 6>Families are split apart by vaccines there and you know,
<v Speaker 6>and it's it's crazy time. My mama has it well said.
<v Speaker 6>She's like, in this house, we have love. If you
<v Speaker 6>don't want to have love, you can go on the
<v Speaker 6>porch and talk about it. If you fight about it,
<v Speaker 6>you can go in the yard.
<v Speaker 3>If you fight too much, I'm gonna call the police.
<v Speaker 3>And I love that analogy from my because at the
<v Speaker 3>end of the day, we're just blood and bones. Man.
<v Speaker 6>We got to love each other and we're in different opinions,
<v Speaker 6>but we don't got to fight about it.
<v Speaker 3>You know. It's that place.
<v Speaker 6>I don't know, there's that I don't think anybody's right
<v Speaker 6>or wrong, you know, it's just it's there's a story
<v Speaker 6>in every person that you got to where you are
<v Speaker 6>by your story.
<v Speaker 2>It's true, man. You know.
<v Speaker 5>I looked at I looked at the photo of the
<v Speaker 5>day of the globe and it was zoomed out. I
<v Speaker 5>think I think I was actually on Google Earth, and
<v Speaker 5>I was looking at a piece of property I was
<v Speaker 5>thinking about looking.
<v Speaker 2>At Yeah you are the landowner, now, yeah, yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 5>But so I zoomed out and I saw the earth
<v Speaker 5>in its entirety, and I just looked at it for
<v Speaker 5>a second, it's some of this overwhelming feeling of of
<v Speaker 5>loneliness kind of came over me, and I was like, look,
<v Speaker 5>who on this big rock is better than anyone else?
<v Speaker 5>Who on this big rock? We are so insignificant when
<v Speaker 5>it comes to the universe as the individual. Anyone who
<v Speaker 5>thinks they have their right to impose their opinions and
<v Speaker 5>everything else on somebody else. It's just asinine to me
<v Speaker 5>because you're only here for a fleeting moment, and people
<v Speaker 5>waste so much time fighting and trying to impose their thoughts,
<v Speaker 5>you know, people that want to come to our country
<v Speaker 5>and impose their country's thoughts or there are all these
<v Speaker 5>different things, you know, And I'm like, it's like the
<v Speaker 5>Haggard song, if you don't love it, leave it kind
<v Speaker 5>of I feel really strongly about that because I love
<v Speaker 5>this country and I hate to see the fundamentals of
<v Speaker 5>some of the just being completely torn down or attempted
<v Speaker 5>to tear down. And I'm really curious to see what's
<v Speaker 5>going to happen in the next few years.
<v Speaker 2>But I don't know, man, just seeing the.
<v Speaker 3>Earth like that we were here the next few years.
<v Speaker 2>Well yeah, yeah, I know, I know.
<v Speaker 3>Grandma said Jesus has come in.
<v Speaker 2>I tell you, man, well, dude, you know about this.
<v Speaker 6>You know, yeah, it's so it's you know, I hear
<v Speaker 6>you man, It's just so.
<v Speaker 3>Man.
<v Speaker 6>You know I you know, I'm LGBTQ, you know, and
<v Speaker 6>I and you know I I often fighting for kids.
<v Speaker 6>And then you add that element, you know, the world,
<v Speaker 6>the element to it, you know. And I look at
<v Speaker 6>a and I look at it, you know, I look
<v Speaker 6>at a family that we've just been working with.
<v Speaker 3>You know who's who? I mean, I'm gonna get real
<v Speaker 3>with you right now.
<v Speaker 2>Not my computer cost.
<v Speaker 6>You know, A kid's a kid there. You brought them
<v Speaker 6>into this world. They're blood and bones and we're just
<v Speaker 6>we're just working with a family right now that you know,
<v Speaker 6>the dad drove the drove the kid one hundred miles
<v Speaker 6>out of town, dropped him off, left him because he
<v Speaker 6>was different and uh, you know, fifteen years old and
<v Speaker 6>then two days later the kids dead and oh god,
<v Speaker 6>and the dad with his dad's a huge advocate now
<v Speaker 6>for for this kid happened to be uh trans kid.
<v Speaker 6>And I love this guy. He drives the tractor. He's great,
<v Speaker 6>you know, he's fish and hunting. Uh, you know, beer
<v Speaker 6>drinking Papa.
<v Speaker 3>He said.
<v Speaker 6>You know, one of the greatest quotes I've heard this
<v Speaker 6>year is and he goes, you know what, I drive
<v Speaker 6>to every Walmart in America to buy that kid whatever
<v Speaker 6>he wanted, whether it's a dress or a pair of pants,
<v Speaker 6>just to have him back.
<v Speaker 3>Right. Man, you know you put that for me, right,
<v Speaker 3>and it doesn't for everyone. But you know, to see uh,
<v Speaker 3>to see a kid that this may be different. I
<v Speaker 3>used to work different because there's so there's too many labels.
<v Speaker 5>Today I'm running You guys are running out of letters. Man,
<v Speaker 5>I can't say that. I can't do it anymore. You
<v Speaker 5>guys got to have come up with some sort of
<v Speaker 5>acronym that actually you can say that word.
<v Speaker 3>I can't say seventeen year old if you gave me
<v Speaker 3>the greatest gop of it in my life. You know
<v Speaker 3>I've said this when I when I go speak, he said.
<v Speaker 3>He said he's going to high school and then there's
<v Speaker 3>all these groups for different and very progressive high school.
<v Speaker 3>And he said he looked at me at Thanksgiving dinner.
<v Speaker 3>He goes, so, uncle Ty, he knows you're just kind
<v Speaker 3>of a plaino gay guy.
<v Speaker 2>You're just a g man.
<v Speaker 3>You're an o G.
<v Speaker 2>That's what you're an o G, I.
<v Speaker 6>Said, Jackson Top said, I said, I said, I waited
<v Speaker 6>my whole after hear that.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you. Man, that's a great compliment.
<v Speaker 2>Uncle Ty. You ain't Q to you and you're an
<v Speaker 2>old G.
<v Speaker 3>He said, you're a cowboy. I said, man, you know,
<v Speaker 3>but I love that, you know, but I don't want
<v Speaker 3>to get off on that subject.
<v Speaker 5>But well, it's interesting to look at you, to listen
<v Speaker 5>to you talk, though, because from an outsider, and you
<v Speaker 5>and I been friends for probably close to fifteen years
<v Speaker 5>or more.
<v Speaker 3>Close Yeah about that, about.
<v Speaker 2>That, so I've known a lot of things about you.
<v Speaker 5>That no one else knew from the outside, from from
<v Speaker 5>the GQ public, you know, the public people, and you
<v Speaker 5>know you and I were friends when I first I
<v Speaker 5>want to go back a little bit, uh and talk
<v Speaker 5>about our history together and then and then move forward.
<v Speaker 2>But it's interesting to hear.
<v Speaker 5>To have a conversation with you as an interviewer because
<v Speaker 5>as I see your life from my Spanish point, it's
<v Speaker 5>it's very compartmentalized. It's music is half of that, is
<v Speaker 5>probably more than half of that, just because it's I
<v Speaker 5>think the music veins drip over into everything else that
<v Speaker 5>you do. The other part of that is the struggle
<v Speaker 5>maybe struggles to not not the correct word, but the
<v Speaker 5>struggle between being gained country music, the addiction, the recovery,
<v Speaker 5>the continuous struggle to fight and deal with that. And
<v Speaker 5>so it's interesting to me just to listen to you
<v Speaker 5>talk how you immediately gravitate towards the latter.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, it's.
<v Speaker 5>Interesting because I think music is I mean, you you're
<v Speaker 5>literally one of the best singers that I've ever heard.
<v Speaker 5>And and SHAWNA Will Will We'll back me up on that.
<v Speaker 5>And if you just listen to a ty Herndon record
<v Speaker 5>and just prove me wrong.
<v Speaker 2>But but you.
<v Speaker 5>Go, but you went right to this other thing, so
<v Speaker 5>I can tell how important, uh, this aspect of life
<v Speaker 5>is to you. And I saw you go through a
<v Speaker 5>couple of different treatment deals and you know, and it
<v Speaker 5>obviously it broke my heart because we love you so much,
<v Speaker 5>and you know.
<v Speaker 2>You look great, man.
<v Speaker 5>You don't look like a sixty year old g you know,
<v Speaker 5>but you know, I just uh, you know, watching what
<v Speaker 5>witnessing on stage and then and then knowing how you
<v Speaker 5>go out on stage and you turn it on completely
<v Speaker 5>where there's no struggle whatsoever, and then as soon as
<v Speaker 5>you get off stage. Not that I witness this directly,
<v Speaker 5>but there's I know how it is. I know how
<v Speaker 5>it is to go on stage and have to turn
<v Speaker 5>it on and then come on stage and know that
<v Speaker 5>you and your like me and my wife got into
<v Speaker 5>a hell of a fight right beforehand, or we're actually
<v Speaker 5>having some problems maritally or whatever else.
<v Speaker 2>But you you have to go on the stage.
<v Speaker 5>You have to pretend like everything's okay, because that's your job,
<v Speaker 5>because you don't want anybody. No one else needs to
<v Speaker 5>know your business, you know, And you always said that
<v Speaker 5>don't even don't know might be business?
<v Speaker 3>So interesting? Did you say that because I used to
<v Speaker 3>have to step into a character. Yeah, I don't have
<v Speaker 3>to do that anymore.
<v Speaker 6>I mean, it's so interesting to walk out in front
<v Speaker 6>of a crowd now and just be me right. Uh,
<v Speaker 6>you know, I'm not carrying a gay flag out there.
<v Speaker 6>I'm carrying my story in music and just to be
<v Speaker 6>able to have the freedom Shelly rights to the best
<v Speaker 6>she goes, she goes when you come home to yourself
<v Speaker 6>and you walk out on the stage, because we part
<v Speaker 6>of myself won half of me if it maybe even
<v Speaker 6>more is a musician, and as a musician, you have
<v Speaker 6>to be authentic with everything that you do. The most
<v Speaker 6>successful musicians are the authentic musicians. So it took me
<v Speaker 6>a long time to come home to that because I
<v Speaker 6>had the gift that God gave me and I was
<v Speaker 6>doing my best too.
<v Speaker 3>That's the one thing that's never been damaged is to
<v Speaker 3>get so.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's weird, man.
<v Speaker 5>You always sang like you always sang, and you were
<v Speaker 5>doing this stuff and I'm going, man, I have, like,
<v Speaker 5>you know, four or five drinks before, I don't sound
<v Speaker 5>like the same keeper. Uh after a pint of jack,
<v Speaker 5>you know what I mean? I see it completely different,
<v Speaker 5>out of control, and you're just like, I'm dead on
<v Speaker 5>it all the time.
<v Speaker 6>I understand it now because of the higher purpose, right,
<v Speaker 6>That's why I probably go there more than I probably
<v Speaker 6>should sometimes. But being a foundation owner foundation for love,
<v Speaker 6>acceptance and being a speaker and then turning around and
<v Speaker 6>hearing all these stories sometimes they are just a lot, right,
<v Speaker 6>And to be able to speak into that, to be
<v Speaker 6>able to speak love and peace into the worst situation
<v Speaker 6>is a gift that God gave me, and and to
<v Speaker 6>be able to do that through music. I mean, you know,
<v Speaker 6>I'm about to unfold with Jacob more of my story
<v Speaker 6>than anyone has ever known.
<v Speaker 3>And I you know, it was just like for me
<v Speaker 3>coming out. I had to, you know, I couldn't live
<v Speaker 3>in the blood and bones anymore without doing that, right,
<v Speaker 3>Why did it have to come out?
<v Speaker 6>I'm like, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't for you.
<v Speaker 6>It was for me, and it was it was for
<v Speaker 6>me to be able to get up every day and
<v Speaker 6>feel whole and not live a lie. And so I
<v Speaker 6>think living your truth is one of the true answers
<v Speaker 6>to happiness in this life.
<v Speaker 3>And sometimes living truth is extremely hard.
<v Speaker 6>But I've changed and as I've grown here at almost
<v Speaker 6>sixty years old, I am i am more whole and
<v Speaker 6>happier than I've ever been in my life. And you know,
<v Speaker 6>I'm single and have great relationships with my former relationships.
<v Speaker 6>And Mama said, you know, you've always chosen wisely. She
<v Speaker 6>goes the problems in you, son, and and you know,
<v Speaker 6>to be able to hear that kind of truth from
<v Speaker 6>whoever I may be working with, friend, mom, therapists, whatever,
<v Speaker 6>and look at that and then yeah, and then being
<v Speaker 6>able to sit down and really work through what brought
<v Speaker 6>you to this place is one of the true joys
<v Speaker 6>in my life now. And I can tell you that
<v Speaker 6>as a friend.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know man.
<v Speaker 6>Sitting down with people sometimes now that have seen me
<v Speaker 6>in a while, they're like, nice.
<v Speaker 3>To meet you. I'm like, well, it's nice to meet
<v Speaker 3>you too.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>And the tie that I know that I'm looking at today,
<v Speaker 5>it's kind of been the tie that I've always known.
<v Speaker 5>There was a there was some bandmates that that knew
<v Speaker 5>the tie before I came along into the band that
<v Speaker 5>saw a different tie, and that was the scary tie
<v Speaker 5>that was that.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody. Yeah, and I missed that.
<v Speaker 5>I came in on the tail of that, and then
<v Speaker 5>I think he went into I think he went into
<v Speaker 5>a program like shortly after I joined the band.
<v Speaker 2>So I want to explain to.
<v Speaker 5>Everybody the history that we have a little bit, because
<v Speaker 5>I don't want to get so sidetracked that you don't understand.
<v Speaker 3>Let's go back to the story.
<v Speaker 2>We care about each other so much so.
<v Speaker 5>A long time ago, a guy named Jason Chance was
<v Speaker 5>playing with Ty Herndon. He was a guitar player band
<v Speaker 5>leader and they needed a rhythm guitar player that sang
<v Speaker 5>and it looked good, and of course they called me,
<v Speaker 5>and so I came into the band and I was like, hey,
<v Speaker 5>what do you think about having a female singer as well?
<v Speaker 2>You know, And you know, I.
<v Speaker 5>Said I could get her to work for cheap, you know,
<v Speaker 5>we could, you know, say, I brought my wife into
<v Speaker 5>the mix. So then we have Thompson Square and then
<v Speaker 5>ty Herndon singing together. And man, it was one of
<v Speaker 5>the most precious moments in our life, singing wise, because
<v Speaker 5>singing with someone where it's just organic and the harmonies
<v Speaker 5>fall into place, there's no tuning involved, it's just everyone
<v Speaker 5>knows what they're supposed to be doing, was so freaking fun.
<v Speaker 5>And it was we learned so much at that point
<v Speaker 5>because we were very green. We didn't have a record deal.
<v Speaker 5>We were trying to get one, but we played with
<v Speaker 5>you and your band for.
<v Speaker 2>Probably five years, six years.
<v Speaker 5>And eventually I was like, we we got to quit,
<v Speaker 5>or we're just going to stay here forever. We got
<v Speaker 5>to do our own thing. We got to branch out
<v Speaker 5>and we gotta fly, you know, And we did. And
<v Speaker 5>once we did that, we really uber focused on our
<v Speaker 5>career and then the rest is history, as they say,
<v Speaker 5>and and and we did really really well. And and
<v Speaker 5>you know, it's always been one of those things though,
<v Speaker 5>that you go back, go back, and I hear what
<v Speaker 5>mattered most, right, hear one of these songs in the radio.
<v Speaker 5>I'm just like, oh, man, yeah, so I'm singing all
<v Speaker 5>the parts that don't exist on the records that we
<v Speaker 5>made up and the different versions and stuff, and I'm like, okay,
<v Speaker 5>this just it was such a It was such a
<v Speaker 5>great time. And Ty used to let us open up
<v Speaker 5>for him and for his shows. He would feature us
<v Speaker 5>all the time, probably more than he should have. And
<v Speaker 5>we would be doing radio shows, man, like you were
<v Speaker 5>promoting your single and you were like, hey, guys, I
<v Speaker 5>have this awesome husband and wife duo, you know, Thompson Square.
<v Speaker 5>Let them sing a couple of songs in your radio thing.
<v Speaker 5>And I'm going, what are you doing?
<v Speaker 2>Man? But you were so gracious to do that.
<v Speaker 5>And you know, coming from Oklahoma and Alabama, like Sean,
<v Speaker 5>we grew up up. You know when in the nineties
<v Speaker 5>when you are hot as a firecracker, I mean, to
<v Speaker 5>go from listening to you on the radio to be
<v Speaker 5>in your band and becoming friends and to kind of
<v Speaker 5>know you intimately, you know, in that in that way
<v Speaker 5>of of of your struggles in your personal life and
<v Speaker 5>getting to know your family and all. You know, we
<v Speaker 5>still make the ranch and pepper crackers. Uh, and we
<v Speaker 5>still make these. If I was introduced that to your friends,
<v Speaker 5>you know, and I'm just that we still we're doing
<v Speaker 5>that for Christmas this year thatda thing Swanda, yeah hell yeah.
<v Speaker 2>But you know, your fans became our fans.
<v Speaker 5>So when we go to shows now, our fans Salt
<v Speaker 5>Lake or wherever we're at, they come out and it's
<v Speaker 5>always talking. You know, we always talk about you and stuff.
<v Speaker 5>But it was it was such an amazing time for
<v Speaker 5>us uh as musicians to to watch you entertain and
<v Speaker 5>take a crowd. And and at the time that you were,
<v Speaker 5>you know, we talked about this about you coming out
<v Speaker 5>if you wanted to come out.
<v Speaker 2>Didn't know what, you know.
<v Speaker 5>And I'm curious just because Sewn and I looked around
<v Speaker 5>in the day, was like, you know, what, three of
<v Speaker 5>our best friends are gay.
<v Speaker 2>Who would have thought, you know?
<v Speaker 5>And uh, you know, and it's it's uh, it's one
<v Speaker 5>of those things where we never.
<v Speaker 3>Even look a look at I know, man, look at this,
<v Speaker 3>look at.
<v Speaker 2>This nice sweater, you know.
<v Speaker 5>But you know, it was one of those things where
<v Speaker 5>we never we never had a thought of caring.
<v Speaker 2>I grew up in a town where there were no
<v Speaker 2>gay people.
<v Speaker 5>There were no any majnorities, nothing. It was just dude,
<v Speaker 5>it was just saltines everywhere you look. Man, there was
<v Speaker 5>no diversity. So you know, to go into that and
<v Speaker 5>just you know, fall in love with a person, uh
<v Speaker 5>as friends, uh, in a very plutonic way and just go,
<v Speaker 5>I like you, you like.
<v Speaker 2>Me, that's it. I don't give a crap what you do.
<v Speaker 5>And outside of that, it was really cool for me, man,
<v Speaker 5>And uh, it was just it was just it was
<v Speaker 5>it wasn't a thing. It never was a thing. And
<v Speaker 5>I you know, we talked about it before. And what
<v Speaker 5>do you think, Well, without stating the obvious at the
<v Speaker 5>time that you were in country music at your at
<v Speaker 5>your highest obviously, uh, you were still.
<v Speaker 2>Not out right, How did that?
<v Speaker 5>How did that affect your your day to day routine
<v Speaker 5>and playing no one hey, knowing that you couldn't be
<v Speaker 5>you could be who you are, but you couldn't really
<v Speaker 5>tell everybody else about it. I mean, how hard was
<v Speaker 5>that to do on a daily basis?
<v Speaker 3>It turned me into a professional liar man. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>my my entire story was skewed.
<v Speaker 6>And you know, having to have a as we got,
<v Speaker 6>I had to buy the grace of God. I had
<v Speaker 6>a really when I got my deal at Sony, you know,
<v Speaker 6>I got I got married because I was so fearful of.
<v Speaker 3>Anyone finding out.
<v Speaker 6>And you know, Sony actually paid for my wedding, and
<v Speaker 6>it was that's that's that's great stories in the book
<v Speaker 6>that's coming. But you know, and but then having to
<v Speaker 6>turn around and say, wow, you know, I'm really messing
<v Speaker 6>with someone else's life.
<v Speaker 2>You're having to having married to a girl, married to.
<v Speaker 3>A girl h and twice and uh, you know it's
<v Speaker 3>kind of interesting.
<v Speaker 6>After the second wife, my mom kind of said, hey, son,
<v Speaker 6>you know, let's not get married anymore. You know, you
<v Speaker 6>realize you're gay, right, I.
<v Speaker 3>Was like, Mom, back to your room.
<v Speaker 6>But you know, there's there's there's there's comical moments in that,
<v Speaker 6>of course. But when I when I get to talk
<v Speaker 6>to kids today, because it's a different town today, you
<v Speaker 6>look at artists like Lily Rose and Brooke Ton who
<v Speaker 6>just came here that way, coming out involved and that
<v Speaker 6>are doing great and and One of the true things
<v Speaker 6>that I learned from my story was if someone had
<v Speaker 6>told me just to come to town and be a
<v Speaker 6>great musician, be a great singer, be treat your talent
<v Speaker 6>like you went to Harvard, everything about and be respected
<v Speaker 6>for what you do.
<v Speaker 3>The rest football in place. I didn't have that. I
<v Speaker 3>led with. I led with.
<v Speaker 6>I let the that part of my life becomes so
<v Speaker 6>big that I could barely do my job. And and
<v Speaker 6>so that's the greatest gift I get to give to
<v Speaker 6>the kids that want to come down. I'm like, you know, hey,
<v Speaker 6>don't worry about that. You know, worry about being great
<v Speaker 6>at what you do.
<v Speaker 3>Let that lead. But it was a different time then,
<v Speaker 3>you know.
<v Speaker 6>I look at some of my constituents like Shelley Wright
<v Speaker 6>and Billy Gilman, and.
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<v Speaker 6>TJ and you know, just you know, getting the opportunity
<v Speaker 6>to be at the top of your game and come
<v Speaker 6>out and.
<v Speaker 3>Have a monument moment on the CMA wars. You get
<v Speaker 3>to say, you know, hey, this is me love my music.
<v Speaker 2>Heller right, I'm like, wait a minute, why didn't I
<v Speaker 2>get to do that?
<v Speaker 3>You know, I thought about that.
<v Speaker 6>But you know that was that was his moment, And
<v Speaker 6>and that doesn't mean I won't have that moment, you know,
<v Speaker 6>in a different situation. So I truly believe that every
<v Speaker 6>life has the opportunity to build a room that that
<v Speaker 6>is ordained by God or higher power or.
<v Speaker 3>Whatever you want to call it.
<v Speaker 6>But today being able to walk into those rooms and
<v Speaker 6>recognize the truth and the authenticity that's in the room,
<v Speaker 6>and if it's.
<v Speaker 3>Not there, you might want to, you know how, tell
<v Speaker 3>it out of there but to answer your question. It
<v Speaker 3>led me to some pretty dark rooms. It led me
<v Speaker 3>to some pretty dark addiction, led me to a lot
<v Speaker 3>of trauma. It led me to a deep drug addiction.
<v Speaker 3>It led me to getting arrested, It led me to
<v Speaker 3>almost go into prison. It led me to to to
<v Speaker 3>some high, high, high level abuse and that a lot
<v Speaker 3>of people don't know whether they will know soon. It
<v Speaker 3>led me to to death almost twice.
<v Speaker 6>To one thing I've never talked about is the attempted
<v Speaker 6>attempted suicides and the.
<v Speaker 3>Moments that I wasn't on this almost wasn't on this earth.
<v Speaker 3>It led me to the darkest place ever, to not
<v Speaker 3>wanting to be alive. And I will do everything in
<v Speaker 3>my power. You wonder why I often leave you with this.
<v Speaker 3>I'll do everything in my power to make sure that
<v Speaker 3>a person knows.
<v Speaker 6>That they don't have to live that way and they
<v Speaker 6>can still have God, they can still have their job,
<v Speaker 6>they can still have their careers, they can still have
<v Speaker 6>their family. And it's it's just a course into the
<v Speaker 6>room you build and be damn sure who is helping
<v Speaker 6>you with the bricks and order.
<v Speaker 2>Right, and so yeah you want to contractor yeah, man, I'm.
<v Speaker 6>A contractor for my own life. Man, I am, you know,
<v Speaker 6>and I'm a son of a bitch about it. But
<v Speaker 6>I've earned the right.
<v Speaker 3>To be a teacher, a songwriter, an artist. I take it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm having a.
<v Speaker 3>Lot of fun.
<v Speaker 6>I had more fun than I've ever had. But it
<v Speaker 6>got easier because I wasn't. I didn't I didn't carry
<v Speaker 6>all this crap with me everywhere I went. I used
<v Speaker 6>to say, I'm dragging around seven trauma bowling balls. I
<v Speaker 6>got rid of everyone but one, and that one me balanced.
<v Speaker 5>That's the thing about holding on this stuff, man, you're
<v Speaker 5>holding on the stuff. You can't let it go.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I am, let me go.
<v Speaker 3>I'm so happy that I get to, you know, coming
<v Speaker 3>up with Jacob. I'm sitting down with a want to
<v Speaker 3>give too much away but a very big magazine and
<v Speaker 3>talking about things people haven't heard.
<v Speaker 6>Right, if people don't know about me, And the only
<v Speaker 6>reason that I'm unfolding that it is because I know
<v Speaker 6>there's probably a lot of folks out.
<v Speaker 3>There like me, and I want to be The lights
<v Speaker 3>came on, you.
<v Speaker 6>Know, all the lights, right, not one or two. The
<v Speaker 6>darknesses were lit up. And that's when I'll go back
<v Speaker 6>to this, and that's when I was like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 6>who knew you had to learn how to be happy?
<v Speaker 5>It turned out to deliver in that you have to
<v Speaker 5>learn behavior, man, because we're programmed not to be a program,
<v Speaker 5>society and news and everything else, not to be happy.
<v Speaker 5>This this tragedy, this tragedy is trae. No one reports
<v Speaker 5>on good news. Let me ask you this, when you
<v Speaker 5>started what what? What year did your first single come out?
<v Speaker 2>So nineteen ninety five? Did your label know that you
<v Speaker 2>were gay?
<v Speaker 3>They one person did.
<v Speaker 6>I didn't feel like I didn't feel like I could
<v Speaker 6>take the deal without at least being I was brave
<v Speaker 6>enough to be a little bit authentic. And and that
<v Speaker 6>was with a dude, this the great Jack Laymer, who's
<v Speaker 6>with us right right? And uh, you know, I don't
<v Speaker 6>think I ever said it in so many words, but
<v Speaker 6>when I got my deal, man you, Margie Hunt flew
<v Speaker 6>out and saw me.
<v Speaker 3>I just won Texas.
<v Speaker 6>Entertainer of the Year, right, And that was in ninety four,
<v Speaker 6>and Margie Hunt came out, and I've been trying to
<v Speaker 6>get it. I mean I was on freaking star search,
<v Speaker 6>you know, back in nineteen eighty two, and yeah, sorry
<v Speaker 6>Brown got a record bill right out there in the
<v Speaker 6>same year, and uh, you know, I did not, and
<v Speaker 6>so it was it was years later before I got
<v Speaker 6>a deal. But Margie Hunt said they I was living
<v Speaker 6>in Texas. She said, come, we want to fight in
<v Speaker 6>Nashville and meet you know, Doug Johnson, Alan Butler. Margie
<v Speaker 6>Hunt was there, chick Leemer and I walked into the room. Okay,
<v Speaker 6>when you sing for us, I'm like, I don't really
<v Speaker 6>have a I don't play guitar. I mean I was
<v Speaker 6>full and I had the wranglers and the cowboy hat,
<v Speaker 6>you know, trying to be someone else, right and uh so,
<v Speaker 6>uh one of the one of the guys think it
<v Speaker 6>was Allen Baller should take take that hat off and
<v Speaker 6>just sing for us in the room, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 6>I just kind of thought about it. I was like,
<v Speaker 6>this is like church Man, and I never forget I
<v Speaker 6>sag Jack Green, there goes my everything.
<v Speaker 3>I pulled my hat off and just belted it out
<v Speaker 3>and and they said okay, thanks and.
<v Speaker 2>So typical.
<v Speaker 3>And I was like, okay, well about that, yep.
<v Speaker 6>And the next day, uh, I had met with Joe
<v Speaker 6>Diffey's manager and I signed with those guys's management management,
<v Speaker 6>and uh, Joe.
<v Speaker 3>Joe was always so great to me, man. I think
<v Speaker 3>he was very instrumental in me getting the deal actually,
<v Speaker 3>and uh, the next day they called said, okay, they're
<v Speaker 3>gonna do one song and if one song does well,
<v Speaker 3>you get to do a whole album. And that's when
<v Speaker 3>Doug Johnson said, I got the song called what Matters Most.
<v Speaker 3>Everybody's had it a whole there's one part of it
<v Speaker 3>and nobody's ever able to pull out. Oh my god,
<v Speaker 3>what did I do in that song? And I was like,
<v Speaker 3>I've been oh my god, what did I do in church?
<v Speaker 3>My whole life? Man?
<v Speaker 6>It was six months later, short six months, I had
<v Speaker 6>a you know, a three week number one.
<v Speaker 2>That's crazy. What an amazing piece of work man, that is.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, but that little song led me to you you know,
<v Speaker 6>to to five number one records and twenty six.
<v Speaker 3>Singles. But you know, and then I went to I
<v Speaker 3>went through some trouble after that. You know.
<v Speaker 6>I actually was addicted to Crystal Math when I got
<v Speaker 6>my deal. A lot of people doesn't don't know that,
<v Speaker 6>but it was I discovered it in the clubs, uh,
<v Speaker 6>and I carried it through and I was very addicted
<v Speaker 6>at the time, and so much of this story is
<v Speaker 6>about to be told.
<v Speaker 3>But I was.
<v Speaker 6>I think this is this is important to note with
<v Speaker 6>what we're talking about. But I am, you know, I
<v Speaker 6>my dreams were coming true and I wasn't even present. Wow,
<v Speaker 6>nobody home.
<v Speaker 3>You missed it?
<v Speaker 2>I missed it any way you missed it?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, man, I did.
<v Speaker 6>And then all of a sudden, here I am nominated,
<v Speaker 6>you know, for Horizon Awards CMA Song of the Year,
<v Speaker 6>which it did win, by the way, Songwriter ascaps on
<v Speaker 6>the Year. And and man, you know, I was so
<v Speaker 6>addicted I ended up getting arrested. I should have gone
<v Speaker 6>to prison for thirty years. I had that many drugs
<v Speaker 6>on me, but I ended up getting You know, there's
<v Speaker 6>a horrific situation that I ended up getting probation for
<v Speaker 6>for five years and and signing a CD for UH
<v Speaker 6>for the judge's wife. And and.
<v Speaker 2>You're the You are the quintessential.
<v Speaker 5>If you looked up dictionary in the and if you
<v Speaker 5>looked up addict in the dictionary, you would not see
<v Speaker 5>your freaking face. You were the reason why people don't
<v Speaker 5>need to take this at just face value, because you
<v Speaker 5>do not look like nor have you ever looked like
<v Speaker 5>someone who was addicted to crystal meth or strung or
<v Speaker 5>missed your missed your dreams coming true.
<v Speaker 2>You just you don't.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, you're you've always looked you're always you're very handsome.
<v Speaker 5>Yet man, you've always your face has always looked great,
<v Speaker 5>your teeth is always looked great, your hair, anything about
<v Speaker 5>you know, I.
<v Speaker 3>Could have two houses what I've gotten these.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I mean.
<v Speaker 5>You you make Dustin Lynch's teeth look dirty, you know
<v Speaker 5>what I'm saying. I mean, but you know, it's it's
<v Speaker 5>weird that that you just don't fit that profile, which
<v Speaker 5>means there is no profile. I mean, there's you don't
<v Speaker 5>have to look like an addict to be struggling with
<v Speaker 5>those things. And it's just I'm so thankful man that
<v Speaker 5>you that you pulled out.
<v Speaker 2>Of that and and you know, so you know, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I heard different stories about different.
<v Speaker 5>Artists who were married, who were told not to tell
<v Speaker 5>anybody that you were married because we want all the
<v Speaker 5>girls to want to sleep with you on stage and
<v Speaker 5>all of this stuff. So the label didn't say we
<v Speaker 5>wanted to keep this down and we're going to keep
<v Speaker 5>us under wraps. That was was that your decision to
<v Speaker 5>kind of keep it down because you were afraid of
<v Speaker 5>losing your deal or losing your career.
<v Speaker 3>It's so interesting in this interview that I that I
<v Speaker 3>just did this. I will say this much. I I
<v Speaker 3>grew up on a tractor on a farm in Alabama.
<v Speaker 6>This is never fits. I never wanted it, right, and
<v Speaker 6>you know, and I just it was it was it
<v Speaker 6>was to me. And and I don't feel this way today.
<v Speaker 6>So all of my LGBT family out there, please don't
<v Speaker 6>take this wrong. But it was like a cancer to me, right.
<v Speaker 6>I just I wanted it gone. I didn't and so
<v Speaker 6>I fought and fought and fought.
<v Speaker 2>We talked about that in the past.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, And you know, at the end of the day,
<v Speaker 6>you're you're You're. You cannot change the magnificent person that
<v Speaker 6>God made you to be. But there's not a manual
<v Speaker 6>for that. There's a lot of manuals that say.
<v Speaker 3>That you're damaged. There's a lot of voices that say
<v Speaker 3>you're broken, that you're terrible.
<v Speaker 6>Not normal, you're not normal, that you're that you're a
<v Speaker 6>walking disease. That I mean the things that I heard
<v Speaker 6>that from ten years old, that made me feel like
<v Speaker 6>I was a disgusting kid and all the all the
<v Speaker 6>I mean, I'm a licensed over companion.
<v Speaker 3>Now. I've done a lot of work around on arm
<v Speaker 3>on the journey for that, and I have gone back
<v Speaker 3>so far.
<v Speaker 6>Doing some pretty intense work to become a teacher, a
<v Speaker 6>better teacher about how far back this can go, how
<v Speaker 6>far back as early some people five years old that
<v Speaker 6>you are.
<v Speaker 3>Printed to be damaged and you carry that into everything
<v Speaker 3>you do.
<v Speaker 6>So I at fifty eight years old, I started this
<v Speaker 6>trauma work and one of my counselors said, I do
<v Speaker 6>not know how you've been walking around.
<v Speaker 3>And I'm like.
<v Speaker 2>Your survivor.
<v Speaker 3>Man. It's like, because because of driving that tractor, because
<v Speaker 3>of my dad, because of my grandpa, because of my
<v Speaker 3>because of my mama, because of my sister, because of
<v Speaker 3>so many people that only saw me as a beautiful,
<v Speaker 3>talented young man right that to this day, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 3>see me that way.
<v Speaker 5>I can't imagine looking at Cooper and him telling me
<v Speaker 5>that he's gay and me driving him one hundred and
<v Speaker 5>fifty miles out into the desert and dropping him off.
<v Speaker 5>I can't imagine having someone that you've made, you created,
<v Speaker 5>that you loved and then all of a sudden you
<v Speaker 5>discovered that they have a different sexual orientation, and erasing
<v Speaker 5>them from your life. I can't, I just can't imagine.
<v Speaker 5>You know, children are such a gift anyway, you know,
<v Speaker 5>and there's so many children, especially like just for instance,
<v Speaker 5>in this this travesty of this tornado that we just had,
<v Speaker 5>so many little kids, entire families were wiped out the
<v Speaker 5>face of the earth, and it's like there there, it's
<v Speaker 5>such a precious being a child. And when they're in
<v Speaker 5>you're saying four or five, six years old, and you're
<v Speaker 5>people are imprinting this stuff all on you. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>that's the most influential time period in your life. And
<v Speaker 5>those scars will as you know, and you're living it
<v Speaker 5>every day. Those things were they reside within your life
<v Speaker 5>for the rest of your life. And then you know,
<v Speaker 5>and you're you're going to be on this journey. You're
<v Speaker 5>you're You've been on a journey every since I've known you,
<v Speaker 5>and I think we should all be on a journey.
<v Speaker 5>I've been on a journey in my own, but it's
<v Speaker 5>of trying to to deal with the trauma that happened
<v Speaker 5>in the past, imprinted by other people.
<v Speaker 2>The trauma that you've done to.
<v Speaker 5>Yourself and and everything else that all your surroundings, and
<v Speaker 5>I just it irritates me to no end.
<v Speaker 2>The ignorance of people. Uh, it irritates me.
<v Speaker 5>It's it's it's conditioning, it's programming from years and years ago.
<v Speaker 5>And this is not I mean, everyone's wanting this to
<v Speaker 5>change overnight. Well, let me tell you something. It's not
<v Speaker 5>going to change overnight. It takes time. And I will
<v Speaker 5>say this, I do. I I do think a lot
<v Speaker 5>has changed, you know. And and the fact that TJ
<v Speaker 5>came out and these stereotypes of well, you know, so
<v Speaker 5>you're gay, Okay, Well we can't like you as a
<v Speaker 5>country music artist anymore.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, and we've.
<v Speaker 5>Talked about other artists that are that have never come
<v Speaker 5>out and because of fear of losing their entire audience.
<v Speaker 2>And I don't understand.
<v Speaker 5>Like I was, still there's there's people that I listen
<v Speaker 5>to that I know, damn goodwell.
<v Speaker 2>Are and some of have come out and some are not.
<v Speaker 5>But I still love that artist and I love their music,
<v Speaker 5>and I don't understand what the hell has to do
<v Speaker 5>with anything.
<v Speaker 2>I just don't understand it.
<v Speaker 5>And you know, I'm as straight as it comes, my
<v Speaker 5>wife as straight as it comes. And yeah, but it's
<v Speaker 5>like I just don't understand. I don't understand the hate
<v Speaker 5>a of hating someone based upon their sexual preference. I
<v Speaker 5>do understand the frustration that someone who doesn't.
<v Speaker 2>Agree with that, and you have this entity just.
<v Speaker 5>Saying you must accept and support us, you must accept
<v Speaker 5>and support us. That's just not going to happen for
<v Speaker 5>I mean from a lot of people. If you're a
<v Speaker 5>bigot and you're a racist, and you're a homophobe, and
<v Speaker 5>you're a bad piece of crap person, there's no amount
<v Speaker 5>of bumper stickers or anything that's going to change that.
<v Speaker 5>You're a terrible person and you're always going to be
<v Speaker 5>a terrible person. And I think what I've seen happen
<v Speaker 5>is I think empathy is one of the terms that
<v Speaker 5>I would probably use is over the last few years, I.
<v Speaker 6>Think with something just like being gay, some things you're
<v Speaker 6>born with and some things you're not.
<v Speaker 5>That's it, man. And I think the empathy though, has
<v Speaker 5>been realized.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, educating and having something happen within your family. You're right,
<v Speaker 3>it is the teacher right, really, you know, I don't
<v Speaker 3>waste my time trying to change somebody's mind.
<v Speaker 6>You can look into somebody's eyes and that's something mine
<v Speaker 6>is going to have to happen to that. Yeah, that
<v Speaker 6>per because it's shut down.
<v Speaker 5>Yep, So cut them out. That's it, you're out. That's
<v Speaker 5>what we do. It's just negative people that I don't
<v Speaker 5>want to be around. They're just gone.
<v Speaker 2>You know. It's it's right.
<v Speaker 3>You know, some people have gone and it's like the
<v Speaker 3>book The Shack, the movie The Shock. If you've seen them,
<v Speaker 3>you know, you don't know what's happened to that person.
<v Speaker 3>They got them to that point, so I have to
<v Speaker 3>love them anyway. And I just went through some horror,
<v Speaker 3>some E M d R. A lot of work. There's
<v Speaker 3>some bad things that happened to me.
<v Speaker 6>And on the other side of it, the only thing
<v Speaker 6>to set me free from it all was going back
<v Speaker 6>to those rooms, to the moment and finding and going
<v Speaker 6>I forgive you.
<v Speaker 3>You no longer have a place in my heart and
<v Speaker 3>my life and my space. And getting to that place
<v Speaker 3>at fifty nine years old, it's the biggest miracle I
<v Speaker 3>ever could have given myself. And I didn't think I'd
<v Speaker 3>get there. I really did not. I did.
<v Speaker 6>I did the work and my mama has texted me
<v Speaker 6>that her heart monitors going off three times.
<v Speaker 3>I may have to I may have to leave you.
<v Speaker 2>Well, that's totally that's understandable.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, and I it's not too bad. So don't don't
<v Speaker 3>panic anyone. Okay, I have to go. I have to
<v Speaker 3>go take care of her. But can we continue?
<v Speaker 2>We can? Can we have a Can we have a
<v Speaker 2>pause here and have an intermission?
<v Speaker 3>Yes?
<v Speaker 6>And then uh and then in about probably about four weeks.
<v Speaker 3>I really want to talk to you about a lot
<v Speaker 3>of other stuff.
<v Speaker 2>So, well, you need to come out to the cabin.
<v Speaker 6>I will the next conversation. I will, we won't be
<v Speaker 6>will be in person. Yeah, music as well.
<v Speaker 5>Love to see. We'll play some music and have some fun. Well, listen,
<v Speaker 5>go take care of mom. I'll pause this, give her
<v Speaker 5>our love and uh, and.
<v Speaker 6>We'll continue to get that beautiful rock yours a kiss
<v Speaker 6>from me.
<v Speaker 3>I will not sing. That'd be weird.
<v Speaker 5>We just give it one right here, no time, no
<v Speaker 5>tongue or anything. All right, but I talked to you,
<v Speaker 5>let's talk to let's talk see we'll finish this up.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, man, I enjoyed.
<v Speaker 5>It all right, Peggy here, so uh yeah, So that
<v Speaker 5>that's this is live, everybody, so listen, this is what
<v Speaker 5>we're gonna do. I'm going to shut it down for
<v Speaker 5>right now, and then we will continue when we find
<v Speaker 5>out that Miss Peggy is good as gold, which I'm
<v Speaker 5>sure she is. Y'all say a prayer for miss Peggy.
<v Speaker 5>She is a wonderful, wonderful woman and human being, great
<v Speaker 5>mother and wife, just just just an amazing individual. So
<v Speaker 5>let's all see a prayer for Miss Peggy and her heart.
<v Speaker 5>Marten is going off, but I've been around that in
<v Speaker 5>my family, so I know exactly what it is. And
<v Speaker 5>tis being the good son by going and checking on mama.
<v Speaker 5>So we will we will continue shortly.
<v Speaker 2>All right, So this is uh, this is part two.
<v Speaker 2>We have tie back with this.
<v Speaker 5>So so, man, what I left all that stuff in there?
<v Speaker 5>So what was it deal with Miss Peggy's heart monitor?
<v Speaker 5>What happened?
<v Speaker 2>Okay?
<v Speaker 3>Yes, you know she she's very private about her business.
<v Speaker 3>So that's Peggy.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, she had a with her permission, she had a
<v Speaker 6>pacemaker put in last year.
<v Speaker 3>She's really healthy. I mean, you know, the woman still
<v Speaker 3>she's eighty one years old and running around in her stilettos.
<v Speaker 3>You know, we're playing Laughlin, Nevada, which that that gig
<v Speaker 3>is so fun. We I guess the only reason we
<v Speaker 3>still do it is because it's five days of family
<v Speaker 3>and friends coming in.
<v Speaker 2>I remember Laughlin.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, it's just it's still Ye. We hadn't played it,
<v Speaker 6>I guess probably about three years.
<v Speaker 3>So I agreed to do it this year because it's
<v Speaker 3>a lot of fun anyway. But but Mom and and
<v Speaker 3>uh and Wanda and you know, we'll be Monta Saint
<v Speaker 3>Greta this year. So yeah, she's gone. She's gone onto
<v Speaker 3>the great stilettos in the sky.
<v Speaker 2>I hate that, man.
<v Speaker 3>Man.
<v Speaker 6>You know, it's been really scary because she in her heart.
<v Speaker 6>Heart disease runs in my mom's family. But Moms, she's
<v Speaker 6>on top of it.
<v Speaker 3>She really is. She's she's got the got this cool.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if it's new or not.
<v Speaker 6>It's new for us, but there's a monitor that goes
<v Speaker 6>off if something is not going well, just out of rim.
<v Speaker 6>So it was happening quite a bit and we just
<v Speaker 6>got her back into heart specialists and there's just this
<v Speaker 6>minor adjustment then you know it just from what I understand,
<v Speaker 6>just you know, just just kind of shocks it back
<v Speaker 6>into where it needs to be.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, Seana's dad has yet.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, she's she's back in the She's back in her stilettos.
<v Speaker 2>So I missed her so much.
<v Speaker 5>I haven't seen her in God, it's been years, man,
<v Speaker 5>since I've seen Miss Peggy.
<v Speaker 3>Oh she's she hadn't changed a bit. But I.
<v Speaker 6>Told her the other day, I said, you, so, she's
<v Speaker 6>in a new hany place because because of the hard stuff.
<v Speaker 6>To make a long story very short, there was actually
<v Speaker 6>ninety steps to get up to her front door, and
<v Speaker 6>then inside her house there was there's, you know, fifteen steps.
<v Speaker 6>So we got her ordered her one of those little
<v Speaker 6>lift things.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, I know, you told me.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, we talked about this.
<v Speaker 2>We talked about the lift. She got piss stuff about.
<v Speaker 3>He said, I wouldn't even put my beer in that.
<v Speaker 2>That's so funny.
<v Speaker 5>It's funny because we started this podcast what two weeks ago? Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>and then we got interrupted from a from a concerned son,
<v Speaker 5>a good son and shut it down to go check
<v Speaker 5>on his mom.
<v Speaker 2>And I love that. Man, that's so cool.
<v Speaker 3>We'll wrap that up. She's doing great. She's in a
<v Speaker 3>new house, and she she seems to be a master
<v Speaker 3>these days.
<v Speaker 2>That's so great man.
<v Speaker 5>Well, listen, man, I know we talked about a lot
<v Speaker 5>of stuff and I had a few a few things.
<v Speaker 5>This is kind of odd to go back and try
<v Speaker 5>to to rehash what we talked about and not over overlap.
<v Speaker 5>But you know a couple of things that, uh, I
<v Speaker 5>want to talk about the new music first of all,
<v Speaker 5>so I know, I know, I just saw an Instagram
<v Speaker 5>post of you singing in the studio, uh, a song
<v Speaker 5>called Hallelujah and it sounds do you sound killer?
<v Speaker 3>Man?
<v Speaker 5>So what's what's the what's the deal with the new
<v Speaker 5>record and when's it coming out?
<v Speaker 2>And all that?
<v Speaker 6>Well, you know, in about three weeks I think I
<v Speaker 6>looked today, you know, we're announcing that the uh, the
<v Speaker 6>signing of the new record deal, which you know is
<v Speaker 6>is for me. You know, I've been doing this a
<v Speaker 6>long time and kind of gotten used to doing things independently.
<v Speaker 6>But something came along that was it was a perfect
<v Speaker 6>platform for me to tell my story, right and really
<v Speaker 6>for me these days, where.
<v Speaker 3>I'm my mind is where I'm writing. You know, I'm
<v Speaker 3>a I worked with a lot of sobriety situations and
<v Speaker 3>I've pretty much been down some pretty tough roads and
<v Speaker 3>actually having an opportunity for all my scars and all
<v Speaker 3>the stuff that I've run from my entire life to
<v Speaker 3>take center stage and actually be the star of the
<v Speaker 3>show is a mind blowing thing.
<v Speaker 6>So it's been a true pleasure to write this music.
<v Speaker 6>But it's really an album about The album's called Jacob,
<v Speaker 6>which is no secret. It's it's it's and there's not
<v Speaker 6>a song. It's just from one of my favorite places
<v Speaker 6>in the Bible, just you know, where you can take
<v Speaker 6>your scars and they've become your healer and it's all
<v Speaker 6>about changing your ending. And and I've won this last year,
<v Speaker 6>really last year. You know, it's been a long time,
<v Speaker 6>but really jumped into some major recovery since since COVID.
<v Speaker 6>It had my own challenges, and I'll be thinking about
<v Speaker 6>that for the first time. I'm sitting down with some
<v Speaker 6>some pretty big news outlets coming up just to just
<v Speaker 6>to talk about my journey with that, which I share
<v Speaker 6>a lot of my story with.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I don't I don't sit individually in my story.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sitting there with you know, the entire music industry
<v Speaker 3>pretty much and and others. Everyone has their own story
<v Speaker 3>through this, but UH. For me, it was.
<v Speaker 6>You know, having to kind of change my ending for
<v Speaker 6>the for the fifth time was it was a lot, right,
<v Speaker 6>and I had some things going on up here that
<v Speaker 6>just weren't healthy, and having the opportunity to go kind
<v Speaker 6>of fix that and then take a really good look
<v Speaker 6>and you and I will talk again once this once
<v Speaker 6>this all I think we talked about this.
<v Speaker 3>Let's sit down, and you know you're my friend and
<v Speaker 3>you were there for.
<v Speaker 6>A lot of this, and and then there's just a
<v Speaker 6>lot that I've never shared with any that is the
<v Speaker 6>those those through the power of of working with some
<v Speaker 6>great UH counselors and therapists and and doing some stuff,
<v Speaker 6>you know, trauma work basically and having an opportunity to
<v Speaker 6>do some really cool stuff like E. M.
<v Speaker 2>D R.
<v Speaker 6>And if you don't know what that is, it's basically
<v Speaker 6>just able to go back and it's it's a situation
<v Speaker 6>where you almost get hypnotized and you get to go
<v Speaker 6>back and kind of really be back in the moment
<v Speaker 6>and figure out what what the.
<v Speaker 3>Scars are for you and what the trauma is. Look,
<v Speaker 3>take a really close look at it, right, so that
<v Speaker 3>you can clean that slate and and and get it
<v Speaker 3>out of you and no longer have to deal with
<v Speaker 3>it and know that it's a part of your past,
<v Speaker 3>and the past is where it belongs to. What do
<v Speaker 3>you what?
<v Speaker 6>What are you going to do to change the ending
<v Speaker 6>of that that it works for you and not against you.
<v Speaker 5>Let me let me ask you this, man, is it
<v Speaker 5>helpful or or or hurtful in a certain in a
<v Speaker 5>certain sense to keep talking about this.
<v Speaker 6>Yes, you walk back into the worst pain you've ever
<v Speaker 6>felt so that you can be free of it. If
<v Speaker 6>you're still suffering, for I say this to when I
<v Speaker 6>go speak, if there's something that's still in the forefront
<v Speaker 6>that's making decisions for you, If you won't walk into
<v Speaker 6>a situation because you're fearful of something that's happening in
<v Speaker 6>the past, that it's gonna block you from your future,
<v Speaker 6>then you have a responsibility to your own mental health
<v Speaker 6>to go back and figure out what that is. Because
<v Speaker 6>if it's blocking you today, it's keeping you from your dreams,
<v Speaker 6>it's keeping you from your future, and you're stuck. So
<v Speaker 6>I found in a lot of ways through this I
<v Speaker 6>was really stuck, and I didn't want to be stuck anymore.
<v Speaker 3>So, Uh, there were some rooms I had to go
<v Speaker 3>back and revisits that were extremely difficult to walk back into, uh,
<v Speaker 3>thinking and screaming difficult, But I knew that I had
<v Speaker 3>to do it for me.
<v Speaker 6>And it's been the most freedom that I've ever gifted
<v Speaker 6>myself ever. And I didn't do it myself, but it
<v Speaker 6>also opened up a channel of truth in me that
<v Speaker 6>I was able to tell my story not only through music,
<v Speaker 6>but hey, man, I'm in this world of recovery. If you,
<v Speaker 6>if you, if you can't be as authentic as you
<v Speaker 6>possibly can be with your story and where you've been,
<v Speaker 6>then you know there's only a limit to what you
<v Speaker 6>can do to help. And I don't like limitations anymore.
<v Speaker 6>It's not it's not in my not in my personal dictionary.
<v Speaker 5>So can I ask you a weird question that you've
<v Speaker 5>probably never been asked?
<v Speaker 3>You always do and.
<v Speaker 5>I just I just thought about this man, and you know,
<v Speaker 5>and I don't want you to misconstrue what I'm going
<v Speaker 5>to say, because this is not meant to be offensive
<v Speaker 5>in any any way whatsoever.
<v Speaker 2>The struggles that.
<v Speaker 5>You have and you have had with having to basically
<v Speaker 5>live a lie for for many aspects of your life,
<v Speaker 5>many years of your life, to the addiction and everything else.
<v Speaker 5>If ty Hernan's not gay, is it this trajectory for you.
<v Speaker 2>Or would it have been a completely different question.
<v Speaker 6>I think my dream of what my life would be
<v Speaker 6>I used to think was completely different.
<v Speaker 3>But once I had moved in and I live here now, fully,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know how different it would be, because, you know,
<v Speaker 3>I look back, people say, well, this hadn't happened to me,
<v Speaker 3>I'd be this monstrous personality or this this big story.
<v Speaker 3>But when you go back and take a look at it,
<v Speaker 3>there are a lot of variables that might have happened
<v Speaker 3>that you're get to land exactly where you were. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you know, there's no guarantee for me, say, I used
<v Speaker 3>to think, wow, you know, I used to hear people say, man,
<v Speaker 3>you know, if you hadn't had these things happen to you,
<v Speaker 3>if you hadn't been addicted to drugs, you would have
<v Speaker 3>the heard it ten times, you know, ten million times.
<v Speaker 3>You man, you were on path of the Garth Brooks career, right,
<v Speaker 3>you know. And I take a look back at that
<v Speaker 3>and now I'm like, well.
<v Speaker 2>That was that was his room, and that's the thing. Man,
<v Speaker 2>It's like I could have could.
<v Speaker 6>Have had a promotion team for the radio that that
<v Speaker 6>dropped the ball in the next ten singles.
<v Speaker 3>I could have had. You know, there's so many trajectories
<v Speaker 3>that would have said no, you know, I could have.
<v Speaker 6>I could have been in a car crash and been
<v Speaker 6>in a coma and then come back out of it
<v Speaker 6>and then had a I mean, there's so many things.
<v Speaker 2>That you just can't ask that question, can You can't?
<v Speaker 3>No? So your path is your path. And I finally
<v Speaker 3>landed in a place after this last almost two years
<v Speaker 3>of my life that I've been beautifully gifted exactly where
<v Speaker 3>I'm at. And you know, I was I was called
<v Speaker 3>to be that that that Pentacostal Tabernacle preacher when I
<v Speaker 3>was when I was I was ten years old.
<v Speaker 6>But some things I've gone all the way back. Something
<v Speaker 6>has happened to that ten year old that would that
<v Speaker 6>changed right and on a different path. And today I'm
<v Speaker 6>standing exactly I am that whatever I was when I
<v Speaker 6>was called to preach and teach, I'm doing it today
<v Speaker 6>bigger and better and louder than ever.
<v Speaker 3>But I'm doing it from a very educated place in me.
<v Speaker 5>And I think the older you get, and you don't
<v Speaker 5>get this until you have a few years under your belt.
<v Speaker 5>And I don't think the destination is the meaning of life.
<v Speaker 5>I think it is the journey that is the meaning
<v Speaker 5>of life, and how you get there and all the
<v Speaker 5>things that happened along the way, whether it's bad or good,
<v Speaker 5>it is it is your path. There's a book called
<v Speaker 5>The Alchemist that kind of explained this in a really,
<v Speaker 5>really cool way.
<v Speaker 2>But you should check that out. It's a really it's
<v Speaker 2>a classic.
<v Speaker 3>But you know, I haven't learned. I haven't learned to
<v Speaker 3>read yet. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well you you're from South Amabama, so I did
<v Speaker 2>for a while.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I've got a few weird I got a few
<v Speaker 5>weird questions too that I've I've been asked from different
<v Speaker 5>friends or whatever. And obviously I can't relate to to
<v Speaker 5>certain things. But during the process, because we we send,
<v Speaker 5>we start on music, and we always come back to this.
<v Speaker 5>And I still and I said this in the first
<v Speaker 5>part of our interview, where it seems like you always
<v Speaker 5>come back to the life, the recovery, the the life
<v Speaker 5>stuff that means more. And that just tells me that
<v Speaker 5>life means more to you than music. Life means more
<v Speaker 5>to you than than being gay. Life means more to
<v Speaker 5>you than all these It's a it's a sum of
<v Speaker 5>all those things.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know what I mean?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, how im? What is the deal?
<v Speaker 5>And this is just my ignorance. And it's probably different
<v Speaker 5>now just because we where we are as a society.
<v Speaker 5>But the inclination to feel like you have to announce
<v Speaker 5>I'm coming out?
<v Speaker 3>M hm.
<v Speaker 2>Can you expl Can you explain that to a straight person?
<v Speaker 3>You don't anymore? Pretty much.
<v Speaker 6>We've got artists, you know, like Lily Rose and Brooke
<v Speaker 6>Eden and some folks that are coming up the pike
<v Speaker 6>that just they you know, I said this a million times,
<v Speaker 6>even seven years ago, eight years ago, I said, you know,
<v Speaker 6>there's you don't need to come out.
<v Speaker 3>I said, just come to town and like just be
<v Speaker 3>h k yourself.
<v Speaker 6>Be the best songwriter, be the best singer, spend your
<v Speaker 6>time like this career was was.
<v Speaker 3>You're a Harvard graduate, and tell your story.
<v Speaker 6>Through music and and the rest will will fall into place.
<v Speaker 6>Now for guys like me from the Nights, they've had
<v Speaker 6>some stories that had some history.
<v Speaker 3>It was very important. It was very important for me
<v Speaker 3>to make that announcement so the world would know that
<v Speaker 3>I had a secret, and that secret was poison and
<v Speaker 3>caused me a lot of problems, caused me to go
<v Speaker 3>into some rooms in my life that I probably would
<v Speaker 3>not have gone into if I could be my most
<v Speaker 3>authentic self. And you know, just look at it this
<v Speaker 3>way too. Someone asked me if there was if you
<v Speaker 3>asked me if there.
<v Speaker 6>Was a button ten years ago I could push and
<v Speaker 6>then I wouldn't be gay. And I said absolutely yes,
<v Speaker 6>because life would have been so much easier. Asked me
<v Speaker 6>that question today, and I would say, fuck no, I
<v Speaker 6>did push that, absolutely not. It's I'm standing right where
<v Speaker 6>I need to be in my life, and I am
<v Speaker 6>made divinely the way that I was supposed to be.
<v Speaker 3>And I understand that because.
<v Speaker 2>We'd come a long way as a society.
<v Speaker 3>Well we haven't. Even if we hadn't, you know, I
<v Speaker 3>would I would still be as as a guy who's
<v Speaker 3>just I'm a God guy, you know, And and a
<v Speaker 3>lot of kids struggled with that would being gay in God?
<v Speaker 3>And that's a conversation we probably don't have time to
<v Speaker 3>get into today. But what I what I there's there's a.
<v Speaker 6>Great book that Matthew Vines really called God and the
<v Speaker 6>Gay Christian and man, he just so exquisitely and gracefully
<v Speaker 6>answers a lot of questions.
<v Speaker 3>And so you know, I've seen some of my own
<v Speaker 3>family members go oh okay, and it's it's just a
<v Speaker 3>great book. But I have this responsibility to have a
<v Speaker 3>foundation for kids. And and when you see the light
<v Speaker 3>come on in a kid's eyes, just going, hey, you're
<v Speaker 3>not broken, kiddo. You know have amy want in this life.
<v Speaker 3>And guess what if if if if.
<v Speaker 6>Your family doesn't love you, you have the opportunity to create
<v Speaker 6>another family. And it's it's really difficult conversation to have
<v Speaker 6>with a kid. But you know, there's there's just there's
<v Speaker 6>just so many willing hugs out there from from great
<v Speaker 6>organizations like Trevor Project, like Human Rights just there's you know,
<v Speaker 6>it just gets bigger, bigger than we are.
<v Speaker 3>And what it comes down to, it's really simple. It
<v Speaker 3>comes down to love. It's just it's a it's a
<v Speaker 3>four letter word and and and just and outs of
<v Speaker 3>that and understanding can save a kid's because they have
<v Speaker 3>a grown up's life. You know, hell, save my life.
<v Speaker 2>But what what is it? What is it about.
<v Speaker 3>Also dealing with this this this really huge thing that
<v Speaker 3>we are victims of what we're taught, what we grow
<v Speaker 3>up with, what our grandmothers believed, what our grandfathers believe,
<v Speaker 3>and we are as educated as where we are. And
<v Speaker 3>it's it's I have great patience when I'm sitting down
<v Speaker 3>with I want to argue. I never argue.
<v Speaker 6>I'm just like, I really want to hear why you
<v Speaker 6>think that and where you are with that, and then
<v Speaker 6>I want to take some time and think about it.
<v Speaker 6>And I'm not going to tell you you're right or
<v Speaker 6>you're wrong, because it's not my place to do that.
<v Speaker 6>But I can tell you that if you can't look
<v Speaker 6>at me from where I'm sitting right here and see
<v Speaker 6>spirituality and light and goodness in God in this face, then.
<v Speaker 3>I don't have a mask to take off for you.
<v Speaker 2>And that's and that's and that's what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 5>It's like with these kids, and and we had some
<v Speaker 5>kids in school that that were gay, and I don't remember.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I know there's some kids who would make
<v Speaker 5>fun of them, uh and then and then some of
<v Speaker 5>us would stick up for them and and all this stuff.
<v Speaker 5>But I just at this I'm just never really quite
<v Speaker 5>understood how you can just look at another human being
<v Speaker 5>that's different than you and say that it's bad or wrong,
<v Speaker 5>whether you agree with it or not, whether you agree
<v Speaker 5>with the lifestyle or not. It's you have a human
<v Speaker 5>being in front of you, and either they're a good
<v Speaker 5>person or a bad person. I mean, there's a lot
<v Speaker 5>of people that I don't like. There's a lot of
<v Speaker 5>gay people I don't like. There's a lot of white
<v Speaker 5>people I don't like. There's a lot of black people
<v Speaker 5>I don't because they're bad people. But there's also the
<v Speaker 5>flip side of that where some of some of my
<v Speaker 5>best friends and and uh are are in various minorities,
<v Speaker 5>and you know.
<v Speaker 3>That harder and harder with where we where we're at today.
<v Speaker 2>But I think, but but don't you think that?
<v Speaker 5>Because I think parents now are teaching their kids to
<v Speaker 5>be more accepting of different lifestyles and the different ethnicities
<v Speaker 5>and different viewpoints. That's this is a generational thing that's
<v Speaker 5>not going to happen overnight. But I think we've come
<v Speaker 5>miles and miles and we're teaching our kid I don't
<v Speaker 5>ever want to hear you say that you're better than
<v Speaker 5>because there's kids of all ethnicity ethnicities, and it's so
<v Speaker 5>hard to say ethnicity is in his in his school,
<v Speaker 5>in his class. I know, I can't spell nothing, man,
<v Speaker 5>but you know, you know there's a difference too between them.
<v Speaker 5>So you you're you're involved with love and acceptance, and
<v Speaker 5>I'd like, what is it, like?
<v Speaker 2>What do you are you looking for? I think this
<v Speaker 2>is a gay community.
<v Speaker 5>Love obviously is a big part of that, you know,
<v Speaker 5>And I've seen a lot of hate on the on
<v Speaker 5>on that side, projected against other groups as well. No
<v Speaker 5>one's innocent, not no one's one hundred percent innocent, and like,
<v Speaker 5>oh no, we.
<v Speaker 2>Love everybody because that's just bs.
<v Speaker 5>I don't don't. I don't believe that. But love, an
<v Speaker 5>acceptance and support? How are those so different? So I
<v Speaker 5>can accept you, But I feel like I feel like
<v Speaker 5>some of the people that I know, have I've come
<v Speaker 5>in contact with, don't want acceptance, they want support. And
<v Speaker 5>I don't think that you're going to get support. No
<v Speaker 5>one's going to get one hundred percent support from any
<v Speaker 5>any certain cross section of American culture. But you can
<v Speaker 5>certainly get acceptance. I can accept you for being a
<v Speaker 5>great person and a friend, and hey, come over, We're
<v Speaker 5>going to have.
<v Speaker 2>Dinner and drink some wine.
<v Speaker 5>And play some pool and whatever, shoot some guns or
<v Speaker 5>whatever you want to do. But you know, it's just
<v Speaker 5>like there's so many things out there that are screaming
<v Speaker 5>support me.
<v Speaker 6>Support such a big answer, man, I can. I can
<v Speaker 6>support a lot of things, you know, I can. It
<v Speaker 6>comes down to almost tribes, right, Okay, you're in my tribe,
<v Speaker 6>and you gotta believe that I believe. It's like a denomination.
<v Speaker 6>And if you don't believe this, you know, take the
<v Speaker 6>whole church thing out of it, then then I'm going
<v Speaker 6>to condemn you. And you know you can't play my
<v Speaker 6>reindeer games. It gets it just gets huge, and we all,
<v Speaker 6>we all have opinions, we all have beliefs, and even
<v Speaker 6>within my community, you know. And hey man, I'm also
<v Speaker 6>the you know, I'm I'm I'm also this little kid
<v Speaker 6>who grew up you know, South Alabama hunting and fishing,
<v Speaker 6>and I am.
<v Speaker 3>I'm still that dude. And I was just as guilty
<v Speaker 3>of growing up, you know, of judging someone for for
<v Speaker 3>for being gay because I didn't understand it.
<v Speaker 6>It's like, you know, oh my gosh, you know, I
<v Speaker 6>never was mean to anyone, but didn't run towards that
<v Speaker 6>tribe and I liked the tribe I was in right,
<v Speaker 6>and this this fit me better, and this is where
<v Speaker 6>happy and and there's God. There's a billion tribes out there.
<v Speaker 6>We're not ever going to understand each other. But I
<v Speaker 6>think the one thing that I look for and all
<v Speaker 6>that is is your humanity and and and and how
<v Speaker 6>you treat another human being and.
<v Speaker 3>And how do you help another human being change their ending?
<v Speaker 2>Look through God's eyes? You know?
<v Speaker 3>Yes?
<v Speaker 6>And I you know, I am so far from a
<v Speaker 6>a a a teacher that would I'd have to educate
<v Speaker 6>myself in so many areas alive that I could even
<v Speaker 6>be as smart as my therapist that I'm seeing today,
<v Speaker 6>you know. But I have a platform of music, and
<v Speaker 6>I have the most authentic group of words that came
<v Speaker 6>out of me. There's only you know, seven writers on
<v Speaker 6>this album because they all have had something to do
<v Speaker 6>with mental health, sobriety.
<v Speaker 3>And changing their own endings. And that was very.
<v Speaker 6>Important for me and the stories to do it a
<v Speaker 6>triple triple album project.
<v Speaker 3>But that is my room that I that I have
<v Speaker 3>a sacred as my sponsor said, you have a sacred, secret,
<v Speaker 3>amazing room that you can build. And you know, I've
<v Speaker 3>been building a town for a long time. You know,
<v Speaker 3>I do a lot of analogies when it comes to
<v Speaker 3>this recovery. We all every every brick. I'm really careful
<v Speaker 3>what goes into that brick and mortar before I put
<v Speaker 3>it in place. And I think this goes back to
<v Speaker 3>to all of us as we're building our lives.
<v Speaker 6>You have to have a room that is full of
<v Speaker 6>understanding and patients for others. And I have to visit
<v Speaker 6>that room and I have to go, Okay, what's going
<v Speaker 6>on here?
<v Speaker 3>What am I going to learn? Number One? Because if
<v Speaker 3>I'm not going to learn something from this, and then
<v Speaker 3>it's just trash to me.
<v Speaker 6>And then I also have a have a trash bind
<v Speaker 6>and I'm real careful of what goes in the trash
<v Speaker 6>because that's that's.
<v Speaker 3>I never want to throw anyone away. I don't want
<v Speaker 3>to be thrown away. But I also look at at
<v Speaker 3>the education of of the situation. Because we can run
<v Speaker 3>in circles and argue and fight and and and just
<v Speaker 3>and just pee all over each other and and and
<v Speaker 3>and hurt each other. There's there's I haven't I have
<v Speaker 3>no place in that right And so I'm really really
<v Speaker 3>good at assessing the situation. And I love that you
<v Speaker 3>said this because we we we we can't win this.
<v Speaker 3>There's no winning anymore, there's not. And but what works
<v Speaker 3>for the big umbrella of humanity? How are we? How
<v Speaker 3>are we going to take this awful situation.
<v Speaker 6>And and and and make our children.
<v Speaker 3>Not have to go through this again? And I don't
<v Speaker 3>we think enough about that. I think we think that
<v Speaker 3>we got to win right now in this moment where
<v Speaker 3>there's an election, whether it's whatever the political hot seat
<v Speaker 3>is of the moment. But forget that. I don't have kids,
<v Speaker 3>but I have I also have a million kids. Right
<v Speaker 3>they're watching and your dad, but they are watching.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, I know that you are making sure that what
<v Speaker 6>goes into those bricks as a father, it's.
<v Speaker 3>Good stuff, you know.
<v Speaker 2>And I wrote a song. I wrote a song about that.
<v Speaker 2>I think we're gonna put on the record.
<v Speaker 5>It's got a couple of lines and there says every
<v Speaker 5>move I make, I know he's watching, So I keep
<v Speaker 5>watching every move I make.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, man, you know, And you know.
<v Speaker 5>And that's it's interesting that you use the word tribe,
<v Speaker 5>because I think that's what we are. I think we
<v Speaker 5>are tribes, and I think we all gravitate toward uh,
<v Speaker 5>we gravitate toward like minded people. And you know when
<v Speaker 5>you go when you say tribe, you go back to
<v Speaker 5>the Native Americans when they populated this continent solely, they
<v Speaker 5>killed each other like crazy because they were in tribes.
<v Speaker 5>They were fighting. This is humanity. This is not something
<v Speaker 5>that's going to.
<v Speaker 2>Ever go away. This isn't It would always exist.
<v Speaker 6>So I'm going to kill you. You know, you're taking
<v Speaker 6>something in mind that belongs to be someone to kill you.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, or I don't agree with what God you choose
<v Speaker 5>or what who you who you love or whatever else,
<v Speaker 5>So I'm going.
<v Speaker 2>To kill you.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 5>I think what's the problem right The problem right now,
<v Speaker 5>I think with everything is that people there's certain people
<v Speaker 5>in power or certain people in society that think that
<v Speaker 5>we have the ability as human beings to completely abolish
<v Speaker 5>this behavior and mindset that's embedded in our DNA. I
<v Speaker 5>think it could be softened, obviously.
<v Speaker 2>I think you can.
<v Speaker 5>I think you don't. You cannot like somebody and accept
<v Speaker 5>them and leave them the hell alone. You don't have
<v Speaker 5>to go after me. You don't have to, you know,
<v Speaker 5>make you do this certain things, or impose these laws
<v Speaker 5>on certain people that don't with you.
<v Speaker 2>What what is going on right now?
<v Speaker 5>You know, common sense is a giant thing that's very
<v Speaker 5>elusive right now because no one's got any damn common
<v Speaker 5>sense when it comes to just about anything.
<v Speaker 3>You know. Yeah, there it is. I still have some
<v Speaker 3>hold on.
<v Speaker 2>Some common sense. You have to find it. You had
<v Speaker 2>to track it down.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's like sometimes it's hard to find. You know.
<v Speaker 6>You get so busy with the battle that you forget
<v Speaker 6>the peace treaty.
<v Speaker 2>And you're so unhappy.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>Man, And if you're just always worrying about the other guy,
<v Speaker 5>you're so unhappy because you you know, and I think
<v Speaker 5>Sean and I have gotten to a place now we're
<v Speaker 5>just like, this is our little tribe here at the house,
<v Speaker 5>you know, and we're going to raise our kid in
<v Speaker 5>the way.
<v Speaker 2>That we want.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, because everyone raises their kids in the way
<v Speaker 5>that they feel is right.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 6>Let's entertainment today is arguing on TV. Yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 6>I don't want to see that ship. I mean, I
<v Speaker 6>I got rid of cables because I was like, you know,
<v Speaker 6>I get I have some this little thing right here,
<v Speaker 6>we're talking, you know, that actual world news.
<v Speaker 3>You know that just it's just kind of crazy.
<v Speaker 2>The contradictions to drive me crazy.
<v Speaker 3>It started on that man, because it's just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I'm stepping on the national platform with this story.
<v Speaker 3>It will be the it will be probably God has
<v Speaker 3>blessed me, probably one of the biggest moments that I
<v Speaker 3>will have with this music platform of mine. And I'm
<v Speaker 3>being extremely picky about where I land, where my what
<v Speaker 3>seat my butt lands in because it's just not up
<v Speaker 3>for auction.
<v Speaker 6>This is not up for some stupid debate. This is
<v Speaker 6>just simply my story and I will tell it with grace, dignity, integrity, and.
<v Speaker 3>Authority of authority. Yes, and you know you know me
<v Speaker 3>a long time. I'm a really nice guy. But when
<v Speaker 3>it when it came to my own personal story and
<v Speaker 3>my I was so co dependent on others that I
<v Speaker 3>never even had an opportunity for you to You never
<v Speaker 3>got an opportunity to really get to know me because
<v Speaker 3>as a as a PULSI recovering codependent. Man. I'm just
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, talk about code of many colors. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>I could I could morph into anything that you wanted
<v Speaker 3>me to be as long as you liked me, as
<v Speaker 3>long as there wasn't an argument, as long as I
<v Speaker 3>didn't have to feel like that you were going to
<v Speaker 3>go away from me.
<v Speaker 5>How many haven't said that time? How many extra layers?
<v Speaker 5>How many are there any? And if so, how many
<v Speaker 5>extra layers do you still need to shed to be
<v Speaker 5>who you are?
<v Speaker 3>Oh? There's you know, the onion is done.
<v Speaker 6>If there are already other layers that they're a surprise to
<v Speaker 6>me at this point. But I think for me, it's
<v Speaker 6>about putting the proper.
<v Speaker 3>Layers back on right and healthy, uh you know, solid man,
<v Speaker 3>that I that I'm learning to be. Uh you know here,
<v Speaker 3>I'm coming up on the very monumental birthday.
<v Speaker 2>I want to be there.
<v Speaker 3>I've been, I've been. I been.
<v Speaker 6>Well man, it's we're gonna blow it out because I've
<v Speaker 6>been googling like successful you know, dudes that are turning
<v Speaker 6>the big six zero and I just remember turning thirty.
<v Speaker 3>I was like, oh my god, my life's over. You know.
<v Speaker 2>Then it just beg brother.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, the fifty was like okay, you know, hey, you
<v Speaker 6>know I'm still breazing, I'm looking good, I'm making good music,
<v Speaker 6>you know, sick as fuck.
<v Speaker 3>But can I say that out here?
<v Speaker 2>Whatever you want?
<v Speaker 6>You know, it's a It's kind of a new word
<v Speaker 6>for me, because you know, I used to think I
<v Speaker 6>was going to burn and hell for saying that word.
<v Speaker 3>There's plenty of other things to burning hell about that.
<v Speaker 2>It's going man.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, still not a huge cusser, but uh, somewhere
<v Speaker 3>it's just fit anyhow, are wonderful right putting those layers
<v Speaker 3>back on, you know, in a cloak of of authenticity,
<v Speaker 3>and and waking up every morning like I just started
<v Speaker 3>working the Big six, so I started working out with
<v Speaker 3>the trainer. I feel like everything's going to fall off
<v Speaker 3>at this point, you know, my my arms, I feel
<v Speaker 3>like my ear lower sore. But I know that in
<v Speaker 3>googling some really successful men and women in their sixties
<v Speaker 3>and hearing folks like Bonnie Raate go Bonnie Rate said
<v Speaker 3>he was fine, sober, and she she said her sixties
<v Speaker 3>and her seventies have been into her seventies have been
<v Speaker 3>the most incredible years of their life. So of course
<v Speaker 3>you're going to think when you're younger, those are you know,
<v Speaker 3>but hey, I'm going to be honest with you, man,
<v Speaker 3>I was. I've been seeing that number coming at me
<v Speaker 3>for a long time, and it's just like a it's
<v Speaker 3>like a guillotine.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 6>And the more people that I talked to about it
<v Speaker 6>are like, oh, that's normal. Yeah, you'll you'll fly right
<v Speaker 6>through that, not a big deal. So I decided to
<v Speaker 6>just embrace it.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I'm having my world birthday party at six
<v Speaker 3>zero and feeling better, and I mean, you know, I
<v Speaker 3>guess I'm I guess I'm still looking okay, you know,
<v Speaker 3>look again, got a few grades.
<v Speaker 6>These are still real. They don't come out so well
<v Speaker 6>they used to, maybe one at a time. Every now
<v Speaker 6>and then.
<v Speaker 5>I've been there super glue. I've been around with wald
<v Speaker 5>Raze for some chick lits.
<v Speaker 3>I should have had a super glue and tour end
<v Speaker 3>tour endorsement. My bus should have been wrapped with super.
<v Speaker 2>That's so funny, man.
<v Speaker 3>Although you have I have veneers.
<v Speaker 6>You know, a lot of us do a show biz
<v Speaker 6>you know, you'll every now and then, you know, we
<v Speaker 6>come flying out.
<v Speaker 3>Your soup are on the stage.
<v Speaker 6>I remember, well, I remember I had a tooth fly
<v Speaker 6>out across the stage one time.
<v Speaker 3>I'm getting real, guy, I don't care. You know, I
<v Speaker 3>had a tooth cut fly across the stage and a
<v Speaker 3>fan got it. It was I said, I said, that
<v Speaker 3>is not up that is not up for a just
<v Speaker 3>an auction on what I said, give it back? Please?
<v Speaker 2>Can I have my please?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm not going to buy it back on on
<v Speaker 3>the on some weird auction site. So what's what's I'm
<v Speaker 3>losing it right now? Yeah, Herndon Teeth by eBay.
<v Speaker 2>That's so funny, man.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I know you don't have a whole lot
<v Speaker 5>more time because you've got things to do today. Just
<v Speaker 5>just enlighten it up right here at the end. What
<v Speaker 5>what What's been your most embarrassing thing that's ever happened
<v Speaker 5>to you on stage?
<v Speaker 2>I have some too.
<v Speaker 6>I think the most embarrassing thing was I was I
<v Speaker 6>was walking. The lights were really bright, and I just
<v Speaker 6>I mean I walked off the stage and landed in
<v Speaker 6>a you know, one of the festivals and just landed
<v Speaker 6>in a big shred hedge in front.
<v Speaker 3>I mean just and and.
<v Speaker 6>I I think I was thinking I want my goodbye back,
<v Speaker 6>and I just.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my goodbye.
<v Speaker 2>That was it.
<v Speaker 6>I shout up and went right into the bridge, never
<v Speaker 6>missed a note. The mic was still working, But that
<v Speaker 6>was an embarrassing moment. Gosh, you know, I think another
<v Speaker 6>one was, you know, people like you and David Pinkston.
<v Speaker 6>Back in the day, they put put they put black,
<v Speaker 6>had a black microphone and they put black shoe polish
<v Speaker 6>on it.
<v Speaker 3>I kept smelling gasoline.
<v Speaker 2>I heard that black.
<v Speaker 6>Shoe polish was all over my face and during the show,
<v Speaker 6>but that you know, I don't do that because I
<v Speaker 6>will get back. But I just you know, I think
<v Speaker 6>some of them have just been my personal life.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I've had some bloopers there, but but on stage.
<v Speaker 6>Has always been my freedom. You know, I can say
<v Speaker 6>this honestly. I might have been really hungover hereing the time,
<v Speaker 6>but I uh, I always to taken that very seriously
<v Speaker 6>on age, and you know, maybe forgotten a few words.
<v Speaker 6>You've seen me do it make them up on the spot?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I've taken a few lines.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah you have.
<v Speaker 5>I wish we'll get to all three of us get
<v Speaker 5>together and sing again sometime.
<v Speaker 3>Man. Well we got to do that.
<v Speaker 5>You know what, after we got our record deal, we
<v Speaker 5>never sing it together again.
<v Speaker 2>I know, it's so weird.
<v Speaker 5>We never wrote we didn't write any songs. We didn't
<v Speaker 5>We hung out and we stayed in touch and called
<v Speaker 5>and stuff. But it was it was so strange our
<v Speaker 5>life got really crazy, really fast. And man, I came
<v Speaker 5>back after five years and just being just a comment
<v Speaker 5>and I didn't Hell, I didn't know anybody anymore. I mean,
<v Speaker 5>I just you know, that's the thing about I think
<v Speaker 5>that the people people outside of the music business might
<v Speaker 5>not understand this, but in the music business, you cannot
<v Speaker 5>see a griod friend for two or three years and
<v Speaker 5>pick up right where you left off like it was yesterday,
<v Speaker 5>because just how we are, you know, It's just how
<v Speaker 5>it is.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm thankful for that for sure.
<v Speaker 3>I am too, man, you know, I just I keep
<v Speaker 3>my my my rooms and my friends very sacred because
<v Speaker 3>I know who my friends are. I know if I
<v Speaker 3>picked up the phone and said I need you here now,
<v Speaker 3>that they would be there. And I know that I
<v Speaker 3>know that those friends know that I'm that person as well,
<v Speaker 3>more so than ever these days, and that's that feels good.
<v Speaker 3>But hey, we're you know, as far as I know,
<v Speaker 3>You've got plenty of music coming, so do I. So
<v Speaker 3>you know, it's yeah, we don't got to put a
<v Speaker 3>lid on that, you know. I mean, it's a harmonist
<v Speaker 3>coming up on this, It's a harmony is on this you.
<v Speaker 5>Know, we we we're signing a new record deal as well.
<v Speaker 5>We have a single coming out in April and new
<v Speaker 5>record and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 3>So it looks like that what's coming this year for
<v Speaker 3>all of us.
<v Speaker 6>It's as as this business has almost shut down, which
<v Speaker 6>actually that's no kidding, guys, it almost you know.
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was.
<v Speaker 3>I thought it was over, dude, I did too, and then.
<v Speaker 6>To realize that it kind of just I hate to
<v Speaker 6>say this, you know, it separated those of us, It
<v Speaker 6>made me stronger.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not going to count anyone out. You should never
<v Speaker 3>do that.
<v Speaker 6>But somebody said separated the men from the boys, and like, no,
<v Speaker 6>it just I think it made us take a look
<v Speaker 6>at ourselves and our dreams, and a lot of people like,
<v Speaker 6>is this really what I want?
<v Speaker 2>You know, it was humbling, bro, It was. It was humbling.
<v Speaker 3>Man.
<v Speaker 5>I was just like, you know, you think you're cool
<v Speaker 5>and you're successful and everything else, and then you look
<v Speaker 5>at it and go, shit, I might not ever sing again.
<v Speaker 5>And that's how I felt for like three months, you know,
<v Speaker 5>and I saw like ninety shows disappear from my calendar,
<v Speaker 5>and I know what that equates to.
<v Speaker 2>At the end of the year. And I was like, uh, okay, well,
<v Speaker 2>how's that going to happen? You know?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, So it's it's scary and we're still rebuilding, you know.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, we're still not back touring full on like
<v Speaker 5>we like we normally would want to, you know, but
<v Speaker 5>it's still.
<v Speaker 6>It's interesting, you know, because I don't want to about
<v Speaker 6>it anymore. But I did for a while after coming out,
<v Speaker 6>you know, in twenty fourteen, that build for those five
<v Speaker 6>years to you know, a book, deal made for TV movie,
<v Speaker 6>just all the stuff that we're actually about to talk about.
<v Speaker 6>Let that get out of the back any to waking
<v Speaker 6>up one morning and being scared to death the next morning,
<v Speaker 6>like what's going on? The next morning? Somebody took an
<v Speaker 6>eraser and erased it all? Wait minute, what wait?
<v Speaker 3>Wait? Wait? What happened to my bank account? How many?
<v Speaker 3>How much deposits? We're soon back? Yeah, And I I
<v Speaker 3>love to say this.
<v Speaker 6>We made it through, and by the grace of God,
<v Speaker 6>we're going to continue being smart. Everybody, you know, be smart.
<v Speaker 6>Take care of your neighbor, Check on your nerbors, one thing,
<v Speaker 6>check on your neighbors.
<v Speaker 3>Make sure. Okay, I I believe that. But the second
<v Speaker 3>day the world stopped turning.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it was a.
<v Speaker 3>Saved my life. And it's weird to say, man, it's
<v Speaker 3>we'd just because we lost so many friends, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>seven people in one church and family members, and so
<v Speaker 3>it was an awakening for those of us who are
<v Speaker 3>are here. I feel wide awake. Do you feel wi awake?
<v Speaker 5>I feel more awaken I ever have been, man, I think,
<v Speaker 5>and you know I've you know, we lost a few
<v Speaker 5>people as well, and and thankfully a lot of my
<v Speaker 5>family's still okay. And and I think everybody, just about
<v Speaker 5>everybody in my circles had this crap. You know, it
<v Speaker 5>hadn't been hadn't been as bad in my circle as
<v Speaker 5>as it.
<v Speaker 2>Has been in others.
<v Speaker 5>But you know, I for all the bad, and I
<v Speaker 5>just I don't envy the person who created this stuff.
<v Speaker 5>I think there'll be a reckoning like no other. But
<v Speaker 5>you know, for what it did, it just kind of
<v Speaker 5>proved that humans can adapt. And and you know, you
<v Speaker 5>go through you go through these seven stages of denial
<v Speaker 5>or whatever else there we went. I went through all
<v Speaker 5>those man like very quickly, like in a day, and
<v Speaker 5>to accepting, to accepting your reality. And then once you
<v Speaker 5>accept the reality, you know. It's it's funny man, when
<v Speaker 5>you go when you hit a dead end sometimes in
<v Speaker 5>life and you want to go straight, but you can
<v Speaker 5>go you can only go left or right. Maybe you
<v Speaker 5>can only go right. If you only have one choice,
<v Speaker 5>guess where you're going. You go right and then you
<v Speaker 5>just figure out where that road leads and you don't
<v Speaker 5>have a choice. And sometimes when you don't have a choice,
<v Speaker 5>it's the best choice you can ever make because you
<v Speaker 5>would have made the wrong one in the first place
<v Speaker 5>and never know what's going to be down that road.
<v Speaker 3>Man, are there are Are there no roads? Yeah?
<v Speaker 6>And you have to still figure out, uh, how to
<v Speaker 6>build that room. And so that's also meant I love
<v Speaker 6>the analogies. We could talk all day about it now.
<v Speaker 6>But man, I'm glad you're you're here. I'm glad that
<v Speaker 6>you're that miss Shauna who's still sleeping. And yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 6>going to say it to you right now.
<v Speaker 3>Girl. You know I said I wouldn't an interested this
<v Speaker 3>curlers up in your hair.
<v Speaker 6>Maybe it's short seeing you to know what your hair
<v Speaker 6>looks like.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I'm done with that.
<v Speaker 5>I love you, Shauna, man, let's get let's get together
<v Speaker 5>soon and talk about some other things off the air,
<v Speaker 5>you know, and see what's going on.
<v Speaker 2>I can't wait to hear the music.
<v Speaker 3>That'd be great, man. And then let's let's do this again.
<v Speaker 3>What's you know?
<v Speaker 6>Some new music's out and some more stories to tell.
<v Speaker 6>It's kind of fun.
<v Speaker 3>Well, I hope that you can show this link with me.
<v Speaker 3>Let's marry some fans here.
<v Speaker 2>Let's do it. Man.
<v Speaker 3>I keep looking there and there. I don't get there
<v Speaker 3>you are.
<v Speaker 2>It's weird.
<v Speaker 5>It's weird because I look at your face and that's
<v Speaker 5>not quite there. I love you, I accept you, and
<v Speaker 5>I support you, and uh, I tell you, man, it's
<v Speaker 5>so good to see your face. It's been so nice
<v Speaker 5>to get caught back up after so many years.
<v Speaker 3>And I supported you when you came out as a
<v Speaker 3>straight person. I want you to make you.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, straight people don't do that.
<v Speaker 5>Would that be weird to see me on the cover
<v Speaker 5>of Time magazine going I'm straight.
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't have the same impact.
<v Speaker 3>What is that?
<v Speaker 2>That's not fair.
<v Speaker 5>I should be able to scream to the world I'm
<v Speaker 5>a white straight guy.
<v Speaker 2>That's the worst. That's the worst person in the world.
<v Speaker 3>Right now, I'm gonna leave on that note.
<v Speaker 2>Brother, I love you know. Let's talk to you soon.
<v Speaker 3>Man, okay, brother, all right? By bye.
<v Speaker 5>Well that was a blast. I hope you guys enjoyed that.
<v Speaker 5>That was That was our guest, ty Herndon, just one
<v Speaker 5>of the best dudes man, and such an incredible singer.
<v Speaker 5>Please go to ty Herndon's website I think it's tyd
<v Speaker 5>dot com and check out the new music he's working
<v Speaker 5>on and everything that's going on with him. And man,
<v Speaker 5>this is just so much fun to be able to
<v Speaker 5>catch up with an old friend, and I hope you
<v Speaker 5>guys enjoying it. Until next time, guys, my name is
<v Speaker 5>Keeper and this is Talking with Thompson Square.
<v Speaker 2>It's a podcast.