#422 - Marty Roe Lead Singer of DIAMOND RIO on the Untold Story of the Band + Getting Their Name From Shenandoah + Being The First Band To Have Debut Single Go No.1

00:00:06
Speaker 1: We actually played a showcase for the re Music Row and Steve got his first writing deal out to skip youing.

00:00:14
Speaker 2: Like the minor league.

00:00:15
Speaker 1: We were the only ones who didn't get a publishing deal. Really yeah, we just kept playing it up.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: Related episode four twenty two Marty Row of Diamond Rio, which by the way, they're going out go watch them. They're doing their holiday shows Holiday in the Hits, kicking off in Baton Rouge on December first. But it's pretty cool. I mean, Diamond Rio was first concert I ever went to, and I do bring that up, but I almost forgot to bring it up. I guess I've known we're going to do it, and I thought it ten times, but I almost never said anything about it. And then I kind of felt weird, going yeah, it was in the theme park because I waite feel weird. I don't know, because I didn't know if they would be like, yeah, that's before we hit it. Did I just didn't know, but it was it was that Magic Springs was awesome. They're like thousand people there. It's my first ever concert. So Marty Row of Diamond Rio. Now he talks about the band. They originated as the Tennessee River Boys back in the eighties, they turned into Diamond Rio. They signed with Arista Nashville in nineteen ninety one. I mean, come on, this song Meet in the Middle is like the ultimate country jam. I mean, this is it. You start walking And if I were to go through just some of the songs that I listened to over and over again, I mean, Beautiful Mess from two thousand and two was really a jam. I mean, Norma Jean Riley, come on, Norman Jean Jam and they have a bunch of number ones. How about Unbelievable eight.

00:01:46
Speaker 1: Song?

00:01:50
Speaker 2: I forget about how good that one is. Sometimes the length of their career is crazy. Yeah, it is crazy, I mean ninety one, and then they put out I mean I think their last number one was in the two thousands. I believe was the crazy though from the nineties, two thousands. I know, Here's I Believe from two thousand and two.

00:02:04
Speaker 1: I Can't Deep and Reach Across.

00:02:07
Speaker 2: And then here is walking Away another song, I like, here you go, No, No, you know this band that he talks about it where they played all their own instruments and that wasn't really welcomed at the time, And we get into that, but here he is Marty Row of Diamond Rio. Followed them on Facebook at Diamond Rio, on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Diamond Rio band. They have a current release called The Kick, which you can check out and here he is Marty Rowe, Marty Hall.

00:02:36
Speaker 1: The heck are you man? I'm doroughing great. I'm still in your net. If we have I don't remember it. So that's.

00:02:46
Speaker 2: Okay, I think, and you can tell me if I'm wrong. I think, did you do Blake Shelton's video? No, that was Jimmy, Okay, then that is son. I saw everybody all at once, A bunch of people come in when I was leaving them, Blake in la or something. Yes, okay, so then we haven't met. That was the only time I thought we might have been in the same room.

00:03:05
Speaker 1: No, that was that was Jimmy's deal.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know what.

00:03:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had the dogs. Scott produced that.

00:03:11
Speaker 2: Scott Hendry probably it's yeah. And so I was out there doing idol and I was with Blake and then I was leaving as the whole band was coming in, and I was like right up, and that was it.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: And so Scott sent that off to Jimmy and Jimmy uh with the solo in there.

00:03:26
Speaker 2: Hey, that hat's pretty cool, the Burberry hat.

00:03:29
Speaker 1: Hey, award just for you. That's the truth. She said, he's really in the hats my wife, I sent my you want to hear the whole story.

00:03:38
Speaker 2: I want to hear the whole You.

00:03:39
Speaker 1: Can cut it out.

00:03:39
Speaker 2: We won't cut a dang thing going.

00:03:41
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. So in twenty twenty, my wife and my two daughters were scheduled somebody was sending them on a trip to Paris, and they really wanted to go. And my brother's daughters were in school over there. So anyway, that got mixed, of course, because it was twenty twenty and it didn't happen. So last year they had to cash out their plane tickets and they ended up going to Hawaii and I'm like, I'm on the road making a living and she's complaining about being in Hawaii for her vacation. Anyhow, fast forward to this year, they finally got to go to Paris. And so I had looked at one of these hats. I didn't know. She said, what do you want for Christmas? Or not? Man? If I wanted, I go get it. And I'm not real picky about stuff. But I have a large hat collection, and somebody told me you do too. I have a hat.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: Collection, a shoe collection, dog collection. It feels like.

00:04:44
Speaker 1: I have a collection of shoes.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: It's not a shoe collection exactly. That's do you know how much that hat cost you?

00:04:51
Speaker 1: Yes? I found out, but I found out.

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Speaker 2: Here's the deal.

00:04:55
Speaker 1: I found out. So she did. Couldn't find it in Paris. She fands it in London. Apparently it was cheaper, which is a relative term, very relative, and not any of my relatives. But she goes, it's four hundred and twenty euro. So get your phones out and you do the translation. Well, when I saw a lot of money. When I saw you coming, I was like, man, I go, and I go, I said. When I first saw it for Christmas last year, I said, oh, man, I don't want one of those. I said that that hat is literally you put something of that garment on and it's basically saying some things I don't want to say to people. And she goes, well, we can find a fake when and I went, well, that's.

00:05:35
Speaker 2: The yeah, that's right. Well I appreciate When you walked down, I was like, that is legit.

00:05:41
Speaker 1: Three hundred and thirty or forty bucks for this hat. And this is probably the only place I will ever wear it. Really just for you.

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Speaker 2: Now, that's a fun It brings that your eyes. Yeah, did you know?

00:05:53
Speaker 1: And you brought you a couple.

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Speaker 2: I know, I see that. I can't wait to look at it.

00:05:56
Speaker 1: They were not that expensive.

00:05:59
Speaker 2: What's interesting about you? And about Diamond Rio. My first ever concert of my whole life with you guys.

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Speaker 1: I heard that, well you had how old were you? Eleven?

00:06:09
Speaker 2: Something like that. Diamond Rio formed in nineteen eighty two at Opryland, USA, a former theme park that was based on country music in Nashville, and they had some member changes early in the years, but since then the band has consisted of the same six members. From nineteen eighty nine to twenty twenty two, three of the band's albums have been certified platinum. They received four Group of the Year Awards from the CMAS, two Top Vocal Group Awards from the ACMs, and one Grammy Award. We went to Magic Springs and it was an arc and theme park. Yeah, in a theme park, and I mean I listened to you guys as tape. It was that transition of tape to CD time for me too, So I had the same exact tape and CD same album because it had all kind of shifted from tape and I was so pumped. It was awesome. I mean, I don't really remember anything except for just like being I cannot believe I'm seeing famous people. That's what I felt like to me is this as a kid in a small town from Mountain Pine, Arkansas, and you guys are my first concert ever and it was awesome. And I kept waiting for me in the middle and you did it finally and then that was it. Show was over.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: It was great. Yeah. Yeah, we learned pretty quick with when we only had one hit, which was me from Middle. You play that one last or or your walk out music after that.

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Speaker 2: So that was that. You know, you listen to music sometimes it really reminds you of things. Listening to that record that reminds me of writing in the van going to and from church. That was a really significant time and that's what we listened I was sitting there done that. That's what we listened to. That was that record back. Every time we did anything was that record?

00:07:39
Speaker 1: Is that right?

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Speaker 2: You have a big, big piece of like my my memory and my life with you guys when you go and you start singing at Aupreyland and this is before Tennessee River Boys, this is just you. What were you doing at first when you started to be a performer.

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Speaker 1: Were you doing.

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Speaker 2: Songs about the park? Were you buy yourself or you in a group? Like what is your first singing job at Opprey Land?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? It was. It was a cast show called after Music USA. And we did what you would call mimicking, uh and we did country hits and you were you were supposed to. It was a caricature and do kind of what your your version of them? And I had an ability apparently with my ear.

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Speaker 2: Too, was that to do a lot of would you have?

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Speaker 1: I did? I had the ability with my.

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Speaker 2: Ear, God and with your ear something he said, got to be.

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Speaker 1: Able to manipulate my voice and sound like real different people somewhere.

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Speaker 2: You could sing like that artist well enough that it commute it got by.

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Speaker 1: I mean I was a big Gatlin fan, so I could do. I can't do it anymore, but I could do Gatlin. I could do I did Hanks senior.

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Speaker 2: Impressions too, like no, that's what it was. Yeah, But could you do like spoken impressions as.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: We No, not really just singing.

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Speaker 2: Some of my friends have that ear like you're talking about.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't a little bit.

00:08:53
Speaker 2: But no, they can hear someone singing and they can sing just like them. They can hear like a rich little or whomever.

00:09:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, they can do those impressions like that. But you could do that singing.

00:09:03
Speaker 1: No, but you got to sit and practice that.

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Speaker 2: Is that what you did?

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Speaker 1: Yes, I did for that.

00:09:07
Speaker 2: You just listen to the st the tape over and over.

00:09:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Like Stephen Curtis Chapman, you know.

00:09:13
Speaker 2: I do know, yeah, Stephen Curtis Chapman. He's an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, producer, actor, author, and social activist. Chapman began his career in the late eighties a songwriter and a performer, and has received the most awards in Christian music. That's five Grammys and fifty nine Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. That's more than anybody. Chapman's first number one was His Eyes, which was released in spring of nineteen eighty eight.

00:09:39
Speaker 3: Jus never convince.

00:09:44
Speaker 2: No man away you go.

00:09:47
Speaker 1: You will always be here. Steve and I would do we did the faster flat Neurle Scruggs. Jeez, excuse me, forgive me, but yeah, we did that, and so that wasn't too hard. But the Gatlin things really kind of what got me in the door at that time in my life. I pretty much nailed that.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: You and Stephen kras Shaman working together at Aubreyland, that's where.

00:10:15
Speaker 1: We both gott yeah, and we were writing some together. And actually when I got into this band, which was the Tennessee River Boys at the time, and had a show at the park. We actually played a showcase for some us and about three or four other writers that were worked out at the park for the Music Row, and Steve got his first writing deal out of that. Soda Skip Ewing Tim Nichols.

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Speaker 2: It's like then, like the minor league of we were.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: The only ones who didn't get a publishing deal. Really. Yeah, we just kept playing at Appyland.

00:10:53
Speaker 2: The Tennessee River Boy that always turned out that evolved into Diamond Rio. But how did the Tousy Boys come together to begin with?

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Speaker 1: It was that was other guys, not any of us. And they had a new ride called the Grizzly River Rampage and they had formed a band and were playing private things at the hotel. Hotel they had a booking agent and the hotel they formed a band to get jobs over there, and then they asked them to just do what they were doing. It was basically top forty type stuff, current country music, and they were good performers. Paul Gregg the bass player in Russell's artist brother Danny and Matt Davenport and Ty Herndon was the lead singer.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: And so they just rotated since it was an act there, did people come in and out?

00:11:42
Speaker 1: Yeah? Man, the band was Yeah, it was kind of like spinal tap. Yeah. There were many different people that claimed have been in this band.

00:11:51
Speaker 2: So what was special about you guys's you know a version of it?

00:11:56
Speaker 1: Well, it became much more original. We became more focused. When I came in, we were more focused on trying to get a record deal Alabama. The Advent of Alabama had happened because that was an eighty two and Alabama was brand new and the idea of a kind of a rock and roll band in country music self contained, so it was perceived in and so we chased that dream. At the same time, Paul and Greg and Scott Hendricks and all those guys were they were doing the putting together a band down on the road. They'd been playing studio stuff, and we're all just young, you know, try to do hip stuff. That was basically a cross between our country background and the seventies rock and roll that we grew up loving. And we kind of melded those two things. However, you some way shape or form that those influences are in both in what we do. And man, we just kept on plowing and creating and and reality of getting guys getting married, having children, attritionian guys. You know, I can't because we weren't making any money, right, and so they they would one guy would leave and we would be down about that, and you know, somebody knew it coming. That was me. I ty went and did Star Search and finished second got a record deal out of it, and he left the band, and so they asked me to join. And I was still working at the park and another show. So another guy did did the park park when I worked at the park. When we were not working at the park, I was in the band and I didn't sing lead. I just sang tenor and played mandlin and acoustic and then you know, one by one, drummer and piano left shortly thereafter, and Dan Truman and another guy named JJ Whites. They was a drummer at the park. We left the park, JJ left, the steel player left, and we had to replace a guitar player. And that's when Oleander came in March of eighty five, and it was went kind of fast, but for a while there, but we kept changing members and it kept the sound kept getting more unique and different, and and Gene came along. All of a sudden, I went to sing in the low part the bass player, the only original member left. Matt was singing, and we got we started getting that bluegrass thing because I was familiar with that name from roots in eastern Kentucky and stuff. And then Matt decided to leave when I became the lead singer and and we and Dana came along. Of course he is bluegrass. It's Osborne Brothers and all over uncles and it just I can remember the first song we did with Dana. It was the vocal sound man. It locked in. But the idea to have a piano and a bender guitar and a piano was just organic and the and the different influences that we had we'd all liked like Dixie Draggs. I don't know anybody knows who that is, but they had a lot of ensemble harmony stuff instrumentally, So instrumentally we had a unique sound, and I thought that was I wanted to hang on to that, because instrumentally you knew who we were before you ever heard the vocal, and I thought that was value.

00:15:26
Speaker 4: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow, and we're back on the Bobby cast.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: Whenever you were playing mandoline or rhythm and singing.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: As soon as Gene came around, I hung the manlin on the wall and it's pretty much been there ever since.

00:15:48
Speaker 2: Well, were you ever like I should be the lead singer?

00:15:51
Speaker 4: Like?

00:15:52
Speaker 2: No, you when you weren't the lead singer, you didn't feel like you should be.

00:15:56
Speaker 1: I was like.

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Speaker 2: How do they coax you into it?

00:15:58
Speaker 1: Then? I like singing, you know, lead a melody, but I didn't want to be the front guy. I was. I'm shy, and naturally I don't tend to not really care to be out front. I can be a ham you know, I can do it, but I had to learn how to do that. But it happened because of Keith Stiegel. We went to the studio with Keith and we were doing original stuff try to get a record deal, and Keith agreed to produce some tracks on us, and we did a couple of things that we had written, and Matt couldn't sing the scratch vocal and play bass, so I sang all the scratches and that was the first time Keith had ever heard me sing lead.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: So because he couldn't do it both at the same time at the level I hated to be done in the studio, right, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.

00:16:49
Speaker 1: Back then you're would have bleed and stuff.

00:16:51
Speaker 2: So he had to do him at the same time.

00:16:52
Speaker 1: So he played bass and I sing scratch with the intention that he would come in and overduble over me. But when then we had a meeting after that and our Keith asked us to get together and we did and he said, I think Marty should I should pitch somebody SAWT with him as the lead singer, And unbeknownst to me, all my other bandmates other than the one who was singing lead all jumped in and really agreed with that. And how'd you feel about that? It became a very uncomfortable moment. Matt was not happy, and rightfully so. He's a great musician. He's been very successful. And we had a gig. We had to go work, and of course back then having a gig was a big deal because he didn't have them all the time, and it was in Canada. We did two weeks sit down in Canada, in Montreal, and not a soul spoke English, and we spent two weeks in his band house in this very uncomfortable situation. And I was sad to stand in the center and become the lead guy, and I was nobody knew it was a great place to do it because nobody would ever know. But I began to learn that craft. And when we got home, Matt call Mean said he had decided to leave, So then we had to look for That's when Dana came along. That was in eighty nine.

00:18:08
Speaker 2: Well when did the band transition from the Tennessee river Boys to Diamond Rio. It was the late eighties.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, musically we've always since about eighty eight or nine, we've been what you know is Diamond Rio. Of course we're better at.

00:18:24
Speaker 2: It now, sure I don't, But why did you change the name?

00:18:28
Speaker 1: Well, we changed the name because Tennessee Rairboys sound like a you know, like a Gospels. Yeah, yeah, and that's not really what we did. And we wanted something that was a little more nondescript, a lot hipper sounding, more current in the for the nineties anyway. But we decided not to change the name. We had a following under that name that we were making some money with the woman in the studio. We would go out work as Tennessee Raarboys. Matter of fact, we did our first radio promotion tour when Meet in the Middle came out. We were as the Tennessee River Boys. But we would stop at radio stations and do our our Diamond Rio that's radio visits the new single, And at the end of each of one of those shows, we would play Meet in the Middle and say we've changed their name, and all the people you could see their eyes go, I've seen you, I've seen that video.

00:19:19
Speaker 2: Got it?

00:19:20
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:19:21
Speaker 2: Why Diamond Rio? Like, what are the names? I'm always interested in words? Why those words?

00:19:25
Speaker 1: I'm glad I don't have to do that. That was a very very difficult Picking a name is an awful but I'm glad it's over. But we had gone through a bunch of names, and we had bunch of friends, and believe it or not, that name came from Shenandoah guys Mike and Marty, they they they had they they they did business under the name Diamond Rio. I think they still do. Like when they check in the hotel in Shenandoah, it's Diamond Rio doing business as Shenandoah. And and they they said the record they didn't like it, and they used the R E O saying and and so they didn't use it, and they just kind of said, here's something because we've been messing with diamond Back and Dimond. We liked Diamond for some reason, and we liked that. We changed it to Rios More southwest Field. And we also didn't have a clue if we get sued by the trucking company, which is Diamond Real, as there's.

00:20:22
Speaker 2: A Diamond Real trucking company.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: Cross road trucks. Yeah, dump trucks.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: Spelled the same.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: Now it's spelled Rio. It's a bit quick history. R E. Olds Oldsmobile Okay, sold the GM he started making. Old was his name, Yes, huh Oldsmobile, So ri E Olds was and so they started making fire engines, bus Rio speed wagons.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: That's my next question.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: That's what they were called. And then there was a trucking company called Diamond t They merged in nineteen sixty four and uh we and became Diamond Reel and they made trucks till they were still making some trucks when we first came out, mostly dump trucks and seemen.

00:21:06
Speaker 2: And you never heard from them going, hey you got her name.

00:21:08
Speaker 1: No, well, they called us when we were in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is where the factory was. This was in ninety one, and said do you want to come to an other factory? And we did. I got mud flaps, like I'm not real stuff in my garage right now.

00:21:23
Speaker 2: So you guys are known in like the history of country music as the first band ever put out a debut single to go number one. I guess I'm surprised that that had never happened, so were we, Like, I'm not surprised that song did it, or that you did it because I was a big fan, but that it had never happened with any band to go number one on a debut single.

00:21:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's really tough. I mean Alabama bands, Alabama didn't do it, and they probably had the best shot, I guess. But they had Tennessee River and that came out and it went like top twenty, and then they released My Homes in Alabama that was number Then they re released tennis Sea River and it went number one. But they were the closest before us. Now that's happened since. But there was before Alabama, and there were quartets. Okay, there was the Oaks, and there were the Statler brothers and and things like that, and It'll do it, you know, brother like the Osburn's and Jim and Jesse. Uh. They though there were a lot of those, and those were considered vocal groups, but there really weren't. You know. Nashville was all about the same a team when Chet was here, I mean they dreamlined that and and it was a factory and they and so great players, but they played on all the records and being a band and coming up in the seventies, rock and roll was all about the band, wasn't. You didn't even have pictures of the band. It was just Chicago logo, you know whatever, and that's kind of that's our that's our wheelhouses when we were growing up, and that was a big part of our musical influence. Thank goodness. It was really cool music, great music, and I'd never really made a distinction between I didn't grow up making a distinction between country and because I did classic stuff. You know, I was in choral groups, and I just liked great music and I enjoyed all all of it. And I guess in some way, shape or form, and there are some of those things that influenced what we did. And it's kind of a hodgepole, which is true of all generational music. You know, this generation has something a lot of different things that influenced them that never influenced us, And the same thing's true of my predecessors.

00:23:48
Speaker 2: So when you guys played, you talk about bands and how the bands that you looked up to had certain images and sounds. Do you guys play every note on the records? I mean that again was kind of on heard of then, because like you're talking about.

00:24:01
Speaker 1: Yea country music, it was. It was unheard of, and we we got we didn't take about at least two record deals because they didn't want us to do it. They wouldn't let us do it, and so we kind of turned down. That was a that was a well they what's the how they used that? That was a breaking point, I know, I know, negotiating for us, which is amazing that we had the intestinal fortitude to do that actually, but we just we knew that our sound was unique, not that we were We thought we were better. It's just different than what you know. Otherwise. The only thing that would make us unique would be my voice in our three part Harvey, which is has got some unique and I think it would probably work.

00:24:50
Speaker 2: But you would have like, you're crazy, You're not taking a deal.

00:24:54
Speaker 1: You have lost Jimmy Olanders. Yeah, your guitar and the and the texture between Gene and the piano and that Bender playing unison licks and harm harmony licks, all that. They could have tried to mimic it, but there was nobody. There wasn't the first bender that ever existed at the Forest double Bender, like Jimmy plays him and Joe Glazer made it in their dorm room in Belmonts you know, I meaning they that's yeah, he's a I mean Jimmy and Joe are they They forged that path. There was benders. Graand Parsons played a b Bender. There were bee Benders, and they had to do with the steel guitar. For those who don't know what that means, it's like a steel guitar. There's little mechanisms. You see their knees go walking lucky.

00:25:44
Speaker 2: They're being Suzanne Sewers, the master.

00:25:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, stretching the string to a half step one way or the other, down or up. And so Jimmy has that mechanism hooked to his guitar strap and to his belt loop not on one, and so he does these weird and that's how Meet in the Middle was created. That lick, you can't play it, he can't play it without a bender guitar and well, well, well that.

00:26:10
Speaker 2: Break nicely doom. Yeah, it's exactly that. People think that's the studio recording, it's not. It's actually Meet in the Middle was released in nineteen ninety one and it was the first of five number one songs for Diamond Rio.

00:26:23
Speaker 1: I Start Fucking Lady, start Walking the Mine, We met Georgia.

00:26:33
Speaker 2: Why that song is a single? Was it always going to be the first single? Is there a storybind why that song was picked?

00:26:39
Speaker 1: No? Man, When when I, Jimmy and I, when we heard the demo, we got out voted on whether to cut it or not four to two because we were not into it. The demo was not good. It wasn't like it is. There was no the bridge didn't exist. And Monty Powell, who was my roommate in college and was producing what we were doing along with Tim to the wall. But Monny and I and Jimmy we went to work on mostly money and uh, we're just coming up with some sort of turnaround, a bridge or whatever you want to call a b section. And that's where they started playing that that went to those changes and I just I just did you know, just making it babe, you know how we'd work it out, and that's what love is all about. Bam, and right back into it and and we as we work through the saw. I want to preface that with when we lose a vote in our deal, there's six fingers. When you're listening to those songs like we would you raise the fingers like pushing fast forward and I'm done. And anytime we had four votes that wanted to keep the saw, we did, and we went in. We cut it and the rule was and we we verbalized this, We're going to all even the ones who got out voted, will give it their best shot because if you don't and it is up everybody else loves it as a single, you have your not your best performance on there. But I don't want that. So we got that pretty quick. So we all gave it our best effort to make it, to make it work, even though I didn't wasn't really all let into it start off with. When we finished the record, the tracking, just the tracking, and it had a rough vocal art. For me, it was yeah, that was when the epiphany happened on it. This is you liked it? Then?

00:28:30
Speaker 2: Yes, So when you talk about the bridge, you know, let's see, I love the way we work it asked, well, I was all about could you do you ever? Would you be recording and kind of just say stuff in the studio or were you writing it down? Like how would you come up with that new bridge? And now went specifically, and I can.

00:28:47
Speaker 1: Have a great memory of it, but I'm pretty sure it was ends. We had all the time in the world in the studio. We actually went to what we used with our record money. We bought a studio, we bought all the equipment and rented a little past over in a fight what they called the fights.

00:29:01
Speaker 2: Well that's quite responsible.

00:29:03
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we did not go blow it.

00:29:06
Speaker 2: It didn't sound like it. So you, guys, how did it feel, Because it depends on the speed of the success of the song. Did it feel like me in the middle was flying up a chart? Did your life feel like it was changing?

00:29:20
Speaker 1: It was because we were starving to death and had struggled. I've been in this band since eighty four. Not until basically nineteen ninety did we even do a handshake deal with Tim to have a record deal. And on that we were able to get some writing contracts and a little bit of money and sit down and I didn't go on the road anymore. Just we were wrote and the way we wrote we Monny had a sixteen track in his basement. We would sit and work all day on ride on stuff and literally get on the bass boat online.

00:30:00
Speaker 2: And go this all night and do it again the next day.

00:30:02
Speaker 1: Yep. Then, and we kept writing, and Jimmy and I and Dan did a lot of that together and ended up coming up with a lot of songs. And other guys were writing too, and we were We spent our time writing in a studio, not unlike what they used to do back in the seventies, where you just kind of go in and create a record. Now we were listening, we put all of our create our stuff right alongside with the greatest. We were all of a sudden getting top notch songs pitched to us, and we didn't. We didn't give ourselves a preference. A matter of fact, we probably judged our stuff more critically.

00:30:48
Speaker 2: Instead of the other way around, which is usually the game to a fall.

00:30:50
Speaker 1: Yes, but but we've we found great songs and then we we always made them our own. We didn't sometimes the demo was great, we would we would would not be too proud to go, let's see if we can do that just a little better. I would real on that that arranged me. But not that's not true most of the time, at least it wasn't for us.

00:31:17
Speaker 3: The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the Bobby Cast.

00:31:32
Speaker 2: You've talked about golfing, and you've talked about fishing a little bit, and you've talked about cars a little bit. I haven't just at the passion that you talk about them. I would expect those of the three things you love I do.

00:31:44
Speaker 1: I love I love God all the outdoors. I love to be outdoors, and I love to play golf, and I used to fish and hunt, and I don't have time to do all of them.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: How often you play.

00:31:55
Speaker 1: Golf three or four times in a week, you're.

00:31:59
Speaker 2: Gonna say it. That's going to say, how do you even have time to do that?

00:32:01
Speaker 1: I live on the golf course. Did it was one of the first things I was able to do. We bought a home in Williamson County that was on golf course that was not in great shape, but it is now called Nashville Golf and Athletic and it's.

00:32:17
Speaker 2: An incredible played there last week.

00:32:19
Speaker 1: Diamond in the Rough played there last week. Yeah, beat you up.

00:32:23
Speaker 2: It will beat you up. There's a hole. Maybe it's like I haven't played enough to all the holes. But if it's like fourteen or fifteen, you have to you don't really know how far. You're up on a hill and you have to three. It's all far. Four. It's a short part four, but you have to hit it. And you think you can just cut the corner and you drive around your lege. You can't re look cut the car. Number five Maybe I don't know. Maybe we played a that was it? And ten is that the one I.

00:32:45
Speaker 1: Number one is the toughest, one of the toughest.

00:32:48
Speaker 2: Number one sucks. You're right, it's hard. We were driving off and the lady was like, be careful for the water on one and we're like, yeah, whatever. Then we get the tea off the tea and then on your second shut.

00:32:59
Speaker 1: Yeah everywhere and if the green on your third.

00:33:00
Speaker 2: Shoes hitting the water off the tea, you know, I didn't know the water was over there. So you can play a few times a week. You feel pretty good?

00:33:06
Speaker 1: Are you healthy? Yeah? Oh yeah, I love it. I don't play as well as I used to. I was very very into it. I still am. But yeah, I mean I have my handicap down the scratch and what and yeah, yeah, I know that's the truth. But I I've got a little since twenty twenty. I went through a few things with my family that I just could have this golf was not in it, and my mother passed and then my father and of course twenty twenty and all that kind of stuff, and I can't hit it. I got old, what do you think you are? Now? I know what I am. Well, what I'm living.

00:33:43
Speaker 2: Okay, that's about what I am.

00:33:44
Speaker 1: Now.

00:33:45
Speaker 2: I've played for seven that's pretty good. Behind this curtainer. I got a simulator, and you think i'd be better.

00:33:52
Speaker 1: I know, like it's fun if it's snowing outside, that's when it's to work on your swing and yeah, stuff like that.

00:34:00
Speaker 2: But simulator won't you just and I do.

00:34:03
Speaker 1: But it's not the same golf. Yeah, golf is a creative game, and that's what I like about it.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Golf has affected other parts of my life too, where with the you hit in the woods, are you gonna freak out and be like, Oh, this sucks or do you just have to go I gotta forget that. I got to remember maybe why I did it. But I can't let that affect the next thing.

00:34:26
Speaker 1: It's that I've learned. I learned things everybody should, but I learned things about myself when I when I have many options, when I'm in the middle of the fairway and I got all kinds of different ways to play this shot and and have a correct result when I desired result, I lose focus and I will That's when I will hit my worst shots when I only have one option. And it's something that most people will go, you can't do that, you can't see fall through that. I'm like, yeah, that's I don't have can't in my vocabulary, so and and I will, I'll hit some of the coolest jobs.

00:35:03
Speaker 2: Why do you think that.

00:35:04
Speaker 1: In the woods? I love that part of Why do you think that?

00:35:06
Speaker 2: Is focus?

00:35:07
Speaker 1: For focus, I would I would say focus and just no choice. You had no choice but to play this play or you're going to have to. You're you know you're gonna make a ten whenever you pick up and you go the next hole. And that's the other cool thing about golf. You get eighteen chances, you know, and you can always come back and do it again, which should something about life. Even a lot of things in life you can't you do get another crack as they come around, often the same scenarios, not always every now and then there's once in a lifetime things that you wish you had done better, stuff like that.

00:35:47
Speaker 2: Tell me about the cake.

00:35:50
Speaker 1: We had. I mean, that was a lot of fun, but that came about, you know. Obviously we had two guys retire if no one out there knows, but Jeane and Brian both retired from the business and they're enjoying being done. They're a little older than the four of us who stayed and we're happy for them, but we didn't want to quit and we needed a drummer and somebody saying I army play Manlin and so during all that it didn't happen all. At the same time, when Brian left, he had actually groomed Micah, who was our drummer. He had been his sub for many men for about a decade. And Micah is young. They're both really young. He's forty I think now, but he started playing with us when Brian went through his first surgeries for carpal tunnel and things like that that are common with drummers, and was awesome, and he had grown up worshiping. That's how he learned to play drums, was listening to Diamond Real records. And he's a spectacular talent, so that was a natural thing. That was the only question was with Michael say yes, and he did, and so he's been with us for a couple of years now. And then we were subbing with these guys that bluegrass dudes, sang high harmony and played manlin, fiddle whatever, and they really couldn't hang if several of them I won't name them, but they were well known and awesome musicians of their own right and had some success. And there one of them said, you know, you realize Jean's a freak the way he seeks so high and it's not false set in, it's full voice. And so we had we had a couple of girls that were subbing and they did great. And this little girl who was a senior at UK and of course I'm a big Kentucky fan, so that didn't hurt. But she was a fiddle champion and competition fiddle player and sang high harmony and it fit and she was high energy, and he grabbed a hold of mail and started learning that it's all same fingerings, but it's totally different. But she's been champed. And her name's Carson McKee. So by the end of the year, Jeane lost his wife during all that, that was part of the reason why he was gone. That's the only reason. He was obviously where he needed to be with June in her struggle. And when that was over, he Gene was seventy three years old seventy two at the time, and he decided he wanted to do the same thing as as Brian did. And so when that happened, we asked Carson if she would at least, you know, do a full year with us. And she's been here now going on two years, about year and a half, and so when that happened, so we're back to the kick. When those two young uns came in, we wanted to showcase their abilities, and she was wanting and Jimmy was wanting to write some stuff, so him and Carson started writing this thing, and then Micah got involved because he had heard it and just kind of all got involved with add R two cents work, not unlike how we used to do it. And also we had we had an instrumental, which we've always done. We've had instrumentals on every album from the very beginning and had several nominated for Grammys. Ever wanted Grammy, but on the instrumental side that that's always been a part of what we've done. And all of a sudden, Micah is a film He was doing shooting videos and things like that already for a living, so he shot the video and edited it. He does he's spectacular of that. And we had friends across the road from Jimmy who had this great shop and all these cool collectible cars, and we just came up with this idea and It's what's cool about where we are in our life. It's like, if nobody cares or nobody likes, I don't care. We just do it for fun and we know that it's going to be good music because that's that's what we do. We wouldn't put it out. We feel like we hold ourselves to the higher accountability than anyone else does. And if it doesn't hit the chord with somebody, then okay. I mean it's our label and with our money, and we shot the video and that's what I like about. That's the good thing about what's going on in music business with the Internet and being able to get an outlet out there and not have to go through certain gatekeepers that we that we grew up having to go through. That's that's cool like that.

00:40:36
Speaker 2: Starting December first, you guys are out on the road.

00:40:39
Speaker 1: Through the eighteenth or someone like seventeenth or eighteen. Yes, yes, we're doing every weekend. We're having our Christmas Show, Diamond Real Holiday and the Hits and it is. It varies. Sometimes it's a lot of Christmas stuff. Sometimes it's mostly hits. But the Christmas Show itself is mostly Christmas. You know. It's a great diversion for us. And it's a great it's a fun show. It's a lot of fun, and it shows a slightly different side of us. And you'll get to hear your favorite Christmas songs and you'll definitely hear mine.

00:41:12
Speaker 2: Well what about though, if I go, am I going to hear this is a bit of a mess. It's a bit of a mess.

00:41:16
Speaker 1: Minute any one for sure? How about it? We'll be in there.

00:41:22
Speaker 2: As long as you do that. I don't know any words of any song, but I know everywhere.

00:41:26
Speaker 1: To me in the middle.

00:41:28
Speaker 2: I'm not singing that though. Good I tried, thank you, Yes, I tried. Didn't go well for me. Uh so let me say this you guys. Go check it out on Facebook, at Diamond Rio, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Diamond Rio band and go check out the show. It's I'm super pumped. Thanks for coming and hanging out. Thanks for the merch.

00:41:44
Speaker 1: Yes, you're right, And I didn't know what signe, so I brought it and large and I saw where you you just fairly recently married the last year or so. Yes, and so if if the medium doesn't fit you, maybe it'll fit the wife. Is she a diamond real she is?

00:42:00
Speaker 2: Who's not?

00:42:00
Speaker 1: What would you say you're not gonna Yes? I would.

00:42:03
Speaker 2: I would for sure be like she never heard of you. No worry, I tell you truth like you're.

00:42:05
Speaker 1: Talking the truth. But yes, And we are working on a new single okay, a new song okay. Uh and it is actually from the off Balls about something that Jimmy and I. Uh and a girl named Heather wrote who uh not an instrumental? No, No, this is a duet with Carson. So this is gonna be that's all waiting about. She and I are not about she and I was about my daughter and when she went to she went off to school and in Australia and to chase her dream about being in the Praisen worship world. And uh and I we wrote this song with aw. It just killed me. She's as far away from me as she could get.

00:42:48
Speaker 2: If she've kept going, she just get closer, the exact opposite.

00:42:53
Speaker 1: Exactly.

00:42:54
Speaker 2: Good to see you, mar Thank you very much.

00:42:55
Speaker 1: Thank you.

00:42:56
Speaker 2: If I knew where your house was, I had to hit a golf walk closer to it.

00:42:58
Speaker 1: Yes, out, You're welcome.

00:43:00
Speaker 2: I might have hit your house an accident.

00:43:02
Speaker 1: No, I know how to buy a house. On the golf course. It's not quite right on.

00:43:06
Speaker 2: Okay, good deal, all right there he is, Marty Robe diamond Rio.

00:43:11
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production