#221 - Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay on The Untold Story of Meeting Dan + Getting Justin Bieber On A Song + His Love of Star Wars

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Speaker 1: But to hop into interview with Shane Mooney from Dan and Shay. Before we do, let me recommend you check out my ds podcast called Movie mis Movie Podcast, which is and who Doesn't Love Movies? I was thinking about this my who doesn't love everybody loves movie? I love movies and it's a thirty minute podcast. And if you're like man, I wish I had more stuff to listen to. Check out Movie Mike's movie podcast. All you do type in movie Mike anywhere you listen to them, that's right, So check that out. Amy has Four Things with Amy Brown. If you like sports, check out The Sore Losers just so much. We're trying to build a network that you can pretty much like anything and find a show. Got a couple more shows coming on. We've been saying that for years. It feels like years, it feels like but I feel like we we agreed to terms with one show I'm excited to get on, and that one will probably on the next couple of months and so um it's by one of my favorite artists by the way, and a really interesting person. Not gonna say much more because it still could fall through stranger things about but we will be putting out a new podcast real soon. Um, okay, here we go with Shay. I tell you we there's no editing here. No. We talked for hour and twenty minutes or so, pretty close known in Shade long time, and it was almost like which part of Shade do I want to go? I probably could have done three hours if I just went to different places. He's also a great and funny guy. So there's also a Dan Smyers podcast, Dan and Dan and Shay, which we did before they blew blew up, but they had blown up, but they did this is pre like right before Tequila came out, I think, which was the next chapter of there. So that the Dan podcast is. I've checked that out. Scroll back and here is Shay and I hope you enjoy this podcast. Tell your friends about it and if you don't mind, give it all the stars and comment be like it's the greatest because it helps us, you know, Flap podcast charts and tagg Us on Instagram appreciate that so much. So here you go the newest this week with with Shaye from Dan and Ship. All Right, welcome to episode to Shay from Dan and Shay, which we had to partner in it's probably a year or so ago. Yea. And even for him it was kind of weird coming in alone. But my whole goal with these is to actually let people hear individuals. Yeah, this is probably trouble for me. They won't like our band after this. I don't think that's okay. I think people are gonna like the band more after after this, do you find? And and again it's Here's the weird thing for me interviewing somebody that I kind of know, is that there are things that I know that I would never ask, and there are things that I've always wanted to ask in a personal space. It's never you're just with a buddy and you just don't ask question, you know, like tell me about being seven? You know that just never comes up when we're somewhere, you know. Um, So that's why I'm excited to have you over because and also I got to prank you outside of my house. Did I got here? I was a little bit scared. I'm not gonna lie because I didn't know what your house looked like and how when did you move? Did you move in half? Like a year and a half ago? Okay, yeah I knew that, but I was just gonna ask it. But I didn't know what your house look like. So I pulled up and I was like, I have no I was gonna text you that. I was like, I don't want to be outside of like someone random's house, and I didn't want to not park, So I get out and I ring the doorbell and what I thought was an old woman answered hello. Was out there. If I did Hello scared me. I was like, I'm scaring this woman because it had a camera and she's out there being like I saw your faith, and I was like, oh, he's thinking this is real. Yeah I was. I was a little scared, like who is it anyway? Shah who shay mooney, I don't know how any money, And about that time might be the door. I was scared that I was going to open up to, like, you know, someone prepared, because this house was very much of like a fortress, and I was like someone that's you know, loaded, and stop it. I'm loaded, as in like I got a gun, you want to sticking out looaded? This But this puts me on a good question. I googled, because I always think it's fun to google how much people are worth, and it says that you're worth five thousand dollars. Now I'm not gonna ask you how much of worth because I would never do that. I would never do that. However, it's got to be more than that at this point after especially from by right, because like a little bit I was offended for you. I was like, the guy's written, he's there, shows are mine? Everything about you guys set up the way my bank accounts are set up. I got checkings and savings. Thanks hard to track, but over right, we're getting right into it. Just it going to But you came up when you're like your house is a fortress, you're so loaded. I mean I'm loaded as then i'll punt from that question. Maybe it might be over that, but I got I got a kid and getting ready for a second, so I'm you know, And I'll also say this about you. You didn't grow uploaded, so it's not like this whatever you have fifty dollars or what i've heard five million, whatever, And I don't want to say anything that's close to that. It's close to that. If that's gonna be the rumor, I'll go up to five that you've earned it is my point. Yeah, likewise, which is you know whenever I um think about you guys and I see you now and you guys are you know, I was nervous and I'll come back to this in a second. I wasn't nervous for you when you announced an arena tour before it goes on sale, because it was your first time to doing arena tour, and just as someone who has to put up theaters and I'm nervous before they go on sale to go as anybody gonna show up because I'm doing bigger theaters this time. So I was like, wow, they put up arena is I sure hope it sells like crazy? And as I'm thinking that, I also go, man, I remember when those two dudes were just two dudes doing karaoke and Nada they had their first song we were I was hassling them on the radio and you were struggling. Yeah, man, and that's We're so cool to see and even myself to feel for you going. I'm so nervous for them as you're about to do sell arenas like and that's honestly, that's the growth. I think that's you know, people ask, you know, do you get nervous for anything anymore? And Honestly, I don't get nervous performing, you know, playing shows, as I'm sure you don't really get necessarily nervous. It's more of an exciting you know, your heart kind of starts to race a little bit. You're excited about it. But that's probably the most nervous that you get as an artist is putting on a tour, because you just never know. Selling tickets is different than getting hit songs. It really is. I mean, it's kind of that We've been trying to build this grassroots thing for a while. We've been headlining for a long time of doing small shows, and then our last tour did well. But even before that tour, I was I was nervous because it's like you just don't know Tuesday and Wednesday night shows, Like you guys were the guys that were grinding doing week night shows shows and everyone else is doing what the normal Nashville thing is do Friday, Saturday and Thursday. But you guys were grassrooting it early, which which again I admire so much, but I just admire hustling grit with talent, and so whenever you put in a and I saw the you guys announced it that Rena tour comes out, and I'm like, man, First of all, I was proud because you guys have graduated to that level. But then I'm going, please God, I hope it sounds like crazy because I know, just in my little world of doing comedy, when I'm putting up a bigger theater, I'm like, oh, people like me. I hope they like me more than they used to. As much as you were nervous, Like just imagine I was about thirty times as nervous as I can imagine that you were for us, because it's like, man, even like the biggest room we did on the last tour was about I think like tickets, you know, and that's like we've done like a couple of days where you know, we've got up there a little bit in the last couple of years, but that's like jumping from even eight to like eighteen is just that's a lot and a lot of those eighteen rooms. Yeah, I was just hoping for one. I was like, just God, please let us sell out, just one, because that's like And we were starting in Nashville too, and I remember where I was. I was back I was back home in Arkansas, and I was I can't remember why I was in, but I was visiting my family, and uh, I remember we had put you know, we're about to put on the tour for sale, and it was in the pre sale and I was just like, when you're starting in Nashville, that's like starting in your hometown. I mean, that's you know, that's where we all live now, that's where all of our friends are. So like, when you start there and if you don't sell that out, it's like, well, it's gonna be a long it's gonna be a long tour. It's be a long tour. And another wrinkle on the Nashville show is that a home show that there's just a lot of things you have to do that's not a part of a normal show if you were in Milwaukee, because the home show you have to entertain people, so many people that you're close to, and it's the first show where you have all this production. You're just learning and now you have all these extra people there and you're doing freaking Bridge Stone Arena. Yeah, it's like, let's uh, you know, let's do this in our hometown when we've never done this show ever, and it's gonna be too. Luckily, it was like, that was the first call that we got. I was so nervous that the tour wasn't gonna still me. We we had hoped, you know, that it would do well, but it was. We got the call and they're like, all right, we have to we have to add it. I knew whenever I got the call, They're like, all right, you know, the Nashville show. And I was like, this is about to be either the worst day in my life or like one of the most exciting days. And they said we were going to have to add another show because we saw the tickets, and I was like, that isn't that so crazy? Man? Honestly, like my heart was just like I couldn't believe it. And that was kind of People asked like, what are those moments where you know, you feel kind of like, man, this is like a dream come true. I mean that that to me was you know, playing venues was really more like the Rhyman. That was kind of my when you look at the biggest bands like that I thought were the biggest bands in the world, Like they were playing places like the Ryman. You know that that size of venue was like they made it and they're like the biggest bands in the world. Bridge Stone was never really even on my radar until I moved to town and I realized that was the place that people did shows, and I was like, that would be pretty amazing to do. But that was kind of the moment where I was like, Okay, this is uh, that's probably one of the coolest things ever. I mean, your first was our first arena to to sell out. That the second one, Yeah, now you didn't just sell you had It's it's like, I feel proudness for you and Dan both because it's just I've just seen because we kind of came in at the same time. I've seeing you go from two guys that they patched together, that you guys patched together, people like I don't know if their country, Yeah, that was your whole wrap. I don't know if we're gonna make it. I don't know if that they're you know, the guy could sing okay, but they just didn't know for sure. I mean, it was I saw one of the coolest uh. Like it was an Instagram message. I think this girl had sent this picture to us and she was like, I think she had tagged us and it said I saw these guys It was in two thousand twelve, I think, or two team, like right after we had met, and we were doing this round at Soulshine Pizza that I don't think is there anymore. I think it's something else now in Midtown. And she was like, I saw these guys play around, you know, however long ago in two thousand and thirteen, and now I just bought a ticket to see them in Bridge Down and it kind of took me. It took me back for a second because I was just like, man, this is just as as they think it's it's cool. A lot of times you're so busy with building it that it's hard to look back. And I saw that picture and immediately in that moment, it was just like, well, that's that's heavy. You know, we're struggling in that moment, couldn't we're probably paying for honest, I think the deal we did, we weren't getting paid for the round. It was we got a slice of pizza, like that was what we were getting paid for. Pizza and experience, yeah absolutely, and and playing to where people would actually be there to listen, yeah yeah, which they weren't that, but we didn't get the pizza, which was pretty awesome. Apparently there was one girl though that was there and got to kind of see that, which was a pretty cool moment. I don't know. I looked up the most Google questions about you here you go. Number one is are you and Shape related? You can answer these, I'm not gonna answer them for you. But are are Are Dan and Shay related? We're not. We're not related, not that I know about. Okay, did you twenty three and me? And make sure I haven't yet. You know, it's it's starting to starting to think about it now. Though. What is make a lot of sense for me is when I see you guys. I don't know what a ward show it was, but you guys don't like each other to the point of it's not just I'll compare it to and I'm not married. You're married now, but a marriage that's been through like ten years and and this is not you guys, but they're together and they just do it because they've agreed to a partnership. It's like you guys that are that married couple that you look at and go, wow, they still like each other after all this time. It is, man, it feels like that, and I think it's because it started out with a from a place of mutual respect. You know, it wasn't just this, It wasn't so much a lot of you know a lot of times it's this whimsical thing that happens and you know, you don't even have time to really get to know each other. You know a lot of times in bands it can happen quickly and you you didn't have the time where you were kind of grinding it out with each other on the road and doing you know, millions of shows together. Um and Dan and I had kind of we had become kind of who we were going to be when we had met. We knew where we were trying to get to, and we just really respected what each other, you know, we're doing. And uh yeah, I mean it's it's kind of crazy because Dan and I are really complete opposites in most ways, in most ways, and I think from that, you know, it's kind of like a puzzle piece. It's like he picks up what I can't do. He's an unbelievable producer. He makes me sound good. I can't do any of that. I don't know what I'm doing in the studio. So it's kind of that thing of I trust him, you know, with literally like my life and my well being, and he trusts me with with that as well. And I think it just kind of you know, it's it's clol it's it's like being family. But it's really just a I don't know, it's a really cool thing because I do I do still like and we are still best friends. You know. It's kind of one of those things of all the time we're always looking at each other being like, I can't believe that this is this is how evening. It's just crazy. The second one is who are she's parents? Who are parents? Rick and Cindy Mooney? Are their names? Natural Damn, Arkansas and everybody prey a lot of people watching from Natural. I think they just got internet, So this is probably gonna be a pretty big deal, you know. You you laugh about Natural Dam, Arkansas. About my town Mountain Pine, Arkansas. We just got a cell phone tower now nine months ago. Wow, Now where where is that as far as like where a little rock is? Because that we're on the you know, the western side of Arkansas. So if you go straight down, because I know where you are, if you go straight down, Mountain Pine is below Little Rock on the same side of the state about an hour the left side of the state down is that towards Elder Redo or is that the other that's the other side. But I went to Fabo and I was with the Razor by game this past week, and I don't get many weekends where I'm off, and so I went over and I took Adam Hamburg, who's a dear friend of mine, and I saw that and you're with Ronnie Brewer, right, yeah, yeah, I know. They're my points were they were asking about you. They were like, have you seen Shy lately? And it's it's almost like if someone they think we're all like related to hang out that we're all like, what's up? What's up with Sap? Like, you know, I've seen him, probably got a month, but I think he's doing pretty good. I watched him on Instagram with it. It's just funny how when we all come from Arkansas and afterward I hung out with a lot of listeners and a lot of people that listen to show or watch American Idol, and they were I probably got asked about you four times. They think all of Arkansas boys run together. We should probably have a meeting. We haven't had one, and at least it's been a couple of chapter of Arkansas. Here's the one. Does Shay get paid more than Dan? Yeah? That was in the deal. I was like, look, if I'm gonna sing, if I'm gonna do this, you know, you might do most of the work, but this is how it's gonna be. I assume there's this. That's it. You guys are even split as far as I know. Maybe he maybe he does. I don't know. One more, does Dan or Shay sing speech lists? Well? We both sing Dancing's Harmony sing the lead, but you're but yeah, I'm not. I'm not that that sounded pretty amazing. I'll be honest with you. Yeah, do you want to join? Yeah? Okay, Yeah that'd be cool. Can you imagine if I went out and just we didn't say anything about it, just as a joke, We didn't acknowledge it. We just walked out, and you know, we did see anything. I just walked out and it was like like Danna Jay and it's me and when we start speakless, And it would totally depend on if, like if someone knew that it was you or not, because if they did it and they hadn't seen it before, they'd be like, I didn't even I had no idea that it was three of them. Then no, no no, you don't know. I don't come out. I put on like a black better and I never break character, and I sing as great as I can, and just we keep cameras in the crowd'll see if people are stunned. We never acknowledge it. I'll tell you it's gonna be. It's gonna be a pretty great social experiment that will happen. And I can tell you no one would get angry at that. Um So, okay, one of my did you watch? Um, like, what's the show called? You watch The Mandalorian? Did? Okay? You're a Star Wars guy? I am. Yeah, So I've never seen Star Wars. I would like to because I've heard in a lot of ways. Did you like the show? And what someone like me who's never seen Star Wars like the show? Yes? Yeah, I think so. Do I need to know Star Wars? Not at all. I think you can. I think the cool part about the show is that there is you know, if you like, you know, read the books or whatever. I wasn't that I didn't like I read like some Star Wars books like Back in the Day. Um, but there's like the whole Mandalorian thing is kind of you wouldn't really know about it, even if you were a Star Wars fan, you would probably just think, like, oh, that's like Bubba Fett, which I guess you know Django and beaua Fett would They weren't even actually Mandalorian. They just liked their armor, I guess. So I don't know what he's saying right now and see those quantum mechanics into it. No, I don't really know that. But you know, it really doesn't have anything to do with the story of of Star Wars that people would know from their kids. It's just a great It's a really new concept, really, even to a Star Wars fan. How fast did you take in that show? Probably like because they did it in I think they did every Thursday, like they released. I know that you couldn't bene it, huh. And I think I started. I want to say, there's eight episodes, and I think I started on six. I started when they had six out, so I watched all of them, and then I had to wait for the next two weeks, so I watched it. I think I watched six episodes and like, like, a couple of days, did you go watch the last Star Wars movie and your thoughts? I I liked it. It was it was a lot they had to kind of button up the whole deal, which was it was a lot to kind of it seemed like the fan reviews were great, but the critic reviews were really not. Well. It was kind of you know, and I love Star Wars and I'm I'm not the movie guy who's like, I don't usually look at the critics reviews. If like the fan views are pretty good, I will enjoy the movie, Like I like a lot. If I go to a movie, I usually have a pretty a time. Like I enjoyed the whole experience of going to watch movies. Always loved movies as a kid and still love them. Yeah, I enjoyed it as like a movie. It was very entertaining, but it wasn't like if you were to pick it apart, there was like a lot of things that we're just like, oh, that's so he's just been alive this whole time, you know, that's not that's not that's the one nooca like Senator Palpatine was like he's like the you know, he's the you know, the dark Lord Sith guy. He's like the main bad guy and he dies and like one of the first movies whenever, like with Darth Vader, Darth Vader kills him and then he's just like, now is these are these are? Well? I guess kind of for you maybe, but hasn't seen the final movie or no, no, no, not the final movie. This happens in like like oh, like in the you know, seventies or whatever, whenever the first movies came out, he like he dies and then he doesn't really yeah, and then it's just kind of he's just alive again. Yeah. Do you can you go to the movies with that people stopping you? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it's it kind of depends like what theater, like where we are. If I go back home, like and people would you know they kind of know that I'm home, then it can be a little bit of a like everybody knows that you know I'm there, but people are super sweet, you know. Can you go to the movie theater with its yeah, Like I mean like usually like, well, we'll get stopped a couple of times, especially for something for some reason. If I'm like with Hannah because people kind of follow her to that's more of like an indicator if Dan and I are together than people really like yeah. But if it's just like if I'm just out somewhere, people aren't like because people aren't really expecting to see anyone that they would know ever, so they're not like looking around like analyzing. Like when in a second, I went to a True Food kitchen today to have lunch, and I was having a work talk with somebody from my PR team. We're kind of lining up some stuff and Sam Hunt walks in and comes in just just sitting over there and grabs his food chill. He's Sam the Monster, a huge guy, big beard, so way bad him, waves back, does the deal. He's there for like ten minutes. Nobody says the word to him. Watch and I'm like, that's interesting. Nobody uh b K from Florida Geor Line walks right in, walks up to a table. I say, what up to? What dude? Could? He sets down? Nobody he had had you know, boom um, and it was just like saying and nobody kind of it was just cool to see nobody mess anybody, especially here. And and then I saw Tomas Struts manager, but so there was just a lot happening and nobody. I went to dinner a couple of weeks ago at so not a super fancy place, cool spot close to work, and Reese Weatherspoon came in and it's her and her family, they said, right in the middle. Nobody bothered him. I just think it's cool. I would have bothered her probably well before my rules. But my rule is you shouldn't bother someone if they're with their kids or they're eating, if they have food in front of them. If they're not, they know they're famous, that's on them. They wanted to get famous. You should go say hi if you want to say hi, and never be ashamed to be a fan of somebody. But if there's food or a kid involved, I think it should be like a written rule. If you're eating or if you're with your kids, and even like it doesn't like bother me insanely if someone comes like because we'll go out to eat, Like there's a Mexican restaurant that's by my house, it's like our favorite spot. We always go there, and usually if I'm with with them, like they're people will wait until like we're done eating and it's really funny to watch people, which is like I can't, I can't, Like do you ever do you do you find yourself like very hyper aware of people, Like I'm so I can hardly like really when we go out and I'm in a place where I just know there's something in like the room that shifts if if someone does recognize you, if if we're going out with like a nicer restaurant, we're like, I have my hair all spiked. I usually just like where a hat, but if I have like my hair spiked up, it's like a better chance that someone might be like, who's what that guy's hairs looks weird, so he might be in Nashville. So it's kind of funny. I'll be watching like around the room, and I could always tell when someone's like kind of just looking over like I think that I think that might be What kind of got me was people would take pictures and I wouldn't know, I wasn't aware for a while, like who cares about me? And you'd see them later. But then people would post pictures and they tag me if me like just looking awkward or that's that's the worst. And I would be like I would love to take a picture. Stay hi, so I don't look mostly for my sakes, I don't look stupid on your Instagram, Like, come say hi to me. I would love to take a picture with you because I love I love being out when people will come up and they say something like I love that people are like, like you said, this is something that we got into. It's not like I'm just like hungry for the attention, but like it's I want them to like if they're there and they're a fan, like I'd love to meet them and feel appreciated and feel appreciated because what you do without without people that music or come to shows, yeah, and people that like they hide it like this happened. Actually, reasonaid that same Mexican restaurant I'm talking about, and it kind of and I could I knew, like the table that there was like two tables around us, and they just they were super sweet, like I just love your music, so thank you so much. We're there for probably like twenty minutes and we're eating and I kind of noticed this lady at the bar and she was just you just it was all over her face. It was like all she was thinking about was like when it's a good time. It's like, go over there. And I wanted to, like, look, I didn't because you don't want to assume and be like when she come over and she's like, no, my my husband's here with someone else, I'm just spying on them. It's fine. I don't know why that was the example. That wasn't what was happening with this lady. But I watched her and all the tables and our friends that were with us watch all of this go down, because she gets up and she walks all the way to the bathroom, and what feels like a half a mile of her walking, she has her phone like this, like like people just like like she's texting, but it's like right up against her chest, and I'm just like, we all see you. And I kind of like pointed at the camera, you know, just like it. And I thought like for sure she'd get in the bathroom and look at it and be like, oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed and come over and be like I'm sorry. I didn't me to like film you. She comes back and like everybody around the table is like, you know, that woman was like filming you, right, And I was like I saw then she comes back and does the same thing the whole way back. The films all the way back, never comes over, never says anything, And that's that's the weirdest to me. Let's make a statement here together, because I tried to say it a lot. I would love to take a picture with you as long as I'm like being with my kids that no one knows about my secret kids. Yeah, like Ben, yes, John Ken I it's a compliment to me. But you're right. Sometimes when someone's holding their phone and they're holding it just a little two pointy like it's like we know, yeah, I know. I would love to take a picture like you don't text like this? Yeah, Like there's a certain way you hold the phone, and that's what that's for sure. Not it so natural? Damn was how many people? Five eleven? Wow? Good for you. I'm seven hundred mount seven. You guys are well. I honestly don't think like it says five hundred and eleven. But that's been there since I've been a kid, and I know for a fact that there's there can't be unless there are people that are literally living underground. I've never seen five people there, maybe like maybe two hundred. I've never seen them in Natural Damn. What school did you go to? I had to go so for a while I went to a school and Fort Smith you Christian, Yeah, that was and it was River Valley at the time, so I had to drive. It was kind of it took like fifty minutes to get to school because there was there was Cedarville High School and nothing against Cedarville, but at the time, it was just like it just wasn't a great place to go to school, and it was just kind of there's a lot of just stuff going on there. My parents were just like, yeah, we don't think that that's necessarily where we're gonna send our kids. But now it's got a lot better. Now there's you know, there's a lot of great schools kind of around there. But I ended up graduating from Van Buren High School, which was like probably twenty minutes from Natural dam So it wasn't bad. But growing up that was a long drive and at homeschool until I was like fifth fifth grade. What kid were you in high school? What were you known as? Shay is the were you the singer did? Yeah? Yeah, I think yeah, a little great that people knew most about you was what probably honestly more that I was kind of like the funny guy I would say, because I didn't like sing a ton I did. Like I was definitely kind of known for that, but I was. I was definitely the class clown. I would say, um, but yeah, I did sing at like events, like randomly, I would do like we had chapel. It was a Christian school, So I would sing in chapel. Shot like people that you were so good because you didn't do it all the time. Oh yeah, sometimes. I remember when I came to school because I started like halfway through fifth grade, and so I remember I I like, they asked me to sing at chapel, and I was like my first I had been I had sang in church and like, you know, done that whole thing. But that was like my first like real world at school. It was like halfway through the year and I came in singing at chapel. It's my moment I felt I felt really good. At what age did you go, Oh, I'm not just good for hearing a small town. I'm actually good enough to go and try something outside of what I'm accustomed to. Yeah, man, honestly, I was. I was probably I was eight years old when we first started coming to Nashville because we would make these little trips because I would sing with my sisters. I have two older sisters, eric As the oldest, and then Gabby um, and we would sing. We would travel around and like you know, just kind of for fun, we go to churches and do the whole deal. Um. And when I was about eight, we came to Nashville, and at that point I kind of told my dad like, I'm I wanna this is like what I want to do. That was just like I didn't know that I was like people would. I think people a lot of times I kind of assumed that I was like this, I don't want to say like prodigy, but like was like always insanely good at singing and was just like that wasn't necessarily the case. We just everyone in my family did it. And I think just for the sheer fact that I was young, people would be like, oh, he's like he's really good. But we were in small you know, this was small towns, so it's kind of like I would take it as as a grain assault. I think my parents would too, like they knew I was, you know, pretty good, but I don't know that it was this is gonna be your career kind of thing that kind of came honestly later, and I did it. You know, I was coming to Nashville since I was eight, but it wasn't I never knew. There wasn't a ton of people that were just like this is undeniable, Like they knew that I was good. But it wasn't until I was a little bit older where we had a couple of people be like, you should you guys could do this, But it was never I don't know, you go to college for a year, right, yeah, and then you go, I'm gonna go I need to go to do music. Yeah, what was the point in going to school? Where it clicked? Was like it's gonna be tough, but I gotta get out of school. And I actually it wasn't even a real It wasn't actually a school. It was actually a ministry school. So I went there. It was like a nine month program and I had a full ride to go to like a music school. And I decided right before because my sister Gabby had decided she was gonna go up to Pittsburgh to go to this like nine month you know program, and I was just like, I kind of wanna, I'm gonna go with you. I'm gonna do this, And it was kind of that I wasn't quite sure what I was gonna do with my life. I was about to graduate, and I didn't want to go to school for something that I already felt like I was. I didn't think I was gonna like learn and if I was going for like engineering or something like that, which is probably what I would have done, I just I didn't want to go to school for like performance major, you know, and like learn how to sing. I just felt like that wasn't really the vibe. And so yeah, I kind of took that that nine months and lived in Pittsburgh. Um, and then right after that I moved back home, which is when kind of the whole tea pain thing happened. Which is an interesting thing too, because when you can really sing, you can also kind of pick where you sing. Yeah. Even I give Garth as an example, he was singing rock songs. Yeah, he was, you know, he was kind of finding his place early. Um. So how do you get discovered by because what was it called, what was the paint was called nappy boy? Nappy Boy? How do you get hooked up with them? How do they see you? What are the steps that led you to go there? Because did you move to Atlanta for a while. I did move to Atlanta, so I was so I lived in Pittsburgh and my sister was she had this uh she was super good. She a good dancer, like she was a choreographer and Tylla's stuff and she was had met this guy named Mike who was actually a backup dancer for Tea Pain, and so we kind of all were hanging out there for a little while. And um, long story short, we get back to Arkansas after you know, a school after the nine months, and we're there and I just randomly get like a text, was like, hey, what are you doing. I knew he had work with Tea Paint, and I guess he had sent some YouTube video online to Ta Pain and I was and I was at Van Buren actually, and I was in a movie I'll never forget this, and I like he was like, hey, like he wants to, like, you know, FaceTime you or whatever, and I was just like I was in this movie and I didn't have any service, and I was like, I was like, this is the craziest thing. Ever, So I go out of the movie and my friend was like the manager watching and was watching him. Did you think he was like I thought he was like Arkansas heard of This movie was called hot Rod. It was like this little project I was working on. So you leave the theater, Yeah, so I leave it. So I walked outside and I didn't have any WiFi and this service wasn't good enough, so I had to get on WiFi. I think it was a FaceTime call. I can't remember if that was even a thing then, but either way, I didn't have any service. I had to like go get on the WiFi. So my friend was the manager there and like gave me the WiFi. Bassard and I'm in like this back room at the movie theater like face timing or whatever, tea pain and he was like, hey, I want you to come to Memphis, like we're playing a show. There was him and Chris Brown. I want you to come, you know, play with us and and do this whole deal. So I was just like, yeah, all right, let's just do this whole deal. Mean, I didn't have no idea. To this day, I don't know what that meant. You know, those moments like you get the call and you're just like, yeah, whatever it is, I'm down. And that got me into a lot of trouble probably at some points in my life. Like whatever that is, I'm doing it. So do you go to Memphis? I did. I went to Memphis, and I by yourself, but because you don't know what's happening, like, oh that's crazy. Who actually was not a thing that I guess, but my sister Gabby, she she drove me up there. So I drove up there with her. We went to the show and met with him and basically go on the bus afterwards, and I think it was like Tea Pain and his wife and and Mike and all these people, and I'm just like singing and just he was like I want to I wanna sign you, you know, And I didn't know what that. I just heard, you know, I'm gonna sign you. I didn't know what that entailed at the time or what that even, you know, looked like it. Yeah, they ended up, you know, because I was writing even when I was with him. When I end up signing to him, I moved to Roswell, Georgia, which is out there, you know, just a suburb of Atlanta. And I started writing all kinds of stuff. I mean I had been writing like country, and I've been writing pop and been writing like R and B like all this kind of stuff. But I knew that I wanted to do country. And that's what That's kind of how he the song that he had even heard me covering, um, I think was a country song, and so he was like, you know, this is what I want you to do. This is oh Blood. And basically what I did for those that year and a half that I lived in Atlanta was just go into the studio every day until like five in the morning and just like right two beats and and everything else. And it was just kind of a I don't know, it's kind of one of those just kind of honing my craft moments of like I didn't really get anywhere, Like there wasn't we didn't release any music or anything like that. Um, what was his goal with you? I don't know, I'm not sure. Uh, the the overall goal, you know that was kind of like pitch to me was we want to sign you too major, you know, we want to get you to Nashville at some point. But so there was country music in mind for you even though it was tea pain yeah, and we all go oh hip hop R and B yeah. And it was kind of one of those things that I didn't even have, like my sound. I didn't really know what I was doing either. I was just writing songs and I had all these you know, songs that I was writing that wasn't necessarily I mean, they were like fine, but it just it hadn't My identity was not found yet, you know. I just didn't really know what I was doing. So it's kind of somewhere in there. Um, it's hard to put unless I looked at the timeline. It's hard to put all this stuff into a timeline. Um. But I remember there was a moment when I was there. I was just like, what, we haven't put out any music. We're not doing anything. I have no idea. There was not really The contract I signed was a three sixty and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have a lawyer at the time, so I signed this ridiculous deal. Um. And I think it was all good intentions on all parties, but I ended up at some point being like I've got to go to Nashville, Like I just have to get there. So I was getting I mean I had no money because I was getting paid you know, whatever it was. I think I think I was getting paid maybe like it was like fifteen hundred dollars for two thousand or fifteen hundred dollars for like, you know, per month to like live on and stuff. But I was having to pay like five dollars for my you know, my rent in Atlanta, and then I had to pay five off the top to like my manager that was you know, this guy that had had you know, I had met in Pittsburgh. He was now my my manager. And uh so it was a whole thing. So I had about after I was moving to Nashville. I was left with about like four hundred dollars to like eat, like pay everything on after this and go out and expect, like, you know, try to meet people in Nashville, which four hundred dollars in a month is not a lot of not a lot of spending cash. How did you get out of the deal? Um? It ended up? You know, when I met Dan, uh it was a whole I mean there was a lot of people that that kind of helped me get that out of the deal. And you know, whenever we had we had met, it became kind of like a oh man, what's what's going to happen? Because this is this is like a problem. I'm still in this this deal. Yeah, yeah, but it was yeah, that that whole that was a pretty rough a little time there for a little while because it was a lot of there was a lot of feelings, you know, feelings hurt on I think on all sides because it was just this I don't know, I want to go I don't want to go like two into detail about it. But it was a rough time I think in his life he was he was going through a lot, and it was just kind of I was just stuck. There was nobody to like talk to. He had he had gone away to kind of deal with some personal stuff, and yeah, it was just kind of all right, well, I'm in this deal and we got to try to figure out whenever we were talking to these labels, it was like it kind of became an issue because it rolled really fast. When Dan and I met and we had kind of met with you know, Jason Owen and Scooter and things were kind of rolling. It was just like, well, this is this is a problem. And I was like I was freaking out because I'm like, this is a huge opportunity and we finally got something wrong to something yeah that you can't get out of. Yeah, and it was a full three sixty deal. You know. It was like everything you're doing, have a piece of not just music, but if you put out a shirt, if you touring, everything, all of it. And it was, Yeah, it was a rough time, but we ended up you know really, you know, Scooter and Jason had a huge part of of kind of getting me out of that deal. And yeah, man, it was it was a tough you know start, you know, because it was just even on that first record, like there was a lot being being taken out, you know, and it was just kind of like thankfully I didn't have you know, a family at that time or no, you know, it's not like I was. I wasn't completely broke. Whenever we had you know, Dan and I had met and and finally exigned. You know, we had like a lot more money than I had to begin with us. It was enough to live on. But they did a great job of kind of helping me get out of that, and you know, Warner Brothers and Es and all those guys. It was, Yeah, everybody's really good. So so the legend of the fort, which in different places we've talked about. But you guys met in the living room for at a house which you've been backed by. I've even seen you guys posted before. Um Dan was living in that house. Yeah, and you went over to the house I did, so I was living on I was living with my buddy actually at the time, UM I had I was, I was, I think I was maybe I don't even remember how if I even was paying him, but I was basically sleeping on his couch for like a little while. His name was Brandon Metcalf, great guy, and he had a studio and I was like working a lot with him when I had moved to Nashville and kind of had my place, and um there was a guy named Andrew um that just one night we had been writing a lot and he told me he was like, Man, I'm going over to these guys house. They had a band at the time. He's like they're having a house party. Uh, you know, you want to come with me? And I was just like yeah, he sure, let's do it. And at that time it was just kind of like any time you could go somewhere without spending any money, and you knew that there was like we knew that there was a keg and I was like a braishment that's always chased. Was like, do you think I got like pizza or someone like? I haven't even like a couple of days, but it was like, yeah, we showed up at this house and little did I know that that it was going to completely change my life. You guys start talking that night. When was it that you said, Okay, we're actually going to try something together, which means putting everything else aside. There's a difference than going, hey, we should do something together and going we're doing something together. I would even say it's comparable to in that part of a relationship where you're just dating and you go, we're only dating each other now, yeah, so that means nothing else can exist except us. What was that point where you guys finally said we're just dating each other? Well, it was not until just a couple of weeks ago. We uh, it kind of happened. It happened really naturally where Dan I started writing. Really, I think it was either that next day or like the day after that we had met. We were jam until probably like four in the morning or something like that, and I think we decided to write. So we get up the next day and we go we met it like a Starbucks or something, and then we ended up going to, Uh, this this guy that I was Jesse Fraser. I'm sure that I know many's been here love one of the greatest guys. When I had for quick side side notes, this all makes sense. Jesse. When I had first moved to town, I had a friend and I asked him. I was like, who is doing like beats? Because I have been writing to a lot of beats. I've been writing like country songs two beats, which is now like a common thing, but it was just kind of becoming a thing then, and I was like, who is a great track guy in that in Nashville? And the first name that he's that my friend was nash Over Street, which is paulver Street songwriter. Uh, and he was like Jesse Fraser. So I started writing with Jesse um a lot. And then whenever Dan and I had met, I was like, let's go right with with you know, with Jesse Fraser or at at his place. So we ended up writing our first writing session. I think we wrote two songs that that day and one of them got put on hold that night. But for Rascal Flats, so what, you wrote a song that day. Yeah, they sent it out maybe too Flats because they thought it's this it was sensible for them. That night he got put on hold. I think it was that night. Yeah, Like when we got home, they were like, this is on hold for Flats and for us, for like things things are heating up, things are really really good at which, if you know, you know what a hold is when they never cut the song or anything like that. But for us, it was just like it was legitimately, like Rascal Flats heard our song. That was a huge and as small as that you know, might seem now, you know, in our minds, it still it was such a big deal because it was you know, you have these big dreams when you're coming to town, and it was kind of that first taste of like whoa this is like somebody who's who has done it, who is a successful artist, has they liked our song and put on hold. So that was a huge deal for us and that was kind of the fuel to be like we should let's let's you know, keep doing this because we liked you know what songs are writing. Would you compare that early part of you and Dan? And I don't mean this spacetiously at all, but when you meet a girl, like when you and Hannah meet and you're like, oh my god, this is it, Like it's similar to that feeling, which as it was, it was if you're brand of four in the morning, that's what you do when you talk to all the four in the morning. Yeah, I mean, I don't think for either of us, we just were kind of it wasn't it was different than when I met my wife, because when I met Hannah, I literally told my friend Benji Davis is a writer in town. He I told him, like right then. It was in Arkansas. It's like our first date. It was at George's Majestic Lounge, and I like walked her out to her car and I got back on the bus and I was like, I'm gonna marry that girl, literally said like that night. But Dan, it was like we were having fun writing these songs. We didn't necessarily like we thought they were good, but we didn't necessarily be like we're gonna make this is We're not gonna or marry each other, but not Neither one of those were on my mind, and I think it just kind of happened naturally to where like we thought the songs were good, but as you do, you know when it's when it's your work. We thought it was good, and it we knew. I think the most exciting thing for us was there was an aha moment, but it wasn't necessary like oh, we're gonna be a duo. It was like, this is the kind of music that I've been trying to write. This is all like everything is kind of led to this, you know. It was like the stuff that I had been wanting to write but just couldn't. I hadn't quite found the sound yet. So are you saying that when you two first started it was like we found partners in creating more so than we could go be a duo. It was exactly that. It was like, oh man, this is like this is the kind of stuff. It was like better than any of the stuff that I had been writing in town, And I think for both of us it was just kind of like, well, this is like we we got something special here. So then how long until you decide you're going to actually pursue the artist thing together? Yeah? So we started to all these songs we've been writing, because we we did start to write a lot together, and so the more that we wrote, we would just start doing like these writers rounds and like playing these songs for our friends, and like our friends and everybody were getting hype on these songs like this is the greatest song. Like we were doing when we were in five oh seven, Morton Avenue was the place. I can say it because we've said it a million times. I'm sure that the owner of that house hates us for probably talking about all the time. Um, but it was like I think we would go to that. We went to the house one time I specifically remember, and I think it was Pete Tracy who now does all of our video stuff. It was his birthday and we remember we shot like a fake music video for one of the songs because we love it was so good and it was just like it was just ridiculousness. We were having so much fun and it was just like, man, this this stuff is really cool. So we started to play all the all the music out like rounds and stuff, and then Dan and I we had eventually like there was actually an opportunity that we had to go down um and I had booked a show. It was just like Shane Mooney and we were opening up. We did two shows together without actually being like a band at all. It was just like he was there with me and we were playing all the songs we had written. And one was at Georgia's opening for Chris Allen and I thought that we I thought I made it. Then I was like this is you know, things are really starting to take off. And then another one we played was that in Conway um at at u c A. There was this kid who booked me, and I thought it was gonna be like the biggest show ever. And I think this. It was in there like little performing arts theater which probably holds like, I don't know, maybe people, and there was probably like fifteen people in there. And uh, right after that, we went down to Austin, Texas because my lawyer had set up this like, uh showcase basically for us, and we went down and we put together a band, the whole deal. Then I drive down on my truck and we ended up playing the show and it was I'm not kidding, there was There was honestly probably like four people in the room and one was my lawyer, one was like a bartender girl in the back. And then our friend Paul di Giovanni, which ended up writing how Not To for Us used to be in the band Boys Like Girls. He was there, and then Dan's lawyer and there was like no other people there. We rehearsed for like four days and we were we thought it was gonna be like our big break, and uh yeah it wasn't our big break, but at that time it was. I think on the way back from that trip, we kind of made the decision of, like we've been doing these shows together, like we should, we should kind of we should do a duo. And I think it's hard to kind of put all this in my mind to like line it up, but kind of when we were writing all these songs, um, there was a guy who had who knew he worked for Scooter Brun at the time. His name was Nano and he knew Scooter and he had kind of been talking to to Scooter, I guess about us, and uh yeah, during that time, Scooter ends up we're at a writing session and uh we had kind of decided like all right, we're gonna do this this duo thing, and uh, once we kind of decided. That was when Scooter had heard about us and we were in a writing session at a guy named Danny Orton's house and there was he facetimes us and basically says like I wanna work with you, and uh, Ed Sharon was was there, which is really funny because he was like, well, you guys, play that song that I like. It was a song called stop Dropping Roll that was actually on our first record. We had like just written it and he was like, play that song. So we we played it and at the end he was like, my friend wants to hear the song because he really loves it because we had sent him maybe like a demo or something. And Ed Sharon like pops in and say, hey, guys, how are you. This is like the worst Edhering impression. Hey guys, how are you? And he yeah, we like saying stop Dropping Roll acoustic like overface time to him, and that was kind of the start of it. Did you go and play for different labels? Yeah? Yeah, I think that at the beginning we had at first we had pitched, you know, we we wanted to you know, be writers. Was like the whole point we wanted to you know, be signing we were working with, you know, some some guys and Rohan who now works with us at Warner who's our and our guy. Um, he was kind of working you know, we were we were trying to you know, get all these these meetings with publishers and things, and it was really funny. At the very beginning we were meeting with like everybody because at this point we had we still had zero money, like at all coming in and Dan and I used to like we would go out to like a publishing meeting and we would always like we would make them take us to dinner, Like we'd always take the dinner meetings because it was like that was free food and drink for the night. It was fantastic. So I think we took out a couple of people, which which now is funny because there's a couple of our now friends in town of like, man, I was a new publisher and you guys maybe take I spent like Tim Grant on you guys and you didn't sign with us, and I was like, sorry, dude, but yeah, we were meeting with you know, publishers at first, and then kind of when we decided to come together, we met with several labels in town and um, bidding war for you, Yeah, a little bit. There was like at that time, we had we'd had all these songs, you know, that we had written. We had, you know, a couple of hundred songs that we had, and we were doing all these these demos and everything, and we had, uh I think that the demo that we were bringing out around to people, it was like twenty two songs that we had had on this thing, and they were and they would they would just go in there and be like, all right, you know, just pick a song and play it. And uh, yeah, there was there was kind of at the end, there was sort of, you know, this little bit of a bidding war. But we had kind of we met with with Warner Brothers and we had met s BO and Um. I think it was like ten thirty in the morning, and we went in and we played with them and they just they were so passionate about it from the very beginning. And Spo if you if you know Spo at all, he's very passionate about music, loves music. And it was like ten thirty in the morning and he was like, you guys aren't leaving this room until you sign with us, and so we were like, well this guy was pretty fashionate, but uh yeah, that was it was. It was kind of crazy, and it's hard to even like remember all that because it all happened so quickly after that. You know, people see it as like, oh, this happened like overnight, if you guys just became an overnight success. But it was really this accumulation of of me doing my thing and Dan touring since he was like thirteen years old, and it was kind of that moment where it all kind of came to a head and it was just like, I don't know, it was I think when we signed it was it was it was two thirteen when we put out like our our first single, like that summer, and we were going on like radio tour, and it was just like it all it was crazy. It was just a crazy time, and it's it seems like yesterday and now that I look back, that was now here we are in I'm gonna come back to nineteen you and me in one second. But something you said when we were talking about you meeting Hannah going I want to marry her, is that you walk back to your bus. Yeah, So were you guys touring through Arkansas? When you guys were on your first date. Yeah. Yeah, so we had I had known about her, like we had a bunch of mutual friends. She was miss Arkansas. Yeah, so if you go through Franklin, Arkansas still a pretty big billboard, it's a pretty big deal. So she's she's a lot coreer than me, definitely a lot better looking. Uh. Yeah, we were on tour. We were I want to say it was our first time playing George's like legitimately like as a headliner, and that was like our our one of our first times playing there, and I was pretty excited about it because we had like you know, that was the hometown show and it was Yeah, we have been talking a little bit and I basically begged her. Yeah I think it was like Facebook or Twitter or something. I don't know, but I had invited her to the to the show, and I know in her mind now that I've like talked to her, she was like, this is not gonna happen because she was like unimpressed. She was like, I'm not gonna I'm not dating a singer, you know. And I was just like I was doing everything I could that night. Whenever I was like I knew kind of like I was looking for the whole time. So you were like looking at her section too, Yeah, and I was, I mean I was looking. I was smoldering. You know now that I know how dumb I look doing that. I wish I would have done that, but still worked out. But yeah, it was. It was crazy. I was looking for the whole time, being like, I know she's here, and if she wasn't there, I would have been devastated. Well, and if she wasn't there that section, that would have a great night. Sa. There was probably like a couple of people in that section. They were like feeling, he wants he wants me. I'm gonna play nineteen you and me. Here's a little bit of this watching. That's the first one, right, it was the first one, now you know you said a second ago too, And I think a lot of people look at you, guys, go wow, what overnight success everything roses. This song, which did wonderfully for you guys, only hit number nine. Yeah, it didn't even hit that. It went to eleven. Well, my Notes has peaked at nine, so one of the charts. I think I don't think that I ever picked. I think it was eleven. Like on both charts, and did you feel like when they happened, not that I mean that was huge, right, Yeah? Yeah, I mean it was kind of that we were stuck. I mean I remember when Nada told us that, you know, our song was going to be on the radio. We about I literally blew out the speakers in my jeep like listening to that. Whenever we found that out, it was like the biggest deal. To have a song on the radio and to be like on a radio tour was all like, I can't believe this. It was insane. It felt like hitting the lottery, which really, you know, to do what we do is, you know, then you come off with the next next song here and show you off comes out and doesn't do as well like my note Here's Us peaked at nineteen. Yeah, it didn't do good, Bobby Now, And my point in saying this is we haven't played that song in years yet, so you don't play it any No, no, no, no, I hope that's not any But when a song doesn't do as well as your first one, are you starting to like hang your head a little bit? You know? I think it was all kind of we were just so stoked to be in it all. I don't think we thought about it too much, um because it's kind of it would have been worse. Honestly, it would have been worse. I think if nineteen and me would have would have been at number one, and then we followed it up with a nineteen since it was kind of this like it still felt like, all right, we still have like our chance to like have the song. And I don't think that any of us like it was tempo, but like looking back, neither of one of us were like stoked on that song. We were about nineteen and me and it's still it's still one of our biggest songs because you know, at that time and it's so it was like platinum. It was like a you know, it sold a bonch. It did really well for us, but we had put it out to radio immediately we went on radio tour, so by the time we got to the West coast, the East coast have been playing it like they had played like times, so like we didn't feel we knew it went number one and almost like every market but didn't just not all at the same time. So we were like feeling good about that. But when show you off kind of you know, didn't do its thing. We we kind of it was kind of a you know, like, man, I wish that would have done better, but I don't think that any of us was like super passionate about the song to begin with, so it didn't sting as much. But the third one that was kind of the pinnacle of not the pinnacle, but really the start of it that would have been if that one didn't go number one. That's when you start to be like, oh, this is my connection to show you off is that I remember having you guys up in the studio and because you guys would come in like three times so far, and mostly it was because we knew each other more than anything. You guys were really good, but it wasn't because you had a bunch of number ones when you were fun on the air, um two year, really good on the year, and we had a personal relationships. And I was like, you guys are coming in and we did a bit together where you guys came in and saying boys to man's songs and it goes up on YouTube, and this is how you guys have kind of affected my life from a side part. We put it together. It up on YouTube. Scooter your managers watching you guys on YouTube, sees me interviewing you guys, sees us doing our thing where it's like, I'm not great at being on the radio, but I'm great at doing a good radio show. And he's like, dude, we should do TV work together. So him and I get to know each other and start working on TV projects together, which has in turn later by later I've gotten working on a lot of projects, just working. But because your relationship with him and him watching you and seeing and so that fully responsible for your career. Point, wasn't you bringing the chick? Yes? This is this the part they said you had some special Is this what it is? That's song nothing Like You as the one where I'm or not nothing like you, but show you off as a one where I was like, that was a big part of my career because he had told you had said that before, but that's that's pretty crazy. Once I was with I was with Scooter in a meeting and we FaceTime you guys, and you guys were in a car somewhere together, I was with that cheering no I was I was like, yeah, I totally remember that Nothinglike You goes number one, and so this is a big one. But I tell you where it really started to sing like you guys were one. Next level to me was the build up to from the ground Up because I started to hear people go, oh, this next song from the ground up is next level? Yeah, because you had a number one and number ones are hard to get and good for you and great, but and now you're on the path. Took us forty seven weeks. If you feel like From the ground Up was like the first real respect you got from the community of art. Yes, it was. It was because nothing like you was that song where like it was, it was a hit, but it was just kind of that it wasn't the song that it was just like oh, Dan and Shay like this is this is gonna be it Like obviously that was. It was a hit, but there's a there's a big difference between like a number one song and something that truly like really impacts your career, and and it did for us at the time. You know, we would go out, we were also headlining like these small shows, and you could tell when we played that song people would freak out because it was a hit. And I think it was more because they were like yeah for us and not necessarily, you know, out of that people weren't you know, it wasn't There wasn't a lot of respect factor there, like you said, like from the ground up. Was the first where people even in town was like, Okay, I think these guys might be here to stay. That's when I felt it was getting legitimate for you guys as not just singers but artists. Yeah, and there is a difference. It's yeah, it was like a three sing again, well there were three. It was like a three or six degree like everything they're doing is right on this is it? Yeah, And I think it's that point where were it was the first time we were really really excited of like we we kind of started to hear even from like the songwriting community of like like I wish I would have written that song. It was kind of that moment, Like I don't think there was very many people we did with like nineteen and me. There were some people would be like, that's you know, that is my favorite song, nothing like you like our first hit and show you off. People weren't being like I wish that I would have written that song. There's been times a career like I wish I maybe you didn't write that song. You know, it's like and I'm thankful for every you know, ounce of everything we've ever gotten to do. But that was kind of the first song and it was very personal to us too, you know, we had written that about our grandparents and it was it was kind of that moment we're just like, man, this is this is crazy. You know. That's when things started to really to happen for us. How not two hits Adam Hambrook earlier one of the writers of the song. I would play it because Adam had to come out and fill in when I would do early raging idiot stuff, And so I had to learn this song and try to do background because he would sing it because you know, if you write a song, you get to sing it. And he's fantastic too. Yeah, this song goes number one. Now most of these are number one. I'm gonna bring up maybe a store spot for a second because road tripping. It's a little heart road trip and hit number thirty six. So one, did you want to put the song out? Two? Did you jump off it earlier? Did it just fizzle out? We we we pulled it. We did pull that song because it was you know, it wasn't that I like hated that song, like I don't like to play it, Like we don't play it live. It was just kind of one of those moments where it was it was a tempo, it was something that we felt like we kind of needed, and our fans loved it. It was like and live it like did really well, And it was kind of that moment where it was the best move I think we could have made in our career. Even still looking back, that was the best move at that time was to pull that song because that that's set up, you know, what was next chapter of your freaking career when it was like and you went from being a strong artist to know ka boom time went te Keela hit to change the whole world. In my mind, your whole world changed. Every don't know what happened in your world. Everything changed. But when this song was and I remember the lead up to it, and I remember talking to Nicole before it came out in the cold gallet and this song just shook up everything. Yeah, it was that moment where I remember whenever roach like when we were picking the single that wasn't necessarily like my my choice. We we brought in you know, a bunch of people to be like, you know, what what should be the next single, and you know that was it was back and forth between a couple of songs, you know, we had, you know, already ready on our last record, on our not on our last record, but the second album. Uh, And there was a couple of other like contenders for singles. And the problem was was, you know, our fans. We had done this, you know, such a grassroots thing that our fans were like buying the album and they were listening to every song. So it was kind of it was a little bit tough to to pick a single because they had already really you know, kind of taken in that record, and we're kind of like, you know, they loved the record, but they had kind of heard all these songs. And I don't think that there was any single that we could have put out that would have kind of taken us to the point where you know, Tequila did. And I don't think that if we would have put Tequila out in a different time that it that it would have worked in the way that it did. I mean, it still would have been a hit, but the the way that all happened, like looking back and being like all right, we pulled road tripping and now we're gonna this is a reset and we're gonna We're gonna do this. It was the first of a new whole project. It was Yeah, it was the first of a whole new project. And I remember like we had had these you know, we'd had these songs and we were really excited about them. And we had had I think like a few like singles UH that were contenders for like the first thing that we put out there. And I remember Dan and I were in London and we had to talk um and I remember like before we cut to Quila, I was such a fan of the song because I did. I wasn't a writer on that. It was Dan and U and Jordan Reynolds and uh and and Nicole Galleon. And I remember hearing that song and I was just like that, I want to sing that. I think I can. I think that that'll sound good with us doing that, And there was it was just that moment where like we were all in and I remember talking with a label and Dan and I were like in this little room we were playing in London, I think, and we were on tour over there, and we had this whole conversation of like, we can't there's a lot of people in the label, like we can't put a ballad first, we just can't do this. And I remember we were just having this whole conversation. I was just like, we're we're putting this song out. This has to be our first one. Dan. I were so like Adam about it, like look, this is we're taking the reins. This is it. And I just remember like making that decision and we put out the song and it was just you know, the lead up to that, we tried to you know, we we didn't know what it was. That was a kind of a scary time, but at the same time, we were very excited because I feel like out of anything we had done, there's like the songs that we had done, like I was very proud of, like from the ground up, and even like nineteen you and me there and how Not Too. Those were the first times whenever I felt like I could play something for like my friends and then be like that's sick. You know, I love that. But Tequila was like the moment where everyone was like, oh my god, like that is that's crazy, Like this is it felt cool? Like it that song a lot. We put that out. It made us like the cool thing to go see in town. When that song hit, it changed everything pretty much like overnight. I mean, it was just insane. I still think that it's the song that I've seen grew it over more for rewards than any other song on my history. And I say that not joking. And I know you're you're gonna be like, oh wow, shocks, but I do think that I and I would even you know, talking with Dan or Nicole or people that I have, I would be like, I can't believe it. I'll tell you one time, I was presenting the c m A for do Over the Year and I was just and I love John and t J Brothers Osborne, I have a close relationship with them, but in my mind, I was like, this is so damage. This they there's not been to do others had a bigger year that they You would be speechless, Tequila, you've been touring. I was like, I'm going to read their name and then they're gonna pick me up and it's gonna be all We're gonna have like the greatest moment and um and and it wasn't. And I opened up the card on it was on ABC, and I said in the Winner for do other year and I saw Brothers Osborne. I called him up and I thought what they did even then, I think they were shocked because they give you guys a shout out of there, which felt like I didn't We didn't know what to do, like you good? Who would be down here? It's everyone band like, I don't know, I can't smile any bigger speaks to their character to do that. Um, but I know that it has it has to And I'll speak from personal. And you can say whatever you want at times when you're having great success but no one is giving you the cred from where you're living, it sucks and that and and you can say but I've had to happen to me too, it sucks. It hurts a little bit. And at that point I was like, Holy mother, like right now they're not getting it from home, but when they do, they're gonna own home. And I wonder how you kind of got through that. It was man. I think I think Dan took it a little bit harder than I did, just inherently because he I don't want to see like I don't do anything like Dan puts his entire life into this and I do as well. But you know, obviously now like I have a family, there are other things that really, you know, and that's for him too, and everything's a chance he has. He has a wife, you know, and pretty much a family with his dogs, and there are other things obviously that mattered to him. But I think that that really, you know, that was just a lot of months going into making this stuff and and the build up to this, and when someone when you go and you lose, it just sucks, like there's never and it doesn't just suck for for us, you know, it sucks for everybody. It's horrible to lose and it's terrible to get up there. And the whole concept of award shows now that we've like and after that we won like everything, and it was it was like it was cool, but it was just kind of like, it sucks that a lot of artists you feel like you live and die by these award shows and it's just not the truth. You know, it's amazing to be recognized by your peers, but I think that your peers do you recognize you in other way as it just sucks when it's publicly like you lost and you had such a monster You're like nobody else had. Yeah, I think that to me because the talent is so different and so just it's premiere talent. Every duo nominated premiere talent, but you guys had statistically speaking in every count chart, streams, tickets, they're really isn't something. Yeah, that was what hurt. I think that's what hurts when you know that, Like you don't want to say, like we deserve it, but if there is a metric, you know what is the metric at that point, it's like because you hope that it's just like whatever the biggest song was, like the biggest thing was, you would hope that would win, which is just not the case, which is it sucks if you win, it's great, but like sometimes that happens with artists when it's like they know, like that song probably should have won, you know, and every word show is different where it's you know, the Grammys is more like a cred thing. It's not necessarily based on like what was the biggest song, which is why we were blown away when we when we did win a Grammy, because it was like, you know that that song was very commercially successful, so you're like to win a Grammy for it was like kind of a surprise for us. We had no idea that that was going to happen. But I don't know, it does suck, man, Like you're there and they're zoomed in on you and they're just there to say something and they're on a knee looking your face with a camera and it is for me to you, oh dude, closer than that. I mean, it's literally like it's like a you know, the up there and you're trying to smile and it's just like it's a weird thing. It's kind of like if you're there and people, you know, they get crap all the time because there's been in the past like people having a bad reaction like what you know, and they catch that like we got you, you know, and they play that over and over again, like oh man, like faith Hill. I've no idea that's ever having a faith Hill. But she was just like what you know and whatever that is. But it sucks because like if someone if some it's turned it around and make it like a lottery, like there's three people in the rim and you're gonna win a million dollars and he put through and you put a camera on them, what do you think that the other two are gonna be? What I'm gonna do whenever they're like yeah, this this person, and like the other two are like no, I put everything I wanted on this, like this is everything. So it sucks, Like of course you're gonna have a bad reaction, but we're all know now, like they'll get you if you're not you know, bummed out because it sucks, like for everyone, it sucks, and it's just kind of I don't know, and it's hard to see, like to see other people like, you know, lose it. We had we kind of saw the other side of that because every award show after that we won like everything, and it was just kind of like this is like now we're on the other side of this, and it's almost like you're up there and then you just remember, like all these people right now he does because it sucks, you know, to be on the side of that, and it's just I don't know. I think the most important that we tried to not you know, live and die by award shows, because it really is the most important thing to us is to go out and to be able to to sell out shows is like the biggest deal to us, Like we want to be able to play to the most people that we can and for our music to get out there, you know. But it definitely for anyone to say it like that it doesn't matter, like it matters, like it definitely matters, and that momentum helps, Like to win an award shows is huge. So it definitely sucks to because in in your heart you're almost like it wasn't good enough, like what you did and what you put all those hours into of not sleeping for two years to make this record. It did it wasn't good enough, and that's what really hurts of just being like, damn that that's a bummer. You know. A couple more of these real quick speech lists. Hits Number one, massive wedding song the Lords that it's the wedding song, the video, the whole thing was like dialed in, Yeah, like you knew the lane of this song visually, sonically nailed it all to myself. Made a lot of love to myself for this song, a lot of love. I'm gonna ask you about ten thousand hours, what was the process like to get a song with Justin Bieber? Were you already talking about doing something together. Eventually, did you have the song and Scooter go what what was that about? Yeah, I mean it was kind of it all started. I mean we obviously through Scooter, we had we had met like some people, like we had met ed Sharon through him. We had met Justin through and we had been to l a bunch of times, and we had met Justin a few times, and we always thought like, man, it'd be so cool. It's like to get Justin on a song because it's like, you know, it's one of the biggest pop stars in the world, you know, and it was just like that in our mind was like we of course I want to do a song with him, you know, especially since we have this connection. No one in country has this unique connection that we do, you know, through Scooter and um. Early on, we definitely we wanted to try to, you know, do something with and we had pitched some things and I'm really glad that it didn't happen. Whenever, you know, it might have happened, like a long time ago, would not have been this. This was kind of the first time we had written this song in Nashville. Jesse, Joe Dillon, Jordan Reynolds, and um, it was kind of that point where we had written a song, We're like, this, this actually might be perfect for for Justin because in that time, like the timing of everything, of him being you know, just getting married and all this stuff. And it was the first time that we felt like we were bringing something to the table where it wasn't just like can we please get Justin bieberrun our song? It was this would make sense for both of us. This would be I think big for for both of us. You know, it would make sense. We had like because and before it was just kind of like, you know, we were down here, We're like can we get we please get justed In our song? And then at that point, you know, we're out there like we're about to do arenas. We're a legitimate act so we can kind of bring something to the table, and um, we just you never know what's gonna happen. It's not like we were like, Okay, this is time and this is for sure going to happen. We didn't know what was gonna happen when we sent the song to him. Um, but he just ended a scooter or yeah, we had sent it to j B. We had we had called him. Uh no, we had just sent it to to Scooter to see if like it was something that he would like before we just like you know, sent it over to Justin and he was like, I think that this this makes a lot of sense. And Justin heard it when he loved it and he resonated with it. I think, like we said, in the same way as we thought that he would like it, he liked it, and uh yeah, I just kind of we couldn't believe it whenever they were like, yeah, this is gonna it's gonna happen. So for for months, like we had his we got his vocal, uh and and they had like changed changed some things and kind of made it his own. And it was crazy like getting that back. We had to sit on that for months and months and it was not on the song, and not telling anybody about it was like the hardest thing we've ever done because it was like, you know, I've literally in my phone, I had, you know, a song with us in Justin Bieber and it's like I couldn't even talk about it. It was just like because if that gets out, you know, that's like a big that's a leak. Like maybe if like they found out. We're coming out with a new song that's probably not gonna country songs don't really like leak, but songs a justin Bieber on him like that's a you know, worldwide, there's a lot of people are trying to find that kind of stuff. So it was it was a crazy, crazy moment. And it was weird because I knew, I just knew. I had a feeling that it was gonna be big for us, just because the timing of everything, like the momentum that we had going into this with Tequila speechless and all of myself. It was just that moment of like, people are not gonna they're not gonna see this guy at all, you know, And it was it was crazy. Man. Before we wrap, I want to play one of my favorite songs of yours. It's called Your Love from two thousand and eleven smack. It came in up one seventy three in the Afghanistan charts. Oh it was. It was pretty big in Afghanistan. I can't even go there still, it's so it was so big there. And maybe city Lights with Gabby, Oh yeah, these are these are great. So what was the goal with these early songs? I was just messing. Honestly. I was actually recording in Fayetteville with this guy named Mike Bailey, who like kind of looks like you, which is pretty funny. You guys look a lot of like like the whole deal. He's got, like where's black glasses? Everything? You're like a much better looking like that. Yeah, he's like the you know, I almost look the poor man's version of that, you know, juniorversity. Yeah, but yeah, I was just I was just doing it for fun. It was like I think I was in high school at that time, just going to Fayetteville recording songs for fun in this guy's house, and then I just would put them out. And would you send that off to people there hoping to get that next level or we're just putting him out for fun? Now. I was putting him out just like thinking, like, you know, every day there are things to go viral. This is probably didn't it didn't work out, it didn't happen like that, But I was having fun. I think I probably made I mean I'm literally made like tens of dollars off that stuff. Good for you. I still check my CD baby, uh sometimes CD baby. I had CD baby. I just sayed music on my Space. Uh No, I didn't know. I think my Space had kind of it had fizzled out a little bit at that time. I think I put like I would put these covers on Facebook though. That's what I did, like all through like high school. I would do Facebook videos and YouTube videos. Yeah. I remember I checked that that CD baby account one time because I fo forgot about it because I had this like connected and that was I don't think that like the label or anybody like ever knew like they knew about it, but like they didn't know where like the money was going. And I don't think I checked on CD baby account thinking like there could be like some serious change in here, and there was like thirty seven since change, literal literal change. So yeah, go out and check that out. I'm still Shae Mooney music on YouTube. Go check that out. You're gonna love it. Your name, James Shay isn't moot. How do you spell your last name? You're real m o O an e m o o n e y it is any anyway any y? Yeah? Yeah, all right now. And if you're getting this with the pseudonym, I don't think so. All right, um, listen, go let me do a little plugger for you guys, not that you need it because you were killing the world. Uh. The to Towork kicks off March six in Nashville with the bank Amino and Ingrid Andrews, who's a great friend and so good, so good all the way through October thirty one, and you guys are everywhere. It's hard to get tickets. It just is. It's just really great to see. It's good to see people that work really hard crush it because it gives hope to other people who work really hard. Likewise, man, it's it's really fun also, just to to say it is very I think the coolest thing about this town is the people that you do meet and when you get to see them. Also, you know, crushing it and having these moments is fun because you're killing it. It just doesn't it doesn't feel like real life for either one of us. This is wild and I think a bit too, we haven't stopped to take it in as real choirs sometimes. Yeah, And I think for you it's great you have a kid and a wife, because I think there's probably some balance there that you didn't have before. When I'm home for like two weeks I forget what I do for a living literally, which is probably not a good thing, but it is just kind of those are two different worlds. So it's cool to slow down and kind of remember how how blessed we are to get to do this, especially with people we love. Well, dude, I love you. I'm glad of here, and I'm rooting for you guys. I get nervous for you, guys, And that's that's how you know I really care, because I'm like, man, I hope this, that's so good. You hope the arena towards seals. I hope. So. But one of these days we have to go. We have to play that. I don't think they've ever done a concert like Bud Walton Arena. So let us go and we'll do that. We'll go, I'll do stand up and open the show and then you guys, you guys will play. I would love it. They're working, by the way, this can be our opener. I'm working on getting a massive amphitheater in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Or are you really from my hometown? Are you in? Yeah? Look at you and I and I want and I want you to be in on it. They have an opportunity to just talk about it. Let me I have literally five million. Yeah, I just found that out, which is pretty exciting. So well, in with that question five, it says net Worth online k it has to be higher, right not after this deal on all into the amphitheater alright, Episode two twenty one, Shame Mooney. Follow on Instagram at Shame UNI, follow at Dan and Shay and go see them if they're coming around. They really are even better than you think they will be, which is an amazing to say about someone who you already think they're going to be great. So and I mean that with all mahard, not even saying all right, thank you, m m m h