#194 - Brett Young on his biggest regret, playing music for years at a hotel in California, and how he got back together with his now wife.

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Speaker 1: My dog in my hands right now, that's either me or him. He has out of control with his chewing, and he's getting bigger and his jaws are getting stronger, and so I used to be cute, now hurts. And so now we have resorted to putting pennies pennies in a water bottle, and every time you choose, we just I just slam right. He hates it. We're working on it because anytime I'm like a pop him, like on the butt or the nose, He's like, all right, I see that, Let's do some more. He's a bulldog. He's stubborn as crap. So we're trying new things. But I'm holding it right now because I don't wanted to chew the wires under the table um. But we're here but to talk with Brett Young. We just did the interview he just left, and I'm gonna tell you we talked about his height in this. I just forget and I know Brett a little bit. Um. We you know, have done some show stuff together, radio show performance stuff. We had idled together. Um, but you just forget how big the dude is. Still you stand in beside him. He's a monster, big guy. He's um, and we walked out and talked a little bit downstairs, which is always UM. You know, one of the good parts about it too, because you just spend an hour talking with each other and you're gonna hear that. UM, so I enjoy. I say. There are a couple of music podcasts that we do I think you should check out too that aren't even interviews, Like there are some good interviews you can see if you if you're here, you probably subscribe. And um, if you write a comment to like, you're right, I don't even know, you know if you do that. I normally don't. If it's a podcast that I really love. I listen to a couple of them and they're like, hey, would you mind rating us? And I'm writing a nice note I'll do it just for them. So if we're one of those podcasts that you love to do, please do that be great. Um. But there's a couple of music ones where we talk about songs that you didn't even know what that's what they meant. And that's a good one. I don't know what the official title that is Famous Songs with Misunderstood Meetings a good one, so much so that stations have reached out to us to play that played on the weekend. I enjoyed that one. I like those music ones and always you know, if you're tweeting me or posting an insta gram under the picture, UM, let me know what you like because we'll do more of that. So we just appreciate you listening to this. Brett Young, check out the Ingrid Andrews one. Really, that's a really good one. She's just cool. Check Um Thomas right, obviously it's a recent one. And the other, the other good music one is the famous songs that piked at number two. Ah yeah, And I think we're about to do one, which is bands that have had more than one lead singer, like the women's bands. Where did they win well or everybody hated him? Yeah, that's that would be a good one. That So that's coming up. If you don't mind, tag us on Instagram, put it puts on your story and tag me. I love that. I'll try to share some of them and then follow the Bobby cast on Instagram. Few. We're asking a lot of you, I know, but you know, I like you. If you like me, do that. Uh. I'm about to head over to Amy's my co host and take us on her birthday presents. So it's kind of the only night that I'm able to do that. Someone head over there and do that. But you can check out Amies podcast called four Things with Amy Brown. You can check out the Velvet's Edge podcast if you're into that, the female trendy hell fashion lifestyle stuff called Velvet's Edge with Kelly Henderson. Obviously, U we have Get Real with Caroline Hobby over here on the network. We have The Store Losers with lunch Box Eddie and producer Ray, and we've got some more coming on that. The Networks is probably gonna go by two or three podcasts, including one that we're gonna go on my d here. Yeah, finally finally saying message like you gotta get in this, dude, gotta get in this and you'll be good at it. So okay, Well that being said, enjoy our talk here with Brett Young. Um. Yeah, I liked it. And you'll hear if he was on time or not. That's always a fun thing for me. I always like, let's just see who shows up on time. I'm a big time freak. Okay, thank you guys, and here is Brett Young. All right, welcome to episode with Brett Young, very punctual. I was extremely impressed. I parked one minute early. Oh did you you set out front of the house. Well, I actually pulled up twenty thirty five minutes early. We should just come in, we're ready, but but I was hungry, and I've noticed that there's a nice little Mexican restaurant next door. How did you go over? Stuff? Stuff? Pepper? Is that? Yeah? I don't l L No, it's l something anyways, Yeah, I went and I was like, guys, I got twenty minutes. You need to hook me up. You ate at four thirty first fal today? Did any breakfast? Do you breakfast? Um? I eat breakfast food. They rarely eat it in the morning. I mentioned how punctual you are recently on this because people will come over to the house and we do this. We've had a couple and without mentioning names, and I feel we're so far removed from it. We had one person that was almost a half hour late, and I don't do well with lateness anyway. So it was a bit of me trying to rebound and be professional and the podcast ended up going great. Another one they showed up drunk and Mike d saw them and they like couldn't park their cars like dot dot and they came in in And you can't tell in the podcast because we went back and listen to it to make sure you can't tell. You can't write. Well, that's great. I guess that's I mean, and I and then I love the person and I know the person, and I was like, boy, I gotta put the rails up on this one. That's a professional right there, at something. Yeah, that's something maybe at both at at drinking and then being able to maintain composure while drunk. But it's always it's always good stories because people just come over to the house and sometimes we hang out before sometimes you know, like you and I were just talking, you know, beforehand. But yeah, they showed up drunk and late, but you were here. You nailed it, I promise, like I scheduled it. And then I even I even like pulled in and I was like, you got two minutes, go ahead, and like take the time to back in, walk walk up on time. I walked. I think I've knocked on the door at five or actually I didn't knock on the door. You guys were right on time. You opened it. As I walked up watching it. We got cameras at my house has so many cameras, didn't it crazy? You know, I was watching the news this this dude who broke out of jail. Did you see it a couple of days ago? I got alert, right, So we got the alerts on our phone, and I think he had murdered someone a prison guard were like a t dot but it was like a government employee right outside of the prison. It was just uside of Memphis. So he's running around somewhere and they ended up finding him because somebody's home security camera, like the ring doorbell camera saw him walking across and they called the cops because of the neighbor's ring doorbell. That's literally how they got him, right, Mike, Yeah, there was a screenshot of it. So as I'm so glad I have ring at home. Is everybody's looking and have cameras like on every door here, But yeah, we saw you and we gets pulling up. You didn't see if there are um invisible agents out there? Have you seen speaking of that have rifles in the trees? No? But you know I had a con wants on the show and he was like he's talking Mike, were you with me what I had an? I think he was talking about how he has people like people in trees and in the woods around his house with guns camouflaged. Okay, well, he's also like, isn't he the one that's like you think music probably made him befortune, but he's like involved in diamonds and stuff, right, Probably. I think he's like. I think he's like, he'll never even touch his actual money with music. Money like music money doesn't he isn't even meaningful to him. I think that's a con I think problem. We looked it up. That sounds about right. It's like Jay Leno, we're talking about him. He doesn't he never spent his Tonight show money. Yeah, he just spent his stand up money making millions doing stand up. So we just kept saving his Tonight show. Leno could liquidate his car collection and live off of it for the rest of his life. He's gonna be all right, how you been good? Oh man? You look dark and tan or red or something. Um we just did um we we my poor wife. I mean any anybody that marries or or dates somebody that does what we do. Um, you have to like kind of pick and choose in time when you can do things and uh, and so we we we really wanted to do a baby moon. I didn't know what that was, the last kind of hurrah before the baby is born. And we had to plan that around a trip. It was only like a couple of days. So we got like a couple of days and then that was in July. We went to uh this montage property uh in Palmetal Bluffs, which is like just outside of Savannah, kind of between Charleston and Savannah. Beautiful, but we only got like two days. And so I said, baby, your your your birthdays coming up in another month and we'll be on the West coast, and you've been wanting to go to this property in Santa Barbara. So let's make that the extension of the baby moon and your birthday. So even though we've had to cram it in, I've gotten to beat like out by the pool a couple of times on you know, we've had to do them all midweek days because we're on the road in the on the weekends. But um, it's the first year in like five since I've been in Nashville and in this kind of lifestyle that I've actually been like, whoa, I'm laying by a pool in the summertime. Are you a bully? I mean, I'd rather be at the ocean. Are you a beach guy? Yeah? I grew up five minutes from Huntington Beach, so, um, my parents we didn't even do boys and Girls club. They've dropped me off of the beach at eight o'clock in the morning, go to work. My mom would get off at three and come pick me back up. I'd either sir, or lay on the beach or you know, throw the football or whatever. I'd just be at the beach all day. So you were in surfing culture. Yeah, it was so bad at it though, really it's good of an athlete as you ended up being. Yeah, I think I don't know, Like sometimes as an adult, I wonder if I should go back and see again, because I was growing so rapidly while I was surfing. And you know, the culture where I grew up was you don't longboard your short board what that means. But I'll be honest, the big longboard like they right in Hawaii where they like they walked to the nose and they walked back, or the tiny little pointed short board, the belly board. They're very different. Like the short board is like they do all the acrobats surfing boards. They're both surf boards. You're talking about the one you boogieboard, that's what you're talking No, boogie boards weren't allowed where I came from. That was like out of our ocean. Yeah alright, but again that wasn't me. There were a lot of great surfers. I played baseball, basketball, football, football. I also surfed. Um, so I was outgrowing these short boards. It's very specific to your height, like they need to be able to carry your weight, and like, so I was growing so much. I would go from like this board is a little too big to like four months later, it's so too small for me that it's kind of sinking underneath me when I stand up. I just got kind of frustrated with it. And none of my friends wrote a big longboard that just kind of floats you no matter what you do, and you just cruise. You don't do tricks or anything. And so anyways, long story short, I'm like, I play three sports that I'm really good at, and uh, i'd like laying on the beach or body surfing without any sort of instrument or board, and uh, I just stopped surfing when body surfing just no, yeah, you just paddle into the way. Have you seen those guys you like paddle in and then you just kind of I never knew that was really a thing. Yeah, it's actually maybe you just surf like a I guess a boogie board. Everything is a boogie board in my head. Everything is a boogie board. That's like, that's a T shirt. Everything is a boogie board in my head. How tall are you? Six six? Really? Yeah? You know what's so funny? I bet you The people that work with me are so tired of this. But people always comment they walk into meet and greet and I don't know for whatever reason. I guess a picture is a picture, so you just don't notice it. But my meet and greets at every show consist of people going, WHOA, you're way taller than I thought. And so I started saying I had nothing to do with it because I didn't, And uh, it's it's just funny that, like I guess, I guess, people assume that you must not be I don't know what I mean tall. I'm TALLI ish I'm over six ft tall, would be about six to six through, like really tall, but then you're just abnormal and you're not just tall, you're also just like a big, strong guy. And so I think because your body is proportionate to six six that you look pretty normal size and pictures. That's a good thing. Yeah, and it's I don't even have long legs either. I have badly. Yeah, me and Manute, we don't have anything in common. Um, your parents big folks bang. My dad's six to my mom's five, So six six doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Um, But I kind of blame it on the guy was a glutton. I was kind of like a chunky kid. I kind of and and because I had a healthy appetite before I grew up, probably ate like all the pizza and all the steak and all the things. I mean, the hormones are hormones. We we do have way more hormone. We have way more hormones in our food than we used to back in the day. And I think I was a guy that like, if I could fit it in my mouth while I was still chewing, I was shoving it. But I was used to make a joke with girls. I'd be like, you know, I like you so much, You like being at a pizza party and not wanting to walk away from the pizza because you want to make sure you get full. Like I like you so much. You made me want to stand by the pizza. That was like a joke. I would have a girl in high school and like it never worked, by the way, but that was true. I was the fat kid that, like at a pizza party, would stand by the pizza until I was full, in fear that it would run out. When did you start to become I don't know, athletic shaped, Yes, the shape was. The athletic ability was there before the shape came or the high I got cut from eighth grade basketball and I played city my sophomore year two years later. So you developed that much in two years. Yeah, I think I think this is a guess. It's close. It might not be perfect. I think I was five nine or five ten in eighth grade but slow and overweight. Um, And I think I started freshman year six one, six two because I was six three sophomore year playing varsity. So yeah, I've sprouted and it wasn't even it was like awkward thinned out those two years. But it made me quicker because I wasn't carrying the weight right, So I was because we do a lot of our research here, a lot of heavy research, and we found all of your old stuff that you scrub from the internet. Oh no, I'm just kidding. We can't find any of it. It's there. We found a YouTube, Michael, do we find just a YouTube a live version, but otherwise they've taken your entire early discography off. Um, there's just a YouTube of fly because in two thousand seven you put out an EP. There's a YouTube of fly. Oh you didn't know it was still up. It's that's very old song. I recorded it on my flip cam. Did you really have we known each other that we have two thousands, but you're two thousand seven self title dps completely off the internet. Why is it? Think? No? I know, I think it's pretty normal for like, you know, I put out seven projects before I got my record deal. I was doing this for almost eleven years before I got my deal, and I think it's pretty normal now. At the time, I was like, why the same like you're asking. I think it's pretty normal for them to want to control the branding when they, you know, make an investment like they do whenever they signed an artist, and um no, I'm not. I'm proud of all of it. I think my songwriting was a lot weaker back then, but that's normal. That was I mean, that was two thousand and four, fifteen years ago. Yeah, it's crazy. Huh. Oh my gosh. When when I say it out loud, it's like I can't even believe that was happening. Then, well, what's kind of your story I'm getting here. So you're a California kid. Did you do the California just do all the shows in California and then finally decide I've just kind of exhausted this, I need to go. What was that for you? No, that's exactly it. Um. I I hit this weird um kind of ceiling where I was the only one of my friends that was making a living playing music. The problem was I was playing other people's songs and there were four hour cover gigs where I had to wear like a suit and tie to play this nice hotel lobby. And you at the beginning of it, you're like, you look around at your buddies and you're like, yeah, they're jealous because I'm making money playing music. And then you go, nothing about this is fulfilling anymore. Nobody's really listening. And even when they do care, it's because they liked that song that you didn't write and have nothing to do with, you know. And Uh I was I was playing Montage Beverly Hills every Wednesday night four hours eight and at night, and uh, I had to had to wear like dress clothes, you know. And Uh, this guy came through. Uh he's become one of my best friends. He was the best man at my wedding. He comes through and he's from Atlanta, but he's he's staying in the hotel and he hears it and he's just sold a company and he just turns around. He kind of goes, I have friends in Nashville. Why is this not connecting? Why like, why are you still here? Basically? And I just went, you know what, I don't know. I might be done with this. I've I've been doing this in l A for ten years. I've never had a meeting. I've I've watched Jimmy Ivan, who's living in the hotel at the time, walk back and forth in front of me multiple times every Wednesday night and never even stop and listen. So I don't know. Good question. I said, I think, I think I need to either change something or maybe it's money. Maybe I need to go make up studio record, like a real record. And he goes, well, I just sold a company. I know some people in Nashville. Why don't we Let's get you out to Nashville. Let's get you out. I was bar attending on my off nights. I was gigging about four nights a week, bartending the other three. He goes, let's get you out from behind the bar. Let's take those other three days a week for you to start writing songs more aggressively. And uh. Within a year he had me moved out to Nashville. And um, I got to Nashville and I got intimidated, like I think everybody does. I went, everybody here's incredible. What am I gonna do here? Even the people that haven't made it are incredible? Incredible? Walk down Broadway. It's not like one guy per bar. It's every bar has three floors. All of them have a stage, and every guy on every stage deserves to be on the radio, like who am I? And so I literally got here thinking I was coming here to make it. Once I got here, I went, nope, I want the writing side of this. I want to write for people. So I actually signed with song Pluggers to have my songs pitched to other people. I gave up on artistry within a couple of months of being here. I'd rather be the songwriter because this is intimidating. And then, uh, you know you pitched. You pitched to the labels and you you know who's cutting which artists needs songs, and they kept going, this is a good song, but who's the demos singer? And I ended up wanting to get cuts on other artists and ended up having walking into these rooms with my acoustic guitar by myself to play for all these record execs that I want to know who the demo singer was. So that's how it came about for you. As you were writing songs singing the demos, and so many people were attracted to that sound. They were like, Hey, we'd like to see who this guy is, which was which was the opposite of why that was why it didn't work in l A. You don't sound like anybody else. We don't know where to put you here. Then I get to Nashville and everybody's like you don't sound like anybody else. This is fantastic. I mean, it's just such a funny dichotomy because it's like I could have literally just stayed in l A forever and been told you, we can't, we don't know what box to fit you in, whereas in Nashville it was wow, this will this will stand out? How long from when you moved to town until when when you started to get considered as as an artist? Like when you're talking about these meetings, I had my first meeting, I had my first um who's singing the demo? Bring him in to sing for us? Meeting at about ten months of living in town, and my record deal within fourteen months of you move into town. Boy, that all moves pretty quick, that huh? If you and again when you it's always funny like looking back, that feels like a really long time ago, but that happened really fast. I mean I didn't even find those song pluggers for five or six months, and then four months with them and I'm having meetings and then you know, six more months or five more months or whatever it was. I've met with Jimmy Harnan six times, and now there's a deal offered but I'm I had my deal with Jimmy before, like Scott was out of town or Shadow was literally out of town, and went, Jimmy, you're wearing me out about this kid. I'm not back. But if you're that sure, I trust you, go ahead. So I'm actually didn't meet Scott until after Jimmy offered me the deal. That's how quick it moved when it happened. Was there a song that you ended up cutting for yourself? It was one of those songs you were pitching the people are like, Okay, what's this about? Like what what was one of those? Yeah? So I think there were. Actually I had three songs from the first record already before I got my deal, But the one that that if you asked Jimmy Harnon that got me signed, uh ended up being my third number one record. Um, it's a song called like I Loved You that I wrote with uh girlfriend of mine of town, Jesse Lee, and we wrote that. It was one of the first writes those song pluggers got me on to like try to be a songwriter, and uh, it wasn't. It wasn't the easiest write on the planet. It was you know, we heard and I had never met, and so you do a lot of you know how this goes like, you do a lot of feeling each other out before you actually get to work. And it ended up. You know, most writes are three four hours and this one was like a six and a half hour day. But I went in and with my investor that I had before I saw my deal, and we went in and did an EP of this song that we also was one of the ones we had to pull down. Like you said, all the old stuff's gone, because when I played an acoustic for Jimmy Harden, he still claims that's the song when he went, I can make a record on this kid. So you you recorded this song as a demo hoping that someone else will here it, don't pick it up after you cut it on your AP, but then you're kind of re pitching it. Yeah, the EP was just a means of I mean, nowadays with like downloads and streams and stuff, it was just another income stream. While we were trying to figure it out. We knew that if any song that ever got picked up by another artist to get cut, we would pull down. We I mean, I didn't have enough social media following to like it. Wasn't going to like make a mark on the industry. We could pull it down and everybody would forget about it. Um so yeah, I mean we were. We were still recording songs because why not have at the time, if you have an investor who's you know, risking money on you, you should have every I was college touring like crazy. I would I would fly out just me and my guitar or at the smallest cheapest car I could get and like Fargo and then play seven colleges in eight days and end up in North Carolina and then fly myself home. You would just drive the entire track. I would pick up one car and like I really I do remember the uh the Fargo trip that ended in North Carolina where I played seven shows in eight days, and I just you know, that's the cheapest way to do it. A cheap flight to Fargo, the tiniest car, and I'm again we just said I'm six six. It was like a Ford focus but like I don't fit in that, you know, that's that's that's lower back and hit pain every day. But I was I was so concerned with I've always been this way to like if anybody's like taking a chance on me. I want to make sure that I'm respecting what they're investing, and so, um, you know that was part of making these EPs. At the time, Like I said, we had already tried to transfer over to the songwriting side of things. But if you have a song that you think we'll sell or stream, might as well have an income stream there. We called it turning on all the faucets, right and hopefully you get some water from somewhere. Yeah, that's it. I I have other um friends that had people when when they were broke, invest in them and go, hey, let me help you out here. Let's get starready. Are you still is that guess still part of the Brett Young enterprise? Yeah? I mean don't know if if you heard what just happened with my clothing company. But um, when I signed my record deal, I also signed a publishing deal with Big Machine. And part of what you have to do is, um, when you go from owning your publishing to going into a copub deal, Um, you can't. You can't keep the same publishing name. So I had like whatever it was, Brett Young Publishing or whatever, Um, you need to come up with a new name to go into a joint venture for publishing, and so I came up with this name, Caliville Um from California to Nashville. Yeah, that's it, and and that's all it was. But then I kept seeing it on contracts as we were doing stuff, and I was like, that's just a really cool thing. And I had this buddy that was you know, I had a company where he was making hats and t shirts and sweatshirts, and I was like, hey, you want to just throw this on some hats. See what happens. We started putting it on hats and before we could put it on sale there we're getting stolen off people's heads in bars in Nashville. Well, just a couple of weeks ago we announced that, like we're we just got bought out by Coals. So we're starting on October like there the exclusive retailer for Caliville in the country. And uh, you know my investor that, like I said, he became best man at my wedding. Like he we've since him and I are whole on his initial investment. Is that right? Yeah? Praise God? Um, you know, and he was. He he was so gracious about how long it took because it took a minute. Um, but yeah, he's my business partner on Caliville. So um, he's somebody that, like I said, went from somebody that just kind of believed in it and wanted to help to being you know, one of my best friends and the best man in my wedding and so um yeah, well, I mean we'll be we'll be tied together in business and in friendship for a really long time. How's that going by? By the wedding and you're about to have a baby? Huh, it's so close? When is that? Yeah? Right, like it's in the next couple of weeks. No, no, no, don't rush me, Bobby, go ahead. We're we're middle of October. So I got about two months. And how do you feeling about that? Man? I'm so excited? Are you ready though? Or are you you're anxious? What's the one? Have you got one feeling? You know? I am? I'm ready and excited. Um. I guess like if if there was a because I'm not I'm not nervous, but if if I'm being honest, the one concern that pops into my head every once in a while is just that like both me and my wife had the best example set by both of our sets of parents. Just we neither of us would have changed anything about our upbringing or our parents. And that's a blessing. Not everybody can say that, and we both know that, and so the bar is set very high for us in both of our heads. And so, um, this is a This is a strange industry to raise a child in, and I know people are successful in it on a regular basis. A lot of my friends are doing an amazing job raising children and bringing them on the road, and um, I just want them to I want to make sure I do everything I can to make sure that they have an experience like I did, even though our lifestyle is so different than mine was growing up. So, oh yeah, baby, it's about just complete. You should see how pink my house is. And it's a girl. It is a little girl. Have you have you announced the name yet? No, we don't know yet. Have you had a limited down of you? Yeah, we're really close. I think we're down to three. And where did you get these names? You don't have to reveal that it's a combination of like it's one of Calieville, one of the names of the Can you imagine? Yeah, can you imagine we did be like, was it was I first? Or was the brand first? Um? No, it's a collection of um, working off of like family names that have been around for a little while. UM, but also just um like something fresh and different that we don't think it's out there yet. UM. But I think in all honesty, I think it's three. It might be too. We might have we might have checked another one off the other day. UM, but I don't know that, like anything's off the table. And I think we're to the place now where we're so close that we want to look at her first. You know, she might not get her name until we see her. At this point. It's a little calisi. We'll only get the name once you put eyes on her. I wonder run through some of your songs sleep without You, There you go. You have five number ones in a row, but this the first one. This is the first one justin Ebach and Kelly Archer on this home. So this is what's an expectation for you With the first single they're going on, we're gonna put this song out? Is it number one or bust? For me? It was I would have never said that out loud. I think I always like knock on Wood or you know, with stuff like that. It's like I joke with people all the time. It's like, if you put something out there that's almost the same as like leaving l a X. You've just arrived in Los Angeles on a Friday at like four thirty pm and you pull out of L a X and you go, oh, there's no traffic. You've just asked for traffic, Like pretty much, you've just doomed yourself to traffic. Um. And so I kind of feel the same way about stuff like that. It's like, hey, it's really moving up the charts. I'll be like, knock on Wood, don't say that just you know. Um. But but yeah, I think at my age and and with the fact that I wasn't really pursuing the artist career anymore, I thought, you know, if if this is something's going to happen, um, let's let's start it off with the bank so that I can, you know, really wrap my head around where this thing is going. And it and it did. And it was a song that I had written about my parents relationship. UM, so it was personal to me. So it lit a fire in me when this song started having success. Um, that enabled me to not just get excited again about being an artist, but like get passionate about it. Did you take the song and play for your parents before you put it out? Like kay, I wrote this for you guys, know you know what's so funny? For whatever reason, I wanted to keep the story behind it, kind of because if it didn't do well, I didn't want anybody to feel like, hey, the song about you like tanked you know. Um so they probably the first time they heard that this was about And I don't know if you've heard me tell the story, but literally was this one night my dad's a pastor, and uh, there was this one night in high school. Um, I walked in at curfew, which was like for me, it was midnight on game days, so like probably if it was probably a Friday night basketball game. I'm sure it was because my mom was away for a women's retreat for the weekend, but my dad went to bed. Like growing up, I walk in at my curfew, probably a little early. Like you said, I'm punctual, and my dad's sitting in his bathrobe and the reclinent are watching Sports Center. Well, if you know Sports Center, you know that program runs for an hour and then starts over, Well, if my dad goes to bed at like he's been watching that episode over and over since nine. So I walk in and I'm like, Dad, what are you doing up? And he goes, it's just weird. You know, after at the time x amount of years, probably at the time married for twenty years. After twenty years of being married to your mom, is still hard to sleep in our bed when she's not here. And that that that memory never left me. So when we started the title sleep Without You didn't come from that, but once we had that title brought me back to that. So I was inspired by that moment that I remember from being eighteen years old and a senior in high school. So yeah, it turned into it turned into this thing that was, uh, you know, kind of the song that kicked things off. What a good story, and I like that I hadn't heard that before. Really, Yeah, I mean I think they didn't. I don't think my dad knew that that resonated the way that it did. And again I was eighteen then and I wrote this song at thirty one, So I mean it was years and years later where that popped up. That was obviously something that stuck with me. All right, here's the next one in case you didn't know, Case you didn't know, baby, is this the one that's thing allowed us to you and shows back? Yeah, because if I were on the show, I'll be saying this one allowed us back to you. It is, Yeah, it is, it is. It's top three. Um, before Mercy, it was definitely the loudest, and we have this kind of interesting cultic thing happening with the post chorus on here tonight right now. Um, they don't sing it, they kind of scream it, so it gets pretty loud. But um, I think this is the one that makes people feel the most. Um. This is when the flashlights or lighters come out. This is when like I noticed, like, I'll look in a guy, I'll grab a girl to slow dance, and I'll be like, the only reason he's even at my show right now was for this moment to slow dance. He bought her this ticket to dance with her like he might be proposing tonight he might not, but like he he knew he was black picking this moment. Um. I think it is the the most intimate, tender moment of the set every night. Where do you put this song on the set list right in the middle. Oh yeah, you're not going anywhere, You're You're at least wait until the middle, like I love do. We talked about that a little bit. Let's play this again, so you go, it's just you just who you write this song? Yeah, just me and Jesse Lee. Yeah, made a little kid, Little cash. Yeah, that was a good That was a good one on the writer publish. Yeah. And when I hear uh, he's just a co ride or a single, I'm like, oh boy, he did all right on that one. Yeah. That was that was That was and and and and I think her second number one. She had just had Peter Pan with Kelsey Ballerini right before that. Um yeah, we like I'm I'm always the passionate one in the room. When something comes up that I have feelings about, I get real fired up. And this whole idea of like somebody being able to break up with you and then still want to be your friends came up in conversation. And again it was the first time we met man she got pissed like Jesse was fired up, and I went, I actually don't think I've ever seen somebody more passionate in the writer's room than me. So that is definitely the song we have to write. And we were already four hours in think when we were going to call it a day, and it fell out in like an hour and a half. So were you working on a song already and this is an idea that hit you pivoted? Yeah, we were working on like fifteen that weren't working out at that point. Right. Um, it went from like get to know you to try to write a song to back to just get to know you some more. And it came out in conversation. But when I saw her get fired up, I was like, let's tap into that. Whatever that is. Let's and it's I mean it is. It's an angry song and that's what they get to know you parted. You're kind of milking You're kind of milking it to see when does the milk actually come out? Where do we connect? Yeah, like that's that, that's the moment. That's cool, Mercy, Let's do this one. That was another two way right, Yeah, you and Sean McConnell. Well he is good. Huh. Like if you've never gone to a Sean McConnell show, um, you're missing out. He is good. And and writing and performing like just just I'm a fan of that guy. Incredible. UM, just me and Sean. And at the time, he was writing for Warner and I went over there and they had forgotten to hold a room for us. So I show up and they're like, well, we got the rooftop and you know, they got that open air rooftop over at Warner and it was mid supper and it was so hot and there's wasps flying around because all their furniture out there is wood, and I'm like, and I'm already a big fan of him in his artistry and um. At the time, the label was asking for tempo because we were ready to close the record. They just wanted more up tempo and I told you on that it was basically like, I don't really care about that. And that was the first time we met, too, and it was it was I get to know you, and it wasn't even a concept. I just said the word mercy and he goes, I'd love to chase that down and he just started playing do you do you play on keys? Or do you are you playing with the guitar? And you just him and an acoustic I had put my down at that point because we were just talking and he just started strumming through this chord progression and he started Sean's so good at everything, but he like leans on these melodies, and he started kind of humming along to that, and we just started plugging words into it. I mean, it was like most of what he was doing initially instinctively ended up being the music and melody behind mercy. You know, that's an interesting thing too, that people may not know what the songwriting like. I have some friends that are they will build a melody and then plug words, and some people that will go with lyrics and kind of string them together and build a melody afterward. Um. Like I've been able to spend some time when it called Galley and and and she'll build She'll bout a melody, She'll here's the music, and just be like why would U? Then you just I've never been around someone who is so good at that. And you mentioned that, are you a melody guy where you make a melody over music and then insert of words later or wire you going to go out these are my words? I'm I'm a words guy. Um. The story and the lyric is paramount to me, um, which is why I pick my co writers to compliment that in me, I pick music and melody people, right, Um, it's right. If you look at track listing on both records, you're gonna see John Knight all over the place because melodically like, what he does is not only fantastic, but it's it's what I it. It follows all the things that I would do or wish I would do, or it sounds like the music I would listen to as a music fan. I mean, he just I've taken on two albums combined, I've taken four outside songs, and he's been a writer around all four of them. Um. And then I mean he has He's a writer on seven of the twelve songs on my new record. Um. So, if I can find somebody and John's also a great lyricist, but I gravitate towards his melodic inclinations and so it's all words for me. If I can find somebody with a great melody and somebody that they pair well with music, let me what do they call it in l A top lining, Give me the track and let me write words to it. Um, that's where I think, that's where I'm the best. But but in this town that everybody has different skill sets, and and sometimes you gotta pivot and kind of figure out where you where you fit in and and and I think I'm I think I'm pretty good at reading the room and where I'm actually gonna have strengths and weaknesses. But in a perfect world, if I got a meloy guy and a music guy and you just let me kind of stick to the lyric, That's when I'm the happiest. Let's do one more here tonight. We can just say what's your what song you close? They used to be here tonight? We just because we've been playing a lot more headlining shows lately. Um, we moved here tonight to the end of the regulation and then we walk off stage, and then we come back and encore UM, and we encore with Mercy and Ticket to l A the title track. UM. Only because the way that we uh, the way that we finish here tonight is kind of like a it's kind of an unresolved, like kind of trash candy on the drums type thing, whereas Ticket to l A. When we finished, we've like we've reintro the outro, so like we I finished the song and then the band rips back into the intro while I walk off, so it's kind of a little more dramatic exit. Um. But yeah, up until about two weeks ago, we were finishing with here Tonight, um and and for the first two years we were finishing with Sleep Without You with an extra outro for me to walk off too. So I think I mean, for us, it changes. You know. One of the best feelings is having multiple singles now because you build your show around your singles. You know, you don't want anybody to go anywhere, so you kind of spread them out. Um. And we finally got to a place where we were like, we can put Sleep Without You earlier in the set finally, which is gonna be pretty cool too, to be able to put some more heat up and all through the set. It feels great. People are just waiting for the big hit, like you got a bunch of big hits, so we got you. Yeah, it's it's that that's that is a I remember being jealous of everybody I opened for at the beginning of like, you know, the first year or two, I'd be like, man, I recognize every song you play in your set. That must feel great, you know, to not have to fill half of it with covers, just so people know what you're singing. And we're to a place now where I mean we could if we have a half hour set. We just you know, we just did c M A fest recently. Six songs, well, I have six singles. It was the best feeling on the planet. I played all radio singles for thirty minutes. It was incredible feeling. And uh and yeah, when you have an hour fifteen hour and a half, you have to kind of strategically spread them out. But it's been cool. We I mean, we start with catch my current radio single, dark Stage. We start, we just rip into the first single and it's like we used to have to kind of wait to tease those in. Now it's like, no, let's go for it, you know. And it's I think for everybody, make them wait, but make don't make them wait at the beginning, and don't make them wait. Don't don't make them like left wanting at the end, at least not too much. And uh and yeah, so it's been great. I hired a really close friend of mine who's my music director now, who's really conscious of not only spreading the singles out, but also like that you know the way the energy moves in the set and key changes and things that I don't think about it at all because so you let your music doctor build a step for you. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean I mean I have veto power, but he I mean he knows me so well and for so many years veto powered. I don't never have to pull it. I'll just be like, hey, is there anyway this is all perfect? But it's seventeen songs. Could like, could you flip these two and still make it work? And sometimes you can't. Sometimes you can't, but it's always like a collaborative conversation, which I really appreciate. Let's play a little bit of catch. This is the single right now, cat game the same I was watching because we had the same PR team and I was watching, Um, you want a Christie your time? I mean Christie but both ye so Christie me too. Christie had on hers I think you had like blown your voice and I she posted it and I was like, oh man, I've been there, Like that's that's that most helpless feeling and she was like, yeah, he's bombed, Like yeah, it's it's It's a bumming thing when what you're paid to do and what everybody couldn't you can't do it? It was I was broken hearted. We were um out with Kelsey Ballerini and it was the second till last weekend, and I had an amazing sound check and then after sound check, I went and worked out and like my normal daily routine and uh, I even sat down an hour before the show with my music director, who I was just talking about to like run through We had an idea for a um A cover medley of a bunch of songs that we were running through, which we're doing in the show. Now, Voice felt great. Now we're like forty minutes from showtime. Voice was feeling great, had a good workout, had a great day. I went and showered up, got chained, and I sat down in the front lounge of my bus. And now we're like maybe twenty minutes from the show and my wife walks out of the back and asked me a question. I went to answer it and it was like this like gravelly um scratchy voice that because you were just talking and it was yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't that I have to clear my throat thing. It was the weird I've never felt. It has to be allergies. Still, I thought I was so sick. I was like, what happened? Did I blow out a vocal cord? Like this is I've never and I was like, you know what, I've been through this before. I grabbed out my little like uh my inhaler like the steam and haler thing like, let me just hit this real quick, It's gonna be all right. Did the normal like lemon, honey whiskey, took a quick shot before I went out, and like I'm gonna be all right. And I went out to sing and we opened with catch and I literally couldn't you know what's bad when you can't reach the key of the verse. I wasn't even in the chorus yet, and I had to stop the music and apologize everybody and be like, guys, this happened in this transpired in twenty minutes. I have no idea but it and it didn't come back for three days, but it came all the way back and it's never happened since. So that night were you it was you were playing second? Right? So did Kelsey come on early? Did she play actually? Put they pushed her set up earlier? Yeah, and she rocked it and I The first thing I did was go to my booking agency and go, guys, um, I know that I know. If I know financially we're going to take the hit here, that's fine. I don't care about that. UM. We need to find out which fans are like, you know, raising a stink about this and let them know straight up their ticket will be honored, and we need to put together some sort of show or free show or whatever it is um back in that city. And uh. And so I think we've got a couple of days held for that. I mean, it was just it was just months ago. So that's pretty reason. It just popped in my head think about because I was watching that Answer story and I was like, oh man, I've been that where you don't know what's coming and it hits you and you have nothing you can do. I was literally like fighting back tears when I got back on my bus, because you don't never like, I've never once taken for granted or it's never been lost on me that people spend their money and and and you know, build their whole weekend around these shows, and it's important to them, and it's it's it's never lost on me and that's the only time I've ever had I've never had to cancel the show. Is that but alone walk off in the middle of a song in an arena and um, and it just breaks my heart. Like it will be made up. I hope everybody that was there is listening right now. We're gonna make that up. But it sucked. I'm gonna read this, tell me if this is true or not. UM. When you pitch for Calvary Chapel Highs baseball team your senior year, you had uh point nine O, E, R, A and D strikeouts point nine one and a hundred and thirty three strikeouts For those that don't know, that's less than one run of game. Basically, when you went up there were some game do you give gave up? No runs like that? Not even one earned run a game. How many endings you're throwing in high school? A game seven? I was so I was fifteen and oh that year geez, we only played twenty nine games and I was fifteen, So they were strategically trying to play shoot in as many games as possible. I was starting in the playoffs. I started both games every week, but I just we we would beat teams, so bad that I would only pitch five innings and you can pitch ten a week, even though you only play seven in high school baseball. So I'd pitched ten and then we'd pull me. I'm sorry, I pitched five and then we pulled me. Or I pitched five and mercy rule mercy. That's it. That's actually about So are you left handed? Right handed? Right handed? Wow? You were that dominant as a right handed pick I was throwing low nineties and I was my height and weight as a senior in high school. Um, yeah, I mean I think I think the stat is that it was a hundred and thirty three strikeouts and one walks, which, yeah, it was like just under eight. Good god, it was like one point seven strikeouts an inning or one point six strikeouts an inning. That's that's an insane ratio. We were, but I mean, like to be fair, Um, we were. We were like ridiculously dominant. We were twenty eight and one that year, small private school with a D fifty kids I'm sorry, six hundred kids, hundred fifty per grade. Um, but we were seventeenth in the United States, and six guys went on to play Division one baseball in Southern California. They well, in California, they break up state playoffs into what they call c IF because the state is so big they have to break it up. So in southern sections c IF UM we won UM. Over the course of five games, we outscored our opponents fifty one and the one run was unearned. Our left fielder dropped a fly ball. We didn't give up an earned run in c IF that did you guys win the state championship, So it doesn't They don't do that in basketball in California. If you win c i F, you go on to state. But in base now, so we won c i F, but there isn't a graduation to state unless unless you're in Division one, and we were like in Division five, Double A because it's a small school, so there's no We went as far as you can go at that. We won the final game twelve to nothing. So you go to play ball at All Miss and how are you feeling going into a freshman year? Excited? I mean, um, I got a great scholarship. It's in my opinions, I still think it's the best baseball conference in college baseball. UM. And uh, you know, by the time we got to conference play. I was our Saturday starter, which is the number two starter as a freshman, which is fantastic. Um, but I had I had a little shoulder trouble. Um. I won my first two starts. I beat actually my first conference start with Vandy. I beat Vandy UM in Oxford. And then the next week we went to Kentucky and I beat Kentucky. So I'm two and owen conference starting on Saturdays as a freshman, which is you know, felt pretty good because we were having a pretty average year. You know, the win in Kentucky, I was the only one that got to win our Friday night guy understand that I both lost, Yeah and uh, and so I'm feeling pretty good. And then the third week, we had l s U at our place and I got knocked around a little bit. It wasn't that bad, but I think I ended up losing eight to six. Um. And then the following week I was at Mississippi State. If anybody's ever seen a baseball game there, they're like grilling out in the outfield. Yeah, they let him park like like when Ebagos in the freaking outfield. It's the craziest cowbell for baseball games, are they? I don't know if they're doing it in this Yeah they do in the stadium too, Yes, boy, they do have football games. Yeah, oh yeah, there and there. It's remarkable because so I'm the Saturday starter. I got knocked out in the first inning, like I didn't if I remember right, it went. I walked the first hitter, the next guy, I hit the next guy by the pitch, so it's first and second. The next guy gets a base hit, one run scores, and it's first and third, and I walked the next guy to load them. So I've only given up one run, but I have no outs in the bases loaded, and they pulled me. And that also all those on runs of yours too, by the way, they're on the basis, Yeah, and all of them scored. They ended up getting six in the first inning. I was charged for four. Ye so um. When I was warming up for that game, I was getting heckled like crazy. Mrs Mississippi State fans are. I mean, that's a big right. And the bullpen they're like out there grilling and they're like throwing hot dogs at me and stuff like they're they're pretty they're pretty ruthless. But and then Sunday the next day because I didn't throw very many pitches, they put me out, like, got me loose in the bullpen. We were losing again on Sunday, and they all love me now because they like I gave up all those runs. So I go out there to warm up. They don't know that I'm going, They just see me walk out there. And I went from the day before they're throwing hot dogs at me to this day they've got like freshly barbecued ribs that they're handing me to eat. It was the most interesting experience. But um so I won my first two conference starts, and then I lost the next two, and I I got two relief appearances for in the next two months, I barely pitched again. It was like they gave up on me. Was it like the team or where was your shoulder bothering you? My shoulder was bothering me, and I was disagreeing with my pitching coach, a lock. I think my shoulder was bothering me because he's you know, I've pitched the same way for years and years and years, and he was trying to change mechanics and it was uncomfortable. And this is not a blame game. Um, I just think that the combination of everything that was going on was a bad combo. And uh, you know, I bounced after that year. I just missed California anyway, as aout eighteen years old. I grew up at the beach now in Oxford, Mississippi. And it's the It's the one thing. And if you if you follow what I do now, you see how much I talk about Oxford and how much I talk about All Miss. It's my one regret. I went to five schools counting Ole Miss. It's the one place I wish I would have stayed. I don't. I think regret is like a worthless emotion. I don't like it. Um. I think if you made a decision own it, you're supposed to be where you are now. Um, I wish I would have stayed and finished it Ole Miss. Yeah, I had no idea. So I knew you played ball. I had no idea that you were that freaking dominant as a high school player. I mean, that's super elite level stuff there. Yeah it was. I mean the Twins and the Devil Rays called my senior year. Um, it's called like a they call it a pre draft selection. Basically, there they have this window before the draft where they're able to call and and get a feel for you know that the questions are like, hey, if we took you in the sixth round for X amount of money, would because they knew I was already signed the letter of intent to illness, so they know what they're negotiating against. Yeah, and you know, it just didn't feel I'm throwing low nineties. I'm fifteen and no point nine one r a hundred let Orange County and everything that you're in. Orange County had like Modern Day and Survey and all these huge teams, and I'm going, no, you're low balling me. Because I went to a small private school, it doesn't make sense to take the money. So I did what I thought was the respectful thing. I told them both not to waste to pick and they didn't, so I didn't get drafted. Um. And the word definitely gets around when you say that to a couple of people, like don't don't waste your money, don't used to pick um and you know, hindsight, But like I said, I don't regret that. I think that was the right decision. The one thing I do kind of regret is that if I wanted to play baseball for a couple of years. I should have probably stated at all, miss, do you ever throw the ball? Now? Yeah? I got after the elbow surgery, Um, I got pretty healthy. I was playing in a men's league in Orange County. I was living in l A and driving down every Saturday to pitch. Were you a ringer in the men's league? Yeah? I was. I was running it back up even though I wasn't working out my arm or like playing long coss or throwing during the week. I was running it up to like hi eighties, low nineties, which in a men's league is a lot. And the last, the last game I threw, and my elbow was pretty sore. After this, I end up throwing a like a nine inning complete game shot out in a men's league. But when you don't work out and you're not like in that kind of shape, my arm was like hanging off my side for like a week. But but yeah, I mean it was I had just learned a slider before I hurt myself. It wasn't a pitch I used to have, and it just became this dominant, untouchable pitch, and so it was fun to to bring that back to the men's league, at least for a minute. There's a story out about the songwriter named Steve Ronson. Don't know if you saw this. He's taking Lady Gaga out of court over Shallow and this is a three note progression that he says. It's only three notes that he says that she took from him. Okay, so I want to play these for you. Your thoughts on this. So Ronson has accused Gaga of stealing again a three note progression from his song almost for the song Shallow. Now, they're gonna sound similar. But my question is going to be to you after you hear that here it is three notes enough to sue over this vocal melody, music music melody, Right, Okay, I'm gonna play on for they are going to sound similar, and and my care we go play me almost from Steve Ronson, play me Shallow. I think we'll agree that that they do. So he's over. H'm fully, yes, that's it. We're gonna agree that they do sound the same. But it's the only three notes. You didn't. She didn't invent that progression. That was my point too. If it were seven, can we even prove she's ever heard that song. I've never heard that song. No one has only like six thousand lessons until her played again. Mike, this is okay, and here's Lady Gaga again. What do you think about this dude's suing for three notes? Well, I don't like I don't like lawsuits anyways. Um, even if you have grounds, um, but don't we have a rule that says is it seven notes? Seven is the understood rule. So you're gonna you're gonna cut that more than in a half and go after it with a song that, um, you know, just hey, if you're gonna go reuse your melody that you can prove you own and a song that people want to listen to, Like, like, that's the dumbest thing. I just don't like it. I don't like And this is like gonna go back to like kind of my upbringing, my religious beliefs. But like, I don't like the lawsuit thing at all. Like just just if if you come into a riff with somebody like that that's in your life, cut them out of your life, but like to take it to court to blow somebody's life up over it. I don't like that. I just don't like it. It's not. It's not. I don't think that's part of our creative calling. Now they don't know each other, all right, Okay, so I'm saying, what if, uh, some new artists puts a song out and there's eleven notes and it sounds like freaking in case you didn't know, and it's like I just spought me a boat boy. I'm going fishing, babe. But you're gonna see him, right, you know what? There I think there's a So to answer your question, yeah, there is a limit, and I think there is a thing. Um, but I still don't lawsuit. Um who was it? Recently? Was it Jake that just gave songwriting credit Jack and Diane? So to who? Because because uh, not to John Mellencamp because he was in on it initially and immediately, Yeah, he had to give someone else. I think so he didn't know. But I think that's what we should do. If if you accidentally step on something, you should go wow, I totally didn't mean to, but would you take x percent? And that is happening with some artists. That's how like why the lawsuit? Hey you kind of grabbed this. Now if he did that and she was like not sorry, won't give you five percent? Well, then she can go to court. But I think like there's there's some sort of mediation. I think where you can split up the songwriting or the publishing or however it has to look to make it way easier than a lawsuit. I just don't like that. I'm not sure if he approached her to go, hey, give me nine percent or seven percent, So I'm not sure. All I know is that it has gone to court. And I wondered your thoughts on three knows. I don't think that's enough, and I don't and that's this like very like I would naturally go to that escalating progression anyways, if those were the chords, she followed the chords in this song. So no, that's literally like what if what if my songwriting buddy played those three on the piano and I heard it, I went, that's dope, let's write to that. Would I be stealing from Mark Ronson? I would say no, because it's only three notes. It's like chord progressions. There's only so many chord progressions. There's no new ones. That's it. And so you're going to and now I'll equate this in my mind, I write Jokes until Jokes is a comedian. Sometimes I have like minded thoughts as people because we have like minds and we're seeing the same things. Same thing with music, You're not only are the songs some of the ideas similar, but again, there are only so many ways to to to play a song. So my question would be, um, and there's no way to know this, but to him, do you actually think she heard your song and stole it? Are you just looking for a pay day? What are you doing? And that? I don't know, Mike, Let's get him on, say we get this guy. Let me ask you this. What is making clean country music mean? Man? That's kind of been something that I've tried to keep a part of my brand from the very beginning. I think, Um, I've always I've you probably heard me say this. Um. If there's a thirty five year old mom with a twelve year old daughter and they're both fans of my music, I don't want anything to occur in on my record, in my songs or at my live show that makes that mom uncomfortable bringing her daughter out for a mother daughter and I at a Brett Young concert. I don't think that there's anything that we need to say that requires any sort of PG thirteen plus rating to get our point across. And and and if we need that, maybe we should become better songwriters. And again that's not a knock on songwriters that say the stuff that that's their brand. They're they're chasing down a different brand, and I'm fine with that. Um I've just always want to keep mine accessible to everybody. And I don't see really see the need to offend or make people uncomfortable in order to go have fun and listen to the country music. Is butt hole a bad word? Is it a bad word? No? It does? Like should I say that on stage? Probably not? And there's no way you can make this sound good in the song. A lot of your songs were written about your girlfriend now wife. Um So, she was on the Get Real podcast with Caroline Hobby and this is her talking or if you heard this clip, she talks about how you and her broke up and you'd been dated six years already, and now I would like to play this and get your response to your wife talking about this. Go ahead. He actually messaged me on Facebook and said, hey, you know, I know your roommate is Alexa, and he's like I'd love to get together. And I'm like, so I went back to my roommate and I'm like, Okay, tell me about this guy. I know you've mentioned him. And that was before he was right young. He was just doing probably like little work demos. Oh yeah, it was. It was like my Space, like playing my Space music. Face. Yeah. So apparently so you you guys break up and then she has to hear you on the radio, she says, and then you get how do you get back together? So yeah, we were so that that clip, by the way, was how we met. Initially, Um I saw her in pictures with a girl I knew from Newport Beach. They were like college roommates, and I happened to be living in Arizona at the time. So I saw this girl that I knew, and I think she's right. It might have even been my space. Um I saw and I was like, WHOA, who is this? Who is her roommate? And I I was like the O G sliding into her d M S. That's how we met. But yeah, we were together for six years and and the sixth year of that was the first year I lived in Nashville. And then it just was like the distance, and the whole thing kind of got in the way. Um, So we were apart for two years and and and we were both dating other people and we were not in contact at all, and my relationship went south and it felt like the same way me and Taylor like went south. And I had this like kind of a bout of like insecurity or self realization where I was like, am I doing this? Because this is blowing up the same way me and Taylor blew up? Am I the problem? And so I reached out to Taylor, not to reconnect that way, just to be like, hey, do you have a second, because I need to like get introspective here and look at myself and figure out if I'm gonna forever like sabotage all my relationships. I need to know if it's me. And that conversation that should have been a quick like yeah, Brett, you're terrible or or no, bread it's not you at all turned into like two hours on the phone, and it turned into I miss you, and I like it feels like I talked to you yesterday and it's been two years, and it you know, it was it was slow because um, out of respect, I had just broken up with somebody and she was in a relationship, and so we didn't go into like this. We didn't like start this immediate relationship. Um, we had some stuff to figure out. But it was this strange thing of we haven't spoken in two years and hearing your voice like feels like home. And how when you launched onto the scene. How how confusing was having the same name as another Brett in country music that's around the same age, that's both good looking, both tall guys, both both vocalists. Like, how confusing was that for you? I mean it wasn't. I don't think that's that confusing. Brett's not that rare of his name, is it? I mean, how many? But how many are there that there's You guys are very similar in if you're looking from ten thousand feet up, good looking guys, great singers. Oh yeah, we have a lot of similarities. Yeah do you ever did you ever get called Brett Eldridge accidentally all the time? All the time? I got? I actually got So you'll enjoy this. The very first c m A Awards that I went to, I went to the after party it winners and losers, and I'm I don't have a single out yet I've just signed my deal and Brett Eldridge and Chris Young are standing there talking to each other, and I just think I'm hilarious, and I walk up to and I'm like, dudes, I'm Brett, so good to meet you. I had this idea we should all go on tour together and call it to Brett Young Tour. Like, to me, I'm Brett Young, you're Brett Elder, You're Chris Young, the bret to this sounds like a really funny joke. They both looked straight through me like I was, and I'm buddies with both of them now. I mean this is five years ago, but um, I got a lot of Brett Eldridge tags on social media, and I also got a lot of private messages about people going, what was it like growing up with your brother Chris? I mean, me and Chris laugh about that all the time too, because we're like, you just assumed and went straight to the like not are you brothers straight to the what was it like growing up together? And you guys that's a pretty common name too Young. Yeah, I mean it's yeah, but no, I think, um again, it's flattering even though people are just making a mistake. It's flattering to be confused with either of them, because they're two of my favorite voices in our in our genre. Alright, instead of a last mill, you offered a last song to listen to before it's all over. You get one song? What's your song? Man? That's a tough question, you know what. I sang this at my cousin's grandma's funeral, and I was so close to her, um growing up. It was almost like another Grandma for me. Um. But if you got have you ever seen the movie they did on Mercy me Um, it's called I can only imagine, Yeah, I can only imagine. I think that's one more time you're saying that at the wedding, yeah or no at her yeah? And and and uh that's so. I think that's the only time I've ever been so choked up that I was hard to get through. My eyes were seeing when your face. Well, I bet that was tough to sing out a funeral, sitting next to her. Get to sing at a funeral, Yeah, but it was for family. I mean it was an that's tough. I mean fifteen people there, and I wasn't I'm obviously not going to say no to the family, all your friends hit you up to sing at weddings. Yeah, like, hey, I'm getting married, I'm doing this becau when you come sing Yeah yeah. In case you didn't know, it was kind of put that on. I played a little bit. Uh, but I love that. Like, what's cooler than having a song that people want to attach to the biggest, most important, special day of their life. I mean, obviously we're busy. We I can't just go play everybody. I don't want to turn into a wedding singer. But but yeah, I think that's what I mean. That song every single summer has spiked again because its wedding season and people are people are using it again. So um yeah, we get that request a lot, and I've done it a handful of times when I've been able to. But um, more than anything, it's just flattering that it's that song speaks to people so much that it's a part of their wedding day. Have you made any sink money yet commercials take a song? You know? That's a good question. I don't. I think that We've had a handful of offers for it that have been like pretty small, and we're kind of precious about that. Song, So I don't. I don't think we've gone there quite yet. What's the most expensive thing you've ever held in your hands? You didn't say valuable, So you're talking about money? Yeah, expensive in your in your mind? What's the most expensive thing you're gonna wrap upon a few of these questions here? That's actually pretty hard. Um. I held a hundred and sixty thousand dollar watch one time. It was my buddy owned it. You have a friend that owns a hundred Yeah. It was like it was already an expensive wash and then it was custom done in the whole face was covered in diamonds. I'm beautiful. I would never feel comfortable walking around wearing it because I'd be looking over my shoulder the whole time. But I held it. What is your favorite quote? If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. It's a good one. If your life is a movie, at what point will the audience gasp most loudly? Ah, you would have been baseball when I hurt myself up until life changed so much five years ago. I think when Taylor came back into my life, that's why I like, oh gasp, yeah, back like Jim and Pan Finally, I didn't see that happening. Your ideal sleeping conditions cold. Yeah, me too. I hate to be hot. I'll sleep. How is she? How's our sleeping? She's luckily, she's always cold any other situation, but in bed she wants to be cold in bed at night. So it's like we fight over the A C. During the day in the house, but then the second we get in bed, we both wanted cold. So it's good. Sleeping is good. Listen, I'm glad you came Bay. We've done an hour. We've done an hour felt like ten minutes. It felt like five minutes. Thank you very much. Do you remember I think one of the first times I think we had met, maybe briefly, but I was doing a show in Boston. Yeah. I came in saying let's get it on. That's right. Yeah. I was what was the name of that venue with the Wilber the Wilber Hip, and I was staying at the w right next door. Yeah, I was on radio tour. You and Jimmy came over and I was like, dude, come out, and you came out and crushed it. That was fun. I was doing half comedy, half music, and yeah, you came and annihilated it, and you were so much taller and to move my mic up and I was like, that's awesome, but I hate him, but it's awesome. That was so fun, man, Yeah, it was. That was so early in my radio tour that not only Jimmy Hardin but also Matthew Hargis were both out with me. Like they didn't send regionals. They came strang home for radio tour and we Yeah, that was a blast, man. That was That was That was probably five years ago. It's a while. Yeah, it's a while. We'll look at you. You got five number ones in a row, got you six on the way, got a baby coming, You're still tall? What else do you need? I hope I'm not shrinking yet. Holy yeah, unless I'm glad you came by. Man. I was looking forward to this. Always a pleasure. And your what is your Instagram? You don't have bright, bright young straight music. That's what I thought. I know it was something other than just Brett. There's a guy named Randall Young in California that has Brett Young on Instagram. You tried to buy it, Yeah, I tried. It doesn't respond. I've tried to buy Bobby Bones too, can't get it. It does mean use it just occasionally like we have it. Why does Randall Young have Brett Young? He has the website to Brett Young dot com. I have bretton music dot he has the website and the instagram. Randall Young, whoever you are, you're from my hometown. You don't use it and your name is not Brett. What are you doing and you've offered him cash for We've gone through go Daddy to try to reach out to him and we get no response. What has he used it for? It doesn't it's not even live. He's just squatting. If you go look right now, there's multiple Brett Youngs, but the one that has the straight up it's not a thing. Looking right now, I know, Well there we go. It's nothing. Huh. If I can get this for you, you'll sing at my wedding. Okay, I'm not even I don't even have a girlfriend, so we're a long. I was gonna say, do I need to match make for you first? Or you don't have anybody? I'm a lost cause I was too, But look at me now, yeah, like you're tall though, you know I'm a lost cause. Okay, when I get Brett Young dot com for you. That is a deal we have. You will sing at my wedding. You gotta get me the website and the Instagram. That's all. I'm not getting out one of them. So it's a easy deal to make. All right, there we go, Episode one, Brett Young. Thanks. Okay, Um, Brett left. We were doing a fact check on things from the podcast. So this is not part of Brett being here. This is me coming up after I walked right out the door. All right, Mike dear, what's the fact check? So the thing was about a con Okay, he actually does own a diamond mine in South Africa and a lighting company and he has like a net worth of eighty million. Wow, So Brett was right the an I had no idea about that. He had that, like right when he was getting into music, he bought a diamond mine. I do like the fact that we were doing a fact check segment into the podcast as well. Yeah, um, okay, anything else likes fact check. The other thing he mentioned Jake Owen, like paying a songwriter and that I was Jack. I found nothing on that, okay, So I don't think maybe he had somebody different in mind, or you know, something we don't know. It could be both okay, or we could just I'll be wrong sometimes when you're just talking with with no you know, we weren't prepped on that. He ignored me. We're just talking. That's a good thing about the podcast, but also, um, I'm wrong a lot of times because of that too. So okay, so we have nothing on that anything else. That was it? All right? Thank you everybody.