Top 8 BobbyCast Interviews of 2020 (Part 1) - Tracy Lawrence, Chris Kirkpatrick (NSYNC), Lionel Richie and Gary Levox

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Speaker 1: I guess welcome to the Bobby Cast Top eight Interviews of the Year. This is part one of two. So playing some highlights, we're looking back at some of the best moments in this podcast, which is extremely music centric. Obviously all the best. I mean, we've had to adjust to it's been a crazier for everyone and even us doing this podcast. I mean we started out the first hundred and forty episodes or so maybe more doing long interviews at the house. Some of it come over as songwriter and artist, producer, someone in management and we would just sit sit for an hour, but then Corona shut that down. We've slowly got back into doing that and we'll continue to do it if we can do it safely. So you know, we're here from Tracy Lawrence in this podcast, you know, nineties country superstar, Chris Kirkpatrick, event sync, Lionel Ritchie, Gary Lavox who I think Gary was the first we head back in after we're down, and I think that was just because he was over at my house anyway. Yeah, because if we didn't we were scared to schedule anything with anyone. We didn't know if we wanted to, we know if they wanted to, and Get the Box was over at the over my house and he was like, yeah, we're doing at something and I was like, you're gonna talk about it. It's like, what do you mean doesn't have a studio right, you know, right across the little walkway and he was like, yeah, sure, So we just came over here and that was our first one. It kind of made us a little more comfortable with doing this, you know, at a split distance. So be sure to subscribe if you can. We're on vacation right now, obviously. Uh so leave us that that five star rating if you can't, that goes a long way. We're gonna kick it off now, these won't be extremely long, but I think it's kind of the best app We'll kick it off at number eight with Tracy Lawrence. Enjoy the podcast. Tracy, good morning brother, How are you? I'm pretty good? How are you doing? You know? I guess a couple of weeks ago, and I don't know if you run your own Twitter account or not, but I was and kind of what inspire me to reach out to you again because I've seen you pretty recently. But um, I was listening to pay me a Birmingham and there's that key change right in that double chorus, and I was like, man, this thing still hits hard, like when you go up the key. I was just like, holy crapt. So I was thinking about that song, and I was like, yeah, I don't talked to Tracy a while, like I wanted to catch up a little bit. So first of all, I appreciate you coming on. Second of all, when I started looking up paying Me a Birmingham, I realized it peaked at number four. It wasn't even number one song. No, wasn't it was, And probably, you know, other than Time Marks his own, Birmingham is probably the biggest impact record that I had, and it was I mean it it barely got top five. Man, then that crazy yeah it says it peaked a four in this chart, but why is that? Like what what at that point kept it from hitting one? Was it we're radio people going to a bad research or what were they saying? You know, I was on DreamWorks at the time, and DreamWorks had a lot of momentum. It was a big record. I don't know if they just they had followed it as long as they wanted to fight it and let it go. I mean, I don't know that was. You know, that was Scott Borshetter's deal back at the time, but I I thought it even though it didn't go number one, that song has been just as impactful, if not bigger, than most of the number one records that I've had over the years. I mean I closed the show with it every night, and it brings the house down, Yeah, I mean, it brings the house down when I'm streaming it. I mean, and that's just my house. So, uh, well, a couple of things I want to talk to you about for a second. You know, we're going through this, you know, renaissance again from back when I was a kid in the nineties and teenager, and you know, when you know you had a ton of your early success. Why in the world do you think we're looking back at the nineties now as like the beloved decade for country music. I think it was just such a great It was really a magical time for country music. Man. There was that young country energy that had swept the country, you know, in eighty nine. It all started in eighty nine with Garth Brooks and Clint Black and Travis Tritt and Alan Jackson and Mark Chestnut. That was the beginning of it. And that explosion drove so many of us to come to Mashville. I mean, because of by the time we got into the early nineties, it was it was traditional country with an edge to it. And I really think that we're gonna look back on the nineties it's kind of like what classic rock is to the country these days. It's going to be that music that sustains for a long long time. There was just something really special about it, you know, with you And I'm not sure if you were down at s a U or you know, right before you decided to move to Nashville, but what was the thing that kind of pushed over the edge where was like, all right, crap, I gotta go, Like I can't do it if I don't I had. I had left SAU. I did two and a half years at s a U, and I'd gone back into the workforce for a little bit. I wound up moving to Louisiana and I was I was playing in a circuit band and doing just odd jobs down there. I was living in rust and Louisiana at the time, and I had re enrolled in the rusting in Louisiana Tech there at Ruston and I was supposed to start classes in the fall. I got my pale grant approved, and all that stuff was going on. I was gonna go back and finish my degree, and all that music from eight nine came out, and I was sitting there thinking, you know, if I wind up going back to college, I'm never going to go to Nashville. If I'm gonna do it, I need to do it now. And I canceled the gigs, played the last weekend with the band, packed my car up and came to Tennessee. Okay, so did you have one car? Do you have a trailer like kind of Let me see, let me see, it's a crap. I had a piece of crap Toyota Corolla with about two hundred and fifty thousand miles on it, and and the car is still sitting in my pasture right now because he had just shot at full of bullet holes. It's still out there in the pasture. So I had I played my last gig in Springing and Louisiana at Bill's New Country, and they took a collection up at the door to help me get to Nashville. I think I had seven hundred dollars in my pocket, and I beat up old car, and that is all I had except for what I could pack in that car. So what kind of place do you move into? What kind of place did you move into? When you got here? You know, there were a guy from back home, and I called his mom on the way up here. Now I'd never been to Nashville before, really didn't know anybody, and he let me stay on the couch for a couple of weeks. I went up getting a job. I got on work with a construction company over in Portland, Tennessee, and I was working on a big warehouse as they were building hanging middle siding on it. I got my feet on the ground. Every night I would go out and meet the road musicians and the songwriters and everything and all the local water and holes downtown. And I wound up getting room and board with a drummer named Terry Buttram that was actually from Texa, Canta, and wind up staying with him. He put my my first band together. When I got my record deal. Things happened really fast, though, because I got to town in September of nineteen ninety. By December, I was on a show called Live and Libby's Over in Days with Kentucky. That was an Oprey style show that broadcast back into Nashville on one of the Kentucky radio stations every Saturday night. Some executives from Atlantic Records had come to that show in December to see somebody else, and they liked me better. I did a showcase in January at the Bluebird Cafe, which is where I met Rick Blackburn. They agreed to sign me a May of ninety one, I cut Stick and Stones and had three number one records on the Top five off of it Insane and here's Sticks and Stones. Let me play a little bit of Sick and Stones. I knew every word of the song. When you were in school, Tracy, were you the music guy? Were you the guy that always had a guitar beating around or did your friends even go I was the guy that John Belushi would have taken it out of my hands and bashed it against the wall. When I went to church camp, man, I had a toil string guitar. Dude, Oh yeah, I did them by all that stuff. So at church, because listen, there was always church camp, and I went to uh Spring Lake church camp every year. There was always one cool kid that could play guitar, and for for me, whenever I was a kid, it was mostly Oasis, wonder Wall. They could always play that, They could play a couple of guard of songs and that was about it. But were you that kid, you know I was. I could play quite a bit. Uh. Most of my stuff was like real traditional country. I was really big time into George Strait and Merrow Haggard. Those were my two guys. Of course, you had guys like Randy Travis that came out in the early eighties, so I wouldn't play on the other hand, and and nine teen eight two and that kind of stuff. So there was a whole lot of music from the hero that were more of the baritone singers that I just absolutely fell in love with. And most of it was pretty straightforward stuff. I mean, we didn't get really into intricate chord changes and stuff till you got into more of the pop country, So most of it was pretty straightforward, you know, three or four chords, It was pretty easy. In a few minutes, I'm gonna ask you about, you know, Made in America, your your latest record, and you know, doing your own record label, and because that's always so interesting to me. But I want to hit a couple of songs real quick because I can't break it to my heart was me my teenage anthem, Like I hear this song, you know how you hear a song and for me, it puts me back in Central Arkansas thirteen years old. Listen to Kissing ninety six here in this song right here. Did you hear songs still in your life that put you back in those spots? Yeah? I do a lot, especially a lot of the stuff from the early eighties, you know, because that was such a developmental time for me. You know, from the time I was you know, uh, preteen, early teen, twelve, fourteen years old. All that music had such a big impact on me because I was really it was, it was forming part of my identity, because it was becoming a big part of who I was. Because everything to me revolved around music, you know, from from going to junior high prom to to you know, you know, and not even just country stuff. That Purple Rain was like our theme song for the prom. I graduated in eighty six. So all that music that came through, I hear band haland songs, and they remind me of my buddy, My running buddy had a sixty nine Chavell and we I mean we listened to a lot of vand haland during the summer. So all those songs, man, they bring back those great members. You know at this point in my career because I just turned for to you, so I know I have people going here. I used to listen to you when I was like eight years old, and I'm like, holy crap, I'm I'm getting little older. It's got to be wild too when you're out and there's like a you know, twenty five year old that's like, man, I Tracey Lawrence. I was listening to you and I was like, four, that's gonna be crazy, right, my favorite twin man. My grandmother loves you know. But you know what, I've seen the highs and loads of the business and and I really have learned to take it all in stride, man, just just to kind of still be somewhat relevant and have a fan base out there that allows me to work. I'm so appreciative of it. I don't think I understood. You know, you get inside the bubble when your career takes off and you're focused on all that and you've got all the people around you, and you got your bubble and all that. You know, you lose perspective of just how special it is because it's something that very few people get to do. They don't get to take that journey, they don't get to feel the ride, the emotions of feeling a record go up the chart and seeing the impact that it has in the public and the way that it changes the crowd, and you know, it's just it's it's like getting on top of a wave is the only way to describe it. It's like a riding riding the top of a wave on a surfboard, you know, And and the ultimate goal is trying to sustain that ride as long as you can. You know. Well, way was the biggest and hardest like you put out was the time marches on with a Texas tornado where you put it out and it's like, holy crap, hold on, because here we go. Man. There were several of them. I mean, uh, that initial first wave and Sticks and Stones took off. Man, it was life changing for me. Uh And and I remember hearing hearing six of Stones in the car radio for the first time and just the chills that gave me. I literally had to pull over the side of the road. And sit there and freaking cry, you know, But then then you come back with with Alibis. Alibis was a massive, massive hit back in ninety three, and then I mean, so they they there's just something powerful about the way that those records impacted back then, and I don't, I don't. I guess. I guess songs still impact that way for for artists nowadays. But back then it was you could feel the ground shake underneath your feet, and as a as a record would move up the charge, you know, it had a feel to it when it hit top forty, and then by the time I got top twenty and top ten, it got more intense, just the way the fans would sing the song back to you. By the time a record got top five and the number one, it was you could feel the ground move underneath your feet. There was no there's no other way to describe it. You know. When you put out the album last year and made in America, uh, you know, it's your your latest record, and I'm curious that's because you have such a distinct sound that people know you for, like, how do you walk that fine line of Because we all grow as people as artists, you know, we don't want to be the same person we were twenty years ago. But how did you grow but still stay the same when you're making new music but people know you from against Sticking Stones and alibis and if a good Die Young. This album was really different in a lot of ways because I've never written as much for a record this album. I wrote like eight of the twelve tracks on it. Three of the other tracks came from songwriters and my publishing company, stuff that I've known for a while, so they basically all but one song came out of my camp. The one song that didn't as a Stapleton Shawn camp song called Given My Reasons to Pray, And I you know, I know this sounds crazy, but I really always lacked self confidence in my own songwriting. I've I've had a camp break. It was one that I wrote Front Porch was the one that I wrote, Stars over Texas, I wrote but but but I had always tried to beat my own songs out with things I found from other publishing companies. As I was looking for material for this record, I just couldn't find what I was looking for, And I went up really just knuckling down and writing this record and I've never forced myself to do that before, and I think, uh, I think it finally shined through. I think I cut a record that I'm really proud of from top to bottom, more so than than I have been any of them in the last several years. And it's I just felt more of a connection to it, and I felt like I delivered it better than I had anything else in a long time. You guys check out Made in America own record label. What kind of responsibility is that now? You know? It's not too bad. It's it's basically just an imprint. We've got a distribution company with the Orchard, and they take care of so much of the other stuff. So basically, I'm I'm really hands on during the recording process, you know. Uh, you know, the way we market things through social media and with with secondary radio and uh, with streaming platforms is really different nowadays. So you know, I'm involved in what's going on, but I've got a great management company to takes care of most of it. So it's it's it's nothing like when we were on a major and we were out doing radio tours and working radio all the time. It's it's a whole different thing. It's much more laid back these days. All right, Well, let me in with this question. If you look back at all your trophies, are plaques, are different souvenirs, Like what is it that you have that you look at and go, man, I look at that, it reminds me of something awesome and it means the most to me. Wow. You know, I know this is gonna sound strange to a lot of people. Um, when my wife and I started our family, my wife and I've been together twenty two years. We have a daughter that's a sophomore in college, one that's a senior this year. And when we started our family, we made the conscious decision that they we didn't want them to try to keep up with what I had accomplished and the things that I've done in my life. There are no platinum records on my walls, no gold records. There are no trophy mantels, no trophy cases. I've got a collection of NFL football helmet signed by all these different people's sports, memoral belli and stuff. But as far as the trophies and things from me, they're they're not displayed in my home. Nice. Who's your favorite? What's your team? Who's your NFL team? You know, I grew up a Pittsburgh Steeler fan. I still have a lot of friends in Dallas. I'm very connected to that program. Uh, but you know we're here in Tennessee. We've gotta support of Titans. And I'm anxious for football to start back this year. I hope we're going to have somewhat of some normalcy with some football coming back. You know, we just have to wait and see. It's been a crazy year, man. Yeah, I love follow at the real Tracy Lawrence. Just such a big fan of your music and then even as a person now you just you continue to grow and do Thanks for the community and make music, and you know I admire that. So thank you for your time and thanks for just being around town. Man, Thank you, I appreciate you. Man. We're gonna go to number seven now. I loved In Sync. I'm not afraid to admit it. I thought they were the best boy band of all time. Actually, And when Chris Kirkpatrick he came and coached to the radio show, was that before or after this podcast? He came into the radio show before. Okay, so I've known him just from the radio show. That one day. All right, here's Chris Kirkpatrick of in Sync at number seven. You didn't have Facebook when in Sync was blowing up, none of it because it wasn't a thing yet. Would you have people like reaching out to you because you said high school reunion and I go through this a little different now, but we're how did people get ahold you and be like, remember me, we were best friends back in the day. Um, I mean we had a website and uh, you know it was funny back then with even just with the website of how we were trying to be progressive with it. And we had this whole idea about this like three D market and you know, everything where it was all inclusive and you know, not knowing that cell phones would be what they are. But um, I've there's a lot of ways that happened. I actually, you know, I'm still in touch with some friends, you know from way back in the day that I saw their sign at hershey in the audience saying hey, Chris, it's these people, and I had security guy go out and get them, and um, you know a lot of some of my I've stayed in contact with a lot of most of my high school friends. You know at least a couple of them, and they know how to get in touch with a couple of them. Or they'd say, hey, so and so wants to know if if they can come down, and you know, it's it's it's really kind of cool because I think a lot of my high school friends that are still my friends now were my friends in high school. You know, we were all I wasn't. I wasn't the you know, I wasn't a popular kid. I wasn't I said, like the least pop. But it was just kind of like I was just like everybody's little brother, like I was little. That's another thing. I had not gone in physical stature and physical stature because I was five hundred pounds my junior year of high school. So I grew about nine ten inches after my junior high school. And I went to my five year reunion before in sync blew up, and there were guys coming up to me going, hey, who are you here with? And I'm like, there were seventy kids in our class. I know you Tim remember it's Chris kop Patrick. They're like, oh, yeah, wow, you're bigger. You've changed. When you say before instinct blew up, did people feel like that that was did anybody go, man, you guys really hit a hard quick and you're going, if you had any idea what we've been doing work like because people because for me, people will go, boy, in the last year, you've the last couple of years, you've really and I'm like, man, I guess I'm a fifteen year overnight success because you only see like when the fruition. I think the differences. Um, I think blowing up isn't the right way to talk about it, because it was blow It was almost blowing up overnight. It was the overnight success story. That's you know, that to me is different. That to me is you know that you just you know, it's like, hey, hi, justin my name is Chris and I said, oh, we're famous. You know, It's like that was there was a lot of work into that. There was a lot we did. There was you know, obviously a lot of But when we released the Disney Special in the States, that was the first time any kid in the United States. We were all getting on an airplane and some girl goes, hey, that's those guys on the Disney Show. Can I have an autograph? And we all like stopped in the jetway and went running back out because we're like, wait, you're American, you know us? And she's like, yeah, yeah, I saw you in the Disney special. And it was so weird because that girl was the first one and maybe you know the next day it just became all over, like everybody would start stopping us, and it just became because then that Disney special was you know this, It started this whole trend and what kids were watching that was the That was the Blippy, that was the you know whatever, Um Barney or whatever. You know, that Disney special was what all kids focused on. So when kids get onto something, I mean, it's crazy how they run with it and and you know, they want to be an adult and so they take it and make it. And that's what happened was I mean, they just took us as their band and blew us up. You had been performing and had music released overseas though, right, so when they go, hey, let's do a quick infancy story, you actually were the guy that was first when when in things started to come together, right, I put the band together, right, So you're the guy. So you go, all right, we're gonna find and in your mind, were you putting together a band, a boy band, a singing group. What was the idea? So when I when I first started music, UM, I fell into music. You know it was like I was, I always want to do something. I want to be a football player, I want to do all these other things. But I kept falling into music. UM I landed, uh the lead role of Oliver Twist in our high school production when I was in sixth grade? Could you sing at that point in your mind? Like, were you a good singer? I still don't think I'm a good singer. You know. It's like I mean I could stay on key and you know, it's and and again, you know, talk about five hundred pounds of my junior year. Obviously my voice didn't change until you know, about two weeks ago. But you know it was there was a lot of UM. I enjoyed music. I always kept falling into it. UM. I moved to Orlando and started college, and so that's why I was one of the older ones in the band, Like I was already I graduated. How we how we from the Battery Boys and I were in college together and m I was just there and I was, you know, taking random classes just so I could say I went to college and you know, I learned a trade or something, and there was a there was an ad for a choir, and I didn't went to the ad, and I got a scholarship, and the next thing, you know, I got another scholarship, and then I went to a prist you just school rollins with a scholarship in music, and it just kept following me. But the whole time I was doing um acoustic guitars with a buddy of mine, like we'd play it coffee shops or whatever it was. And then when I was in high school, we did these quartets and I loved acapella. I loved harmonies, so I put together a quartet and at all these coffee shops and things we were doing, me playing the guitar with my buddy Steve was like, okay, I cool, driving and crying, cool Indigo girls, all right, whatever. But then when we go out and do this acapella stuff, like everybody just went nuts. I mean, girls were just like, oh my god, this is the best ever. And I'm like, wow, like that there's something to this. So I was trying to do the acapella thing. And I even remember when Howie and Charlie came to me with their pictures with the Backstreet Boys. I was like, how's that gonna work? You guys are like singing the tapes, you know. I'm like, We're like, oh, so, Charlie, Charlie is a great story. Charlie Edwards was one of my really close friends. Is great guy. He uh. He's how I got connected with all of it, all the lou Perlman and all that. So I had a quartet at school. Charlie was in my quartet. How he was in my class. How he came into school looking for kids for the Battery Boys and he went to Charlie. So him and Charlie joined the Battery Boys. Um, Charlie had a falling out, I guess with a producer. So Charlie came to me and called me and said, hey, you know I want to be involved, but could we bring your group that you have to this guy lou Perroman And I was like yeah, sure. So then you know, it's probably about a year. We were just grinding and and I had like three jobs and full time school, and it was like I'd be late for some rehearsals and they were just like you know what, I can't do this anymore. And he quit and I said, but I had the introduction with Lou, and that's when you know, Lou was like, I need you to get the band, like I want another band. I've got Backstreet, I want another band, which sucks for them, Like and you know, in hindsight, it really sucks for them because here was this guy who they looked at as their their brother, their pop a Lou and he's out there as a business guy going and he even said it, he'd say it to us all the time. You know, I've got Burger King, I want McDonald's. You know, they get along, they coexist, and you know, if he would have been an honest guy and just one that you know, who knows where he'd be. But this Charlie guy just to go back for one second, Yeah, you're telling me that, yes, in both backstraight and instinct, and then what what is he alive? Still? Yeah? And what to do? I'm pretty sure I even't talked to him. And I used to run into him a lot. That's that's crazy. But and he actually left my band to go teach golf in a club med and I was begging him. I'm like, dude, you know, I'm holding on the strings here like I would. I mean again, I had so many jobs and I had, you know, full time school, and I was like still trying to arrange music and teach people parts and put together um rehearsals and all this stuff. And when he quit, I was just I mean I remember, you know, just being in the lowest, one of the lowest places of my life, laying there thinking that I had a potential with this loop Roman guy, and the guys in my band would keep quit, you know, dropping out or quitting. So who was the first guy of of of the band? Now the group that you were like, all right, come do it justin and you met him, was this Mickey Mouse Club no post. So so the story, the real story is I was I was making cold calls. I was just calling people. I'm like, you know, I need to find you know, parts, I need to find guys that saying I need to do whatever. So I don't remember. I think I went through the paper or something like that, and I called I think I called agents. I called like nineteen agents. I'm like, listen, I'm putting together this group. Okay, thank you so much. As my number, this my address click, you know, I did nineteen agents. One person got back to me and I went over. I remember it like it was yesterday's Studio Plaza in Orlando and pulled up in my little Nissan Center or whatever I was driving, and he gave me this Manila envelope and I went out and you know, put it popped in this cassette tape into my player and heard this voice and I'm like, oh my god, like this is unbelievable. This is better than anybody that's been in my band yet. And I pulled up the headshot and I'm like, justin Timberlake? Is he an Indian? Like I didn't you know, I didn't get I didn't know if that was a stick or what was going on. And UH called his mom and that was a tough call because they were back in Memphis, and I was like, hey, uh, I'm this twenty four three year old guy, and I want to put your fourteen year old son in a band with me, and you know, and and they had this thing where it was like they went down for Mickey mouse Club and they said, well, if we got to go there for Mickey mouse Club and we don't get it at least we'll go to Disney, so, you know, they kind of said it again. They also suggested, they said, well, he's been working with j C. So j C came down and I actually met j C first because Lou went and picked j C up at the airport and they came to my work and I met j C. And then Justin came and the three of us are out one night and we ran into Joey randomly, and I knew Joey. Joey is the only one of them that I knew prior because we worked at Universal Studios together, and uh, I knew Joey and we're like, dude, you know, we're looking for a band, you know, can you do it? And he's like, yep, I'm in because he was in this group in high school called the Big Guys with the Luis Fonzi Oh yeah really yeah, which was in and they were like this, they were like this high school band. It's so weird to see Fonzie, you know, doing so much now. And his brother John is amazing too because his brother John was in my group. But that's I'll just make this story really long, but um, but yeah, so then Joey got in the band. And he brought in this kid, Jason, and that's how we got the name because, uh, Justin's mom was looking at all our names and Justin, Chris, Joey, Jason, and j C. The last letter all spells in sync. And that's how we got our name. And then um, the night we were signing the deal, Jason quit left and it took us a year to find Lance and night you were signing, Yeah, we ended up signing the next day, just the four of us. But we we needed a base, like we we needed a base you had. You know, Joey was the lowest singer, and Joey's a good baritone, but he's no base, and we had no low end. And I remember when Lance came over to the house and we're like his vocal. Our vocal coach was like, we think we like him, and he was in there and Justin and I were listening in the door, just like high five and because Lance just kept going lower and lower and lower, and I was like, man, this is unbelievable. So when you guys get together and when Lance finally comes in, had you decided how you wanted to present yourselves or you were going to or are you still going we're a pure vocal group, because when did the rest come in the dancing the stage we'll call it stage. But I think I think that was slowly, you know, weeded into what we were doing. I mean, I think at some point we had to realize that we couldn't just be an acapella group doing what we did. You know, we wanted up tempo songs, and acapella up tempo you can't really dance to. It's it's more of you know, listening. But um, you know, then we just kind of we started. Justin and j C had been writing some tracks, and uh, our vocal coach who was actually really big in Nashville, Like I'm running to people all the time now that that knew her, Robin Wiley. Um, she was real intricate in helping us with our sound because she knew right away, Like we were like, oh well, Chris will sing the high stuff and Lancill singing the low stuff, and Joe will sing the middle stuff and Justin j C will do the leads. But she really kind of you know, formed our sound and and her arrangements and and things. She wrote one of my favorite songs we ever did to this day was a song called I Thought She Knew and it was I mean, it was all her arrangement and it was just so intricate and so unbelievable, and it was so fun to do because here I've got four other guys that are talented enough to know parts. And that's that's a big thing. Like there's so many times you'll start singing something, everybody jumps on whatever you're singing, you know, but to sing your own part, even when it's rubbing or doing whatever, it's like, it's it was. It was really cool. We used to find any where we could sing and just sing together and then who goes, we should take this overseas first? Well that was Lou was always involved. Like Lou was involved in that at that time. As soon as Justin and j C came down, Lou was like, all right, I can be involved. Because even before, like I said, when I was calling Justin's mom, Lu said, don't Sam involved, And I'm like why why is that? Because he didn't want to upset Backstreet Boys and and his whole company, who Backstreet was their baby. He didn't want to go to them and go, well, I got another one, So they didn't know you guys were forming and you started to actually be No, they didn't know. I think the guys kind of new because you know, I'd be at Brian's, I'd be at Lou's house and you know, talking business, somebody be leaving Brian or somebody be coming in, and they're always like what is he doing? Like why is he here? What do they you know, what's the what's the deal on them? And and that's again why I said, it really sucks for them, like they were treated unfairly in the whole situation, because it's not our fault here. We are We just we just wanted to work, you know, we just want to be a band. And they're the ones that were like getting like the rug pulled out from under him by him going by the way, I got another one just in case. Did that ever happen to you guys? Oh? I mean, but but the difference is we knew he was doing it, and you know it was like we we already assumed that's who Lou was, that's what he's gonna do. I mean, it happened like thirty times for us, you know, and it was just like we just we just with each other. We just have to say, listen, we're just gonna work. We have to work a thousand times harder, you know, you have to, We have to. We had to work a thousand times harder just to be equal, you know. And that was great because again it goes back to that drive we were talking about it. It gave us our drive. At number six, it's my friend Lionel Richie, who I've gotten to know for American Idol. Lovely lovely guy talking about his friend Kenny Rodgers. Here's that. Hello, Hello, Lionel. Hey, it's Bobby and I want to talk to you about Keny a little bit because I got to know Kenny later and Kenny and I became really friendly in the later part of his life, and I know you and him were close for years. Well, you know, let me let me let me be very honest with you. I just lost one of my heroes. That is the best way I can describe Kenny because of the fact that you know, I met him at a time in my life when I was trying to figure out life, you know, transitioning from the Commodores into my solo career, and you know, God sent me an angel because this guy was probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met in my life, and full of knowledge, full of life knowledge, and he was able to you know, he was in a group called the First Edition, and everything I was about to experience as a young kid, he had already been through it. And so it was just a beautiful relationship that blossomed into something called the friendship forever. We have lived a lot of life together. So when you write lady, how long did you have that? Or use? Was that meant to get to him? It was that for you? Like, what was the story between you writing it and him recording it? Well, it's all about I think it's about God's plan because it was actually designed. The melody of it was supposed to be for the Commodores. And at that particular time I had written you know, three times a Lady and all these other songs, and so the guy said, you know what mineld, Do you have anything else besides another love thing? I said, well, I wrote a religious song that Jesus's love. He said, we'll take that. We like that. That's a good that's a good transition from what we're doing. So now I went from having another ballad to now having this thing sitting around. Well, I got a call from Kenny Rogers saying do you have a song for me? And I said, Kenny, I honest with you. I I have a song, but I don't have time to do it because we're the Commodorees are going on tour in about two weeks and I'm not going to be able to do it, but I'll do it when I come back. I hung up with the phone. About three days later, the drummer for the Commodores fell off his motorcycle and I had two months free time because he was recovering. And I called Kenny back and said, are you interested in that song? He said absolutely. Well, the funny part about this story is my mumbles. I don't write the words because if you know anything about writing a song with the Commodorees, for God's sakes, you don't finish the song because in two seconds they will say we don't like it? What else do you have? So I always would have basically the first verse of it all and nothing else. Well, the song was called Baby just Baby Bay blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Right, and I now go to meet Kenny, and he had never heard a song pitched like this before, because I've never pitched the song to anyone. So I walked in his in his backstage area of his show, and he said, okay, what's the song? And I said what he was telling me about? He had just got married and he's never in his life ever, he's never married. He married a lady, a real lady like Lionel. I mean, what am I doing with a lady me of all people, you know? So he said, oh yeah, by the way, what's the name of the song? I said, lady, I'm no fool. And then from there, of course, I said, lady, I'm your night, ain't shining armor? And I love you bah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. He said, well, I said, do you like it? He said, well, where is the rest of the song? I said, well, no, I'll finish it if you like it. So he trusted me. Of course, he tells that story, you'll hear this joy, he'll repeat the story back. He said. I couldn't believe that's all he played for me. And of course we went in the studio and a massive hit. But he always teases me because while we were recording that song, I wrote two songs for him. The first song was called going Back to Alabama and the second song was Lady Well. I thought, just to warm up with Kenny, I will do I'll do Going back to Alabama first, just to get used to recording with him, and then we'll knock out Lady Well. We get halfway through Going back to Alabama, he said, I don't I don't really want to sing this song. Let's just sing Lady Well. I didn't want to tell him I had only written the first verse, so so he sang the first verse and then I said, you know, I'll be right back. I have to go to the bathroom. And so I'm now in the bathroom writing the second verse two lady And of was the joke with Kenny was, if you want to get a great hit record from Lionel Richie, make sure he writes the second verse in the bath But of course that was the story, but it means it's all true, as crazy as it sounds. But it was just a massive, massive record for both of us, you know, until I was kind of looking back at some old old Kenney stuff Um, you know he's sang on a Weird the World which you wrote, Yeah, you know that was you know what that I was very fortunate too. At the particular time when I went into my solo career, I also had Kenny there as my advisor. And the joke was I was hanging out with Kenny's manager, Ken Craigan, and so when I was looking for a manager, Ken said, well, Kenny said, well, I got Ken right here. What do you think about that? And I just segued right to we had the same manager. So of course, when I did we Are the World naturally with Michael naturally, Kenny is going to be a part of that, no matter what, because I just had to have him in there. And by that time we were just we were just two peas in a pot by that time, and of course We Are the World was just one of those. Um you know, I think every once in a while God kind of possesses you and says, this is what you're really here to do, and the world needs to hear this song, and you need to deliver this message. And of course, you know, even to this day, someone asked me, of the day am I going to write another wee of the World, and I said, no, I'm just gonna play We Are the World again, because every time I try to write a new We of the World, I keep writing the same lyrics that I wrote for We Are the World. The message is the same. Right now we are challenged, but we are our brothers keeper right now, and we have to make sure that we are taking care of each other because that's what God planned, and not to be a tribe and a tribe and a tribe, but we keep being forced to do something together. And right now this is that time in life to hear those words again. And I must admit that that song residentates today like it did you know with thirty some five years ago? Thirty five years ago? Well, I know that you and Kenny were dear friends, and I appreciate your sharing the stories about him, and I appreciate you being so friendly and so kind to me like I love you too. You just have been You just have been the best to me. You have it. You didn't need to be, but you just have been the best to me. Well, you know what I have to tell you something. I've been trained by some very famous people. And when I say that, you know when I met Kenny Rogers. You couldn't get any bigger than Kenny Rogers. You know that was the gambler I walked in on and I must tell you, in less than fifteen seconds, he made me feel like we grew up together back in Houston, Texas. You follow them, I'm saying, And I learned the big trick, and that is if you're famous, if you're really famous, you don't have to scare anybody to death. You just have to be as nice as you possibly can, because that's they're already uncomfortable when they first meet you. And I must admit, you were so quiet when I met you. I figured I gotta cheer you up around. You didn't make that much noise at all. But you know, I kind of thought maybe maybe he doesn't want to talk to me. But but you are the sweetest guy. And I'm telling you now that we were with the show together, I mean, this is just a too much fun and we were meant to be together. But don't worry. I think we've got a lot of more life to go, Bobby. I think so too, And you know I love you. You're You're so good on American Idol and at you you still like doing the show. You still love doing the show. Can I tell you something. I am having, truthfully, the best time ever in my life. When I first started, I kept thinking, Okay, now what am I doing? Because I've got Luke at the other end of the table, and I'm not quite sure what Luke's gonna say, And and Luke scares me, but he's so funny, and we've become the best of friends. I'm actually you know, I feel like Lucan and Lionel, like Kenny and in line on. You know that it's so crazy. And then of course Katie. When Katie scares the two of us, you know we're in trouble. But you know what I must say, I think about your job. You have the tough job because after we deal with them in front of us, we hand them back to you, and they're a nervous wreck. They're nervous going in, nervous coming out. Oh my god. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if I could do your job. Your job is you have to put them together to face us and then pull him back together. But we I must tell you, I'm enjoying this show. It is a delight and the most part I think that the world needs a little compassion when they see us on that show. Those kids are very brave and uh and I just love kind of being the mentor for them. Listen, I love you. I'll see you soon. Be safe, my friend. All right, my friend, and tell everyone all the listeners out there hanging there. This is going to be rough ride, but but God will get us through this, all right, line, I'll see letter friend alight at number five. Here he is Gary Lavox, the lead singer of Rascal Flats, the first one back in my house after coronavirus. Are you guys not gonna say goodbye on the tour? You know, not for now? I mean, I don't know what's happening. It's just you know, every state is different now that states that were in Phase three you're going back to phase two. And you know, it's just crazy. I mean, who who knows? I mean, I don't know. Um you know, I know Jay's doing his own thing. Jodan's right in a bunch and um you know. And I'll just tell you that, you know, and everybody that I saw I'm doing a solo record, working on a solo record right now? Is that breaking news? That's breaking news. I knew it already, but I keep I keep such good secrets. So wait, what is I'm gonna ask you about that? So you're doing a solo record? What in what does it feel like? What's that? So I'm doing a first someone to do a solo I'm doing a solo Christian record. It's been a dream record of mine forever and I'm halfway done with that now and it's I'm so excited about it. It's just gonna be great. And I think I'm going to do a solo country record right after that. Wow. Now what kind of expectation do you put on yourself in the solo country world where you've had You're as successful as you could have possibly been, Like, you can't be bigger than the flats. So now it's you, how do you like? What is the goal with you? Same? Yeah, I mean the same. I'll just see where God takes it. But there's just there's you know, it's you know, sometimes it's difficult for the three of us to agree on songs to cut and things that I really believe even most of the time it would work out. But there's you know, there's just I think, you know, I mean I I feel the responsibility in the in the calling to continue to keep singing if FLATS does or not. So, but there's songs that that I really believe in that I love and they're you know. I mean, I don't know if they'll be different from FLATS because I was the lead singer or FLATS, so I mean, they'll all kind of sound like that, but and maybe not all the harmony stuff on there. But there's songs that I really truly believe in that I love that I think are giants and I think that the world needs to hear. I mean, I think they're you know, I think they're really really good, and I've already got some recorded for that. So I'm just excited. I'm excited about doing my own thing, and you know, and it's excited to see what happens, you know, if the Flats get together at some point when everything clears off. I mean, I don't know, we'll see, but I'm going to continue to work and I feel like that's that's been my calling and what I need to continue to do. And do you know those guys well as anyone. If let's say a vaccine happens with Corona in March of next year, you guys decided to go out and play ten shows. I'm just this is just a hypothetical. Will they'd be cool with you singing your solo songs up there if it's out? Yeah, yeah they would. Yeah. I mean we all, I mean we get along great. We just don't know what's happening, and you know, everybody kind of you know, look, you know, a couple of guys wanted to do their own thing early on, and it just this Corona thing. It's it's just weird. It kind of gave us a year off before we were going to take a year off, you know. Yeah, So I don't know, it's just just the way it worked out. Before I moved, I guess that's about three moves ago. But I was living in the condo and you looked out the window right on the Printer's alley. So when you first moved to town, did you guys play any of those printers alley spots right there? Fiddling Steel? We played there, but we played all of them. But our main gig was like Mondays and Tuesdays the Fiddling Steel, and then we a barbers and we played Lonnie's Western Room. We play all those down. What does that mean? You would play them? Like? Talk about it? What's a Monday night? So a Monday night? Well, when I first moved to town, it was Jay set up by the cigarette machine with a little keyboard and we had some tracks like well they call me the farmer and that's my name. And we'd sit there and sometimes the security guard was the one person that would be in there. But we would play there from nine to three on Mondays and Tuesdays. Then we started building the following. Then we met and Jodan came in and then um, but we played from nine to three, take breaks, and then we take a break, and then we go to barbers across the street and play over there and sit in a carry out I and we just stayed in the Alan. We're gonna be somewhere every night playing music. What does that mean to develop a following when you're playing small bars with without social media? Like, what does that? Just the same people coming to see you. Just the same people would come in. They knew when we were playing. And what was great back then too, was like Mark Chestnut, Toby Keith and all that. So when everybody was off the road, everybody would go to printer's alley and hang, so you might be playing with Mark Chestnut's guitar player. Um, you know, Toby Keith drummer, Um, you know Martina McBride's you know, acoustic player. It was just, I mean, it's what country music was, you know. Then they knocked it all down and built you know, I used to live condo that used to live. But what what was the final straw that made you come to Nashville? You know what. I was sitting in my mom's kitchen and how I was twenty I was twenty seven, and I was sitting in my mom's kitchen and I was singing along with the radio, and I was like, it just hit me. And at that moment, I just kind of looked up and I said, God, I feel like you've given me some type of gift to sing, and I'm so sorry that I haven't used it. It was just the weirdest thing. And I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm to do it. So I took out because I worked for the Board of um Developmentally Disabled for ten years. It's right out of high school. So I had to leave that job, you know, state jobs sold everything, and uh moved to town and and but that's what it was in my kitchen. I really I sold everything through everything in my truck, moved and moved to Nashville. Were you dominating karaoke competitions back home? Yeah? Yeah, I was crushing them. Yeah, because that was an extra hundred bucks, you know, if you want. I was like, you know, if I had hit three on Friday, the extra three hundred dollars, you know, then Saturday, and there's one place on Sunday. But then they caught on. So if you won too much, then you couldn't win anymore, you know, so then you had to start venturing out, going on the East, fake mustache, out of town karaoke clothes. So uh, you and Jay obviously are related with with Joe Don. Did Jay find Joe Don? Who's Who's what was that? So Jay was the bandleader for Sally Right and then he hired Joe Don to play guitar for Shelley and so that he had Jabe been telling me about Jodan how you know high ten and our Grady scenes and plays. So he came down at the Feeling Steel Guitar Bar one night and it our guitar player didn't show up so he invited jode on in and we did. Uh. Church on the Cumberland Road was the first song we ever did, and the rest was history. We were like, wow, I don't know what that was, but that was I mean, it was just it was incredible. So we asked him and how was that? How quickly? And tell you had a name? Though it took a while because we were because I think Jaberd and I were going by deuces Wild and then there was three of us in there, so deuces Wild didn't make any sense, and then you know, it was hard to come up with a name. And uh, but we we sat there and we were thinking, so we're oakl Ohio because Jodans from Oklahoma is just terrible. And then so it was awful. And so this piano player named Jelly Roll was in town or was playing with us, and he was like, man back into six. He's I used to have a band called Rascal Flats and um, We're like what does it means? Jelly? He was like, hell, I don't know, no idea. We're like all right, So we literally wrote on a napkin um we paid him five bucks for the name, so if it did work, we get sued later. So that's the store. And how quickly that you guys were like, Okay, we're gonna do this until you actually started to make any sort of money from and then to t bigger than just a bar, meaning a record label. How it was. Did that happened pretty quick when people heard you? Yeah, you know, Um there was ce So I moved to town February and we got signed to ninety nine and then, um, but we were humping. I mean we were killing it every night. We were playing somewhere every night and then um, yeah, so but we were working for tips only and then we've got paid forty bucks a night and then uh so the first real money was It was when we signed our deal with Lyric Street Records. Did you guys have a baby I for anybody? As that third act where they really were like, hey, we'll look out for you. You know what all of them did really and that was like our first tour ever was Jody Massina and Jody kind of did that for us, and then it was Toby Keith. Toby really took us under his wing, and then Brooks and done. I mean, really you go out there and try to steal everything that that they've got their fans. You learned so much. And then Brooks and Dunne and then I mean they all kind of took us under their wing and really showed us the ropes and you know, how to put a tour together and how to treat fans. And you know, because we were on that the Brooks and Dune thing where they had jugglers and stuff all day long, you know. So yeah, well, I mean we learned from all of them, all of us kind of kind of took them and took us under their wing and really showed us the ropes. And they were I forget who it was that told us. They were like, you see all those fans out there, you need to go steal every single one of them. We'll try. It's cool. And that's what we told everybody that's open for us since then. The uh, how they remember you the EP when it comes out? Why do you name song? And different people give me different ones? But why do you name the whole project after a song? You know, I don't know, I guess just because it's easy. It's the first thing, and it's hard to encompass, like because all of it has a different feel and the whole body of work feels different. You know, let's you know, put something like the Craftsmanship record. That would have been the other time spent record. You guys, you had seven you have seven songs on this thing? Did all? Is it a rule that three of three of you have to agree on the song or two or three? What's the what's the dynamic there? Pretty much? Yeah, pretty much? And then but I'll get in there sometimes just come in. I just I think I hate this song. I'm not doing it. You ever done that to a song it end up being a massive hit where it's like, I don't know if this is the one. Um, I'm sure they're I'm sure they're. Jay has probably been the worst at that Jays because he's yeah, like songs like no, I'm not doing that, you know, like like Sarah Beth you know about skin. I don't want to sing about cancer. I don't want to do you know that. That's it's a tough subject. I don't want to sing about. So there's a hit. And it's happened a couple of other times we were like, hey, Jay, whatever other songs that you hate, man, that would be great the most right. So you and Jamie Foxx have been friends for a while. Huh, yep, you guys, you sit around Jamie's house singing. We did all the time? You know? Here is um she Goes All the Way, which came out in two thousand seven. No questions, no talking, only the South Hogs testing. Isn't he like the best I've been talking about as a person. I don't know this person, but when you look at overall talents and what he's able to do act oscar seeing hit record, comedy, freaking in Living Color, I seem do impressions like I don't know that I can name a more talented person period overall than Jamie Baskets just didn't play basketball. How did you guys become friends? He? I had got a deal offered to me by Capitol Records in early on, like a pop deal, and so I went to l A, my old manager at that time, used to work for Jamie and um, so ended up going there, staying there, and uh, after I've turned that deal down, I ended up just staying living with Jamie for a few months, just staying with him, and then we're just and he had just lived together and just started the w he started, just started the Jamie Fox Show. On the w B and so he was just getting going. I mean, his comedy stuff was happening. But he's truly one of them. He might be the most talented person I've ever seen. He's great at absolutely everything. I mean not just great, but I mean sets the bar for I mean comedy talent. I mean his the way he plays piano, and I mean he's just and and he loves music. He loves country music, he loves all genres of music, and he can act. I mean, it's just it's not fair. It's not fair at all. It sounds like he's a good dude too. He's a great dude, which sucks you kind of want to hate something. Yeah, he's from Texas. I never liked you because that's just you have it all. You have it all. Yeah, and I'm in covenying. Yeah, I'm envious and I'm covering. Life is the Highway was never a single, right, It just became a smash kind of because people liked it, which is rare. Yeah, the Cars movie, you know, and then radio picked it up because it was just doing so good and just kind of they played it. But it was never a single, and really one of the songs that I would assume you guys are associated most with depending on what the age group. Yeah, for sure. Yeah it's funny because I was just um, just doing a singing with a buddy of mine, Jonathan mc renolds in the Christian world, the gospel world, who's amazing. He's the same way, so talented, so gifted, fair coveting my neighbor. That's what I'm doing with him too, because it's just ridiculous. But anyway, his his assistant who knows nothing about country music, never even heard Rascal Flask but new Life the Highway. Life's the Highway, the original version. Don't tell me, is it like Eddie cock now who sings Life Highway? Tom Cochrane. I get Eddie money and Tom cockrand mixed up because to me, the same person, what's the most profitable song you guys have put up for me? The ones I wrote Fast Cards, Freedom and I Melt and Bob that head and Summer Nights and all that. But you know, I mean, all in all, broke, it's gotta be broken road or what hurts the most if someone says, hey, Gary, what are gonna want you to come? Like my cousin's having a little wedding here and he's you're really important to him, and he says, you sing two songs, any two songs at the wedding? What do you pick? Broken Road in my wish? I mean, those are always the ones that they ask it is. Yeah, yeah, somebody asked me to sing away. I tried on moving On once, but that didn't work. Yeah, probably not not good. It wasn't. Do you still get excited because you know the new projects coming out? You get excited it's gonna come out or is it just another day, like it's just part of that. Bro. I'm so fired up. I'm so excited, more excited than I've been in a long time. I'm so excited to have you know, I love everything that we did with Flats and being a part of that and all of that, and who knows what will happen in the future, but I'm so excited about just having my own songs that I picked that I hand you know, hand picked, and help co produce and using you know, different. It's just fresh, it's new, and it's exciting and you know it's just uh and singing about the Lord is gonna be awesome. I Mean, it's been a dream record since I was a kid, so you know, and then the country stuff. You know that the country record that will come after that is you know, I mean, I've already got some cut for that that. It just they're great, They're great songs. We live in a town with the greatest songwriters in the world, so we're right here, you know. So I'm just very waiting for you to agree to do it with me here say I wouldn't. I just wouldn't, So, ladies and gentlemen, that's not coming. Yeah, no, I just I wouldn't want to sour it. Thank you guys for listening to part one of the Top eight Bobby Cast interviews. If you enjoyed those, can go back to the feed and hear the full one. What's great about it? Like you heard a little snippet of each, but you can go here the long one. Just scroll back and you'll find it up there. And next week we'll put up part two. I'll talk to you then. Thank you guys. Goodbye.