#348 - Allie Colleen on The Deal She Made With Her Parents To Not Pursue Music Until Graduating + Going to College for Songwriting + Her Childhood and the Root of Her Love for Animals

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Episode three forty eight. Ali Colleen. This was a really fun one, but also difficult for me. It's always difficult when there are relationships and you have to kind of navigate them as you're doing this. You know what I mean, Mike, I do know you because I like Ali a lot, and which she comes and does the show, and we talked about this and you can hear it all in a second. Because she comes as the show. We don't really focus on the fact that she's Garth Brook's daughter because I know she's trying to be her own artist, and I'm very deliberate about that with her because she deserves to be her own self. But on this we always talk about family and growing up and parents, and so I have that conversation with her. But she was super cool. We learned a lot of stuff and just it's there wasn't the central theme of it. But I think you're gonna like that. I think you know, like Ali. Hopefully we introduced a new artists that you know, you can spend the time with and get to know. But she got a new song called Halos and Horns, which I'll play you a little bit of right now. So she talks about moving to Nashville, why she's such a big animal person, which I found very interesting, and also some about growing up in the Brooks family with you know, siblings and the rules they had as kids, and it's good stuff you to hope you enjoy it. Here is Ali Colleen on the Bobby Cast. Ali, how are you? I'm very well? How are you? Pretty good? You know? It is an interesting situation with you, meaning on two levels. One because you're my close friends close friend, and so I always try to remain unbiased, which you know, I booked you on the radio show and I'm like, okay, I'm my only booking. Or because she's really close to Ray and Bay and I had to have that conversation with myself and I was not but that's always there that you're close, right. I had asked myself the same thing too. Am I come on here today because he's a good friend of raise, you know? Or do I want to come on here because it's it's gonna be rad and it's it's an embucket list option. I I navigated that as well, and it's a it's a weird navigation for me generally here when I do this because heck. I have friends and close friends, and sometimes they put out stuff that I'm like, well, that's very good and I can't I can't act like it is um. And then the second thing is with your dad, and it's like, especially the first time, the second time we had you upunder, you're really good. And on this podcast different than the radio show because on the radio show, I've really tried to focus and not talk about your dad because you are not your dad. You are your own artist. On this, like we had Jimmy from a little big town in a few days ago, and Keith Urban was here. We spend a lot of time talking about the upbringing of folks to get to where they are now, and that involves you in Oklahoma and your mom and dad absolutely. And so I'm going this, I'm just telling what what head is before you come in because it's so layered, because I'm so neurotic about everything. Anyway, before you come to the radio show, I'm like, Okay, I'm not gonna talk about her dad because this is not about that. And you brought it up the last time and I was like, great, we got off of it, and you know, you nailed the performance, which by the way. I hope you felt a love like a lot of people love that performance on the show. Thank you, Thank you. Know we've gotten so much good feedback. We always do anytime we need to do anything with you guys, So I do appreciate that. And as you were driving up here, I was like, I have to treat her like I would anybody else that comes in this room. And some of that is going to involve talking about not your dad but your family and like how you grew up. No, absolutely, and I think I totally agree with you on the radio show. If we mentioned it there, it's just going to be it will replace my name, you know it will. It will replace my name. It will be like, oh, did you guys hear the episode today with Garth Brook's daughter on Bobby Bones And that's not rad. But when we get to come in here and talk about my childhood, absolutely, I would never ask you to navigate around my family asking about my childhood. And I just respect you too much to treat you different only for any reason, I completely okay. So I don't want to make sure we're there with everything, okay, But I do worry about because I like you, like as even as a person. I'm like, you know what, I want to make sure ally knows that I got a treat her like what everybody else the good, there's no bad. Yeah, there's definitely no I'm the ugly here. Um, let's let's go back and talk about at least initially, you first came on the radio show probably what I don't know, COVID's messing my brain. Was it before COVID or during COVID? Okay, so you come on the radio show, and it was my first introduction to you, I as a person. I guess i'd seen you like on base of the base stuff. It's my first time to actually meet you and and spend some time with you and have been able to spend a little time with you, and so was My wife likes and she loves you. And so again, it's always a weird thing whenever you have a friend over. But at what point did you want to start as an artist, be the front facing like I am my own artist at this point, not even from your dad. I'm just talking about period. I'm Ali, I'm gonna go out and I want to stay are playing shows and doing pressed to promote my music, because that's that's different than just writing songs. When did that start for you? It is much different than writing songs, And even though I actively didn't do that until really out of college, because of a deal that I did have with my parents, education was very important to all three of my parents. So we kind of agreed when I was young that I would go to college even if I still wanted to pursue music, because I chose music when I was like eight. I knew my whole life that this is what I wanted to do. I've been writing songs since I was eleven or twelve. I've just always loved it, always knew that was what I was gonna do, knew I was going to move to Nashville, go to Bell want all of those things, and loved it. But I think Dad, you know, realized really early that I caught the bug and kind of sat me down and he was like, listen, you know, we expect the same thing from you out of your sisters, all those things. You know, you'll go to college and you'll get that degree, you know, because it's such an honor to have that education. I don't think they anticipated me going to get a songwriting degree, but I did, and it was rad whatever that means. Did you have that conversation with your mom and your dad and your third parents would be your stepdad or who should you say? Three parents? Tricia, my bonus got it. So my mom, my bonus mom and my dad. So did you have that conversation We're like, hey, I'm gonna go to college, like we agreed, but I'm actually gonna go to college to do music. Was that a sit down or they just know they just kind of knew. Um. Tricia had introduced me to Belmont when I was really young, and then kind of growing up in the studio the way that we did. Getting to come up here, you know, a couple of summers to to just see dad work and see what he did and get to spend time with him. Belmont was just like the Disney Castle on the top of the hill, you know what I mean. They just always stared at those white columns. I thought it was so rad, and I knew that I wanted to come to Nashville no matter what. I just I wanted to be in music and I wanted to be here. Um. And I remember talking to them about the songwriting program because you had to be accepted into it, you know, and letting them know that I got my portfolio together to submit all those things. What's that portfolio that you had to submit, like a CD work tape of at least four songs singing? Or could you put someone else? If they could, they could do someone else. If it was a songwriter that really focused on strictly songwriting, you could have somebody else come and do it if you wanted to. I didn't. If you take so you send them this, are you nervous? I mean, I'm sure you are, because this is them saying if you're gonna get in and and this is Nashville, where a lot of people are connected, it almost doesn't matter because a lot of people are connected. I'm sure there are some nerves going. Am I gonna be able to get into school here? There was, There was a lot of there's a lot of nerves to it, especially just in the program itself. So I automatically knew, okay, well if the songwriting program doesn't work out. My whole plan was always the music business program anyway. But when I found out that there was a songwriting option, I was like, absolutely, we'll go for it. UM ended up getting accepted into that program, which isn't too much different than the music business degree anyway. It's just that plus writing classes for the most part. So what let's rewind a bit then, you say, when you're a kid, you realized that music was kind of the bug that was in you. What part of it was that, the performing part was at the writing part? What was the first part where you go, Okay, I kind of have my thing. Was it performing or was it creating and writing? I think it was the sense of a desire to be understood. Um. I just remember being a kid and like talking about things that I really really cared about, and it almost always being chalked up too oh yeah, you're a kid, you know, or like it doesn't seem that big, or whatever the case was. But if I was to write down exactly what I was going through and sing about it, not only did people care about it and I want to listen, they also thought I was writing their own stories, you know. And I think people really care about stuff when they can relate to it. Obviously, were you a gifted singer as a kid or did you have to grow into your voice a bit? Um, I was a gifted singer as a kid. With that said, since I was a kid, I've set aside eight to twelve hours every week to sing. Like I just this is every decision I've made since I was eight years old. Put me on the rad Boby Bones cast today, you know what I mean? Like everything is pointed in the direction of music. So you're growing up, you know you're going to do music. If I have friends his parents have been baseball players or especially in art, it seems like their parents have always tried to go not get them out of it, but make sure they there were other paths that they didn't feel like they were forced to be into. It was that what was happening in the household for you was they were just making sure you knew you didn't have to do this. Absolutely absolutely. I think still in the back of you know, my parents mind every now and then, I think they still wonder maybe she'll maybe she'll decide something else, but not the case. But um, my parents were big, big sports people too, you know we were we had to play sports through high school, um and did that thing and learned how to be a part of a team. Did you play a lot of sports? I just played soccer. It was kind of my one. No I wasn't, but I worked very hard. That's similar I was. I was okay, but anything that I was okay yet it's because I just killed myself working hard. I just worked. I got the Coaches Award every year, right, everyone else got like actual physical accolade awards. I just got the Coaches Award because they were like, we'll take eleven brooks Is out of any of you guys that think you're too good to work hard. And I was like, let's go, thank you for keeping me here. Money and relatable, like you're just you're speaking to me. Your hometown was it like I thought it was small? It's not the name of your hometown, okay. And so what you drive into Owass? So what do you see when you get there? Ohassa is rad. You see a big water tower. It's got a ram on it or the rams um also says play for Haley right underneath it. A teammate of mine that passed away Um. When we were kids. She had CF she UM. Everybody championed her. She was amazing. So you already you know, you get in and you just see that. So it's it's very it's a big community. It's a very big small community. Um, I thought it was small, and then I saw some of my friends hometowns and I was like, no, it's huge, pretty big. I can't tell you how many people. But we were six A schools, so we were the smallest six A school, which is why I think I thought we were small because the other schools graduated seniors six A though mine graduated just under seven hundred my class did. My whole town was population seven hundred exactly. I thought it was small. It's not like at all. It's still a small town. Yeah, you're not coming from Boston. I mean you're you're in Oklahoma. Well, and and we were. We were in a weird place too, in the sense of like the county over six miles from you graduated fifty three kids. You know, like we were just the big small town surrounded by way smaller town. So what do you do if it's your eleventh grade and it's a Friday or Saturday night? Like, what did kids Inassa do? Um? Well, if it's football season, you know, it's just Friday nights every time. Um. Outside of that, you know, we did all the typical UM bonfires, you know, bonfire parties and back backyard parties and a lot of mudding. Um. I was into horses. My friends weren't so much um, but at my horses. UM. I loved animals, So I spent most of my time just outside. Were you the musical kid in junior high? In high school? Meaning when did you learn how to play guitar? And were you always singing? Was that part of your identity even young? It was always a part of my identity. Um. I was not like a theater kid or a choir kid. Um. Just because you got to um what it was called electives right in whatever, So one had to be soccer, and then one usually tend to be more academic, like Spanish or or something that had to do with academics. I was a big academic person. So we're okay. Were you the nerd? I mean I was a nerd. You don't have to say yes to that, because I was going to know I'm so. I think I wanted to be, But I don't think I was smart enough to be the nerd. I really don't. Then what were you? Because I was a nerd who played all the sports. I was a nerd try hard athlete, right if I had to kind of define myself what do you think people ninth and twelfth grade, what do you think they kind of classified you as. I couldn't tell you what they classified me as. I never figured out what anyone thought about me. I really didn't. But I can tell you I was. I was a try hard in the sense of I couldn't ever find a place to fit in. No one around me did music in the sense of they might have done show choir or something, but no one wanted to move to Nashville and do music. Nobody had the parent situation that I had, you know, which automatically came with so many assumptions as it was, And I just never really felt like I fit in anywhere. I had my friends because of soccer, you know, and which I think was a huge point of my parents putting us on a team, was was to learn that no matter what, those those people had your backs, and my girls had my back no matter what. But I, aside from maybe two or three people, I didn't really get close with anybody. That's interesting, and I can relate to a lot of the things that you talked about, especially in your attitude, but I it's it's funny how our stories are similar but for different reasons. It feels like you felt isolated a lot. Always I felt isolated a lot. Now we had different reasons. And I would never think that you would feel like, I'm just looking from ten thousand feet up. I'll be like, she can't be isolated. She's the coolest. And I think that was a lot of people's thinking too. I think a lot of people just always thought I had somebody, you know, and like I always thought I had a core group or a core whatever. And also when I say I felt isolated, it doesn't mean I was uncomfortable. I really wasn't. I've I've been very comfortable in my whole life by myself, and and growing up, there weren't a lot of kids around us, you know. I was homeschooled for a very short amount of time. As far as being the youngest of the three of us. You know, my older sisters remember homeschool life way more than me. My mind was more like Kee Valley busy, while Taylor and August have things to do, you know. You know, But um, I didn't meet a lot of people my age until I started going to school and started going to to do sports and stuff like that. And I've always just been friends with the older crowd, and when I stay older, like one of my best friends is in her fifties, and like we are exactly the same. Again, I really think I'm like eighty seven years old. You talk about horses, though, but when did that love of animals and especially horses happen? And you know, why? Were you just exposed to them alive? My mom runs a wild life rehabilitation clinic in Oklahoma since when, I like forever, a long time, forever, as long as I can remember, even for the very short time that we lived here in Nashville. When I was a kid, my mom was very involved in the zoo. Um I have. My first friend was a spotted snow leopard and she was rad Um. You you got to play with a spot at snow level from the zoo? Yeah, they would, they would. Some of them were critical. Some of them were just young and had to be on a feeding schedule. That was just easier to bring him home with you than to stay you know, there all night. And and so my mom kind of just got into those kinds of things. Um. And then when we moved back to Oklahoma, she just partnered with her best friend and net who's a vet and they just kind of run the clinic together in the sense of Mom kind of supports it financially in a net, you know, just runs the whole thing, and anything and everything that's brought in we take care of with the hopes of getting to send back out to the wild. But some things have to stay. Um And I've just been around animals my whole life, and I don't know, I just I just want to be alive with Thornberry like so bad. What's your mom's um understanding fascination love of animals? Where does that come from? Was that when she was a kid, were there a lot of animals? You know? I think my mama got bit pretty hard in her circumstance and and everything with her, you know, because just as much as I hate having the identity of being a daughter, I'm so glad to have the father I have, you know, but I'm so much more than so and So's daughter. She is so much more than so and So's ex wife, And she got bit really hard by that. And I think my mom just loves to cater and loves to take care of people and loves to serve, and I think people made that very hard for her to do for a while, so she went to animals. But my whole life, the two things I've watched my mom run was a wildlife clinic and then um meals on wheels. My mom is a huge meals on wheels person, which just takes meals to two elderly people that can't get out of their house that don't really have too many people to take care of them. My mom is just a servant. That's just what she loves to do. So she found animals later than I don't know if she's like Dr Doolittle as a six year old had had animals all around, you know. I I had dogs my whole life growing up, but it wasn't until I was like late teens, early twenties that I really found my affinity for dogs because I was just alone all the freaking time all and I was just alone, and I like the first thing I ever felt like I loved. Because no, I you don't know my story, but I never said I'd love you anything to my wife now. And I was like two years ago, right, I just didn't have a dad. Mom was in and out. But a dog was the first thing I ever like loved and felt wasn't going to leave me. Now we're probably going to some therapy type stuff here, but that's where my like complete love of animals and dogs comes from later in life and being like, I love this dog, and it was the first thing that I could actually even say that I would tell my dog I loved it. Not a single human ever. It's a weird thing what animals will do. And I feel like even you had a connection because you talk about how much you loved horses. Was it a teenage when you're a teenager mostly when you started to really be on horses. Yes, we had them my whole life and always loved them. But I think very similar to you. You know, it's you probably don't think it, but your your dog worked really hard to earn I love you. It never left you, you know what I mean? Like it's always around and left the door open, alley would run away. Well, I bet it would come back pretty soon. Some of the people I love the most of you open the door for a second, I gotta step outside. I'll come right back in. I really will. So if you're gonna feed me or something like, right back in. But yeah, absolutely, I remember, you know, just being a kid, and like thunderstorms. I would go down to the barn and I would just brush my horse and I would sing to him. And his name was Little John. And it's just so cool. And I think, you know, probably similar to you as well. You know, the dogs stay, you know, my my horses, I my when I got when I was fifteen, I was given a pig and I named her Pig. She was awesome. Pig didn't leave me or give a crap what my dad did for a living, or introduce my dad before they introduced me when I walked into a room, you know what I mean. Like, And I never had to explain to the animals to do that either or ask them to, which might sound silly, but that was a really big deal for me as a kid. And animals have they've never let me down. You know, they might have bit me a couple of times, but that's what scared things do, you know, And you learn trust amongst each other, and it's it's really rewarding, you know. Even now with my animals, it's funny we found this kind of calm and thread. My life is definitely way different than it was years ago. Um, I struggle. I've always struggled with trust. Mostly it's because I felt people were going to leave now as I struggle with trust, because I went from nobody caring at all to all of a sudden everybody caring. Caring is not not real or authentic. Being afraid that everyone's gonna leave is just as scary as really not being sure why they're there. And it's and I've gone from one to the other, right, And I've gone from scared everybody's gonna leave to now anyone that comes into my life, I'm like, why exactly are they trying to come into my life? Because I ain't that cool, right? But I know my freaking bulldog, he doesn't give a crap if I got a TV show, a radio show up, I'm writing, but he does not care. He wants to be fed. He's going to fart, and he's going to gonna pet his head, and he's gonna love on me. And it is it's funny talking with you, like I can now feel that I feel the same way with these animals that I always have, but it's just shifted from hey, I'm alone owned to hey, um, I think I want to be alone because I don't trust anybody else right now, and so I still have that oddly with my bulldog and now el Or, a dog that we just adopted, although she's been really she's been a rough. She's finally good after like a year, but man, she was she was tough for a while. Do you guys have dogs at all? Dogs around the house too? I have dogs. Um, everything that we do is based off this this label company that I've you know, just created called Evangeline Records, and all of that goes back to my dog. Um, My firefly is from Princess and the Frog, and it's this fireflight you know, named Evangeline, And so I named my dog Evangeline. We just called her Eve. And that was my girl. That was the first dog like I owned on my own that I went in and rescued. It was brought into the clinic that I worked at at the time and did everything for Eve so much so that we got Eve a dog. You know, hold, I want to I gotta get to that with the clinic you worked at in Oklahoma and here I worked at the good Little Animal Hospital while I was in college. So so then Eve got a dog and what was so we so Eve was just kind of older and and I don't know if she We just wanted her to have spunk again. And and we found, more so than anything that other animals bring that out, you know, more so in animals than anything else. So UM got a call that there was a dog. It was Christmas Eve and there was a dog scheduled to be euthanized. UM, and she was totally healthy, and she had been at animal control for eight months and all of these things, and she just wasn't gonna make it if we didn't come and get her. So we when we got her, we named her Mary Christmas. We just call her Mary M A R M R. So we just called her Mary. Um, I call her Mary move pants. But it's fine. And we lost Eve maybe a year or two after that, and it it took me and Mary the same way for a long time. I was like your Eves dog. He was supposed to taking with her. Where's Eve at um? And at that same time, I also lost the relationship that I was in at the time, So then it was just me and Mary, you know, it went from all of us to just me and Mary. And I felt the same way for a while out Mary, And now I don't know what I would be without Mary. So it is also interesting how the relationship cannot start the way you thought it would with dogs, you know, and just somehow be like, No, Mary, every time I come home, you're still here, and when I open the door, you don't even want to go outside. She's that lazy. So I love Mary. Do you think because I can hear the emotion in your voice because I understand it, especially when it comes to animals, do you think that you need to be in an emotionally um polar place to write emotionally driven songs? I don't because I'm a huge impath, so much so that I often wonder am I even sad today? Or someone else sad? And then here I am just having to deal with it. And so with that said, that is the beauty of this town and the beauty of co writing, you know what I mean. There's no one short of misery in this town. So if by chance I'm having a good day, I can go find somebody who needs some help and maybe needs a lighter side of their story, you know. And that's so cool too. To to two writes as a writer and as someone who is a pretty big ego to show up and be like, hey, guys, what do you need today? What are you going through? What are we writing about? Let's go if it lands on happy something happy, cool, But I would prefer it not to. You know, I really like writing about things that that we care about, you know, And and I enjoy that. And I think that I think the whole empathy thing is is just as much of a blessings. It is a curse most days. But I just I feel for people a lot, and I'm very grateful when someone is willing to share their story so that we can write about it. It's interesting because I don't consider myself an EmPATH at all, but I often say that my greatest superpower is empathy. Um, because people will they will come or they'll write articles about me. They aren't nice, like, we don't get it. We don't know why successful. He doesn't do anything, you know, he doesn't have one talent that should allow him to be at this level. And so I get asked those questions sometimes when you're a little awkward, like hey, what is it what is it that you do that's different? And I think, well, and now I'm happy to have it. But I think it's because I am so empathetic to the struggle like I and I hate it and resented it forever. It was like, I can't believe I had to go through all this crap. I can't. I can't believe that I had to live like this, couldn't eat sometimes couldn't. But now that I'm an adult, it's like, I'm so grateful for it. It has been kind of a reversal in what I hated versus what I love and now what actually allows me to empower others, because that's how it's come back to me. So but I don't consider myself an impact at all, but maybe in a weird way I am. I just don't want to admit it because I don't like to show emotion at all. Well I am not a therapist by any means, but but I always love a good button after that, and it's a good button, it really is. It's a good But from the outside looking in, I think, you know, if if it's such an anxious thought of you to share the love that you have for people, because it's not that you don't love people, it's that you don't tell people that you love them very often, And I think I think it would be very hard to to allow those walls to break down and say, no, I am an EmPATH. I do empathize with people all the time and all those things, when that alone has just taken off just that much more armor, you know, and that can be really scary. So I a hundred percent believe that you're an EmPATH. I believe that you're very empathetic. And I also believe too that anyone who you do say I love you to anyone that you do open up those gates for and whatever, they should be damn appreciative of that. And I know that they are. You would think that until they realize it's me. Other than that, I don't think. So you go to Belmont, you're studying songwriting, right, How good are you once you're in the land of everybody that's good? Still pretty good? Yeah? Yeah that Were you concerned that you would get here and go oh man? Or were you just like, let's go, I'm ready to show what I got. Just let's go, because I am ready to show you what I got. But also what that said, I've if I've got people around me, you bet your but they are better than I am. I cannot learn from anyone who is not better than me. I mean I can, but not in a in a talent way, in a in a songwriting way, you know what I mean. So I've continued my whole life to surround myself with people that are better than I am. And I'm not afraid of that by any means um because again, I get to learn, and I think that's that. That was the nerd side of me when it came to academics was I was like, I might not be very smart, but I do genuinely like to learn about things, because there's not anything that you can't take and put in perspective for a song. You really can't. So it's kind of just like the school little background work thing that you get to do all the time, just learning stuff and learning stuff and and getting to go and take that and be creative with it. I feel like you took a kind of a smart back door to the system though, And hear me out when it's like, hey, I'm not going to do music until I graduate college, but you go to college and do music, it's like you cut four years off of the So I just found a loophole in this dove the loophole, but was part of your deal you couldn't go out and perform while you were in college, so you can learn it, but you just couldn't perform. I really couldn't go perform, and there weren't really too many parameters on it. I think it was more so just please go to college, Ali, you know, and and and I think too none of that as much as it has to do with education. I think my parents would agree with me. What you learn in college is not your degree. It's not what you're going and studying. It's not what you're sitting in class four. You know. It's learning that, oh this professor once, that's done this way, and that's what's going to get this grade done this way, not like what the alcalade on the paper is, you know what I mean. And it's just learning people. And I think just like sports, it wasn't about being fast. It wasn't about like winning state or anything like that. For my dad, he didn't care if I even played two minutes of the game. He wanted to see me show up for practice every day, you know, and and not quit on the sprints even if I didn't make the times, you know, like, just learn how to work and learn how to find out how you work well, learn how to do what you do not want to do for the rest of your life. My dad was very strong on summer jobs as well. He cared about education a lot, so we didn't have to work during our school years, but as soon as we could drive, we had to work every single summer, you know, and and learn what we didn't want to do for the rest of our life, is what he always said, and and I think that that was very encouraging. So I think for me, my parents just wanted me to have four years away from home, but not just all willy nilly out there in the world, you know, and and learn people and learn how to coexist with people, and learn how to do stuff you don't want to do and still do it well. And I'm so grateful for that. And I probably could have used an additional nine years, you know what I mean, to just grow up and do my thing. But I'm very grateful for that for that time at Belmont and then also yes to be around other music kids for the first time in my life. Yeah, do you do you feel because as somebody who creates art and when I go up in a really small town, nobody did what I wanted to do. There was no I couldn't talk about, writing jokes I couldn't talk about And it wasn't until in late in college where I started to talk to other people that were doing radio and TV that ever felt like somebody actually understood the weird dreams and feelings. Did you find that with musical kids at Belmont where You're like, I finally have somebody I can speak a language too that I've known for a long time, but nobody else in my town did. I found it in very small circles. I also found way more of what I didn't expect to find, which was I genuinely don't understand why you guys are here. You know, there was a lot of people that I met that I could not figure out or crack why they wanted to do what they said they wanted to do, because the actions did never line up with it. You mean, they're here and there, I'm studying this, but they didn't enjoy it at all, And You're like, well, it didn't seem like they enjoyed it. They didn't seem like it was a gift, and they didn't seem like it was something that they had to do. Everyone always talked about, Man, how rad would this be if it happens. If not, you know, at least we can go do this or this or this. And my thing has always been, if you think for a split second of a second that you can come to this town, fail whatever that means, and do something else, do not even move here. Please, do not crowd up the slots anymore. Do not crowd up this town, do not crowd up the rent. Don't do any of those things if you have an option to go somewhere else. And at Belmont I found, even coming from a very financially well off family, I was like, why are you here spending the money that you are spending to come to the school, And just think about your Instagram post for this evening, which again content is king. I get it. But there's a business way to do it, and then there's a strictly social side to do it, you know, And I just I think I found a lot more of that than I expected at Belmont. But all of those things just feeds so much more into the amazing things that you do find, you know, like every heartbreak, every friendship that doesn't work out, that just feeds into those people that have stayed forever, and I feel the same way about music. Everyone that I meet that I want so badly just to crack sense over their head and make them feel the way I feel, which doesn't even mean that the way it feels right, but makes it so much more special to me. When I do find my writers and my friends that don't have a choice and have to do this and are comfortable setting in their misery sometimes to create narratives for other people, that's really really cool. But it wasn't as easy to find as I thought it would be. You graduate, And what did that mean to you? Yes, you completed something. You didn't mean like, Wow, look what I've done? Or does it mean look what I get to do now? Because now I've done that and I can go tackle the world. It was, look what I get to do now. I was very proud of it. Um. I ran into a medical issue my senior year in high school. UM, and I just started falling asleep all the time. And I was a very energetic kid. I always was. Energy was never anything I was short of. UM and then all of a sudden, no matter what I did, I was sleeping all the time, whether I wanted to or not. I would wake up at restaurants and all my friends were done eating and I didn't touch my food yet, and I've just been sleeping, um and uh huh. And I ended up I had an arcalepsy and I just started falling asleep all the time. And that made school very hard, and it made me look like a bad student to all my teachers, even though I would explain to them, Hey, I swear I'm not partying all night. I sleep as often as I can, like I just I need help staying awake sometimes. And I would fall asleep and all my classes and for the first time, I didn't have my four point oh, and I didn't have any of those things. And I was very mad about it. And so for me going to college and and learning that you're supposed to learn everything outside of class and then come into class and talk about what you've learned, you know, like that's what lectures are. I didn't know that. I thought lectures were teaching you that what you needed to study, and that just wasn't really the case about whatnt You were supposed to go out and and read your chapters or do whatever and then come in and talk about it. And I can't read anything to save my life without falling asleep, and it was just really hard. So for me, it was a huge accolade to have completed those four years in four years, you know, and and to have achieved that that was a very big deal for me. But more so than anything, it was I've done the work, and I've worked my tail off. Now get ready and see what I'm ready to do. Okay, so you're getting ready to see what you're gonna do. Is there any sort of refinding yourself as an artist as to what you're going to present to the world every day? Still every day? But what about when you finished college? Because now you get to go and be an artist, like you get to go and be yourself. And so do you go, Am I going to be like an Americana artist, a country artist? I want to do hip hop? I mean, it really could be any thing. And obviously you have a back your family is a huge in country. Did that it all make you go? Maybe countries? Not for me? Maybe, I don't know what was just your mindset there. I was definitely worried about that, you know, entering into the same exact business as my family. Working as hard as I do to separate, you know, those relationships in those lines. But since I was a kid, as much as I love every genre on the planet, I would love to be and Ami Lee, I would love to be any of those things that would be so rad. I would love I would love to do that so much. I wasn't like a punk rock band in high school. I would just write for them and and that kind of thing, and and it was so fun. But never has there been a genre like country music where similar to reading a book, I know what those characters look like, you know, like I can paint you the two people that I see every time I hear just to see you smile. I can tell you exactly what they look like. I can tell you what his favorite food is like. That is such a cool life to live in. His country music. And if you can have narves that sound like Evanescence right, or that sound like Ariana Grande, any of those things that like that to me is the key. You know, cross genres sound like whatever you want to say, but have a narrative, have a story, have nourishment, have something to feed off of. And to me, country music is champion that better than any genre. And so as much as I wanted to maybe not be in country or as scared as I was, That's that's who I am, you know, as an artist, for sure. So Jacob Diylan is Bob Dylan's son. And the story was Jacob Diylan didn't want to go by the name Jacob Dilan for a long time because they didn't want people to know he's Bob Dylan's son. So he would go and he would audition for things, and he would not be Jacob Dylan. He would be Jacob. Whatever the case is, is that the reason that you're Ali Colleen is so people don't instantly associate the two. So that's definitely a huge part of it is to to not associate the two. The kind of running joke in my family is my dad's mom was cooling. She's cooling Carol, she was on Capitol Records, she was a musician, an artist, an amazing singer, all these stuff. A lot of people don't realize it, but kind of the joke and my family is, Okay, Well, if i'm gonna sing off a family name, I'm gonna sing off the you know, the prettier one, and and then then the better singer one. Is kind of our thing. Um, because my dad calls me miss Colleen most of the time. Um, if not, he calls me Ali Coleen. But since I was a kid, he's called me miss Colleen. And I apparently just emulate his mom very very well. She passed away when I was three, And so it was just a huge honor as well. It would be a huge honor to sing under the Brooks name. It would be, but I never saw that people would see it or appreciate it for what it was. It would just be a cotail name, you know. And and so to get to sing under Ali Colleen and and just completely emulate, you know who who raised my dad and who my dad thinks he is the greatest person on the planet was a huge honor for me and something that I really wanted to do. So when you leave college, you ever think about being in a band? Is it all solo? Is? Because you give a lot of decisions now because you now get to go and forge your own path, which is terrifying and exciting at the same time. I always thought it would be so cool to have a because growing up, UM, a lot of the players that go on the road with Dad, a lot of the gmon. A lot of them do have children that are also very very musically talented. Um and I always thought, man, if I was ever have a band, how rat would it be to just rally up all those kids and we would be the bloodlines. And if it was in our blood, like we' well you know, if it's it's in our blood, were good enough and our bloods enough so like we don't need a name, it's in us, we got it. It would be the bloodlines, which would be rad um. But then when I realized that queen got to keep touring his queen even though Freddie Mercury passed away, I was like, hey, nobody gonna continued to ravel with my music if I die. No. Uh, like I said, ego, I got one. So where do you start playing Scoreboard? Um? And I did play there. I did play there. And I started playing there maybe late into my junior year, senior year only on the weekends, promised my parents wouldn't affect my school stuff like that. Um and uh, I got to start playing at Scoreboard. It's it's really really cool cocoreboard. Just because I don't know, it's this really really cool restaurant over kind of by Opera Land. It's right behind National Palace and the Willie Nelson Museum and Cooters and all that stuff. Um, it's right behind there. At that time, about five or six years ago, they had just opened this huge patio deck out back if they want to start having music on and I was like, sweet, I would love to open that for you. Let's go. And so I would play every Saturday night. What would you play like covers, originals? I'd play six to ten. I would play covers, and I would speaking my originals and when I could. And then I was very lucky enough for Scoreboard to to realize that my my original started to get more attention than a lot of the covers did. Um. And I'd always split it with somebody. I would always bring another artists with me and we just go back and forth for the three hours, which was also an amazing way for me to meet a lot of the friends that I have now, um that weren't necessarily Belmont kids. And um. You know, when you play downtown, a lot of people don't realize this, but you are strictly asked and requested not to play your original music. Um. However, if someone comes up and puts money in your jar on requesting original song, then you can do it, you know, but you're you know, or encouraged not to play original music and to just play the top forty whatever it is, top requests, all those things. And I was like, well, that's rad, but I'm not a I'm not a cover artist. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to grow my name. And I found that that's just something you don't get to do on Broadway, which stinks because that's what a lot of people are moving this to this town for to make a name on Broadway, and you don't get to do that anymore. So I was very lucky to find a place like Scoreboard where I could play every Saturday night, play my covers, play originals, and it really did turn into if you want to see Ali Colin in this town, you have to go to Scoreboard, and Scoreboard's not going to give that date to anybody else. You know, it's my date, it's my Saturday night. And then the band that came on afterwards was Organic Country, who are all the guys that toured with Randy Travis? And it was just such a rad place to just get to again, just grow up a little, you know, and spend my time there in a place where the booker, the owner, bartenders, waitresses, all those people they loved me and I loved them, and I knew I was safe going to my car at night. And it was a place where I could spend late hours at and a place where I trusted people, and and it was just again, just another really amazing place to grow up at. So you're playing at Scoreboard for three or four hours a week, and that's a pretty long set to sit and just play. And you know, you read about the Beatles and when they were playing in Germany early and they were playing seven eight hour sets, and they would say those were the most important shows to them because they actually learned how to play, and they learned how they could sing, and they learned when their voices were hurt, how they needed to sing. Then, like, there's a lot of learning the winto that situation. My assumption would be that's a similar story to you, meaning that's a long time to play. You probably have to learn every song and how to play everything and seeing everything right. Absolutely, Um, I waitress to a barbecue shop in Oklahoma for a long time and I would sing there on the weekends as well. I would sing my Friday and Saturday nights there, and then during the weeks I would I would waitress, and those were three hour sets unamplified. I didn't get a microphone, I didn't get anything. I saw in the corner room maybe two of these rooms, you know, nothing, huge little barbecue shop, and I would sit in the corner by the saddles and I would play unamplified for three hours every night. And you talk about learning to sing, That's where I learned to sing, in the sense of to be able to project to fill a restaurant that's cramped with seventy five people that are all talking, you know, and everyone can still hear me. I also learned how to be background music. You know. I knew some people came in that day for brisket. It did not come in there for Ali Jiminy Christmas. They wanted fried pickles and brisket, and I did too. I was just waiting for my set to be over. Um. But then there were nights and my grandma would come and watch, and she would just clap at people until they would clap for me. She would just stare at people and clap until they'd clap for me, and I was like, thanks, Grandma, that's funny. She would she would walk around table to table and clap, and sometimes she'd come grab my tip jug and take it around of different tables and you know, Pat was on it. She was on it. And um, that was a really cool place to grow. And then yes, take that to Scoreboard. We're now for the first time, you're getting to learn how to perform, because in Nashville they do come for the music just as much as they come for the really awesome wings that score Board has and still fried pickles. But um, just a really great learning learning place. What about song writing because even with your music, and this is just me having an opinion about an art, so there is no sex thing in the right opinion about art. But I feel like your songs, Um, I'll just make it very simple, have gotten a lot better, but so in the same way that you are getting better by playing over and over again. At what point did you start to write so much? We're like, I'm kind of figuring out not only who I am, but how I write. Like when did that happen? I think it really started to click when again, I just continued to surround myself with writers that were better than me, because as a kid, as much as I would love to say that I got to share my writing or my artistry or any of that stuff with my parents, I did not. My dad and I have never wrote together. We've never sang together. We've not done anything like that. Um. And then staying together me and like publicly on a stage, you're staying together at home. No, you've You've been in the living room and been like, justice, do you I've been in the living room and I saying before, and he's been in the living room and he's saying before. But we have never sang together, and you're avoiding it. Why are you why I've singled with my wife. We both sucked, you know what. I agree with that, and it's terrifying, But I don't know. I think a lot of it too is I don't know that he knew how to navigate it either. Um. But also he sings, I cry, I sing, he cries. That doesn't sound very good together. You know what I mean? If one person crying even though you heard your dad singing your whole life, and still makes you emotional when he sings, seeing somebody do what they were put on this planet to do and was brave enough to do it. Will make me cry every time. Way to rade commercials make me crying, not crying right now watching me do this? And why why am I not crying? Bowie? So you are songwriting with folks who are making you a better songwriter? Yes, just so talented and like finding the ways that we're all sitting in the room writing the same thing, and they're telling the story completely different than I am, you know, And that was really cool to learn to how many ways there are to tell the same story, and not in a skewed way, not in a different way, you know, but literally just a different perspective because of all the things that we're bringing into the right that we're not talking about, you know, which is how we were raised and what we experienced as kids and what we're experienced as adults, and the relationships that we have around us. And and I've learned too through songwriting. Nobody really looks at love the same way, especially romantic love. You know, a lot of people have much different expectations for what that looks like to love somebody and what it takes and what they expect to get in return, and you take that and you implement it onto a narrative songwriting of a love song, you're gonna learn a lot about each other, you know, on what lines they think that the characters would say, and what lines I think the characters would say. And I think just learning that love is not universal. I thought it was the one thing that was very universal for us, you know and like, but it's not. It's so different. And and to to find out ways that, Okay, well, if we're gonna target this love song towards this love language, right, or this perspective or this idea, this is how we'd write it. But if we want to target it this way, this saw we'd write it. And that was something that I continue to learn with my co writers. Um, it's just the different ways to achieve the same story, which I think has really really helped my writing and also just how I process the events of my life. Well, let's talk about how you when you wrote Halos and Horns, because you played this song on the show recently, I mean a couple of weeks ago. Right, all the days are weird, Mike, would you please play some of the song so to go into a writing room and have to not have to. Sometimes you have to be a little more vulnerable than you're really planning to that day. So but to go into a room with halos and horns the idea, I don't know who had to, but you were with Eric Dodd, who I know, um Stephen Hunley, who I don't, But you're sitting in this room, and so what's what's the conversation like and how does it get on this sort of area to to write about? Stephen Henley had a song at the time that he's released. It's called in the Wind. I'm such a Stephen Hunley fan, and him and Eric and I just tend to be the dream team. Everything that we right, we just love, we love so much. And he had had this song for a while that was just centered on blame it on my cowboy ways. And I thought, man, how rad would that be to it for a female to get to sing this song about hey, you blame and all my cowboy ways, you know? And I loved it so much, but I also loved how Stephen sang it so much, so I was like, listen, keep it. I'm not trying to take your song. I don't want it whatever. But like, that's so cool, and so he had the hook Halos and Horns, and he was like, all right, well, if you won't take in the wind, do you like this title and you want to write it with me? I said, yes, um, let's do it. And so Stephen had brought the hook in that day and we just talked about that, that whole narrative, you know, that we had mentioned on the show, of just good and evil and what that looked like in Halos and Horns. To a lot of people, you know, they see a left and right shoulder, and they see, you know, angels and devils and stuff like that. I see bulls and cowboys and dirt and and just like that archaic story of the cowboy, you know, and and good and evil and how everything to them is always chalked up to either they worked too hard to love somebody, or they're too scared to love somebody so they leave, or they're just a rambling man, all of those things. And I thought, no, I think the conversation is much deeper than that. And I've always related to a cowboy my whole life. I don't know what is so lame to me about the term cowgirl, but it just is and I hate that so much. I feel like women who are cow are just cowboy. I feel like they're cowboy cowboys exactly. They're cowboys. And so I've always been a cowboy, and we just thought that would be so cool. So we just dug in that day on what that would look like. Um, and you know, the cowboy is always almost it's so often associated with with with God. Cowboys, you know, talk about God and faith a lot too, you know, and and all of those things, and and and that was a really interesting thing to bring in, just that opening line, if I'm a Sunday morning center in a white church, you know, like I'm just I'm an artist that doesn't deserve to do this, who gets to do it every single day and hopefully gets to for the rest of their life. And that was just kind of what we just kept putting my artist narrative into a cowboy life and and wrote halos and horns and I'm so proud of it. I was reading this article and People magazine about you, which by the way, it's a really great article, thank you, and a few lines stuck out to me. In a pool a couple here, you said, I got to grow up. I got to see a lot of things in this industry. A lot of people don't find out until it's thrown at them. What it? What is that what we're referring to thrown at them. I think the invasion of privacy is a big one. I don't think people understand how much of of a of a personality and a connection they can place on you. Right. So I learned very early that when I got picked up from school, Okay, it's a fifteen minute drive home, I get to go home in forty five minutes. And that's because they're going to be people at the gate, and my dad is the artists of all artists, and it's going to talk to them, and we're just gonna have to sit in the car, you know, and wait on him to go and talk to these people that I didn't really understand why they were outside the gate. Um. And then I get to go home and play, you know, and then I get to go home and do that. Um, I needed a grocery store was going to take a long time. And I also knew that I didn't get to go out and meet people at the grocery store who would ask us, what are you guys? Doing for the rest of the day and we'd be like, oh, we're go get ice cream, And then I was always so confused as to why those people were at ice cream after the store, you know, And I just I learned consistently through my whole life, just that want a huge invasion of privacy from fans that again, my parents, I don't think how a clue how to navigate and navigated it in such an amazing way. I'm very proud of them for for how they did navigate that as parents and things like that. But that was a big one for me. Um also just learning, you know what you were talking about, how it shifts from I'm learn all the time and don't trust people. So now why are these people in my life? I was going to ask you that because now I there was never a friendship or like way, I'm fearful for you now, or a handshake or anything ever that happened to me as a kid that I didn't have to ask myself, why are these people talking to me? Why am I invited to the sleepover? Who's going to drop me off with a sleepover? But were you thinking about that as a kid? Yeah? I had to because I learned very early negative instances where I was shown it, you know what I mean. I didn't learn it by observation. I learned it by experiencing it. Um And I think that too, you know. It's it's such a beautiful desire to want to grow up and to do music and to move to this town and to do all those things. I don't expect any of those artists to ever think about. Okay, what can you see in the background of my social post? Can you see my house number? Can you see a landmark that's very identifiable to where people now know where I live? You know? Can you can you see those things? Because just as an adult, I've had people show up to my house and that's very uncomfortable. And I had to quit taking videos in my backyard, you know. And I had to quit doing all these things. And and I cannot imagine moving to this town and having to learn all that and as not of a safe environment as I got to learn it growing up. Yeah, and again you have to be I mean, how do you separate now? I don't know. Um, for the first time, I'm in my artist career. Also, I'm I'm single for the first time. I was married and I'm not anymore. And I have not even dabbled with that life. You know that sounds absolutely terrifying, you know, and and figuring that out and and trying to learn how to meet new people and how to go on about those relationships, and just as much so in my friendships, you know again. And that's why I think I just keep such a close corner and I love people. You know, I'm very quick to be like, hey, if you see me out, come say hi to me. Let's go making plans. I don't make plans with a lot of people. I really don't. It's especially when it comes to dating, because I went from somebody who couldn't get a date to say my life two. It was a pretty quick when I started to get success, then it was everybody want and I was like, I have not changed, Like I look the same, smell the same, and now a lot of people want to go out with me. So then I started to go anybody that wants to go out with me, they only want to go out. But then I was making my life harder than it had to be. Yes, I should have always been looking um and paying attention to who was coming into the circle. And I still struggle with that mightily. But I was sabotaging myself to the point where I allowed nobody and I was like, nope, nobody want to go out with me. Nobody's going out with me now, and we're you know, we're not We're not doing that. Um. And then it took me to really meet my wife, who was the first person who does not give a crap so so much so that sometimes I get annoyed. I'm like, do you know who I am? I'm like, look, look we just did. She's like, hey, the dog's crapped. It's in that second room. And so it is such a weird but positive balance for me. And then I just it has to be something that you deal with constantly. And again, if you're single, now it's something that's gonna be in the back of your head. And but I think you have the right like the right attitude. You surround yourself with people that you trust, Like you know, Bay or Laura whatever you call what do you call her Laura? How did you guys become friends? So Laura's father is one of my dad's best friends. He's been kind of like, uh, I've always called him his farm hands. He is absolutely everything. I mean, he's an amazing contractor, he's he was a retired chief firefighter, all of those things. But he's always just helped my dad, you know, maintained the property and just helped dad do life, you know, and all of those things he always has. So his MoMA, Laura's grandma, was my nanny growing up. Bey's grandmother was your nanny. Got it, Yes, So she was my nanny growing up and we spent all of our time together. She was my best friend. And her name is Polly. And so that's how I met Laura, who, at the time our age difference made it kind of hard for us to be close friends. Now right back to where we started, you know, and especially once I moved here, she was like, hey, you know, let's let's get lunch, let's get the coffee, and then you know, just instantly got back to where we used to be when we were kids and that kind of thing, and so I got really close with her. Um. But yes, just surround myself with with people that have always been there and and in my mind sometimes have no reason to be there, you know, sometimes like why are you here? It would also here's my advice, you don't need my advice, but I'm happy to give it because I'm not a therapist. But I am a doctor. Now you are a doctor well deserved. No, not at all. But sometimes what I found was letting the people that I trust help me do things that seemed a bit uncomfortable for me. But because I trusted them, it was easier and it worked out positively more than not. Do you have an example, Um, I do, and I give you an example. Outside of romance, I don't take any of you. If somebody comes up to me and they go, hey, here's my song or here's my whatever it is, I won't I won't listen to it. I just won't because I don't, not because I don't like music or new music, or I do love it all. But I can't just go yeah, I let me, let's do it for a couple of reasons. One, if I'm writing comedy music, I don't want to steal some of of his melody if I'm not thinking about it. If I hear something, I'm like, oh, that's a great I don't want to do that. Don't want to get sued. And then two, I don't want to tell somebody I don't listen to new music and they're like, no, no no, no, what you did that. My friend Christoper here said, you listen to his right and they'll ourt you every time. So I just want to be consistent, so I don't listen. But the way for people to get music to me is not by getting it to me. It's by getting to pe boll that I trust to get it to me. They're like, they're like my love filter, you know, because I'm very close to them. They're gonna watch out for me. But if something is so good that they know I might like it or might not, they will go, I'm filtering this through. I think this is great. And they all have the ability to do that. All there's like four but they all if it's friends, if it's music, if it's any of those things, they are my filter two. Now everybody's gonna go to my people. But that's how things as my career started to get weird, That's how things then got to me. That's a beautiful way to share too, And I think a very a very brave one as well, because from the outside looking in you you seem to kind of be a little little little control freaks. Sometimes not a little, a lot, a lot a lot. I was being kind a lot, and I think that's a beautiful way for you to share with the people that that you care about and then you trust. So that's what I'm saying, So trust some people to help you because you trust them in other ways. I'll leave that there. I'll put a pen in it. We'll leave that there. I do want to play a little bit of work in progress, and this is Mark. You wrote this with Marcus Hummond, with Marcus Hummond and Gregg Beck. It's so funny. You know the like off the top of your head, but Marcus is Levi's dad, and I know Levi pretty well. Marcus also written so many massive songs. But here is work in progress. I think you did this on the first Did you perform this the first time? This was the first one because it was our debut single, was our biggest release, and you guys are kind enough to let us come on and share our first release on the show. I was like, I know that, and you know again, just total transparency here. Whenever I had heard the song and I was like, yes, that's a good song, and she didn't come in. I was like, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't be cause she's a ba his friend, Like really, it was like an extra part. And I was like, you know what, I cannot penalize her for being friends with somebody that I'm very close to well and at all fair gonna say you might not remember this, but I'll hold you to it anyway, because he said it, and I have proof these sets, so it's out there. I think it was maybe sixteen or something. This was the day that I learned I do not have the luxury of covering my dad's songs. My dad has this beautiful song called She's every Woman, and I love it. I love it since I was a kid. I always thought, man, if someone hears that and thinks about me, I nailed it, Like I nailed what I was supposed to do. That's my person. Let's go. And I love that song. So I covered it. I put it on Facebook. You had shared it on the show, and you played it on the show, and you'd even mentioned, man, this is Garth's daughter and she's doing stuff that must be kind of hard for her, you know, to figure out and to do, and you don't all that stuff. And you did an open invitation. You sent me an open invitation to the show. He said, I don't know you. I said, I don't know, Alli, but if you ever hear this, you know, open invitation come on the show. We'd love to do whatever. I freaked out about missing an opportunity because I was like, why I can't go on the show now because I don't have any music to promote. That'd be stupid. What if I only get one chance? Whatever? What do I do? Ray goes he likes letters, and I said, let's go. I wrote you a letter, said he gave it to you. I don't know if he did. I don't know if he ever got anything. But it was just me explaining how one stoked I was. Do you recognized to I don't have anything to promote. I have to deal with my dad. I had to get through college. Three if at some point in the future ever the opportunity rises again like I would love to do it. And then three years after that, which I do not expect. You remember I got to come on the show. That's crazy. I have the audio file. Yeah, I'm saying it is, I believe, but there are two things that probably happened. One Ray Price Sole the letter, and and and probably not though really I that is that is a really interesting story. I did not know that. Well, So what's the goal? I mean musically, what is where do you want to be? What do you want to be doing in five years, in ten years? Like, what's the goal? When you see yourself? I want to be doing this? I am. I love performing. I love performing so much more so than that, I really do, genuinely love the people that I meet on the road. Um I for the most part, um vs. And here in studio with us today, Bev and I sell all my merch after the show together, UM and I get to meet all these people in my merche lines and they're so kind and they have all these crazy stories, and I'm sure the next day they're like, I can't believe I told her that I was so drunk, and I'm like, I remember all of it, Sherry, I got to I know you said. And I just get to meet these people and I get to find out so much about people, and I don't ever want that to stop happening. Um And as as much as I would love to envision myself and have before and dream about it doing huge arenas and stadiums and all those stuff, they're such a sweet spot and like and this is still a lot of people, so don't get me wrong, but liked seat theaters that were like built for music. Oh my gosh, it's my favorite thing to play to it. It's the most it's their ratizing on the planet. And I still have not really been lucky enough to get to really to to to sell those kinds of tickets or anything like that. But but to be on supporting shows where I've got to do that, or even just when you go into those tiny you know, circle downtown square towns, that that's the only thing they had to do that night, so they bought to it's before even knowing who was on the lineup, you know, like those shows, those are my favorite shows across the board. And and and to get to do that for the rest of my life and spend time in those intimate settings where there's still a lot of people in that opportunity to have all those words sang back to you in to fill a room and do all that stuff that would be amazing. And to do it in this country and all the other countries, and and just travel and play my music and and help people validate their own stories in their own lifelines. Coolest gig on the planet. I had two questions for you here. If we're on an hour here, which is great. Be tired. Okay, I'm a little tired, but not because of femst like because I did get out with three oclock this morning. Yeah, exactly, You're only going to bed. I ask you're tired because you told me that this is like your wake, your complete inverted schedule than I am. I am inverted schedules. Have any of your songs that there's a rumor been inspired by Ray and Bay's life? Like Ray claims yes, very very loosely, but yes, yes, are you serious? I really thought that would be a no, we'd fun No it is. I know. No, we can still make fun of them. I have a whole list of things. Let's just go right to it. Then playing house familiar? Was that about Ray not marrying Bay for six years? It was about It wasn't about them, but yes it was. So we're talking about lyrics, were writing the song, Um, we're doing all of these things. Um. And they were like, man, you know these people are just why are they Why are they playing house? Like? What about them is playing house? And I made the mistake of being like, well, my best friend is in a relationship that has it's beautiful and it's kind of it's awesome, but there is like a stagnancy to it, you know, in the place of like it's not growing, but also shout out to Ray in the sense of I've told Bay to propose to Ray for years. I was like, I was like, if this is what you want and you talk about it so much, go do it, Like, go make it happen, you know what I mean. And so I love them always went on both their sides all these things. But yes, but they're like, Okay, what is that look like, what is it not? And they're like, well, how long have they been together? And I was like, I was like, and at the time it was probably three or four years. So then we buffered that and added two more and did six. But that is the own like that is a very loose connection to me when it comes to the narrative of playing house. But I think you talked that into reality because it was six years before they got married. They really did. They really did. Uh. So fairs and festivals, you're out opening, you're doing a lot of stuff. Open up. Scottymcury, big and rich, Nitty gritty dirt band. People can go to Ali Colleen music dot com if you want to get tickets. Um, what do you do the rest of the day today with your inverted schedule at the time to breakfast oatmeal on after this? You know, definitely definitely summolpe meal after this was probably like a cheeseburger in it. Yeah, that sounds amazing. Um. And then I got home last night from a twelve day trip and landed and had to go go go play around. Got to play around. Had the amazing opportunity to go play around, is what I meant to say, Um, in midtown, So went and did that. After this, I go pick up my dog, I go pick up mary moo pants and we go home and we nap until tomorrow. Yeah, I think I want to go home in naptil tomorrow. To Mike, it's been great hanging with you for now. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's been really good. You guys. All you have to do is go follow Ali Colleen at Ali Colleen Music on Instagram and I'm just gonna and same on TikTok um. Your Twitter is different. But who cares? Meaning nobody? No one cares about my time, Like Twitter, but just to read it. And now I think I tweeted yesterday for the first time forever, and it was toast is plural. I don't care who you are. Toast is plural. You bring me two pieces of toast. There's an option of toast. You bring me two pieces of toast. That's interesting. I never thought about that. I thought you were just saying, yeah, so I'd like some toast, okay, And that's what happened yesterday. Ali great to spend time with you. You guys go and stream halos and horns, and if Ali is near you, I suggest that you go. If you can't go, go watch her play. And she's opening it for one of these guys, Scotty or Nitty Gritty or Big and Rich? Right said big and rich? Are they playing together? Still? They get along? It's all on the same post as I know, are thinking along. I don't know about that. I know them both. I mean they're smart enough to know to keep playing, you know, going because people want to see them get along for a few minutes. Yeah, get along all right? There? There she is, Ali cooln Thank you. Al