#387 - Chase Rice On Being More Honest With His Work + Being Pissed He's Not Where He Wants To Be In His Career Yet + The Real Story Behind Writing "Cruise" with Florida Georgia Line and their Falling Out to Reconciliation + Why He's Purposely Choosing to be Lonely Right Now

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Speaker 1: While they were exploding. They're definitely started becoming some intension, and I don't even want a hammer on that because we've gotten over it. We're good now. Tyler basically called me out on trying to be ftl and looking back, I would look him square in the eye and be like, you were right. Episode three eighty seven with Chase Rice. I didn't know what to expect, and I think we address it later on. I don't know if it's we didn't like each other, but we didn't. We adn't making effort to like each other, no real association, not really for a long, long long time. If I'm just being honest, And that's all good. You don't have your friends everybody, but I'm gonna tell you. After he left, and I've been able to spend some time with him in a couple of different areas over the past month and a half, and every time I'm like, day, I don't know. Maybe maybe he's cooler, maybe he's changing, maybe I'm changing, who knows, But I really enjoyed this, and I've enjoyed the last few times we spent together with Chase, even not just me and you like me and him at Jake's house for like an hour, and I was we'll get to it him and I but I was like, oh, I don't want to get stuck having this conversation where he's faking like he's not mad about the joke. But it was actually really great. So Chase Rice, is here your thoughts on this mike before we get into it. There was a real rawness to him. He get opened up, and as a producer, I was like, man, there's so many sound bites in here. Yeah. It was just different instance of him saying things where he's like, this is who I am now, and I'll take it good and bad, but at least I get to be honest about it. Yeah, all of it. I mean the I don't even want to I don't even want to say right now. I just want to get to the dang podcast. Chase Rice Asheville, North Carolina. He talks about his TikTok a little bit and he's got almost half a million followers, but he's never actually been on it, which is hilarious. Yeah. I didn't even sound like he has it on his phone and that he's honest about it because I just send it to somebody. It's crazy. I got people following me over there. You didn't even go over there, So it was like instances of that kind of realness that that was really cool here. So we talk a lot about the album's dad pass away, his trips into rehab, which he mentioned twice, and I wasn't gonna get to the joke because we'd already talked about on the show. He brought it up, the one that I made, and it was a controversial. I wasn't going to mention Survivor just because I know that's really not something he loves talking about and I've talked to him about it before years ago, and I think he's matured past that. He brought it up everything that I was like, you know, they's so there's stuff that I'd rather talk about, and also I don't want to irritate him, because it wasn't worth throwing him off for the other stuff I wanted to talk about, Like, I'm not scared to ask about stuff, but sometimes if you ask somebody about something they don't want to talk about, then they're not as open on the stuff that you really want to talk about. So I was strategically pick him with spots, but he went right to it without me even asking, and I just want to smoke somebody one time like he did, right in the face. Just knock him out, all right? Chase Rice follow him on Instagram at Chase Rice. The new album came out February tenth. It's called I Hate Cowboys and All Dogs Go to Hell. I'll play a little bit of the single here call Way Down Yonder, Here you Go. We talking about him working in a NASCAR, him having some depression after he was injured playing football, but also his dad died pretty heavy time for him. Chase Rice, episode three eighty seven here on the Bobbycast. Do you ever? I don't know just the question I was thinking about a minute ago, because I've become wonderfully jaded, where I've been able to do so many cool things that that's blessing. But some things I take for granted because we do them all the time. We live here in the town with a lot of cool people. Some people not cool, but generally it's it's, you know, you get to see and be around really cool things. We did a show last night at the Rhyme and and Creed came out, Scott Stat came out and played with us. We did Higher and we did my sacrifice and it was awesome, and it's one of those rare moments where I was like like this is cool, nuts, Yeah, this is cool. And Michelle Branch and the records came out that were so cool to come out and play with us, And there are a couple of insanes where I was like, I don't get to do this very often, but like I'm enjoying this moment that is cool, way cooler than I am. Do you have that at all? Now? When does that happen to you? Yeah? I mean I've I've always been pretty good about that, like enjoying it while it's happening and recognized. Like I remember in college, I was like laying in the bed in the dorm room like I don't know, I just then I thought to myself, like, man, you're never gonna do this again. This is cool. So I've always had that, as in in college playing ball and stuff or college experience or just the experience like man, what about now that you when you have all these hits and you're selling out these shows just musically? Do you ever Are you ever in a room with somebody and they just pick up a guitar or you're I don't know, just yeah, all it happens now with all of your success where you're still like, huh, okay, this is cool again, Like Garth Brooks went out with him at Nissan Stadium. Chesney brought me out last year at U in Bozeman, Montana, and I'm just I was just here hanging out with my buddies where I was in my fishing clothes, like, but stuff like that happens all the time. Still. Um even making this this last record, I'm sitting in there, like Lee Bryce came over down in Mexico. I was just with Luke. So yeah, a lot of stuff has been happening where I'm like, oh yeah, one hundred percent the like dang, this is real life for me. But at the same time, I still don't appreciate it as much as I should. I agree, and I also sometimes I'm driven by it, but also sometimes I have like this and not last night specifically because it was a big charity delight put together. But sometimes I'm driven by it. But sometimes honestly it makes me insecure too. I'm like, why am I not at this level? You know where I look out and I'm like, dang, Like what's maybe I don't know. It's it's a good check for me. Yeah, but there are some of those instances too where I'm like, dang, like maybe I gotta go harder. Yeah, I think there's I think there's health behind recognizing this cool and awesome at the same time. For me, I'm the same way, like I'm not selling out Bridge Stone yet. Jellyroll just did like what the hell has he done that I haven't in the end of the days just been himself more like there's music's better. I don't know what it is, but I've gotten a place now where I'm at least grateful to like for them. Yeah, I'm happy for them, but I'm not I'm not happy with where I am in my career now that with this picture, it also represents kind of the new record. I'm happy with what that record is, and if that fails, I'll be pissed, but I wouldn't change it. So that's a good place to be. Yeah, And you can be pissed though, honestly, Yeah, because you by the way, I have had two or three people that I have talked about your record to me randomly, like didn't bring it up where it was like have you heard Chases record, and I'm I don't really talk about music, yeah, just generally. Yeah, but a couple, maybe two or I think it was three, two brought it up specifically and one was talking about something were listening to and they were like the Chase record. It was the Jordan Davis and the Chase record. They brought it, both of them up and they were like, the Chase record is different, and it was that that sonically it was different. And then it felt like you were a little more I don't want to stay honest because I think your your story is whatever you're telling at the time. It's not alive. Yeah, you're not going deeper places. It's still the truth. That's just the truth. Like it just felt more honest. Yeah, how do you respond to that? Yeah, I don't think what I always did was alive for sure, but I think I agree by That's why I said that it wasn't a lie. But I was just I was confused, like I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't know what I didn't know what I wanted to do or didn't want to do it. I was just like, yeah, whatever's working. At the same time, I knew deep down I was like, what are you doing, man, Like, there's something better you can do. And that was a big part of that was Oscar came in and he sorry, yeah, he's an awesome producer. Produced the whole album, did it in my house, and this one was like I wrote the songs different, which that process was just me and a guitar for the most part and then other writers, but I had no tracks, Like I don't know. It just helped me write more real stuff. And then the coolest part was him working. We're helping pick songs in one song I wanted to do and it kind of reminded him of some of the older stuff and he was like, I'm gonna be straight up with you, man, you're better than that. And when he said that, I was like, damn, it's like it's a good thing to hear. It's like it hurts, but the net game is significant. Yeah, yeah, good way of putting it. Yeah. It was like, damn, yeah, you're right, okay, And I trusted and we learned to trust each other throughout that process. But yeah, I uh, this it's more honest for sure. I touched a lot of stuff that I've never touched before with depression, and addiction and whether it's me or my friends or whatever. But I think a lot of it was just the songs are written a different way and then have an Oscar on there to help me, not chase what's popular, to help me, just chase what's best for me. Do you feel like I'm gonna assign a theory tell you coming from roll or not? When you started here? What was the year you think you started in Nashville? It's all blurry to me. Twenty ten was when I moved here. So when did you have your first hit? What year? Swelve? With Cruiz? It's just like God Day. So do you feel like that success just kind of came so fast that you didn't have time to kind of figure out exactly who you were as an artist, Meaning you're already often running with success and you're like, well, this is successful. I'm just gonna keep going with this. That's exactly what happened. And then but it was Cruz and FTL would have never happened without Joey Moore, Like those guys had a thing that worked for them, that a process. I didn't have a process. It was like Cruise, Okay, that's cool, let's rewrite it with ready Set Role. When I listened to Ready Set Role, I'm like, I would never write that today, those words would never like slide girl by my side, girls and never happening again. But that was a thing that was a thing at the time, for sure. The problem with Cruise and what that started was it started everybody trying to do it in a shittier way and just a not as good version. And that's what I was doing. What do you mean by that? I've never asked you about the Cruise situation, and I don't even know if it's a situation. You hear things about the writing of it. Yeah, keep playing it whatever you're comforable of sharing, Like what what is that? Because I literally don't know the story. And I was never really close to those guys, and actually we had some pretty bad falling out a couple of times when they would talk crap about me out of nowhere and I'm like, all right, boys, you want to go, let's go. And I'm in like a handicap match in wrestling. It's like two on one. But okay, if we're gonna do let's do it. And we've fixed it and gone back and fixed it. But whatever, Yeah, I feel so I've never even asked anyone about that. What do you say about that? Now? Well, it was written originally it was me, Brian Kelly and Jesse Rice in a room and we're writing with guitars, um writing a slow song called when God Runs out of Rain, which is still a cool title. Um, because gonna say, I don't know that is that out? No, we never we finished it. Next we probably need to rewrite it. But um. Then Brian started cruise and it was just like baby look a song. We wrote it in like forty five minutes. Then they did like a garage band work taped to it. Nothing special, but I don't know. That was when tracks were starting in Nashville, which is the last thing Joey Morey really needed. But um, and then they were in the studio and Joey and Tyler they did change a good bit. So whatever they changed, they added bridge, they added a lot of parts, so they changed a lot. So they were added as songwriters later, which happens all the time. And wait, so they weren't songwriters initially, they weren't in the room initially, and then but they did. I will say they changed enough to where they should have been songwriters on. Is that one of those things to call and go, hey, guys, is it cool if we changed this? Yeah, we got an email from Seth so yeah, he approved it before. Like and at that time, I'm like, I don't care, like nobody's gonna hear the song? Who cares? Because I'm thinking like a new band, not signed, not signed, nobody's gonna care. Um. I was way off on that obviously looking back. Um, but no, they they they were adding all the song of songwriters too. So um. And I'll be the first to say, like people asked me all the time like if I are you? Am I mad? I didn't record that Like, no, so you never? I never even I wasn't gonna ask. I didn't know was it written in the room for whomever it was? We wrote a lot for me, Me, Brian and Jesse Um. But that day or Brian immediately was like, man, this is huge for FDO. He was he was kind of led the charge on that one immediately. But I don't know how he led it with Tyler and Joey and that team, but um, he led the charge on this. It is huge for FDO and he was not wrong. So when they record it, and I wasn't in Nashville yet, so I missed that pop with that song. When it came to me, I was I was doing hip hop and pop still, and the Nelly version had been crossed over, so that's where it was introduced to me. But if it's crossing over to pop, it had to be a monster here in Nashville. What was it like then for you as a writer? Was it good with you guys because you all wrote it together, or did it get weird at all? On my side, it wasn't weird until later, and I'll get to that in a second, but it was I was loving it because I'm sitting there like, dang, this is easy, Like I didn't know songwrit it would be so easy. I didn't know success and nash will be so easy since that's obviously changed. But Brian would keep me updated on the road because we lived together, so he would be coming home from like the Willie Nelson tour or something like that that they were on. They were exploding like it was. But in my mind I saw that and I'm like, damn, this would be easy for me to do too, which was the bad mindset to have. But I didn't know any better. Yeah. I was always coming home. I'm like, Brian, I'm I think it was in the thirties, and he looked at me and he was like, dude, this is gonna be our first number one, No problem, it's gonna happen. He was so confident that I'm like, Okay, cool, I don't think I didn't know how big it was gonna be. Um, did you were you making any money then at all doing anything? No, because again that's you know, obviously it's one. I'm assuming one sixth publishing at that point with six riders unless they got funky with the with the percentages, which they don't always do here. No, I owned all my publishing. Oh I still own all my publishing. So but but I'm saying, when you wrote it, the were six riders, so so one six of the writing part of it. Yeah, so how long until you start to get residuals off that a year or so? There's five rids? Um? Okay, who did that? Miss oh Joey when Joey and Tyler went back in right, got it? There's five writers? Huh? Um? No, they they they did. They did an equal split of as far or did it a they did a proper split where it was just twenty twenty twenty. Didn't then they didn't do that. No, they didn't take all of our stuff. They added Joey and Tyler on a different a smaller percent. Oh oh, well that's okay. Yeah, it was awesome. That is I did it right, Yeah, that is right. Um, And then it just started blowing up so that I knew I at least had money coming in. I finally had money coming in because I was about out of money to you know, at the point you're like twenty six twenty seven, like, mom, I need some money. Like reality sets in about that point your dreams that you've been chasing, or like, oh crap, now I gotta figure out how to support So that was always that was huge, like not having to worry about Okay, now now I don't have to get a real job, you know, I can keep writing songs. At the same time, I was wanted to rewrite that, or I wouldn't really wanted to rewrite it. I just wanted to have that success, which is the main reason it led to me going down that bro country road, which is what it was called, and there's a proper name for it, but at the time, it took a second to get labeled at honestly, yeah, it was just what was popular. Yeah, and you you were a writer of the biggest song of a decade. Yeah, I would feel the same way, like, I just did this, this is what's popular. It was that easy. Let's go. Yeah, A perfect example of what you should do in that scenario, which I would tell any writer, like right now it's Wallin and Zach Bryant, which is kind of cool because it's two very different things that are the top of country. But a perfect example of one thing. I look back, I'm like, dang, he did it right, was Sam Hunt? He didn't go down that road, he didn't go down the bro country thing he created as I kept hearing, like he's creating his own thing. He's creating his own thing that he puts it out and explodes. So that was a good example of what I wish I would have done differently back then, But same thing I didn't know. I wish I would have focused on more writing with me and a guitar. Stop the track thing that's not really my thing. But at the same time, looking back, yeah, yeah, I mean now you've actually maybe you wouldn't have got to this place now without all of doing it wrong. Yeah, and by doing it wrong, you still did it right. I mean, I wrote a whole book on I would even say I did it wrong though, but now because you're doing it right, you know you did it wrong right. Wrote a whole book called fail until You Don't, which I screen everything and I gotta find a million bucks by the FCC few years ago, and I'm really embarrassed of it, and really one of the things I wish I could take back. But I don't have a lot of regrets even in the things that I messed up, because I've taken something from him. And I feel like now you're at that place where you've taken so much from I'm not even gonna say mistakes, but a different version of you that it's making you probably a better version than you would have been anyway. That's true Artistically, Yeah, I would say, so, well, now I definitely know what I don't want to do. Like that's it. When you're that spot in a room when you're writing, you can look at the guys square in the eye to be like, no, we're not saying that. If you want to write for somebody else go ahead, but I'm I'm not gonna waste my time with that because I know it'll be a waste of your time too. So now I know in a room what I want to write and what I don't want to write. And while they were exploding, they're definitely started becoming some tension. And I don't even want to hammer on that because we've gotten over it. We're good now. But there was some tension for sure with Tyler basically called me out on trying to be ftl and looking back, I would look him square in the eye and be like, you were right, But also you created something that yeah, I'll say this, you didn't say this to me. My theory is that could be wrong. You helped create that brand with that song, that helped create that brand that was that band. I would say, I'm a very very small part of that though. That's fine, Yeah great, but I was part of it absolute um. And I would look at them now and just be like, dude, you guys were a huge You were a big inspiration for me because you're the only guys that that accepted me to be honest, and so they I learned a lot from them. I learned a ton about songwriting, and they're I don't care what you said about Brian and Tyler. They're good writers and they're and they're good artists and they're to me. I'm not say anything about them, no, no, I know I would say, you know what I'm say're all good. Now they get a lot of ship talking about them. I saying those guys are talented. Man, Yeah for sure. But I learned everything from them. And it's it's cool, man, looking back, because I learned so much and I went down those roads with ready set role and that holy that Ignite the Night album is platinum, and I'm like, god, what There's a moment you have when you're a new artist that you can never get back, and that was my moment, and I'm like, damn, I wish I wish I would have taken more time to step back, not put out music and write and figure out who I was and what I really wanted to do. The problem was I didn't have anybody to lead and guide me, like Eric Church at j Joyce Um every you can point it at a lot of artists whoout their producer. I didn't have a full time producer on any of my stuff. So it isn't it weird? You said yet your platinum album and you're like, cringe face you said platinum album. I mean, yeah, I get it, but it's I just that's that was a major success. Right now, I'm battling against myself, which is crazy because but it's it's a pretty easy battle now. It's like, if you don't trust it or believe it, that's cool. I'm not I'm not changing what I'm doing now. Like I know where I am now and I'm good with it. I think that the really cool end of this story is I think you're and I could be wrong. I think your most recent number one was the drinking beer talking got am in with Yeah. So I mean, and that was the point I was gonna get to is. I mean, you go through seasons. If you're close to people, it doesn't matter who it is, family member, best friend. You're not really close unless you also get into it a little bit because if you're that close all the time, there will be tension. It doesn't matter. I mean, Mike goes everywhere with me and Eddie and we're so close. Every once in a while, get it flares up. Yeah, because we're just freaking Humans And the end of this version is You're that last number one song. Those guys are on it with you. It's and that was their last one of their I don't know what they had, you know as FTL. But um, we never even talked about it either. There was so much attention and it blew up in our face that we just didn't talk for years. But that also pushed me to go figure out my own thing. And then we were in Australia in a parking lot after we literally a hotel parking lot, after we'd done a show in Australia, and we just started hanging out again. We just we had a night. We were never addressed it, you just like never talked game on. It's like Wayne's World game. I think I think we're just so much time had passed. Um. Yeah, we were good after that. And then Tyler and I have a lot of real conversations even now, like we're just I don't know, we can just go deeper than we used to be able to. Like I listened to his whole record in his truck, um, and I played him five or six of mine and we just had a good day. Like I don't know, we just never had to talk about it. It was just water under the bridge at that point. I credit Tyler too a bit for because Tyler and I for some reason, he went after me once I'm serious, and I was like, what's happening right now? And I was like, all right, like I'll mix it up. I do not care. I felt like I'm a little more mature. I'll look back at some of the stuff I did and I was like, oh, I wish I would have done that, because there's definitely some feuds. I went after too hard, too aggressively because I insecure. I was insecure, so I was like, if you're gonna hit me, I gotta hit you back ten times so people don't think I'm weak. And I wish I didn't have that mindset, but that's what I would do. And we went into it hard and then it was just the occasional run in. This was awkward, but a little less awkward, little Les Award, a little Les Award. And I was at a place where I was struggling big time, and I talked to Dave Heywood from Lady, who I really like because he's very analytical but he's also super creative. Somewhere that I have to be and he's like, hey, you should do you should go to him on site. And then I met Tyler for coffee and again Tyler and I hadn't gone along for a long time. And then it was less and less awkward, but we still weren't boys. And he was like, hey, man, like I know, way, it's been super cool, but if we're both willing to sit down here, like we're very like minded, this is why this place and he just do is that a real like real talk? And I went like two days later, and like I credit him to go for going for like six days, which I never do. I can't get away from work. I'm obsessed. I'm afraid if I fail, I'm done. Like I don't have to. I don't have any security in my mind. Yeah, so I went and that's like that was like, that's a real thing from that dude who in the play part of This World we were fighting like crazy, but like in the human part, once you like get back down and just sit down and look at each other in the eye. It's like I had the same thing with Kip More. We got into a big fight, yeah, and Kip was like, let's just have breakfast and I was like, all right, and we did. We've been a plus ever since because the human part of it right takes over, but so long we avoid that because we're like, we're pissed, you know, we don't want so it's cool that you guys just played a show together in Australia. And then I got up in saying cruises in that. They asked me too, what are you surprised? Oh yeah, really, that's so legit. That's how it happened, like human made that happen again. And that all led to drinking. We were talking got him in, which is once again that was Brian kind of leading the charge, like hey man, we should do this together. Um, it was very and that was in twenty twenty, so it's twenty ten. That was ten years later. It was like, all right, we're done with this. I'm done being part of anything that really has anything to do with FTL. They're done with each other right now. It seems like no, it seems like oh there, yeah, I don't know what coming back. Well, they may come back, but it's only gonna be if like Rascal Flats come back, and I'm like, we miss having crowds that kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what they're gonna do solo wise, but it was a cool book in and it was like it was like, I don't know, I think twenty twenty was a reset for the whole world. Agree. I was like, dang, okay, now you either came out worse or came out better. For me as a person, as a as an artist, came out better. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. This is the Bobby Cast. I'm curious with the new record, did you do anything different recording wise? So I know you had a new producer, but did you go into one of the big Nashville studios? Did you What did you do because even the sound of it's a bit grittier, and that's a complaint, by the way, Yeah, I love it, So it's even the sound of it's a bit grittier. So what did you do recording wise different that you hadn't done before? Um? Um No. We went into my house literally like fireplay like dramas in front of the fireplace. I did some vocals in my closet Like that was that purposeful? Like we want to make this to get down and dirty, so the music sounds like that too. I think it was just for fun oscar big intention. It was not really Oscar like we'd never worked together. Um. He asked me where i'd want to record. I was like, man, I just don't want to do the studio thing. I've done that for years. I just want to get a little more creative. Like this is a shot of us in my bedroom, and that's us. That's literally sitting on the bottom part of your bed. Yeah, around different. I'm gonna put this up to the camera read if. Yeah, it's literally just like that's Barton from one in Banjo Jackson freezing there and we're just going over how we're gonna record. I think it was walk alone and that's how rough and raw it was. And Oscar spun around his chair when we were talking about where we're going to record it and just kind of looked up in my house. What's wrong with this? Damn? Okay. We're on the same place with the five of the music too. He's like, we're trying to we're chasing something, right. I loved his Circles EP from Boyna. Banjo didn't even know he produced it. I loved the EP before so when I started talking to him, I immediately I had trust in him because I'd heard his work that I loved. So when he turned around and looked at my house, it was like, okay, this. I've always wanted to do something crazy like this. I was thinking, like, go out to Montana, there'd be a lot of work. Um, we have this huge space right here, let's use it. It's like Montana though honestly kind I mean, that's what I wanted to be. But it was here in Tennessee and it worked perfect because the musicians could come in and we'd work till sometimes we worked till three to four in the morning. U a song called Oklahoma. That was the only night session we did with them, and you can tell you can tell a difference in it just has a vibe or thing to it. But that's probably what we did Key West and Colorado with a click. It felt good. Then we moved on to All Dogs Go to Hell, and Oscar looked at me and said, let's let's try it without a click. See how it feels. We didn't. It felt awesome, so we went back and rerecorded Key West with really click. The whole record has no click. That was me and Oscar just kind of loving the idea of it. The musicians didn't love it at first, especially Fred the drummer. He's like, come on, man, like it's easier for him to have a click, But it had a whole vibe to it without it, so we just kept going with it. For those listening that aren't fail with what a click is, so it's just so whatever that So that's a constant in the ears of the person, so they it helps it stay. They are precise, yes, so, but when you remove the click, although it could be a little what we use the word sloppy, but it could be a little sloppier, it's also way more organic and way more viby and a little more soul full. Yeah, so it's like take take one, give one, depending on what you're pursuing. We were pursuing a raw as possible. I think Oscar and he would have to speak to this more than me. He knew he got to know me pretty quick because I was just I don't know, we just he he had something about him where I could be myself, and he got to know me really quick, and he knew how raw and real I wanted this, So he kind of led the charge on. All right, let's get the click out of there, let's make it. If you really want to change what you're doing, let's really change it. Man. It was just so much fun. It was we did it for fun. We had the most fun I've ever had recording, Like we wouldn't even know what songs we were recording. The days of we knew Key West and Colorado and all doll was good to hell. After that, we didn't know what really what we were going to record. Is there ever those nights or days where you looking you're like, dang it, twenty six o'clock, but like you were into it so much. Yeah, like I call it like a Vegas day or there's no clocks in there, so unless you're like watching your phone, you don't know what time it is. We had a lot of Almost every day was like that because it was such a fun process. I can't like it was just like this is I don't And that was a moment, like you talked about earlier, like you're sitting there like, man, this is really happening. That was a moment for me like we're never going to record like this again, first album together in my house, Like it'll never happen again. Let's have the most fun I possibly can with it. That was a cool moment. I want to know about your dad, Yeah, and I just want to like get into this a little bit. Yeah. You know, I've seen on your Twitter a bunch of pictures of him over the years and just you posting, and I mean, you guys look alike obviously as your dad. He's on the cover of the album. And you told me on the radio show. Why but let's let's get into it. Your dad was what kind of guy as a kid? What kind of guy was your dad? Um? He was tough, tough as hell. I mean, you didn't want to piss him off. You knew that right away. But he'd deal with it right away and he'd sit you down and talk to you, or he'd spank you or whatever way he wanted to go about it. But he was also he always encouraged us to We lived in a farm, so he'd also encouraged us to just go out and have fun, like be kids. He always he loved does more than anything in that showed he never missed games. He was he was coach of a lot of our teams. Um, and he just he was always there, which is a crazy thing to say and be surprised by because now I'm realizing that's not normal for a lot of people. He was always there, never missed anything, and he was a kid at heart. I don't know, he's just something about us. He just he put us first in life. And now I'm realizing, like how hard that is do. So I definitely probably never gave him the credit he deserved. But he was tough as hell, he was honest. He didn't he didn't be asked anybody. But that's the number one thing I would say is he loved the hell out of us and he was always there. What values do you feel as you get to be an adult and you know that he had stilled in you, Because again, sometimes it takes maturation in us to realize why we matured, how he matured, and what was passed down to us. What do you think he put in what the values he had stilled in you? Well, I know, for one thing, like I've noticed around me sometimes people are just like kind of nervous times, and I learned that from him. I got that from him. Whatever it was, like, I'm very direct to the point. I hate wasting time on bs. You're also a physically imposing guy. Was he He was, Yeah, he was even bigger than I am, but like I'm six foot six one, depending on what she was I've heard, you know, Jay one is right, but you're a big dude, And I can understand people be like, oh okay, and I just I'm in my head so much thinking and that's just how I am A lot of time that I'm not. It might seem like I'm just not paying attention to you, and I might not be, but I'm not at it because I don't like you. I don't want to be around you. I'm just like thinking about something. He was imposing, but he was very imposing, and he walks in a room he know. You know the thing about it is the more success I've had, the more I walk into a room and I want to disappear. I'm like, I don't, God, I don't. I don't want this attention. But then you also walk in a room where you were somebody else that's getting more and you're like, what the hell? You're like, what I do get stuff too? Yeah? Yeah, right, Meg, zero sense. It's the creative psyche where we have to be weird. Does even pursue something creative. But that doesn't mean we're not weirdos. Once we actually start to have success in it, we're the same weirdo makes it even weird. It's just absolutely for sure. So what year did he pass away? Two thousand and eight and what did he die from? He had melanoma. My mom found a spot and I guess he found a spot first. They had it checked out, um, and they said it was and grown hair. You don't need to worry about it. They cut it out anyway. Wow. They called him the next Yeah, but they called him. They called him the next day and say, hey, you need to come back in so stage four melanoma. So he was fighting that his you know, for I don't know when he got that. I was in high school. How hard it was that for you? And did he let you know how how hard it was for him? Like he'd come home with a scar, I got another one cut out. I'm good. It's like, dang, looking back on him, he it beat the hell out of him. It wasn't. I didn't let it affect me that much because because he didn't, he was like, yeah, I'm gonna be dealing. Seven days before he died, he said, I'm gonna be dealing with this the rest of my life. I just got it checked in DC or Baltimore, and they said, I'm pretty much good to go, but you know, it will come back and I'll deal with it. But by the time I'm seventy five eighty years old, I'll be ready to go. And then seven days later he was dead. Was he protecting you with that? Yeah, he knew. I look back now, and I've heard now from my mom they said he only had five years left and I had no clue. And I'm not mad at him for that. I get it. I might do the same thing. Yeah, I mean that's that's him protecting his kid kids, you know. Yeah. And so what happened was I just went and got my heart checked and I spent all this money to like do it right. And my mom asked me why I did that. I'm like, well, mom, dad, I had a heart attack. I want to make sure she and I just found this out two years I had a heart attack. He had a heart attack, so he had cancer. So I found and I knew he had a heart attack from get go. But I found out two weeks ago when I told my mom about getting mine checked. She said Chase, she didn't have to do that. He didn't have a heart disease. He had melanoma that they couldn't cut out by his heart and ended up giving him the cardiac arrest. Did you had your heart turn out? It was perfectly good. Yeah, it was cool to hear that. But now looking back, I'm like, damn, Like I didn't spend all that money, but it's good to still know. Um, how was the relationship at like these awkward to years for a kid twelfth, thirteen, fourteen with you and him? It was awesome, But I don't know. I feel like I missed out on him getting me, us getting into each other's men. Um, but he it was. It was good. Um. He was always pushing me. He was proud of me. That was the biggest thing that I could take from from One of the biggest things is that he was He was proud of me and always told me that. He always told me he loved me. But he he saw me go from you know, middle school. I was kind of a mess because I learned about a bunch of stuff that you shouldn't learn about from a friend, like sex stuff or drug sex stuff. Yeah, sex stuff and alcohol and there's a right way to go learn that and there's a wrong way, and it's affects me still. Um, so he caught me doing a bunch of that stuff. Um thought I was good, but I don't know. We just never had a good talk about it like we should have, but we were good, Like, I don't know. I guess he probably he didn't know how to go about that. He didn't know how to go about his eighth grade kid like getting into that type of stuff. Like that's a problem. And I wish, you know, looking back, that he would have taught me more about it, how to go about it the right way than the way I learned it. And later in life, I've gone through a lot of therapy and and I've learned from other people like damn, that happens to a lot of people. A credit to your dad. And I'm sure you feel this way and you love him, but it is You're right. It is so rare for someone to be consistent like and when you talk about it, mean like he was there. Yeah, I mean that alone is pure love. Yeah, oh yeah. It just feels like in relationships, no matter what it is, His parent, brothers, sister, best friend work Like everybody's gonna do things and mess up and do great. It's just that the value of two humans working together. And but man, consistency, that's as much love as you could possibly get. Like I'm that's always that's just sound like the greatest dude. Yeah, he was there, that's that's the number one. But it wasn't like he was just there and absent. He was there and he gave you all the attention and then like through high school stuff, didn't miss into the games. Do you still miss him? Oh? Yeah all the time when Because my mom died ten maybe thirteen or so years ago, my grandmother raised me, adopted me for a while too. And I have moments in waves where I'll like see something it doesn't it just reminds me, and it's like it's like I get kicked in the like side yeah, and you're like, oh man, I really miss Yeah, what is it for you? Sometimes? I was reading a book this morning and it was talking about dreams. It's a psychiatrist book. He was talking about the dreams this one one of her patients had. And that's the best way I can explain, like when it does kick you on the side, you're just like, damn, it comes out of nowhere too where all of a sudden you're bat You remember the phone call. I remember the phone call from my mom, Chase. She said my name, it was real shaky and shut the fridge like I remember details, shut the freezer, and she said, oh god. My first thought when she said my name and it was shaky, was oh god, was she found out that I've done? Like that's a guilty contents right there, U. And then she said, Chase, come home. Dad died and I'm just like, whoa what? Like the only way I know how to explain it is the worst dream you ever had in your life where it's it's that nightmare where you wake up and you're like, oh, what was that real? Okay, No, that wasn't real. Thank god, that wasn't real. Like that that would end your life if that was real. Didn't life as you know it anyway. But it's that and it's real, and then it doesn't stop and for the next few hours you're still processing what just happened. And I was driving home, like where you're driving from Nashville chap I lived in Chapool. I was in college, so I was driving from Chapol to Asheville. First phone call I made was my ex girlfriend who was like my high school girlfriend, so she knew him really well. Called her told her I don't remember how that conversation went. Um My brother, Casey and I talked three times on the drive home, and it was more just like what's going on because I didn't ask how he died. He had a heart attack, but I didn't know that in my mind he fell off the roof or something working on the house. So that whole drive was just like it takes sometimes like this morning, it didn't happen, But sometimes it'll hit you, like you'll be back in that place where your mom calls you and it hits you like a ton of bricks in your life just stops and you're back in that moment. It's even if it's first split second, but you're just back there and it's a it's a shit feeling. But I have done a lot of work talking to people, therapy stuff, Like I went to rehab twice and the first time I went, I was like, I didn't talk about anything that I thought I was gonna you go back into all this stuff, which is awesome. You're now looking back, I'm like, Okay, that's so necessary, but I dealt with the loss of him a lot, but it's still never it's never gonna go away. And you're right first, You're right, it's not gone away at all for me, especially the waves, Like it's not as constant, but the waves are equally as powerful right when they do come in. Yeah. But also I look at it as a blessing too that I get to be sad, which is a twisted issue way, but my grandmother was so valuable. Yeah, I had no consistency at all, you know. My dad left when I was five or sick. My mom was an addict her whole life, died into forties. My grandma adopted me and was there. And the fact that I'm so sad and missed her so much, Like I feel very lucky that I get to be sad, Yeah, because she was that awesome. Yeah that I'm lucky that I'm sad because I could not be sad and I would have had no consistency and no love. Crazy awesome way to look at it. It's I think it's survival for me. Honestly, I do believe it. But it's weird even to say out loud where it's like I feel blessed to be sad because that was the one person for me that was she was seventy, but she was right there. So you know, when I hear the stories about your dad, I'm jealousy, but I'm also super grateful that you had that. This crossed my mind for sure, like would you rather have? And I told people all the time back then. I'll still say it like I got more out of twenty two years than most people get from the dad in a lifetime. And I've wondered, like what's harder what happened with me or never knowing him at all? And I'll take what happened with me all day ten times that absolutely. Yeah, hang tight, The Bobby Cast will be right back. Welcome back to the Bobby Cast. The back of your record is your dog? Yeah, also very meaningful to you. Yeah, he's awesome. So I haven't seen him like a week of this morning a morning. Yeah, so tell me about him. So he's um. He's a black lab named jack Um. I I wanted, always wanted a dog, but I wanted him for uh, for like I always wanted to go bird hunting with a dog with my own dog. Um, So that's what I've got him for. And he goes to training back and forth. He's not a pointer, he's a retriever. Thought him like, like you take him duck hunting. Yeah, and he goes he gets to break the back. Morning we were on a walk and I was throwing the thing. He was held to go till he drops. But I got him because of the song bench Seat Um, which is on my record, which is a song about my buddy almost shoot himself. You're by yourself from my Mind's that right? Yeah? I got it and I wrote it in my breakfast room and it was a third song that I wrote by myself on the record. But I'm writing this song and I'm in my mind. I've got a video going through like I don't know why the whole videos in my head while I'm right. It actually helped me write the song. And it's about my buddy who put a gun to his head and didn't pull the trigger. Twice. I thought he was a coward for not being able to do it. It's like, damn, that's when you're in a bad place, when you can't even see that like you did the right thing, Manum, And he didn't because his dog came up put his head on his lap. He felt love. Yeah, it was well, he knew he'd have to leave the dog, like who's gonna take care of He might even put blood on the dog, like he would have made a mess. And that's love from him to the dog. Worrying about the dog. Yeah, and he knew this dog is pretty awesome telling about my buddy's dog. But he knew what the dog was thinking, like, don't do this. And I think the dog knew there was a problem. Obviously, maybe not cognitive thought like we have. He knew there was something wrong, and so he came into my house and got help, you know, just third second or third night, I go up and flipped the light on him, like which is funny because going back to my dad, my dad caught me on the phone talking to a girl saying a bunch of shit you just don't say to girls. And at the end of the conversation, I said, I love you like I didn't. I was clueless, you're middle school. You don't know middle school. And he came up. This is crazy. I don't know if ever pieces together, but he came up, flipped the light on and sat down. I knew I was busted. It's like, oh no, he was on the phone the whole time. Fast forward to my buddy. It was like I had this thing where like I knew he was in trouble. Different situation. I'm not his dad, you know, I don't. It's a different situation. But I went up and it's flipped the light on and leaning against the wall, and just said, what's up, dude? And he h he said, oh, I'm good, I'm good. I'm just he's like sitting up out of bed. He's trying to go to sleep. Dog was on the floor And I said, no, what's up? Why are you here? So you never come? You never come to visit me like this. You don't even like I had a showed in Atlanta, you'd even come to the show. What are you doing here? And what's because he was a dark he was dark? And uh, he just loses it, face gets red, starts pawling his eyes out, puts his hand like this, and explains how he almost shot himself. I guess two or three nights before and that point. I'm just I'm just listening. And he got the work from a lady here that I was seeing who was awesome. She like made it a point, Okay, I need to see him every day. He started to work. Then, um, that's been years ago. That was probably twenty eighteen nineteen. And then fast forward to twenty twenty sometime and he's at my house. He's doing much better. I'm like, okay, I got my friend back. He's back, and now he's doing even better. I saw him over Christmas. He's awesome. Man, he just got gazed. So um he's joking around the fire and he's like, man, bro, you should write a song about a god driving around struggles dog and I just laugh. I'm like, that's cliche, Like the most cliche song you can almost write. Three days later, um, I texted recall him and I was like, dude, I wrote it. It's not gonna be what you're gonna expect. Fast forward to the me writing ben C having the the video movie idea in my head. That was the moment I was like, Okay, if I'm gonna have a dog in this video, it's gonna be my dog. Originally he was gonna be the puppy. Took us two years a piece together the video and make it right. So Jack's the middle dog in the video. But that's that's what sent me over the edge of like, all right, I'm getting a dog finally, and you put him on the back of the record to show what um well, dog cowboys and dogs for whatever reason with the theme of this record, probably because I was addressing you know, my dad, who's on the cover, and then Jack was on the back. Jack. I think I mentioned dog like four or five times in this record. I'll get off it on the next one. But that's why I'm at in life. This dog, he came into my life. I don't I wouldn't say saved my life or anything, but he's made my life a lot better and he's made me more capable of loving and being loved. Absolutely did it for me. My dog did the same thing. Yeah, people think I'm crazy when I say that. Yeah, I think when I said amen, I would just I was just a vessel reaction to be going eight. I felt that, Yeah, why do you think that about you? I don't. I don't like the I don't like the idea of someone loving me, and I don't know why I think. I think it spends for my dad passing away, um to where I haven't had that in fifteen years now. So I'm like, ah, I'm good. Plus you put on this front like you're all tough. Plus you have fame start coming into the picture, so you don't really know who to trust. And I just don't like the idea. It makes me uncomfortable. So it's funny when I'm that tough guy or I'm putting on the act and then all of a sudden rolling around on the floor with Jack and he has a thing about it. There's no judgment, there's no there's no falseness to it. It's just you and your dog were rolling around on the floor and me like talking in a higher pitched voice that I'm used that I'll ever talk to anybody. So I think, first it's allowed me to let myself be loved by something or someone, and then that can flip hopefully that you know, allows me to flip it into loving somebody at some point. And I'm not saying I'll love it like I love my mom, I love my brother. Yeah right, but like a romantic trust, non blood love that you don't right that you have to work at. You have to work. It's your brother's gonna be your brother, regardless you may get five, but he's always gonna be your brother. Yeah you hold are you thirty seven? Okay? So I didn't. I didn't get married to just thirty nine and never been engaged, was never in a serious relationship. And in my vow is what I said. I said, the hardest thing I have to do is learned to be loved. Be loved. Yeah. Wow, And my dog Dusty you had for thirteen years, like I would practice because I did. I love that dog. I never told anybody I loved him my whole life. I didn't say. I just didn't. I didn't know. I didn't. I didn't know how to, but that dog. I would tell him all the time, like I mean, it makes me emotional think about it. I was just like I would say, yeah, I love you. I love it. And it's the only thing that I wouldn't even I couldn't even say love. In recreating a situation that I didn't say it. We were talking about and they'd be on the show, be like, what if you met, how would you say it? I'd be like, oh, I can't I live with that dog like almost like trained me to. When it finally happened, Yeah, and it wasn't easy. Wow. But when it finally happened with my wife now, it was like, this feels different. I can't piss this away. I know I'm capable because I love that animal before he died. So when you said that, I was like, damn, Like I felt that more than anything. Yeah, because that was a big part of my life. Yeah, it's a thirteen year old dog who adopted from a puppy meal and that changed, and that that that changed at all? Are you like, I mean, I'm assuming you want a family. Yeah, I do for sure. I'm in a place right now where I'm extremely lonely a lot, but I'm okay with it. It's not like I'm in this depressed state. I just I'm living in it, man. And I also understand that a dog isn't enough, Like I don't want to be the guy that's fifty years old just with him and his dog. But I've earned it, like I've earned the lonely. But I'm doing it on purpose for now because I just feel like that's what I need to do for myself. And also I think it's going to take something that extreme to get me out of this place of or get me into the place of wanting to really be with somebody, one person, because I'll tell you one thing I was thinking about. I think about this all the time. But like going down the road of a lot of women, no matter how tough you can sound in front of your buddies and the ones that say don't ever get married and all this, it leads you to extreme depression. And I don't I don't know all the details of why, but it leads you to a very very dark place, and and it leads you to a lot of sex with a zero intimacy. And then the more you do it, the more it leads you to just wanting to be alone. And it's a dark place to be whenever you're talking about being lonely. But what's great about what you're saying is because I went to a lot of therapy. I went to a couple's counselor by myself, and she had never had anybody do that, but I found one, and I was like, I need I need help because I need to understand what I love and when it hits me, I need to know how to not run from it. Yeah, and because my wife, unlike anybody else, strong, smart, bullheaded, she's the only person that I don't like to argue with because I can outslo I feel like I can outsmart anybody. I don't like it because I don't. I can't like she's and it really pisses me off. You can't manipulate. I can't. I can't, right, And so I think I would have run because it was so strong. I feelings were so strong so quickly. But I went to a couple's counselor and I was like, I'm very lonely, but I'm not going to settle and I'll be lonely forever instead of settling. And she was like, that's the freaking healthiest place you can be. Yeah, So that's exactly where I am. Man, that's that's because you're not trying to fill a void with something quick and easy. You're going, it's a void, but it's going to be avoid until we figured out like long term and then and then I'll do it. I will go I will try to fill that void knowing it's not gonna work, and then it doesn't work, and then you just end up using somebody else, and that's a shitty way to live. You're also very self aware though now too, which I think is massive growth. So this is interesting. I sent this to his name's Jim. He wrote a thing called The Blue Book, which I read every morning. I sent this to him a couple of days ago, and it was just a quote that I that I was reading in the book and let me just pull it up where it whatever I sent to Jim, because it's between it's there's a difference between self aware and Yeah, insight is easy, change is hard. And that's that's what that was the one small quote I sent him, And I said, I'm in the insight phase, which is so with so much unwillingness to act on it. But I want to change that because and I'm not unwilling to act on it. I know I have the insight. Now, now I've got to take the action. And you can't take the action without the insight. Right, And if you don't walk the ladder in the rungs in order, you'll fall off the ladder. You can't jump five wrongs up because you'll eventually you'll miss and you'll fall back to the bottom. Yeah, but now I at least have the foundation foundations there. Um, I've still gotta I've been thinking about going back and seeing the lady I was seeing just because why not what There's no bad that's going to come from that. Um, It's like and then when I start going down there's lonely dark hole, it's like, Okay, you've been here before. Calm down, Like, don't start sliding back into the mindset of like you have to be alone, like you've been here before. Slow down, chill for a minute, and then you can start pulling yourself back out of it. The Bobby Cast. We'll be right back, and we're back on the Bobby Cast. We think about kids. I love kids. I want I want kids. Um. That's that's uh, something I get to see with my brothers. They have my oldest brother as a niece and daughter and a son, and my niece and nephew. My middle brother has a son who's almost two or three, I think three, and he's about to have a second one. So it's cool to get to see it um as an uncle. Um. But it also makes me want it even more. UM. I just don't want to wake up and be fifty five and have all this stuff to myself. I want to be able to start something that's bigger than me, which would be you know, obviously I would like to meet a woman first and marry her and have kids. Um, for sure, that'd be that That would be the ultimate dream for me that I haven't done yet in life. Way Down Yonder is the tour and it's also the next single, Mike, can you play just a bit of that swampy Yeah? I mean the reason we chose that as a first single, I think there's better songs on the record, Um, but I don't know. We've chose all these love songs and stuff for singles, and it's like, that's not even me. Let's show something that's actually me and very different, very very different than anything I've ever done. And that's why we started it with that. But then if you dive into the record and it's actually working now, it's like, God, finally we got a song that's streaming, and that's streaming is kind of a good way to gauge because it's not even at radio yet. But yeah, we wanted to like, if we're going to show that we're doing something different, let's really show it, and that's why we chose that one first. But then it's it's a unique record where I don't know if there's anything that just raises its hand or does everything right? Or does everything right? Because could bench Seat be a single at radio? I have no idea. It's very different, and it's like it's you're talking about songs like I played guitar on that and I set them the tempo as opposed to Fred who's one of the best drummers in town. So there's parts that are clearly not in time as well as other songs. But who cares. I don't know. I just something's gonna raise his hand. I think, um, this is a weird record for me because I think it's setting a whole new tone for my career. And it didn't have a It had a really good first week, but it didn't have like a like I'm sitting here like why is it not as big as Morgan Wallen? Well, because Morgan Wallain' is the biggestars on the planet, like I've learned, don't compare yourself to that. Also, this is a whole new thing. It's gonna take people time to even trust it. And it's a whole new you from something else that isn't a new thing that they have to learn this new version of you as well and learn if it's today, like is this guy even realm. But this is the most me like that. That's I'm not worried about that, because there's gonna be a deluxe that comes out. It's gonna be like yes, and there's gonna be another record that comes out and says yes, like guys, it's not going backwards to Eyes on You. It's pretty good. So I actually like Guys on You as a song. I've always had this battle with producers of hey, why don't you do what J Joyce would do. It's like, because you're not J Joyce. Now I get it, right. I pushed producers too hard sometimes to try to do something that's not them, and now I don't do that, And I was just like, don't do that. I actually worked with Jay on a song going into this album, and he helped shape this whole record in a way, and and uh, because it was cool to get to work with him, but it was also cool to see how it worked, get behind the scenes and then also see how Oscar works and no, like, yeah, he's just as good. He's done out of the accolades. Yeah, but he's just as good up a producer, and he's hungrier urban legend. I don't know how urban it is. Let's your football career. I hear everything from your I start running back to no, I'm not talking about it here. People's urban legend at this point, like it's all You've played every position, sometimes multiple at once, You've been kicker. I mean, like, what's the real story. Yeah, that's I didn't know that was I didn't know that was a thing. Um. I was a linebacker at at Carolina North Carolina. I got to the point back half of sophomore year. I was a really good player. Going into my junior year. I was like, Okay, this kid can play in the NFL. Got hurt first game, snapped my ankles the first game game of like the second quarter. Do you remember the place? Yeah, it was a quarterbacks running. I look at the film and it looked it's different than I remember in my head. But obviously the film's the truth. But um, yeah, I hit the quarterback and like it was just my ankles. You hit the quarterback whenever you're yeah, we were kind of we kind of just hit it a weird angle. He was running. We hit face, you know, hel No. Or seven for James Madison. We're beating the hell out of him. Did you know, it was like your leg was over there. Yeah, I knew my season was over. I thought I broke my ankle. One up at halftime. The ladies like, give me a thumbs up around the corner, and I'm just like, no way, there's no way. It's not there's not a sprain. So in the shower of all places after the game, I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna put some weight on it. If it's just a sprain, who cares. As soon as I did it, the tendon on the back snapped all the way to the front of my foot and then the doctor doctors come in and snap it back in place, and so I got surgery on that. I'm trying to come back my senior year immediately, like I'm just not the same guy, just physically, I couldn't run the same. And then that going into that senior year was when my dad passed away. So in May with the injury, do you think that a lot of my friends of athletes, they like that they tear a hamstring or they have an ACL injury, it's not the same, But they also aren't the same mentally, where they're like every time they put it on for a long time, They like, I don't want to put too much on it because it don't happen again. They've already been through it once. Was that happening with you at all? Yeah, especially knowing like that my whatever the groove is in your ankle, it was just more shallow than any other ankle. So in my mind, I'm like, okay, if this one's holding up, because it still was like clicking. It was weird, still does today. I'm sitting there like, Okay, well, am I gonna do it to my right one now? So mentally, you're not the same. Physically, I couldn't run the same. And then on top of that, the kid that backed me up, I was a senior at that point, he was a sophomore. He had a average year. You know, he's a freshman. He didn't just figuring it out, but he was becoming a really good player too. So I was just all jacked up. And my dad had just died, so I'm just like I was not there. It sucks because I know what could have been, because I know how I was playing football and I was good. And then like four or five of my backups on the team, I ended up going to the NFL this kid was a second round of first round draft pick, but it did teach me a lot. Like I look back on that same thing with right right now, same thing with like my whole career fgl Sam Hunt. I was like, damn, I'm jealous. I want to do that. So I joined it and I stopped making stuff that's true to me, and I learned, now, Okay, do what you wish you'd have done in college, which was that whole year. I wish I would have taken a lot more time to sit down with the kid his name as Bruce Carter and help him become a better player that year, because that would have made me better and it would also made our team better. But I was selfish, like, Nope, I don't want to make him better because I want to get back my senior year and I want to get back my starting role. The starting role was never gonna happen for me. Again, I wasn't the same player, but I was bad. I was being selfish. Were you depressed, because yeah, but your dad died, so that I mean, that's a whole different traumatic about football. Was there a specific depression where it's like I put all this time into it, and now it's over or was it just over written by your dad's death? Before my dad died, I was I think I was just sad. Yeah, I was pissed off. I don't even know if I was depressed. I was just mad that my season got taken as soon as my dad died. Yeah. That started a depression that lasted all the way to two thousan fourteen or fifteen sixteen seventeen before I really got out of it fully, and I say fully, like I'm always going to deal with it. There's definitely days, but I said, I know I've been in that hole. I know how to get out of it. But I sat down to two that in thirteen after my mom wrote been this long letter over Christmas, realizing that I was just out. I was not there. I was there, but I wasn't. And that was when I was having success with Crews and Race It role, and I was miserable. I remember writing in my journal before she wrote me this letter, I wrote, I no longer want to be alive. That's a awful place to be. And she wrote me this letter. I read it like, oh, called her immediately, like Mommy, right, I'll get help. And I sat down with this guy, his name's al He's the best. I still talked to him today and he sits there and listening to talk for five six minutes and then he just looks at me and laughs and she's like, yeah, you're depressed. And I was pissed, Like no, not it took me that long to even realize I was depressed. But yeah, it was my first time dealing with depression, So why would I know what it looks like. I didn't know. I'm not depressed, That's what because I was functioning like I was still getting up. I was having success even I was touring. I was actually functioning. In my mind. Depressed people stay in bed all day. That's not the truth. Um, Kyle Jacobs, we just lost him. I had no idea, and that's uh. I haven't talked to Lee yet, but uh uh yeah, I mean you just don't know, right. NASCAR a lot of urban legends there. What'd you do? I was a jackman for like what we were was the team that they brought in. They brought him one team in two thousand and ten or nine. Jackman is, by the way, you got it, the guy when the car comes in, he puts the jack in Jack's the car up and then you I was a jackman first, and I went to a rear tire carre which got imprints, the inserts the the rear tire and wheel. That's it's just a pit in the pit thirteen seconds. Yeah. So they brought in like nine or ten of us to see if the ex athletes could do the stops faster than they, you know, the old timers in the shop. And it worked immediately, like, yeah, once we learned what we were doing, we were doing stops faster. Now you look down Pitt Road, it's all X football players, X baseball whatever. Strength and hand eye coordination, which is imperative to that job young athletes. Yeah, yeah, exactly, and it made perfect sense and it worked. But two thousand and nine we were the young guns. We were staying in hotels. We were just a trial period. That year we won a championship with Jimmy, but we were the guys like Blue and Tires. We were nobody's. A couple of the guys got moved up. I started pitting for a guy named Ryan Newman, doing some stuff for Jimmy Johnson on race day, which was he won another championship in twenty ten. I was never the guy that went over the wall for Jimmy on race day. We were getting there like I was about to be and then I was over the wall, like starting just started, got started. Yeah, and so but we were the best race team in the world. We won two championships, and we were the guys the next guys in line, and some of the guys had already gone up. I was half ass and everything because I was I was kind of misery. I was miserable. I just lost football, just lost my dad, got this new job. I'm living in a hotel. I'm lost in life, and I just started writing songs when my dad passed away. So I'm like, man, I really want to go to and I just visited Brian Uh. I actually got a fight. I got. I hit it one of our crew guys in the face. I was just like a physical physically smoked him. Wish I smoked somebody one time. Just I had a story. I actually didn't even hit him that hard, like I just wished I smoked somebody. Point to half the story. Yeah, I'm just trying not to get smoked my whole life. But I got suspended for that, and I came a visit to Brian. That was my first visit to Nashville ever, and that was when they were like, hey, we'll meet Tyler later. We're gonna go play some songs at the Hotel Innigo here and uh I. Tyler was to my right, Brian was to my left, And that was my first time really singing into a microphone. So that was when I fell in love with Nashville, which made me hate Charlotte and the NASCAR job even more. I finally was starting to get really good at the NASCAR job, like, Okay, you're about to be up. And that was when Survivor happened randomly, so in my mind the TV show, in my mind, I was like, Okay, that's a way for me to go maybe make some money, and then I can come and move to Nashville. Oh. So it was like your pivot out, your natural pivot out, instead of quitting the job because it was too good of a job to quit. Like that's the type of stuff I'm thinking, I can't quit this job. My dad raced, um, he would love that I'm in racing right now. I can't quit this job to go do music. When did you start playing guitar. Could you say you're writing songs? But were you a musical kid at all? I started in twenty one, twenty one years old, was twenty one, and I learned to play guitar. But I was like, I wasn't that's late, that's late. Yeah, I never thought, why did you buy a guitar? Like? What led you at twenty one to buy a guitar? Ben Lemming offensive linement at Carolina. He had a Martin eight fourteen CE because he was a huge Dave Matthews fan. He'd played Dave, he'd sing, he'd play while I would sing in the dorm room. I wasn't great, and I'm still like, I'm not. I'm no Stapleton, but I gotta eat. But he was the one. He was like, dude, you should go to or you should uh be a country music singer? Pretty good? And I don't know how he worded it, but in my mind it was the equivalent of you should go being an astronaut. And and then I kept learning songs. Or did you buy the guitars you got the music store. I went to a random store in Asheville about a seagull guitar, which my brother has now. Um, and then I wanted I'd be in class like Google and Martin guitars. I don't know why I wanted to Martin. I think because Dave Matthews may have played one. UM. So I showed it to my dad. My dad made me sit and play the only time he's ever seen me play, which was cool that he got to. UM. He made me sit in front of him and my mom in the living room in their house in North Carolina and play like four or five songs. He said, I'm not going to buy you the nice Martin that you want unless you do this, and I did it. So he bought me this, the Martin that I still play today. Yeah, it's like and that was another thing looking back, I was so out of who I am and what got me into music in the first place. From two thousand when I started to two thousand and twenty when I made this record, Like, I wasn't even using that guitar on the road. Now that's the only guitar I use, or not the only one, but the main guitar I use. I was just showing that locked in that tracks pop style of music, that I wasn't even playing that guitar that my dad got me. I just lost so much touch of who I was. But it's okay. It all led to now that's like the main guitar I use, and all did it. Forever It'll always be how did you learn to play? Ben taught me a G chord in the dorm, then a D and then a like E minor and C, which is interesting because that's the chord progression or cruise. And it's also the chords that I probably learned too, because they were the easiest. Yeah, it's just you know, it's just, um, when did okay? When you start to do bar chords, because that's when it's like, that's when you're really that's when you play guitar. That first year and I was terrible at him, but I remember looking at F like I'm never gonna learn they never get my finger over the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, I say, no chance. I'm learning the F chord and I'm still not a big bar chord guy, but I'm more of like a movie case everything. Yeah, it's just you gotta i don't know, you gotta be ed cheering or something to do all that stuff. Um, but that year I learned, I got better when my dad died. I wrote my first song about him. It's called larger than Life, um, which is actually his headstone, his tombstone. Um. What what is larger than life? Daniel L. Rice got it. Then it's the dates in John sixteen twenty two, which is now as your time of grief, but I'll see you again, um, and you were joyce and no man will take away joy But um. I wrote the first song about him. Second song was which makes perfect sense. I was in this party mode of wrote a song about my dad. Then I went to Georgia with my buddy that about the Bensie's about. We went to Georgia, hung out with a girl there, a group of girls there, and wrote a song called Georgia Girl. And I was in the back half of my senior year. Football was done and I was partying for the first time in college, for the first time ever in college because I was playing football. You know, I lost that identity of the football player. Now it's like I'm going nuts. So I started writing those songs. And then Charlotte same thing. I'm partying moved to Nashville. Your partying because it's a party town, and which makes perfect sense when you look at from two thousand and ten to two thousand nineteen, or really seventeen seventeen, I started cooling off a little bit on it. But why all those songs were that brood country party thing. That's where I was in life, and that's what I was doing. Why would I not sing about it? So it's kind of and I'd never thought about that until literally right now right Chase Rice on Instagram Chase Rice music on TikTok, which about the way you kind of killed it over there. Wasn't really expecting to be killing it over there. I'll be honest with you. I don't even do kind of killing it over there. I mean I'll do something like if it's music. I was like, I just wanted to be about the music. It's interesting because I don't. I don't do that. I don't. I've never been on TikTok, but I will promote the music on there. Man, No, you do, like again, you kill it on tick. I just didn't expect to go over there and be and you have a ton of followers because even like Jake Oh and like over the Jake and I've been friends. He's the first person I knew here because Andy Roddick and Jake who was Josh back in the day. Here's my friend, Josh is in Nashville. When you go, I'll set you out. You guys would be friends or at least till kind of points in directions so I could get here. And Josh's not Jake and Jake and I always knew each other. But you know, when he was drinking is tough because it was he was inconsistent, and that was tough for me. We didn't teach other off. I never knew I was gonna get But over the last couple of a few years we've become really close again. Yeah, our wives are close. Jake and I are super tight. Like I love him. Yeah, I don't say that about many folks. But and so Jake hates TikTok won't. He wouldn't get on it. He's like I hate And I was like, yo, Chase's a guy like four hundred thousand followers and he's not doing any corny over there. Yeah, it's just a it's just a place to put more stuff that you can find more people that can help songstream. I think Zach Bryan, he's well, he's a YouTube guy that moved over to TikTok and then blew up on TikTok. But yes, it's all the same. Though. My point is it's all the same. If there's a stage, you can be on it and always be there, and there's a way. Like I told him from the beginning, I'm not doing the dances. I'm not doing any of that. It has to be about the music. And and Zach's like, you'd think the opposite of that. But it's huge for him, huge so but it's also the main thing is that he makes good music. So yeah, that's your team does a good job. Then, yeah, because you're kind of killing it over there. I just I didn't want another app to get on. I yeah, I'm on my phone enough staring at useless stuff. I'm like, nope, I'm not doing it. But yeah not hell yeah, use use the stage another stage, promote the music. And I mean, that's the game right now, it's the game part of it. You can use that to get streaming. Yeah, I mean, then it's huge. Like I had Ride blow up randomly couple a couple of years ago, when all I did was hold the phone and reacted to a girl that was talking about Ride. It exploded and Ride went to like number one on iTunes. What just happened? And I hope that happens with something other than Ride, because I'm sick of that. That wasn't even supposed to be my song in the first place. But this record, I don't know how it's gonna explode. I don't know if it ever will. I think it will, but I don't. I don't know how it's gonna happen, but I think it will because at the end, I think good quality of music does puns through. New album came out in February. I guess we're wrapping up February, which is next week. There a couple of weeks, okay, so it's March early March right now. Um, it's great, it's great, it really is. I Hate Cowboys and all Dogs go to Hell. And I asked you about the title and the song I hate Cowboys. It's you have to hear it, kind of understand it. But you at cowboys for a good reason because you're kind of jealous of one. Well, you're just jealous because he was better than you. And then all that iays go to hell is not that I mean, it's all a web, allized like I don't know, you're just sarcastic thing. I don't even miss you. Yeah, right, and all's go to hell. Yeah, check it out, dude, we've been over an hour. Yeah, Like I feel like I got to know you better here than I ever have. I don't know you, and I haven't always I don't want to say not gotten along. We just never Randy. We just were never near and it was like every and I was probably always like he's bigger than me and better lookings. I'm gonna stay well yeah, yeah, he gets girls. I've got a lot of ideas from other or people who have a lot of preconceived notions of who I am that are so off. But I think they're so off because of how I hope have presented myself in the past. Like and now I'm just not doing that anymore. There's good people say, I'm saying with me, right, Like I came into this place for years and would just like burn everything down. Yeah, it was it was out of insecurity. Yeah, like I'm gonna burn every single thing down in the town and they're gonna respect me and they'll have no choice. Yeah, and then now it's like here I am ten years later, and I still have that and that drive, but not the same. And I'm like, man, I didn't have people in the China shop. Yeah, I was just so scared and I had imposter syndrome. And how I how I faked it was I'm bigger, smarter, um, smarter, funnier, and I'm gonna if you come at me, I'm gonna come at you ten times as hard. And I wish I wouldn't have done that now. Yeah, and me too. And that's and Jake was a big part of that. We're at his party over Christmas and he was just like, because you made the joke about me on your comedy thing. And immediately my first reaction is screw that. Hate that guy. But I thought about it too. I was like, he didn't lie, You didn't say anything wrong, but you did ask me you God to open a show for you. I was like, yeah, one and at okay, then you weren't lying. You didn't lie about anything. So what am I mad about? Um? And I just trust Jake man, And if your buddies with Jake, you're a good dude. He didn't put up with anything outside of that. I asked Jake. I said, hey, I ain't gonna put this out. I did this joke about Chase. I was like, and he's like, you don't like it at first, but Chase is a cool dude, like he'll get it, and like he made I like it at first, but you should because I went to Jake and I don't ever ask anybody about jokes because I'm just like, gonna put it out there, let it live. And then he was like, no, Chase, because I knew you and him were also friends. And I was like, he goes, just put it out. It'd be fine. And then you were at the over Jake's and he's like, hey, Chase is here, and I was like, well, cool, I'll talk. He's worried. He's like, you're worried. You told me I could do the joke. Man, what's that? And then you and I talked he probably a baby for half an hour, just you and I just threw talked, and I was like, oh man, I was good. I really enjoyed that. My manager text me after we were on your show last week or a couple weeks ago, and he uh, he was like, wait a minute, are you and Bobby boys now? He was even shocked. I was like yeah, man, if you talk to people's face to face. But I was saying earlier it was on eyeballs. You quickly it's just souths different. And I like, you've even said you're different. I'm different than I've been in the last her and you just grow up and you there's no reason I have enemies, and if you do, I don't. I don't know. I just I think at the end of the day, both sides would just get along better if they just talk. And there's no reason I have enemies in this town. In life, it's like, just talk to people, man, and you and I would. I we weren't enemies. We just didn't know each other. Yeah. We were just like it's not for me. We weren't enemies at all. But I was like, ah, you know, I'll pass and you were like, eh, I don't want to have to smoke him. So I was like, thank God, I don't want to smoke. I've always wanted to smoke one person. I don't want to get smoked. I followed Chase on Instagram and TikTok. Album's great and the tour is way down yonder right same, and you're doing some shows with Jelly Roll too. I saw that that was cool that he asked me to do that. So you guys follow up Chase and uh, dude, a great, great time way over now where I appreciate how generous you were with stories and vulnerability, and um, there's just one I think people are going to see a whole new side of you here long form. One of my friends text me today. His exact thing was, I'm just gonna read this to you. He said. Long form media is not good for liars because they get caught constantly. We just did an hour and a half this. I feel like this was a great hour and a half for me and you and for you and for this project. Long for media not good for somebody who's not being inauthentic, and I think this is very authentic. Yeah, it's And I'm just trying to continue to be better a dude. I'm working through a lot of stuff still. But it's also easy to be that way when I know that you're not going to sit here in JUDGM before it. And at the same time, if there are people out there who are gonna they're probably not the people for you, Like if they don't promote or like help you be yourself they're the wrong people to be around, all right. And that's what made that's what made it easy for me too. Man. All Right, there is Chase Rice. I love this episode of The Bobby Cast. 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