#550 - Aaron Watson on His Infamous Feud with Bobby + Why He Will Be 'Blitzing' Country Radio for the Next 5 Years + TikTok Video That Backfired on Him + Having to Be Crazy to Be Great

00:00:06
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about being some outlaws, me and you, this is some outlaw.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: Welcome to episode five point fifty with Aaron Watson. A couple things. You can go to Aaron Watson dot com and he's doing well his shows that he still has left on his tour, but also an Aaron Watson Family Christmas tour, which we do talk about later on. I think the reason it was fun to get Aaron on as we got into a pretty big fight.

00:00:32
Speaker 3: I didn't realize it.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: It like eight years ago, and it wasn't even a real fight because to me, everything's wrestling and a lot of feuds, even when I do them, are for promotional reasons. But no, we get into it and I thought that was good.

00:00:45
Speaker 3: I like Aaron.

00:00:45
Speaker 2: I think he's been killing it on social media. Think about Aaron. He is a major name in like Texas or Red Dirt or just general country music, but he's built his career independently without relying on a major label, and that's a big part of who he is, a big part of his musical identity, and we talk about that.

00:01:03
Speaker 3: So I enjoyed this.

00:01:04
Speaker 4: I hope you enjoy it.

00:01:06
Speaker 2: It's Aaron Watson on Instagram at Aaron Watson music and Here he Is, Episode five point fifty. Aaron Watson, Aaron.

00:01:14
Speaker 3: Good to see buddy. Hey, it's good to be here.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Where do we start? We got like three places. I thought, where should we start? Where do you want to start?

00:01:21
Speaker 1: Where do you want to start? We've got a little history. It's kind of our anniversary.

00:01:25
Speaker 3: I think that'd be good to do.

00:01:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all right. Hey, happy anniversary, brother.

00:01:29
Speaker 3: Is it our anniversary? I think so?

00:01:31
Speaker 4: I don't know.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: So.

00:01:33
Speaker 2: I think what would be interesting for me is if we told both versions, yes of whatever story ended us in a place where we were temporarily unhealthy with each other.

00:01:47
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:01:48
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is when you think about it, you know how like as time moves on, the story gets better, Like ten years later, this could be good. You go first, Okay, so golly, this has been ten years ago, which is wild. So we had this album come out in twenty eleven called Real Good Time. I was in a great place with had a wife. I still have my had a wife. This is not this is going to get me in trouble right off the bat. But my wife and I we had Jake, Jack and Jolie. You know they're like ages, I don't know, five, four and three. We had them back to back to back and Real Good Time comes out, and I remember I got a call and they were like, you're not going to believe this, but your album charted top ten on Country Billboard. And for me, I was an independent artist. I wasn't looking for anything beyond that. I was just really happy where I was at. But I got to thinking, well, what if, what if we What if I got a real producer, and what if we instead of just like making a record and just throwing it out there, there was some strategy involved. So I got in touch with Keith Stegall, which you know, legendary producer did all Alan Jackson stuff, and we worked on this album called The Underdog. And so we finished The Underdog album and then we held onto it for maybe like nine months and tried to work strategy. And the album came out and it became a number one and which was huge for us, you know, And I don't think really back then, I really understood that was quite the feat because things are much different now. I don't think people really pay a lot of attention to some of that stuff. But it was the first independent album to chart number one for a guy, and I was super excited about that, and we were trying to get a song to radio. We had a song called that Look that I still feel I could just be a hit today, And so we're trying to convince.

00:03:59
Speaker 4: It was the crs.

00:04:00
Speaker 1: I think we're trying to like we're meeting with all of these program directors trying to convince them to play us. But I don't know. I feel like back then, independent artists weren't as celebrated maybe as they are now.

00:04:17
Speaker 4: I kind of felt like I was looked at like a bad guy.

00:04:20
Speaker 1: And I think, at the end of the day, you know, my career, it's like it's no different than if I had a lawn care business.

00:04:29
Speaker 4: It was just the family business.

00:04:31
Speaker 1: Like literally, when I'm working, I'm thinking about one thing. There's a certain number I need to make a month so that I can take care of all my guys in the band and all the employees because they depend on me for that.

00:04:45
Speaker 4: So there's always that goal.

00:04:47
Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, there is always that on me, like I have to take care of my boys. And so I felt like we were here battling for for the you know, going to war for the business, the family business, you know, trying to.

00:05:05
Speaker 4: Say, hey, we're not these outlaw.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: Texas artists, you know, and then I ended up breaking into your place basically, so well, but we'll get to that, you know, which kind of makes me go, Okay, maybe I was a little more more of that than what I thought.

00:05:23
Speaker 4: But I will, dude, I will never forget.

00:05:25
Speaker 1: I know the exact time and place where I got I guess tagged on It was Facebook.

00:05:34
Speaker 4: It was Facebook. It was a Facebook post.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: But Keith Stegall, we were at dinner kind of celebrating the number one, and we were literally talking about how, like I think we can do we can get mainstream Rader to jump on this stuff. We could hire a radio team, we can do this, you know. At that point, I was like, maybe a label would even want a part of this. And it was either me or Keith somehow got and it's been too long ago, but I read I can't remember in my mind. It's like a seven paragraph thing. I have it somewhere on a computer and it was well written.

00:06:10
Speaker 3: What was written.

00:06:11
Speaker 1: What I can remember is it was nothing really against me. It was I think I probably should have read that and been more prepared when I came in here. But I think what you were kind of getting at was where music was at that time.

00:06:27
Speaker 3: Did I actually write something?

00:06:28
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:06:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, got it? And did I write it about you?

00:06:32
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:06:32
Speaker 3: Got it.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: As you can tell, I'm not prepared to e okay, because my version of this is way different because yours actually has like a story behind it, and I a reason mind was just I was just running hot.

00:06:43
Speaker 3: But go ahead.

00:06:44
Speaker 1: So at the end of your seven paragraph thing, I'll text it to you when I got it somewhere.

00:06:51
Speaker 3: I probably don't want to cringe.

00:06:52
Speaker 1: Well, well, at the end of it, it said something like I like Aaron but just because he has a number one album doesn't mean that he belongs on mainstream radio.

00:07:07
Speaker 4: That is what made me go, dude, we gotta go see that guy.

00:07:11
Speaker 1: So Keith contacted someone and I started running hot too. I mean, I don't run as hot as I used to. I'm running currently. I can't.

00:07:24
Speaker 4: Here's how unhot I am at the moment. I can't.

00:07:27
Speaker 1: It hurts to shake with my right hand because my eighteen year old boy did some jiu jitsu.

00:07:32
Speaker 4: Thing on me, and now I'm I'm wounded.

00:07:35
Speaker 1: I am a I'm and he actually laughed at me and he goes, oh, Dad, did I hurt your little money maker? I run so unhot now that I just retreated from that smart Alec comment. So what I remember is Keith reached out to somebody that maybe worked for you and they he was like, man, they don't have time.

00:07:57
Speaker 4: And I was like, well, tell him they have time.

00:07:59
Speaker 1: He just with this long paragraph I'm trying to get mainstream radio to play me, and literally the biggest DJ in all of country music said like, I don't deserve to be played. So for me, it was more like I didn't want to fight you. I wanted to be like, dude, listen to this album. We slaved over this thing, like this is a competitive mainstream country album and it's and my thing is it was Texas music. And that was my big argument ten years ago to every label. I said, Texas music is a great version of country music and there are artists and I said it back then. I said, there's this kid named Cody Johnson that's gonna blow y'all's minds and there's a whole bunch of him back in Texas, and you know, and that just wasn't the vibe, and as I've gotten older, I understand that its phases and stages and stuff.

00:08:56
Speaker 4: Like that, But so I don't remember.

00:09:00
Speaker 1: I don't I can't accurately say exactly what it was, but I think maybe someone that worked for you said we don't have time to meet with him, and then maybe three or four glasses of wine later, I was like, you know what I ought to do. I ought to show up at his place tomorrow because my thought was this. You hear the legendary stories about Chris Christofferson, like renting a helicopter and flying into Johnny Cash's compound, and basically I based my.

00:09:34
Speaker 4: Whole attack on that, and it was pretty funny.

00:09:40
Speaker 1: But so before you, I remember, I remember waking up early in the morning, and I don't know if it was five thirty or six in the morning, but I remember the doors were locked, and I'm sitting I'm on I know exactly where I was at. You walk up the steps and I'm on the right side. This little lady walks up and I guess she had the code because she opens the.

00:10:03
Speaker 4: Door and as the door is the door is shutting. Dude.

00:10:07
Speaker 1: I gave the oh whoop, and I caught the door before it closed.

00:10:12
Speaker 4: Dude.

00:10:12
Speaker 1: So I'm mosy in like I'm fixing to rob a bank, and I go sit down, and I think I was thinking about, like, so you have a wife and three kids and this is your career.

00:10:26
Speaker 4: My mom always my mom.

00:10:27
Speaker 1: I have the sweetest mom and dad, and she's like, take a moment and think about the decisions you're fixing the make. And what's so bad is I've told my mom, Oh I did. I thought about it. I knew it was a bad decision, and MoMA just did it anyways, But I remember, so I remember that.

00:10:50
Speaker 4: I think I built up the courage.

00:10:51
Speaker 1: At some point after I snuck into your place to ask to speak to you.

00:10:56
Speaker 4: I remember.

00:10:59
Speaker 3: I think it was your producer, Elena.

00:11:02
Speaker 4: Elena, and.

00:11:07
Speaker 1: She I can't remember, but I think she basically told me it was very unprofessional to just show up unannounced, and I probably was like, yeah, well, I'm not professional. I probably popped off and said some smart alec thing, because if you know me.

00:11:22
Speaker 4: That's that's that.

00:11:23
Speaker 1: I've gotten a few butt kickens over my through the years because of my mouth. But what set her off? I said, will you tell Bobby that I will sit down here? In this lobby all day long until he has time for immediately shake his hand and give him this album. I says, if he has time to write that Facebook post, he has time to shake my hand. And she said, well, something, something, something, and I popped off of pop popped off at her and she said something. Then I went, thank you, sweetheart, and I saw fire in her eyes and I felt suddenly like a second grader when you make your teacher mad, and you know, yeah, and then a large man. I don't know if he in my mind now it's gotten better, but I feel like he picked me up by the back.

00:12:17
Speaker 4: Of my shirt and oisted me out.

00:12:20
Speaker 1: And so I walked out with my manager at the time, and he said, how'd it go?

00:12:24
Speaker 4: I go, well, that did not go so well.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: That was not my Christofferson Johnny Cash moment that I was hoping for.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: And then dude, we turn on the radio and I hear you go, who what did he do?

00:12:39
Speaker 1: And dude and it was like next thing, you know, my phone? Oh gosh, it was yeah. And those were the end of my outlaw days. I have not I have not broke into any place. I was a changed man after that. I didn't like the feeling of you know, breaking and entering.

00:12:57
Speaker 3: That's funny, the breaking an entering part, because a big part of my careers I broke into another radio station and took over the airwaves.

00:13:03
Speaker 4: Dude, that's awesome.

00:13:04
Speaker 3: It's now looking back, it's awesome.

00:13:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, but there was a time that I could have really been in a lot of trouble because we took over the airwaves, like we locked everybody out and then took over on the phone and drove around the city and like we FCC violated many things that Yeah. So when you say that and you're like, I knew I wasn't, That's how I felt the whole time I was also breaking into a radio station.

00:13:25
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: I well also too, let me say this about you, because there's a lot of artists even in this town. Everyone talks about being some outlaws. But just because you don't like dress the part I mean me and you, I mean I've I don't know that I've ever dropped a four letter word on a podcast for radio before, but this is some outlaws shit, you know, And.

00:13:51
Speaker 3: We were very much in a similar place at that time.

00:13:54
Speaker 1: Definitely, But you know what it was is before you tell your story, I'll say this.

00:14:01
Speaker 4: After the.

00:14:03
Speaker 1: You know, after we we cooled off a little bit, and the more I got to know about you and see what you're all about.

00:14:10
Speaker 4: I was like, that dude's just like me, but he's got.

00:14:13
Speaker 3: Glasses same except he wears the cowboy hat. That's kind of how I felt.

00:14:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember the Facebook post at all, so I would love to even see it. At first, I was like, Mike, if you find it, if you happen to go back ten years I was looking for.

00:14:27
Speaker 4: Having Mike wasn't even born.

00:14:30
Speaker 2: I would love to read it because I'm curious as to where my head was then ten years. My version of this is, if it was ten years ago, I hadn't been here very long.

00:14:42
Speaker 3: The town hated my guts.

00:14:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was a bull in.

00:14:48
Speaker 2: A china shop with anybody who put they could have pushed me out of the way of a car, and I was like, you pushed me. It's time to fight, yeah, And so anyone trying to assert any direction or authority on.

00:15:03
Speaker 3: Me, We're gonna fight. Because had to fight forever to get there.

00:15:07
Speaker 2: I thought everybody was coming for me, So I was going to take everybody down before they got to me. That's very much my headspace, and not just specifically towards you, but it's what made my first few years here very difficult. I do think though, the same way that you have success. My success now is based on those first three or four years of just fighting everybody, because one, I think it got me a lot of respect, and two, I got to be myself very unapologetically. I didn't have to play the game like you didn't want to play the Nashville game.

00:15:35
Speaker 3: I don't want to play the Nashville game.

00:15:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, totally.

00:15:37
Speaker 3: You know.

00:15:37
Speaker 2: When I moved here, they were like, you got to wear a cowboy hat and you got to act like a little more of and I'm like, dude, there's a difference in trailer park country like I was in Cowboy Country, and both count. Both count, but I'm not going to be a version of the country that I'm not. And so the only thing I remember was Elena showing up and she said, hey, there's somebody out front, and again this is so long ago. Yeah, so long ago, bro, And I was like, I'm in the middle of a show.

00:16:08
Speaker 3: I'm not going out there.

00:16:09
Speaker 2: And secondly, I don't meet people about music ever, because although I can like spike music here and there and play what I want. I don't want to play music. I don't want to be known for that. And so I was like, I'm not going to meet anybody out there, and she's like, I'll go meet him, and she comes back pissed. The only thing that I remember is that my person was pissed. And it wouldn't have mattered if you would have said, hey, hope you have a good day. But she was pissed and she felt offended. Anybody that came after mind, and you didn't come after I don't feel like, now knowing you, you came after her.

00:16:40
Speaker 3: I feel like.

00:16:43
Speaker 2: Both people were in a place that it was a bit awkward. You were in an awkward place, she was in an awkward place. And I was like, if you're offended, I'm offended and I like to fight, Let's go after him. And that's what it was. And so yeah, I just was like, let's just burn it all down. I do not I don't know this person. I'm able to. I'll burn anything down right now. And then I did, and I remember it was all about her saying that you called her sweetheart, And in my head, I'm like dude, I grew up in Arkansas.

00:17:10
Speaker 4: I was shocked.

00:17:11
Speaker 1: I said, man, I remember someone interviewed interviewed me, and I said, all I know is this, do not call a girl in Nashville, Tennessee a sweetheart because it does not. It that does not. But you know it's what's hilarious.

00:17:26
Speaker 4: We ate it.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: It was like a couple of days later, we were still here. We were at one of those like.

00:17:34
Speaker 4: What do they call it, the Hot Chicken, the Hot Chicken, the.

00:17:38
Speaker 3: Like one of the hot chicken places. What's the one called Mike the big one.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: As you can see, we don't really go to the Statue of Liberty down here.

00:17:47
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:17:48
Speaker 1: I think we were Hattie Bees. Actually it was Hattie Bees. And I ordered something and the lady was like, can I get you anything else?

00:17:56
Speaker 4: Sweetheart? And I was like and we all. I was like, oh did she do?

00:18:01
Speaker 1: What?

00:18:01
Speaker 4: Does she just call me? Would that lady just cut?

00:18:04
Speaker 1: No?

00:18:04
Speaker 4: But yeah no, and and you know, I but I will say this, I knew that's what it was.

00:18:13
Speaker 2: She was offended. I wasn't offended. Yeah, because she was offended.

00:18:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally.

00:18:17
Speaker 3: My person's upset. I'm upset.

00:18:19
Speaker 4: You got to take care of your people.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: And I wasn't there to see it. And also, again, I'm from a small town in Arkansas. Everybody called everbodys sweetheart. Yeah, so even if you'd called me that, well, that might I might have been different.

00:18:28
Speaker 3: I thought maybe you thought I was cute.

00:18:30
Speaker 4: But like, he's a really nice guy.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have been offended had she not been out of her mind mad. And I'm like, Okay, I got you, and that was it, And so I went with it. You went with it. It got to be kind of fun for a second. And then the more people I knew that knew you even second later, they were like, he's a good guy, like he's and what did they tell me?

00:18:54
Speaker 3: He's got he's kind of got a mouth like you.

00:18:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a good guy. And then it just kind of faded away. Yeah, but for me, it was never because there are some people from that long ago that I have no relationship with. Because I really became offended with you.

00:19:08
Speaker 3: I never felt that way. Actually I followed.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: I mean I messaged you a few weeks ago and I was like, dude, you were killing it like it.

00:19:15
Speaker 3: I guess I don't even think about that version of us.

00:19:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, we were both.

00:19:19
Speaker 1: You're very right because also what happened to me is I love country music.

00:19:25
Speaker 4: I just love it.

00:19:26
Speaker 1: It's when it comes to baseball and country music are the two things that my dad have always We've always had together. You know, even when I was a teenager and I was being a turd if it came down, if it was involved baseball, our country music, me and Dad were suddenly best buds again and we would get along. And that's still the same thing today. You know, it's like I'm ready to get back home, so he's ready to come over to the house and hear the new Whalan Songbird album and he wants to hear it on vinyl at the house. And so so country music means a lot to me.

00:20:02
Speaker 4: And so.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: I've never been like I want to be a big country star. I kind of looked up to guys like Guy Clark and Robert ro' keene. I've always kind of been infatuated with these country boys that can just sing their songs on a stool and make a living. And I love business, so I'm good at that. And so when I was in college, I thought to myself, Okay, I probably I don't want to be George Strait. That's you know, if it were to go there, then that would be cool. But I had a very realistic business plan. I thought to myself, if I can play shows and break even paying the band and all the expenses, if I could sell just three thousand, four thousand CDs a year on the back of the van, I'd make more than I would make if I was going to be a baseball coach in high school. It was really that simple, and then it grew from there. But that week was a That week was an interesting week because I thought that having a number one album would be celebrated and earlier that week what happened is that's when the president of Sony, Gary Overton, said, if you're not played on that's what your article was about. Oh my gosh, it just hit me. You were your thing was about. Gary Overton made a comment he said, if you're not played on mainstream radio, then you don't exist. Well, then I've got a smart mouth. I got interviewed by like one of the big papers here and then whatever the paper is in London obviously does that make sense?

00:21:57
Speaker 4: Yeah here?

00:21:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the weirdest thing I was like in Rolling Stone, was I mean, I'm getting You have to realize at this point, I've already been doing this for fifteen years. I have never experienced this kind of thing in my life. And all of a sudden they're like, hey, rolling Stone wants to talk to you, and I'm like rolling Stone, And so they asked me. Gary Overton, the president of Sony, said if you don't get played on mainstream radio, you don't exist. They said, what would your response.

00:22:29
Speaker 4: Be to him?

00:22:30
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I guess I'd walk up to him, shake his hand, and go, hey, mister Overton, my name's Aaron Watson, and I got the number one country album this week, so I guess I kind of sort of exist. Well, that started going viral, and next thing you know, people started and I at that point, I accidentally threw him under the bus and I started. It was just a It was a wild thing. And I am a guy. I am pro artist. I wave the flag for all artists, whether they're on a label, whether they're independent. Obviously, I really cater towards the independent kids because I can tell them something that I can actually sit some of these kids down and go tell me your numbers. Okay, no, don't even think about a bush right now. Don't even think about this right now. No, you don't need to hire a social media person. You need a front of house guy because your band sounds horrible out front. I can help an artist. There are mainstream young artists that, because I've probably almost got three thousand shows under my belt, that I could say, tell me what you're doing, because I've made a lot of mistakes, and they may be one hundred million times more talented than me raw talent, but I've honed my craft over twenty five years, three thousand shows or whatever it is. But that was a crazy week for me, just because of all of a sudden, all this heightened publicity. I mean I was already selling out every show I played in the South, in Texas and everywhere we would go.

00:24:10
Speaker 4: So it wasn't like I was new.

00:24:12
Speaker 3: It was.

00:24:14
Speaker 1: Literally I'd been doing it for fifteen years already. I was like, you know, people would talk to me like, well, you know, like I'm some new artists, and I'm like, well, I mean, fifteen years ago, I was I got a wife and three kids.

00:24:26
Speaker 3: Come on, you're sure I wrote. I just was never a guy that wrote stuff. I mean, I wrote.

00:24:31
Speaker 4: Books, yeah, I'm I'm I'm very sure.

00:24:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not saying I did.

00:24:35
Speaker 1: No, Yeah, I have it somewhere. I'll send it to you. It wasn't Here's the deal in this. It didn't offend me. It's almost very parallel with what you just said with you weren't mad at me for saying sweetheart. It was more the fact that she worked for you and she was upset.

00:24:55
Speaker 4: You were more.

00:24:56
Speaker 1: Now that we're talking about it, a lot of this is coming back to me. I think you were addressing the fact that Gary Overton made a very bold statement about.

00:25:04
Speaker 3: I don't know Gary Overton. Yeah, yeah, did you find it? I found it?

00:25:11
Speaker 2: Okay, can you text it to me or just hand me a computer or something. I would love to see it because I these are my sleeping pill years.

00:25:18
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this.

00:25:19
Speaker 1: It's so funny because I will still have people come up to me and ask me about you, and I go, we're friends.

00:25:24
Speaker 4: Now, we're good.

00:25:25
Speaker 5: Now, let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. Wow, and we're back on the Bobby cast.

00:25:41
Speaker 3: Let me read this and I wrote this.

00:25:42
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go, and the Bobby on Facebook letter guy, I can't believe I wrote on Facebook this article. So what am I wrote? The S word looks like, Yeah, wow, I haven't. I haven't said a single curse word in six or seven years.

00:25:57
Speaker 4: You're refined.

00:25:57
Speaker 2: Now, that's crazy. Okay, I'm just gonna read it and cringe afterwards.

00:26:01
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:26:03
Speaker 2: In the article about country radio being out of touch because Aaron Watson isn't getting played is absurd, not because the title is wrong, but because of why they wrote it. First off, in a few ways, country radio is out of touch. I get s for playing awesome ninety songs on the air because we are new country. So many suits throw tantrums because of it. Then they do research and said, you know what people actually like nineties country?

00:26:30
Speaker 3: No s.

00:26:31
Speaker 2: I can save you research money about ninety five percent of the time. But not playing Aaron Watson isn't the reason there's any sort of disconnect. Radio purchasing music is a singles game. Now the old Internet allows us to buy one song at a time, so we do. Rarely does anyone buy an album anymore, usually only if it's one of our favorite artists. This is why the world flipped when Taylor sold over a million, which is unheard of in a week now. I like Aaron but I just checked and he doesn't have a single song on the top one hundred on iTunes. And last time I checked, radio doesn't play albums, they play songs. I love radio, and radio is changing every day. The days of it being just in your car or through a transmitter are coming to an end.

00:27:17
Speaker 3: Dang, I was really ahead of it.

00:27:18
Speaker 2: You were let's go, baby, Yeah you were. It's going to be in your car, but in your Wi Fi. Mine already is Spotify. iHeartRadio podcast. That's the landscape. Radio for now is still king, but the king realizes that other people are invading its territory.

00:27:34
Speaker 3: And it's cool that.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: It type I heart Radio, which was created by my radio company. I think I was just like saying I am part of a company that does that.

00:27:44
Speaker 3: I don't know. I wrote that terrible.

00:27:45
Speaker 2: Radio still dominates and quote you only played the same artists over and over is what I hear all the time. Note I don't pick the music, but yeah, you know why because people love and they're buying those songs right now. It's a ratings game, just like the local news. It's a business. Radio is about hit songs. Not hit albums. Hopefully a song that you check out on an album and you buy is then if the album is great, it'll thrive regardless of radio play see bet Casey, musk Graves, et cetera. Within any industry, the cream always rises to the top. However, the article is dumb. Side note I've been scolded twice for playing Johnny Cash on the Year twice in the last two days.

00:28:20
Speaker 3: Side note two. I also played Aaron Watson on the.

00:28:22
Speaker 2: Year earlier in the week, way before the article and said, I really like the song, so I'm pro Aaron Watson. I'm just anti that his album selves have anything to do with radio being disconnected. Side note three, what's up, Aaron, I'm a fan. Don't take this as a personal shot. Everybody check out the album. The album will not be played on the show. Signed Bobby Bones.

00:28:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh that's I don't know.

00:28:41
Speaker 3: I still kind of stand behind it most of that.

00:28:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, and it was a good it was that was all good stuff, and I think that's where the What's up Aaron I was like for me.

00:28:53
Speaker 4: I'm a very realistic person.

00:28:55
Speaker 1: Like the last three albums that I've made, I have not even thought about pushing nationally because I can listen to them and go mm hmmm, I'm not gonna spend my kid's inheritance.

00:29:07
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna gamble their inheritance on this music.

00:29:11
Speaker 3: I think my point with that though, wasn't anything to do with your anybody.

00:29:14
Speaker 2: So totally it's that just because an album exists doesn't mean that a song should have to be forced down whatever whatever radio was becoming.

00:29:23
Speaker 3: Totally so, I don't I don't even think it was about you, No, it wasn't.

00:29:26
Speaker 4: It was like the the Gary Overton.

00:29:28
Speaker 1: The more we talk about it, it's bringing back, it's bringing it all back. I think for me, I was thinking, okay, literally one of the biggest radio names in the game, Bobby Bones, Like I felt like that was another like I already have. Like there's like Eric Church talks about being an outsider. I remember thinking, well, if you're an outsider, where am I actually like am I outside.

00:29:59
Speaker 4: The you know?

00:30:00
Speaker 1: I remember thinking like, so we had all those obstacles, and I think for me, I don't know that I went over there even like wanting to meet you behind the dumpster and fight. I think it was there was some of it that was like Hey, what's up, Aaron, But you know whatever, And I kind of was like, dude, I.

00:30:18
Speaker 4: Want to get this guy the album.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: If he could hear this album, this thing turned out really special. And I think too, we were just I mean, you know, like my manager now, Greg, you know, I couldn't get him to even take a whiff of it back in the day, you know, And it was just roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. And I think at the end of the day, I wanted people to know not just about me. I wanted people to know about Texas music like it. I love country music, so I have enough music education that I could hear what mainstream radio's playing, and then I could hear some of the stuff that my buddies are playing, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, this stuff is good. And I was really getting fed up with people putting me in a box. And I used to say, were the Beach Boys popular in Kansas?

00:31:16
Speaker 4: Yes? Are there beaches in Kansas?

00:31:18
Speaker 1: No? Was West Coast Rap popular in West Texas?

00:31:24
Speaker 4: Yes?

00:31:25
Speaker 1: I mean I got a whipping for owning Doctor Dre's the Chronic. You know, your bark was loud, but your bide wasn't vicious. I know that album like the back of my hand, which is weird, and I use that now I rap when I want to embarrass my daughter, and that's one of my But it's one of those things. I think you and I were in a very similar place where we were both scratching, clawing.

00:31:54
Speaker 4: For every inch of the way.

00:31:56
Speaker 1: And having to actually fight for our little territory or our our space. I think that's really, really probably what it was.

00:32:06
Speaker 2: But when you talk about that, because it's funny how we're talking about it and stuff's coming up because I don't remember writing that, it's I'm kind of proud that I predicted all the digital stuff, and I'm like, dude, I was kind of like Jim Morrison when you predicting computers would do music.

00:32:19
Speaker 4: When you're reading that, I'm like, okay, wow.

00:32:22
Speaker 2: This is in my head as another freaking cowboy telling me how to do my show, because that's all this talent was, where cowboys telling me that everything I was doing was wrong. And again, it wasn't even you specifically, it was another cowboy coming to me saying, no, you don't get it in me in my box as an outsider, I'm going f.

00:32:45
Speaker 3: You, dude.

00:32:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: All you cowboys are doing is telling me how to do country music. I grew up on country music. Just because I don't look like you doesn't mean I don't own an equal love so in a very similar way, makes you represented the system to me. Yeah, and I was like, screw that dude. And then the sweetheart thing, Well, my person's upset. But it's funny, how and both stories are true because we own we each own a version of that story.

00:33:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's funny.

00:33:15
Speaker 1: It is funny, but you know it was I learned a lot from You know, I learned a lot from from that.

00:33:24
Speaker 4: I can tell you what I learned from it.

00:33:27
Speaker 1: And I don't know that i've actually really I realized it until we're talking about it face to face, but i've My mom said something to me when we called. With the follow up call, I said, Mom, I don't feel like I did anything wrong, well besides breaking into his place. I go, but they're mad at me. I go, I call her sweetheart. And my mom said, baby, at the end of the day, if you hurt, if you hurt her feelings, you owe her an apology, whether you think you did anything right or wrong. So my mom came in clutch again, I which he always is right, and I apologize, but it was what I learned from that situation is a lot of things that I'm applying now to social media and the reason why people are like, where did you come from? And I was like, well, I've never taken social media serious. I had a guy tell me that I have become irrelevant. The last five years have been pretty hard on me. I've had two surgeries on my vocal cords, where it's like anytime I feel like I'm finally ramping up and ready to go, I have to stop and go have surgery, and it shuts the whole thing down for It's like you're you're ready to have the season of your life. And I've been feeling like that since almost twenty twenty, like I'm ready to have the best year of my career. And then I have vocal court issues, and I have vocal court issues again, and I'm finally for the first time in the clear, and I'm like, Okay, let's go, and everybody talks about it's about social media, and I'm like, oh, I can do this, and I can do this good and and in the last I'm pretty sure that in the last five months, we've had more growth than we had the previous five years. But I think what our experience taught me is if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. That's true, you know, And it's like, make sure that you're willing to die on that heel. And and also too, when I'm when I'm talking about another artist, I make sure that there's no hatefulness behind it. It's very important that they it's very important that I don't act like that. If there's someone that I don't care for, that that's I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go there.

00:35:54
Speaker 4: I talk about things.

00:35:56
Speaker 1: One artist told a fan to do something awful from the microphone, and it's unacceptable. And all the young artists can tell me that it's okay to drop f bombs from the stage if they want to, but I don't think it's acceptable. I'm a dad, and I think that some of these young artists someday, when they have kids and they understand how how sensitive and precious those little ears are, they're going to change on that stage. They're going to go I have no right to talk like that to fans who brought their children. And they can try to argue with me. I have experience arguing. I have three teenagers, so that's that's more of my standpoint of when we're and then also too, I like to just be I like to be funny. Like it backfired on me this week, which one, well, I made one. A lot of artists get fed up with people throwing things at them, which I've been hit with everything. So a couple of girls through some those little baby Jesus Is at me. So I made a funny I thought it was funny. My wife didn't think it was funny. But I made a little like I'm fed up with people throwing things. And I was like, would y'all look at what hit me in the you know? Babye and so so I was on stage. We played with Braxton Keith. We were in Arizona on Saturday night. In the moment I hit the stage, it started raining Baby Jesus Is on me.

00:37:26
Speaker 4: Fifty fifty plus baby Jesus.

00:37:28
Speaker 1: Has bombed me, and and part of me it wasn't that the baby Jesus is hurt. I'm trying not to laugh when I get smacked with the little baby Jesus. And I was like, yeap, baby Jesus is. I got a fine collection of Baby Jesus Is now. But but you know it's top that will I will say this that the experience, there's a couple of things. Our ticket, our our album sales soared that week because of our little confrontation.

00:37:59
Speaker 4: And there's a couple of things I learned from it.

00:38:01
Speaker 1: You didn't do anything wrong by sticking up for your person, and I didn't do anything wrong for sticking up for the family business.

00:38:10
Speaker 4: And that's important. You have to do that.

00:38:12
Speaker 1: And if you want to be successful in any facet of your life, you have to be willing to do that. I mean, you were passionate about your your brand, your people. And in the same way, I'm like, oh heck no, I got songs on this album. Fifteen years into my career. I'm as good as anybody on radio, give me my shot. And we were both willing to die on that hill. You know, now that we're older, you know, we realize, okay, we're we were running hot, but.

00:38:46
Speaker 4: You're not where you're at today.

00:38:49
Speaker 1: If you hadn't have reacted how you reacted. Sure, and it's it's it's you got to I mean, that's the thing. There's not a great athlete out there. Besides shoh, that's passive. You know, everybody has to be a bulldog. That guy is not from Japan. He's from another planet, another planet.

00:39:10
Speaker 4: He's an alien.

00:39:10
Speaker 3: I agree.

00:39:12
Speaker 6: The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the Bobby Cast.

00:39:26
Speaker 3: And that guy.

00:39:27
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but that that bull, I'll call him the bull. He's still in there, and sometimes sometimes I feel uncomfortable when he starts to come, when he starts to fight to get out. Yeah, and then I have to read about it because I also think this everything's wrestling at this point, even the fights. And I did a whole thing about Zach Brian and Gavin Adcar and I was like, to me, as a spectator, I'm watching wrestling.

00:39:52
Speaker 3: It ain't real.

00:39:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think it is either an I.

00:39:55
Speaker 3: Mean to them, it could be, but it's gonna be over. They're gonna be doing a so all together in two years.

00:39:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:39:59
Speaker 2: Like it's that all of entertainment is wrestling, and get it how you can get it, And when you get older, you're gonna realize you got in a very immature way.

00:40:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:40:09
Speaker 1: Now if I see a video and they're just throwing punches and there is bloody noses. I'm gonna be like, that's what I'm talking about, And I think there would have been.

00:40:19
Speaker 2: But I would bet money I would get on draft Kings right now, and I would bet that in the next five.

00:40:23
Speaker 3: Years they do something together.

00:40:25
Speaker 1: Probably, So yeah, because well you were already right about the entire streaming world back in two thousand and fifty.

00:40:31
Speaker 3: That was again, I'm pretty proud of that. I didn't even know I wrote that.

00:40:34
Speaker 4: You do. You know what, when is your rereading that?

00:40:38
Speaker 1: What I regret is, instead of being selfish and making it all about my music, why didn't I listen to the wisdom there and go I need to invest?

00:40:47
Speaker 3: There was no wisdom. I was guessing. It was all guessing, but it was you know.

00:40:51
Speaker 2: No, I did reach out to you a couple weeks ago, wait, but way before this was even set up, and it wasn't for any of the purpose other than just to see what you're doing and watching you do it and consistently. I think anybody can do anything great a couple of times, but the hardest thing in the world is to do anything consistently.

00:41:05
Speaker 3: Consistently. To me, consistency is currency.

00:41:08
Speaker 2: And to watch you consistently be good on social media and.

00:41:13
Speaker 3: Be present again.

00:41:15
Speaker 2: I was inspired by it, and so I send you a message at like ten o'clock at night, and I was like.

00:41:19
Speaker 4: Dude, by the way, thank you.

00:41:21
Speaker 2: I was like, I've been watching your stuff and you gotta know that I think the world of what you're doing. Because it wasn't like two videos. It wasn't a couple that went viral. It was like, over months and months and months, you were consistently compelling from a lot of different angles. And so now when I see people do things, I would like to recognize them because I think sometimes it feels awfully lonely. We're making all this stuff and for whatever reason, people don't communicate to us.

00:41:44
Speaker 3: Either they don't like it, they're jealous of it.

00:41:46
Speaker 2: They think everybody else is communicating to us, so why should they. So it was just like, hey, dude, like I love what you're doing. And that wasn't weird, but I did feel that, you know.

00:41:55
Speaker 4: It was nice.

00:41:56
Speaker 1: It made my day because I mean, and this it I was chuckling as we're driving over here because I'm like, literally it was almost ten years ago where it kind of hit the.

00:42:08
Speaker 2: Fan sweetheartfest Sweetees two thousand and five or whatever.

00:42:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it was, yeah, you know that Watson, he's an outlaw. He'll call a woman a sweetheart.

00:42:20
Speaker 3: I mean, but you know, you know in that Bobby he'll he'll protect his people.

00:42:24
Speaker 1: It does make sense that I've always said that I have a really I have this god given ability of accidentally pissing off a woman. And I did it right there, you know, I just you know, I'll look at my daughter now and go, hey, are you mad at me?

00:42:41
Speaker 3: Did? What did? I?

00:42:42
Speaker 4: What?

00:42:43
Speaker 3: You know, my girl?

00:42:44
Speaker 1: I drove thirty minutes, took you into town to get you an isa E bowl. I feel like you shouldn't be mad at me right now. But how what's it like having teenagers?

00:42:56
Speaker 3: I love it.

00:42:57
Speaker 4: It's it's I can't believe that they're of the age they're at.

00:43:02
Speaker 3: Everyone says it flies.

00:43:04
Speaker 4: Everyone told me that just yesterday when they were little.

00:43:07
Speaker 2: Does it because again, I'm about to have a kid. Everyone's like, it's gonna fly, and I'm like, nothing really flies.

00:43:17
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think that the first couple of years fly at all at all. It's a it's a it's a life life adjustment. It's it's a it's a lifestyle adjustment. It's the culture changes on you.

00:43:30
Speaker 4: Next thing.

00:43:30
Speaker 1: You know, you're revolving everything around your baby. But it's also one of those things that before I'll give you a good example. I had a nineteen seventy eighty twenty eight that I bought off eBay when my wife and I got married, and for three years I saved up and I was fixing it up, redid the interior, put a new engine in it, new transmission in it, and I was getting it painted. This paint shop said, hey, we'll do it for a really good deal if you don't, if we can just kind of do it when in between projects.

00:44:09
Speaker 4: I was so excited.

00:44:11
Speaker 1: I would drive up there and see progress that they had made and I could not wait.

00:44:17
Speaker 4: I could not wait to get that car. They called me to tell me my Z twenty eight was.

00:44:26
Speaker 1: Ready on March the sixth, two thousand and six, a few hours after Jake was born.

00:44:36
Speaker 4: I forgot about the car.

00:44:38
Speaker 1: I never cared about the car again, and that always made me go, wow, that's crazy, because for three years I was obsessed with, like, I can't wait to get this car all souped up. The car set out there. A kid came by the house one day and said, how much would you sell that car for? And I was like, oh, you know, I don't ever drive it. It's really hard to put a baby seat in the back of the OLZ twenty eight. But I remember the kid brought like thirty five hundred dollars in a shoe box, and I just it was worth probably four times that. But I was once sixteen and would have given anything to have that car, and I but it is the coolest thing ever and my oldest I'll tell you one of the reasons why why I am the best version of me as an artist. And while my five year plan is going to win, first of all, it's not about me. I want my kids to see me win that. I want them to see me win. They're at an age right now where I'm telling them if you work hard, if you work hard and you're willing to put in the time and the effort, you can do anything. And I've been preaching that and now they're getting to watch me. And my oldest boy, Jake is nineteen. He comes out with you, Yeah, plays the guitar. I mean, he's he's a hundred times more talented than me. He just I'm not gonna allow him to record songs until he can grow good sideburns, because I'm like, dude, your voice is still changing and you can't grow sideburns.

00:46:17
Speaker 4: That's the deal.

00:46:18
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, what a freaking girl, Cydeburns. And I'm like, I'm like, he's like, Dad, when could you grow Sydeburns. I was like, I don't know when I was like until I was like twenty six.

00:46:27
Speaker 4: And he's like no.

00:46:29
Speaker 1: And my middle boy, Jack is all into business, bitcoin, gold, silver stocks, so we talk business. And then my daughter, she's like a young Aretha girl, can just sing and she writes and they're watching me, and I'm having more fun.

00:46:45
Speaker 4: I'm having more fun than I've ever had in my life. I'm just different now.

00:46:50
Speaker 1: When we were on the stage at the American Rodeo in front of fifty thousand people, I got up on that stage, I just looked around and I literally was like, thank you Lord. I'm the luckiest man in the world right now, Like I'm lucky. It's not blessed, I'm just lucky. I'm lucky. And and then then last night we just played to five hundred people at a little place in Flagstaff, and I felt the same way. I had as much fun in front of five hundred people last night as I did fifty thousand people in Arlington, and it's just I'm loving it. I'm writing better songs than I've ever written, and I understand. I understand, I understand the business better. And I also am like, oh man, like really didn't have his moment till his forties, and so I don't know, I might get into acting.

00:47:44
Speaker 4: I don't know. Really, Oh yeah, I'm all about it like I have I am.

00:47:51
Speaker 1: I am here to show every independent artist that you are in control of your destiny and I will not be stopped.

00:47:59
Speaker 4: Dude.

00:47:59
Speaker 1: It's like I did not give social media the credit it deserved. I was being in like just a fuddy duddy about it, like this is a pain, this is stupid. But then I realized, oh man, do it right, and it gives you the opportunity to do what no other artist has ever been able to do in the history of music. And my streams are going up because why because I'm making a video.

00:48:30
Speaker 5: You know.

00:48:30
Speaker 1: I made one thing that I saw that was cool is I did a video on Father's Day about bread David Gates, the songwriter. He wrote a song, and all my life I thought this song was about like a girlfriend. It's like a love song, like she's gone. But I actually listened to the lyrics and I was like, oh my gosh, this is about his dad and I I have old record players and I played it and the thing had like ten million views, like forty thousand shares, and I thought to myself, you know what I want to be more than the music I want. I've got this new YouTube series that we just started, and it's called Good Song, and it's where we do good things for people through music.

00:49:22
Speaker 4: And I've always people.

00:49:23
Speaker 3: Give me an example.

00:49:24
Speaker 1: Well, well, the basis of the show is people always say, how do you want to be remembered, And I always say, well, I'd like to be remembered as a guy. He loved Jesus, he loved his family, and he wrote a pretty good song that would make me happy.

00:49:43
Speaker 4: And so it's called Good Song.

00:49:45
Speaker 1: And the first episode we were in Amarillo, we went to the Veterans Hospital. My dad's one hundred percent disabled from Vietnam, so I spent a lot of time up there with Daddy growing up doing volunteer work. I mean, we were just going room to room and visiting. That had a huge impression on me as a kid. But we just took out some veterans, went and played golf with them, took them out to get a steak, brought their families to the concert, and just really just loved on them. And we're doing another one next month where uh we're going to Love and Care ministries in Abilene.

00:50:23
Speaker 4: It's a homeless shelter and.

00:50:26
Speaker 1: Uh man, I've got a guy at a place an Abiline called the Shed and we've already talked about dude. Get maybe I'm like, dude, let's give these folks some New York strips, let's let's let's let's give them something. Let's give them a wonderful experience. And just understanding I have. I will I say I'm lucky when I don't like to say blessed on certain things because I don't think that's fair. I don't think like, oh I'm more blessed because oh God decided to bless me, but they're not blessing this person. I feel like I'm lucky. I feel like I feel like I have work ethic but my job, but where I am blessed is I have this platform much like you, where you've done a lot of great things. You use your platform to bless others, and that's a blessing to you, that that you being able to do that to help others. That is the that's that's that's the blessing. And so for me, you know, something came across my feed and some little boy in Illinois, his mom's page is Wonderful Life with Bedford, and Bedford is two and a half. He has this genetic disorder, he's handicapped, and they're just trying to raise some money so that he can have a playground that is suited for him. And I just reached out to the moment. I was like, could we could I just try because it was my wife and I we lost a little girl in two thousand and ten and no twenty eleven. Golly, she'd be fourteen, and we lost her shortly after she was born. So I saw Bedford's post that week that it would have been her fourteenth birthday, and I thought, you know what, let's celebrate Julia's birthday by doing something nice for Bedford. And so really that's where I'm having more fun than i've ever had in my life. I enjoy music more than I've ever had. Our shows are so good, like we are good, and I tell people we are good. I think we are the best band in country music. And that's not being arrogant. That's called believing in your guys, working hard, rehearsing. Also, we have been doing this for forever. We should be We should have been the best band. We're about ten years behind, so you know, but that you have to believe in yourself. You have to be a little crazy to do the things.

00:53:16
Speaker 4: That you and me are doing.

00:53:17
Speaker 3: You have to be a little You have to have a bit of delusion. Yeah, to be good, you got to have a whole lot of delusion to be great.

00:53:24
Speaker 4: You don't say you love sports right big time?

00:53:27
Speaker 1: Can you imagine starting a season and the coach going man, if we could just come in third this year, you know how hard it would be to get on that field knowing that there's no expectation like for me. I have an album coming out in March Horse named Texas. I want it to be the best album in country music, and my five year plan is I will put out three more albums. Also, I'm going to be blitzing. Hear that country radio, I'm going to be blitzing you with singles for the next five years.

00:54:00
Speaker 4: Out of my pocket.

00:54:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to blitz and blitz country radio with the best songs of my career because I can. I'm in a dangerous point in my life where the house is paid off.

00:54:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, that I relate to too. I'm at a dangerous point in my life too, and it feels good. I got no debt and I got extra money, so I do what I want to.

00:54:19
Speaker 1: Do absolutely and you've earned it, and you've absolutely earned it. And I've spent all this time. I've spent all this time being told why I can't do things, and I always I have no regrets for not pushing a bigger mainstream. I have no regrets for not trying to go bigger in twenty fifteen through night my kids were little. They cried when I would leave, and music didn't bring me a fraction of the happiness that I felt when I would walk through the front door in all three of them would tackle me. Now you ask what it's like to have teenagers. Now I walk through the front door and I'm like my dog, bandy.

00:55:11
Speaker 4: She tackles me.

00:55:11
Speaker 1: She loves me, she loves me, my wife, it's my wife's dog. My wife says, well, the only reason that she loves you more is because you give her snackies and scratchies, because that's what I call it. And I'm like, that's that dog's love language. She loves snack he's in scratchy, So of course she loves me more. But now I got to go to each kid's room and I'm like, dad's home.

00:55:33
Speaker 4: Oh hey, daddy, you know.

00:55:35
Speaker 1: But I'm like, oh, you'll miss me here in just a minute. When you want to go to town to the bookstore, get another dude. I've spent about fifteen hundred dollars this year in Osai e bowls.

00:55:47
Speaker 3: The way I know you're not lying.

00:55:48
Speaker 4: You know how to pronounce it. Yeah, it even spells weird.

00:55:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like hi, but it's I say, yeah, you've been around it, and oh yeah, oh yeah it's but it's fun. It is the most fun you're ever going to have. Like the hardest thing so far that I've experienced is.

00:56:06
Speaker 4: I've been one.

00:56:07
Speaker 1: Of Jake's baseball coaches throughout his you know, we got fifteen seasons. His first season was just three t bawl and so far. The hardest thing was last game they got knocked out of the playoffs, and he was holding it together good.

00:56:28
Speaker 4: Until he got to me.

00:56:30
Speaker 1: And the boy just the way he said, daddy, and just fell on me and dude, I mean for me, it's like baseball is life to me.

00:56:40
Speaker 4: I mean, I love baseball.

00:56:43
Speaker 1: Baseball. Yeah, I got to play in college, which was nice. I love baseball. And you know, my analogy or who I am. And I've been telling people like like where I'm at my career at now, Roy Hobbs, that's that, that's what inspires me. Showed up middle aged.

00:57:03
Speaker 4: They said you don't. He said, Man, people don't start at your age. They retire.

00:57:09
Speaker 1: But man, I'm I'm I'm straight up gonna be the Roy Hobbes country music these.

00:57:13
Speaker 4: Next five years.

00:57:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, by using.

00:57:19
Speaker 2: Effectively a medium, Yeah, that is being effectively used by young people.

00:57:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's it's it's amazing. I got asked to do my what.

00:57:32
Speaker 1: I got asked by a media outlet, what are my thoughts on these artists that overnight.

00:57:40
Speaker 3: Go viral?

00:57:41
Speaker 1: And I said, it's wild to think that you could sing a song in a garage and then not long after that be selling thousands of tickets a night.

00:57:50
Speaker 4: I said to me, that is intimidating.

00:57:52
Speaker 3: I mean, that's Bailey Zimmerman.

00:57:54
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:57:54
Speaker 3: He really hadn't sang yeah at all, even to his friends a lot.

00:57:58
Speaker 2: You're saying one video was working, and I think it was a circumstantial as well, because it was COVID and.

00:58:03
Speaker 3: He was working oil yeah, work on the pipes.

00:58:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they were like furloughed, uh huh, and He's like, what else I gotta do?

00:58:10
Speaker 4: Screw it?

00:58:11
Speaker 3: I got one video of the viral.

00:58:12
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you so a lot of people think that unless you're like more artsy, I won't like you because I'm I.

00:58:18
Speaker 4: I kind of come from that singer songwriter background. But I like that kid. I'll tell you why I like him.

00:58:26
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, he's corny, and I've got a whole bunch of him hanging out with my boys at the house. They have we we have poker poker out at our house about every night, so I've got teenage boys everywhere. But what I like about Bailey is there was one video in particular that I think about that I was like, dude, you know, this kid could have the worst music ever, and I'm gonna like him, and I like some of his songs.

00:58:55
Speaker 4: He's he's doing it. But what made me like him.

00:59:01
Speaker 1: Was he does that corny thing where he's like, ah, you know that thing he does where he screams, and but he goes y'all like a couple of years ago, I'm singing in my basement and now I got my freaking face on the side of an eighteen wheeler. And he was like, thank you that it was genuine. That's genuine. And I will tell I'm telling every artist listening to this that right there will win the hearts. I mean, when people come up to me and they it's it happens to me more than I like. But when I have people say hey, I'm not the biggest fan of your music, but I like who you are and what you stand for, I'm always like, huh, well, thank you. You bought a ticket tonight, so thanks for I wish I really wish. I'm gonna try to do better so you like my music.

00:59:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sometimes somebody come up and go, hey, I'm not a fan, but like my sister is, can I get a picture? Yeah, And I'm like, I wish you wouldn't leave with the first part, Like, you don't have to even say the first part, just say like, hey, do you mind if I get a picture?

01:00:05
Speaker 4: Yeah? Could you just leave out the first just say?

01:00:07
Speaker 3: You know, Aaron, I just like what you're saying. Leave the other year.

01:00:11
Speaker 4: And also, could you.

01:00:11
Speaker 1: Leave out the part before that where you said, Wow, you're a lot shorter than I thought. Could you could you leave out that part? Now I've been doing it for so long that I'm gonna tell you. I have grown women walk up to me, grown women and they'll say, oh my gosh. When I was a little girl, my dad used to listen to you in the truck. Oh yeah, And I'm like, no, you're a grown woman. Ain't no way.

01:00:38
Speaker 4: And then I start doing the math.

01:00:40
Speaker 3: I get that too, not the.

01:00:41
Speaker 2: Truck, but it's like my people when I was when I was in third grade, we would listen to you and I'm like, that can't be true.

01:00:49
Speaker 3: Yeah. Then I go, okay, we'll drop the five twenty.

01:00:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yep, it's true.

01:00:55
Speaker 3: I got a question about the Christmas family toy you're doing.

01:00:57
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, what is that, dude. I One of my regrets is not starting that earlier. It is so much fun.

01:01:04
Speaker 1: We just pick a couple of little Texas towns, we find some little theaters, and my entire family.

01:01:11
Speaker 4: We put on a show with my band.

01:01:15
Speaker 1: We we integrate you know, traditional songs, you know, songs about Jesus, songs about Santa.

01:01:22
Speaker 4: We have Santa show up. It is so much dude, it is so much fun.

01:01:27
Speaker 1: I never thought I would love it as much as I love it, But now my kids they can't wait to go.

01:01:32
Speaker 4: It kicks Christmas off, you know.

01:01:35
Speaker 1: You know how sometimes it's like, all of a sudden, it's December the first, and then you blink and it's like December twenty second, and then Christmas is over and you're like, I don't feel like I even got to experience Christmas this year. Well, since we started up our Christmas shows, it's so fun, and it's just it's just something else to give the fans a little something different.

01:01:57
Speaker 4: I would like to, you know, make it even bigger someday, it's just do more cities.

01:02:05
Speaker 1: I don't I like the Christmas shows because I like seeing I like the feedback. So many people are like, man, this has become a tradition for us, Like it gets us out of the house, we we go get dinner, we come see your show.

01:02:20
Speaker 4: It's just a ton of fun.

01:02:21
Speaker 1: And it's just one of those deals where it's it's just I'm like, why didn't I start that earlier? And the whole family loves it. My wife actually does not really probably love it. She likes the time we spend together. We we make her come out the last song and sing Silent Night with us, and I mean she's, yeah, like my wife. Yeah, she's like m my wife. Yeah, she gives me that and so but we have fun and it's fun singing with Jolie. Jack doesn't care to sing. He's my middle boy, and uh, but he gets up there and reads some boys and it's just become a fun thing.

01:03:02
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's it's a blast. Thanks for asking about that.

01:03:05
Speaker 5: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our SPONSOROW and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

01:03:19
Speaker 2: We were talking about your tour before you came in and talking about the Christmas shows, and I was like, I don't know anything about Christmas shows. At least I didn't know because you're doing it's uh Amarillo Abilene, love it love. Yeah.

01:03:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, that's that's cool.

01:03:31
Speaker 4: You usually do more towns.

01:03:34
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be at National Finals rodeo for almost two weeks in Vegas. In Vegas we always play, I think for fifteen years now we've played the Bucal ceremonies. And then we're doing a bunch of stuff promoting the new record and so course named Texas. Corse Name Texas in the March trip next year March and next year. It's the one I've heard, well from you one I heard.

01:03:58
Speaker 4: Let me just just ask me. I'll tell you how it is.

01:04:00
Speaker 3: You have to if you're If you don't believe in you, nobody else will.

01:04:03
Speaker 4: Well, you know what. The other thing too, is that you get this too, because.

01:04:10
Speaker 1: Because you love sports, and with us both being athletes, it's a different frame of mind.

01:04:19
Speaker 4: You have to.

01:04:21
Speaker 1: Sometimes talking big it makes you step it up, it makes you push yourself.

01:04:27
Speaker 4: You have to back it up.

01:04:29
Speaker 1: Like when I tell people, when I told people a year ago my goal was to put out one of the best albums in country music. When I went on record saying that that started waking me up at five o'clock every morning to get up and write and write and write and write. And that's the same thing me going to radio right now saying I've got a five year plan. I'm not sending you one single then I'm going to disappear. There is a five year plan, five year plan, and at some point it's gonna get real redundant telling me no, and I just keep showing up.

01:05:00
Speaker 3: It's an assigned credibility or assigned accountability.

01:05:03
Speaker 4: Five years you can do what.

01:05:05
Speaker 1: Also, what it's saying to radio is you can depend on me like I I will not say no. I'm here for country music. Any radio station that needs any help with a fundraiser, I'm lucky that I can help. And so for me telling people like dude, I'm putting out three more albums. It's got me working and I'm at a place where the kids they're busy.

01:05:29
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm fixing a half two in college. You know. As long as I'm home enough to get her her I E bowls, she's happy. You know what I'm saying.

01:05:39
Speaker 3: So, what's the YouTube channel.

01:05:41
Speaker 4: It's just going to be Aaron Watson.

01:05:43
Speaker 3: It's just yeah, you're able to get it. You already have it. Uh what the YouTube channel like your actual YouTube domain?

01:05:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, we have it.

01:05:51
Speaker 3: Oh, you already have it. Yeah we have you're planning on going to get.

01:05:55
Speaker 4: No, yeah, we have it. We just have never utilized it. And that's really with all the socials.

01:06:00
Speaker 1: I've just never we've had steady growth because I play shows and there'll be a moment where i'd post something or do this or do that, but like, oh dude, I've already got my next. I've already got my next, Like while I was on the plane, I'm just But also I love to create, like I could write sitcoms.

01:06:23
Speaker 4: So really I'm just doing little little things.

01:06:26
Speaker 1: You know. It's like if I can do something that makes people happy in the day and it makes them want to go play my music, that's what drives me. If you tell me, by you doing this, people will go listen to your songs.

01:06:43
Speaker 4: That I'm sold.

01:06:44
Speaker 1: And why it took me forever to figure that out is I'm a slow learner, hardheaded, I don't know, But dude, I'm figuring it out and I'm able to you know, I'm I'm passing that on to my son Jake. I'm like, Jake, I don't want to see another cute country boy sitting on the edge of his bead singing songs.

01:07:07
Speaker 4: I want to see more about you. I go, I don't know, Bud, take some fun videos.

01:07:12
Speaker 1: If you singing country music while you're playing golf on your daddy's dime.

01:07:15
Speaker 4: You know him?

01:07:17
Speaker 3: Yeah? On social media?

01:07:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm literally I'm literally saying, dude, I want to know more about you. Make me believe in you separate yourself from all the because I'm telling you, it's overwhelming how many talented countries. Every time I scroll, I come across some kid with no followers. It sounds like Keith Whitley, and I'm like, well, I'm still trying to sound like Keith Whitley, you know. But but I love that I'm at a place in my career where I truly believe. I really feel like I'm just getting started. Like I really feel like I'm just getting started. I want to go back. I wish I could go back and tell me years ago, like, dude, every moment you get to step on that stage. But I think I was so distracted by the haters that I, like you were saying how you were ten years ago. Everyone hated you in this town, and you were just ready to go toe to toe with people.

01:08:21
Speaker 4: I was a lot like that.

01:08:22
Speaker 1: Too, And I think what that does is it keeps you from enjoying that moment like, oh my gosh, I got to play the Houston Rodeo. I've got to do this, I've got to do that. I mean the things I've gotten to do. And I'm kind of like, man, I wish I would have soaked that in more, but now I get it. I get it, and I can share that with others.

01:08:46
Speaker 4: You know.

01:08:46
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, anytime you get to get on that stage, man, Man, you don't have.

01:08:55
Speaker 4: To do it, you get to do it.

01:08:59
Speaker 6: Well.

01:08:59
Speaker 3: Man, I really appreciate at the time, Dude, I do Thanks for having me brother, Are you kidding? This awesome?

01:09:03
Speaker 2: And again when I reached out, it was never hey, man, come do this. It was just like I admired what you were doing, wanted you to know that. And then I was like, hey, if Aaron's in town, like I would love to have them up and just talk for an hour and see what's up.

01:09:15
Speaker 3: So yeah, looking forward to the music.

01:09:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, if I happen to be an Abaline or Lubbick Wambrill, I'll stop about Christmas show, come on by.

01:09:22
Speaker 1: You know what.

01:09:23
Speaker 3: I got a feel and I won't be nearer.

01:09:24
Speaker 2: But if I am, if I happen to be there, well, dude, here's what you do need to do that sounds fun.

01:09:29
Speaker 4: Hey, what you do need to do is this.

01:09:32
Speaker 1: You need to text me when you're like got questions about the dad thing. I can probably tell you more things to not do. But dude, I'll tell you talking about Christmas, You're gonna have the greatest Christmas of your life next year.

01:09:48
Speaker 4: I mean, like this Christmas, what we're doing.

01:09:52
Speaker 1: After our Christmas shows are done, We're all flying to Disney World and we spend Chris Smiths there. We have fun, make everybody put up their phones. I mean, it's just one of those deals. It's like, it's wild. And I'll tell you this. So because we were talking about everyone says it goes by so fast. Saturday night. We played two shows with Braxton Keith this week, and Braxton and Jake are just hanging out in the back of my bus for forever. And because I'm like cally, they're like so close in age, I'm like literally old enough to be Braxton's dad, right, And after they left, I told Jake because Jake had to fly out on Sunday because he has college on Monday, so we were flying him back and I was already in my bunk and he was back there, and I opened the curtain and I said, hey, Jake, and he said, yeah, Dad.

01:10:54
Speaker 4: I go, I am so proud that you're my boy.

01:10:58
Speaker 1: I said, I love you, and he goes and he goes, I love your dad, and he did this little grin that he has done his whole life. And I looked at I just we locked eyes. You know, the kid's nineteen years old, but we locked eyes, and dude, I could see him as he was. It was like he was three again. And then I think I shut the curtain and cried. But it's fine. But dude, you're gonna love it. It's the best thing in the world.

01:11:22
Speaker 4: I mean you just man, Yeah, don't blink and don't know what you do. You know what you're having yet? Yeah, he keep you keeping it silent. Yeah nice.

01:11:33
Speaker 3: I would keep nothing silent. My wife would keep everything silent. Yeah. So we're negotiating, Well, good luck with your negotiating.

01:11:39
Speaker 1: I know.

01:11:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I lose most of those.

01:11:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, I am not a good negotiator. Apparently.

01:11:44
Speaker 1: You know what's funny, I bet you're a good negotiator with anything, everything, but but yep.

01:11:49
Speaker 3: Everything, man.

01:11:50
Speaker 4: Dude, we're the same, dude.

01:11:52
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I'm I'm tough to deal with and tell it's her and then I pretty much lose them all.

01:11:57
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, good to see you.

01:11:58
Speaker 5: Man.

01:11:58
Speaker 4: Hey, it's good to see you too.

01:11:59
Speaker 6: But thanks for having me, Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production