#432 - Hillary Scott on The Untold Story of Lady A + Writing a Song About Her Miscarriage + How Lady A Influenced Bobby to Move To Nashville

00:00:07
Speaker 1: I just have always thrived in collaboration. I would like to think I could have, but I think I would have felt so alone. And I just really enjoyed collaborating with the two of them.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Episode four point thirty two with Hillary Scott from Lady A. We had Hillary and during the pandemic, but she was on a zoom near A. Yeah, and I know Hillary and she's awesome as a person, like just the greatest. But we had never had her in. We had Dave in, We've had Charles in, but never had Hillary. I really enjoyed this. It was easy with her because I really like her. I know where She's the easiest person to talk with and talk to. You can follow her on Instagram. Hillary Scott LA as in Lady Innebellum, not as in Los Angeles, Hillary Scott LA. Their new single is called Love You Back, Here you Go. What do you think that song's about? He had to guess, letting go of the past. Love You Back explores the idea that while memories of an old flame can bring some comfort, they can also keep one from moving forward. Well, a lot of times we romanticize things that are done because we can create scenarios, because you can't say we're wrong. Yeah, So, if you're listening right now, stop thinking to your eggs. Move on.

00:01:24
Speaker 3: He's a freaking loser.

00:01:25
Speaker 2: Move on to that new guy. He's not as much of a loser. He's still kind of a loser, not as much, you know, Leave your wife, leave your husband. No, don't listen to that voice, lady. A Top five streaming songs of all time. Let's roll through these real quick. Number five American Honey.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Here's a whisper.

00:01:42
Speaker 2: Number four, bartender, number three, what if I never get over you? If I'm shy? Number two just a kiss, just a kiss on your hands. And that's number two. I thought it'd be like four or five. Number one, need you now? So? Hillary Scott born in Nashville, Tennessee. Lenna Davis country music artist. She's sang with Riba, She toured with three but for a long time, and then she do you have a song they did together? I don't. It's a very famous song. Okay, you don't have right now, but in Mike's gonna put it in a post where it feels like we have it. Now. Here's that love you there you go, look enjoy I did here. She is Hillary Scott from Lady A. Hello Hillary, Hello Bob. I didn't know because we had planned this before and we were just talking. I thought, because last year was just weird, because I was like, at RSV, you ever had RSV? I don't think my baby's got that.

00:02:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, worried about my kids.

00:02:50
Speaker 2: Then I thought, am I a baby? You know? Do I still have uh? And then you said no, it was you that was sick. So then I remembered, yeah, And I'm glad that both of us could do this again, me too, and.

00:02:59
Speaker 3: We don't have to socially distanced because we're both.

00:03:01
Speaker 2: Well, yes, I feel like Iron Man at this point. I've had it all. I've had every disease. And so you mentioned my dog too a minute to goo Eller, who is the dog we adopted. I think the last time we probably saw each other was at the dog place. It was we won't say where, dog daycare.

00:03:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, ran into each other because we do. We live, we're neighbors. Basically, I'm like, not far from you. And I remember meeting Ella because I had heard you talk about her on the show, and then she peed on my shoes and.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. But the only thing that saved me was we were at a dog place and I knew you had a dog. And most dogs I've heard, and I don't know if this is true, pee they.

00:03:42
Speaker 3: Do all dogs.

00:03:43
Speaker 2: I would think, okay, great dogs, and she's excited to see and she peed on your shoes, and I remember looking at your shoes being like, please don't be red bottoms or please don't.

00:03:52
Speaker 1: But yeah, if I'm picking up my dog in red bottoms, that's on me.

00:03:55
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fair too. It is again so wonderful to see. We had Stephen Curtis Chapman over here recently, and I do a lot of these hundreds and hundreds, and I enjoy actually sitting down and being able to talk for an hour with somebody as opposed to eight minutes where you're going project this, that boom, goodbye. And so I performed at the Opry with Stephen a bunch of times, not together, but while he was on there, and we'd become friendly. But I listened to him so much as a kid, and I was so it was so exciting for me to spend time with him and actually realize he's like that even in long doses.

00:04:31
Speaker 3: Absolutely do you know him, Yes, I do.

00:04:34
Speaker 2: What is he like as a friend, because I just want to be his best friend?

00:04:37
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, sincere and kind and just the wisdom I received from him anytime we have a conversation. I mean, we go back far because we called called him. I think it was November, late November, early December of twenty eleven, and we were getting married, Chris and I, and we were like, do we want to just play music in our ceremony? And we kind of eloped. We did a little bit of a modified elopement because we were originally going to be married in April of twelve, and then we ended up pushing it to January of twelve. And so we called him and just said, hey, would you and your wife Mary Beth want to fly up to up state New York and wedding.

00:05:21
Speaker 2: Down the road?

00:05:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was in up state New York, right outside of Albany. And he said yes, and he and Mary Beth made kind of a little getaway out of it, and we spent time together over that wedding weekend and then just became such good friends. And then we actually, you know, got to hang with he and his family and their musical family and just so much in common that way.

00:05:45
Speaker 3: And then.

00:05:48
Speaker 1: Not long after that, I made the record with my family with Ricky Skaggs producing and Stephen sang on it, and so we've just kind of continued to be friends. Marybeth actually just text me a couple like we and a half ago about getting together for dinner, and we just are such supporters and what they're doing with Show Hope in the organization they do, you know, grants, I'm sure he talked about it, grants for families that are looking to adopt, and just a lot of alignment of heart and he's just so family forward and I love.

00:06:18
Speaker 3: That about them.

00:06:19
Speaker 2: I also loved that he was honest about a story where he was like, yeah, he's a huge country music fan. Yeah, you know, he didn't really manipulate his story to fit his exact brand. His brand is what his story allowed him to kind of pivot into. And still a fan of country music, but he's like, you know, I felt the need and the calling to sing for Jesus. Yes, And a lot of times, as you know, we have to build narratives so it's easy for people that are consuming us to remember, and he didn't do that, and I was so grateful for him to tell the story like that. And there have been a few few Christian artists that have come in because I grew up. I grew up a church Baptist church, mounta Pine Baptist, and we weren't even that hardcore, like we could dance.

00:07:04
Speaker 3: That is a very.

00:07:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:07:07
Speaker 2: Well in Arkansas, we had a Baptist church and we could dance. And I went to church a lot for safety. You know, there was a bit of food insecurity. How I grew up, and there was always food on Sundays. There was always Wednesday night somewhere to go. And so like Chris Tomlin is another example who I love that dude. And I asked him if there was pressure And this is going to lead to the question I'm asking you. I asked him if there was pressure because and my wife when I you know, she's not super into the industry or she's not in it at all, but she doesn't like care that much. She was like Christoma, we sang all his hymn to church, and I was like, well, well you just sing Rock of Ages basically, you know, all of ours were him. Yes, But I asked him if there was a pressure on him to be so godlike because that's how everyone knows him, because he's a normal human. And I'd found myself talking about a Christmas party we were having and I invited him over and it was like, not real money, but we were we were had Vegas set up and what we were doing was donating to whomever won that night to their charity. And I was going to invite him and I was like, I'm not inviting him. It's gambling. And it was exactly what he told me that he did not want people to do to him. And so then I said, Chris, I'm so sorry I didn't invite you. Now I'm inviting you again because it's fun. So he lives with this wonderful but constant pressure for people to think he has to be godlike all the time. Do you feel the pressure on you as a public person and even a Christian, an open Christian to always present we'll just say a good mood.

00:08:40
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean there's definite pressure, for sure, I think. But to me, what I am so grateful for about my relationship with God and my faith is that there's a scripture that talks about when we are weak, he is strong. So in our weaknesses, vulnerability, we actually connect deeper. We see how much we need him, Others see that we don't have it all together. I mean, I've heard it said so many times and it's so profound, and it's like church needs to be more like a hospital, like then a country club where you show up all buttoned up and presenting a certain way. It's like, no, we're all broken wanting to come together for the same reason, to receive the peace and the comfort and the grace and mercy of God, you know.

00:09:31
Speaker 3: And so I do definitely feel that pressure.

00:09:34
Speaker 1: But ironically, when you do share publicly or privately the hard things you're going through, that's.

00:09:42
Speaker 3: When you really connect with absolutely.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: I mean truly, Like that is where I've had the most just oh, the most rewarding conversations, the most rewarding DMS conversations with you know, people on Instagram. I mean, it's just so to not be afraid to say what's really going on.

00:10:02
Speaker 2: I can ask you what and I'll share one with you too, so you don't feel alone here, but can ask you, like an example of that something that you would have spoken about that was difficult for you because I felt a lot of shame in mind, but I didn't realize that other people were writing alongside me with their own version of it. So what would an example of that be for you?

00:10:21
Speaker 3: I mean, one of the biggest was something that I still grieve every day, which is the miscarriage we had in between Isley and my twin girls. And just how as I.

00:10:32
Speaker 1: Walked through and Chris and I walked through that experience, there was a big moment of like, are we going to share this? Are we going to But then when the only way I knew to pursue healing and just kind of keep moving was to write about it became a song. And then it was a song that I knew. I was like, I think people really need to hear this, and so.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: It was.

00:10:57
Speaker 1: It was that experience and one that continues to come up to this day. You know, that record came out, that song came out in twenty sixteen, and I still feel like when people come up to me, whether it's in the grocery store or at to meet and greet, it's always it's always brought up.

00:11:13
Speaker 2: Were you surprised that that is what people attached through so strongly and that people still attached to it even seven years or so later.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: I think it doesn't surprise me because one in four women one and four pregnancies, not women one and four pregnancies and in miscarriage.

00:11:35
Speaker 3: So the statistics are so.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: High that and not a lot of people know that that's how often it happens. So that's a whole lot of people, it's a whole lot of women, that's a whole lot of families. So I think that specific experience in the women and the families that I hear from who've experienced that exact thing, it isn't shocking.

00:11:58
Speaker 2: Now.

00:11:58
Speaker 1: The other stories around the song where it's met others in other ways, in different hardships in their life, those always, I mean, they all touch my heart. They all just humble me and are very very priceless to me to be invited into those stories. But some of the ones that are about other things are the ones that like lay me.

00:12:21
Speaker 2: Out in the floor. When I wrote my first book, I was I don't know how to write a book. I mean I'd written some stuff, but never a book. And I thought no one would want to read a book for me anyway, And I thought I'm just gonna write everything and then whatever, I'm too ashamed of I'm going to pull out, but I'm going to as and you probably deal with this writing you know, a song, a three minute version of this, but one hundred times. And so I wrote this book and it was a lot of mind securities, a lot of what we all suffer through. But I wrote about my mom, a lot of my mom's not alive anymore. She died when she was forty seven or so. She died from basically drug abuse, drug and alcohol abuse. And it had gotten so bad with their and it was some heavy drugs like meth. And I'm from Arkansas and it's it's poverty there and like I never quite understood until I got older, but my mom had got so wrapped up in it that she would call and need money, and you know, she had started to go, well, I'm gonna do porn and when your mom calls and tells you that, and I was and I remember writing that story and I was so I was so ashamed, and I was going to take it out. And I don't know why I didn't, because I never had the thought, I'll leave it in, it'll connect. I don't know how it lasted and landed, but I'm telling you when I'll tour and do stand up you want to know, people talk to me about how it's not exactly the same, but everybody will come up. Not everybody, but I like people come up and go, I'm so glad you said this, because nobody says that addiction affects them in ways like this. Yes, and even now. I mean I wrote that book six seven years ago, Like, I couldn't believe that that was the connector. Yeah, I thought, I'll write some funny stories, people will enjoy it, I'll write a but of everything that I wrote, I was most ashamed of a lot of the stuff that I had gone through in that part of my life and my world. But that was the that was the really the connector of all and I couldn't believe it. But it also shows me that the more raw and open you are, the more you're actually relatable. And I did not think that was the case.

00:14:35
Speaker 1: And and and I think the other beautiful benefit for you sharing it, and or at least for me for sharing it, is the freedom you feel because I there was something in me with my story, like if I had withheld that information, I would have really felt like I was moving through my life in not the most honest way that I could, and that I would be numbing some part of my myself and that just didn't feel authentic. And so as scary as it was, I felt free.

00:15:08
Speaker 2: Did you feel when you were writing, when you're doing the music, because this is a bit how I felt too, it like I had Reliving it was kind of hard, yes.

00:15:16
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely well in writing it.

00:15:19
Speaker 1: I mean I was in the middle of miscarring when i wrote the song, so it was very much like I'm in this right now talking about it right now. So as it got recorded and then the times that i've I've performed it, we're saying it in church. It's definitely been a different experience remembering it, still feeling it deeply, but not like I was.

00:15:44
Speaker 3: When we wrote it.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: I may have chills, like on the back of my neck just talking about it again and also talking about it with someone who understands what it's like to share that going how is this going to be interpreted? How are people going to feel about me? But then you realize everybody's got their own everybody's got their.

00:16:02
Speaker 1: Own, Yes, yes they do, we all do, and that, I think is is the great equalizer of being human. Is we all have all have our hardships and our struggles, and we all want to be loved and feel like we belong.

00:16:16
Speaker 2: My dog beed on your shoes. She did did, and I thought today, just to go full circle, I would pee on your shoes before you left. So because I told her, I said, Ella, I'm gonna pay on her shoes today, because I know you feel bad. That way, I can pee too, and She'll be like, you're with me, and you.

00:16:31
Speaker 1: Know what, I'll leave them for you, how about that? And then I'll come back later and pick them up.

00:16:35
Speaker 2: On this one, I went to an allergist, if you I guess late last week. I didn't really been don an allurgist before. It's kind of like a fancy thing, didn't you know? I didn't go to a lot of allergists. But I had an infection in my sinus, infection so bad that it got in my teeth, in my ears, and I did not know that's what it was. I thought I had some kind of tooth pain. So I go and my Dennis is like, you got nothing wrong with your teeth. Then we do a different extrac goes, dude, you hit you your cavity is completely full and you know, like you, my voice is what I have, yes, and so, and I lose there about twice a year because of allergies. And so my doctor says, go to this allergist. But she tells me, I'm severely allergic to dogs. No, yeah, I gotta kill them both today now never I will just die. I'll just die of allergies. I'm gonna I have to go every week now and get allergie shots three a week. But the thing, the thing that I love, yes, I'm allergic too.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: That's hard.

00:17:32
Speaker 1: I mean there are kids, I mean they really. I mean we have one dog and he is a ninety two pound sheep of doodle. Yeah, and he's awesome.

00:17:43
Speaker 3: But they are. They are so they're a part of our family. They really are.

00:17:47
Speaker 1: I mean I love my my three girls and I love my fur baby.

00:17:52
Speaker 3: I mean it's I'm so sorry.

00:17:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sucks. And we don't have kids yet. And if you don't mind, like to ask a couple kid questions. Sure, because biting a man. Until I was almost forty, I didn't really have a serious girl I have that until so I met my wife and it was like, oh, I didn't know that it was supposed to be. It's not always easy, but I didn't know that it was supposed to be this easy. When it's good. Yeah, Like it's just kind of like it's like a click, like it just fits right. And so I meet her and it's awesome and we get married and you know, she wants to have kids. I want to have kids eventually. But like I said, I didn't have a models like my parents didn't. They weren't together. I didn't know my daddy left when I was five, or sick my mom, you know, passed away. So I'm scared to death to have kids. And then but what I wonder is, and I ask you, because you're a little younger than I am, but how old is your oldest what?

00:18:45
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:18:46
Speaker 1: Ten already I know Isley's ten, and then my twin God's crazy six at the end of January.

00:18:54
Speaker 2: Okay, So I feel like if and when we have kids when, because she's not pregnant now, no articles, no, I had lies. I promise you she's not pregnant right now. I don't think she is. It seems like it's a lot of work.

00:19:07
Speaker 3: It is, but the most rewarding one.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: But is it really or is it because you've been told you have not you have to say that, but you're supposed to feel that way. No, No, it is so I'm very selfish, not about giving stuff, but about I've only ever been me and trying to first just survive as myself and then to create for myself and then for others. I feel like I'm going to have a kid in either a be like my dad who left. I don't think I'm going to do that, but like there's that part of me is there, or I'm just gonna be annoyed because i have to give up all my life and kids are just a lot of work. Like, talk me, not down, but talk some logic into me. I know you will have to ask you this question that I know you're not gonna lie to me.

00:19:52
Speaker 3: No, I mean, well it is.

00:19:54
Speaker 1: I mean I think marriage is a really you in a way. If you are pursuing a healthy marriage, there's a part of you that has to die.

00:20:03
Speaker 3: To yourself every day for your wife. I have there's the parts.

00:20:07
Speaker 1: Of me that that leak out on my husband. If I don't, if I don't keep myself in check, we suffer. So, you know, I think that's why marriage is such a beautiful kind of place to start with learning how to put someone else before yourself. But here's the thing with children, They are from you, and it is different. I mean, it is so humbling. I mean I was in an argument with my five year old this morning, trying to get her dressed for school and having a moment. And I didn't say this out loud to her. I never would, but I was like, I don't know what to do in this moment with you. Like I'm really struggling, Like you're hearing one thing I'm saying another, You're just totally tuning me out eventually, and it's frustrating, but oh my gosh, it is.

00:21:00
Speaker 3: It is the most unbelievable gift.

00:21:02
Speaker 1: And I was just talking to my sister in law, she's visiting with her husband and my niece, and we were just having this conversation of how much more you as you become a parent every day is not just a combination of putting yourself, you know, like trying to be as selfless as possible, taking care of yourself, but also doing the work to be the best parent, to show up for your child, but it's also a continual surrender of control because there are certain things that you can control, like you know, when you feed them, now if they eat it all, Like there's all these different things that you can control, but then there's a whole lot that you just have to let go. And that is not to bring this back, but it is the compass of my life, my story.

00:21:55
Speaker 3: Without my faith, I would.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: Be the worst mother and wife because I would need to just grasp everything like their lives and mind depended on it. And so when there's a surrender and faith in the process in the story, and a faith in God to that He's in control and I don't have to be, it just helps me breathe.

00:22:20
Speaker 2: And I'm scared to death, Like I'm scared, and.

00:22:24
Speaker 3: You know what that says to me.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: It speaks to the unbelievable heart you have that you're taking it seriously, like there's something really healthy in fear.

00:22:33
Speaker 2: Or that I know I'm gonna screw it up. That's why I tell my wife, it's like I'm afraid I'm gonna mess this up so bad, Like why I'm already I struggle being a good husband at times because just gone or I'm not you know, we've be married two years, been together four or so whatever it is like that to me was hard because I've never had somebody that I cared as much about that I would actually let it affect me to where it was bothersome that they weren't feeling good. I never had that. I haven't now and i've definitely, but I feel like I'm like twelve in that development. Career wise, I'm like one hundred and ten. I'm Methuselaman. I mean, let's go. I got a long gray beard. I've been through it all. But like in that relationship part of my life, like that was that that is still developing. I read books on it. Yeah, I never thought it would I only want to read like sports books. But now I just read a book Wired for Love, which is like a book about the brain. And I never thought i'd be that guy. And I never think I'm gonna read kid's books, but oh my god, but I do.

00:23:42
Speaker 3: And you write them.

00:23:43
Speaker 2: Oh I did. I didn't write a kids book. I did write a children's book. Yes. I just got in from from Vegas like an hour ago. I was doing the CES convention out there and speaking a couple of places. And while I was there, there was this really small show that Weezer came out to play as of Weezer fans. I did not know until I got there that was happening. And I'm right at the stage and I have no phone out. Someone had recorded me and I got the video of it. I don't have a phone out, watch and I'm just I'm in it and I'm enjoying it, and I'm singing every Weezer song because that was one of my favoritess why we're my glasses? Honestly? Yes was. I thought Rivers Cuomo was the coolest dude. He was a nerd like I was, and I was also blind. And so I'm watching Weezer and I'm being a fan. I rarely get to be a fan just because of the industry that we're in. When is the last time you got to be a real fan of something in the arts? It doesn't have to be music, but where you went and you just got to go, I'm not Hillary from Lady A, I'm not Hillary the singer. I'm just here to enjoy this.

00:24:41
Speaker 3: Yes, you know.

00:24:45
Speaker 1: The first thing that pops up in my mind when you ask me that question. So we started our tour, the Request Line Tour, in April of last year, we did two nights at the Rhymen, which was such a sweet and daunting.

00:24:58
Speaker 3: Scary and also really rewarding way to start the tour.

00:25:02
Speaker 1: But we played a Friday and a Saturday night, and then on Sunday night, a friend of mine who's a Christian artist named Brandon Lake played the Ryman, And so I was at the Rhyman three nights in a row, and that night there was something about the timing of it. I think, after giving so much of myself to these two shows in our hometown, in this iconic venue, getting to go and sit and just experience something that was so inspirational and so beautiful with music that I love and I sing in my car all the time, that to me was the and I took my little sister Riley with me.

00:25:42
Speaker 3: That was probably the last time.

00:25:47
Speaker 1: In the recent months that I felt like I was just fully soaking up the experience.

00:25:55
Speaker 2: So that would be do you feel like people or were you able to separate yourself from people pointing and staring?

00:26:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. You know, I was so lost in that show.

00:26:05
Speaker 1: It's hard to call it a show too, It's like a worship experience.

00:26:09
Speaker 3: But I was so caught up in it. I don't even I don't.

00:26:14
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I noticed anybody else, to be honest, I mean, and that night it was so cool. Thomas Rahtt came out and they performed a song together. It's a song called Talking to Jesus, and it's this really beautiful story song about prayer and family that pray for you, and it was awesome.

00:26:32
Speaker 3: It was so much fun.

00:26:33
Speaker 1: But I if they were looking, I didn't care.

00:26:36
Speaker 3: I mean, that's how free I felt.

00:26:37
Speaker 1: It was like I didn't have my you know, my phone wasn't out, it wasn't It was just free, kind of like you explained.

00:26:45
Speaker 2: And I was watching myself sing along to a song with no phone in my hand, and I was like, man, I wish it could be that guy more. It's my fault. I'm not. Yeah, yeah, it's my fault. I'm not. Sometimes it's a little harder. It's hard to go eat and people record us eating. My wife hates it especially like that. But you know, but I shouldn't let that sour me to allow myself to have like great experiences. And I saw me and I posted on my Instagram because I'm just like rare me no phone and someone recorded me and it was awesome and I almost didn't recognize that version of me to just be in that moment. Another thing that's kind of odd about Nashville is we rarely get to see our friends do their thing that they are celebrated for professionally, because I'm gone on a lot of weekends, right, And also so are my friends. And if they are here, they're rarely here. You're like, you guys are rarely here, right. And so Brett Elderd is one of my top three best friends in the whole world. And my wife and Brett and myself we probably hang out two to three times a week, like we're that close, right. But she didn't know. She knew he was a singer. She had never seen him sing, and we go to his Christmas show Lash year. She's like, I'm nervous, Like why she goes because if this is cringey, I gotta tell them because I've never seen him sing. And Brett is a very is very shy, very much a mental health advocate and deals with anxiety as do. I think that's kind of why we bonded at first. But he comes out and he starts singing and I look over and she's like crying because here's this person that we know that's doing the thing they were meant to do, and she's getting emotional. Said, I guess that's not Cringey.

00:28:36
Speaker 3: Hunt All hang tight.

00:28:39
Speaker 4: The Bobby Cast will be right back, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.

00:28:52
Speaker 2: Not being able to see our friends do their things and to see them sometimes it's I'm kind of reawakened to it. What about your friends that are so good at music and you finally get to see them again if it's an award show or Ashton McBride would be another one that whenever I see her live that I'm always like, oh my god, I forgot how good she was. Yes, yeah, who for you is like that?

00:29:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm trying to think of the Cmas this year. There are so many great performances. I mean, we so we presented right after the Warren Treaty performed, and I was standing backstage, yeah, with Gary the Golden Bachelor, and we were about to walk out and we get to like we present a jelly roll with his award, which was such a what an epic moment. We were so honored to be there, but listening to them and just the pure on the pure talent gifting anointing that they have singing together and as them. You know, individuals that you do get reminded when you hear them in the room live. That's why I think it's a real huge part of my year this year to have more creative input and output, Like I want to experience more live music or even just all kinds of arts.

00:30:09
Speaker 3: Theater. My little girl Asley loves the theater.

00:30:12
Speaker 1: She's actually in a production this weekend, her first one with this theater company she's in. And but wanting to have Like as you're talking, I'm like, I want, I want to give myself the opportunity to experience those moments more because I know I go in and I'm a different creative and a better creative because of it.

00:30:35
Speaker 2: Not only is it good for you inside, it's also good for you for what you're producing.

00:30:39
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, And I mean as you shared that story, I was thinking about how much it must have meant to Brett, for someone who doesn't really know him in that space, but knows him who he is off stage in a genuine and authentic way. To then have a friend, a newer friend who is now experiencing him in.

00:30:59
Speaker 2: This way the opposite way most people get to know him.

00:31:02
Speaker 1: Yes, and it is the most like, oh, I mean I could cry thinking about how seen and known in a deeper way that must have felt for him. Because those times that that's happened in my life, I'm like, oh, my gosh, you know the real me and you also get to see this other side of me and celebrate it, and yeah, that's a really that's a very very special.

00:31:29
Speaker 3: Circumstance and opportunity.

00:31:30
Speaker 2: It was also like, when I watched him do that, you just reminded and I told him, I was like, man, that's what you were meant to do. Not that I didn't take so many hours of work and getting better and performances and because there's a lot of work that goes into being great. Yes, but that is what you were meant to do. What do you feel like you were meant to do?

00:31:53
Speaker 1: Definitely what I'm doing, I mean being in music. There's other things that I'm really really about as well. I mean growing up in a musical home. It's funny you asked that question. I might actually backtrack for a second. So growing up in a musical home, both my parents moved here from their hometowns to pursue it. It was almost like this is what you do, Like this is what we do. This is how I learned to really kind of fit into my family. So and I had the gift, like I was born with the gift to sing, So it was what I did. I ended up growing into loving it. I mean, for a few years before I hit high school, I was all about animals and I wanted to be a venarian and all these things. But so music for sure, creative arts for sure. But the things that are really igniting my passion and my excitement now have a lot to do with how the creative arts and mental help and self awareness and taking care of ourselves to be better for each other and our children, how those come together. So I'm you know, I'm kind of reading. I'm in student mode, Like I'm reading a whole lot about I feel like I have to know, Yeah, which the happiest people I know in my life have the heart and posture of a student.

00:33:16
Speaker 3: My husband is a great example.

00:33:17
Speaker 1: I mean, he just got his master's degree over the last two and a half years in practical theology and watching him struggle, wrestle, but succeed and thrive was inspiring and so I yeah, it's a long answer to your question, but I really feel like digging into more of.

00:33:41
Speaker 3: Pursuing healing really because I do think it's possible.

00:33:43
Speaker 1: I think that there is healing and goodness that can happen as hard as this life can be.

00:33:50
Speaker 2: For the first time, I feel like I'm not just the guy that My identity was always the guy it's supposed to be funny but wherever it is on the radio, on stage, but whatever, that was just who I was first and everything else was secondary. And again I think I'm kind of late to this party. Of you mentioned healing, I now feel like that's not the most important part of who I am, just now one. I would imagine kids probably affects that as well, But when did that start to happen for you, because I feel like you're so much more mature than I am, Like like.

00:34:23
Speaker 1: Lights, I thank you, that's kind, but it's not true. I would say kids for sure, But then also, you know, I've been working on a music career since I was sixteen, like professionally since I was sixteen. Met Charles and Dave when I was twenty, so I'm almost thirty eight, you know, so thinking about when you look at the trajectory of a career of vocation, I mean, it's kind of like you're hitting a midlife moment in a career before your midlife and age. You know, it's a very strange and so I think then you hit this point of Okay, I want to grow through this. I want to continue to grow even though sometimes what has been created and what exists the art that I've been a part of making.

00:35:21
Speaker 3: Is seen.

00:35:22
Speaker 1: You know, like the fans or other people in my life closer to me even expect things to be a certain way, and I'm like, no, no, I'm ready. I'm growing like we're always supposed to grow. And I think that's one of the hardest things about having a public facing life, in my opinion, is just giving yourself the permission to grow and knowing that what success looks like might look different after that, and that that's okay, and getting to a place of accepting that if that makes sense.

00:35:56
Speaker 2: It does. When you were talking about it that it reminded me of you guys have been so successful for so long that I think a bit because you guys are still in your thirties, yeah, I think a bit. You get people in this weird industry because they penalize you for how long you've been successful, and they will categorize you with like some of the legacy groups, because I think it is d Sorry I'm drunk. I'm drink, but I'm drunk. Apparently I've been on a plane all day. I feel like, I don't know if you feel this way at all. I feel like they hold you to a standard based on your success of legacy groups, and they often make you compete with your own songs to focus and feature on your own music, and that here you guys are you're you know, back thirty one, thirty two, but you've been famous for so long that to them you're a tenure success.

00:36:56
Speaker 1: It's amazing to see, Like had so many people come through our shows and either send in requests or call and leave a voicemail, and it's like I've been a fan of yours since I was, you know, seven years old, and I'm like, oh my gosh, now you're in college.

00:37:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like same thing with the people said the show.

00:37:17
Speaker 1: I mean, it's so and it's a oh it is such a privilege, Like it truly is such a privilege, And I think that's just when you are an artist and when you've had the unbelievable gift of.

00:37:30
Speaker 3: Years long of a career.

00:37:33
Speaker 1: That's our Like, I feel like that's my own, like, that's my personal work that I have to go and talk to my counselor about and how to reconcile how all of that feels and then how I move through my life, because it can definitely, it can definitely take you into a place of like wanting to always strive to be relevant, and.

00:37:58
Speaker 3: It can play games.

00:38:00
Speaker 1: I can play games with my mind if I'm not in a healthy headspace around some of that.

00:38:04
Speaker 2: I feel like that they will call them gatekeepers if it could be radio or playlist at these major places are serious or whatever, Like you guys would be held to a different unfair standard because you were successful so young, and you had been successful so long. To hear you guys are younger than artists that are new at times, and again they're treating you like legacy ICs, where you know we're going to play a couple of the other older hits instead of even giving your new song a chance. And that always bothered me for you guys, because you would have artists that were up for New Artists of the Year. You guys are like four years younger than they are. You guys have been doing it for so long.

00:38:39
Speaker 1: And that and you know what, that's where gosh, it's just everybody's story. Everybody's journey is going to look different. And I think the thing that I care the most about is just being able to celebrate celebrate that for those other artists and also not let the upset and downs the successes that you know, what people think your successes or failures within are my career doesn't change my innate value as a human being.

00:39:14
Speaker 3: I think, you know.

00:39:15
Speaker 1: And that's the part where it's like when you're when you're a striver, when you want to pursue things and go after it with all you've got, a lot of times your self esteem can like rise and fall on that. And again that's my work to make sure that that it doesn't. That I wake up every day and go no, just being me, just being ill, you know, and and not and every day it's not that. I mean, it is hard sometimes multiple multiple times a day. But back to kids, they keep me in check because they don't give a fly on who what I do.

00:39:51
Speaker 3: Because because I'm mom and.

00:39:53
Speaker 1: They're hungry, or they want me to come play, or they need me to, you know, help them take a bath or you know, it's just it's It definitely.

00:40:05
Speaker 3: Brings things back into few perspective.

00:40:09
Speaker 2: I find that most of my creative friends and I'm friends with, we all bond over neurosis, like heavy neuroses. Me Brett, I don't know if you know, Ben Rector like we are. We are together all the time and we're all like for different reasons. We're all extremely neurosis quirky, hopefully lovable gentlemen. And the one thing that we have in common is we eyeball ticket sales and the day of to see if people don't like us, and we all wish we didn't because we will, you know, renounce. If I'm gonna announce a fifteenth theater tour, I'm gonna go do stand up. I will. At ten oh five, I'm clicking looking and if they're not selling, I'm like, oh my god, it's over. People don't like me, They're not coming, They're not Do you do you or did you ever do that?

00:40:57
Speaker 4: That?

00:40:58
Speaker 1: No? Really, I mean and I definitely paid attention to the chart early on specifically like when we were first starting and I still don't understand some parts of it and how it works the way that it works, but I would ask I mean, I definitely inquired and asked questions, but but I definitely lean on the side of we create the art, we do our part to show up, to perform it, to promote it, to continue to nurture the relationships that help propel it forward, and then ultimately got to like, you gotta let it fly kind of, you know, it's got to fly.

00:41:39
Speaker 3: The nest and then see where it goes.

00:41:42
Speaker 1: That's just been more of my personality now I know, you know, my bandmates probably would answer that question very differently, which is probably why all of the ways that we're different make what we do so fun so great.

00:41:55
Speaker 3: But no, I mean that's.

00:41:57
Speaker 1: Something I think, and maybe it's not totally out of help that I just was like, oh, I'll just find out, Like you know, there's a bit of a not knowing is less scary.

00:42:10
Speaker 2: What was you you and your mom's relationship, like when you were deciding you were going to do this for real?

00:42:15
Speaker 1: It's a great question. They wanted me to get a degree. My dad more than my mom, probably, but they wanted me to get a degree. So I went to college and then ironically met Charles and Dave two and a half.

00:42:26
Speaker 3: Two years in to getting a degree. I was probably on a.

00:42:29
Speaker 1: Five year plan from being honest, just because I was writing so much in town and was taking kind of the minimum hours per semester. But you know, I think she wanted me. And this is how I feel about my girls. I want them to pursue their dream. I would never deter them from doing the same thing I'm doing if that's what they want to do, if that's what they feel more than what they want to do, what they feel called to do.

00:42:56
Speaker 3: But she was always supportive, always.

00:42:59
Speaker 1: Supportive, and and protective at times, probably wanted me to ask more questions than I did early on, But I think that she really gave me the space to find my way and then has been an unbelievable cheerleader.

00:43:19
Speaker 4: The Bobby Cast will be right back, m This is the Bobby Cast.

00:43:32
Speaker 2: So your names, though have never been obviously Hillary Scott, her name, Linda Davis, what's the name, what's the real name? Situation? There is that really her last name?

00:43:40
Speaker 1: So her maiden name is Davis, got it, and then my dad is lang Scott, and so then my sister and I, you know, their two daughters, and.

00:43:51
Speaker 3: So she's kept her maiden name.

00:43:52
Speaker 2: Was there ever a time where you thought, maybe if I got why Davis, people will know that, Like what about the because your mom definitely well known, especially in town and also in country music. Did you ever think you wanted to use that to your advantage or was it you just so didn't want to use that.

00:44:05
Speaker 1: I don't know what If it's it's the I was an only child for fourteen years, but I'm first born of two. I don't or maybe it's my own stubbornness or pride. I never wanted it to appear like I was writing their coattails at all. I wanted to establish my own, you know, my own path, which always included their colleagues because they had been here and been a part of so much of what Nashville has been doing for so many decades. But I never wanted to ride their coat tails. I mean, I was like, probably stubborn to a fault with that. I would have been like, no way, am I gonna not because I don't love my Davis family. But I was like, no, I'm Hillary Scott, and we'll see. I want to see how this goes. It rises and falls on on.

00:44:58
Speaker 3: Mebe and me.

00:44:59
Speaker 2: What did you think think before you met Charles and Dave your career was going, if you could have chosen it, what did you think it will be?

00:45:07
Speaker 1: I honestly, I had gotten a development deal the year before, in two thousand and five with another label in town, and I had showcased for that label March of two thousand and six.

00:45:22
Speaker 3: They passed.

00:45:25
Speaker 1: We had packed it out, the showcase felt like it went great.

00:45:29
Speaker 3: Victoria Shaw was producing me.

00:45:32
Speaker 1: We had We've had strong songs, and we even got great feedback.

00:45:36
Speaker 3: From the label.

00:45:38
Speaker 1: But by the next morning they had said, no, we've decided to go with another artist.

00:45:42
Speaker 3: So I met the I met Charles and Dave two months later.

00:45:47
Speaker 1: Like after that, no, after that first big kind of industry career heartbreak, I meet the two of them, I think I would.

00:45:56
Speaker 3: Have probably.

00:45:59
Speaker 1: If not for me, them just tunneled way into songwriting. I don't know if a solo artist career from that age, I don't know if I could have handled it. I just have always thrived in collaboration, in community and friendship and being able to work together with people as in kind of being a part of a team. I would like to think I could have, but I think I would have felt so alone, lonely, and I just really enjoy collaborating.

00:46:38
Speaker 3: With the two of them.

00:46:39
Speaker 1: So I think I would have written a lot, and then if given an opportunity, I would have jumped. But sustainability, I'm not sure.

00:46:50
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's really interesting to think about.

00:46:52
Speaker 2: Whenever you think about you now, so you're trying to make it a solo artist for whatever reason that doesn't work. Timing probably it's always weird timing. But then you meet these two and where they they were already together. I mean they already were buddies rightway.

00:47:08
Speaker 1: They were, Yeah, because they've known each other since middle school, right Yeah.

00:47:11
Speaker 2: But now you're going from I'm going to be a solo artist who I'm possibly going to be a third of something. What kind of mental gymnastics did you have to do there?

00:47:23
Speaker 3: Meaning like sharing it?

00:47:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's you on stage, it's you when you're the solo artist.

00:47:29
Speaker 1: I I don't think I I don't think I really thought about it.

00:47:36
Speaker 3: It was.

00:47:38
Speaker 1: This what we're doing is so creatively invigorating and fun. And this feels so natural, even though it's new, even though we communicate totally different, and we're figuring out how to become friends while we start a banded and start a business. I just it was fun and it was it felt right, not easy, you know, And I think being naive and young, I was so young, I didn't know any different, you know, and I just knew what I'm doing. These songs.

00:48:14
Speaker 3: This friendship that's growing just feels like where I want to be.

00:48:19
Speaker 2: Whenever you guys start to become a unit, even if you haven't taken it out yet. Was it going to be we are going to be us three, We're going to have a name, nobody's names on it? Was that always the plan? Or was it you know, okay, we'll write the songs you think? Was that always it? We're going to be a trio, let's go.

00:48:38
Speaker 1: So it happened so organically because I'm at Charles. He mentioned Dave that they had just moved up day from Atlanta, Charles from North Carolina to start writing songs.

00:48:53
Speaker 3: We start writing.

00:48:54
Speaker 1: The first song we ever wrote is a song called All We'd Ever Need that was not originally a duet and they would say that, Like Charles I think had spoken to Dave to say, hey, this artist Hillary.

00:49:05
Speaker 3: She has some traction.

00:49:07
Speaker 1: She just had a development deal but it fell through. She's got great songs. Maybe we can write for her. Because they were kind of in that same They were in that headspace of we want to write songs, we'd love to get cuts. Charles was doing some songs some shows on his own, I think, opening up for his brother Josh here and there. But I think they came into it thinking we'll write and she can, maybe we'll write songs for her. Well, then we wrote all we'd ever need and I was like, this is a duet, like you've got to sing the second verse. And so then when that happened and then the harmonies came in. That was how it just kind of continued to evolve into a trio.

00:49:45
Speaker 2: The first showcase you guys did, do you remember it?

00:49:48
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:49:48
Speaker 2: How'd that go?

00:49:50
Speaker 3: Awkward?

00:49:51
Speaker 2: Oh?

00:49:51
Speaker 3: It was so awkward being on stage.

00:49:54
Speaker 1: I mean I had done Family Christmas Show at Apryland for three years, like I'd done Christmas songs, but actually performing like with a the band original material was so foreign and new to me. So being able to learn how to you know, interact with him.

00:50:14
Speaker 3: With Charles and Dave on stage.

00:50:15
Speaker 1: This it was Third and Lensley and it was before they renovated, and the stage was literally about the size of the space right here.

00:50:24
Speaker 3: It was so tiny. So Charles is.

00:50:26
Speaker 1: Sixty six, I'm five to nine, Dave six ' to one. It was a whole lot of like almost decking each other, you know, with arm moves. So it was awkward, but it was fun. It was exciting.

00:50:40
Speaker 2: How did it go?

00:50:41
Speaker 3: It went good?

00:50:42
Speaker 1: I mean, I want to say Josh Kelly, Charles's brother, had us open for him, and then then we kind of got a standing gig like every few weeks at Third and Lindsley. And then Josh went and did a show in North Carolina at this open air kind of amphitheater let us open up for him. I mean, so many things just started happening that we were like, how.

00:51:05
Speaker 3: In the world is this happening? And we just kind of show up.

00:51:08
Speaker 2: We say, yes, how long until you guys get signed?

00:51:11
Speaker 1: So we met in May of two thousand and six, played our first show in August of that year, and we signed our deal. We started negotiating our deal in February of two thousand and seven. Officially signed the contract in the summer of seven, and love Don't Live Here Anymore came out fall of seven.

00:51:31
Speaker 3: It went fast.

00:51:33
Speaker 2: When I was considering moving here, there's no way you'll remember this, So don't don't have like you do. You won't remember it. Whenever I was considering coming here because there had never been like a national country show before, and I had built my own company over in pop and I built my own syndication company and spent my own money and had made it work. But again, I was getting a bit of flag because I would have Willie on my pop show or Eli Youngband or Dirk's or and they would go, well, you have an accent. When I was in a bunch of markets, but they were like, you kind of sound like a hillbilly on a pop station. You know. That was kind of And so I was like, Okay, we'll go to Nashville. And I came to you guys shooting some promos and I sat and you guys were so nice to me, and I was I was just a dude that was sitting there. Where were we in some sound stage? You guys were so nice to me and it was. It was really one of the contributing factors to me going, you know, this feels uncomfortable because I'm giving up something that I built, but I feel like I can do some like I think it'd be naturally more me to do this. But I just remember how nice you guys were to me and going, man, if that's what people are like, They're like, I'm in that's so kind. Yeah, so and I don't even know. I wish I knew what you guys were doing, but you guys were And then McGraw was there too, who McGraw obviously older, way older, but like legend, and I remember him coming up and being like, what's up? Man? And I was like, what's that? What? What planet are these people? But you guys were so kind to me. And I don't think I've ever told you guys that story, but it really factored in to me moving here because of that. I just have a couple of questions, final questions for you here. And we talked about the new music you guys have put out and before you got here. But I was at a restaurant down near where our dogs are, and I saw this guy, really good looking, chiseled guy, get an earring in dressed extremely fashionable. I was like, that guy's got to be somebody, and he wouldn't turn around. But he was so just strikingly handsome and had on just the exact like right that I would never be able to pull off. And so I was like, I need to stop staring. So I walked over to get my drink and he comes over and he grabs him by the shoulders. He goes Bobby and it's one of the guys from for King Country. Yes, yes, yes, and with who I really like, and we have our own text thread the Bone Family. Yes and so but are you have something coming? Yeah? Their movie is happening. That's right, And did you do something with them?

00:54:09
Speaker 3: I did? Okay, So it was it Joel or Luke Joel? So yes, they asked me. So we collaborated on a song.

00:54:18
Speaker 1: I featured on a song called for God Is with us on their last record and had so much fun. We had kind of reached out to each other over the years since my Christian project in twenty sixteen about doing things together. It just never worked out. They send me the song that I already knew because I was such a fan. So I sing on.

00:54:41
Speaker 3: That song with them.

00:54:42
Speaker 1: Well, then a couple months later I get a call and.

00:54:46
Speaker 3: They're like, so, we're shooting this movie.

00:54:48
Speaker 1: We've written the story of how our family migrated here from Australia. Crazy story, by the way, is unbelievable, right, unbelievable, and we need Someonehillary, dear Hillary, to sing and play the role of the worship leader in the church that we started go into when we moved to Nashville. So I am lol Aanne Lilianne Meese is my character's name. It is a It's such a small role, but such an incredible opportunity to kind of dip my toe. Oh my gosh, I had so much fun. Again, it's just being a part of a team, being a part of a cast. I am definitely still so much more comfortable singing than speaking on camera. But it was a great experience and I got to screen the movie a couple months ago.

00:55:40
Speaker 3: Comes out April twenty sixth.

00:55:43
Speaker 1: It is an unbelievable film just about the resilience of family and how they just dug in and went through just such highs, such lows, but stayed together. And their mother, I mean, who's the true Miss Helen is the that she's the unsung hero.

00:56:02
Speaker 3: I mean, that's who the whole film.

00:56:04
Speaker 1: Is really honoring and about, and I highly encourage everyone to see it because it's it's powerful.

00:56:11
Speaker 2: Parallel as well. They you know, their sister was famous, yes, and they were like, we are not our brothers sister. They didn't weren't. They weren't saying we're not, but they just that was not their thing, right. They wanted to go and see if they had what it took to They're awesome. They are like, it's next level.

00:56:29
Speaker 1: They bring the the bells and whistles of any pop show you can ever imagine they bring to their shows. And the music is so dynamic, and the producers that they work with, like sonically it's just so interesting. And they're they're amazing. They're such incredible people friends. And yeah, I I'm very very grateful for the small bones.

00:56:52
Speaker 2: That watching them perform because I knew them before I saw them perform. It was like, I don't know those aliens performing on stage because those rock It was it was crazy to watch how good they were.

00:57:04
Speaker 4: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor h Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

00:57:18
Speaker 2: Final question, what do you hope people say behind you find your back m M.

00:57:26
Speaker 3: I would say my hope is that I hope that people would say that I'm kind.

00:57:38
Speaker 1: Definitely, you know, have I have my moments where anxiety or stress or something that I'm preoccupied with gets the best of me. But that I'm kind, and that I think that you know that my own personal prayers for growth over these last few years is just to be.

00:58:03
Speaker 3: Kind no matter what and to grow in wisdom.

00:58:07
Speaker 1: So I think that would be the other hope as I get older, continue to get older, is that.

00:58:16
Speaker 3: Something I said mattered to them?

00:58:19
Speaker 2: Is that kind of We'll just use the word Monserrat's easiest for everybody? Is that kind of it? To be kind? Is that mine is don't complain?

00:58:27
Speaker 3: Oh that's good.

00:58:28
Speaker 2: Like I really try not to complain because it doesn't mean no good. It does no one else any good either, So I try not to complain. Is yours to constantly try to But it's hard, by the way, I don't do a good job up all the time because I complain like crazy? But is that what it is for you? To just try to be kind? Because you don't know what everybody or anybody else is kind?

00:58:47
Speaker 1: Of going through yeah, to be kind and also and know that like that that doesn't it doesn't always come easy, dependent on the dependent on where you are in your life, but that it's always the better choice. I'm always more I always go to bed at night with more peace in my heart. And you know one thing I've been saying to my girls a lot lately, when we're talking about sharing or you know, working through things with friends, it's like, and this isn't in a you pursue perfectionism kind of way, but it's like, go make a choice, Go do something that you think would make God smile. That's what That's what I want them. I want that motivation to be for them. That's my prayer for them, is like, hey, let's go make people smile, but let's make God smile with the way that you're treating your friends, taking care of yourself and experiencing life.

00:59:46
Speaker 2: As we mentioned earlier, Love You Back a love song. You guess follow both Lady A and Hillary Scott LA which seems like Los Angeles, but I know it's Lady Ah. I do, I do, But every time I see it, I think it's like Hillary's got Los Angeles. But I'm just a massive fan of you as a person and the band obviously, but I have such a different relationship, Like Dave is the reason that I even went on site and had a lot of like, you know, there was I was going through some stuff, But I have a different relationship with all of you guys so distinctly and different and then all together as well, and you're all like, it's awesome. Yeah, it's awesome. Like I wanted to punch Charleston's face a few times and him me, but but that even makes us better friends, you know, it's real. Yeah, And Dave has been like right in my ear in times where I've been like hey, man, like that guy is solid. So I'm a big fan of you, big fan of the group. Thank you for coming in and spending the time you and you guys. You're done with a tour though, right for now? Will you do a tour where you take no request and only do songs that people have never heard of? Because that would be opposite if it would the other way, you know.

01:00:58
Speaker 1: What, That would be creatively really exciting for me and possibly very boring for the fans.

01:01:04
Speaker 2: We'll see only deep cuts, but not even your deep cuts. Yes, deep cuts from your favorite.

01:01:08
Speaker 3: Artist, other artists that would be hilarious.

01:01:10
Speaker 4: Oh my god, thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.