This Past Weekend - E534 Brooks & Dunn

Starting point is 00:00:00 Some new tour dates coming up. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin, Moline, Illinois, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Casper, Wyoming, Billings, Missoula, Bloomington, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio, Champaign, Illinois,

Starting point is 00:00:20 Grand Rapids, Lafayette, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas. Get all your tickets at theovon.com slash t-o-u-r and thank you so much for the support. Today's guests are icons in the world of country music. If they had a Mount Rushmore of country, you might see these fellas right up there on it. They had solo careers before they joined together to create one of the most popular tandems in the history of country. You know there are many hits like

Starting point is 00:00:53 Neon Man, Mama Maria, and Meets Gee, Meets Gee, and many, many more. Their new album Reboot 2 comes out November 15th. It has new takes on their classic songs with folks like Morgan Wallen, Jelly Roll, and Laney Wilson. I am so excited today to sit down with Mr. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, Brooks and Dunn. ["Shine That Light On Me"]

Starting point is 00:01:41 I'm all set. ["Shine That Light On Me"] I'm off the stage. I'm off the stage. Yeah, thank you guys for coming in, man. Good to be here. Good to see you guys. I watch you all the time, not just saying that. I watched you with Post Malone the other day. I don't know how far back that was videoed or shot.

Starting point is 00:02:00 Oh yeah. Funny stuff. Yeah, he's wild, man. Yeah, he's really... He's wild, man. He's a cat. Yeah. He's really, he's just like an infectious thing, kind of. Is it funny? Yeah. Yes sir. No sir. Yeah. Psst.

Starting point is 00:02:12 Psst. He's like a kid who got in trouble, but he's going to keep partying, you know? Yeah. Yeah, right. Right. Yup. Will I be stopped drinking? He said, where's the worst time of your life?

Starting point is 00:02:22 Well, it's when I was drinking. Have you stopped? No. of your life? Well, it's when I was drinking. Have you stopped? No. What's different? Well, I mean, he's, yeah. He's an interesting cat. And he's absolutely a sweetheart, though. Oh, you talk to him, it's like Mr. Theo.

Starting point is 00:02:38 He's the nicest guy. Yeah. Yeah, he's super nice, man. You guys have had such a career, man. Thank you so much for all the music Yeah, thanks for letting us hang around Appreciate it around how long? several semesters, yeah

Starting point is 00:02:54 Does it feel did it ever fit did it feel like um, cuz you guys got part Do you guys get paired together or how did it kind of the beginning become? We're not gonna go through all the history, but I just want, you know, just so some people may not know. Classic story, you know, right out of the movies, just friend of ours who we both had a lot of respect for Tim Dubois, great songwriter himself and whatever. He's actually an accountant at Vanderbilt as well, you know, smart guy too. But he just invited us to lunch and thought we might be a good pair up. And Ronnie and I are just kind of growling across the table at each other.

Starting point is 00:03:31 It didn't make any sense to us. And he said, look, you guys can both write songs. He goes, just go see if you can write a song together. Okay, so I think that was Tuesday, maybe Thursday, we wrote Brand New Man. Friday we wrote this song, Next Broken Heart. And Ronnie had already written Neon Moon and Boot Scootin' Boogie. And I had another song, Lost and Found, and we just screwed up and been riding the bus for 30 years trying to figure out how to get off of it. Yeah. It's like we weren't, we weren't

Starting point is 00:04:00 brothers growing up. Like, yeah, challenge it. Did it feel like a pressure? Like you had to be like, like I just want, yeah, like, cause with comedians, they don't really have that, where they kind of partner you up, I guess for television shows and stuff they do, where they package shows. But yeah, I wonder, did it feel, did you guys feel a pressure like we have to,

Starting point is 00:04:18 or it was just? No. No, we felt, we felt broke and hungry. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure it was some motivation. We, we, we felt broke and hungry. Yeah None of these kids really working that great Yeah, I mean I'd had some some success as a songwriter written a couple of hits and whatever and Ronnie just been out No key, you know hide and writing great songs

Starting point is 00:04:41 totally unheard of for Somebody who hadn't been in Nashville, really studying the craft, so to say, to show up with songs like Neon Moon and Bootscoot and Oh, yeah, next album, Hard Working Man and used to be my Ronnie just had written all these great songs by itself, which, you know, now I can't even tell you who's out there writing songs by themselves. They'll probably watch and go, Hey, how about me, dude? But you know, it's who's out there writing songs by themselves. They'll probably watch and go hey, how about me dude? But you know, it's it's a co-writing town. It just really is it's becoming more and more of a co-writing town

Starting point is 00:05:11 I last more and more writers on every song with nine writers Nine writers. I mean what the heck we still like we'd throw a bet you mean like, you know three writers in yeah Did it feel like over did it feel like you guys had to, cause I bet it's like, once you get partnered with somebody, it's like, dang, this is a long ride, and you don't really know how long the ride is when you start, you know? Did it feel like you guys over the years,

Starting point is 00:05:38 like you had to be best friends? Did it ever feel like a pressure to be like that? Maybe, but we didn't, I don't think we took it to heart. I mean, it was like, hey, Tim, back up on your story a little bit for me. But Tim had heard me playing a bar in Oklahoma, and he was circling through, and Clive Davis, and he were putting a label together.

Starting point is 00:06:01 So he told me, he says, I want to sign. He said, I've already got Alan Jackson and Diamond Rio. He already had a boy singer and a band. And Pam Tillers. And it's like, he's like, he's going down the list. We didn't realize this at first, but he was going down the list going, okay, now I need her. I said, trio, I've got a trio.

Starting point is 00:06:18 Now I need a duo. Yeah. But he didn't, we didn't know that till after the fact. The judge were breaking up. So he saw an open slot on the CMAs. I think. Might have been true. It was true.

Starting point is 00:06:33 I think it was that manipulative. Yeah. Yeah, I saw you guys do your walkout with Morgan. How was that, man? That was cool. He's got it stirred up. And it's like, OK, so where do we? He's got it stirred up.

Starting point is 00:06:44 So how about that kid? Did you know about it before what it was or no? stirred up and it's like, okay, so where do we? So where do we? How about that kid? Did you know about it before what it was or no? I really didn't. They were trying to explain to me what was going on and like, we're going to look back and you guys come down the hallway and then y'all are going to walk out together to his stage.

Starting point is 00:06:58 You know, we're going to film it and it's a big deal. I'm like, okay. We keep up with it to the extent that we know how he's selling out stadiums everywhere and it's like, you know, get out of the way and he's crashing websites and live nation is, you know, if you announce ticket sales at all, you know, it blows up through the roof. So, and I had, I had, uh, did a walk on with him at Bridgestone when he played here a couple of years ago. Oh yeah. I saw that show actually. Really? I was at that show. Yeah. Yeah. That was awesome. Yeah. But yeah, I saw that show actually. Really? I was at that show, yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:25 That was awesome. But yeah, to do that is kind of an interesting thing because you're back there, you don't really know what's going on, you know? You can kind of start to hear people cheering, but you don't really know. So did you do that with him? Yeah, yeah, I got to do one with him here in Nashville.

Starting point is 00:07:40 Yeah, with DeAndre Hopkins that plays for the Tennessee Titans. Uh-huh, yeah, sure. But it's still kind of confusing because you're like- J-Hop. Yeah, D Deandre Hopkins at plays for the Tennessee Titans. Uh huh. Yeah, sure. But it's still kind of confusing because you're like... J-hop. Yeah, D-hop. Oh, that's what I meant. Oh, what did I call him?

Starting point is 00:07:51 Deandre. No, but when I did it, he wasn't doing the walk yet. So we were in Kansas City the other night with him. Is that right? No, no, no. Yeah, we were in Kansas City. Yeah, Kansas City. Yeah, that's where you guys did the walkout with him, right? Yeah. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, we were in Kansas City. Yeah, Kansas City. Yeah, that's where you guys had to walk out with him, right?

Starting point is 00:08:06 Yeah. Yeah, because it's kind of wild. Yeah. It's just this thing, I guess they kind of just started it. Yeah, you don't know. Yeah, you're right. You're just kind of thrown into the fray there. Yeah, you just kind of don't know what's going on.

Starting point is 00:08:18 Well, am I supposed to walk here and be cool? Am I supposed to like, you know, rub your shoulders? Right. And it's starting to get weird. People are rubbing on him and people are, yeah. Right? It's getting And it's starting to get weird. People are rubbing on him and people are, yeah. Right. It's getting, it's starting to get a little aggressive, I feel like.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Right. And the only thing you know is it's like, they back up and- What are you doing? Stop doing that. Get off of me. And they'll touch the artist. And they tell us, they said,

Starting point is 00:08:38 no, he's going to walk fast. Okay, you're going to walk fast. Yeah. That's it. And then off you go. It'll be cool when he just starts wrestling. Yeah. In that way.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Yeah. Towards the direction. It's him and his agent just back there fist fighting. Oh, I think, yeah, it's definitely bizarre because you don't really know what's going on, and then he's like, all right, let's go, and for him, he's just getting to, you know, heading to work. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:02 He's bouncing off the walls, yeah. Yeah, it had to be weird because you get to the stage and then you guys can't go out to the stage, so it's like. Yeah, it's like, yeah, heading to work. Yeah. And then it's, yeah. It had to be weird cause you get to the stage and then you guys can't go out to the stage. So it's like, yeah, it's like, yeah, we're on. It's like, stop. Yeah. No, this is not your show. Stop here.

Starting point is 00:09:14 The cameras all follow that guy. Yeah. It really was like that, man. Cause I didn't even play anything when I was like, I could try, you know, I was like, let's do it. You know, that's how we were. He's just, he's just wing it. Give me something to bang on. Oh yeah. And DeAndre's like, he's do it. You know? That's how we were. He's just wing it. Give me something to bang on. Go with the flow, man.

Starting point is 00:09:25 Oh, yeah. And DeAndre's like, he looked like he was ready to just run a 40 yards F-flat, you know? So I was like, yeah, let's get him out here, dude. So that was interesting, man. What's been one of the tougher things that came with fame that you guys realized? Because you guys went to being,

Starting point is 00:09:44 obviously you were doing well in your careers individually. But even as you were just saying like, you know, you guys, the first couple of songs you put out were hits. That's right. First four were number ones. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of number ones, dude, you know? We just called some buddies up in a panic

Starting point is 00:10:00 and started playing honky-tonks and bars. Even our manager told us not to do it. He said, no man, if we're running off, like we're knocking hits out of the park right now, we need to have a tight band, you know, when they do, or we get to a place where we're in front of a lot of people. So we went for the first year, year and a half, playing clubs everywhere.

Starting point is 00:10:21 From here to California. Which was the coolest. It was Animal House. The coolest memory. The coolest memory for me because I probably like Ronnie, I mean, just a lot of years of turning corners on clubs and stuff and there'd be four or six cars in the parking lot.

Starting point is 00:10:38 Oh yeah. You know, and you just have to go and set up. And one of them's yours too. Exactly. And one of them's a girl you came to, you're invited to impress. Exactly. And a couple of guys that don't like you because they want her too. And she's not cute at all. Yeah, you set your stuff up, you know, and nobody cares and whatever. And then next thing, you know, we're parking down the road and to get to a place because the parking lot's full. Those were great nights, they really were.

Starting point is 00:11:07 You really couldn't screw up too bad because it was fired up and that's kind of what you dream about when you're learning to maintain your guitar. Just man, just the clubs part of it. I mean, the whole Coliseum thing and that other kind of success was, I wasn't even thinking that far. This was just like, man, it worked.

Starting point is 00:11:30 It was so crazy because we don't know each other from Adam. Even at that point, we don't know each other from Adam. We would learn in interviews about one another. About each other? Yeah, like I didn't know you did that. Now, as you started to get famous, I'm just curious about this kind of stuff, because fame and popularity is such like a,

Starting point is 00:11:45 it's an interesting thing, right? And it's its own thing, because you can't exactly plan for it. Like, were there things that you kind of missed kind of immediately about that? Because once you kind of, once it starts to happen, it's hard to put it, you can't really put your life back into that old jug, really.

Starting point is 00:12:02 No, and you don't see it coming. You can't plan for it, no matter where it is. I think even if you grew up around it, which I didn't. But this is so strange, though. I can remember going home after the first, say, run, the real tour when we were opening for Reber or whatever. And my wife and brother-in-law, she said, you've changed. I'm like, what, she said, you've changed. I'm like, what?

Starting point is 00:12:28 She said, you've changed. She said, you're not the same. And I was like, I didn't feel like anything was any abnormal other than I was going out on a bus and singing in front of people. I didn't come back going, you know, hey, I'm famous. Yeah. Yeah. But people's perception of you changes, you know, don't you think?

Starting point is 00:12:46 Yeah, and that, yeah, it is. And it's kind of uncomfortable because you don't, you kind of wish it wouldn't. Well, you need that safety net of normalcy, you know, come back to, especially at home. And it was just kind of, all of a sudden you're getting pushed, pushed in the corner in a way by that whatever perception is of fame. I just did a bunch of acid, so we're heavy with this. Oh, I'm not even here. No, no. This shit's just coming out of the cosmic space, right?

Starting point is 00:13:17 Of mushroom, not acid. Acid's out. I think that it's funny. My wheels are turning just thinking about those times. And honestly, I love, somebody made a statement one time we're having a conversation like this and said, yeah, I want to be a star, I want to be a star, I want to be a star, will you people please leave me alone? You know, I've never felt that way.

Starting point is 00:13:37 You know, I mean, like Ronnie for so many years, I was 36, he was 38 when we met, you know, with nothing going on really. And I mean, that's pretty old to just get started with a career where you're put together by a record company and to think you're going to have a 30-year plus run or something, you know. Well, we didn't think about the 30 plus year run. I know, that's what I mean. Our philosophy was, hey, you got three to five years. Let's maximize it. Let's take what little money we make. And I was going to go, our big, Janine, my wife and I just

Starting point is 00:14:14 got married in Oklahoma. So our goal was, you know what, interest rates are like 10%. And this was back, don't see how far back it was. Interest rates are 10%. We make a million dollars. We can live off $100,000 a year and live like kings. That we drove up to the first house, bought this little house in Nashville,

Starting point is 00:14:34 we go, we're just here for a little while, save your money. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know if you remember this, Ronnie, but we were sitting in the Nashville airport, just shooting the bull. And we were sitting in the Nashville airport, just shooting the bull and we've always just, I guess, had kind of a natural, just a couple of guys and we're smart asses just, you know, just goofballing all the time, talking to people just like,

Starting point is 00:14:56 like we are today. And, and anyway, these two girls came over and I saw three of them over there talking and they came over and asked if they could get an autograph and they had a CD and whatever. And you know, we just shot the bull back and forth a little bit and whatever. And I mean, they were sweet. Whenever we signed their CDs and I've always been happy to do that. Glad anybody cares, you know? Oh yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:19 And a couple of minutes later, their friend comes over and said, our friends told us what you said. We're getting rid of all our CDs. We've always thought y'all were so great. What? I mean, just teed up on us and we're looking at each other and going, I'm trying to remember this conversation, what I could have possibly said that. And I, I mean, I like to think of myself as a good guy, nice guy, and I, and

Starting point is 00:15:42 have always respected our fans and everything else. I'm like, what just happened? But it made me realize that moment, that minute that we spent together, totally wraps somebody's impression of you and what kind of human you are and how they'll tell everybody they meet for the rest of their lives that they're just jerks, you know, and you just, that's the part. Did you ever find out what you said? I have no idea what we said. You were involved. You must have been involved.

Starting point is 00:16:13 That's what I'm thinking. What did you say? I wasn't there. I wasn't there. Don't pull, don't suck me down that rabbit hole. It does feel like you get on this one, like this one minute game show to prove to somebody that you're okay or something. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:16:28 Yeah, that stuff, it's like. It's like a job interview. You gotta be quick. Yeah. And you, yeah. And you, and the job is you want them to think you're okay or something, you know? You're the guy for the job in one minute.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Yeah, yeah. You can do it, I can't. Yeah, that kind of stuff gets a little tricky. Was it tough like um What about like having a family and stuff in touring so much like what were things that like? Yeah, what's that like like dude? Is it hectic? I had just been married I mean we just got married came up and in June Carter cash gave us a little cabin on top of the hill

Starting point is 00:17:03 next not far from their house to live in. Wow. And so nice little house, like something out of a magazine. But it was on top of a mountain by itself. And so was she. Boom, we get we had a hit right out of the gate. We're gone.

Starting point is 00:17:24 And it wasn't too long. It's like, I mean, we didn't have, we had like cell phones, but we didn't think I have cameras, but I started getting these terrorist faxes. I called them like she would fax the hotel. Cause I talked longer than we talk so long on the phone. They go, okay, all right, all right. All right. I'll be home in two weeks. I know. I understand. I get it. I love you. phone. They go, okay, all right, all right. All right, I'll be home, you know, in two weeks.

Starting point is 00:17:45 I know, I understand. I get it, I love you, bye. You know, ring. I'm not answering the phone. That ain't gonna happen. So not 10 minutes later, I get this knock on the door and it's like they slide this stack of faxes underneath. So she started faxing me.

Starting point is 00:18:03 It's like, what the hell? And this goes on for, I don't know, a few months. And we sorted it out. But to this day, I mean, then she's- It was night. I had to go to therapy over it. Oh, I'm sure. With her or without her?

Starting point is 00:18:15 With her, at her request, obviously. You know, because I'm broken, she's not anyway. That's a long thing. You know, I'm- Eric Chenault had one of those that, cause we had a cell phone per se on tour, but it was like something that the army would use. You know,

Starting point is 00:18:30 I had a suitcase thing that it was in and all that. You know, the second you press a button, the helicopter would come by. You know, like 18 bucks a minute. A long way from 18 bucks. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:40 It's important. It wasn't cheap, man. It wasn important. It wasn't, yeah, but it wasn't with our wives or anything. We were a little, we didn't give our wives a number. It's strictly a beer phone. You're like, we need airdrop now. You know, I recently had a subscription

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Starting point is 00:23:09 and stuff back then. And during, it was kind of like summer vacation, honestly. It was, I never, nevermind. We got, fortunately we did have some success and made a little money and were able to get our own buses pretty early, is the reason we're still sitting here having this conversation. There were 13 of us on one bus for a year with the merchandise, where you get boxes of t-shirts and stuff like that. And then, uh,

Starting point is 00:23:34 one of our guitar players slept in the back with, with the merchandise. Oh yeah. There's always that. It was animal. I got human gerbals back there, just burrowing in a bunch of extra larges back there. It was absolute animal house. He just completely just covered himself with nine mediums back there. It got him Bird Burton, who was the famous guitar player

Starting point is 00:23:57 for the amazing rhythm aces and a bunch of rock stuff. And he'd come up there, bless his heart. We were really trying to keep him around. So, hey, you have the sofa with the merchandise. He goes, we don't have any blankets so you sleep under T-shirts, right? Anyway, it was an animal house. It was like animal house?

Starting point is 00:24:18 Yeah, we had one guy, all the bunks, like there's what, nine, six to a side, I think. And then the back lounge, and there's one guy that we called him, what, Fred Sanford, he was the junk man. And you couldn't stop at a truck stop and he wouldn't go in and like buy a fricking CD. A CB radio and a bunch of chips.

Starting point is 00:24:38 You hear him at four in the morning. Turn over and be like an ace hardware in his bunk. And I was cranking around. You hear chip bags crinkling at night and stuff. And you're like, what? And all of a sudden there's the wall and then the bunk. And you see like their chip bag would fall down through to the next guy. He's like, God dang, man.

Starting point is 00:24:59 It was crazy stuff. Truck stops are great though. Oh man, so much fun. There's so much good stuff in there. Especially when you cross a border. Early on, Faith Hill was opening up for us. And, and- Oh, wow. Huh?

Starting point is 00:25:09 Yeah. And I forget. Oh, and, and wait- All the boys love that. Y'all struck out with her, I guess. Amen. Amen. No judge. We got stranded in Canada in a snowstorm. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:20 A lot of stuff. God couldn't have set the table any better for one of you guys. It was tough, man. It was rough. Yeah. So in the first truck stop, I go in and I'm looking at all their of stuff. God couldn't have set the table any better for one of you guys. It was tough, man. It was rough. So in the first truck stop, I go in and I'm looking at all their cool stuff. And the freezer in Canada, and I pulled, it was an eel. It was a frozen eel in the freezer.

Starting point is 00:25:35 And I'm like, wow. So I bought it. I mean, I have no idea what I'm going to do with this, but I couldn't resist. That was a phase when everybody started in rough. But that was a phase when everybody was in, but that was a phase when, when everybody was playing pranks on the road. Faith and faith was like, she was one of the guys. I mean, you had to have to keep up with that.

Starting point is 00:25:51 She would, she would throw stuff. An eel could come in handy in all kinds of regards. Who'd even had an eel? I don't even, some people don't even. Canadians. Yeah. I think that was the point. It's why you bought it.

Starting point is 00:26:01 It's like, look at this. What the hell? So it's kind of a little bit of a nicer snake, it's the most Canadian thing, you know? Yeah, but we get to the end of the tour, and sure enough, I walk by, we're fixing to go to the, you know, Stage Faith, Faith is on next,

Starting point is 00:26:15 and Wade Hayes had just gotten off stage, I went by to tell him, you know, good show and whatever, and he's kind of leaned over, he's looking pretty peaking, and I'm like, dude, you okay? He's like, no man, it's like, faith put salt in my drinking water on stage and I go, oh, and he was- Made him sick so he was stomaching.

Starting point is 00:26:29 Made him sick, so I'm like, that's wrong. I go, I got you, dude. So she was at- Get your back, bro. She's in a hotel, but we had the codes to her room and her fictitious name, whatever she was using at the time. So me and Doug make a run. Well, first I put the eel in the microwave

Starting point is 00:26:48 and the eel didn't even have a head. I mean, and then once you've thawed him out, he got real slimy, you know? So we had over there- Heartbreaking childhood it must have had. Dude, you know it. And- You bring your own food.

Starting point is 00:27:01 Pull back the covers and just laid him out right where those pretty little feets were going to go. You know, kind of pushed it down so we put the covers back, just made it look really good. Anyway, and the next, didn't hear a thing. She didn't say anything. We just keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. Nothing.

Starting point is 00:27:19 So we're going through customs, getting back into the States the next day, you know, and so I go through and you know, lady's going, she goes, Mr. Brooks. I go, yes, she goes, I need you to come over here to the side. And I go, yeah, she goes, apparently there's been a complaint filed against you about some stolen jewelry by Miss Faith Hill. And she starts pulling this rubber glove on.

Starting point is 00:27:42 And I go, don't do that, don't do that. It ain't in there. That guy. I was like. No. You better not be kidding her. I swear to God. Like, she couldn't hold it.

Starting point is 00:27:55 No, she finally broke. I go, come on, it's not our first day. Leave me alone. You're not even in this game. You do sing a little higher that night. The world was fun then too when things were a little bit more simple, you know? Oh yeah. In a lot of ways. Yeah. That was a lot of fun, man. And you couldn't capture the moment as much, so you had to enjoy the moment because that was the only, you know what I'm saying?

Starting point is 00:28:22 Well, you got too much downtime. I mean, it was not, you know, if you're not on stage doing something creative, you're doing something destructively creative on the backside. Oh yeah. You know, you know, you've been out there. Oh, it's the dark arts out there, brother. It is. Did you guys ever have a comedian that opened up for you guys? I know sometimes they used to do that on shows.

Starting point is 00:28:39 Gary Mule Deer. Oh really? Yeah. Still a good friend. Love Gary. Yep. We did, um, did, uh, what Vegas? Vegas a couple times. It's hysterical. I don't know how many times but he was out with us quite a bit.

Starting point is 00:28:53 That's a tough gig I feel like. Well he, but he played guitar as well. Well you know Gary's like, he does play guitar and it's you know it's incredible because he just did a, we did a show together out in California not too long ago. And he played, because he always, he's got a Johnny Cash voice and he'll do Ring of Fire or something like that every now and then. He's hysterical though. Just real straight face joke teller

Starting point is 00:29:21 and can just break you down. I gotta tap in with him. I've heard of him before. I've seen a lot of like, cause committees you go to the next club and the other person's just been there, you know? And I've seen a lot of his, uh, you know, seen his name a ton over the years, but I've never gotten to watch him. Been around forever.

Starting point is 00:29:35 But he, he actually performed a song and it was, I bet this thing had 20 verses and it was, it was, it was, I'm not kidding. It was like, but it was a real country music analog kind of take you through this whole journey of thing. It was really neat, big time stand to know because I've seen him perform. I don't even know how many times at this point. And, and everybody there was like, wow,

Starting point is 00:30:00 you got that off your chest. And he did not tell a single joke. Really? He sang that, he sang that one song and left the stage. So it was so cool. But it was a humorous song. No, it wasn't funny. It was a real song.

Starting point is 00:30:13 It was. But he was a comedian. He is a comedian. He's a great comedian, yeah. Maybe that's his ideal comedy. Him and Roger Miller toured together. And you've heard of people doing these Rogerisms, these funny things that he told all, he knows all of them.

Starting point is 00:30:27 I mean, if you ever run into him, get him going on Roger because he's one of the great historians, the keepers of the Rogerisms too. Great guy, funny comedian. Yeah, I need to run into him. Yeah, what do you feel like being a duo? Were there other duos that like in music that reached out to you guys over the years to help learn how to navigate

Starting point is 00:30:53 that template? Does that make any sense to you? Yeah, it does make sense, but no. As friendly as they say the world of country music is, it's so darn competitive. Everybody hates one another. They act like they don't on TV. You think people are really competitive though?

Starting point is 00:31:11 Oh, heck yeah. No, big time competitive. One of my favorite things is Dolly Parton in an interview years and years ago, she said they were talking about somebody. She just goes, oh honey, there's room for everybody. No, there's not. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:31:24 You want to get down to it? No, there's not. You want to get down to it? No, there's not. What's the most competitive part? Is it people trying to get the best songs? Is it like, where does the competition really come in? Do you feel like, cause that's interesting. I think just by nature to be here and be in this game, in your game or anything, that there's a competitive,

Starting point is 00:31:43 don't you feel? There's a competitive dynamic that runs through it. Especially in the beginning for sure. Yeah, but you wanna catch it like, how many number ones do you have? Who had a number one this week? Who has it? And we can be cool and like sit back and go,

Starting point is 00:31:56 you know, we don't care. It's no big deal. We're not in it for that. We're in it for the love. And that's not the case. But that's also healthy. that's what keeps you going. We do make some real friends along the way. We have.

Starting point is 00:32:10 I mean, you do. There are people that you're competent. I mean, David Lee Murphy is a great example. He wrote with him yesterday. You know the song Dust on the Bottle? I'd be a little dust, I believe, more for you. Him singing, him writing, turned into writing a lot of songs. He's written a lot of great songs too.

Starting point is 00:32:30 And we got here, both got here in 79, literally swept floors for Charlie Daniels for 30 bucks a night. I was getting rent paid and playing writers nights and stuff and still he's on tour with us now and going out with us next year, toured with again last year and we've toured together before.

Starting point is 00:32:50 Just we've got real friends that the competition I can't say, I don't know, maybe it does go away or something. And at some point in your life, I think you have a certain amount of success you still wanna succeed, but it's like, you're not so ferocious. Like when you start and everything matters and it's not that everything doesn't matter anymore, but it's like everything kind of turned down the heat a little bit. You know, let's simmer here and see if we can't do something real, something good.

Starting point is 00:33:23 Now we kind of know you can't, you build confidence too. Again, like I said, Ronnie and I if we can't do something real, something good. Now we kind of know you build confidence too. Again, like I said, Ronnie and I, we didn't figure we'd go a year or two. That's why we were desperate through pretty much through our whole career is just kind of, this isn't going to work. This, we, you know, we're always doubting ourselves, you know, always trying to do anything we could, what, you know, to do something really special because it's probably gonna be our last song, you know, our last video. I mean, we've always kind of felt a little desperate,

Starting point is 00:33:52 I think. Does it feel like it's out of your control sometimes as a musician? Because a lot of it is what songs you get, right? And you can write your own songs, you can write them with other people. But does it ever feel like it's out of your control? Kind of like how well you keep doing, or it ever feel like it's out of your control? Kind of like how well you keep doing?

Starting point is 00:34:07 Or does it feel like it's in your control? You know what it is. I mean, 60, 70%, I don't know how much you can add to the dynamic. I can add up to 100%. Of luck, right? No, I'm going to win. I guess, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:34:20 We could try to do more. I can't even. I mean, it's luck. A lot of it is luck. You know? But it's that thing, if you're working at it and luck strikes, it's like you're ready for it. You know, you got your ball, man, on bang, catch it.

Starting point is 00:34:34 And we're from there. But we work hard at it. I mean, we're songwriters before we're- Right, that's a good point. So y'all weren't up there just, hey, somebody sell me a hit. You're like, I have the ability to make my own. It's all about song. It's all about the song. And then as you move through the business, you meet people, you meet people with their

Starting point is 00:34:53 pitch and you give me a good songs too, you know, and you can't, can't write them all. You know, uh, and timing has a lot to do with it. It really does. What do you mean by that? That's luck too. Yeah, certainly. That is, it's all luck is just time it. It really does. What do you mean by that? That's luck too. Yeah, certainly that is. Yeah, luck is just time. Yeah, time is just luck with a clock. There you go. That's great.

Starting point is 00:35:10 Write that down. We both, I mean, we both had some kind of solo record deals before we had a duo deal. Ronnie was singing his ass off before I met him. At 38 years old, why wasn't he a star already? Right. I don't know. Bring it up, Hage.

Starting point is 00:35:24 I'm just saying. It's 38 years older Yeah, is it tough to age gracefully is it tough to be like because even I notice it, you know in my own career It's like, you know, you start to do good and you're like, oh well I'm getting older and then you're like you start to see the younger guys that are doing well and you're like, oh well This is all gonna, is there a graceful way for this to end or does it just end or like? I think you just play that one by ear, you know?

Starting point is 00:35:53 I keep telling people I'm gonna die in denial about related age. It's like, I'm not gonna know how old I am. I don't wanna know. It pisses me off to see every article, somebody writing stuff, and you go, well, and so and so, 80 years old, whatever, leave age out of this. I think 30.

Starting point is 00:36:15 Willie's out there rocking his cool. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I'll go to Willie. He'd be the standard bearer for that. But no.

Starting point is 00:36:23 I mean, McCartney, they're still out doing their thing. Yeah, I was actually, so I'm in a couple of, months ago, was that we were in the same bathroom at the same time. Wow, what'd you do? Huh? What'd you do? Just the number one.

Starting point is 00:36:36 Did you try to shake his hand or anything? Oh no, I didn't do anything like that. I freezed. Hey, I just let it be, dude. You just let it be. That was a little... Well, you said something to him. I think I honestly, I probably said, like, good day

Starting point is 00:36:50 or something like that. Like, I think I was probably trying to welcome him in, like, a British tone or something. Good day, mate. Right? Yeah. I freeze. I freeze.

Starting point is 00:36:59 Anytime I get around somebody that's really, really famous, I just backlock them. That's true, dude. Right, good day. They don't together. No, you're in famous. I just, I'm back like a dead man. Right, good night. You're in Ireland. Good night, mate. They're like prisoners from England or something. He must have been like this guy.

Starting point is 00:37:15 I've never cooled around somebody famous. I wish I could be. Yeah, were there guys like that coming up that you guys met? Or what questions had I just asked? Let me make sure I stay on topic, sorry. Were you ever in the bathroom with Paul McCartney? Oh, yeah. That's right.

Starting point is 00:37:29 Tell us about the time you and McCartney were in the bathroom. Oh, one time I went to a, one time I was also in the bathroom with, I'll go through them all, Montell Williams, okay? He was a talk show host, and Kid Rock one time, and I urinated right between them, dude. Oh wow.

Starting point is 00:37:46 That's a DMZ man. It really is dude. Incoming. You make the wrong move there. Anything could go to go happen right? Either way. Yeah. Either way it was big trouble.

Starting point is 00:37:54 I just want to try and shake hands just to see what they're going to do though. Hey man, it's just, I've always, you know, just. Especially if you reach over the stall. I'm sorry. No. Hey, man, it's just, I've always, you know, just. Especially if you reach over the stall top. Yeah. Johnny Cash said that, he asked, the strangest thing like that that ever happened to him, and he said that he was in a stall in the airport or something.

Starting point is 00:38:17 He said, this paper slips under the wall. And I was like, we're good. Don't touch it. I don't have a pencil. Like, hey, that paper likes men. That's all I'm saying. Right? So you guys got to meet Johnny Cash?

Starting point is 00:38:31 Yeah. No way. What was he like, like just as a regular guy? Was he like a friendly guy? Was he kind of like a stoic guy? Stoic, quiet by nature when you first meet him. And that in and of itself is intimidating. Oh, yeah. And then as you get to know him, he's a

Starting point is 00:38:47 17 year old kid. That was it. I mean he's crazy. Funny as all get out. Yeah. My wife, her first husband, rented a car one piece at a time. And Johnny's saying about it, one piece at a time. And Johnny sang about it, one piece at a time. Anyway. He built that car. He built the car. Oh, built that car one piece at a time. I'm sorry, yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:10 The song. He built the car, so he... Or Johnny really built a car, sorry I'm confused. No, her ex-wife built the car about the song that Johnny sang called One Piece at a Time. Got it, he liked a song and him and his bud said, man, let's build it. Let's actually build it. They're always going around.

Starting point is 00:39:26 They own strip coal mines in Oklahoma. Johnny did? Or his friends? No, Janine, my wife's. OK, got it. They were well acquainted. They all became fast friends, traveled the world together, I mean, really, really tight.

Starting point is 00:39:41 And so when I was brought in, her husband passed away. And when I was brought in, it's like, she's, she's marrying or dating a musician, you know, and Jenny goes, I'm going to take you to John and June's house in Nashville. First time that she did it from Oklahoma. And I went, nah, I don't remember them to do that. I just kind of saw that one coming, you know, and John, and of course, John's real quiet. And would you wear over that you get dressed up or what?

Starting point is 00:40:12 You know, black, all black. No, jeans, what I have on now and this kind of stuff. And, uh, were you nervous or not? You remember? Yeah. Yeah. I was always, I was super shy and quiet and then I'm kind of coming out of my shell a little bit these days, but, uh, I was always I was super shy and quiet and then I'm gonna come out of my shell a little bit these days but

Starting point is 00:40:29 He was obviously glad to see her I mean I'm the new kid on the block, you know, you don't just Long drink water. Yeah, your girlfriend bringing you to over to meet her parents. Who's just pervert or whatever. Yeah I mean, I don't know you but I mean I'm a per. So I'm sure most of us all. That goes with it. You can't be in a band and not be a pervert. Anyway, and Johnny knew that. He'd be a pervert himself. Oh yeah, who isn't, man? Right?

Starting point is 00:40:57 Dude, if you show me 70 people, y'all show you 70 perverts. You in a band, you a comedian? Yeah, you're a pervert. Wow, that's pretty fascinating though. And did people look up to him as like a, kind of like, was he this, was he as, because now he's almost, there's an idolatry about him in a way, you know, you see the t-shirts with the Johnny Cash and just his cash, something like.

Starting point is 00:41:20 No, but he's always been that way. He's been like, forever. Listen, here's a funny thing. So the log cabin that they had us live in, June did that for Janine, not for me, called her and said, look, okay, this guy's gonna run around making a music business, good luck, it ain't gonna happen, but we'll give you a place to live, right? We'll give you a flammable home.

Starting point is 00:41:40 Right, temporary residence, okay? Because it's not gonna last long until I find you a guy with money. All right. So thank God we had these hits right off the bat and suddenly June goes, woo, okay, you're in. You know, she told Janine during that first visit, she said, look, here's how it goes down. She says, the odds are a million to one, no, 10 billion to one, you know, that they make it. And if, if he does, it's not going to last long. It's just, that's not, that's the nature of the business. And, uh,

Starting point is 00:42:12 number three, they're all crazy if they do make it for a long time, you know, so she, she called her babies. Uh, it was well, and Jenny's Willie Nelson, Hank Jr., uh, uh, Larry Gatlin. I mean, just the wild boys of that, of that era. Oh yeah. The feral. Yeah. So she goes, you know, this, this look, you know, the uninsurable, they put us through hell. She said, so get ready. You know, she's, there's no, there's no good to it. There's no, no. So anyway, where's there's no, there's no good to it. There's no, no. So anyway, where was I?

Starting point is 00:42:47 Uh, with Johnny, you said, was he stoic and stuff? First day there, June takes Janine and they leave the house to go shopping. Oh, so it's just you and him? And me and John in that house alone. Okay. I was going to the bathroom and staying there for at least a minute to get ready to and. Yes, sir. It's like I'm the unwelcome guest or at least I'm feeling that way. Oh for sure. And there's there John's quiet anyway he does he hasn't he hasn't like. And what's

Starting point is 00:43:16 he just polishing a gun or something? No, no. Probably yes pretty close to it. He comes out of the far end of the house. There are two black leather recliners in front of this TV. And he sits down and he's watching like CNN or whatever. I sit in the next one, just sitting there and no one says anything. I'm like, fuck, longest day of my life. I didn't know what to say to him because he didn't talk. But now I know, know what I know. He didn't talk to anybody. Right. Uh, and all of a sudden out of the blue, he goes, you see these, uh,

Starting point is 00:43:53 you see these and these are news reels here. These, these things. He said, that's a loop. And he said, you know, I'm an addict. I went, okay. And he goes, I used to sit and watch TV for days until those loops would end. And then he said it would start a whole other cycle of the news. And he's explaining how TV works to me and that stuff through the eyes of being high.

Starting point is 00:44:19 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And shortly after that, it seemed like two days that we were sitting there, it was probably a couple of hours, and Janine and June come back. They've been shopping at Stein Mart. And I like Stein Mart actually.

Starting point is 00:44:37 Some of the sleeves are a little different. Well June took her there in her new blue Rolls Royce that John had just given her for her book. So there's a little y yin-yang there. Yeah. Janine was just pale white. She knows no strangers, so you never see Janine down. So she kind of walked in.

Starting point is 00:44:52 She was like, she'd just been scared by a ghost. And I kind of peeled away and met her in the back of the house. I said, what happened? She goes, I'll tell you later. I can't talk about it. Well, June had read her the write act on all this stuff I just told you about, they're not gonna last, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

Starting point is 00:45:12 And I said, can we go now? She goes, no, we got one more day. He goes, please. Please. Ah. One more day. Right, but no sooner did we get here and they were the most absolute supportive people in the world.

Starting point is 00:45:26 John came up one day, we were getting ready to shoot the CD cover for Brandy Mann, the first CD. And I said, he was always into everything. He said, what are you going to wear? You know, how are you going to look? How are you going to do your hair? That kind of stuff, into image. I said, well, I don't know. I said, I've got a few things, ideas. He goes, all right, I'll be back. He said, left, getting his Mercedes. He's shot out. It's down the hill.

Starting point is 00:45:49 He needed a goat to get up the mountain to it. He goes flying down the hill. I guess he goes home, comes back in an hour or so, opens the trunk of the car, reaches in, and hands me this black suit. And he goes, I had this back in 1972. It was made by Manuel. And he goes, I had this back in 1972. It was made by Manuel. And he goes, I was sick back then,

Starting point is 00:46:09 which meant he was sick, right? So he was skinny enough for me to wear my skinny ass to get in that suit, you know? He goes, don't tell June. She doesn't like me giving stuff away. And I have it to this day. I wore it on the back of that CD cover. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's crazy back of that CD cover. Oh, wow.

Starting point is 00:46:25 Yeah. So, yeah. That's crazy. Oh, it was, hey man. Check the pockets, dude, let's party. I bet that thing's got something. She was something. And the parties there too was strictly lemonade.

Starting point is 00:46:35 Lemonade and iced tea. Really keeping it sober? Keeping it completely sober on the table for sure. Oh, yeah. You know, and nothing in the back kitchen. I mean, she was pretty. She wore the pants in that deal, huh? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:49 At that point. Was she pretty much a, because he probably needed somebody to really care for him. Yeah. And spiced to that little story is that that particular weekend that we were there, he was on furlough from rehab. Okay, and.

Starting point is 00:47:04 How long do you have to be, we let you get furloughed? I thought that was a military. Johnny Cash, right? Only Johnny Cash would have went to, right? Only he would have went to boot camp. Right, and so all of a sudden at the end. How many tours did he do?

Starting point is 00:47:17 Right. Oh, he did a lot. But the day before he's supposed to go back, this is a Saturday, he's going back on Sunday, he comes down with the flu. June's having no part of that. She's completely just, no, we're done. So she wanted to talk to him,

Starting point is 00:47:32 and we're caught in the middle of that, and I'm going, can we go home now? Can we go home now? She's, no, no, no, not yet. Please go home! June, June can tell this story better than I can, but. So June goes to Janine's, she goes, y'all have to drive me to the hospital.

Starting point is 00:47:46 Take him to the hospital here in Hendersonville. Make sure just to see what's wrong with him. She says, I'm not talking to him. Says he can walk as far as I'm concerned. OK, we got it. So we get in the car, start to get in the car. John wants to drive. OK, so John drives.

Starting point is 00:48:00 He drove? Yeah, man. But it was like pedal to the metal, boom, off all the way. Pedal to the metal. And Janine said, well, he just drives like that. Oh, yeah, because you start nodding off, and he nods off. Right?

Starting point is 00:48:10 You nod off, you nod off. So we get to the hospital, and they're rolling him in in a wheelchair. And Janine goes up to the desk to give him all the information, and they take John back. And he's there maybe an hour. And then we come back. And he goes up to his room, you know, his hospital room at the house.

Starting point is 00:48:31 He's playing it up, man. He's like, I got to do more, I can't go back. You're going back to rehab. So June goes, well, how did it go, Janine? She goes, well, they asked for his doctor. And June goes, oh, hon, he's in rehab. The doctor was in rehab. The doctor was in rehab. Oh, sweet. No, no, no. He hadn't made furlough yet. Dr. Nix in rehab. Okay, we can go now, right? Pretty soon. Wow, that's a great story. That's my first Johnny Cash and June Carter experience.

Starting point is 00:49:07 We had Ric Flair, we spoke with him one time, the famous wrestler, you know him, and he's quite a character and he was in a rehab center and the doctor that got put in there with him and he was in there and one day they're giving pills to both of them and he's like, why one day, one day they're giving pills to both of them. And he's like, why are you giving pills to the doctor? And I'm like, no, the doctor's in here now. I can't. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:31 So apparently that's part of the deal, man. Well, it's just everywhere, just like that. Oh yeah. Look, so many of my friends, I mean, I go to recovery meetings, so many people deal with, you know, that sort of stuff. Was it tough for you guys to keep it clean over the years? Did you guys get tempted with drugs or alcohol or what was that like? I don't know. Really?

Starting point is 00:49:50 Tempted with drugs or alcohol? Yeah. Oh, not me. Did you, Ronnie? I'll go with you. I want you to explain this. We might've, we might've had a drink or two along the way. I don't know. I think Ronnie did take a lot of pills, but I never did. Oh, what? Foul. Foul.

Starting point is 00:50:10 Uh oh. Yeah, but I have allergies. Oh, now you do. A lot of allergies. I've never seen somebody in, oh, that dust will give it to you. I'm from Louisiana too, dude. I started drinking at a very early age. I've never seen somebody in, that dust will give it to you. I'm from Louisiana too dude. I started drinking at a very early age.

Starting point is 00:50:29 That's true. Wow. Was it hard? Yeah. Were there certain points where you guys had to like tell each like, at what point do you guys have, do you guys ever have to be like each other's like, uh, caretaker? Yeah. Not caretaker in the sense like actually physically, but just like, you know, and then how hard is it to take that

Starting point is 00:50:47 suggestion from the other guy, you know, like from the other lead. We don't do it much. We don't do it much. I mean, that's one of the unique dynamics of how we, you know, the relationship we have. We don't do that. If it is, it'll be some comment in passing and you, you know, and you'll know. Honestly, we sit here and laugh about this stuff, but there's not a lot of nonsense that goes on. It's like we're up there to do what we do. We appreciate where we are.

Starting point is 00:51:13 And God knows we know the pitfalls. Yeah. And have we ever been over-served on stage or whatever like that? Yes. Has anyone ever told us? Are you slurring your words? Yeah? You're slurring your words. Yeah, you're slurring your words.

Starting point is 00:51:29 No. You're slurring your vehicle. I've been told that before. You've already written that song. Don't write it again in the middle of it. That kind of shit. But yeah, we've had a few faux pas. People don't believe when I tell them this.

Starting point is 00:51:44 We have never, I mean, we're both, you know, hard-headed, whatever. You know, I came from a pipeline background, same with him, you know, and it's, we have never raised our voices to each other. Wow. Have we ever been mad at each other? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:51:59 Have we ever been pissed at each other? Yeah, for sure. We'll go off and pout. But that's it, you know, we've always been able to go to our separate corners and come back later. In some of it, you think it was just because you started to achieve your most success, that people would know you from once you were older?

Starting point is 00:52:16 You think if it would have been younger? Do you ever think of the blessings? It's kind of a blessing and a curse, because everyone wants to be 27 and famous, you know? But if you're 38 and you get popular, you know, it's, it feels a little different, you know? Has a lot to do with it. You appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:52:32 You know, cause there was, there was a point for a long time where there was no plan B, you know? And we both felt that. And no, so you, you learn to appreciate it. It's just that just,, that just, you know, beating into you through the ranks. Yeah, dude, we used to slow dance to y'all's music, dude. I would be so nervous, dude.

Starting point is 00:52:57 God, dude. I just couldn't even, I would stand so far away from the girl, like as far as I could, but still touching her a little like this kind of thing. Barely touching her. Ten fingers. You were down in the trenches, man. You were on the floor. See, we're up there on the bandstand going, I don't look right.

Starting point is 00:53:18 I don't think I'm going to do that. Just go on, dude, go on. Get up against it. Go on. What are you doing? I was too, I couldn. Get up against it. Go on. What are you doing? What? I was just, I couldn't get up. It was too short.

Starting point is 00:53:28 And that high-match thing, man. Whole front of my body sweat. And I was like, I never knew you could sweat just in one hemisphere of your body. And never move? Oh. Yeah. You guys, we were talking about songwriting earlier.

Starting point is 00:53:43 You guys, your new album has a lot of like some of my favorites on and people that have, that we've been able to have on the podcast before. I think Ernest is on, Hardy, Morgan. Yeah. Lainey. Lainey Wilson. How amazing is Lainey Wilson?

Starting point is 00:53:59 She's great. She's special, man. She's special. She's a Louisiana girl. From right up the road from where my farm is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I mean literally we're Honestly 18 miles apart. Oh that is close. You're from Covington. I think I saw somewhere Yeah, did you really spend grow up there? Yeah, you did. Yeah, I grew up there

Starting point is 00:54:18 Our town is we have this tallest statue of Ronald Reagan there Somebody stole the arm, but they got it back. They got it back? Yeah. Somebody like, how'd they get it off? Uh, I don't know. What kind of, is it bronze or it's? It was, I think it's bronze. Bring it up.

Starting point is 00:54:32 Concrete or something? Oh no, it's special. Oh, there you go. So, so which arm? Huh? Was he the one with his right arm or his left arm? I'm not sure. You can Google that too.

Starting point is 00:54:43 How'd they get the arm off? Yeah. Well, that's tough. You can Google that too, how they get the arm off. Yeah. You can weld that stuff. You can Google that? How they get the arm off? How they get the arm off Reagan. I don't know. What?

Starting point is 00:54:51 In coming to Louisiana. What? In coming, a lot of welders down there, right? First of all, find coming to. They got torches. There are a lot of welders down there. Exactly. They got torches.

Starting point is 00:55:00 That's pipeline country, man. Damn right. Oh, we can get an arm off. You want an arm? Yeah. How far? They tried to recycle it. That's how country, man. Yeah, right. Oh, we can get an arm off. You want an arm? Yeah. How far? They tried to recycle it. That's how they caught the guy.

Starting point is 00:55:08 What? And yeah, they took it to like the local aluminum. Oh, cause he's thinking it's maybe copper or something. He can buy some crack. I was like, I'm gonna get me, hell yeah, I'm gonna get me a couple hundred bucks for this thing. Yeah, they cut it off.

Starting point is 00:55:18 Guarantee he's a welder. Yeah. Look at Ronnie. Oh, that was in Poland. Yeah, so they must've done it, but they did it by us too. Somebody got it off, but they got it back on. It was a copycat thing. A copycat arm thief.

Starting point is 00:55:33 Wow. That's dark. What? No, they did it in Poland. How far is Covington from Railroad Road to Arkansas? A long way. There's a place there. Okay. Yeah, he's close to Baton Rouge.

Starting point is 00:55:46 Because we talk a lot about Northern Louisiana, where the farm is, and Monroe, and all that. So all my grandparents are from El Dorado, Arkansas. Okay, it's a beautiful country out there. I mean, it's pretty, Shreveport's kind of gone through a, it's been through some things, you know? Yeah, it's pretty funky,

Starting point is 00:56:03 which is where I went to school. Oh yeah. Whatever, yeah. They just tore down the tallest building in Shreveport. What? Really? Bring it down, doing the- Not the Beck building.

Starting point is 00:56:12 This was in, they did a beautiful implosion. I watched it the other day on TikTok. Wow, I wonder if that's where it was. That's where my father's office was. Was it a drone attack? I don't know. I mean. What?

Starting point is 00:56:22 Dude, I don't know. The tallest building in Shreveport. There it is. They just brought it down, yeah. I think it was the... That's a bank building. Yeah, it was a bank building, you're right. Yeah, because I think, because the middle one, Nicholas Green.

Starting point is 00:56:36 The back building's 20 stories. Must have been the richest, richest building in town. No, look at that. Wow, that's pretty fancy right there. Beautiful building, look at all those. What'd they tear it up for? Real glass windows on them. Yeah. I don't know, that's fancy right there. Beautiful building. Look at all those. What'd they tear it up for? Real glass windows on them. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:56:48 I don't know. That's it right there. Wow. Wow. Probably somebody's wife was trying to get in and settle in. Look at all the buildings around it. Right?

Starting point is 00:56:55 It wasn't the tallest. It was the only. Probably for a casino. It could have been, man. Street four, it's kind of wild. That whole, I've been like, there's a lot of haunted. Everything could have been, man. Street four, it's kind of wild. I've been like, there's a lot of haunted. Everything there seems kind of haunted.

Starting point is 00:57:08 That's Louisiana in general. It's like New Orleans. Yeah, everything's haunted. Like, you want to buy this haunted biscuit or whatever. It's monkey foot. It's two extra bucks. It's got some damn ghost jam in it or whatever. Everything does.

Starting point is 00:57:21 It's got voodoo all over it. Is that hot? Yeah. I hope so. Ghost jam. Yeah. I just think, but yeah, everything in New Orleans is haunted. It's like, oh, you haven't been this haunted. This is haunted, you know? It's like a nursery for children, but it's haunted.

Starting point is 00:57:37 Okay, so I read this article the other day. Well, I guess it was online. It's like the top 10 most, least desirable states to live in. And Louisiana was number one. Oh wow. I can't imagine that. That's what I'm saying, bro. Come on. Champs.

Starting point is 00:57:51 You got out, you got out. Everybody's not into haunted. That's true. Look at you. You're rich and famous. 49 states were the people that aren't into haunted. Yeah, people don't like shit haunted, bro. Yeah, y'all just stay off there.

Starting point is 00:58:05 We'll keep our haters in our hands. I forget what it was based on. Oh, you want to live in the natural realm? That's fine, bitch. We're doing others. You don't have a monkey foot under your pillow? Hanging from your ear? Yeah, you don't have a baby that's

Starting point is 00:58:19 chewing on a lucky rabbit's foot? You wouldn't know a hoodoo man from Colonel Sanders. What? What? Oh, everything there is haunted or soaking wet, dude. It's Louisiana. Yeah. Yeah, it's humid.

Starting point is 00:58:34 It's humid. Yeah, everything's got a little bit of mold on it. We go down there, you go down there all the time, because your farm's down there and in place, and all your buddies, three, four. We go down there and duck hunt, like on the marshes. That's awesome. I've never been duck hunting.

Starting point is 00:58:48 Going next week. Are you? Oh yeah. Is it more enjoyable than turkey hunting or do you feel, is there some difference? I think so. I like stuff flying. I've shot my share of turkeys,

Starting point is 00:59:00 but really don't care about popping them anymore. It's like, you know, it's like, do something, you know? You're like, okay, I'm over here. It's almost like you're attacking like a bird in a wheelchair or something. Exactly, and they get all puffed up too. It's like some, you know, he's on his last, he's making his last move on her.

Starting point is 00:59:22 He's so puffed up, he can't even walk anymore. You know, he's just like. Like me at the dance. Yeah, just like doing that. Got his two fingers up there, just trying to get close to her to do the neon moon. And then you go, bam! He's headless.

Starting point is 00:59:38 Shit, sorry about that, yeah. Turkey's been all the work of calling them in. This place we go down in Louisiana, it's called Little Pecan Island, and it's like one of the four seasons. I shouldn't rat us out. Really, it's beautiful. They've got a lot of good turkeys down there.

Starting point is 00:59:52 Unbelievable, unbelievable. Not turkeys, ducks. Oh, ducks. A good friend of ours, Jim Flores from Houston, owns it, and it's unbelievable. And what kind of ducks do you get out there? Everything. I have pictures of ducks do you get out there? Everything. I have pictures of the sky full.

Starting point is 01:00:08 I mean, it's unbelievable. And do they go in shifts or how do the ducks go? They migrate at different times. Oh, so they're not like releasing them and then they come back in? No, they don't release them. No, it's all wild. Okay. They come from the north and they get cut off down in Missouri and whatever.

Starting point is 01:00:23 There's a lot of duck habitat on the way for them to stop and eat and whatever, especially with climate change. Won't get into all that, but like Arkansas flooded timber, a lot of those ducks come out of the rice fields and stuff and they're primarily green heads and mallards, you know, but by the time you get to the marsh, you got every kind, you know, teal and mallards and you could go on. You have a fat stork up there even. Oh, everything, everything.

Starting point is 01:00:45 It's like Africa, like going out into the marshes. No, you're in that kind of environment. Oh, wow. So it's so natural, you mean? It's so natural. It's real cool, yeah. And are you in a boat or are you in? You go out in a boat.

Starting point is 01:00:59 Okay. Everybody gets their own guide in their own boat. Do you have to hide underwater or you're above water? Scoobotanks, we have Scoobotanks and shotguns. Is it really your life? Everybody gets their own guide and their own boat. Do you have to hide underwater or you're above water? Scuba tanks. We have scuba tanks and shotguns. Is it really your life? No, but the... The blind about as big as your sofa.

Starting point is 01:01:13 And it sunk in the water and then it's covered with... And every guide has his own group of blinds you guys have to take care of. A lot of straw and stuff, natural stuff. Okay, so you're hiding in there? Is there bugs or anything in there? Bugs everywhere, man. Bugs everywhere.

Starting point is 01:01:28 Bugs everywhere. You know, snakes, alligators, for real. Alligators all over the place. First thing they do when they get to your blind, you know, the guy will get out and make sure there's nutria, no snakes. Water monsters. Snakes and gators.

Starting point is 01:01:39 Keep it clean of all the appetizers. Get all that out of there, exactly. Then they'll take the boat back. Bad way to start a duck hunt. Come back pulling the piro, sink the piro next to your blind, get in there and start quacking at them. Wow. Anymore.

Starting point is 01:01:53 Ducks are good to eat too. Turkeys, you know, people can say what they want. You know, you can fry anything or whatever, but turkeys aren't that great to eat. And some people are just food, just real creeps when it comes to eating. You know, I've had owl, you know, I don't know if we can say it or not, but.

Starting point is 01:02:06 No, you can't. Well, I didn't. You just did. I didn't have it. You ate an owl? You just said you did though. Huh? You just said you had owl.

Starting point is 01:02:15 Did he not just say he had owl? I didn't do it. Wait a minute. I think he said eagle. Yeah. No, I didn't say eagle, dude. And if I did, it was a wigged eagle. I don't mean bald eagle.

Starting point is 01:02:28 No, but I did have, we had owl, my sister's a grilled up two owls. You just said you didn't. Was it fries? I thought we could say it now. You can't. Ronnie did it. No.

Starting point is 01:02:42 I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. You're a freaking owl eater. A ball eater. I didn't have a lot. You didn't have a lot. There's not a lot to them. That's the trick. You didn't swallow? I didn't inhale.

Starting point is 01:02:51 You're the frogs of the animal kingdom, of the bird kingdom. Owls are the frogs of the bird kingdom. Once you pull that skirt up and, you know, I've done some things in my day, but nothing, but even just to let you know, I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something.

Starting point is 01:02:59 I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something. They're the frogs of the animal kingdom, of the bird kingdom. Owls are the frogs of the bird kingdom. Why don't you pull that skirt up and, you know, I've done some things in my day, but nothing, but even just to look, it's a-

Starting point is 01:03:11 We're letting you run with it. Pull up what I'm talking about. Let's at least see the, so we just, and these, the owls- Did you Photoshop the eagle howl? They were of age too, the ones I'm talking about. I was like, oh man, these were adult owls. You're not supposed to do that. So much for wisdom.

Starting point is 01:03:27 Whoa, whoa, what is that? Brother, that is something needs to take care of that. That's disgusting. Wow. Oh my God. Those, they migrated over from Chernobyl. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:03:39 Yep. That's a Russian owl for sure. I wish I hadn't seen that. Definitely, dude. They just had, what did I just see about Russia, dude? They're giving away. Well, there's a war in Ukraine. There's a war in Ukraine.

Starting point is 01:03:51 No, but it was something exciting. Oh, Vladimir Putin urges citizens to have sex during work breaks to address Russia's dire birth rate. Yeah, he's just trying to get, he's just trying to, like. He's trying to make everybody happy. He's trying to put an army together. He's trying to earn an army.

Starting point is 01:04:11 Right, he's just like, hurry up. Nice. That's not a bad deal though, dude. Now that's the kind of stuff we need around here. You don't understand. Yeah, it's like, you know, when everybody's really down over there and depressed and whatever,

Starting point is 01:04:21 it's like, okay, sex on work breaks. Okay. That's a board. That's so obvious what he's doing. That's a, okay, sex on work breaks. That's a board dictator is what that is. Literally brother. Yeah. He didn't, he didn't have to push that through Congress. What are we going to do? What are we having for lunch? It depends on who texts me back. Right.

Starting point is 01:04:38 That's what I'm talking about. Everybody duck. Right. I'm proud of him now. No wonder Trump likes him. What? Everybody duck, right? I'm proud of him now. No wonder Trump likes him. Yeah. What? The only thing about communism

Starting point is 01:04:51 is it's starting to sound appealing, right? I'll tell you this. Yeah, communism sucks, but I'll tell you what, the lunches are good. Right? Lunch break is hard to beat. What did I just see? I saw another called that,

Starting point is 01:05:01 do you see that Pizza Hut thing? I don't know if you can find that, Nick. It was Pizza Hut now now listen to this, people are having such a tough time getting jobs. What is that? It was Pizza Hut will put your resume on a pizza box to help you get a job. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Starting point is 01:05:17 So you can send. I took a leave of absence in 78. I've got like a 50 year hole in my resume. That's like, I'm done. Okay, so I've got like a 50 year hole in my resume. That's, Okay, so I've had this idea forever. Sorry. Sorry. But it's like, we're always talking about random ways

Starting point is 01:05:35 to promote records and do things, right? That's a good way. All right, what about Amazon boxes? You know, we go to Amazon and go, Hey, what if we like, what would it cost to put our logo or whatever on an Amazon box? How many people, you know, I'm sure that's non-negotiable. Everybody. Yeah. I bet that's a dude. I wouldn't be surprised if they,

Starting point is 01:05:55 I'm amazed they haven't done that. Yeah. Really? Cause they, they own most of the, that's something most of us see all the time. Yeah. But yeah, that pizza, now you can put your resume, you can send it to somebody you're trying to get employed by. You send them a little, you know, send them a little pizza. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you this, if I'm having a slice, I'll, cause you're putting, you're

Starting point is 01:06:15 feeling good, you're eating pizza. Yeah. So I'm going to think that guy's pretty quality. Your endorphins are already stimulated by the pieces and you look over there and go, you know what, I like that guy. Like a couple of weeks later, you're like, hey, what happened to that pizza box? You know, nevermind. We need a new guy in the tech department. We need it. Yeah. What happened? But then you might start just naming your workers. You don't know their names. You just name them

Starting point is 01:06:39 like pepper, like the Italian guys is like extra pepperoni. Like, yeah, remember we hired him, you know? Or meat lovers is the guy that's maybe a little zesty, you know? Big sausage, spicy sausage. What's, so with the new album, is it going to be, tell me about it a little bit. What made you guys want to come back and make more? Because at a certain point,

Starting point is 01:07:02 do you feel like you've made enough or does that never go away? What is that kind of like? The first one was to keep everything between the lines, not stray very far from the previous cuts. The first what, you mean? The first record, reboot one. Oh, OK.

Starting point is 01:07:20 We're on reboot two now. But neither of these were our ideas to do, our managers, which is, he's had, this is the first good idea he's had, I think in years. I've had managers. I know what you're talking about. That's what I'm having. He's a great man. Is he? Why Baltimore is the day after Sacramento. I still haven't quite figured it out, but Why Baltimore is the day after Sacramento. I still hadn't quite figured it out, but

Starting point is 01:07:48 his big, big saying is, Hey, what are you, what are you bitching about me? He says, I give you 85%. Or, or his other one is this is a charity. You know, I wouldn't need to do this. You know what I mean? Damn Clarence you're in. He goes, I know. So what is 15% of nothing?

Starting point is 01:08:05 It's like, nevermind. Poor little children. And what is his name, just so we can- Clarence Spaulding. Clarence Spaulding. He is great. We're 30 something years without a contract. Wow. He's got Aldine and, I mean, he's doing great.

Starting point is 01:08:20 And he speaks fluent, Brooks and Dunn, and we couldn't do it without him. Yeah. Oh yeah, I can imagine that. Yeah. You got to have somebody to handle a lot of stuff for you. Today's podcast is sponsored by boot barn, America's largest Western retailer supporting the cowboy and country lifestyles. Boot barn opened their first store in 1978. And today they have over 400 stores nationwide,

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Starting point is 01:09:18 only available through Boot Barn. Visit BootBarn.com and use code Theo for 15% off one item through October 30th. That's boot barn.com code Theo. Today's episode is brought to you by Better Help. Have you been off, uncomfortable, can't figure something out, something changed maybe in your relationship or in your workspace or with a family member and you just you don't know how to get through it. Well, don't do it alone. Better help can help. That's what I'm telling you. Better help if you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch

Starting point is 01:10:14 therapists at any time for no additional charge. Therapy can help you learn all about and accept different parts of your world so you can go through life easier. I think everyone should give it a try. Take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash t-h-e-o today to get 10% off your first month. That's better, H-E-L-P, betterhelp.com slash Theo. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. But yeah, so tell me a little bit about it. What was it like getting to work with some of these artists? Had you worked with them before?

Starting point is 01:10:55 No, no. Lainey, she comes in and does her thing. They all get to pick their own songs. 18 artists. Okay. They pick whatever song they want and that goes on without us. That's all up to them and then maybe they haggle about it with management or whatever. Anyway, everyone showed up with their own version of the song. And it was like you have artistic creative license to do whatever you

Starting point is 01:11:23 want to do with this one. Oh, dude, I can't put me up there. I can't do karaoke. I mean, if it's Christmas carols, I can do it. But it's like, even some of that, I get nervous, like in the second stands or whatever, you know? Yeah. Melanie has to feed me my words to my songs in my left ear.

Starting point is 01:11:37 I mean, that's what she was feeding. I thought you was going behind a speaker and eating something. Eating bird seed out of her hand. Yeah. She has to feed me whiskey all through the show. I did a tour over in Afghanistan with Robin Williams and Lewis Black and Kathleen Madigan. And Robin just impressed me because

Starting point is 01:11:58 he seemed like he's just ad libbing everything, you know. And the one thing that I learned from him before, and we would spend all day on Blackhawks going to real remote places everywhere, you know, and then at night we'd do in Kandahar, Kabul or whatever some some larger shows. And he was before he would go on, he was he had a little piece of paper, you know, he'd just written a handful of notes and whatever. And he would pace back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And I was just really impressed at his professionalism and the way he, and knowing you guys do, people just, you make it look so easy, you know,

Starting point is 01:12:34 that when you're flowing through your deal and you got your deal clickin' right, and I was just learned a lot. And Lewis was hysterical, as you can imagine, just hangin' with him. imagine. Just hanging with him. He spent any time with him. Yeah, he's very entertaining. He's very smart.

Starting point is 01:12:49 The way he talks is funny. Yeah. Just to listen to him, you know? Oh yeah. He is so aggravated. It really, really is. Of course we couldn't, you can't drink over there at all, you know? And so-

Starting point is 01:13:01 Oh, I'd make it worse probably. Well, yeah. And we got there, of course Lewis has this giant bag like you carry around this huge kind of smaller duffel bag Look a man bag you can go across you go around the world. We follow those airport scotch bottles Like damn I didn't know Jim Beam made allergy medicine. It's insane. Look at all these different colored allegro's. Dude, you guys are funny, man.

Starting point is 01:13:33 We didn't mean to be. It's probably helped y'all over the years being able to laugh, huh? Yeah, you gotta laugh. You gotta have a sense of humor. Like comedians for the most part. You see this profile, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like, you know, it's kind of a, a lot of comedians are kind of dark, right? Oh yeah.

Starting point is 01:13:50 Yeah. And it's kind of, it's anger coming out in humor sometimes, more times than not, not to go Dr. Phil here. Yeah, no. Yeah, I think it probably is. A lot of them are dark, yeah. I mean, definitely a lot of them, you lose a lot of them to suicide.

Starting point is 01:14:05 And it's a pretty... Too much downtime too, you know? Yeah, that gets kind of scary. Yeah. You know? Everybody out there gets that. I trust me. No matter what business you're in.

Starting point is 01:14:19 We're on a bus, you know, sitting in your whatever. Oh, and being on a bus, dude. I used to ride Greyhound. That'll make anybody want to take their lot. Oh, sure. I used to ride, I used to go work on a farm up in Natchez, Mississippi in the summer, and I'd take a Greyhound up from Baton Rouge, and they put all the inmates on there,

Starting point is 01:14:34 and it's a lot of like missing people on there. Oh. Like I remember a dude came up and he was like, have you seen me? He said to me, I'm like, you sound damn missing, dude. It's just like, that's a crazy thing to ask somebody. A station, man. Oh, God, here sound damn missing, dude. It's just like, that's a crazy thing to ask somebody. Oh, God, here, you know, I don't know if it's even still where it was. My sister had this

Starting point is 01:14:57 au pair who came from France, this real sweet girl that I'd met up in Maine. And I told her, you ought to come visit Nashville sometime. I forgot all about it. And I get a call one night at the house, you know, and, and it's the process. Brosey, she's crying. I go, yes, it's Mr. Brosey. It's it's Rosa. I said, it's horrible. I go, what is what has happened? What is wrong with it? I'm here. I'm here. I go, you're where?

Starting point is 01:15:16 Is it in the ville of Nashville? I go, you're here in Nashville? Yes, I'm here. I go, where are you? What is wrong with it? I met the'm here. I go, where are you? What is wrong, Ros? I'm at the Grey Dog. I go, the Grey Dog? You're at the Greyhound bus station?

Starting point is 01:15:31 So my God, I go, look, do not go to the bathroom. Go sit in a chair. Don't talk to anybody. Don't look at anything. I'm on my way. It's like emergency. Oh my God. Freaking, it's like going. It's like being in the opposite of a hospital. That's a real catch. Oh, going faster than my wife when she's like emergency. Oh my God.

Starting point is 01:15:46 It's like being in the opposite of a hospital. That's a rough entrance. When she's having a baby, it's like, I've got to save her. Like right now, this is an emergency. Every row of the grand bus, things get seedier and seedier. First it's weed. And then four rows later, they're doing like abortions and like early term, but still like it's like, it gets real dicey, dude. It gets real dicey on Greyhound. But yeah, to have to rescue a French woman

Starting point is 01:16:12 from a Greyhound bus terminal. You know, the- Was this her first time in? I mean, this is her entrance. Yeah, she had been on, up north, they've got real trains, you know, tram and stuff. But they, on the schedule, if you look at it, I'm like, how did you get here?

Starting point is 01:16:26 She showed me her schedule. They put Greyhound bus in the middle of Amtrak. So you go from these beautiful, nice things. Welcome to America. Yeah, you can work on your computer to, oh my God, what happened? A lot of people on there, yeah, just testing pills on each other.

Starting point is 01:16:42 A lot of people, yeah. Now? Yeah, a lot of people drinking their own bath water. I had a dude selling 40 proof bath water on 10 ones. I didn't have a lot, but I had a little. You know what I'm saying? Wasn't that bad? It wasn't that bad, dude.

Starting point is 01:16:56 I'll say this, it kind of had a Peppermint Snaps vibe to it. I'll say that. Oh, God dang. There's a routine. Jerry Clowry was one of my favorite comedians. You guys ever get to meet him? No. Not in town.

Starting point is 01:17:11 No, I didn't get to meet him. He was a famous Southern comedian, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was great. What about Brother Dave Gardner? I never watched him. Oh, really? You got to check him out.

Starting point is 01:17:21 Brother Dave Gardner is his name? Oh, yes. And he was like, Let's bring him up, man. He was sort of the country Lenny Bruce without using a lot of foul language, but some real dark humor. Man, very inappropriate humor.

Starting point is 01:17:40 Oh good. That's him, brother Dave. Brother Dave Gardner. Look at him smoking that cigarette. Yeah. Showing you how it is, got his suit going. Check that hair, it's shining, Dave. Brother Dave Gardner. Look at him smoking that cigarette. Yeah. Showing you how it is, got his suit going. Check that hair, it's shining man. Oh yeah, no.

Starting point is 01:17:49 That one, that cover up on the right, I've got that album. It's all torn up for Doggachoo'd the Corner off my dad loved him though. Wow. I'm gonna start listening to him. Mm-hmm, he was something else. Not like your average Yee-Haw country comedian. Was there an artist that's passed

Starting point is 01:18:08 and you guys were admired growing up, you went to their service or anything, somebody you guys really miss? Cash for sure. Did y'all go to his service, were you allowed to go? Yeah. Oh wow. That must've been really interesting, I'll say.

Starting point is 01:18:21 It was my first, yeah. June, June was the same way, we were at the hospital and she was at her heart attack. Wow. Didn't get to go to Murrell's but. Was he a funny guy? What was he like? He could be funny. Yeah, but he wasn't being funny on this one. No, he came out and did the last five or six dates with us on our tour in 2010. We were shutting things down. It's one of those instances where you meet somebody famous and the hag just shut me down. I could not carry on a conversation with him.

Starting point is 01:19:02 It's about as bad as Cash. He didn't like chatting. Well, no, he didn't, but he liked you. And he let you know. Where John didn't let you know for a while. He just smoked you out just to see what you got. Merle. He could survive it.

Starting point is 01:19:18 Merle's agreed to go on tour with us, but we had to perform with him every night, which, of course, was- On stage together. Yeah. Throw us in the bar patch. I mean, that's was such a huge honor and whatever, but he would come up with some obscure songs and whatever. And I jumped. It wasn't like silver wings or anything. No, he's throwing his curve balls from way in the back, man. Like, okay, tonight. I was out there singing Pitbull or something. Diving in person. And I hopped up on his bus one afternoon

Starting point is 01:19:48 to find out what our song was. We were in Woodstock, New York, I remember, and he's up there burning one down, and he goes, you need to sit down. I go, okay. What is it? Murl, he goes, what the hell's wrong with y'all? I don't know, Murl, what's wrong with this?

Starting point is 01:20:07 I got that damn window, all them people out there. What the hell's wrong with y'all? I don't know Murl, what's wrong with this? All them damn people out there, y'all wanna quit. Murl, it's a good point. It was ingenious. Our last tour we thought. So Merle, you know I gotta tell you, Poncho on Lefty's probably one of my favorite songs ever I said and watching you and Willie in that video is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. You two, you all are like best friends.

Starting point is 01:20:48 I mean, Ronnie Dunn and I didn't even know each other when we met, you know, we've bullied our way through this fricking career for 20 years. We have not taken a break, you know, and we've just gotten to a point where we think it'd be the best thing for us. We've made it 20 years. You and Millie Willie Nelson made one album together.

Starting point is 01:21:11 And he goes, yeah, but we only had one hit. Okay, Merle, what's my song? And he started laughing. I'm like, you win. You're smarter than me. Always will be. It is crazy to think that when you almost say that to some people, even me hearing it from you guys, like, yeah, this is going to be it.

Starting point is 01:21:31 Because it's, because it's, but that's just, it is what it is. It's like your life's at where it's at, you know? When you've taken breaks, what are other things that you've started to fill your lives with that became like important to you or that meant something to you? I know you have your vineyards. My friend Chris used to work out of there. Yeah, but that was, I started that 20 years ago and other things. Really what I really wanted to do and I'd been offered a couple of bit parts and movies

Starting point is 01:21:59 and stuff along the way. You know, making a movie takes a long scheduling and all that. And we really, we did tour 20 years without stopping. And I kind of did some theater in college. I went to Louisiana Tech, you know. Oh hell yeah, dude. Yeah. And enjoyed all that. With the Red Fern Grows. They used to do that musical up there. Oh yeah. A lot of good. A lot of beautiful. All right, Covington, don't get me started now. Talk amongst yourselves. This is a war you don't wanna start. Hey look, Ronald Reagan. Okay, it is, right?

Starting point is 01:22:30 It is, dude. The Ruston versus Covington, that'd be a great battle. Bring that arm back. You can keep Terry Bradshaw. That's so good. Okay. Anyway, but I got in, told, called William Morris, you know, and said, he looks at us and said,

Starting point is 01:22:50 hey, I don't, I don't want to start a movie. I'm not qualified or, you know, don't have the chops, but I would, I would, if there's a bit part or something that maybe some, some whatever, if something comes up, you know? Yeah. And so, yeah, they started sending me some things and I actually started doing some movies, this and that. And my son had studied film at Vanderbilt in English

Starting point is 01:23:14 and wanted to be a screenwriter. And one thing led to another, he came out and started writing with some guys that had produced, I co-starred with Ernie Hudson eventually in a Western. Oh, sweet, I'm not familiar with Ernie Hudson. Yeah you are. The Hudson River, no. Yeah, you are, he was in Ghostbusters.

Starting point is 01:23:30 He doesn't know him. He was in the original Ghostbusters. Oh he was, oh the talk about the glasses? The only black guy in the movie, are you kidding? Oh shoot. I'm gonna go back. That Ernie Hudson. Oh, that Ernie.

Starting point is 01:23:40 I know who he is. Oh, Ernie Hudson. Ernie Hudson. Watch it, it said Bernie. Oh I love Ernie Hudson. Yeah, I could tell he is. Oh, Ernie Hudson. Ernie Hudson. Oh, I love Ernie Hudson. Yeah, I could tell you did. Yeah. No, I'm joking Ernie.

Starting point is 01:23:52 No, that's a, so that's something you've enjoyed getting to do then. Yeah, so I got to do that a little bit and my son wound up being a screenwriter, went out to LA to be Tarantino and he writes movies for Hallmark now. Is he really? Well, I'm art still makes a lot of movies, you know, there's a lot of places aren't even making movies so true Kudos to him. He's got some work is a year Hallmark does

Starting point is 01:24:16 Some of the studios hardly make any movies anymore. So good for them man. Wow, that's cool. You've been in movies No, I just wrote a movie with, um, me and David Spade wrote a movie together. He did like Tommy Boy, you know who he is. Oh, yeah. And so we wrote a movie and I think we're gonna start making it on January 6th. He was in Ghostbusters. Yeah, he was, dude. He was the black guy.

Starting point is 01:24:38 With the glasses? Yeah, with the glasses. And one arm. One arm, right? Yeah. That's who he was. So I'm scared about it, but I think it's going to happen. We worked on it for so long and now it's supposed to happen. Now I'm like, I'm scared, you know?

Starting point is 01:24:57 Cool. That's natural. That's normal. Yeah. I think, yeah. Being scared of something maybe that you don't know how you can do at it or something. But we also have done it all ourselves. So it's like, so that feels good. You should, you should talk to Billy Bob Thornton.

Starting point is 01:25:10 Really? Yeah. I mean, I think what he did was Sling Blade. Oh, yeah. But they said and did that. So ZZ Top was out. That's what I like. Boy, and biscuits. Billy Top, I mean, Billy Top. ZZ Top was out. That's what I like. Boy, and biscuits. Billy Top. I mean, Billy Top.

Starting point is 01:25:26 Yeah. ZZ Top was out with us. And Billy Gibbons was telling about the editing process after Billy Bob and all of them finished it up, and Dwight Yoakam. Oh, yeah. He was in it. He says, I go to this little apartment building in LA. It's hot as hell.

Starting point is 01:25:43 He says, I go up second floor. It's because the biscuits are bacon. Right? of this little apartment building in LA, it's hot as hell. He says, I go up second floor, right? So I knock on the door, and he says, it kind of cracks open. And he says, they go, ah, it's me, Billy Kelly. Oh, let me in. Come on, what are you doing? It's Dwight Yocum, and they're all in like, they're like white wife beater t-shirts or whatever,

Starting point is 01:26:00 sweating all over the place. In there with old school hand editing machines, cutting sling blade. Wow. Doing all that. I bet he's fascinating guy Billy Bob Thornton. Yeah. And Dwight Yogan. I've been working with him on a Taylor Sheridan

Starting point is 01:26:18 this next series coming up with a land man, doing some music stuff together. But it's just fun. It's fun. It's fun. He's got a band. He does? Oh yeah, Billy Bob Thornton has a band. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:26:30 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've known that for a long time. I've never gotten to see him play, but I would probably enjoy it.

Starting point is 01:26:38 Have you seen it, Tim? Billy Bob Thornton's band? I think they're going to be here in a while. I'd love to go see them then. I'm going to make a point of that. They're coming before long. He told me the other night. Yep, Boxmasters. That's it.

Starting point is 01:26:46 Next month. They got their gigs starting opening for ZZ Top. Bill Hamm, their manager. And you guys opened for ZZ Top at one point, right? Is that right? Yeah, we co-headlined with them. That's what I'm saying. That's what I meant.

Starting point is 01:26:59 Long time, had a blast. Yeah. Ronnie, what about you? What's something that you've enjoyed keeping your time with and when you have free time? I got a tinker at the farm a little bit still, you know, I'm always writing songs or something, but I grabbed a camera and a buddy of mine who had been a 25 year, uh, photographer for sports illustrated, uh,

Starting point is 01:27:20 moved back to town and we hit it off. I'd just been to Cuba doing some photography and playing around with it. And he said, show me your stuff. And I did. And he says, okay, you're going with me. So we took off for like a year, year and a half, two years, shooting everything.

Starting point is 01:27:35 Cheyenne rodeo, Galapagos, all over the place. Wow. Yeah. So you really enjoyed it, huh? Yeah. Do you sell any of the prints? I'd love to buy one at some point. Yeah, I'll give you all you want.

Starting point is 01:27:48 That'd be cool. There's so many. That'd be cool. I'd love to give you one, but we shot some great cowboy stuff. Did you? Awesome, yeah. Dude, I just went to the PBR like two weeks ago

Starting point is 01:27:56 when it was here. Yeah. Oh, that was bull riding, but I love rodeo. Rodeo is one of the best, man. I'm with you. If you take your wife or kids out, you don't know what to do with them. If there's a rodeo within 40 miles,

Starting point is 01:28:08 My parents used to do that. It's a blast. Have you been to the prison rodeo in Angola? No, I'd love to go. Are you kidding me? Have you been? Dude, yes. Went just recently and actually played down there.

Starting point is 01:28:19 You know about the rodeo. Yes, I know about it, dude. It's unbelievable. Eight seconds for freedom, They call it. Yeah. For freedom. But it's six seconds. You know, the first event is called busting out. So, um, yeah, these, uh, I've got a friend, uh, Brianna Calhoun, who she does prison reentry and we,

Starting point is 01:28:37 we stayed at the warden's house. Oh yeah. Oh dude. He's fantastic. Yeah. Um, I want him on this show. Yeah, we stayed up making gumbo and drinking beer about one o'clock in the morning. But the rodeo, the first event busting out, they put six prisoners on six bulls and they're PBR bulls. They're real bulls because they do a PBR exhibit kind of thing there. Put six guys on it, they release all six of them at the same time. Of course, the prisoners stay on for like a 10th of a second

Starting point is 01:29:06 and then it's all hell breaks loose. And every event at the rodeos like that, there's one called pinball where they set up eight hula hoops in the middle of the deal. Eight prisoners stand in the hula hoops, they release two bulls on them and the last one in the hula hoop wins the prize. No, it's fantastic.

Starting point is 01:29:22 You got nothing to lose. You gotta go. The prize is just a little bit of sunlight. The prize is good. Right? You get two hours in the cage outside. You get to use a harmonica for 10 minutes. Right, right. Big time bragging rights.

Starting point is 01:29:35 You get a ball to bounce. There were 96 volunteers this year. And it happens twice a year. You should really go. It's unbelievable to watch. I didn't know you could just go. Oh, it's like, it's a 20,000 seat arena. See, there it is.

Starting point is 01:29:50 Wow. Look at them. That's it. That's pinball right there. I'm not kidding. What bull? We got to go on this one, man. Bro, it'd be fascinating.

Starting point is 01:30:02 This is the place where even the bulls are afraid to come out at you. It ain't going out there. There it is. Freaking, there's 20 lifers out there. The best one's the winner. Yeah. That's amazing. I'm going to, I'd love to go to that.

Starting point is 01:30:13 I'm going to try to get to, I'd love to interview the warden because it's a fascinating thing. They don't, there's not another prison, I don't think that does something as famous as this. Look at this. Here you go. No, no, no, no, no. He's going to stay. Oh man down. See, you still got one in there. Man down. He's go. No, no, no, no, no. He's gonna stay. Oh man down. He's still got one in there. Man down.

Starting point is 01:30:26 He's walking. Yeah. He's a pinball wizard. He's like no never mind. No, he left the station. Oh rodeo is so fun man. Man, the Cheyenne rodeo. You get a press bunker where you're ground level. And that's a big one huh? Yes. And it's crazy. Keep daddy of them all, they call it. Is it? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And there's another one that's real organic. We went to, what's the name of that?

Starting point is 01:30:49 In Montana? Miles City. And that's where the breeders bring all the rodeo stock in. They have for years, years. I mean, I don't know, 50, 60 years, whatever. And people watch them, these kids, local cowboy kids, climb on these horses and they'll ride, I mean, they used to run 300 horses

Starting point is 01:31:13 plus through a day. They ride them to see how they buck and then every now and then they'll stop and have an auction. And then they go right back to it. About the end of the day, these kids are back there and pick up trucks with like liters of whiskey just. Just tuckered out. Can't move, man.

Starting point is 01:31:30 It beats them to death. But great pictures. Yeah, a buddy of mine's daddy sells, I guess horse semen or whatever. How are they, I don't know what they call it. Straws. Your horse. Is it straws?

Starting point is 01:31:40 It's semen and it is straws is how they sell them. Yeah, they sell, I don't know how much you can get. I guess you can get a, I don't, I've never seen the containers they put it in, but I know that they mate with other horses and they'll have lines of horses coming up to mate with their horse all spring. Sure.

Starting point is 01:31:54 He's like a, I think he's like a madam or whatever. You can't do that with their breeds, but quarter horses you can. For racing horses? Racing horses have to be actually bred. They have the, the males to get on the feed. Oh, you can't artificially inseminate them. Yeah, I think, yeah, I'd rather.

Starting point is 01:32:09 Yeah, that's a part of the deal. They got to watch it. You can't be selling semen in the thoroughbred business because it's so expensive. You know, I mean, this is a secretariat semen or whatever. Can you prove it? You know, it's like, oh, hell, the Celsius is three dollars a can. I can't even imagine. I'm up to that. It's everything, wildlife, you know, deer, things like that, you name it.

Starting point is 01:32:30 It's all out there. Did you guys ever get to play Asia? That's one last question I was thinking. Did you guys ever? What is Asia anyway? That's random. That's a good question. Asia is, I guess it's.

Starting point is 01:32:41 Come on now, easy. China, Vietnam. Thailand. Thailand. Come on, Vietnam, Thailand, Thailand. Come on, give us some Asian countries. Japan, Korea, North and South. There you go. Malaysia. Malaysia again.

Starting point is 01:32:56 Maybe that's why they call it Asia. Malaysia. Yeah, it's a big Sacramento. Sacramento, yeah. But these guys, how far, I'm just curious how far because your music was like has been a fixture in in my life you know and and so many people my age but I just wonder like what other ethnicities and stuff listen they've never heard of us we did a thing for rock my world one year it was a record company's great idea they came in with all these cue cards and whatever.

Starting point is 01:33:26 Every country, all the ones you just named, everything you could think of, but phonetically how you would pronounce our new song is called Rock My World. We would love for you to like it in other parts of the world. That kind of thing. So Ronnie and I, as stupid as we are, we're trying to... We said yes. We said yes, and we're every language you can think of, you know, from Japanese.

Starting point is 01:33:52 Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you know, just... And they had the cards and it sounded out of the marita. Oh, yes, it sounded out for you. My sister's got a home in Italy. My brother-in-law's like, I'm over there watching a soccer game. He goes, and your commercial came on in this bar and the break. He goes, and then shut the whole place down.

Starting point is 01:34:10 He goes, everybody's on the edge of their seat. They're looking light. And at the end of it, they go, so I still have no idea what we said in Italian. As long as there's probably some exercise thing that makes your head turn around better. As long as there's some young Vietnamese kids sitting somewhere going, Under the neon moon. Yeah, yeah. Booscoop.

Starting point is 01:34:33 Yeah, that's what matters, man. Okay. We might cut that part out. Cut, cut. The new album and the new tour, will they come out simultaneously? How does that kind of work? Pretty close. I think the new album comes out in November.

Starting point is 01:34:47 November the 15th. Yeah, and we start touring in February. Heavy stuff, it starts hitting in February. Yeah, and then spring. February, March, April, something like that. We're going to stop for a minute. I think you're going to go do your deal. I'm going to run to Africa and come back, and then we're going to pick it up in June.

Starting point is 01:35:03 Run over there to Congo. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to run to Africa and come back. And then we're going to pick it up in June. Run over there to Congo. This guy, yeah. Yeah. You know. I'll go down to Twinsboro and Covington. Yeah, we'll be over in Murphy'sboro if you need us, dude. He's down there.

Starting point is 01:35:13 Well, not Murphy's. Smyrna. I mean, it's really Murphy's. Yeah, sorry, we'll go to Smyrna. Gulfstream promised me they'd have it fixed by then, by plane. So we got it. We're good.

Starting point is 01:35:23 Anything else you guys wanted to talk about? There was something you wanted to get out there? No, we know we just, we're selling that record right now. Reboot two. You got to have it. You got to get it. It'll change your life. Thanks for the hang man. Love watching your show and nonsense and everything is fun and games.

Starting point is 01:35:38 Yeah. I feel lucky to have a job, man. Really lucky to talk to you guys. This has honestly been one of my favorite episodes, I think. It really has. You never said that before, before right i've said it probably three times every freaking show what he probably got back up it's just been it's been like yeah you guys made it so easy and also you guys have such a good sense of humor i think um so long as you get with musicians and they don't talk they they don't, they're musicians. I remember Tom Petty would like going, talk,

Starting point is 01:36:05 he's going to talk, right? Freaking musicians. There's a reason why they handed him an instrument. Last guy you wanted to do is have Tom Petty come sit by you and do an interview with him, right? I guess. How's your voice? It's all right. Bill Vezor told me I was interviewing him, you know, doing the countdown show and said, so how'd you get to be such a good piano player? He goes, well, actually Ier told me, I was interviewing him, doing the Countdown show.

Starting point is 01:36:25 And he said, so how'd you get to be such a good piano player? He goes, well, actually I was a drummer when I was a kid. And I said, oh really? I said, I've never heard you play drums. He goes, shit. And I was a kid, man, all I wanted was a drum set. Christmas, I'd get a drum set.

Starting point is 01:36:35 He goes, I just beat on those drums relentlessly, day and night, whatever. He goes, I got pretty good at it. I go, what happened? He goes, I came home from school one day and my drums were gone. There was a bicycle sitting there where my drums used to be. Shit, man.

Starting point is 01:36:49 I go, what'd you do? He goes, rode my bicycle. I got real good at it too. Yeah, that guy believes in himself too much. Your drums are gone. That's one of those guys. Road to Cincinnati. Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, Thank you guys so much, man.

Starting point is 01:37:05 Thank you for all the years of wonderful music and entertainment. And uh, yeah, I got to, I'm going to come and check out one of the shows on tour, man. I'm excited about it. Please come see us. I will. We certainly will. Thank you guys. Fun stuff.

Starting point is 01:37:17 Really fun. Big fans. I was floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this piece of mind I found I can feel it in my bones But it's gonna take a little

This Past Weekend - E534 Brooks & Dunn

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