Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Kenny Chesney

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Kenny Chesney · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Leftsets podcast. My
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: guest today is Kenny Chesney, who's got a new word
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of biography, part life Music. Kenny, Why this book? Why now?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Well, Bob, I have been really running pretty hard for
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a while, and there was always, uh, I've always been driven.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I've always been insanely creative, which hasn't left a lot
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: of time for reflecting. And when Holly and I first
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: started thinking about this.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Holly Gleison, your co writer, Holly Lison.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: My co writer, and we thought about all the roads
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: have gone down, We thought about, you know, all the
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: people that did it with me, and I just decided
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that I'd better write it down now because there was
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: some hazy years. You know, we had a lot of
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: fun out there. But I also, you know, I wanted
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to champion pay tribute to a lot of people that
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: championed me along the way also, And that's why now
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I felt like now that was the best time, because
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I still feel very creative and and want to move forward,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: and but I just haven't. I just have not let
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: myself reflect that much. And until I sat down with
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Holly Gleeson, and that's been like a year and something experience.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: So but I'm really glad we did it. You know,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: it's like almost like therapy. Every time, you know, in therapy,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: they had you tell the story over and over again,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and every time you tell it, you remember something else.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And that's that's a lot about what writing this book
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: was Likeve.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: So what did you learn writing the book yourself?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. I have learned that how powerful
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: dreams can be. I was a kid, like we say
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: in the book, I literally I lived with my grandmother.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: My mom and my real father divorced when I was one,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and so my mom married my stepfather after that, and
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: he was a Vietnam So we lived with my grandmother
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and I would lay out in her backyard at night
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and stare up at the sky because there was really
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: no we were so far out outside of Knoxville. We
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: we didn't get any light pollution, you know. So when
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: it was when it was dark and clear, it was beautiful.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: And I was dreaming, Bob, But I didn't know what
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the dream was. I was just dreaming to dream, like
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I said in the book. But I was just so
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: curious about what was past my county line, what was
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: past the only roads I knew to go down with
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the roads to school, the roads to church with my grandmother,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the rose to the ballpark, and that was about it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: And every Christmas, my grandfather would be the guy that goes, Hey,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: we're all going to get in the car. We're going
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to go to Knoxville to see the lights, right, And
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: he was also the person that would sit there and go, Wow,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I wonder what that lot bills costing them. So I
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: don't know. I think about that kid, and I think
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: about the person that I am now, and I just
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: think about how powerful my journey has been, about how
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: many and how my life has changed, and how many
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: how it changed the lives of people that have come
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: along with me. And that's a very powerful, profound thing
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: because we all came from different places, we all have
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: different religious beliefs, we all have different political beliefs, but
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: somehow we all play the same notes. And I think
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: that's beautiful.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, are you talking the book about burnout? You don't
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: use that actual term, but you say one thing. You're
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: on stage and again you can barely finish the gieg.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had, And I hesitate saying this because my
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: heroes have been on the road their whole life, right
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: they have. And now I've been on I have been
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: doing this for over thirty two years now, believe it
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: or not. But there was a moment in two thousand
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: and nine where I went on the road in November
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: of ninety three, and I did not stop mentally, emotionally, physically,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: creatively at all until that night in Indianapolis. And that
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: was two thousand and nine. So with that sixteen years.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: So it was a constant, constant, and I felt numb.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I didn't feel like I was listening to music the
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: same way. I didn't feel like I was creating the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: same way. I didn't feel like that I was. I
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: just felt I didn't felt good or bad. I just
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: felt numb. And that's not the way to make music.
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  Speaker 2: That's not the way to create. And I wasn't a
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: great friend. I wasn't a great son. I wasn't I
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: just was just lost, you know, And I didn't I
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: was really scared because I really loved what I do,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: but I could and I could just tell that I
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: wasn't the same up there, and I wasn't giving like
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I used to, and I got really scared, and that's
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: why I took all of twenty ten off. I just
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: needed a break, and that's when I had already had
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Boys of Fall recorded, and we went when I had
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: some time off that fall to start shooting. It was
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: a long form video for that song. And then when
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: we got done with it, I went and played it.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: I met the guy who was ahead of things at
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: ESPN at the time. His name was John Walsh. I
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: met him with Jimmy Buffett at the super Bowl party
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: a couple of years at a super Bowl party a
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: couple of years prior, and he said, if you ever
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: you know, told me if I ever wanted anything him
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: to look at anything, to call him. So when I
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: had that long form video, I sent it to him
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: and that was the beginning of a whole other chapter
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: for me. That's when we all of a sudden, I
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: am in the living rooms of Bobby Balden, Nick Saban,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Bill Parcells. I flew to San Francisco and was in
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: John Madden's. It wasn't his house. He had this big
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: warehouse and he had big screen TVs all over it
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: in a big kitchen, and all of a sudden, I'm
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: in places like that interviewing these people that were very
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: that were giants in football. My dad was a coach.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Sports was always very important to me. So walking into
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: those rooms, I was like, Wow, this is this is
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: really different. But it was feeding me creatively in ways
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: that music wasn't at that time. And I spent all
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: of twenty ten making that documentary and it was on
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: ESPN for a good while about it took something different
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: like that to feed me in ways that I never
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: saw coming. I mean, I was in Joe NAMA's house
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: in Florida and we weren't talking about football. We were
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: talking about life. We were talking about how life is
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: not just to get you know, how football is at
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: a game, and how life is a game egle. But
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: life is the big game and you can't do it alone.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: You've got to have people around you. I didn't expect
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: that stuff to come out of Joe Namas mouth. I
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: was like wow, I mean, I was so inspired, and
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden, there was a moment where I felt, Wow,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: I'm back, I'm really back. And then I started listening.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I started listening differently. I mean, my manager, Dell Morris,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: some of the best advice he gave me was there's
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: a fine line between a groove and a rut. And
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: you know what's really bad is when you think you're
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: in a groove, but you're really in a rut. And
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I was in a rut for a minute. I mean
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: you may not, you know, I see it all the time,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: and we all see it. You know, everybody keeps making
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: the same music. Well, they're in a rut. And I
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: could have stayed and kept doing what I was doing,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: but the boys that year I took off and getting
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: out of the rut Boys Will Fall helped me find
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: my groove again. And had I not done that, I
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: would have been off in an exhaustion oblivion.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: How do you avoid falling into a rut and getting
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: burned out going forward?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that just creatively, I feel right now
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I'm taking better care of myself more than ever, I think, physically, mentally, everything.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: I think that for me, I try to write with
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: different people, and I try to I think when you've
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: been doing this as long as I have now, it's
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: very easy to get caught in the same if you
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: will rut melodically, especially as a writer, and so I
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: try to write with new people. I try to write
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: with younger writers that have fresh brains and doesn't have
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: this same neural pathway as I do. I think that's
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: that's the thing, is creating different roads to go down
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: in different neural pathways. And that's what I that I've
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: been trying to do, you know, for a while now.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: But moving forward is I just always try to keep it,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: try to keep it fresh and write and be around.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: It's not doesn't always work out, but I mean there's
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: there's some great new riters in town, you know, and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: that has a different They just have a different way
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: of thinking. And for me that's been writing the same
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: way for a while. That's really good to create those
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: neural pathways.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, but what's driving you? You know, you're living in
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the booney you have a dream, you take yourself to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Nashville after college, and let's just go to the end.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: You achieve your dream. Yes, you're in the Country Music
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. You can't be any bigger in country music.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: So what gets you up in the morning? What makes
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you say, well, I want fact that I don't have that,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: or I want to achieve this.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I would I would sincerely hope that I haven't written
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: my best song yet, And I sincerely hope that I
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: haven't made my best record yet. The idea of being better.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I try to be better. I you know, I don't
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: act like I used to out there on the road.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It's pretty boring out there. I remember you being in
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: LA when we played the Staples Center. It was called
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: then you know so, and we had a big party afterwards.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I mean it was We used to do that every
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: night and it was great. But I hadn't make a
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: decision right around I don't know, about fifteen years about ten,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: fifteen years ago, if I was going to do that,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: or if I was going to do this, you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: if I was going to act like that all the
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: time and do that. Because I realized that I couldn't
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: do both. I couldn't live that lifestyle and give the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: audience exactly what they deserved. And I didn't go down
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: all these roads to mail it in, you know, And
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I just had a I don't know, I had to
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: come into Jesus meeting with myself in a way you
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: know where I said, no, you're you're going to give
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: these people care about your music, they care about you,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: they care about the experience, and not only are they
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: going to get all of you, they're going to get
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the best of you.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, you reference therapy earlier. You reference a therapist in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the book. When did you start going? Do you still go?
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Did it help?
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Oh? Well that was only went once they made me
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: do that, or yes they helped? I think we should all,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I try really hard to be in shape physically,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: to go do what I do. My show is I
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: don't sit there and tap my toe. I have video
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: footage of me as a child in my grandmother's kitchen
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: listening to music, and I almost stand the same way
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: and move the same way. That being said, I think
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: it's also important for you to work out your brain too.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And yes, hell, you know you're talking the book about
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: eating the same meal and eating clean and you're eating
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: one day and people are eating the other way? What
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: is driving you there? I'm sure you know you want
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to be in shape, but is it also a physicality?
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: And don't you feel deprived that you can't have, you know,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the junk that other people haven't.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Well, look, I come from a family of emotional eaters, right,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: and I grew up loving to eat. I loved to eat.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: But I don't necessarily feel deprived, I would say I
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: when I made this life choice and change. I was
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: still on one bus, so it was it was me
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: and the band, and we were pulling a trailer with
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: all the merch right, and they would get pizza after
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the show and it would be the most excruciating thing ever.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: So I would just open the box and smell it
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: and go to bed. But yeah, I mean sometimes I
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: feel deprived. But look, I will tell you when I'm
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: off the road, when I'm done. For the last how
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: many years, we've ended our shows. Ended our tour with
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: two nights in Foxboro and at Gillette Stadium, and I
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: trust me, I make up for it as soon as
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: that the next day for a while. And so but
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know, just being I'm so driven, and so
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: when I'm up there on stage, I don't it's I've
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: just built this. I don't know if it's a persona
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is, and it's I don't even know
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: how sustainable it is, to be honest with you, but
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: that's the way I've done it. And but I wouldn't
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: say deprived, but I I know I'm missing out, but
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I'd rather do what I do. I'll eat later.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Well, any other vices, so to speak.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: None no, not really. I'm I'm I'm as pretty boring
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: to be honest with you. I mean, I'm one of
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the reasons that I you know, one of one of
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the reasons I got tired while we were talking earlier,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: and is doing what I do the way I do
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: it is sometimes feels I wouldn't say like I sacrificed,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: but I will tell you it. Sometimes it feels very robotic.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: So I have to go. I have to go jump
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: in the ocean. I have to go feel sunlight. I
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: have to I have to get out of my head
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: a little bit, you know. So, But that's the way
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: it's been for me, and it is every year. Around
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: the second week of January, I flipped I flipped the
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: switch off, and I go, Okay, now I start living
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: my life almost like it's like it's through a straw,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: like this is all you see. And I work out,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I eat clean, I create, and I'm like, when we're
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: we already know right now that in June when we
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: go play the Spear again, that we're going to have
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: to change half that show. It took us a long
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: time to create that content. Well here we are almost,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: you know, almost the end of the year. And we're
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: already working forward on that. So it's just a constant cycle.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: But you know, look, I love it, I really do,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: and I love being able to see what we can
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: create up there. But but that being said, I have
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: to sit there and go, Okay, now you're gonna eat
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: at Christmas, you're gonna eat it Thanksgiving, you're gonna go
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: to the Islands, you're gonna you're gonna get on a boat,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: you're gonna, you know, do whatever. But it's second week
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: of January. You've got to prepare to start being that person.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: And that has been the cycle I've been on for
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of years.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, you go on the road, you finish in Foxborough.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: How long does it take you to decompress from being
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: on the road.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Well, in twenty twenty four was like, we didn't do
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: stadium shows last year. In twenty twenty four was the
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: last one, and it took a minute. To be honest
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: with you, there is and I don't know why, but
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: that year specifically, I felt a real emotional and mental
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: release from it all because you and I wasn't prepared
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: for it. It was really hard, and there was such
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: a calm down from all of it. And you know,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: for years I've I took my band and crew, probably
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: one hundred people all down more than that to the
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Virgin Islands after after every tour and let them jump
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: in the ocean and just let us celebrate the life
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: we get to live. Well, that specific year, I was
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: just emotionally so tired, and it was the first time
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: that I felt that emotional and mental release that hard.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: And I don't know why, but it messed with me
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: a little bit, you know, and it was it took
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: it took about a month for me to go, oh, wait,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: where did everybody go? You know, because we're just all
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: together for so long, and you live every day out there,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: and these people that have been with me have been
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: with me for years. I mean, we're a family out there.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's hard to say goodbye to that.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: To me, it's a lot like our last show of
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the year. Is a lot like when we were kids.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: It was a lot like the last day of school, right.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're ready for a break, but you don't
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: want to let go of it either because it's so great.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: And that's how it is for me, you know, I
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: look forward to my summer vacation but I start to
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: get antsy if I say it still too long.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, On a more a granular level, you're out there
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: playing maybe to fifty thousand people. You leave the stage,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you have the same people you might have known for decades.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: How long did it take you to wind down and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: go to sleep after a show?
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I haven't slept in years. I don't feel like
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: you know. I've my brain. The one side of my
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: brain is turning one way or the other side terms
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: the other, and I got to find the happy medium
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: in there. It takes a couple hours, you know. But
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: my after show, what after shows look like now, is
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: much different than when I met you originally, and when
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I when all this, than when my life really changed.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Like I look forward to after the show, I don't don't.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I don't drink like I used to. I don't I
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: don't live that lifestyle. I truly like now. I have
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: an ice tub out outside my bus that my friend
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Lard Hamilton.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Let me start, How the fuck do you know Lard Hamilton?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: I know Lard Hamilton for years.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I mean no, wait, in the book, you are constantly
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: talking about different people, but you have relationships with these people.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: It's not here one. It's not like you said, Nolly,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I met that person, we had a conversation. No, we continue,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you know, etcetera.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Here's how I met Lard Hamilton is the girl that
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I was dating at the time, Mary. She and I
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: were in Maui and there was a lady that was
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: cooking us breakfast every morning, and she goes, well, where
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: are you guys going next? I said, well, I've never
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: been to Kawhi. We're going to go to Kawai. She goes, well,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: you should call Laird Hamilton. I said, well, he don't
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: know me. I don't know him, you know, why should
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: I call him? But I did, and him and his
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: wife Gabby met us down at their barn right on
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: the river in Kawai, and they let us go out
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: on their paddle boards and when we got back, they
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: had two open coconuts in our jeep and that was
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: the beginning of our friendship. And I've been they have
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: really been a positive impact on my life, you know,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: mentally and physically. I go up there and train with
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Laird and it's a grueling thing, but yeah, I mean
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I this goes to show you how powerful the universe is.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, the kid from me Tennessee is not supposed
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: to be friends with Larr at Hamilton, right, That's just
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: the way it is, or even met all these people
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: that I that I reference in the book. So but Laird,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I spent countless days up at Laird's house, setting in
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: asauna and getting an ice tub. I went, wow, this
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: is what I need out on the road, you know,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: because I beat my body up so much during a
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: show that I went, well, I need to get an
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: ice instead of acting like I used to, I need
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: to set an ice tub and let my body heal
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: and then go to bed. So that's basically what after
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: shows look like now. And it's become a thing out
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: there like now. Like I told you earlier, I take
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of Bandon crew down to the Islands after
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: our tour. Well, one of the caveats is is they
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: have to at least participate onints in the Cold Plunge,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: and if they don't get in the Cold Plunge, then
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: they don't get to go. So it'll be okay. We
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: got two weeks left in the tour, and there's I
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: know exactly how many people haven't hadn't done it yet,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: and so so and I know who they are, and
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: so if they want to go, they got to get
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: in that ice tub. And last day of the tour
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: is always really fun because everybody has to pay the
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: piper and they got to get that ice And it's
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: taught me a lot about I know, I'm off the
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: subject now, but it's taught me a lot about human
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: behavior because you never know how people are going to
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: react under pressure. Some react favorably, some react unfavorably, and
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: it teaches you a lot about that person, you know.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: So it been it's so fun to watch them, to
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: watch that game in the ice it's great. But Lair
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: taught me all that.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, once again, a little more granular. You have the
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: people they don't you know, there's some people who die
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that jump in the water. That's what the other people
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: they would do anything. So what did you learn about
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: people observing this?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Well, it gets everybody out of their comfort zone. I
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: mean everybody. They'll participate, but I don't know. Here's what
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: it does. As terrible as it is for some of them,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: it does it's a bonding moment for all of us.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: That's what I learned. I mean, next thing, you know,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: there's fifty people around that coplonde watching everybody do it,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: and it just brought us all together in ways that
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: you don't you don't see. You don't see that coming, right,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: But it's just human behavior is a tricky thing, and
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: some people that you think would flourish in that moment,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: they don't do well. And then some people that you
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: think wouldn't do well do great. So I don't know,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: but it's for me. I like doing it because it's
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: such a bonding moment for everybody out there on the road.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're obviously the boss, but are you a person
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: in the cabin at summer camp or you the camp counselor.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Well, I have a camp counselor I like to be
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: in the cabin. I mean, I'm paying for it.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Who's in charge?
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Well, David, David Farmer is you know, my road manager,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: and he's him, and uh my production manager, Ed Wannabo.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: But David's the boss of everybody. I'm the boss, but
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: David's the the underboss, right so, and he's done a
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: great job over the years, you know. But yes, Look,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: one one day I was looking out my bus window.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: We were It was one of the first few years
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: that I was playing stadiums. I was outside of the
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Pittsburgh Steed there was football stadium and I was looking
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: at all this stuff, and I went, you know, who's
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: paying for this? And I was like, God, I am
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: And it really hit me, you know, so I tried
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: not to think about. I don't like to be the boss.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I really don't. I like to I like to be
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: the kid the cabin I really do. But I know
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: I'm the boss, but I let I delegate a lot
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: of that stuff to Dave.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Well, okay, you got a lot of people on the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: road with you interact with a lot of people. There
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: are band members don't even hang with each other. Okay,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a person, you know, it's a well oiled machine. So
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: are you the type of person you know, don't bug Kenny.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: He's doing this thing, He'll show up. Well, are you
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the type person knows what everybody's doing, giving everybody shit?
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Connected all the time? Yeah?
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: I try to stay connected. I don't disappear. I mean, look,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I'm isolated enough in my life. You know. That's the
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: one place where I don't have to be isolated. I
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: got my family around me, So no, I mean I
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: have seen that what you're saying happen. I really have
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: my really big acts and people that some of my heroes,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: and they don't really communicate with anybody, And I think,
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: I think, wow, what a You know, our life is
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: isolating enough. We're doing enough a good enough job on
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: our own doing that, you know, or I do anyway,
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: especially when I'm off the road. But when I'm out there,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: that's where one of the places that I feel actually
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: comfortable in my skin and is communicating with everybody and
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: having fun. Look, I've been doing this a while now,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: and I'm telling you, we have the fund meter out
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: there for a lot of years has been all the
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: way over. I mean, we have had a lot of
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: fun doing this, and I couldn't think of just isolating
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: myself and I don't know, having some sort of this
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: unapproachable persona. I just never understood that. I never understood
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: people with you know, I'd go to friends shows and
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: they would have all this this this over the top
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: security with the microphones in their face, and you know
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: that I just it's just I just don't do it
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: that way. I refuse to because it just it's I
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: would go to shows that would make me uncomfortable, and
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I do this for a living, So you'd imagine what
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: somebody that that's just back there for how they feel.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: So I've tried not to be that person.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Well tell me you did say I'm isolated enough. Tell
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: me more about that.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I think over the years I have. I think
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: over the years I wouldn't always I was. I was
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: always a very people person. Now I can be up
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: there on stage and communicate and be intimate, I mean
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: so intimate, and I can take my finger and I
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: can move fifty thousand people to the left if I want,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: and to the right if I want, and I know
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: how to do that. That's one thing. But over the
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: years I've developed I would say, some sort of social anxiety,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: especially with the new technologies and all the devices that
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: we have, and with all and how quickly an awkward
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: interaction can go viral, right, and when you don't even
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: mean it for it to like somebody, Oh, Kenny didn't
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: say hi to me, he's an asshole, And maybe I'm
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: maybe I didn't hear them, maybe I'm having a bad day.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe I was, you know what I mean. And so
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: it's that way. So I have developed social anxiety to
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: a point. I'm not saying that I don't I do
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: get out of the house. I I'm not painting myself
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: into a room or anything. But it has changed out there.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, but you have, as I say, it was very
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: notable reading the book. You have a number of people
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: who are celebrities, let's call them, in different walks of life. Yeah,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: you maintain contact with is the type of thing where
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you say, hey, I haven't heard from the guy in
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: a while. I'm in the text or are you in
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: constant communication? Are you the recipient or you the person
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: who does the outreach? What does it look like?
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: It's different for everybody, you know? Got I got a
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: video this morning from Joe Walsh. It was this funny
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: video of this guy playing guitar and it just I
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: forgot what was but it was just burning his hands off,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: you know. And it was just Joe's a very Joe's
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: got a very unique sense of humor and I love
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: him and Joe's one of those guys that just showed
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: up in my life. Know it was. It was great
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: because me and the guy was talking about earlier David Farmer.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: David Farmer had had a pool table in his garage
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and we were those kids. You know that that would
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: take the pool sticks and play the guitar licks, you know,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: to Uh to the James Gang, or to Montrose with
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Sammy Hagar or I mean every Van Halen record that
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: was ever made, we were we were doing that. So
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: to think that you would be later on in your
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: life and get being this place and you would be
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: friends with those people on any level. The fact that
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: they know who you are at all is one of
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: the most amazing things. That's That's about what's happened to
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: me in my journey that I did become friends that
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: one day out of the blue, Irving asof called me
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: and he goes, hey, Adie van Halen's gonna call you.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: I went, yeah, okay, right, And next thing you know,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: I answered the phone and it was Eddie. I could
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: tell it was Eddie. I I saw interviews I had,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: you know, and so the fact and then you fast forward.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Then Eddie and Eddie and Alice come to our show.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I think we played the soccer stadium outside of LA
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: and they came and showed up and got there early.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: And Eddie had his long hair and he had his
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: shirt off and he was ripped and then all of
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: a sudden here are It was like a it was
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: such a Wayne's World moment or a Beavis and butt
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Head moment, you know what I mean. It was like
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: we couldn't believe it. And everybody that was on the
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: road with me loved that music so much, not just
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: my crew, but every band that was on the show,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: their crew and everybody. You could just see hundreds of
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: people stage right and stage left seeing this moment. And
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: my guitar player at the time, Clayton Mitchell, was one
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: of those guys that sat in his that sat in
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: his closet and learned every single lick of Eddie's. He
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: tried to to copy everything. So to see that moment,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: it was, it was it was insane. So our communication,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: my communication with Eddie was back and forth a lot.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Now with Sammy, it's it's that on steroids, you know.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: I I love being around Sammy because he feels like
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: sunshine to me. I just I love him. And the
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: first time I went to play Sammy's birthday party in Cabo,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: I was thirty six years old, and I talk about
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: this in the book, but it was a life changing
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: moment for me, you know, in a way, because I
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: was thirty six, and I felt like I had to.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't know where this this journey was taking me.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: I had just broken up with a girl at the time,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: and I was going, wow, like where is my life going?
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: You know? And that night I was like, we played
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: almost three hours at Cabo Wabo and at Sammy's bar,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: and then I went back to the house the Samy
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: god for me and I'm the guitar out and I thought, well,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I don't have to figure out what's next. I just
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: got to go and just just live it. And that's
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: the night that I I wrote very in Mexico, all
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: of it that night, and that taught me a lesson too,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: about you know, creating and and just writing what you
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: live and how you feel and not just some something
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: that's made up in a a in a room with
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: three or four co writers on a writing trip, you know.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was a real that was a real
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: soulful there was a glimpse into my soul. Really, people
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: that listen to the people that I always saw that
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: title thought it was a drinking song, but it wasn't.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: It was it was a it was a glimpse into
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: my soul, like I said, and it was a turning
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: of the page for me.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to John Madden. You rest him. John
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Madden one said, you play one game in the NFL
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: and your body will never be the same. Yeah, you
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: played high school football. How's your body?
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Well, my body is a lot better than the guys
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: that play in the NFL. I was. I loved high
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: school football, but I was absolutely terrible at it. I
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: mean that was five six and one hundred and forty pounds,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: soak and web and we were just an okay team.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: I mean we lived out in the country. We lived
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: you know, we had what we had. We didn't have
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: a lot of great athletes. We had one guy on
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: our team that played a Division one football. His name
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: was Donnie Collins and he went to the University of Georgia.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: So we were just we knew that we weren't going
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: to play past foot class high school. But Bob, I
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: got to tell you, man, it taught me so much
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: about the way that I do business today, and especially
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: when you try to achieve something wonderful with a lot
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: of people, and football taught me that lesson. You know,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: you can't everybody has to be on the same page,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: you know, whether whether you're on the road or you're
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: in corporate America or whatever. If not, ever, if everybody
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: is not aligned, and what's the same thing, it's not
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: it's not gonna it's gonna be really hard to achieve
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: anything great. But I've also learned through sports that mediocre
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: mediocre people that they want because their thought processes aren't aligned.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: They're not because the mediocre people think they're working hard,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: but the high achievers know they're not, and so it's
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: never going to be aligned. Ever. So that's what football
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: taught me, and that's what thirty years of being on
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: the road has taught me.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Can you lift a mediocre person who's not working enough
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: for efficiently up into the upper realm.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: If they're willing, Yes, if they're willing. It depends on
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: what work ethic I think that you know, especially if
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: they have if they have some sort of talent. But
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: you can have things without talent and still and still
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: you know, because you don't need talent to have work ethic.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: You don't need you don't have to have talent to
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: be coachable. You don't have to have talent to show up,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: you don't have you see what I'm saying, Like, they
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: have to. They have to have all those things if
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: they're mediocre, and then they can overachieve. For sure they can,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: you could, but they got to want to be there.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: And so that's what that's I've tried over my career.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: I've tried really hard to look at that through a
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: fish eye lens and just see how people react. It
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: goes back to the ice cub in a way. It
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: goes back to how they act and react and under
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: pressure or when they're uncomfortable. That says a lot because
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: it's it's it's it's it's really. Football also taught me this.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: It's really people. Really, everybody reacts favorably when things are good.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: It's how when things are bad, when they see it,
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: you start to see you start to measure human behavior.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: It's it's how people react under pressure is one of
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: the biggest barometers of human behavior that I've ever seen.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: How do you react under pressure?
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I turn it up and just go.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: You know, I have the most pressure I have ever
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, this was the scaredest I've ever been and
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: the most nervous I've ever been, and the most pressure
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I've ever been. Music Cares honor Bruce Springsteen in La
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: You're in Gramy Week and I was asked to come
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: sing One Step Up and Two Steps Back for him
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: that night, and I'd sing that song forever. I mean,
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: I could play it backwards. I played it in college.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: It was on my No Shoes record. I did a
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: cover of it. But this was different. I mean here
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: I am me, my guitar on a stool, my piano player,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: and there's Bruce ten feet away from me, and Sting
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: and Jackson Brown and Bruce's wife and this all these
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: people in front of me, and I went, oh wow.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: I mean I really felt the gravity of that moment.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: I mean I was like, I don't know, I could
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: feel sweat going down my nose. But I just took
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: a deep breath and I just went, hey, just go
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: be your authentic self. Do it just like you did
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: at Chucky's Trading Post in Johnson City, Tennessee. That's a
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Mexican restaurant I played at in college. And I would
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: play One Step Up because I love that song so much. Well,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: I love the whole Tunnel of Love record a lot,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: and because I think it had a country soul to it,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: but especially one step up. All of a sudden, there
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: I was, in my life in front of the man
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: that wrote that song, and he's watching me say it,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and I don't know. It was just one of those
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: really surreal moments, But that was that. That is the
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: scariest and the most pressure I've ever felt as an
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: entertainer in my life. If I look, I don't get nervous.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I know this probably sounds cocky, but I don't get
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: nervous doing the stadium shows because I have forgotten the words.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: I have fell off stage. I have, I've had fans
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: come on stage, so those don't Those kinds of things
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: don't make me nervous. But playing a really great song
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: for one of your heroes right in front of you
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: is really difficult.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: It was for me. You ever get the sensation or
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: feeling like I don't want to do it, I mean
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: ultimately not doing it, but the reaction going, you know,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: reacting to the pressure that you know is going to
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: be there.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean I I never I never thought that
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to do it, but trust me, on
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: the flight out there, it hit me. I went, oh wow,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is this is going to be different.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: This is going to be different than in college. And
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: but what made me so happy. You know, a couple
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: of weeks later, they send you the audio and the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: video because they do some sort of thing they show
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: it the next year or whatever, and they wanted me
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: to approve the cut of my performance. And when I'm done,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: they cut to Bruce and you can read his lips
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: and he's whispering to his wife Patty. He goes, I
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: loved it, and that made that validated my whole dream
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: as good as it gets. I mean, that's as good
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: and validated my whole dream. And so I'm glad I
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: did it, even though I was I was under a
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: lot of pressure.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: What's the best show you've ever seen that you weren't
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: on the stage.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: My first rock show I saw was was def Leppard
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: in Knoxville.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's the best. I mean, I
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: saw Bruce when they got back. It was when it
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: was this because him and the EA street Man hadn't
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: played in a while, and then they got back together,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: right and it was that year. So me and Holly
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: went to Baltimore to see them, and I was just
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: stunned to see someone give every sale of their body
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: and to I I just couldn't believe it, you know,
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: and just how the how the the momentum kept going.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: You thought for a minute that it was going on,
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: you know, because a concert is a lot like sex.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: You know, it has its ups and downs. It's kind
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: of you know, it's it's flow. But I mean, it
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: was a freight train. It was a freight train. I
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: watched the drummer, and I watched how they played and
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: how they interacted with each other, and it was just
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: that's the best. That's the best. I walked away from
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: there and I was on my way home going that's
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: the best thing I've ever seen.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Ever jumping around. Let's go back to college football. What
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: was your best play?
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: Well, I didn't play college football. I played I met
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: high school. Yeah no, I was too small to play
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: college football. My best play I don't know. I mean
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: I called four passes in one game.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Well that's pretty good.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: That's my high school highlight. Because we weren't that talented,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: and uh, we ran the ball a lot. We ran
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: what is called in football the power eye, which is
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: a running formation, and we ran the power out because
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: we didn't because we weren't that athletic, and we got
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: the ship kicked down of us a lot, you know, so,
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: but we had fun. And like I said, that, playing
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: playing football changed my life. I still love it to
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: this day. But I was just I mean, I was little.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: I was I got to ship kicked down on.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Me, all okay, So no one was forcing me to play.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Why did you play?
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: I love competition.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: I've played because across the board.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: I love competition. I mean, you can ask my band,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: my band, my crew. There was a moment where I
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: get that competition from my father and all of his friends.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: I still to this day. Then I'll go back to
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: the band thing, but I still to this day. My
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: dad has two friends in Knoxville, Tennessee. One Jim cogged
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: on John Stay, and to this day, for the last
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: fifteen years, I talk to them every Saturday morning and
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: every Sunday morning, and we met every game on the line,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: the Vegas line and the over and under on each game. Now,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: we've never paid each other. I'm not a gambler really,
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: but I am with them and we've never paid each other.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: And it's all in fifty dollars bets, and so it's
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: been a rolling amount for the last fifteen years. And
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: I say it in the book and I'm right around
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: the same thing. I'm about almost eight thousand dollars in
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: the hole in fifty dollars bets right now to Jim Cogging, Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: It's crazy, but it's all about competition. There was a
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: time where, you know, when college PlayStation came out and
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: we had that football game in there and we played.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: I've held shows for fifteen to twenty minutes because we
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: weren't done with the game. And I can do that
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: because I can get ready to go on stage in
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: less than five minutes. I got a T shirt, I
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: got jeans, boots, straw cowboy had. Okay, I'm ready to go,
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: and so I can hold it. But that's how that's
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: how competitive I am. And rolling down the highway were
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: we were somewhere in Alabama and I had a terrible game,
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: and I got so pissed off that I pulled the
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: whole game out of the console, like the whole game,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: and threw it out the side, out the window, and
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: the band just looked at me like I was crazy.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: I was that pissed off. I think I threw like
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: five interceptions in the game. But that's how competitive I am.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: And I remember why I'm my piano player. I mean,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: he kicked my ass like it was almost like the
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: whole week. We played every day and he beat me
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: by over twenty points. And we were playing rupp Arena
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: in Lesington, Kentucky one night. We had these big screen
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: TVs behind us, and why it had taken a picture
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: without me knowing it of the screen of the score.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: And while I was introducing the band, they put that
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: picture up there on the on the screen, and yeah,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: it really pissed me off. But I was like, that's
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: how competitive I am. So that answered to you. That's
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: a long answer to your question. But I just loved
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: I just loved being competitive, and I liked playing football
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: because it it got me out of my comfort zone.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: That's what that goes back to Laird. Laird taught me
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: a lot about, especially with pool training and being out
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: in the ocean. Is you grow a lot as a
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: as a human, and you get better when you're out
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: of your comfort zone.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know that's not a good story. In the
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: bus throw you know, throwing stuff out the ego. Did
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: you say you're at it's great to win. But would
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: you say sometimes you're a sore loser.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: No, well they all tell me that I'm a sore loser.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: But I'm a worst winner, you know, because when I win,
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I just you know, I like to I like to
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: run my mouth and so yeah, I mean I think
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of my band and a lot of people
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: have been around me. I'm so competitive that I am
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: a bad loser, but I'm a worst winner.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: And are you someone like you know, in today's online world,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: you can be you know, playing scrabble with somebody. You
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: can be you know, an online multiplayer game, you involved
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: in any of that shit.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: No, I don't know. No, that's I don't do that. Uh.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: I try to stay off the devices in the computer
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: as much as possible, honestly. But I mean, if you're
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: we got a basketball, go out by the bus. I mean,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: I'm you know, you can always get a game of
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: horse with somebody, you know.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: So wait, wait there's a basketball there, it's sitting by
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the hoop. No one is there. Yeah? Are you going
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: to be the person say hey, who's playing ones?
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, no, no question, Yeah, I really am. Look,
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: there's only so many, Like I said, I've been on
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: a bus now for thirty two years. It's crazy to
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: think about, but I have. And there's only so many
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: times that you can walk from the back of the
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: bus to the front of the bus and then walk
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: from the front of the bus back to the bus,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: thinking you're going to see something different. So I've got
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: to get I've got to get out of there. That's
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: why I don't iscolate myself like you were talking about.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, I can't tell you how many times I
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: walked into the production office and just to say hi, people,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: you know, just say what's up.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're off the road. When you're off the road, listen,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: there are things you do. You answer emails, talk on
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the phone. There's a little but that doesn't take twenty
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: four hours. You write a few songs. What do you
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: do with the rest of the time.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: Well, this year has been different. I was with Holly
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Gleason Rydne's book. That's what I did this year, and
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: we haven't stopped. I mean once I let.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Me let me be very clear, there's work. You're not
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: writing a book all day long.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: No, No, you're right.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Let's you assume it's seven o'clock. Are you calling somebody up.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: What are you up to?
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: Are you watching soon television? Are Yeah, I'll binge watch.
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'll probably binge watch. And if it's football season,
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: I'll watch football, you know. Or I'll go hang with
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: my dad, or I'll you know, do whatever.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: I mean. It's it's I will tell you it is
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: when when you're really busy and you've in your brain tired.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: I look forward to sitting still, I really do. But
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: I got to tell you, I'm I'm I'm a little
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: tangled in the vine. When it comes is the time
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: off because I crave time off. I do, But when
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: I get it, I start to freak out. I start
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: to I start to wonder if I'm missing something, you
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. So it's so, I I work
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: out a lot. I love the ocean. I love it,
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: get on the paddle board, I I I don't know,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: I visit family. I it's just whatever, you know.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: So, how much time are you in the islands?
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Now that's gotten, that's that's decreased in the last couple
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: of years, But a lot once I get done with
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: with the launch, and once I get I think I'm done.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: On the seventeenth or eighteenth something like that. I'll probably
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: go down for a little bit. You know, it takes
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: me a minute because I it's it's uh, sooner or later,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: I will pull the guitar out of the case. Sooner
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: or later. It takes it takes a minute, but it
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: may not take as long this year because I've been
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: actually done playing music since since July. And once I
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: got out, once I got done at the sphere this year,
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: I went straight into the audiobook. And theo book is
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: another animal. I don't know, but I'm telling you that's
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: one of the most unpleasant things I've ever done in
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: my life. It's the audiobook. But I'm glad I did it.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: It was business. And you know, if I'm a fan,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: like we were talking about my friends and heroes, you know,
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: if Sammy Hagar wrote, if he wrote a new book
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: and put it out, I'm going to want to hear
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: Sammy do the audiobook. You're not going to want to
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: hear me do it. You want him to do it.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: And so I understand that it took me a month
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: to read this book in the studio. It was just
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: it was I was like I was like a week
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: in and I was only like on chapter four and
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: there's forty nine chapters in this book. I was like, wow,
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: this is going to take a minute, but yeah, this
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: But now I think when I get done with the
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: book launches because the guitar is going to come out
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: of the case a little sooner than usual because I've
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: been done playing music for a minute and I miss it.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: When you go down, do you ever go down alone?
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: I yeah, because I'm not alone down there. I've got
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: I've got a lot of still a really close group
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: of Island friends that really in ways knew me before
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: they even knew what I did. That that was the
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: beauty of it. You know, when I first went down,
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: I was spending time there. There was you know, it
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: was way before social media. It was way before you know,
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: everything was so instant, and I don't know that I
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: could insulate myself in a way. I mean I was,
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: I was playing arenas. I was wow. I mean I
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: was on the climb right. But these people didn't care.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: They didn't know, so they really got to know the
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: real meat. And then they would come to shows and
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: they would see what I do on stage and they
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: would scratch their head and go, They're going, wow, we
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: had no idea that this person that was down here
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: constantly with us on boats and in bars does this
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: for a living. They truly, I mean, they knew what
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: I did eventually, but they didn't know that that was
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: our life at all. So it was really interesting, you know,
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: to see them see that. But yeah, I'll either take
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: my girlfriend down, or I'll go with my family, or sometimes,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: I mean we usually do it once a year, I'll
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: take some writing friends down and we'll just go hang
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: for a week and see what we can come up
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: with and see if we can find something inspired in
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: a different way. And I think as a creative person,
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: that's really that's really good to do, you know, because
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: earlier we were speaking about neural pathways. As a songwriter,
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: for me, I'm always feel like that I need to
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: get out of my comfort zone and create somewhere else,
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: because you can go down the same neural pathway that
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: a room can make you create the same thing. And
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: so it's always good to do that, especially after you
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: make a record, you know, or while you're making a record.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: More importantly, I get asked for advice all the time about,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: you know, how I made my records and what I've
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: done over the years. And the one thing that I
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: still do is in the process of making my record,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: especially when I think it's almost done, I'll take that
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: in the sequence of the songs and I'll go listen
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: to that in different environments, like I'll go to the Islands,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: or I'll go to easton a see because those are
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: my people. Or I'll go to New England, or I'll
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: drive across Mulholland in la or I'll just see how
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: it sits in every environment. And if it doesn't sit
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: great in every environment, then I'll try to, Okay, well,
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: what will make it sit? And that's exactly how you
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: and Tequila came about that whole story right there, because
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: I was I didn't have I did. There was this
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: missing piece of the Hemming Ways Whiskey record, and I
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: had no idea what it was. And Materesa Berg sent
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: me you in Tequila. I was driving north at that time.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: I was renting a house. There's this market in Malibu
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: culture it used to be called Trapas Market, and I
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: was reading a house north of there, and so I
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: was just driving home one night and she sent me
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: a song and I listened to it on the way
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: home and it was just magic, the sun was setting,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: it was it was just a perfect, perfect scenario to
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: hear to hear that song. And once I heard that,
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I went, wow, Okay, this is the missing piece because
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: I had listened to that what was supposed to be
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: the heming Ways Whiskey record, and there was a few
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: things missing and that was one of them.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: So what degree do you feel pressure to be part
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: of the game and to continue to have charge success
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: because you know, country is a little bit different country.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not like pop radio where you can
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: have a hit and your audience moves on. If you've
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: got a good audience and country, they stay with you.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: There are people who that hit for a long time,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: but most people, even Garth Brooks, you have your time
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and you're done. You're not going to have another hit.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: How do you mentally deal with all that? Well?
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: I think for me that we have built something a
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: little unique and different. I mean, I have built an
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: audience that I hope that you know, I don't feel
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: anywhere close to being out the tank, you know, I
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: just still feel creative. I still want to go to
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: do great shows, and I think that we've built an
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: audience over the years that will that will go down
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: that road with us, no matter what the success is. Look,
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: the business has changed from when I started making records
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: with Mary Beckett. The business is not even recogniz as
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: you know. You know, Barry taught me so much. But
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: that's a whole other podcast.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's just it's just it's just changed a lot,
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: you know. But for me, I mean, I think that
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: we have built such a unique audience and people that
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: not only have just listened to these songs on the radio,
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: they've lived their life with them and they come to
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: the show to experience it live, and they've given They
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: realize how much of myself that I've given, and I
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: realize how much of themselves that they give to come
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: and experience that experience. And I think as long as
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: because I've seen artists get complacent, I've seen artists dollar
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: in and they get to this weird point where they
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: just don't care, and I've never understood it, I still care.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: And I think as long as my audience knows I
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: care about them, and they care about the experience and
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: still care about the music, then a lot of the
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: other stuff I don't have to worry about as much,
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: you know, well, you have a.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: Large audience, and you know, let's use Jimmy Buffett. You know,
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett had his hits at the end of the seventies.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: He continued to put out records until he did a
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Nashville record. Long and deep into his career he had
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: no more chart success, but he had his audience who
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: consumed that to what is that okay for you? Or
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: do you need to have something that's on the chart,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: something that's hot in Nashville that people are talking about
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: that might spread to different people.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, yeah, of course, I mean everybody would
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: want to have chart success, and I still feel like
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: that we're going to have some. But moving forward, I
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: mean I do. I feel very fortunate to have had
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: the chart success that I've had, and I still feel
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: very creative and I try really hard to and I
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: added myself to a phone. I really do, because when
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: I'm listening to songs and even creating, I'm like, Okay, well,
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: how is this to your point? How is this going
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: to fit now? Because sonically a lot of the things
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: are different. They are and I've changed mixers and I've
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: done a lot of stuff, but I can't sing what
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: some of these people are singing about because I've already
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: done it right, And so it's it's tricky. If if
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: a brand new guy can go sing the next version
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: of no shoes, no shirt, no problems, and he'd be
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: and he'll be a genius, I can go sing the
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: exact same song, and I'm repeating myself. So it's it's
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: I got a thin target to hit and I know that.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: And God, I mean, I am so blessed to say this,
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: because not every act in the world gets to say this.
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: But I've reached a point in my life and in
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: my career where I'm competing with myself and I'm thankful
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: for that. But it's hard. It's hard creatively, it really is.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: So that's why it takes me longer to get there,
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: because I just can't throw anything against a blank page
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: and it be accepted because I'm competing with myself and
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: I know that I can't go do when the sun
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: goes down again, I can't. I don't even know if
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: I can go do I go back again? So so yeah,
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: it's harder, you know. So, But if I to answer
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: your question, yeah, I still want radio success, but am
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: I fine with it not having it. I don't know.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: I haven't thought about it yet, to be honest, But
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: if you really want the honest answer, I haven't thought
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: about that yet. But yeah, I mean, look, I'm not
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: immune to what happens to every act in the world.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: It happened to Bruce Springsteak, for God's sake.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, you barely touch on romance in the book, and
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: you say you want to respect the privacy of this
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: one specific to Todd Lloyd romance whatever. But you're a
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: fifty seven year old guy, hasn't been married, doesn't have children.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: What my average person has no idea. They have no
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: idea how hard it is to make it. You have
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: to literally work all day every that's right. They just
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: literally have no idea.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you that. Look, my mother has asked me,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: she goes, when am I going to have grand babies?
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: I said, I better hurry. I won't be deald to
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: play with them. You know. But Bob, I think you
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: know this, and especially everybody on my team known this.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: I had somebody say to me recently, we think it's
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: great that you give so much of your life to
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: what you do. And I stopped them. I said, no, no, no,
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: I said, I've given everything I have, I've given all
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: of me to do what I do because I felt like.
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: That.
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess maybe it's the way I
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: grew up because we didn't we poor Bob, but we
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: but it was right down the street from us, if
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And so I've always had
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: this this thing. If I didn't give all of myself
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: to everything that I'm doing, that it wouldn't happen. And
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: maybe that's how I was brought up, I don't know.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: Or being competitive from my father, I don't know. But yeah,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: in ways, my look, my personal life has has I've
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: sacrificed son, we're talking about sacrifice earlier. I never fell
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: a personal sacrifice, but it was really hard on a
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: lot of people, honestly. But I don't think now though.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: I think now though, Yeah, look I think for me
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: now in my life now, I'm not the same. And
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: I I realized at one point about three years ago,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: three or four years ago actually, that I had given
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: every decision and every choice I ever made, I had
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: given to the persona not the person, and whether that
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: be good or bad, it got me here, right. And
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: if I did make a personal choice. I had to
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: check with a persona to see how it was going
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: to affect all of it before I made that choice,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: and which is really hard, you know, But I didn't
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: realize that until about three or four years ago because
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: I was still so in the zone. You know, it
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: was just so just grinding and creative and driven, and
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: you're right to do it like we've done it, and
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: to get to this place, it takes all of you,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: it really has. And I'm not been great at balance,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: I'll admit I haven't.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: Can you give me an example of the separation between
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: personal and persona choice?
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: No, I don't know. It was just whether I was
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: going to I mean, it got so even the where
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: I was going to live, right because when I met
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: Lard and Gabby, I said, oh man, I'm gonna I'm
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: going to move to Malibu full time. I'm going to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: train with them every day. And I do have a
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: great circle of friends out there. That's at the time,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: you know, it still is a lot healthier lifestyle for me.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: But I was going to do that, and I went
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: my creative community in there. Your persona is not there,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: You're what you've created is here. Your creative community is here,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: so and now. But that was before you know, we've
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: realized we could get on a call a lot like
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: this one in FaceTime. But still it's not the same.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: But that's not how you write songs. And so that
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: was just one example, you know. Or I could go, hey,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: I'm going to live in the version iss I love
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: getting on the boat every day. I'm going to but
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: that's not I can't do that either. So because you
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: have to be present, you have to be available to
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: what I felt like I had to be available to
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: what I built and everybody around me. And it goes
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: back to this. I mean, I truly do Bob feel
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: a And I don't know the answer because I can
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: just see you that's ask me why on this? But
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to it. But We've been
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: able to achieve so much success, and I've had so
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: many people around me to do this with me, that
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: there is when you do it with all these people
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: all these years, you feel some sort of sense of
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: responsibility to them and to what you created. And yeah,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: so every decision you make you kind of go, oh, wow, okay,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: how is how is this decision you might want to
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: make for the person going to affect the hope, and
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: I deal with that a lot in my life.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: So when did you realize you were smarter than the
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: average beer?
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. I think it was I learned
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: how to do the quadratic formula pretty quickly in high school.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: I still know it. You can thank my math teacher,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: Joe Hollander for that, because he would give us a
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: pop quiz on it and if we got it right,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: we would get the equivalent to an A on a test.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: So I knew the quadratic formula just it's X equals
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: negative B plus or minus the square root of A
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: squared minus four a C all over two A. That's
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: the quadratic formula. And I knew the protagon. Riam there,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: but I can't say it right now. I didn't know,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: but it was a round. I don't know, but I
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: didn't know that I was smarter than the average Joe,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know that I am now or not, but
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: you definitely are, yeah, but I am. I don't know.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: I think that when I went on the road and
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: I started to really dive into because there was a
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: moment where when I first got started. There was years. Honestly,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: when I first got started that I was just trying
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: to do whatever made sense. I was. I just wanted
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: my songs on the radio. Everybody was trying to be
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: a B and C version of George Strait, and I
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: was right in there with them. But I still felt
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: like it was when I would go up there on
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: stage and I don't know, I was wearing a belt
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: buckle and I had these jeans, these certain genes on,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: you know, and I'm going it felt so disingenuous, right,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: and I was, I don't know. And then there was
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: ways that I wanted to create around us the the
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know if this is the answer to me
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: being smarter than the average Joe, but I felt very creative.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: And I saw everybody was doing their show, and it's
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: a lot like I guess having kids and being a parent,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: Like you don't I don't know how to be a parent,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: but I know what not to do, I think. And
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: so when I was trying to create my show, I'd
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: watched how everybody did it that I didn't like, and
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: I was making mental notes. I was going, Okay, I
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: don't want that, And then I would see things that
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: I loved. One, Oh wow, if I ever get to
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: do this. I'm gonna remember just a version of that
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: and make it my own. And that's it was. I
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: guess around then when I started to go, yeah, maybe
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: I think differently than some people.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: So let's assume you know, you're at depth's door, hopefully
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: you know, forty odd years from now, and it turns
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: out you never got married, you never had children. When
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: you say, well, listen, I can't have it all. I
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: dedicated myself to my career, really worked out. Or are
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: you going to say, fuck, I miss something.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: I don't think I'll say I miss something. I think
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: everybody's on a different journey. I think everybody is. I
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: sincerely hope I get married and have kid one day.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: I really do, because it would be really strange to
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: build this and not share it with someone and let
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: you know, give it to someone, you know, just I
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: don't have them give it to you know. But yeah,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: I really hope that happens. I am more available now
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: for that to happen. I wasn't available until four or
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: five years ago. And I look, I have not been
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: my mother And I say, I think I say this
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: in the book. I'm not sure if I do or not.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: But my mother This was when I was first starting.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: It was around two thousand and two, right when the
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: Nose Shoes album came out, and things were different. They
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: were just different. I've been on the road since, you know,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: ten years earlier, with my band and crew, but I
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: was still available because I hadn't felt that that change yet.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: So I was available to my mother, I was I
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: was available to my friends. But when all that changed,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow, this is unbelievable, and that
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: that dream that I was dream and that I don't know.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: It's this horniness to go and do all that and
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: do experience that what we've experienced, and meet our heroes
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: and collaborate with them. And the rush of the audience
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: and building your audience was all a part of it.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: So it was all a part of this train that
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: was taking me away, right And my own mother came
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: up to me and she goes, I can't seem to
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: reach you. And you know what I did. I dismissed her.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: And if you can do that to your own mother,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: you could do it to anybody, anybody. I just wasn't available,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: you know, because I I dismissed her because I couldn't
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: change it, because I was gone. I was gone on
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: this I was gone on this journey, and there was
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: nothing gonna there was nothing gonna pull me back. Nothing.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: Before you started to really click, did you ever have
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: doubts say, well, maybe I should do something else.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: No, but no, because I loved I truly believe that
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: I was born to do this. I get asked a lot.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: I would like to go back and say, now, me
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: and my mother have ironed all that out. Shit. I mean,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: my mother, as you can read in the book, is
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: the lot of my life. But that was hard, you know,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: But that just shows you how unavailable I have been
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: to certain things in my life at the you know,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: for the greater good of just being this person. And
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: the answer to your question at forty years from now,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: whenever I'm at death's door, I mean, I'm going to say, wow,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: that was fun. That was a lot of fun. And
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: I got to make music and I got to give
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: it to people, and I got to give that to
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: the world, and I got to create with my heroes.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: I got to know them. But I think everybody has that.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: I think everybody has their own. I'm a big believer
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: in the universe big and I think everybody's got their
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: own path. Everybody's on different paths. You know. I talk
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: about that specific thing in the book when I the
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: night I wrote beer in Mexico. Okay, well, I'm thirty six.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: Most thirty six year olds have maybe have two kids. Here.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: I am a little buzzed at Sammy Hagar's pool he
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: got for us writing a song. It just played, So
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: my life was different. I just played Sammy Hagar's birthday party.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: I don't have two kids, but I have this amazing experience,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: and so no, I don't think i'll have that. I
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: hope I don't have that. Oh I wish I hadn't
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: done this because I really got to do this and
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: that is special. And but yeah, I mean I think
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: what's great for me now is I'm learning how to
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: be more available now in my life, and that's a
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: good thing.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: So you're a smart guy. I didn't realize how smart
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: you were till today. You have a Southern accent. Yeah,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: every Southern accent a little bit different. A lot of
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: people in the North look down on people with accents.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: By the same token, you're very successful in the Boston
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: area and other places in the Northeast. What the people
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: in the North. Not get about the South.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I can't speak
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: to that really because I swear to God. I mean
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: maybe it was because of my Virgin Islands connection, but
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: the Six States of New England has always been an
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: unbelievable place for us to play music. And the audience
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: is just insane there. I think there's the only difference
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: between me and the audience there and a lot of
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: people that live in New England is the accent. I
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: say that in the book. I mean the people, their
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: work ethic is insane. They love sports, they love food,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: they love family, and that's a lot. I mean, it's
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: everything I grew up on and for I don't know.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: I can't speak to everybody else, but for us it's
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: just been it's been such a strong connection, and I
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: don't think they look at it north or South. For me.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: They made for some. I mean, look, if you got
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: a bunch of corny songs, maybe you know what I mean.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: I think speaking of corny songs, like the only station
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: in America when it was out that didn't play she
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: thinks my Tractor Sexy was the Boston Country radio statements.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: It's not for us it's not for us. You fast
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: forward two years after the song had peaked. I think
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: it peaked at twelve something like that. It wasn't even
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: a top ten record. Two years later, I'm playing the
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: big beautiful theater in downtown Boston. We hadn't we hadn't
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: graduated to arenas yet, but we're playing a big theater
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: in downtown Boston. It's packed, and I go into Tractor
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: and the place comes unglued right well. Jenny Brofy and
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: Mike Brophy, who ran the Boston radio station at the time,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: were in the audience and they went, well, how are
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: they hearing this? Because this is before streaming, This is
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: before you could you could listen to anything by anybody
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: at any moment that you wanted to. So back then,
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: the only way you heard it is if you were
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: if you heard it on the radio, or heard it
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: on an album cut, if you bought the record. And
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: the next Monday and one of the one of the
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: one of the surfaces where it was bill Boarder or
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: you know, when R and R put out their magazine
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: or whatever they called in the add and she thinks
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: my tractor sexty two years after and they said in
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: big letters, you probably find it. They said, the panel
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: is finally closed. And that's our joke. I mean, for years,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: you know so so, but but I get what you're saying, like,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 2: if you come with songs like that over and over again,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: there will be some sort of a disconnect regionally. But
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: but thank god, there was more to me than that. Uh.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper's first segment that he ever did
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: on Sixty Minutes was on me and he brought that up.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: He goes, well, tell me tell me about she thinks
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: my tractor sex. And I told Anderson, I said, well,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: I was smart enough to record it, and I was
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: smart enough to not record it again. So because for him,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: you know, his mom being Gloria Vanderbilt and his whole
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: you know, New York lifestyle, he did not understand.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 5: So, so, who is the coolest, most pinch me moment
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 5: person you've met?
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: Oh? Wow, that's a hard one. Hmm. One of the
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: coolest people that I met, only because and look, I
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: didn't realize the genius. There's two people I'm going to
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: tell you. I didn't realize the genius of Bob Marley
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: and the Whalers until I got into college. Like going
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: back to that point on tractor, you heard what you
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: were given, right. So we didn't hear Bob Marley and
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: the Way There's in East Tennessee. I didn't hear that
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: music until I went to college at East Tennessee State,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: and so I was. I just loved it. It was
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: the most universe. I felt like, Wow, this is really
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: aspiring and it's all about love and positive energy. And
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Years later, I got to collaborate with
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: Junior Marvin and family Man bear Ashton, family man Beartt.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: I sat on the beach with the family man Barrett
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: we were doing the video. I talked those guys, Junior
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: Marvin and family Man and some of the other guys
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: that were in the whalers to do the video for
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: me on the north to do the video with me
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: on the North shore in Jamaica. One night. It was
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 2: for the song Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: nobody wants to go now. And we were done with
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: the video and me and family Man said right there
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: on the beach and talked about Bob's life, how they
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: met each other, and family Man said something that I
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: take with me to this day. He goes, Reggae and
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: country are cousins. He goes, they tell it like it
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: is and uncut and that's I went, Wow, what a
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: great what a great thing to share with me. But Bob,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: we sat there on the beach and I have it recorded.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: I'll send it to you. That I asked him if
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: I could record it. He said yeah, And that was
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: and one of the coolest people that I ever met.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: And just to sit there and talk to him about
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: his life and about what it was like, you know,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: with him and Bob when they were just getting started
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: and everything they went through, and it just goes to
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: show you, like we all come from different places. We all,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: like I said earlier, have different political beliefs, different religious beliefs.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: And that's no more evident evident than being on the
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: road with over one hundred people. Right, they all didn't
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: go to Cedar four Baptist Church and electoral Tennessee, Right,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: they have. So when you go out there on the road,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: you you get you get to see a lot of things,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: and you get to meet a lot of people who
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: are just so so their heart is unbelievable and what
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: that tell What that told me? And in collaborating with
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: them and with you, look into the audience and all
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: of it. We all come from different places, but we
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: play the same notes. We really do. And that's what
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: I learned from family man Bearrack. But we couldn't be
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: more different. But we loved each other. And I felt
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: the same way with Bruce. The first time I met Bruce,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: I thought he was the coolest person ever. We played
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: in Holmedewe, New Jersey at the Amphitheater there and I
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: get a call from Louis Messina and Louis goes, Bruce
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: Springsteen's want to come to your show tonight. I went, yeah, whatever, Louie,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: and he drove to the show on his motorcycle and we,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: I mean literally, somebody's knocking on the bus door and
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: I'm looking out and it's really Bruce, you know. And
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: he comes up and we get we say our pleasantries,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: we say hello, and and it was time for me
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: to go on stage. And my rod manager David, walked
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: Bruce to the front of house sound mix and he,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: I mean it was he felt very comfortable there. And
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: he walked out to the front of house board and
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: watched our show and at the time we had I
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: had a horn section. I thought I felt like I
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: was wanting to be different and I had a horn section.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: So I had Jim Horn, the famous saxophone player, and
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 2: I had the trumpet. I had the whole thing. And
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 2: Bruce came back on the bus after the show and
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 2: he was he just loved that we had Jim Horn
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: in the band. He couldn't believe it. But we sat
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: there and talked for almost two hours, and that was
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: one of the coolest experiences ever. And he was so
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: humble and real and I and you hope, you really
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: hope that when and I felt this way about Jimmy
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: Buffett too, Like you you build up in your head
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 2: before you meet your heroes who you think they are.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: And when I met Jimmy. I met Jimmy at the
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 2: Four Seasons in a cabana in Vegas. He was out
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: hanging out by the pool with a guy named Mick Ramos,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: and he was reading the Wall Street Journal and he
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 2: was just he was so cool and wonderful to me.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: But he exceeded what I had built up in my head.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: Bruce was the same way. I mean, he he sat
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: on the bus and we talked about songwriting and you know,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: and it was just amazing to hear it this come
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: out out of his mouth. But he said, songwriting, you know,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: you can write a song on a half a piece
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: of paper, and you can put that song in a
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: drawer and you can come back to it two or
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: three years later and pull that song out of the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: drawer and it'll still be there. He goes, Your life
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: isn't like that. Your life is way more fluid, So
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: pay attention to things that matter, is what What was
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: his point? But to get a life lesson like that
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: from the boss, it was like, wow, I mean this
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: is that was one one one of the coolest persons
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: and one of the coolest experiences that I had because honestly,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: he didn't have to be there and he didn't have
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 2: to care enough to give me that advice.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, you gotta go to dinner, I do.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 4: I gotta go to talk to you.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you've you've gotta go. Yeah right, Sorry, I
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: long winded.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, No, we could talk for you talk. I
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: love it. I love that you're so forthcoming and honest.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: No, that's true. I love talking to you. Man, you
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 2: know that, like I've learned in my life that you're
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 2: an average of the five people you hang around the most, right,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 2: So you don't get to have these conversations every day.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 2: So I'm really enjoyed it.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, listen, I'll just talk from myself. It's
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: not easy to find people on your wavelength, and when
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: you do, you can't shut up because it's so exciting
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: that someone's tuned into what you're saying.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 2: No, I get it, I get it. I appreciate it, man,
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 2: I really do. And it was great met I have
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: seen I don't think I've seen you at all since
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: since it up that.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: La Now I haven't rock.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 2: Was there? We had a bunch of people, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 2: I remember. I remember I walked off the bus and
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 2: walked through the hallway and there you were. You stuck
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 2: your hand out.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: Absolutely listen, Kenny, it's been wonderful the book. Certainly, once
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: you get continue to Rule, you find its rhythm and
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: it's really honest because at first, taken out, it seems simple,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: but that's because you're getting the essence and the essences
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: to go through. And you know, a lot of these
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: rock biographies if you read it okay, now, I know.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: I read it and I was thinking about the messages,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: and I was saying, yeah, you know what am I doing?
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: And you know, as they say, it's not only for
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: Kenny Chesney fans.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it was more about you know, for me. Yes,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 2: we talk about certain vignettes and snapshots of my journey
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: in my life, but if you pull back from all
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 2: of it, Bob, it truly is about the dream of
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 2: it all. And that's why in the beginning we have
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: to set the simple stuff up to see how far
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 2: this journey has taken me, you know, because yeah, I
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: mean I didn't know if I was ever going to
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: go past my county line. But these stories I'm telling
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: you about Ashton family, man, Barrett and Bruce, and I
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: mean I never saw that coming. I never would. You
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: don't know, the dream of stuff. So the book is
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: more about the dream of it all than it is
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: about the actual experiences. I'm proud of the experiences, but
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 2: this book, I mean, no matter what your dream is,
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: if it's music, if it's whatever it is, the lessons
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 2: are kind of the same. Just just just go do it.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: You know. People ask me all the time for advice
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: and I'll leave you with this. But I get people
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: asking me for advice these new kids and whether they're
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: in the genre or whatever, and they ask me how
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: you know how to make it? And I'm going that
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: eternal voice in my head right there. I don't want
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: to tell them this because I'm thinking this to myself.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 2: And I would never I would never deflate them at all.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: But I'm thinking these guests, guys are never going to
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 2: make it because you don't do it to make it
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 2: in this world of celebrity, you know, these talent shows
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: on TV and people calling it is to a drives
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: me crazy. But you don't do it to make it.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 2: You do it because it's what you do. And that's
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: why forty years from now or whenever the Good Lord
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 2: calls me home, I won't be that disappointed, you know,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 2: because I got to do what I loved and I
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: got to I did it because it's what I do.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: And well, just one point on that. Bob Dylan, who's
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: famous for obsic skating but drops truth here and there.
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: He was interviewed on it could have been sixty minutes
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: and he said, I don't tell my people my hopes
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: and dreams because they would laugh and they deride because
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: they have no idea how big and powerful they are.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's right, Yeah, yeah, but it is. I don't
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 2: know when people ask me for advice like that, but
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 2: when they especially when they say that they make it
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: and yeah, look, I was the same kid, and I
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 2: wanted to make it. But at some point you go, wow,
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 2: I would be doing this on some level if I
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 2: didn't make it. If I wasn't this version of Kenny Chesney, right,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: I would be doing it somewhere, maybe a holiday in
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 2: on a Thursday night.
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but talking to you now, that's all fine.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: In dandy Obviously, there was something deep inside you that
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: had to make whether it be in music or whatever,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: whether it be you know, growing up with parents who
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: weren't together, growing up off the grid, you know, some
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: personal experience somewhere inside you had to say I'm special.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: I have to leave my mark.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: No, that's right. There was there was, and whatever that is,
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: it was fuel. I'm still figuring out what that was.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: I said. If you ask me right now what that is,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you. But it was fuel for sure.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: Whatever that is, whether it was I wrote a song
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: about a girl in my persuasion class, ironically enough, at
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: East Tennessee State University. It was a Tuesday Thursday class
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: and there was a girl that sat beside me and
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: I was trying to persuade her to go out with me.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 2: And it was the first song I ever wrote in
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: my life, and I went, I want to write her
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: a song, you know. So I did that and I
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: gave it to her on a Thursday and it split
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 2: it across the table. So I had to wait all weekend, okay, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 2: and then to go back into class on Tuesday to
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: see how she felt about it. Well, when I walked in,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: she was sitting in the furthest corner she could possibly
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: sit for me, and I went, hmmm, I got my
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 2: songwriter has got to get a little bit better, you know. So,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: whether it's that, that was my first taste of rejection
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 2: in the music business ever. And so whether it was
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: that or who whatever, it was, my humble upbringings, whatever
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: it was, it was fuel to do whatever, to keep
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 2: the drive, you know, keep going.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, just one final philipathy. Did you ever talk to
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: the bull again?
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: No? I never did.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: I never talked to.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: The girl again, and I just decided, you know, I've
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: got it before I talked to her, Before I send
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: another girl a song, I've got to get a little
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 2: bit better.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: Well, you certainly got a whole tone better. We've been talking,
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: Tony chesh. We're leaving a lot on the table, but
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: we got a lot there.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 2: We'll go around to you one day, Bob, I love it.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: Right, Okay, Kenny, you gotta go.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 2: I gotta go, all right, man, until next time. I
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: really enjoyed it.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: Oh man, it was great. Till next time. This is
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: Bob left sets