Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Dan + Shay Did It AGAIN!!!

Transcript

Dan + Shay Did It AGAIN!!! · Inside Country with Wayne D

0:00
That's rock. They're good today. Got to make sure the angle is good.
0:05
You know, you got to get a good like shimmer Ron. So
0:07
you know we were just well, let me tell you it's funny. Is
0:12
this Mike Okay? Is it good on this sun? Dude? I gotta
0:17
tell you, we're so excited to have these guys in because number one,
0:19
we know how busy they are. Uh, they're hard dudes to nail down,
0:22
but we've made it happen again, Dan and Shay and studio with us.
0:25
How are you all? What's happening? Man? Good to see you,
0:26
dud. It better to see you because it's not usually we hear from
0:30
people like leading up to hope we get a number one. We're talking to
0:33
you guys fresh off of what feels like and I'm gonna get personal feels like
0:38
the most important number one for you guys like you needed. Am I right?
0:42
That's a man. That's amazing to hear you say that, because it
0:44
really I'm glad that it's it's easy to see on our faces how excited we
0:47
are about this one. This is number ten, and it genuinely feels like
0:51
our first number one. I mean, I think that there's a new perspective
0:54
that we've had. You know, obviously we've talked about a lot on this
0:57
album, but there's just something different about this. Uh, we're extra excited
1:00
about it, and you know, kicking off this album that means so much
1:03
to us. To have all the support, you know, our biggest ad
1:07
day of our career and to have it go all the way number one is
1:10
just it's wild, man. It just it genuinely feels like the first number
1:14
one. We're celebrating every bit of the number one too. Ah. We
1:15
celebrate the whole week, all the way till Saturday night, two am Central
1:19
time, when the chart closes at midnight specific time. Every bit of it
1:23
we've been celebrating every single day. Man, We're so proud of that.
1:26
When it comes to number ones, you know, a lot of a lot
1:29
of conversations we have is it doesn't necessarily validate you as an artist or measure
1:34
the success of the song right because it's how people listen and how it impacts
1:40
their life and what it meant for you to put it out. But something
1:42
about the number ones are important as you look back, like knowing that you
1:47
shared, you know, the emotional journey to get this album together and to
1:51
be where y'all are at right. You needed it for that reason too,
1:55
write did you need it to kind of verify yourselves a little bit? Like
1:57
yeah, No, we're still yeah man, I mean, you know,
2:00
not making having a song go number one doesn't mean that it's a big hit.
2:06
One of the biggest songs of our career was nineteen You and Me,
2:07
the first single we put out. They peaked at eleven. So from a
2:10
fans perspective, a lot of times, it's just how much that song impacted
2:14
them emotionally, where they were when they first heard that song, what it
2:16
meant to their life. But as an industry here in Nashville, for us,
2:21
for our team, for our record label, for radio, there's this
2:23
camaraderie when we get a song to the top of the chart, to the
2:27
top of the mountain, it's an amazing celebration. Our team works their tails
2:30
off every single day to get these songs on the radio. Guys like you
2:32
will play our song sneak in a couple extra spins here and there. I'm
2:36
texting you, I'm like, hey man, it's gonna be close. Na,
2:38
It's not quite like that. Maybe it is, and he's like,
2:40
here's a gift card the puckets. Yeah, yeah, I can't do that
2:44
anymore. Nah, But it's a really cool accomplishment for the songwriters, for
2:49
everybody in the studio who worked to bring this thing to life. Man,
2:51
It's it's a special thing to get to have that party. You know.
2:53
We went through a lot of years where we just kind of would brush over
2:57
these things. We would get a number one song and like, all right,
3:00
well, what's the next one? And we still are hungry, we're
3:01
still competitive, we still want to keep getting number ones. But you got
3:06
to stop. You've got to slow down, and you got to appreciate him.
3:07
And I feel like that's kind of a theme of this new album,
3:09
the Bigger Houses Album, which coincidentally is the next single we're taking to radio.
3:15
But it's just about appreciating those moments, man, because we let a
3:16
lot of good stuff pass us by in the past, you know, looking
3:20
forward to what was next and not appreciating what we had in the moment,
3:23
when you get a little bit of clarity, and I think COVID, honestly,
3:25
twenty twenty gave us that realization where the rug was pulled out from under
3:30
us. And we could step back and be like, dang, like,
3:32
now that we have a moment to breathe, now that we get to be
3:35
home for a little while. Man, we did some really really cool stuff.
3:38
We've won Grammys, we sold out an arena tour, all these things.
3:40
We've got an incredible fan base. Radio supports us in a big way.
3:45
And when you're going a million miles an hour, sometimes you're moving too
3:47
fast to appreciate that. But now I feel like this new perspective, we
3:51
have every dang minute of this number one week. We've appreciated having a song
3:55
at the top of the chart. I want to go back to it.
3:58
You brought up a funny note about your first single, but before I didn't
4:01
offer you do you want water? Like we started drinking water, Dude,
4:10
I'm off the sauce. I quit drinking, and I was like, this
4:12
is going great. I'm gonna go with water too. Yeah, I'm not,
4:15
and I'm not gonna thank you tequila joke. After that, Are you
4:17
guys good? Do you want to water? I'm great, I'm great,
4:19
Thank you, thank you. It's funny because we caught up with Chris Stapleton
4:25
recently and we asked the importance of a number one song, and he goes,
4:29
what do you think the biggest song of my career was? I mean,
4:30
I think anybody would say Tennessee Whiskey. He goes, it wasn't a
4:33
radio single, Yeah, but it's lingered at about forty on the for the
4:38
last ten years, Like we did it, but can you get it out
4:41
of the way. But it's weird. It's just weird to see, like
4:44
what feels successful. Like if somebody loves a song ten years from now,
4:48
you're never gonna say to a fan, where did that finish on the chart?
4:53
Yeah? Right, I think that's important. You know, that's why
4:56
we love getting out on the road. Yeah, and being able to feel
4:59
those moments. You can feel the songs that the fans are resonating with,
5:02
and especially on songs like our next single, Bigger Houses, there's a you
5:06
know, you can look at the numbers of any song, you know,
5:09
and obviously having a number one at radio is a huge mom marker and that's
5:13
a big, you know, big thing, but it is crazy. You
5:15
can't look at numbers and judge, you know, how much people connected with
5:19
that. You know, you can look at numbers on a song like ten
5:21
thousand hours just hit a billion on Spotify, which is an unbelievable concept.
5:26
But it's like there are other songs that fans connect to on a deeper level.
5:30
It's obviously like there's that hit factor where they're singing along they know every
5:32
word, but then there's those songs where like Dan you know, said like
5:34
nineteen yum Me where they really connect with it. And we've seen that on
5:38
bigger houses where it's just it's not just people being like, oh yeah,
5:41
hey, I like that song. They're telling us this entire, like very
5:45
passionate story about how they connect with this song and how it affects their life.
5:47
And that's why I love get out on the road because you can really
5:50
see that and you can hear those stories, and you just can't do that
5:54
when you're not face to face, you know, with our fans, we
5:57
don't get that. And obviously social media gives us that unique thing that you
6:00
know, people haven't had in the past of being able to really connect with
6:02
our fans. And since day one, we've tried to have that camaraderie and
6:05
you know, face to face ish thing with our fans through social media,
6:10
and that's why we still, you know, control our social media because we
6:12
want to see those stories in our inboxes and to be able to see when
6:15
people are connecting with a certain song or whatnot. And I don't know,
6:18
it's just really amazing to be able to get out there. And I think
6:20
that's what I'm most excited about. And obviously I'm excited to go here Save
6:24
Me the Trouble and hear them singing that song back, but I'm really excited
6:28
about those moments to really see what people are genuinely connecting with. So knowing
6:32
that you guys were in a place where there was some uncertainty and now you've
6:35
talked about how the smell the roses aspect of life has set in for both
6:40
of you. Guys, what did you get out of these most recent run
6:44
of shows obviously not recent of this year, but ending twenty three. What
6:50
did you get that maybe you didn't get before? Or what's something that you
6:54
like soaked in that maybe before you like whatever sound check? Yeah, no,
6:58
go ahead, No, I got to have my pre show pop or
7:00
whatever, you know what I mean? Like, what's something that you look
7:03
back now on these most recent dates and you're like, man, I never
7:06
I never took time for this. Man. Honestly, this sounds like a
7:10
lame answer, but I think we just had fun. We were a little
7:13
worried. We were worried a little bit less about perfectionism and making sure the
7:16
show is sure, the show is perfect. It was like, let's have
7:19
fun on stage, because if we're having fun up there together with our band,
7:23
the people in the crowd are going to have fun. And I feel
7:25
like the last time we did it, we were out on the arenas,
7:28
there were so many times we put on a great show. The crowd had
7:30
to blast. Our team was like, oh that was amazing. That was
7:31
the best show the tour. And I'm like storming out, like throwing stuff
7:34
in the dressing room because I was like, well, you know, like
7:36
there was one pixel out in the video wall and it sucked. You know,
7:41
stuff like that, but just like appreciating it, having moments where it
7:45
goes unscripted, where we're supposed to go into the next song and we're just
7:46
like, hold on, I need to take a moment. Soak this in,
7:49
man, Cuz like the COVID thing, I hate to keep bringing that
7:53
up, but that was the first time that it introduced us to this thing
7:56
where it could go away at any given moment. So if you don't appreciate
7:59
it when you're on that stage, who knows. You could be out on
8:01
the road on a Friday night and somebody calls on Saturday and says, hey,
8:03
the shows are canceled the rest of the year. You know, there's
8:05
a pandemic. That was how it happened. So if you don't appreciate it,
8:09
man, it can go away really really fast. And I think we
8:11
just we were soaking it in. Our shows got a lot longer because we
8:15
were looking at each other and our fans are probably like, are these guys
8:18
serious. It's been they've been doing this for ten years and they're up there
8:20
like they're doing it for the first time. But man, it's genuine.
8:22
We're enjoying it. We can't wait to get back on the road. We
8:26
can't wait to meet people, say hey to our fans, play this new
8:30
music. It's gonna be awesome. That's one of my favorite things too about
8:33
shows, when when you know the artists will be like, hey, wait,
8:37
hang on, and then something happens that's organic, or you know,
8:41
maybe a story comes up and you tell the band was like, oh,
8:43
we're going to play something, but yeah, no, tell your story.
8:46
It gives a fan almost like behind the curtain, right, like Eryl,
8:48
They're almost like a part of the show now versus like just watching it right,
8:52
And I think, I mean you hit the nail on the head.
8:54
I mean letting the fans be a part of the show. I think when
8:56
you're very mechanical about it, and obviously you have to have a certain you
9:01
know, professionalism about it. You know, we don't want to go out
9:03
there fully unprepared either. Our fans deserve for us to you know, have
9:07
a prepared show and have a set list that we think is going to you
9:09
know, really drive it home and to have you know, the optimum fun,
9:13
you know, like prepared. But it's those moments of like letting them
9:18
be a part of the show and looking around and really soaking in those moments.
9:22
When you do that and you allow them in and you're making connections with
9:24
people in the audience, it just completely changes the vibe of the show.
9:28
Like Dan said, if we're having fun, they're going to have fun.
9:31
You can't fake that kind of stuff. There's been shows where I've just been
9:35
so stressed. I mean on the Arena tour last time. It was just
9:39
like, you're just thankful that you're like just trying to get through the show,
9:41
because there was just so many anxieties and things that we were dealing with
9:45
at that point in our lives that you didn't even mean to, but you
9:48
carried with you know, into the show with you Yeah, and I think,
9:52
you know, even just the difference between that and the shows we played
9:54
at the end of twenty three, it was just like I just left all
9:56
of that and I allowed myself to have a moment time and enjoy that moment
10:01
and not stress too much about you know, all right, I can't forget
10:05
the words on this song because I'm I'm the worst with lyrics. That's like
10:07
one thing I'm stress about all the time. And I found when I didn't
10:09
stress about it, I didn't forget the words, and all these things ended
10:13
up being better than I would have hoped. And you just kind of allow
10:16
the show to happen with those fans, because you're never going to have for
10:18
us. It might be like the seventh show on a run, and things
10:22
can get very monotonous, and you know, you just kind of get this,
10:24
you know, get into this routine and kind of not realize like what
10:28
city you're in or what you're doing. But when you allow yourself to just
10:31
be there at that present time and be in that moment with those fans,
10:35
you just open yourself up to this whole world of taking each moment as they
10:39
come, and you enjoy it so much more. And it just brings this
10:41
new perspective of life of like, hey we can I can slow down and
10:45
enjoy this a little bit. And I gotta say, like, this is
10:48
not like for interview stuff, this will end up cut out. I appreciate
10:52
interviewing you guys and like chatting because number one, it feels like a conversation.
10:56
Number two, like the answers are it's not like an answer like yes
11:00
or no. Well, here here's the here's what I want to say,
11:03
here's the answer. Let's get to the next question. So I appreciate how
11:05
in depth you guys get on some of your answers. We ramble, that's
11:07
a nice way. But the way you guys just keep talking, it's great.
11:13
Tay edits audio so she hates it all right, how does the set
11:18
list change? And I want to I want to talk about the album in
11:20
the single, the new single. How does the set list change when you
11:24
have a monster song, like the most recent tenth to number one song,
11:28
you open the show with it. I don't know. That's what we're working
11:33
on right now. We actually so this is a crazy, like maniacal thing
11:37
that we do. I write every song title. This is like how we
11:39
sequence an album too, and I think a lot of people do this.
11:43
You write all the song titles, then you cut them out into these little
11:45
strips so you can kind of push and pull, like move them around a
11:48
little bit and try to figure out the sequence of the album. I wrote
11:50
down every single song we've ever recorded, even like unreleased demos that our fans
11:54
love, wrote them down, put them in a pile, and just like
11:58
threw them there. It was like, let's just we sat at my house
12:01
the other day for like eight hours, just moving things around, trying different
12:03
sequences. It's tough when you do your first arena tour like that was kind
12:07
of something we'd been dreaming of our whole lives. You've got setless in mind
12:11
the production, then you have to kind of unlearn all those tendencies. We
12:15
did that Setless for like three or four years in a row, you get
12:16
in that rhythm, you go out, you do it in arenas. Then
12:18
we went went and opened for Chesney in the stadiums, so you're kind of
12:22
doing those same transitions, same song orders. And it was like, let's
12:26
just try to unlearn this because it's gonna be a lot of the same fans
12:28
you saw that last tour. Try to give them a little something different.
12:31
Like we're probably gonna close with tequila, you know, so you put that
12:35
at the end. Okay, that's a starting point. You got to open
12:39
with something that gets the crowd engaged. But you don't like you don't want
12:41
to open with tequila. You got to like leave that towards the end or
12:45
like speechless. We were talking about should we open with speechless? And then
12:48
we were worried about like maybe there was a couple who bought tickets just because
12:52
of that song because it was their wedding song and they were running late because
12:54
parking lot was full, or they were at dinner. It was a real
12:58
conversation we had. We were there to say miss it by ten minutes,
13:01
and that was like the only reason that Yeah, but uh, it changes
13:03
a little bit. I think we're gonna play a lot of songs from the
13:05
new album. Usually we try to just play a few, but this go
13:09
around, I think the reception of this album was really great. I feel
13:11
like it was kind of a return to form for us sonically, so I
13:15
think those songs will sound great with our band. And I don't know,
13:20
there's just something about Saving the Trouble. I don't know, when you come
13:22
see the show when we played Bridgetown in a couple weeks, we might open
13:26
with something completely different, But right now, I feel like it would be
13:28
pretty sick to open with save Me the Trouble. Let's Shay just dropped that
13:31
mic after this song, get the hardest song to sing out of the way,
13:33
Yeah first, yeah, I we'll get that over one. And it's
13:35
one of my favorites. And it's funny because on the Big ninety eight,
13:39
what was it yesterday or the other day, I was like, our stuff
13:43
is planned, like, okay, you'll say this and we'll kind of go
13:45
in this way. And so all of a sudden, we're promoting us about
13:48
to talk to you, and I like, go, oh, if you've
13:48
got a question, shoot us through Instagram whatever, And I go, Tay,
13:52
what's the most underrated Dannis Jay songs, she goes uh and she goes
13:56
I don't know, like, but my answer to that was, uh,
14:01
I should probably go to bed. Oh yeah, because it felt like it
14:03
had its moment, but I was like, I feel like we should still
14:07
be playing that. So as you make a set list and you've had massive
14:11
songs, ten number ones, but like songs that have lived bigger and longer
14:15
than a number one song, what's the what's the first song that you're like,
14:18
Hey, maybe we rest this this time. Oh man, I don't
14:26
know if that's going to make the set Listen. Honestly, it's like everybody
14:30
likes something different. Music is subjective, but I don't know. We're just
14:33
trying to change it up a little bit where we're digging back and playing some
14:35
songs from our first album. We're coming up on the tenth year anniversary of
14:39
releasing that album and just listen to that album. We're like, damn,
14:41
there was some magic here. Man. We had just moved to Nashville,
14:43
we had just met for the first time, and we were writing. We
14:46
didn't have We weren't, you know, painting by the numbers. We weren't
14:50
staying within the lines. We were just writing what was on our hearts,
14:52
having a blast doing it, and I think you can hear that in that
14:54
album. And we've had fans riding with us since the beginning. So we
14:58
want to play some of those songs that we haven't gotten to play in five,
15:01
six, seven years. But yeah, we'll leave a few off.
15:03
You know, we've played them for a couple of years now. It's just
15:07
like we know at this point, I feel like we have so much history
15:11
with these songs, with playing them live. We know which ones are going
15:13
to do well in the live show, we know which ones might not.
15:16
And then if you're not currently working a song to radio that's not doing well
15:20
in the live show, you can lose it and no one will say anything.
15:24
Let's go back to the whole wedding song thing, because somebody in here
15:28
is is a wedding song. I was gonna call him a victim. They're
15:33
not a victory. I don't know where you're going at. She is a
15:35
wedding song, and I don't know what that even means, but she she
15:39
was like, oh, Danny, say, I want to come in.
15:39
You know they were my wedding song. What does that mean to you?
15:41
I mean this is arguably the biggest moment in people's lives and they lean on
15:48
something you guys created, likely like a lot of your music, maybe in
15:50
a bathroom, not in a bathroom, in a bedroom, dude, it's
15:56
an unbelievable honor. I don't know about the bedroom thing. I'll talk about
15:58
what we've had. Those two we'll take them. But it's a huge moment
16:03
someone's life. I mean, we know what our first dance songs were.
16:06
I mean everybody can say, like, all right, what was your first
16:07
dance? And we have had so many of those stories and gotten to be
16:11
a part of so many people's lives in that way. And it's it's not
16:14
a we have never seen it. I don't think anyone does see it as
16:17
a negative thing. Anytime you have a wedding song, and obviously at some
16:21
point people are probably like every wedding I go to, I hear this freaking
16:23
song, you know, and it's it's unbelievable job security, it's a job
16:27
weary. If one of these days, you know, we have to have
16:30
to cut out and can't tourn them where we can always do weddings, it'll
16:33
be we'll have a solid wedding set list. But it's amazing, man,
16:37
I mean hearing you know, all the stories of people connecting with a bunch
16:40
of our songs. There's been people who have used a lot of different I
16:42
feel like we've just are known as like a good wedding band, Like it's
16:45
a pretty safe bet. We've had a lot of people use like tequila and
16:48
I'm like, what what in what world are you hearing that song and being
16:52
like this is what I want my husband or how to dance to? This
16:56
is gonna be the one for longevity. It's like, you know what that
16:59
song's about at all, but we need a song all forever, not a
17:00
song about the night. Yeah, exactly exactly with that. Do you guys
17:07
ever sing it? Obviously? You saying at Bobby Bone's wedding, right,
17:10
is that something normal that you'll do for a friend if they ask. Let's
17:17
not say yes now that's rare, but price price for everything. So take
17:23
me to uh to the current well the new what's about to be the current
17:27
single? In bigger houses? I feel like that song is for people that
17:33
haven't heard on the ALB yet. It's going to connect. But like,
17:36
this isn't a song that like you hear slowly, like it hits you like
17:41
a ton of bricks. Did you have to live this for this song to
17:45
come to life? If that makes sense? One hundred percent, Man,
17:47
I feel like this is the most genuine, authentic song we've honestly ever put
17:49
out. It is exactly where we are in our lives right now. I
17:53
feel like everybody in this room can probably feel that just the way we're talking
17:56
about everything from this current number one saving the trouble, to the album to
18:00
the tour. Pretty much it's our mantra we're living by right now. And
18:04
it was a song that like came at the eleventh hour. That's how it
18:07
always goes speechless, you know, you hear that story all the time when
18:11
you think the album's done. Even though we didn't have an album title,
18:14
we thought it was done. We had turned it in, we had kind
18:15
of sequenced it with my little written out cutout strips, and that song just
18:21
kind of happened by accident at the last minute. Our buddy Andy Albert,
18:23
I've probably told the story a million times, but him and his wife had
18:26
just bought a house, and he's an amazing friend, amazing songwriter. We
18:30
actually moved to town together. We bought this or we rented this piece of
18:33
crap house that didn't have heat, didn't have ac and it's where Shane and
18:36
I met. We were doing a band together, and you know, we
18:37
went our separate ways and he became an incredible, incredible songwriter. He's gonna
18:41
be one of the best songwriters to ever do it on music Row. He's
18:45
unreal man. And him and his wife had just bought a new house.
18:48
They had a newborn baby. And my wife Abby, who's like the most
18:52
optimistic, most positive person ever. She balances off my pessimism. We were
18:56
a good match. I'm being more optimistic now now that the Bigger Houses album
19:00
is out, changed my tune a little bit. But uh, Abby was
19:03
over there seeing the house for the first time, and you know how it
19:06
is when somebody walks into a house, you're you're making apologies. Well,
19:07
you know, we're gonna paint that wall, or we'll get rid of this,
19:11
we'll change it, we'll fix this, we'll update the kitchen. And
19:12
she didn't get a chance to clean up after the kids exactly, and she
19:17
stopped him and was like, guys, you should be so proud of this
19:18
house, and you know all that you've accomplished, especially like the fact that
19:22
you did it by writing songs, by doing something you love, by making
19:25
music, and uh, she was always She said something like, you know,
19:27
I know we're always looking and we're always talking about bigger houses, bigger
19:30
and better things, but we got to appreciate what we have right now.
19:33
And they had this moment and Andy wrote it in his phone, bigger houses,
19:37
and he came into the room that day with us, and he was
19:40
like, I got this might sound weird, but like if I was going
19:41
to write it with anybody, it was going to be with you guys,
19:42
because of something Abby said. And he said, the thing about happiness I've
19:47
found is that don't live in bigger houses. And I was like, dang,
19:49
the song's already written, giving me goosebumps just to hear you say that,
19:52
yeah, man, And it just it was one of those songs that
19:56
we the words and the message of the song were so important, so we
20:00
didn't overproduce it. It was just an acoustic guitar and mandolin, dobro and
20:03
an upright bass and it was just all about that message. And you know,
20:07
a song like that traditionally doesn't get a shot on the radio. It's
20:11
always about tempo and we need to sound like big and like massive in the
20:14
live show. It's too slow. It's the spring is exactly exactly. We're
20:18
coming into summertime. We need tempo. It's the last song on the album.
20:21
It was an unlikely candidate, but it was just something about it.
20:22
Man. It connected with our hearts, connected with our fans, everybody around
20:26
us, and now we look at it and we're like, how could it
20:29
not be the single. I'm so excited about it. I'm fired up.
20:33
I feel like, you know, whatever this song does knock on what We
20:36
hope it goes number one and it's a big hit for us. But I
20:37
feel like this is a message that's important for us to say, and it's
20:41
an important message for our fans to hear. Does your wife have a writing
20:45
credit on the song? She's getting half either way? Basically, well,
20:51
how instrumental are your wives? Obviously family, your life motivates you and inspires
20:57
you to do what you do, But how how instrumental are they? And
21:03
oh, let me hear the new song? Yeah, hey, what do
21:04
you think? Give me feedback? Very instrumental? I mean in every aspect
21:07
of our lives. You know, It's like we've had so many hits that
21:11
we're written about our wives. And there's a reason for that, because we
21:15
believe every word that we sing about them. I mean, they genuinely are
21:18
the best parts of us. But you know, we've we've really let ourselves.
21:22
I feel like, you know Dan talked about a while ago, Bigger
21:25
Houses is exactly where we're at in our lives. And that's the reason that
21:27
we connect so much with the song. I mean, every time that I
21:32
sing that song, it's very rare that you get to have that and you're
21:36
you're singing a message that everything just kind of disappears, and I'm having like
21:41
a worship service, like every word is like this matters to me, you
21:44
know the CMA. I'm like, you gotta have about a perspective of your
21:49
life, you know, And I'm getting fired up, dude, I really
21:52
get goosebumps thinking about singing the song every single time. And you know,
21:56
our wives are obviously, like Dan said, they're much more pause of than
22:00
we are. We can get in this. You know, we're anxious about
22:03
everything and we look forward in a bad way to things like oh I gotta
22:07
go do this, and I gotta go do this, And they remind us
22:08
all the time, like, hey, you get to go do that,
22:11
you get to go do these things, you get to have this career,
22:12
and I don't know, it's just an amazing place to be at in our
22:15
lives now that now Dan and I are on We've never been closer as friends,
22:19
and it's just an amazing place that, like our wives, it just
22:22
feels like everything is in the right place of like, hey, we don't
22:25
have to try too hard to do these things, like our successes, Like
22:27
obviously you want to have all the success in the world, and we're gonna
22:30
try. We're gonna do everything possible to make this band as successful as we
22:33
possibly can. But our wives remind us like, hey, slow down,
22:37
Like life is amazing, Like we have another day, this is the end
22:41
of the day. You get to live. You get to have this this
22:42
moment, Like what you do with it matters, you know, And it
22:45
just it brings this new perspective of like happiness does not it's not found in
22:48
those grammy sitting on your shelf. I can tell you that because there was
22:52
a time during the pandemic when I had those and I was completely depressed and
22:56
like anxious and all these things and just remind ourselves like it's the people around
23:00
us. It's that it's what we get to do, the things that you
23:03
love to do that bring you happiness, And that song just fully encapsulates it
23:07
for me. And so I just I get really passionate when I talk about
23:10
it, and I know that every night before we sing that song, it's
23:12
just gonna be like, just play the I'm gonna today, we gather people
23:21
are decided, like Jesus, sing it for a minute. So this is
23:23
a peed break, it's a feed break. No, I get so excited
23:26
about it. To your original question, I mean, our wives are very
23:30
instrumental in that and keeping us grounded. And at this point in our career,
23:34
you know, I could never see us. You know, people are
23:37
like, you know, make sure you stay grounded and uh and stay humble.
23:40
There's no with our wives in the picture, there's no way for us
23:42
to do that. They keep us in our place. And I mean that
23:45
in the best kinds of ways, because when your feet are on the ground
23:48
and you appreciate the people that you have around you, and you know that
23:52
that is where you find your true piece and your true joy, then things
23:56
can get really, really fun. You know. You bring up the Grammys
23:59
and I had a conversation about awards recently with somebody, and they're fantastic and
24:06
they can mean something to you. But if you chase them too much,
24:08
right, if they don't just become, you know, a part of what
24:14
you've done, not a part of who you are. You're just you win
24:17
one. Well, now what. You're always trying to fulfill whatever's next.
24:19
So if you put too much stock into whether it's a Grammy and ACMCMA whatever,
24:23
it's like, well, now what, And you can't control the outcome.
24:26
You know, you control what you can control. Pour your heart and
24:30
soul into things. Be good to people around you, have fun in that
24:32
writing room, do the best you can make music that you think is going
24:34
to matter to somebody. At the end of the day, the voting,
24:37
the politics, everything is out of your control. You win it, it's
24:41
awesome. You've got to celebrate it. Man, Congratulations to you. You've
24:42
won a bunch of awards. It's an amazing thing. It's validation for all
24:45
the hard work that we all put in. But you can't live and die
24:48
by it. One hundred percent take me through. Let's say Dan and Shay.
24:53
You know, you put this album out and something is fulfilling. You
24:56
go hit a bunch of more dates and you're like, we've done. I
25:00
think that was what we needed to do. You look back, give me
25:04
a handful of moments and it doesn't need to be like a top five or
25:07
anything, but you you look back and we were successful because of what.
25:14
Oh man, is this on our entire career? Yeah? Yep, I
25:17
don't like family obviously supports some all that, but like work that you created,
25:22
impacts you made. What would be the ones you celebrate that first album?
25:26
Man, I would start there. I feel like, you know,
25:29
we met at that house that was was a piece of crab and you know,
25:33
we got there and we had nothing. And yet it took me until
25:37
you know, later to realize this, but like we had everything right there
25:41
and we made that album. They were all demos. I mean, we
25:45
showed up to the record label and we had turned in like these twenty three
25:48
songs and that you know, a lot of those demos just became our album.
25:52
We didn't even really have time to like re record them. It's just
25:55
things that like Dan had done the solo. Back to the guitar solos,
25:57
I'm like, oh wow, one the other day I was like, that
26:00
was I'm a bad guitar player. I'm hacking away. It was amazing because
26:07
we didn't think, you know, we didn't think too much about what we
26:10
were doing. We enjoyed the process. And I think that, you know,
26:14
my next would my next success, I would say, would be this
26:15
Bigger Houses album because of what it represents. And this is a little easter
26:19
egg. I'm sure that we've told a story a million times. But the
26:22
house that is on the album U of Bigger Houses album, that house was
26:26
representation of five oh seven Morton Avenue, where Dan and I met. There's
26:29
a little five oh seven underneath the doorway. That's kind of going to ask
26:33
because I've seen that. I haven't seen the house in person, but I've
26:36
seen the five oh seven. What I was going to text and ask,
26:37
that's where That's where it comes from. And so what this represents is just
26:41
reminding us like, hey, you know, obviously we're in different places,
26:45
you know where we don't live at five oh seven, uh, but we
26:47
are what we had there and what this album represents and reminding ourselves like,
26:52
stop chasing after the things that don't matter, take stock in the and the
26:55
people around you, and I'm just really proud of of that. I think
26:57
I'm most proud of this album, not just because of the music, and
27:02
I think that it's, you know, musically, our best work, but
27:06
I just think that what it represents and where we are in our lives now,
27:08
I'm most proud of that. Of anything we've done in our career,
27:11
over the Grammys, over the number one songs, I'm most proud of where
27:15
we have gotten to on this album, and obviously since it is this timeframe
27:19
of putting out this album, I'm just I'm so unbelievably proud of like where
27:23
we've gotten to and now it's just like I'm just having so much fun.
27:27
It's like it just feels genuine like a new start. And what a thing
27:32
to have, you know, to be living in a place where you don't
27:34
have regrets, you're thankful for all those horrible times, and the lowest of
27:40
low is because now you're here and just what that represents to me. I
27:44
would say the greatest accomplishment in my mind is the fact that after ten years,
27:48
we're still doing this. For one but we're still best friends. Yeah,
27:52
being in a duo is the toughest configuration of a band. Being in
27:53
a trio, there's a tiebreaker. Being a solo act, you're out there
27:56
on an island by yourself. Being in a group just chaos. Historically,
28:00
duos don't make it. Man, it's fifty to fifty. It's like a
28:03
marriage. It's if you're not I mean an example, No, I'm kidding,
28:07
you're giving me five. If you're not communicating, if you're not being
28:10
open, if you're not working together, you'll go separate directions. We've seen
28:12
in a million times in our format. We've seen it in other formats.
28:15
It's rare that a duo can stay together. And the place we're in after
28:19
ten years, we've been through highs and lows. But we did the work.
28:22
We've put in the work. We know what it takes to stay there,
28:25
and I'm just proud of that. Man. No matter what happens,
28:26
I want to keep getting number ones. I want to win more Grammys,
28:29
I want to do all that stuff. You've got to stay hungry. I
28:32
want to keep selling out arenas. But the fact that we're still having fun
28:34
doing this and we're still having fun doing this together is I think the number
28:37
one accommishment when it comes to country music and collaborations. I mean, you
28:44
guys are every song you do is a collaboration essentially, right, But collaborations
28:48
in country are hotter than they've ever been, like over the past, probably
28:52
like five years. Obviously you had a multi genre a big song with Justin
28:56
Bieber. Is there talks of like, hey, we should try and work
29:02
outside of us more other than just the writing, but like as far as
29:04
the creating and recording, do you plan out what you want to do in
29:07
the future, and if so, who are some people that that might make
29:11
the next album. It's a really good question. I think. You know,
29:14
on this album it was I mean, for what it represented and kind
29:18
of how it came about, that wasn't really on our mind. It was
29:22
this was very much an album for us and for our fans and of you
29:26
know, our representation of where we want to go and where we are.
29:30
But beyond that, I think that you know, on our next project,
29:33
you know that we put together it would be fun to we don't think too
29:37
much into that. We kind of get in and we let the songs write
29:40
themselves and we sit around with our buddies and it's just kind of, you
29:44
know, we let things kind of happen, and after the song is finished,
29:47
sometimes we'll have we'll throw around ideas of like this person would be awesome.
29:49
I always throw out a dell. I've thrown it out for years.
29:53
It hasn't happened yet. Listen, We're gonna make it happen. We're gonna
29:57
make it happen. She listens. I know specifically to this show. I've
30:00
been talking to that. Yeah. She was like, oh, I like
30:03
the guy with the beard. Yeah, she's like yeah when she said I
30:08
like that, you guys, it's awesome. That's yeah, that's pretty good.
30:11
You could just sing as her on there. That's true. Range was
30:15
pretty good. You just created damn came up with that the other day.
30:22
I can't take credit for it. It's pretty good. What about you as
30:27
far as like, you know somebody that you'd like to see on an upcoming
30:32
album our song? Oh, that's that's tough. We've done a lot of
30:36
amazing collaborations. We collaborated with Bieber, collaborated with Charlie Pooth, Like Charlie
30:41
is like he's so my musical nerd. Counterpart, you know what I mean,
30:44
Like we geeked out so much making that track so talented Kelly Clarkson,
30:48
Like for me to sit back and listen to to of the greatest singers of
30:51
all time, Kelly Clarkson and Shay singing back and forth was super special.
30:55
So our bar is pretty high. I don't know where we go from there,
30:56
but we're good buddies with Codyjohnson. We're huge fans of Cody. We've
31:00
always kicked around. We're on a group text like yo, we should do
31:03
a song. It's always like we should do a song. Like maybe one
31:06
of these days will do a song his vocal delivery and yours mixed together.
31:10
That could be crazy, total yeah blast, because you know, I don't
31:11
think people would really expect that. And you know, Cody has always been
31:15
obviously a good buddy of ours, but I love he always says these things
31:18
about being genuine and he used to stay on the stage like, look,
31:22
if I tried to go out and do what Dan and Shay does, I
31:23
would look like an idiot and it wouldn't work. And likewise, if we
31:27
try to go out and we try to be Cody Johnson, like you can't
31:30
do that, but being one hundred percent authentically yourself is an amazing thing.
31:33
And I just think Dan and Shaye and Cody Johnson collaboration would be absolute.
31:37
Flynn put us on the remix of Dirt Cheap. When it goes through it,
31:41
Yeah, if I talk up another automatic number one, if I can
31:44
get through without crying, it'll be uh, it'll be solid. The last
31:47
thing I want to ask you is knowing that you're looking at your careers and
31:52
maybe life as a whole different than you ever have been. What does twenty
31:56
twenty four have to give you for you to like it was successful? Absolutely
32:02
nothing. I mean, it's my honest answer where I'm at right now in
32:07
my life and the things that we've gotten to do, being able to genuinely
32:10
take time. I mean, I think the most fun that I've had in
32:14
a while. Dan and I and our buddy Jordan Reynolds sat down and wrote
32:17
a song the other day just for fun, and it was just like,
32:21
it reminded me that you can't control the outcome of anything. Obviously, we
32:24
want to have hit songs like Send Me the Trouble, but if you can
32:29
enjoy that process, it is something that Dan, you know, talked a
32:30
lot about he had read, you know, read a book about this of
32:34
just you know, if you can control enjoy the process of something, it
32:37
was already a success. And I just love the idea of that. And
32:39
I was genuinely reminded of that a couple of days ago when we were writing
32:43
it, just like, man, this is it, Like this is where
32:45
I find the most joy in my life, besides obviously my kids and my
32:49
wife, being able to sit down and write a song and complete it like
32:52
with my best friends, and we get to do it and we don't have
32:54
to have other jobs. Like unbelievable, you know, someone just fell over.
32:58
It's all good, just dropping like knowledge. In fact, it's just
33:02
the truth. And I don't need twenty twenty four to give me anything else,
33:06
because genuinely, like where I'm at in my life right now, I
33:08
don't need anything else. If I can keep what I have right now,
33:12
that would be my prayer for twenty twenty four, of just to keep things
33:15
exactly like they are. Everything else just bonus. I feel bad for Dan
33:20
because he can't copy your answer. Well, he told me that answer right
33:22
before, and so I told them cars, bigger houses, bigger way,
33:30
bigger houses, the same deal. Man. We're so grateful to be doing
33:32
this. The fact that if we can get through twenty four, twenty twenty
33:36
four, still be doing what we love, making songs, having people that
33:40
care to listen to them. Man, every day when we get in the
33:43
room, we always say, we're so grateful at this point in our career.
33:46
We have a fan base, we have an amazing relationship with country radio.
33:50
Whatever we write that day, that's got a shot at getting on the
33:52
radio. Man, what a dream come true. There's millions of people that
33:54
would kill to be in that position. We would have killed to be in
33:57
that position just a few years ago when we were kids. If you would
34:00
have told us we'd have one number one, we would have said, you're
34:01
a liar. Ten. I mean, come on, get out of town.
34:06
It's crazy. And the fact that we can still do it and have
34:08
fun in the process. Man, everything else is just gravy. You guys
34:12
are killing it. Thanks for taking the time out to chat to thank you.
34:14
This is a nice therapy session. I feel fired up and resignated.
34:17
Couch in here for next time. The next time, I'm just we'll feed
34:20
the microphone over to that couch. There we go. It's there's one right
34:23
there. Didn't even realize. I'll tell me about your childhood. Yeah,
34:27
we don't want to go here. It was nineteen ninety one. I was
34:29
born and the world got a little worse. You're born. I was born
34:34
than ninety one. Yeah, I'm forty eight years old with