Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Bailey Zimmerman Celebrates Early Success + Shares How Quick He Quit His Job Thanks To TikTok

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Bailey Zimmerman Celebrates Early Success + Shares How Quick He Quit His Job Thanks To TikTok · Inside Country with Wayne D

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  Dude, I gotta tell you right now that this dude has come from Oh
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  I've heard that song too. Oh I've saved that song to selling out places
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  you go viral? Is heck any song you put out? You know,
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  most people go to number one and then let someone else take a turn.
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  You're like, you could build a house on the damn number one spot.
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  Bailey's Immerman's hanging out with this? How does that feel this early in your
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  career? It's crazy, man. I didn't I didn't have no expectations,
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  you know, I had no idea. And they said, well, you've
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  got the number one for the fourth week, and I was like, holy
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  cow, Like you're like in a row, my gosh. And then now
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  it was like the fifth week, and now it looks like we're gonna be
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  a sixth week, and I'm like, oh my gosh, man, Like,
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  what is even going on? I don't even know? Do you?
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  Is it so new to you still where you're just enjoying every second? Are
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  you? Like, well, the next song is got to be better.
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  Man. You're always trying to one up yourself. For man, that's a
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  hard one. Like I've been thinking about it. I'm like, man,
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  that's hard. That's a good one. But hey, hey it's the it's
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  what we chase every day, a better song. You know. As as
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  your music started to catch fire on social media, I mean literally, it's
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  it felt like, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it felt like
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  you went from one hundred followers one day to all of a sudden you were
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  at five thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand. How did you react
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  waking up the next morning and seeing something like this might be I might have
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  to not have to go back to work no more. I quit my job.
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  That's what I did. I just yeah, yeah, I just quit
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  my job. As soon as I saw the views overnight and it doubled my
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  following and did what it did on TikTok, I was just like, man,
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  I don't want to I don't want to have something to fall back on.
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  I wanna I want to really chase this. If I'm want to chase
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  something, I might as well. Dad always said, don't half ass anything.
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  Always always give your full performance. So I was just like, okay,
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  well, if I have a plan B, plan A will not work.
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  So I just quit my job that morning and was like, I'm gonna
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  be a country singer. I mean what you've done so far. It's funny
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  because whenever an artist is coming in and Tay was just singing your songs too,
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  it's like the songs are so stuck in your head. We're already moving
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  on to religiously. Now, what does it mean to be able to get
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  through these songs so quick? Because obviously you have been writing, You've been
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  doing this. Just because we're learning your name and your music now doesn't mean
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  you picked it up yesterday, right, So what does it mean to you
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  to be able to be giving country music fans so much music so quick?
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  I love? That's always been my things since I started music. I'm like,
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  man, I don't think I'll ever stop releasing music because every song there's
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  a chance to get one more listener, you know, or one other person
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  that might have not known your music. So getting to release just as many
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  songs as I want to release as the best because I just get to write
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  songs, and as I write the songs, I get to be like,
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  oh I like that when I'm gonna put it out, I think, and
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  then everybody's like, yes, we love new music, you know. So
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  you just can't get enough these days like it's it's fun to just release a
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  lot of music. We talk about religiously. It's a part of a massive
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  project. You're getting ready to give us. What does At any point in
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  this, did you ever think you'd be able to say my album, my
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  album, my full album. No, no, man. I I didn't
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  ever know if I would ever get to the point of, hey, you
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  need to put out an album, you know, because I feel like it
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  takes a lot to get to that space. And when they were like,
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  hey, I think you need to put an album out, and I'm like,
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  okay. So we had like six weeks. We had six weeks and
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  we started recording all the songs and it was just so surreal getting to build.
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  Instead of just cutting one song to put out in a two months,
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  I'm creating sixteen songs and that's gonna go on a full project and have a
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  have an own title, and there's gonna be tours that are around this album.
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  It's like, holy cow, I'm like really doing it now, Like
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  I'm really doing it, mom, I'm here, Like we got an album
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  come in that brings me to have you had in I made it moment sounds
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  cocky, sounds arrogant. I don't necessarily mean like I'm the man now,
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  right, but like what I've put in, it's putting out enough that I
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  know where I'm supposed to be a moment, right, Man, I didn't.
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  I didn't think we would get this sixth week number one. And when
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  they called me it was a surprise because they said, we don't think we're
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  gonna get it. And then when we got it, it was like,
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  all right, Okay, this is sick. Okay, I call my mom.
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  I'm like, joke, just so you know, we're gonna be number
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  one for the sixth week in a row in the US. This is so
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  gnarly, like doesn't happen. This is just so surreal. Everything just feels
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  like, man, like, how so blessed to be here? This is
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  crazy, you know, dude. I love how pumped up you are about
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  it though. Man, it gets me excited. I want to talk more
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  on music and tour stuff. But take me to We are just over a
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  week away from heading to Austin, Texas. You're a part of the tenth
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  is tenth year right I Heart Country Festival presented by Capital One. So we're
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  gonna go down to Austin We're gonna play the Moody Center. Seeing your name
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  on lineups like that, I know you were just at Stage Coach two over
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  the weekend, knowing that you were a part of shows where you see the
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  names of Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt and Kane Brown and Carly Pearce and these
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  names that have that have that have been out there and they've had success.
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  You're already in the mix with these names. What does that mean to you
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  when you look at lineups like that and see you you're there too. It's
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  fun because I've got so much left to learn, and the fact that I
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  get to be around people like I'm getting to be around and watching their shows
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  is like so such an honor because I've still, like I said, got
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  so much to learn about playing live, doing radio shows, doing the radio
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  stuff, the iHeart stuff. It's it's all brand new to me. So
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  it's just such an honor to get to be around big names like that because
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  I feel like I'm nowhere near their level. I still have a lot of
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  work to do, but to get to learn from the best is the best.
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  I love that you said learn because I think the most successful people in
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  any field you stay a student. Right. Someday someone will determine you're the
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  teacher, right, but you stay the student. What's been You're the way
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  your careers work so far? It feels like you are learning to run before
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  you crawled. So what's been the hardest lesson so far? That you had
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  to sit down and go take a deep breath. We're good and move forward.
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  Oh, man, Nashville can get a hold of you really fast.
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  It's really easy to get out there and drink and and go to the bars
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  till two am and and see your friends because you're having so much fun.
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  And it's it's industry, it's you're seeing all the people and and that's that's
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  one thing that I've learned is don't let this town get a hold of you.
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  And don't go out there and do three nights and just running and having
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  fun and partying with your friends and then try to go play three shows because
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  it's not gonna work. You can't do that. You have to stay hydrated.
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  You're you're an athlete, man, you gotta work out every day.
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  Could go to the bars and work out more like start doing this. So
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  that's that's what I learned really quick, was don't let the town get a
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  hold of you. And actually, my buddy Morgan said that that's what he
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  was like, Dude, this town can get ahold of you real quick,
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  and you need to make sure, you know, you know when to like
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  kind of go back and be like whoa wa, whoa don't don't get way
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  into it, you know. Uh, you bring up your buddy Morgan.
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  You are surrounded by very talented people, and if you check social media,
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  there's a lot of people that have had a lot of success that are already
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  like love Bailey's Immerman. We sit across from people that are in your chair
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  all the time that are like, oh, I'm hearing good things about Bailey's
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  Imerman. I like what I've heard so far. What's been the coolest moment
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  for you? From another Because everyone starts as a fan, so what's been
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  a cool moment for you that like, damn, I can't believe. So
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  Jason Aldean slid my DM said he liked the song or something something to that
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  effect, where you like, you got to be a fan and enjoy the
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  momentum. So the first time I ever met Morgan Wallen was outside of Big
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  Loud, and it was funny because I hadn't met Ernest or Hardy or any
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  of them. I didn't met nobody in town. And I was just going
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  to write at Big Loud that day. Yeah, And I pulled up and
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  I was on a zoom call and Ernest was out there smoking with somebody on
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  the front porch a Big Loud, and I was trying to get off the
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  zoom because I was like, I want to go meet Ernest so bad.
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  I want to meet him. I want to talk to him. And didn't
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  get off in time, and he walked back and I was like, oh,
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  man, I really wanted to meet him, but maybe the other day,
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  you know. And I was walking in and then Morgan came around the
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  corner and he's like. I was like, oh man, what's up,
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  Morgan. He's like, dude, what's up, buddy? Da da da?
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  Like you're Bailey right, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm
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  Bailey. And he's like, dude, you gotta you fall in love that
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  song and I'm like, yeah, that's me. Holy count. He's like,
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  dude, I've been jamming that song and I could have liked just melted
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  dude. I was like, oh my gosh, you've been listening to my
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  music. Dude, I love your song man, dadda. I'm so da
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  da da happy for you. You know, keep crushing, buddy. And
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  I was just like, oh my gosh, dude, my biggest hero just
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  told me he's been jamming my single. Oh my god. You're like,
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  I'm hey, Mom, I'm done. I'm not gay. I'm gonna come
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  back to home. It's Mary, I'm done. I did it so because
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  of relationships like that. What are things you hope to do in the future.
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  This is a question that we asked Um, We asked Luke Colmes recently.
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  We asked Morgan when we talked to him that cool Swindell collaborations and those
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  are some of the guys doing collaborations bigger than anybody in country music right now.
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  You haven't had that moment yet. Is there one coming? Or if
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  you could put a collab together, who would it be. I hope it's
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  coming, I really do. I've been working on some stuff with some like
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  pop artists and some stuff with like some more like just you can kind of
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  call it country, kind of call it pop rap, whatever it is.
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  I've got a bunch of those in the works, but country. You might
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  expect something this summer. I've got something up my sleeve that I'm really excited
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  about that I'm working on in town with an artist here, and I'm really
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  excited about the songs. So collaborations are honestly like my everything. Like I
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  want to collab and help each other win and go bigger And how fun is
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  it to collab on a song and then play it live and get to rock
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  out live together with your buddies, you know. So I really want to
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  do collabs and you can expect some from me, but my like dream collab
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  really obviously, Man, I'd love to do something with Morgan and Hardy and
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  Earnest, just because they're the fellas and helping everybody win. I want to
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  do everything with them, but kind of outside of my friend group and stuff,
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  I'd really like to collab with Justin Bieber or Post Malone. I'd really
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  I really think we could get something just off the wall, like something off
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  the wall that's country but then it's pop, but then it's like so universal.
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  I want to I want to get something that's like, man, this
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  is so sick. So yeah, postmlon or Justin Bieber. And it's funny
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  because when you hear names on collaborations. You brought up justin Bieber, so
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  that brings me back to when Dan and Shay works with Bieber. It was
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  like huh. And then as soon as you listen to it, like names
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  disappear when a song is good, it doesn't matter what genre. So like
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  post Malone, if someone hears that, you know someday the labels like,
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  hey we got this Bailey post Malone track, radio would be like what And
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  then you hear it's like names disappear, genres disappear. So I'm excited.
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  Hopefully we're gonna put that out in the universe. Yeah, and he post
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  Malone fans listening, Let's get him, him him up, tell him to
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  hit me up. And I'd love to hang smoke cigarettes, write songs.
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  It'll be fun. Speaking of writing songs, what has changed for you now
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  that more people are hearing songs that you're a part of. Are you writing
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  different? Are you challenging challenging yourself differently? And maybe a part of rites?
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  What are you learning from other people? Writing songs? Is really just
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  like natural, Like I just sit down and pick up a guitar and start
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  plucking on something. And if it's not the first or second or third thing
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  I play, and I just probably not gonna write that day, you know.
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  So really writing with everybody else, it's just different. I've learned in
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  the songwriting community, there's certain people for certain things, Like like, man,
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  I've been I've been really wanting to write with Ryan Hurd here recently.
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  I've had the time, but we've talked and we're gonna write a bunch because
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  I love I just love the way he writes songs. He does it different
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  than a lot of other people, you know, And that's kind of what
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  I've learned, I guess is everybody got their own niche in town. You
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  know, Like there's these writers have their own things about them that make them
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  what it is. And I've learned that to have that name of yeah,
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  this guy wrote this song that song, and you start putting them together and
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  it's like, Okay, that's what you're going for, is a niche or
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  something about you that oh he Bailey's Immerman definitely wrote that song. I can
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  tell by this, this and this. So I've been kind of just like
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  picking up things from different big writers or writers in general, and just like
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  learning all I can because it's every day dude, it's a process trying to
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  learn how to write a better song or a hit song or whatever you call
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  it. You know, it's like it's tough. I gotta tell you,
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  I was excited to get you in studio because obviously we play the hell out
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  of your music with I heart country all over the country. When we met
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  you at the CMA Awards, you were doing the radio remote and it felt
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  like, I don't want to use the word timid, but you were very
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  like, kind of taking it all in. Right now it feels like you
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  are and maybe enjoying it more. You're soaking it in more. What's changed
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  from rewinds this fall when you were, you know, at the CMA Awards
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  and enjoying that experience too. Now I've been doing it a bunch. I've
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  just uh, it's kind of like playing live, man. You you go
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  out there and you play, and you play, and you mess up,
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  and you mess up and you say this when you weren't supposed to say this,
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  and you kind of just learned to do it better, you know.
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  And honestly, meeting you guys is one of the things that's helped me a
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  bunch because now I can come in here and go, Yeah, I know
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  these guys. I can talk to you all day. I can talk to
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  whoever all day. So getting to know you guys and getting to know how
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  it works has really helped me. I mean I was coming in not knowing
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  nothing. I didn't know I was gonna sit down and they're gonna start talking
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  me right away. So it's like just learning those little things about how it
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  works and stuff. Is like Benny, been a lot better for me to
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  get better at doing this, dude. And the last thing I'm gonna ask
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  you before we let you go. We're excited for the album. We're excited
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  for more music. I heart Country Festival coming up a week from Saturday is
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  gonna be unreal. Tay and I are going to be down in Austin for
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  that, so pre show shots, holler, let us know. Yeah,
• 14:01
  you brought up Raising Canes. You're probably wearing a Raising Cane shirt? Are
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  you? They do this ambassador program? Are you part of that? No?
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  No, you need to make that I've never Yeah, I know Todd
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  Graves, I know him a little bit, and um I've went to a
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  couple of his things and like hung with him and stuff, but there's never
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  been talking about it. I just love these shirts. I love Canes.
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  I love Cane shirts, and his whole brand is really cool. And the
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  mascot for Canes is a Golden Retriever, and I have a Golden Retriever,
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  So I'm kind of just like automatically a baby. They should give you a
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  franchise, you get your own store. I'm not saying that would be sick,
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  but that would be sick. Give me the one thing you're most excited
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  for the rest of the year outside of ELM release, because obviously that's massive
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  for you. I'm excited to see what songs I write because after Us,
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  after I wrote the whole album and or wrote my songs on the album and
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  got it done, I kind of took a step back from writing because it
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  was like, man, I've written a bunch every single day, and now
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  I'm starting to get I never it was funny because after I quit writing,
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  I was like, Man, am I gonna write again? Am I gonna
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  want to write again? And then all of a sudden a week ago,
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  I started writing again. So I'm really excited to see what songs do I
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  write? What am I gonna do? You know what shows? Am I
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  gonna play. Who am I gonna meet? You know, I'm just excited
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  for life, man. I'm excited to learn, like we were talking about
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  earlier, just learning, man, being a better person. You know,
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  it's this year is gonna be crazy, that's gonna be nice. Yeah,
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  Bailey's ever been. Thank you brother, Thank you man.