Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Kenny Chesney Couldn't Get Out Of His Head

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Kenny Chesney Couldn't Get Out Of His Head · Inside Country with Wayne D

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  I gotta tell you, last time we caught up with this guy, it
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  was just about a song. It was about getting excited for things. Now
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  the things you were excited about are why we're back, Kenny Chesney Harvey,
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  Brother, I'm doing good man. Thanks for having me. Dude, Well,
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  I'm here with you. Thank you for thanks for being here. I
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  got to ask you last time we talked. I don't want to say it
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  was frustration, but as an artist, when when you you're ready to run,
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  right, but because there's a process, you have to crawl first,
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  right, I don't want to say it was frustration, but it was kind
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  of like, yeah, I got this song, but I felt like you
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  wanted you wanted to shout more. This is probably what you were holding back,
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  right, Oh, no doubt about it. But I but even when
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  we talked, I wouldn't completely sure what was going to be on the record
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  or now. Okay, you know, and that's a frustrating part for me.
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  It's just like Bob Seeger said, want to leave in, want to
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  leave out, you know, and that and that song. You know this.
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  But I I wake up every day in the creative process and I have
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  my record. Okay, this is what it's going to be, and the
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  next day, three or four songs will change, the sequence will change.
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  And then before I got to turn it in, before we got a master,
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  I am two songs around. Two songs are out. You know.
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  We cut a lot of songs, so it took a minute to get the
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  Born album where I wanted it. Sometimes I edit it to a fault,
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  but you know, that's the way I've always been. It's because I care
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  so much, you know, and I want I want to be able to
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  give my audience new music. I want to be able to push the envelope
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  without annelyiating them. For sure, it makes sense, yeah, no,
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  absolutely, because you want people to experience new but also they know what.
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  Yeah, when they're coming to a Kenny Chesney album or a show, they
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  know what they're going to get. But you also want to be like,
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  yeah, they want to be taken down a different road, a similar road,
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  but different. You know when you said that it was frustrating to put
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  the album together because what's in what's out? Right? At this point in
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  your career, do you ever just go I've done this, I'm obviously seeing
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  some success. I know what I'm doing. Let's just roll with it,
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  like, do you ever have the confidence in yourself when it comes to that
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  part. Well, I've got confidence in myself, but it's you know,
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  when it comes to making the record. But you know, I just think
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  that when it comes to releasing music and when it comes to giving music to
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  my audience, and I constantly think about being out there with them in the
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  audience, right and what's going to turn me on? I think about that,
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  yeah, constantly. And so with this record, the majority of it
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  was recorded and sequenced with that philosophy in mind. There are a few songs
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  on there that I know I'll never do in the live element. I just
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  did them for my soul, and I think that's important, you know,
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  and not every song can be just the just the live element. And I
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  think there or a few places on this record that I was able to do
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  that, you know, And because honestly, I think that at the end
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  of the day, No, I think all of us are suckers for the
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  truth, you know. So there's a little bit of truth on this record
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  too when it comes to a project like this. And you should get credit
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  for really starting the fan army movement in country music, right with No Sho's
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  nation. I feel like you were the first artist to really be like,
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  you're not just fans, You're a family, and here's them or here's the
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  name of this family. Do you ever when you're going through obviously you've mentioned,
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  you think about them, and you think about performing how they're going to
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  react. When it comes to putting an album together, you every you're like,
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  I'm not sure about this song, but I know I have a feeling
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  they'll love it, so I'm gonna put my feelings aside. I can't say
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  that there's been one. I mean, there have been a few a long
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  time ago that made the record ended up being singles. You know that I
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  didn't necessarily think that should have been, but I was proven wrong on But
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  for the most part, especially the songs that I decide for that I think
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  would be good in the live element, I'm usually I've been up there so
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  much, and I have I have spent so much time with this love affair
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  with the audience and reading them and learning about them and just cultivating this relationship
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  that I'm When I go into the studio with a bunch of songs, I'm
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  pretty pretty sure what to leave in and what to leave out. Sometimes I'm
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  wrong, but you know it's it's I think we got a feel on this
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  record that there's a song on the record called long Gone and it's specifically for
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  the audience, and it's about my relationship with the band and the crew and
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  the audience and about this journey we've all been on, and that's all it's
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  for. It was very intentional, and I think those are great songs to
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  have when it comes to that live show. And we just I forget who
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  we just talked to, but they were talking about how you open the door
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  for these massive stadium shows to be a normal thing normally. Like at one
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  point it was like, oh, here's the one off. Here's a one
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  off. Now if it's a Kenny Chesney show, good luck to seeing him
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  in a venue less than fifty thousand people. Well, I mean it's we
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  work really hard for it to look normal, but I promise, I promise
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  you there's nothing normal about it. You know, it's it's a very special
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  thing to have your audience in that place and in that space. We're in
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  that process right now. I mean, you know, of course, you
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  know we're releasing new music, but it's we're really close to being in that
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  space again, you know, and the tour starting and the harder we work
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  right now, the more normal it seems when we get up there. But
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  it's a lot of mental and it's a lot of mental and physical emotional work
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  for us, you know, And we don't take any of that for granted.
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  I can tell in the few interactions we've had that every as much as
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  you have a family, a fan family, each one of them means something
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  to you, right And I can tell that whether you've met them, or
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  you know them, or you see social media, whatever it is. So
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  when it comes to building the show, I'd imagine it's heavy on your heart
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  that the person that you can see leaning against the guardrail and the person that
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  you see leaning you know, at the back fence, at the outfield at
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  whatever baseball park wherever you're playing, they have the same amount of fun.
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  How do you make sure that that happens? Well years ago when we first
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  started, when my life got to a place where we were playing football stadiums,
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  it took a minute for me to get used to that. As far
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  as the space covered right on stage. A couple of years in I got
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  used to that, but I still wanted to mentally and physically, emotion more
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  important, emotionally, gauge how far I had to go. So we get
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  there on a Friday night, we do a soundcheck early on Friday night,
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  and then we're kind of off and and we're done until we go on stage
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  on a Saturday night. Every studium markets like that, and I just take
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  a moment to go up to the top and just sit and just by myself,
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  and I gauge mentally, visually and emotionally what it's like to be up
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  there, because trust me, the people sitting up their care just as much
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  as the ones down the front. And I always do that. I've always
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  done that, but because I wanted to visually and emotionally and mentally see how
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  far I had to go, because I know what it looks like from down
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  there to look up, but I got to sit with it for a minute
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  and see how far I've got to go from up there to down there,
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  And every place is different. You know, when's the first time you did
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  that in this whole run of stadium shows you've done. And second part to
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  that question, have you ever sat up there and outside of like seeing their
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  view and kind of sitting in their seat and feeling what they'll feel. Have
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  you ever taken a moment to go, Holy hell, like I'm doing this.
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  I mean we as a team, right yea, but also like I'm
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  doing this. Yeah. Look, the first year we did football stadiums,
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  I believe was two thousand and five. I mean, think about that,
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  It's been a minute, you know. And so I didn't go to the
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  top those shows. The next year, I made it a ritual, if
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  you will. And the first time that I did that was the first time
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  I think I played the New York Giants was back then, No, it
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  wasn't. It was a new one the first time we did it. So
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  but we played the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and I just
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  sat there for a minute, you know, and thought about my journey and
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  then thought about everything we've been through as a band and as a touring family.
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  And you know, me carrying my own sound system when I was in
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  college to set up at a Mexican restaurant to play for tips. And there
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  I was alone, setting up on top of the New York Giants and the
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  Jets football stadium for the first time, getting ready to play my music for
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  these people. And I think when we played this year, and I think
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  it'll be our twelfth or thirteenth play, you know, So it's been a
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  minute, and so it's that was the first time that I went, oh,
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  wow, I mean this is you know, this is going to a
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  different place. It was tough to listen to your answer after you said Mexican
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  restaurant because now I'm thinking, Keeso, I think it maybe some street tacos.
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  When it comes to getting back on the road and this Born album,
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  uh, hearing you talk about it and talk about the songs and reconnecting with
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  fans again feels like for you there's something extra special about this album that maybe
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  you didn't get from the last album. Am I wrong? Well, it's
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  just it's exciting for me just for the timing of it. I mean,
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  we are the albums out and we're getting ready to start to play. But
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  more than just I don't know, if it's if I like this album more
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  than the last one. I don't know. I haven't thought about it that
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  way. It's just the next one. It's just the next phase. And
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  I think for the live element, I can sit here and think of five
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  songs when they get somewhat familiar that we'll probably do live, and I think
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  that's important for you know, for as as we've been doing this live,
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  you know, this live element for a while, and you know, people
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  come to shows and they want to, you know, hear the songs they
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  want to hear, and if they don't hear it, they go da.
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  I can't say that if they you know, and if they don't hear it,
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  you know, why didn't you play that song? You know? I
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  came to hear that in one song, you didn't play it, you know.
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  But I think it's important to mix it up, and we're gonna be
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  able to do that this year with this record. And we don't play too
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  many you know, as a rule, I don't play too many unfamiliar songs,
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  okay, because you know, when I go see my heroes play,
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  I want to hear the songs. I want to hear the songs I came
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  to hear. You know, if they play on an album cut or something
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  that's just a vanity song, they want to play, right, Yeah,
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  when people start checking their phones and I don't like to let them off the
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  hook that much, you know. So, but there will be songs off
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  this Born record that we will be playing a lot of knowing how you are
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  such a good storyteller the stories on this new album, Are there any that
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  you're like, Man, I really hope y'all like this one, man,
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  I really, because obviously you want them to like the project. Start,
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  start to finish, listen to it, enjoy it, pick your favorites.
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  I think if there's a song on the there's a couple of songs on the
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  record that I feel like we will do live eventually, and you know,
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  Born the title track is something that is just so right in our wheelhouse.
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  I think that there's a song called just to Say We Did that is so
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  much about getting off the couch in your life and about just doing random things
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  in your life, whether it's going to a concert or if it's like in
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  the characters in the song, if it's going to Vegas on a whim,
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  just because and just for the experience of it, you know, with friends
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  or with someone till later in your life so you had a memory and just
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  not set around in this mundane existence. And I think there's a lot of
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  people that come to our shows that share that same philosophy. They want to
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  get out an experience life and the euphoria of it, and that's what that
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  song is about. And I can see us doing just to say, we
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  did a lot this summer and in the future. Take Her Home is such
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  a good song and we've been able to embrace it at country radio, knowing
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  that you worked closely with the writers, specifically Hardy. Hardy is a part
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  of that song. What does it mean for you to see now that we're
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  catching up, you know a couple months later, that that this album is,
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  this song is caught on and it's and it seems success. Yeah,
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  I mean it's it means that it validates, you know, our philosophy.
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  Going into this record, I felt like, like I said before, that
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  it was time for me to have a song. Like I said a few
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  minutes ago that I felt like take Her Home was really in my wheelhouse.
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  I haven't had one of these in a while, and I felt like it
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  was really time to I'm not say get back to what I used to do,
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  but this is this is a song that's that it reminds me of,
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  you know, a lot of the things we used to put out, and
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  I needed that, you know, a as a as an artist. I
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  felt like my audience and it seems so that they were ready for it.
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  And I know by the time we get up there on stage and we do
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  Take Her Home, it's going to validate a lot of those decisions that we
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  made to put it out and have it be a part of the record.
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  What's your when it comes to live? So obviously people are gonna react to
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  take Her Home. Have you been able to play take Her Home live?
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  Yet? We haven't played it yet, And the first time we play it
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  isn't is It's coming up. You know. We we open in Tampa,
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  Florida at the Buccaneers Football Stadium and that'll be the first time we ever do
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  it, so we'll see it's gonna But I know I already know what we're
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  gonna do it in the show, and it's gonna be placed perfectly. And
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  it's just you know that song, It's It's, It's it is as much
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  as it is a ballad, it just moves, and I know in a
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  live element that it won't let the energy wise, it won't let the energy
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  down. And I look that those songs are hard to find. And it's
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  interesting to say that because you say it's a ballad, I don't listen to
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  it as a ballad, but I guess technically it is, but but the
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  energy of it and the way it lays, it's gonna lay in the show.
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  It's it's gonna be it's gonna be not seen that way, and I
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  can't wait to look. You can release music and you can hope, hope,
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  wish it up the charts, right, but until you get up there
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  and play it in front of people, you really don't know. It's like
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  like with us as a band. You know, we're in rehearsal, we're
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  thinking about what we're gonna do, and we can we can think that you
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  know what the set list is going to be right, and we think we
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  know what's gonna work, and you can rehearse it all you want, but
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  until you get up there and rehearse what you changed and what you put in
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  and what you put out, you don't know the flow of the show until
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  you do it. You know, you didn't get to tour that much last
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  day? It was the shoulder, right? You had shoulder surgery? Was
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  it? I had elbow surgery after Kelsey and I went out and did three
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  months together, and then after that I had elbow surgery. And it's I
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  feel great now you're ready to rock. I'm ready. You said that you
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  know where Take Her Home is going to land in the set? Yeah?
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  So does that mean you know what the first song when you get back on
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  stage is going to be for this big tour. We don't know what that
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  is yet, but it's not gonna be Take Her Own. That so funny
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  the crowd, the lights, and then you're like, people, do it
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  listen, It's gonna be awesome no matter what it is. Uh, what
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  are some things getting back on the road and doing all the days you're doing
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  in the stadiums. What's something you look forward to to get back to that.
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  Well, it's just all of it. I mean, honestly, my
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  road family and my crew out there, and the band. It's just it's
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  just that I get asked that question a lot, and and and I swear
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  it's not cliche. It's we all really feel this way is the first moment,
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  the first note of every night. It's just they've been anticipating it.
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  Like I said, we're gonna open in Tampa, Okay, and they know
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  we're coming. They've been they've known we were coming for months or six months.
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  We've known. That's and then all anticipating that moment where we all get
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  to where everything in life is wonderful, you know, where like I said,
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  we we don't They're not going to be told how to vote, They're
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  not going to be told what to think. They're not it's a safe place,
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  and they're anticipating that moment. Us as a band and a road family
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  have been anticipating that moment every night' like that. But it's the first that
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  that that just that synergy and you know, all the walking around backstage during
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  the day and uh, and you know that you're anticipating this beautiful audience that's
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  there to hear to hear your music. That's the best. That is that
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  that makes all the hard work worth it. It makes it validates your dream.
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  It's it's all of us, all of It's just we're looking forward to
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  it. You know. The last thing that I wanted to ask was,
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  Uh, the title of the album is born, And that feels very beginning
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  ish. But anyone that has followed even five minutes of your career and knows
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  that Kenny Chesney's put out some fantastic music for a while, why did Bourne
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  make sense for right now? Well? I feel like that it's just the
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  the that we're all on the same ride, right and me, you,
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  the audience, all of us, and there's a euphoria within that, you
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  know. And I think that I speak for myself, but I as I
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  think that I truly make it harder than it has to be sometimes, And
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  it's because I'm a workaholic and I'm attention to detail kind of guy, especially
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  when we're going you know, it's like going out on the road is like
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  you you you build your dream house every year, there's a new blue but
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  it's a new blueprint, and within that, I have over the years made
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  my other life, my personal life, harder than it has to be,
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  because if you give so much to this, there is some connection lost over
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  here. And that's that's kind of the whole idea of this. This record
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  is not forgetting that and and learning to not make it as hard as it
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  has to be. Listen, you took a page out of my book with
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  that whole harder than it has to be? Yeah, And I looked over
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  at you because we're both like doing the same thing of like trying to prioritize
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  work and like when can you unplug and when can this live here? But
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  you get to live here, so that's no. But looks like I've given
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  my whole life to a persona so, and he's really important, but the
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  person's important too, and so that is Yeah. I think that that this
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  record is the whole record is about just just getting off the couch of your
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  life, like I said, and trying to find real connection. And I'm
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  trying to find that in all aspects. That's awesome. Thanks for the time,
• 19:57
  man, I appreciate it so much. Thank you God was that last
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  answer. But let me tell you, it's like you were in my head
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  because we're like there's like some like life balance things going on right now.
• 20:08
  Yeah, you asked me what balance was what. Let me just say my
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  therapist said the same thing you just did. Well, I am two fifty
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  an hour. That's it. Isn't that cheaper than you? I'm talking.
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  I say that as I'm looking at myself, the other guy right there. I want