Latest / The Scene Projects / Alyssa and Aurelia Ruffin: Josie Awards, Music Inspiration, and Industry Challenges

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Alyssa and Aurelia Ruffin: Josie Awards, Music Inspiration, and Industry Challenges · The Scene Projects

• 0:03
  Alright.
• 0:04
  Well, welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:06
  We are on the bus here with Aurelia and Alyssa Ruffin.
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  Welcome to the show, ladies.
• 0:11
  Thank
• 0:11
  you.
• 0:12
  Well, we are here.
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  It is still Josie Music Awards weekend.
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  I'm gonna call it even though it's a Tuesday night now, but celebrating a big win for you,
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  obviously.
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  And your your first time bringing your daughter to the awards show with you, and you're having
• 0:27
  a huge week here in Nashville.
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  So Yeah.
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  Thanks so much for taking a little bit of time for me today.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  I appreciate it.
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  Yeah.
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  So before we get too far in, obviously, you you were nominated and you won this weekend.
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  What was the category that you won in?
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  Social impact song of the year for the sacrifice.
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  And that's such a big one.
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  Right?
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  I I was so impressed with the people who, you know, had this this social impact video.
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  Tell us a little bit about the song and the meaning behind it.
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  So my husband has been serving for twenty years in the military.
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  He was air force.
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  He's space force now.
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  So he's he's been in.
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  I've been in military life.
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  And, you know, we go through these moments in time where he comes home, and he's gotta deploy
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  overseas and leave the family.
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  And I have tell the kids, or we have to tell the kids together or whatever it is.
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  So he's he's gone.
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  And even without deployments, you know, they have trainings that they go to, TDYs and
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  schooling and all these different things.
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  So there's moments in time where he's absent.
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  And I wanted to write a song from those experiences, not just from the military spouse
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  perspective, but also from the perspective of the military member of veterans who've gone
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  through this and the families affected.
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  So the kids, you know, even parents.
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  So that's where the song was inspired from,
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  a a
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  true moment from my personal experience as a military spouse.
• 2:00
  Yeah.
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  And I think a lot of us and obviously, you you know me a little bit to know that we have
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  Operation Combatty Veteran Suicide in our veteran community means so much to us.
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  But I I think a lot of people forget that it it's not just the veterans that we need to
• 2:12
  thank.
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  It's their families who really make the sacrifices.
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  You know, maybe not the ultimate sacrifice, but plenty of them.
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  Time away from the family and time away from your loved ones and the strain that it puts on
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  the spouses to maintain the household as a essentially a single parent in that time,
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  right, and raising kids.
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  And for people like you that have you know, your husband's made a career out of this, you
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  know, and it it's not it's not easy.
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  Right?
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  It's never easy.
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  So I I love that not only did your son get nominated, but that you won because it brings
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  that awareness to the situations that a lot of us just don't think about.
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  Unless you're in it or you know military families and you know that situation, you're
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  really not gonna think about that and the sacrifices that are made in the home as well.
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  Right.
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  Correct.
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  Yeah.
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  So awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  What was it like up there on the stage?
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  It's amazing.
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  You know?
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  And and I I went and got to go in the circle, but this this moment was just more special and
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  very personal to me.
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  And Aurelia was with, so I brought her up on stage with me.
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  She got to stand there and be by my side.
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  Shaking more than you were.
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  Yeah.
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  In that moment.
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  Yeah.
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  Nerve racking looking out at all those people.
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  Right?
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  Well and you're down here because you guys are you know, not only I I know mom is in the
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  recording studio and and doing some work, but you're also trying to launch your music career
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  now and getting that experience for you.
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  So, I mean, not that you didn't earn it because you did earn it.
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  You you lived the life that the story Yes.
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  You know, was about that won the award.
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  So you had some, you know, some input into that.
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  But now as you get ready to, you know, launch your own career, does stepping out there kind
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  of does it encourage you and excite you to say, hey.
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  I want this for myself?
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  It definitely inspired me
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  a lot.
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  Yeah.
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  And how could it not?
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  Stepping onto that iconic stage and to feel that I mean, that energy, that's the shaking.
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  Right?
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  The energy that's
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  on that stage and history of it.
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  Pure adrenaline.
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  Yeah.
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  Feels good, doesn't it?
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  Yeah.
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  I've been an adrenaline junkie in this business for twenty five years now, so I feel you in
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  every way.
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  You know?
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  I stepped on stage for my first time with my dad's band when I was maybe 14 years old.
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  And same thing.
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  I mean, quivering, and I and I got all worked up because I forgot some of the words to this
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  song.
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  And then I realized that, you know, I was singing a Grateful Dead song to, like, three
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  people in the crowd that knew it.
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  Right?
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  Everyone else.
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  Because I was in front of my whole hometown.
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  My first gig was a July 4 celebration.
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  So it a was pretty big deal in front of my whole hometown, but nobody else knew all those
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  words, and everybody thought I did wonderful.
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  Right?
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  And it it was turning all of that energy into a positive and into the performance and and
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  really focusing on just that moment.
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  And those moments turn into more moments, and it just keeps growing and growing.
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  They do.
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  And I and I told her, you know, like, even though I had been out there before, it every
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  time is different.
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  Every every experience, it's you're in that moment particularly.
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  And this time was you know, like, I was up there, and I forgot who I was thinking.
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  And I I Yeah.
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  Johnny I saw that.
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  I love that.
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  And I love that that's going to show up on the videos when they post them on the ACN network
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  and the American Country Network that the Josie's will air on at a later date.
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  I loved it.
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  I loved that you took a little peek up there in your yellow feathered dress, and you looked
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  absolute absolutely stunning.
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  And I know that you paid the price for it as well.
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  I did.
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  Getting to talk to you out in out in the drink line, and it was just so fun to share the
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  moment with fellow Midwest country music organization members and people that we've
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  really grown to to love.
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  Right?
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  Samantha Grimes was there.
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  She won an award as well.
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  Yeah.
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  And it it was just a real joy to watch so many of my friends, you know, especially Jasmine
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  Kane who won later in the night and put on an absolutely iconic performance She did.
• 6:04
  Did.
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  Inside of that grand old opera.
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  Yeah.
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  I think she might be knocking on the door here before we finish this interview possibly.
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  So we'll see we'll see if we get her in here at the same time.
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  Last time we did an interview, somebody else popped in too.
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  So you never know what's gonna happen here on the bus.
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  We are filming this live.
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  We are not in a studio.
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  We are literally on the bus and an iconic bus at that.
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  You have a George Jones story, and I don't think that we can sit here without telling
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  that.
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  So I just kinda wanna give you a chance to to tell us you don't have to get into the details
• 6:31
  necessarily, but give us give us the short synopsis of what happened.
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  Okay.
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  A short short synopsis.
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  I was a angry teenager.
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  I was trying to walk home to cool off, and I decided to take a shortcut.
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  And I hopped a fence and got the cops called on me, and it happened to be George Jones' private
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  property.
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  So
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  And now here you are on his bus, and, obviously, it's no longer his, but I think it
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  will always be his.
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  Is it this is what we call a full circle moment.
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  Yes.
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  It is.
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  I feel like there was a lot of those at this at this Josie Awards.
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  And this was my first time in Nashville and my first time at the Opry, but it's also a huge
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  validation for me and what I'm doing with this podcast and what we've been building in our
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  brand that we are I don't wanna say that maybe we're essential to it, but we add a lot of
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  value to not just this award show, but to the music community as a whole.
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  And I think in some ways, I needed a little bit of that validation this week to see where I
• 7:28
  stood on the biggest stage in, you know, my career by far and the biggest stage that I may
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  ever see.
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  I I don't know that it gets bigger than the grandola.
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  I mean, maybe the Grammys or something like that, but I'm not necessarily interested in
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  that next level of the music business.
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  Like, to be that big of a star or or to work with people that are that big of stars doesn't
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  necessarily interest me.
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  I would much rather work and be surrounded by people that understand the grind that it is,
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  that understand the the connection that we're trying to make.
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  And I feel like, especially with your song and get this a new song that you had written
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  recently?
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  I wrote it a couple years ago.
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  It released last year.
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  Okay.
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  So it's still pretty fresh Yep.
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  And still out there connecting with people, and this is going to give more notoriety out there.
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  And there's gonna be so many military families that listen to this and go, she's telling our
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  story.
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  Absolutely.
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  And That's the hope.
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  Yeah.
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  Well and but that's why we write music.
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  Right.
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  Right?
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  Is that we're trying to get out a bit of ourselves to throw it out there into the world
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  and see who else resonates with.
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  Yeah.
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  And and that's what this music business and doing it is all about.
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  I know you've been doing this full time for quite a while.
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  We won't say exactly how long, but you've been chasing this career, and you kinda got that
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  from your mother.
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  So you you talked about the George Jones story, but you were here actually because your mother
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  was pursuing a career in the record industry way back then.
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  And now you're here with your daughter, Aurelia, and she's beginning hers.
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  You talk about full circle.
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  Right?
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  Full circle.
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  That's great.
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  What's what's kind of the inspiration for you to to to not just pursue it for yourself, but
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  to also try to make that, you know, a reality for your daughter as well?
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  I think the shift for me musically was not pursuing it for myself.
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  It actually kinda shifted more towards writing music for other people in their healing
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  journey, whatever that may be, because as as human beings, we tend to gravitate towards
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  music.
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  Even if we're not musically inclined, we're not, you know, singers or musicians or or
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  whatever it may be, producers.
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  People just like to listen to music if we're heartbroken.
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  Like, we put on a record that's you know, so we can cry our eyes out and you know what I mean?
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  Or if we're in a good, oh, I love this song.
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  It's a, you know, summer song, whatever it may be.
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  And so I wanted to write music for the people.
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  Having my career inspire my children is just a blessing and a and a extra little bonus on the
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  side.
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  You know?
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  All my girls sing, so it's it's it's definitely heartwarming.
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  Yeah.
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  It just runs in the family.
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  And when you grow up around singers, I know that it's very easy to just fall in line.
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  Right?
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  Yep.
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  But for you, Aurelia, is this something that you're really passionate about pursuing and
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  seeing your mom doing this and being here this weekend in the recording studio?
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  Mhmm.
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  Does it inspire you, or is it a little bit daunting to say, I don't know if I can fill
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  these shoes.
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  Right?
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  A little bit of both.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  More inspiring if anything, though.
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  I've always been inspired.
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  Yeah.
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  I've actually tried to discourage her.
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  Well, how could you not?
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  We know how much work it is.
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  Yeah.
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  Right?
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  And we know
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  how tell her.
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  I don't want you to have to go through what I do.
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  Well, we know how discouraging it can be when you feel like no one's listening and you're not
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  getting that connection with people and you're you know, as someone who's been doing this for
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  a quarter of a century now, I know all those lows.
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  And it's probably what makes me a very good host for this show talking independent
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  musicians because I know the struggle.
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  Right?
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  And I haven't really got to celebrate any of the highs of this.
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  I I've had a few recent wins lately and things like that, but those are all coming after
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  twenty years of of doing this.
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  You know?
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  So I understand the struggles that it takes.
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  And being a father myself to, you know, kids, I have a teenager now as well, and and seeing him
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  and knowing what he wants to do and pursue any dreams that he wants.
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  Right?
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  I'm never going to push something onto my kids and to make them follow in the family
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  footsteps.
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  Sure.
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  God help them if they ever do.
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  You know?
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  Right.
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  It's it's just an incredible amount of work, and and I see it every day from artists like a
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  Tyler Herwig, you know, chasing them around yesterday throughout Nashville while he's
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  shooting content.
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  Yeah.
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  And I watched him perform the same hook from his songs 400 times Sure.
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  And going, I don't have that.
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  Yeah.
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  Right?
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  Like, I I buddy, God bless you because I don't have that.
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  And that really, you know and and it's not necessarily discouraging to me and even to say
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  that.
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  It's just like, yeah.
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  I'm I have my thing now, and I'm glad that I found this, and I'm so happy to have had
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  podcasting and and this platform now to share with people because it's I can't imagine doing
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  what it takes to make it in the music business now.
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  It's a ton of work because you have to be a creator and you have to be your manager and you
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  have to be your booking agent and all of these things.
• 12:23
  Oh.
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  And there's more and there's more well, and you've got plenty of hats too, Alyssa.
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  I I saw them in the
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  back seat.
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  That yeah.
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  It's incredibly hard, and it's more I mean, we saw that Josie's had over 86,000 submissions
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  Right.
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  For their award show this year.
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  Yeah.
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  That's insanity.
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  It is crazy.
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  That's, like, two point four, two point five percent of of those submissions only receive a
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  nomination.
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  So
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  And that's something that I pointed out in talking with Tyler and we're rolling around
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  with him was, you know, he was a little disappointed that he didn't win.
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  He had five nominations and, like, come on.
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  We gotta win one of these.
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  Right?
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  Low.
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  You got a nomination.
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  And that's and you got five.
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  You got nominated in five different categories.
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  That's incredible.
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  That's incredible.
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  Yeah.
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  And and you should hang your hat on that because that's such a small percentage of
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  people, but then an even percentage that are winners as well.
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  And there's all of this has value in the world.
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  And I think that's what's so awesome about the Josies and my first time working with Tina
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  Marie and Josie.
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  And a big shout out to them.
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  Thank you ladies for for having us and making this possible because it means something.
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  And it mean in a world where it's so easy to get overlooked by everyone, it's nice to have
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  these things that set you apart.
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  So awesome.
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  Well, before I let you go, go ahead and plug everything.
• 13:40
  Tell us where we can hear the song and where we can find out more about Alyssa Ruffin.
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  And, really, if you got your social medias and stuff out there working already, you're free to
• 13:48
  share too.
• 13:49
  Yep.
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  So you can go to alissaruffin.com.
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  Also, the sacrifice is available on all digital platforms.
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  And my brand new upcoming Christmas single, All Wrapped Up in Christmas, is releasing very soon
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  within the next couple of weeks.
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  And then Aurelia?
• 14:10
  You can find me through our band page, bullet queen music or music?
• 14:17
  Aurelia Halo on Instagram.
• 14:20
  Awesome.
• 14:20
  Well, ladies, thank you so much for being on the bus with me.
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  And thank you for being part of the scene.
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  Yeah.
• 14:25
  Absolutely.
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  Cool.
• 14:30
  Yeah.
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  Kailed it.