Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / New Music & More from Michael Ray

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New Music & More from Michael Ray · Inside Country with Wayne D

• 0:00
  All right, let's hang out. It's been a minute since I caught up
• 0:03
  with this guy. And last time, to be totally honest, we were
• 0:06
  on his turf. Now he's come to our turf. Michael Ray, how
• 0:09
  are you doing? Man? Yeah? Man, good to see you,
• 0:11
  dude, Good to see you. Last time we caught up it was Key
• 0:15
  West, which, um, I mean you're not necessarily from Key West,
• 0:18
  but Florida's home. Yeah. Uh, what's that like to go back there
• 0:22
  now? And you would even mention like I used to come down here and
• 0:25
  run around like a punk kid, and now like I'm here as an artist
• 0:28
  performing. Yeah, man, yeah, well the first time, like you
• 0:30
  know, because it was for the bing My Songwriter's festival, So this time
• 0:33
  we were headlining the whole festival, you know, right there on the vault,
• 0:38
  and uh, I'd gone down there to that festival so many times.
• 0:41
  I think I even told y'all when we were all listening to the to the
• 0:44
  record by the pool um that like literally been the first time I went.
• 0:47
  I went with a buddy of mine and his wife and we rented. We
• 0:49
  didn't know anything, you know, we rented this cheap, like ninety dollar
• 0:53
  room and That's when I realized, like, do not rent a ninety dollars
• 0:56
  room and key West because you're getting a ninety dollars room and we didn't have
• 1:00
  anything else we had to you know. It was I mean, it was
• 1:02
  a horrible everything that just makes a good story of years later. It was
• 1:04
  all that so um. But yeah, it was a real cool, full
• 1:07
  circle moment. I'm from about eight hours north of there, and so we
• 1:11
  should go down there all the time, Fish and Marathon Key grew up with
• 1:14
  Buddy Mine and his dad going down there and and then, but for the
• 1:17
  songwriter Festival of it, man, it was just really cool. I used
• 1:19
  to go down there and try to sneak in and watch Red Akins and Bobby
• 1:23
  Penson and you know all these writers that now I'm writing with they're sending sending
• 1:26
  me songs now or buddies in mine. Man, we used to try to
• 1:27
  sneak in because we didn't know anything about like how it worked or whatever.
• 1:30
  We're just like, especially the first time it was Fly by Sea or pants
• 1:34
  Many Squirrel, Let's just go down there and figure it out. So it
• 1:36
  was a cool thing to be once be in the crowd for many years watching
• 1:40
  you know, Chris Young and all these other people play that same stage for
• 1:42
  us now play and B and Mice had a huge part of my whole career
• 1:46
  and how I ended up getting into and eventually getting into Nashville. So it
• 1:51
  was a cool, get big family reunion type thing. And it has to
• 1:53
  feel like semi first full circle for you too, right, like like you've
• 1:57
  gone from You've gone from here to looking up to looking down? Yeah,
• 2:01
  yeah, yeah, I actually so, my videographer, I got this like
• 2:05
  spot in my house, in my dining room where I don't have any of
• 2:07
  your It's a typical malehouse, you know what I mean, where there's like
• 2:09
  some walls just buried, there's nothing on it. Yeah, And I'm like,
• 2:13
  I don't know what the heck to put on there. I don't have
• 2:14
  that mind of like, oh we need to put a good you know,
• 2:16
  Tuscan sunset and you're dining room, you know, like I don't know.
• 2:19
  And so my videographer took this photo man, and it's it's from stage and
• 2:23
  it's packed, and you see sloppy Joe and you see all these places and
• 2:27
  just it was just that moment where he captured everybody's face is like excitement.
• 2:30
  Everybody was like perfect moment, and so I think that's when I'm gonna end
• 2:34
  up hanging up in my in my dining room as this table because it has
• 2:37
  a Florida feel as a little bit of home, you know. So,
• 2:38
  uh it's I've actually got on my background on my phone now I look at
• 2:43
  all the time because it was because of that moment, you know, a
• 2:45
  full circle moment of being in the crowd and then all of a sudden be
• 2:47
  on stage and going maybe we're doing this, and especially after the you know,
• 2:51
  coming out of COVID and everything. Man, now it's just everything feels
• 2:53
  like it's full back, and uh it was. It's great. Man,
• 2:55
  it was a full circle moment and doing doing what you have done at the
• 3:00
  level you've done it for so long. They're probably you probably don't get too
• 3:02
  many I've made it moments anymore, right, because you've been established, you've
• 3:07
  sold out shows, you've had number one songs. You don't get to celebrate
• 3:10
  like Holy Cow probably very often. But that was a time for you.
• 3:14
  Yeah. Yeah, you know, I think I think through this thing because
• 3:17
  through this career, you never I don't think you ever really feel like I
• 3:21
  made it, you know. I think you I think you have moments through
• 3:23
  the journey that make you know that you're on the right path, you know,
• 3:25
  And you have the number ones, when you have the sold out show,
• 3:28
  when you play the opera. You know those moments you're like, all
• 3:30
  right, it's working. You know we're doing it. Because I think it's
• 3:32
  it's Music's that one thing man, like a lot of other things that are
• 3:36
  you're never gonna master it. It's never you can always get better, you
• 3:38
  know. I mean you can talk to whoever, any artist, you know,
• 3:42
  you talk to Kenny Chesney, and he's trying to get better all the
• 3:45
  time, you know what I mean, how is he going to grow this?
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  And it's like, dude, you're playing stadiums, you know, So
• 3:49
  it's always you're always trying to grow and get better. But I do think
• 3:53
  throughout the path there's those moments where you're like, holy cow. And yeah,
• 3:55
  that was one of them where I was like, all right, it
• 3:58
  working. You know, we're doing good, we're back. You know,
• 4:00
  we're good. It turns around like, yeah, it was. I'll tell
• 4:03
  you this, man, because it was one of those things where I was
• 4:05
  like, I was remember telling my band. I was like, man,
• 4:08
  um, how's it look out there? Dude? It's packed. I was
• 4:10
  like, thank god. I was like, because you never want to be
• 4:12
  the one guy where it's like they've had this party all you know, for
• 4:14
  twenty years of you play and there's ten people you know, and there's always
• 4:16
  that fear. I don't know if it's building our brains or whatever, like
• 4:19
  it's always that fear of like is anybody here? You know? And uh
• 4:23
  so, but it was you can it was packed. Men, it was
• 4:26
  awesome you with uh this EP that you put out. Gosh, I'm horrible
• 4:32
  with dates and calendars because it feels like we're in Key West yesterday, but
• 4:35
  it also feels like three years ago, so I'm yeah, right, it
• 4:41
  was a couple of weeks ago. It came out. The EP came out
• 4:43
  about two and a half weeks ago. I think, Um, it's called
• 4:45
  Dive Bars and Broken Hearts, And it feels like we were lucky enough to
• 4:49
  hear it a few days early, a few weeks early, and man,
• 4:54
  it's so good and it feels like like like a new part of your career,
• 5:00
  like every album is an extension, right, But there's something about about
• 5:02
  this EP, that's almost like you're brand new again. Do you feel that
• 5:08
  way? Yeah, totally, Man. I think in a lot of ways
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  I feel brand new. I think I think what people here in this EP
• 5:13
  when when they say that, and it means a lot to me that you
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  said, because I feel like I'm brand new as a person, you know
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  what I mean. I feel like I know what I want to feel,
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  very clear minded, avery in a great spot, you know. And and
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  I think that just comes out in your music. And I think you know,
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  through years trying to find the sound, trying to you know, country
• 5:30
  music is always the sounds always kind of changing and doing different things and up
• 5:33
  turning in here, and so you're kind of like, oh, what do
• 5:34
  you fit in in this? And I think once you kind of take a
• 5:39
  breather and just go, okay, wait a minute, what are we doing?
• 5:41
  Get the team together? What do we want to do? Here's what
• 5:43
  I want to do, you know, and then boom execute when you get
• 5:46
  that path you know where you want to go all the other things, it's
• 5:47
  just like trim and fat, you know, you're just like, now of
• 5:49
  a sudden, you get to where you want to be. And I think
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  that's what all the years leading up to this EPs has been and and so
• 5:55
  I think that's why it feels brand new. I feel brand new, you
• 5:58
  know in a lot of ways. You have lived a lot of life since
• 6:01
  COVID to where you are now and even before. Anybody that hasn't necessarily dove
• 6:08
  into the full EP yet maybe they just heard the song with with Megan Patrick,
• 6:12
  or they saw the first video for the first song we got off of
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  there. Um do you hear that in the EP? Like's a lot of
• 6:18
  that growth being told in the stories you're sharing with this, yeah, man,
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  And it really was a big play played a big part in how we
• 6:27
  laid out the EP as well, yeah, you know, and and we
• 6:30
  strategically put those songs in in order to be start here and in on working
• 6:36
  on it, right, And so what I wanted to do that will show
• 6:40
  the evolution in the last three years, you know, of just life in
• 6:43
  general, you know, and and know that we've all gone through stuff,
• 6:45
  right, especially in the last few years, and there's those songs that are
• 6:49
  that, you know, get Her Back, you know, dive Bars and
• 6:53
  broken Hearts, you know, all these songs that through those time periods was
• 6:56
  what I was kind of living through and what what we were all kind of
• 6:58
  going through and all the way down to you get through all that, you
• 7:01
  live through all that, right, you kind of got to navigate through some
• 7:03
  bad stuff to get too good. And I think good and bad now is
• 7:06
  what makes you end up where you are supposed to be in life. And
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  and I think sometimes you got to go through the bad because it's kind of
• 7:12
  like when you're a kid. You know, if you you got popped or
• 7:15
  whatever it was, you know you're like, Okay, I don't want to
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  do that again, you know what I mean. So it's kind of that
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  it's God do that near jerk reaction, like all right, dude here,
• 7:19
  you know, all of a sudden, we're world rocks. You gotta renavigates.
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  Yeah, it's like bowling. Yeah, it's like bowling. You know,
• 7:27
  you're the bumpers, but you still up with a strike, you know
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  that. See, you got kids, You got excuse. I don't have
• 7:32
  kids. I just like the family bowling party. But uh but yeah,
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  man, And I think the reason why we ended up on working on it
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  was because through that, throughout the whole thing, one thing I realized was
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  we're all human we're all just trying to figure this stuff out, you know.
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  And and nobody's perfect. And I think we live in a time where
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  so everybody's so quick to hop on a bandwagon or hop on and read a
• 7:55
  headline and make a judgment on something and forget the fact that we're all just
• 7:59
  growing, you know, we're all trying to figure this stuff out. You
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  know. We we post empathy post but then talk smack on a Twitter,
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  you know, so it's like none of it makes any sense. And uh
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  and and and I think a bunch of people live in a house with no
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  mirrors, you know, so um because they don't do any reflections. But
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  uh, I think at the end of it, when we realize that we're
• 8:18
  all people just trying to make tomorrow better than today, you have more empathy
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  for yourself, you have empathy for other people too. And so that's why
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  we wanted to end it on that, because I feel like out of all
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  that through the you know, because listen to You're Human man, So I'm
• 8:28
  human. You know, you you go through the you know, the rage
• 8:31
  stage of just like you know, I went. I went back to being
• 8:33
  a useless trailer park redneck for a little bit like I was like, who
• 8:37
  said what you know? And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it
• 8:41
  was like porns some gas lead to that fire. But uh but you know,
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  so you go through those stages of emotion and then at the end of
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  it, you just kind of come out kind of like a baptism, you
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  know. And I'm a huge Rocky fan of the movies, and I always
• 8:52
  say it's like when he gets beat and finally gets the title and he's Adrian,
• 8:54
  you know, he's holding up, he's all beat up. You nobody's
• 8:56
  got the title in his hand. He's like, we did it, you
• 8:58
  know. So yeah, man, but answer your answer your question is yeah,
• 9:01
  I mean that the whole EP was just kind of the growth and evolution
• 9:05
  in the last few years. Therapeutic. Yeah, probably absolutely. Yeah.
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  EPs the way they normally work is you have a massive selection of songs,
• 9:13
  you put it together. An album is coming, but you're like, let's
• 9:18
  do the EP. I'd imagine you held onto a lot of stuff and maybe
• 9:22
  some of it's even going to mean more or be a deeper story or a
• 9:24
  tougher story to tell as we get ready for and not that you've announced any
• 9:28
  album plans, so I'm not like trying to corner you into giving us dates
• 9:31
  and stuff. But i'd imagine you have this is this is a sampler before
• 9:37
  we get the main course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got some.
• 9:39
  We got a lot of songs that I've wrote, songs we got on
• 9:43
  hold, and then we're working on now Buffy, My manager and I would
• 9:46
  just talking about it the other day, you know, when we're getting ready
• 9:48
  to go back in the studio and just keep everything rolling. You know,
• 9:50
  I feel like we're on a good, good path, a great trajectory.
• 9:54
  I feel great. The show's been awesome. You know, fans singing every
• 9:56
  word already to songs on this EP, Um hell Man, even before the
• 10:01
  EP came out, because we were playing I was playing these songs alive,
• 10:05
  but except for Spirits and Demons with Megan Um and so Man, they were
• 10:09
  fans showing up already singing, you know, every word to like Don't give
• 10:11
  a Truck And I'm like, that song is not even out. You know.
• 10:13
  The only way you've heard this is if you listen to a probably a
• 10:16
  crappy iPhone recording of you of it live or came to a show, and
• 10:18
  so to see fans already already sing along with me. I just feel we
• 10:22
  feel I feel in a great spot and I'm excited about all the new music.
• 10:26
  Um that we're ready just to keep keep things rolling, man, and
• 10:28
  keep getting music out. Uh. The EP is great, get her Back,
• 10:31
  there's something that feels like smash thanks Man, like biggest song. Yeah
• 10:37
  right, and it's it's just the energy and the way it's written. It's
• 10:41
  so well done. Um. Also on the EP, you work with Megan
• 10:43
  Patrick, Spirits and Demons. Um. There are a ton of first of
• 10:48
  all, collabs are red hot and country music right now, So why Megan
• 10:54
  and did this song always feel like a collab to you? Yeah? It
• 10:58
  was written um to be a collab of duet um and Man, it was
• 11:05
  one of those songs man that the title and loan. I was like,
• 11:07
  Man, if this song is anywhere as good as the title is, you
• 11:09
  know, Spirits and Demons, I'm like, who hasn't you know? I
• 11:13
  definitely went through that, you know, and and and we all have of
• 11:16
  of you know, It's not it doesn't fix anything, you know what I
• 11:20
  mean? You think it is. That's a first human reaction to go,
• 11:22
  oh I'm broken hearted, Let's go to the bar. You know, and
• 11:24
  it's like, buddy, that memory line can be bumpy, you know what
• 11:28
  I mean, when you're drinking and you're you know, you're you're you're just
• 11:30
  trying to cope and do the things. It's it's, it's it's a dangerous
• 11:33
  place to be sometimes. And um, I recorded my version. I recorded
• 11:37
  my part before we had landed on on Megan. We've kind of been bouncing
• 11:41
  back and forth because, like you said, you know, collaps are hot
• 11:43
  right now. When any you you bounced around? Do we go outside the
• 11:46
  genre? Do we um? You know, let's go to Warner. Let's
• 11:50
  see who's at our label, you know. And then Megan's name popped up.
• 11:54
  And I've been friends with Megan for for a while and been a fan
• 11:56
  of hers and and she'd been you know, kicking ass in Canada and it
• 12:00
  was just about to release her new EP, Best Show on Dirt that's out
• 12:03
  now. And man, as soon as she as soon as they said her
• 12:07
  name, I was like, yeah, let's let's reach out. So I
• 12:09
  reached out to her. We certain the song, they loved it, and
• 12:11
  dude, she came in the studio and like it was like first take,
• 12:15
  Like we're like, well, I mean, if you want to sing it
• 12:16
  a few more times just to have it, you know, I guess,
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  Like, I mean, she's just and it's like, as soon as she's
• 12:22
  sang, our voices just blend so well together. She's got this like power
• 12:26
  of Carrie Underwood, but with this like kind of rasp to it too.
• 12:28
  It's just this like all these things that went in that go into her tone
• 12:31
  of her voice that fit with mine, and we're like cut from the same
• 12:35
  cloth, man. You know, like she's Joe, I'm like, she's
• 12:37
  from Canada. I'm from Florida. But it's like when I you know,
• 12:41
  when we hang together with it, it's like hanging out with my sisters or
• 12:43
  you know, my cousins from back home, and and she's she's a real
• 12:46
  deal, man. And she showed up and we've sing it a couple of
• 12:48
  times now live, and man, she's just she rocks it. And as
• 12:52
  soon as we heard it, we're like, she was meant for this song.
• 12:54
  This was meant to be her. There probably aren't a ton of surprises
• 12:56
  when it comes to sitting in a are sitting and recording, because you you've
• 13:01
  done it so long, you know what you're expecting you know what's coming?
• 13:05
  What songs are the biggest surprises to you on the EP that you're like,
• 13:07
  damn, we made that, not that you're not and that's like yeah,
• 13:11
  like damn, but like but like to to have this new evolution of who
• 13:16
  Michael Ray is as as an artist in a human being. What's what's songs
• 13:22
  on the EP? Have you been like that came out of something we did?
• 13:24
  Yeah? Okay, man, you know well I think a lot of
• 13:28
  the we we did the recording process way different. And as and saying that,
• 13:31
  I mean, um, I called Michael Nas who's my producer produce all
• 13:37
  Jason Aldeen stuff, and yeah, um we've heard of him. I was
• 13:39
  like, yeah, yeah, he might have a couple, he might have
• 13:41
  a hand or two in this ability. I don't know. Um, but
• 13:45
  I said, man, I go, dude, I don't want to I
• 13:48
  hate being in a studio like a cubical boss. And and again, dude,
• 13:52
  and this is something that like I wasn't confident to say this to anybody
• 13:56
  else before COVID and before all this stuff, Right, but you go through
• 13:58
  all this stuff and you kind of realize, Okay, here I am.
• 14:01
  I gotta be upfront and honest and what I'm gonna do. So long story
• 14:03
  short, we recorded very kind of. He's like, well, good,
• 14:05
  because I don't want to. I don't record that way anyway. I god,
• 14:07
  I want to be in a studio with some stains on the floor,
• 14:09
  you know what I mean, if the engineer smoking cigarettes, I don't care.
• 14:13
  I just want to be in a grungy studio. And then I want
• 14:16
  to like cut vocals, And so we cut vocals. Dude and Michael Wishire's
• 14:20
  back shed studio in his yard, grilling out. I was doing singing vocals.
• 14:24
  People were coming in and out, you know, And so I think
• 14:26
  a lot of it was you put your mindset in that relaxed state, you
• 14:31
  know, we and it just kind of made it fun. It was like
• 14:33
  making a record with your buddies in high school. It was like kind of
• 14:35
  for you forgot the responsibility that this EP needs to have. You know,
• 14:39
  you're just making a try to make the record as best you can. So
• 14:43
  I think one of the ones that stayed out is Spirits and Demons. For
• 14:45
  me, I think that one stands out vocally. I feel like I'm singing
• 14:50
  better than I ever have on the CP and then don't give a truck,
• 14:54
  which is the song that I wrote with some buddies in mine, Josh Phillips,
• 14:56
  Michael Tyler, and Ryan Ball. And we had this idea and it's
• 15:00
  a saying that um I think Mt. Michael Tyler and Josh had this idea,
• 15:05
  um. But it's a saying that my family used to say all the
• 15:07
  time, you know. And it was like kind of like, my mom's
• 15:09
  gonna let your babies grow to be cowboys. It's not a it's not a
• 15:11
  disc to cowboys. It's actually a hey, you know, cowboys are great,
• 15:16
  but mamas, be careful if you do, because he's not gonna be
• 15:18
  the same. This kid's changing, you know. And it's a lot like
• 15:20
  that first time you get your keys to your first truck when you're sixteen.
• 15:24
  It's like you're not the same that that night when you went to bed the
• 15:26
  night before you got your keys. Everything changed, you know, especially if
• 15:31
  you got the truck and you're lifted up and you put the subs in it
• 15:33
  and you know all this stuff and said you're the first friend in your group.
• 15:37
  Yeah yeah, yeah, the first one. So you're cruised. You
• 15:39
  know, your family's using you for all the pickups that they forgot about and
• 15:43
  m but that the whole song was just a warning to the mamas and to
• 15:48
  the kids, like make sure you're the boys ready, because the second he
• 15:52
  gets some keys, man, it all changes. And I'll tell you.
• 15:54
  As we sat pool side here in the EP for the first time, Tay
• 15:58
  was like, because Tay's got a young son, so she's all sitting at
• 16:00
  the fun it's sweat. I swear it, I saw it. I was.
• 16:04
  I did a private event on Monday in South Carolina for Hilton graand Vacation
• 16:08
  and there was a table with like four boys. Yeah, and those types
• 16:11
  of shows been. They're fun because it's kind of like old old times where
• 16:15
  it's just a barstool and acoustic guitar and I don't even make a set list,
• 16:18
  you know, you just kind of go up there and talk and play
• 16:19
  as you go. And I looked at her, I was like, I'm
• 16:21
  gonna play, don't give a truck And I did the same thing. You
• 16:22
  see the mom She's like, I'm like, got them. Yeah, it's
• 16:26
  a weird thing. As an ARTISTR like, are they crying? Yeah?
• 16:29
  Perfect, it hit them when it comes to to the life the lifeline of
• 16:37
  an artist and the music you have. We've talked to enough people where we
• 16:41
  get we get the EP or we get the album and that's like that's for
• 16:45
  us to enjoy now. But you're six like you're six months past it,
• 16:51
  right because you're thinking album, you're thinking what the songs you can record?
• 16:53
  So as this EP came out, what are you working on? Like,
• 16:59
  where are you with the album process or where are you with the writing recording?
• 17:02
  Are you is that still a massive priority or can you be like not
• 17:04
  take the EP and we'll get to the rest later. I think there's like
• 17:07
  a month of breathing room when the EP comes out, where you're doing like
• 17:11
  a lot of you know, press, you're doing a lot of stuff where
• 17:15
  you're you're we're on the road a lot. I mean, we stay on
• 17:17
  the road all you know, all the time. So there's a little bit
• 17:19
  of breathing room once the EP comes out where you're like, okay, let's
• 17:22
  enjoy you know, the hard work of the label. The man, there's
• 17:26
  so many people producer, you know, musicians, there's so much that goes
• 17:29
  into making an album, an EP or hell just a song. Now you
• 17:32
  know, um that I think it's important to celebrate the moment and then when
• 17:37
  that's out and stunne, you got a couple of weeks of like, all
• 17:41
  right, look at look at all this Okay, everything's worked out great,
• 17:44
  everybody's loving it. Cool. Now what do we do? You work your
• 17:48
  way up to that point, celebrate the EP and then go back to work,
• 17:51
  you know. And so leading up we've been listening to songs, writing
• 17:53
  songs. I've been on the road. Um, I really lean hard into
• 17:56
  the songwrite community for a bunch of reasons. One, I'm on the road
• 18:00
  one hundred days a year. You know, we're working on a TV show
• 18:04
  with a Circle Network, you know. So, like we were talking about,
• 18:07
  we're all over the place. Two, right now, more than ever,
• 18:11
  songwriters need us to to lean on them. You know, we got
• 18:15
  men and women. We have the best songwriters in the world. You know.
• 18:17
  All my heroes cut outside songs, you know, So why wouldn't I
• 18:19
  if I can call you know, Bobby Penson or or Jesse Alexander, all
• 18:25
  these huge songwriters and go, hey, here's what I'm you know, Michael
• 18:27
  Tyler, Josh, Hey man, I can't write this week, but here's
• 18:30
  what we're looking for, you know, and and here's what we're doing it,
• 18:34
  and they go, got it, you know, And so it's it's
• 18:37
  it's something that we've been working on. We're constantly writing, constantly getting outside
• 18:41
  songs, constantly putting songs in our dropbox that our team shares and listening and
• 18:45
  going through. So the process never stops. I think you celebrate for the
• 18:48
  a few weeks when it comes out, and then it's back to it.
• 18:49
  So our main focus right now is getting songs, writing songs, um playing
• 18:53
  these shows, and getting back in the studios soon as we can to keep
• 18:56
  everything rolling. Do you have a target season, We'll say for a full
• 19:02
  hour for the next We don't have a date. We're you know, hopefully
• 19:04
  beginning of next year sometime maybe I don't know, you know, we don't
• 19:07
  have a date yet, but it'll be it'll We're getting in the studio as
• 19:10
  soon as possible, as soon as we can get Michael Knox out of his
• 19:11
  beach house. And I was just kidding, I was cringe asking asking like
• 19:15
  date commitments, like when a manager's in the road, So I'm like,
• 19:19
  I'm making sure that she throws something. I'm ducking back. Notice I'm like
• 19:26
  behind mind the light, um man, when it comes that. We talked
• 19:30
  before we started talking here about how busy life can be. And if somebody
• 19:36
  falls you on social media. Man, you are either on the road,
• 19:38
  or getting ready to go on the road, or just getting off of the
• 19:42
  road. You've done this, uh for so long? How do you still
• 19:48
  make make room for yourself? Does that make sense? Yeah? Um,
• 19:52
  I really never did before. You know that was a problem. Um.
• 19:56
  I think just being a you know, no one listening to your body,
• 20:02
  listening to your mind, you know, being being honest about how you're feeling,
• 20:06
  you know, to your team around you of like, hey, man,
• 20:07
  you know, man, I'm just worre out or whatever it is.
• 20:10
  Um. But the thing, the man, the thing about it is and
• 20:12
  this is the truth. And this might sound cliche, but it is the
• 20:15
  truth. You know. You can have the worst travel day and we've had,
• 20:18
  dude, We've had travel days where it's held you're pulling up right before
• 20:22
  the show, you know, I mean barely in no time to like for
• 20:23
  your drum to even throw symbols on, let alone everybody's sound check. But
• 20:27
  you get a crowd of people where you get you just watch people connect with
• 20:30
  your music, and you know that especially now do. But the climate things
• 20:33
  are in, it's expensive to do anything. Someone. These guys, these
• 20:37
  many women spent their harder and money to come out. They could be anywhere,
• 20:40
  you know where. They could be saving money at home. M God
• 20:42
  knows what they're going through. You know. It could be the one thing
• 20:45
  that they that the one last give a try for their marriage. It could
• 20:48
  just be the first date. It could be them and their boys because they
• 20:52
  connected to one of the songs that you know, it's all these all these
• 20:53
  variables that bring people to concerts, you know, but the one thing is
• 20:56
  is they connected to the song and they connect to the music. So you
• 21:00
  could have the worst travel day ever, dude, and it's like and you
• 21:02
  could you know, bitch and moan the whole way up and that first beat
• 21:04
  down you see that crowd and it's great, everything goes away. Yeah.
• 21:07
  So it's like it's like that's like your shot of adrenaline that carries you to
• 21:11
  the next one. You know. So those moments, man, when you're
• 21:12
  feeling down and filling out, man, the crowd really does carry you,
• 21:15
  man. I mean, you get you get a good electric crowd and I
• 21:18
  don't care if it's at a bar or a stadium, man, you know
• 21:21
  what I mean. I've played big, big arenas, amphitheaters and had you
• 21:26
  know that that electricity. And then I've also felt that same electricity to at
• 21:30
  you know, five Spot when we did the EP release, you know,
• 21:33
  with too three hundred people during cmafest. So it's it's just a fans man,
• 21:37
  they just I think that's what carries all of us through those those hard
• 21:40
  time moments, because man, there's been some They don't even get me started
• 21:44
  on airlines. Man, you're already God knows well even we're just talking before
• 21:48
  some of the crew that was down in Key West get stuck trying to come
• 21:52
  back. We left a day early because our kids had football. Yeah,
• 21:55
  so I was like, yeah, I didn't have to live in air And
• 21:57
  the last time I saw y'all, y'all had your feet in the hot I
• 22:00
  was like, you coming to the show? No? Man, I was
• 22:03
  like, all right, do you like what show? No? I gotta
• 22:06
  I gotta thing do. Yeah, I'm actually getting hit by a car.
• 22:08
  Later. I would love and see your show, but I gotta slay my
• 22:11
  finger in a slide. Last door and I've already scheduled it, so I
• 22:12
  can't three five, I can't. Um, you were talking about songs,
• 22:19
  um that other people have written that or you'll you'll spit out the idea,
• 22:23
  they'll they'll write a song you guys collaborate on it. Has there been a
• 22:26
  song that you've passed on at any point that ended up big for somebody else?
• 22:32
  And that's and I asked that question. But I also know that a
• 22:37
  hit song doesn't matter to you. You it has to you have to feel
• 22:41
  it, you have to live it. It has to make sense coming from
• 22:42
  you when you're singing it. Right, Um answers we've gotten before? Is
• 22:48
  um Jason and eld No, Jaco and pass on Big Green Tractor. Eldine
• 22:52
  recorded a massive song. Kenny Chesney passed on check Yes or No ended up
• 22:57
  a massive song for a guy named George. Yeah. Yeah, Um,
• 23:00
  have you had had a moment like that where and maybe it wasn't a massive
• 23:03
  song on the radio, but it ended up connecting and with with fancy like
• 23:08
  well I had it first, it was it's pretty massive. Oh yeah,
• 23:11
  what are some of them? And obviously it's not disrespectful to who recorded it.
• 23:15
  No, no, and man, I'll tell you this. I think
• 23:18
  too that songs end up where they should be, you know, because you've
• 23:21
  had songs like what HRSA most was recorded by a bunch of people, um,
• 23:26
  and then Rascal Flat I think Mark Wills cut a version of it Faith
• 23:29
  Hill did um you know Friends in Low Places? Was was cut by Uh?
• 23:34
  Wasn't Mark Chestnut or Tracy Byrd one of the two? Um? You
• 23:38
  know? And it never popped up. Joe Nichols cut uh the Blake Shelton
• 23:44
  song. I can't think of the name of it now, but anyway,
• 23:45
  Blake made a big hit out of it. Um, who are you or
• 23:48
  who? Yeah? That you know what I'm talking about. I think the
• 23:51
  Books song where you talking about the books and stuff? Um? So I
• 23:53
  think a song finds its way. Um. But I had upbound on hold
• 23:57
  and fought for it, and everybody's like, man, I don't get it,
• 24:02
  And I was for you Yeah, I had it, yeah, And
• 24:03
  I was like again, no, man, I didn't you know, I
• 24:07
  didn't really I didn't stand up to it. I was, you know,
• 24:10
  I just didn't have the right people at the time in my corner were really
• 24:11
  good man. You know. Let us fight for this. I think now
• 24:14
  would have been a different story, you know. Um. But also man,
• 24:17
  it's like if Jake On would have cut Big Green Tractor, maybe it
• 24:19
  wouldn't have been a big hit, you know. I mean who knows,
• 24:22
  you know, who knows what it is if they fall where they are?
• 24:23
  But um, yeah, so updown was mine? Yeah? Do it anyway
• 24:27
  in a show? Why? Why not? Oh? This is my first
• 24:30
  more than Like you guys might have heard of some Morgan Whalen coming up in
• 24:41
  between now and the rest of the year. What are what are some big
• 24:45
  things you're excited for, maybe like a big show or a big vacation you
• 24:48
  got planned? Like, what are things that that you're looking forward to on
• 24:49
  the schedule outside of just playing show? Yeah, I'm playing, I got
• 24:52
  some some hunting. I'm playing on doing um at December that we're taking off,
• 24:57
  you know. Normally, Man, we play all the way up to
• 25:00
  like what December twentieth most time, second third week, you know, and
• 25:03
  then we take Christmas and first couple of weeks of January off because it's duck
• 25:07
  season. And also, man, my band and crew, man, they
• 25:10
  go they roll right along. Women. Man, I'm as much as you
• 25:11
  see me gone at least one or all or with me doing the same thing.
• 25:15
  So we try to give them that time off. So we don't really
• 25:19
  do like New Year's Eve shows or I mean, if one come across,
• 25:22
  I guess we would, but I just try to give them that time with
• 25:25
  family and friends. I think that's so important, you know, to make
• 25:26
  sure you have the recharged state of being with your your loved ones and people
• 25:30
  that you know bring you back to your roots and it does make you feel
• 25:33
  ready and energized to get back out there at the end of January. So
• 25:36
  excited for that. Um, we'll have any trips playing, I don't think,
• 25:40
  just just some hunting stuff and in December. That's that's really it.
• 25:44
  Well enjoy it, pretty simple, dude, unplugging whatever you can, no
• 25:48
  matter what it is, it counts. And that's still a vacation. Yeah,
• 25:51
  it's because there's not going to be a beach there. Yeah, and
• 25:52
  you know in your mind, you know, I'm from Florida, so I
• 25:56
  just go down there and drive thirty minutes and go. But yeah, I'm
• 25:57
  excited. I also out of men. I haven't seen too much of my
• 26:00
  family here in the last few months, just because we've been, you know,
• 26:03
  on the road a lot, and my step mom's been battling breast cancer,
• 26:08
  so she's she's been going through it a lot, and my dad's been
• 26:11
  going through that with her. So we haven't been I haven't seen seen a
• 26:15
  lot of times. They come out on the road, is what I'm saying.
• 26:15
  So it kind of bounces that out. So it's tide to see them
• 26:18
  and spend some time with them. And she's doing she's she's kicking but right
• 26:21
  now so she's doing good. But uh yeah, seeing some family, doing
• 26:23
  some deer hunting and enjoying the fall as you should, man, and keep
• 26:27
  recording some music. All right. We're waiting on that album. Thanks man,
• 26:30
  you said it's coming early. First there we just drop a date.
• 26:34
  Can't wait for January twenty thirty. We'll see all that. Michael Ray,
• 26:37
  thank you, brother, thank you so much. But it