Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Carly Pearce

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden sits down with Carly Pearce. Born in Taylor Mill, Kentucky, Carly Pearce left high school at 16 to take a performing job at Dollywood, then moved to Nashville at 19 to chase a solo career full-time — working odd jobs and driving her own van between shows before her big break finally came. Her 2017 debut single, "Every Little Thing," launched a run that's since brought her a Grammy, three CMA Awards, and four ACM Awards, including CMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 2021. That same year, Dolly Parton personally invited her to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry, one of the highest honors in country music. Pearce's most acclaimed work, 2021's 29: Written in Stone, turned the pain of her divorce into a Grammy-winning album, and she's continued that streak of raw, unflinching songwriting on 2024's Hummingbird and this year’s Honest Woman. While talking with Joel, Carly opens up about the years of grinding it out before anyone was paying attention, learning to trust her own instincts instead of everyone else's opinions, and why she's finally made peace with even the hardest chapters of her story. (0:00) – High Heels in the Warehouse(1:11) – Dolly Parton Fulfilled a Lifelong Opry Dream(1:59) – Country Grandparents, Southern Rock Parents(6:33) – Quitting School at Age Fourteen(11:25) – Forbes 30 Under 30 & Grand Ole Opry Member(17:10) – Reclaiming Her Artistic Voice(21:14) – Writing Through a Public Divorce(24:53) – Music as a Lifeline(26:46) – Kentucky Bluegrass Roots on Record(35:51) – Six Shows a Day at Dollywood(36:46) – Faith as Her Grounding Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You gotta try breakfast at you gotta try. And what better way than with a delicious Pratt organic coffee? Starting with just $1 all day, every day now until December 31st. You gotta try breakfast at A&W. At participating A&W locations in Ontario. Typically when you're asked to be a member of the Opry, it typically happens on the Opry stage. So that wasn't even a thought in my mind, but it was during COVID. I went to do this Dollywood commercial.

And I remember I was starting the liners that they gave to me or the questions. And I heard high heels coming through the warehouse. It was like a big warehouse. And I was like, that sounds like it's got to be Dolly. I just knew it was Dolly. How are you doing today? I'm great. Thanks for coming.

Thanks for having me. Really nice to have you. I'm excited. The big deal to have you here. I don't know about that. But I'm very excited to be here. Well, you're a very calm. You've accomplished a lot.

And I was going in and I was like, you've accomplished a lot. That's good. Sometimes you don't feel like you, I'm sure you understand. It's like, have I? Yes, I guess I have. Yeah. I think it's normal to forget about everything you've done and just go forward. But every now and then you'll see something or you'll look back at something or someone

will say something and you'll remember that like you did that. Yeah. So congratulations. Thanks. Grammys, CMAs. The Grand Ole Opry. Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah. The Grand Alopri was my dream from the time I was little. Did you grow up watching it? I grew up. Listening? Listening. Listening, yes, and visiting. Okay.

And wishing. I love country music. Really? I do. Awesome. And I grew up with it, but I didn't grow up in it in the sense of like understanding what certain things mean. Yeah. Now I'm more aware.

So I understand the prestige of the grand old. of the Grand Ole Opry and I respect it, but maybe you could like explain, because there's tons of artists, I'm sure, that are aspiring to that. Yeah. Maybe you could explain like what that meant and when did you become aware of that that was something you could accomplish and why did you, why were you aware of it? And then what was the like the pathway to that? I grew up in a family of music lovers and my grandparents, they loved traditional country music. So my parents, they were kind of more Southern Rock. Okay.

And did not listen to country at all. But what was that Southern Rock? Like Leonard Skinner type stuff? Yeah. Crosby Still's National Young, Hart, Fleetwood Mac. Yeah. In Kentucky. Dube Brothers. Yes.

Cool. And my grandparents, they loved Buck Owens and Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Charlie Pride. So I had a lot of music lovers. And my grandparents, they had a lot of memorabilia in their house, like of the Grand Alopery or of these different artists. And so I don't know when I became aware of what the Grand Alopry was, but I know it was very young. And they explained to me that this is a place where if you're a country music singer, you sing there.

And so in my five, six year old brain, it's like, oh, well, I want to do that. Right. And as I've gotten older, I've understood that this is a place. And I feel like it's unlike any other genre, we have the longest running radio show, WSM Radio. My grandparents, as children, listened. and it was a part of their nightly thing to watch or to listen, gather around the radio and listen to the Grand Alopry, which is pretty awesome. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's a pretty cool picture.

Yeah, and just to think of all the generations that have done it before me and my family. And for me now, it's a place where if you have made any kind of impact on country music, you've stepped into the circle, which is the piece of wood that's in the middle of the grandelopry stage where they have moved it from the rhyme in when the, Granal Opry originated there, moved it to the new home in Nashville, the Grand Alopry House. And to me, it just, it's very symbolic of every person that I've ever looked up to. They've stood there. And if you stand there, you've done something where somebody's taken notice that you're worthy of stepping in there. And now being a member, there's very few members. I think there's maybe, I don't want to fact check myself.

You don't have to be correct. Yeah, I'm like, there's, you can throw spitball. I'm going to say like maybe 200, maybe. That's not a lot. And like the history. And to me it's like, wow, I'm a part of a very small family of people that had this crazy dream and were invited to be a member of to me the most important country music family. How do they invite people? How do they decide?

It's a surprise. Oh, cool. They kind of all, it's like a very big decision who gets to be a member. I would say now probably two to three people a year get asked or invited. But you have to be invited. It's a surprise. you don't know when it's going to happen. Right.

And you are invited by another Grand Ole Opry member. That's kind of the thing. Just out of the blue. Literally out of the blue. That's crazy. I was invited by Dolly Parton. Oh, wow. I love Dolly Parton.

Oh my gosh. She's literally. She's such a legend. She's such a G. She is. She is, honestly. She's such a G. She's so amazing.

I love Dolly Parton. Yeah, same. What an iconic and amazing person. I've never met her. She's exactly what you want. her to be. But you, you hope, but I've heard a little bit and I get the sense. One thing I love about doing this show is the whole reason I started it was that exact thing is get a sense of someone, like what are they like as a in real life in their lived life? Right. Not the life we see. Right.

And it's so refreshing when you meet people in this like, you know, the business we're in in entertainment, the broad spectrum of entertainment, movies, music, all that stuff. It can be like a very circle. like place with a lot of craziness, a lot of silliness, a lot of amazing things, the whole spectrum of all the things. And you can get lost in all of it and you can miss things. So to get a sense of someone like the real person that took the journey all the way to where they are is always what I've always been interested in. And I get senses of people. And I always had a sense of Dolly as being this amazing person who's wise and tough and all kinds of things. I just really like love her.

Yeah, she has some kind of fairy godmother dust. I don't know how to explain it. She's magical. She even smells magical, which is so weird. That's real. She really does though. She smells like you want or two. The senses.

Yeah, that's a huge compliment though when you say someone smells good. It is, it is. So Dolly called you on a face. time? No. So I... Or surprised you? Yeah, she surprised me. I used to, when I was a freshman in high school, I asked my parents if I could drop out because I saw an audition to sing in the country show at Dollywood. And Dollywood is Dully's theme park in eastern Tennessee. And my parents were crazy enough to let me do that. So that's the actual start date of your career. Even though you could say, well, I didn't have a deal or I didn't do this. Like to me, that's the start date of your

career. Right. When you said, I'm all in. I'm going. And this is what I want to do. Quitting school is the, is the big signal. Yeah. Right. So this was kind of like a whole full circle thing for me because I got my start singing at Dollywood. So I- That's pretty amazing. Yeah. I was asked what I thought was going to be a Dollywood commercial. And typically when you're asked to be a member of the Opry, it typically happens on the Opry stage. So that wasn't even a thought in my mind, but it was during COVID. And I went to do this Dollywood commercial. And I remember I was starting the liners that they gave to me or the questions. And I heard high heels coming through the warehouse.

It was like a big warehouse. And I was like, that sounds like it's got to be Dolly. I just knew it was Dolly. And I thought probably she was surprising me and going to do the commercial with me. And she walked in and she just started talking about the Opry and asking me questions about the Opry and asking me, how many times have I played on the Opry and all these things? How many times have you played on the opera? Well, at the time, I had played 80 times.

How do you play 80 times? Like, how does that happen? Sorry to stop the story. No, I've... You get invited to play, too? Yes, you get invited to play. I was invited to play when I was 25 and just really, I guess I've been playing there for 11 years now, which is crazy. But I just loved it.

And it felt in a lot of ways, like, home to me and always a place to play. And I wanted to earn my keep. I've always been somebody that wanted to earn it. didn't want anybody to ever give it to me. So I knew that being an opera member was like a life goal. So I just started doing it. And so she mentioned that. And then she said, well, I think you should be a member. And that's like where I blacked out. And she said, I'm not here today to do a Jollywood commercial. I'm here to tell you that you're the newest member of the Granal Opry. And I was just like, I felt a minute. Congratulations. Yeah. It was crazy. Thanks. And then there was a ceremony. There's a

yearly concert or something, right? They do. Yeah. Everybody has like a nice. where you're inducted. And then all these other people come and celebrate you? Yeah. Who was there? Trisha Yearwood inducted me. Yeah. And then I had a lot of different friends that came and sang with me.

And it was, you know, I guess just a very surreal thing for me, lifelong dream, child dream. Good for you. Thanks. You know what? What else is great about that? You appreciate it. Yeah.

You know, sometimes people are winning so much, so fast, or for so long, that it's harder to savor. even the most amazing like a Grammy or like it's just the volume of sometimes this thing can get to everyone or the size or whatever not to say you you don't black out sometimes and you're like it overwhelmed with the idea of something that's meant so much to you since you were young which is incredible but the actually that you can feel it yeah and you can hold it and even when I talk to you now it feels like you respect it and appreciate it in a way that is really nice because it's a big deal. You know, there are people that are dreaming about it that will never achieve it. And there are

people that are dreaming about it that will achieve it because they saw it could be achieved. And you're one of the people that are passing it along so that the next little girl or boy that's like somewhere sees it and can start to visualize the reality of it. Because somewhere in your development, I believe, You believed it was possible. So you kept taking steps towards it. And I mean, playing 80 times is a lot of effort and a lot of putting yourself out there to fail. Because that's the biggest stage if you fail on that stage. If you fall down on that stage, if, you know, it's a big risk actually for some people.

They look at it that way. It's a huge honor. But some people would say that they're not ready or whatever. But I think to be able to achieve something like that, again, like think about it, if only 200 or let's say 300, however many hundred have achieved it out of hundreds of thousands of hopefuls and millions of hopefuls. If you go all the way, you know, out of every ring from upstart to trying to be to going to be, to established artists to stars all the way up the pyramid of development of artist's careers, only to or, 200 or so people achieving something is a small, it's thin air. Yeah, I've always said that to me, as you know, ticket sales will come and go. Songs will go up the charts. They'll not go up the charts. But to me, awards will come and go. The one thing for me that will always be there is I will always

have that stage to play and I will always be a part of that family. And no matter what changes in country music, I will still have put my mark on that place. And that's just like a really sweet thing for me to think about. It's really sweet. Yeah. It's really sweet. It's so interesting. When I listen to your music, you have a really sweet, warm, even though some, there's like love songs and there's songs that are about sad things or, or there's a really like kind, sweet, warm, honest kind of feeling, tone vibe in your voice, which is really nice to hear. Thank you. I can tell you love to sing.

Getting a sense of your background and knowing what you had to do live to get where you're at is shows, shows, shows. That was, so there's just an experience you get with that that you can't buy, can't learn, just have to live it. I think going back to your point, on paper I have a ninth grade education. Yeah. And I think the moment that it really clicked for my father was when I was on Forbes 30 under 30. And I now get to go and speak to high school kids, college kids.

I'm clearly doing just fine for myself. And I think it's a testament to why I'm so involved in with the CMA Music Foundation of trying to make sure that children that maybe have dreams that look a little different than academic. Maybe they're musical or all these different things. I felt like I went to school with kids that wanted to be actors and singers and somewhere along the way dancers, artists, they were told that that was not attainable and that they had to go this academic route of graduating high school, going to college. And I'm certainly not condoning, not getting an education, but I also think there are children who are artistic and they have different dreams. and maybe my story or your story can be a testament to being able to not follow the cookie cutter way because I went to Dollywood and then I jumped in a van at 22 and booked my own shows and drove the 12 passenger van and took an Adderall at times to stay awake because I couldn't afford

a hotel room. Yeah, that's hardcore. Yeah. The van touring. Yeah, it's something. But again, all shaped. No iPhones, I don't think. No iPhones. No. Well, for me, there were. There were. No Instagram, which I miss. I miss those days. But yeah, I think there's nothing that can really teach you like experience. And I feel like before I had a record deal, I had years and years of experience, if at least, and I've had many more years, which I do feel, to your point, this new music, it is my best music, even though it's my fifth album, because there's a sense of self.

There's a sense of womanhood. There's a sense of ownership of my story and experiences that I feel very confident in. I can tell. Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah, it is exciting. And it really is, I'm not saying this. I'm not a person that's like that says things just for promotional use.

But it really is my favorite music I've ever made. Yeah, I can tell. You're very clear. I haven't always been. But that's how you get there. Yeah. You can spend long enough not listening to yourself. and maybe it's like some of it's youth and a lot of it is experience.

Some of it could be self-esteem. Some of it could be. Everyone's different. It's a mixed bag. But when you arrive to being confident and grounded in like how you feel and what you think and what your gut tells you or even if you haven't concluded something yet and being able to say, you know what, I haven't made my mind up yet. You'll have to wait.

It's clear. Yeah. And I get that from you, which is, again, it points to me to experience, which is really cool. Yeah. I think there's a lot. I feel like we're always trying to chase youth and the next thing and what's young and hot. And it's like, actually, I find it to be quite attractive to have substance and wisdom and years of experience and years of trials and being able to mentor others and share your experiences and say, hey, I've lived this and I've been here too. that to be quite sexy myself.

Yeah, I do too. I think that also going through the experience and not just rushing to some result, that you don't even know if that result would be good for you. You don't know if that result is the best thing instead of a discipline where you're kind of in your workshop working on something, metaphorically speaking. Again, like the practice of chopping the wood or building the thing. or working in the garden and then looking up every now and then to measure the growth, the results,

and gaining the experience to me is really the most important part because you do gain that confidence and you do learn how things grow. And that does make you more sure-footed and less jumpy and less like changing directions every five minutes. You're like or easily talked out of your own feeling or sense of something.

and I think experience is the only teacher for self. You know? Yeah, there have been a lot of moments in my career where I feel like I was heavily influenced by what other people were doing or what this person thought I should cut for an album or how I should do this photo shoot or, oh, you need a tempo song because all of your songs are ballads or you need to not sing a heartbreak song.

And I started to run from the thing that brought me to the table, which is authenticity and not. not being bold enough to just say, no, this is what I want. And I think enough of those experiences made me realize, really, nobody knows what's going to be successful. Nobody knows what's not going to be successful. But the only thing that I can control is what I'm putting out in front of people. And is it actually 100% honest to me?

And the only thing that I feel like I can control is the music. And so there's a freedom in that, that even if this crashes and burns, it's what I chose, not what somebody else chose. I agree 100%. You can sense when someone's singing something they don't believe in. It's like it's someone gave him a song and really pitched it and really, and you never know the motives. That's the other thing is you never know behind closed doors,

the guy who brought you the song, you do not know unless it's someone you built a relationship with over time where you know beyond the shadow of a doubt, you know that person. They're fighting for the same thing you are. fight all day for the best song with that person. Yep. But, you know, God bless him.

Some A&R, some label, whether he's afraid to lose his job, or I always tell artists like, if you wouldn't let this guy pick your shoes, then how would you let him pick your song on your fucking life's work? Yeah. How many records do you get?

Right. What do you get? 10, 15, 20? You stack them up. However, I would say 20 is a lot of, records but if you do 20 you've had a great career i'm at eight or nine now i mean it's it's it's not a lot so how many songs let's say you get to 15 records in a career with 10 no let's say 15 songs or 20 songs that's only 150 to 200 or however many uh cut songs you get to choose on your legacy right

not a lot right so who's choosing those songs yeah and i've had other people choose them for me and they weren't they didn't work and i don't play those songs anymore and we all have though yeah we all have had those early moments until we stop having them right because you've had to go through it enough times to go why i didn't even remember that guy's name now where where is he i can't even believe i let this this perceived important person who said i mean i went in his office he had all these plaques and he said the stuff and i just believed right because i'm honest That's the thing we also got to remember is when you're honest, you take other people at their word. So when they said they did this or they did that, you just, it's not gullible.

It's honest. Right. And I also tell artists don't have regrets. This is learning. This is information. We all have to go through the confusion somewhere to get to the other side. It takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of heartbreak and it takes a lot of rejection. and it takes a lot of rejection and it takes all the things to get to the other side of like knowing

who you are yeah and you can't you can't teach someone that's like an innate yeah i think even at you know two years ago i'm not the same person that i am today and probably won't be the same five years um but i feel very much like the story i used to want to shy away from parts of my story or say oh no i'm moving on from that it's in the past and all these different things but But at the end of the day, I'm much more at a place of wanting to embrace all of it because it is a part of who I am in my journey. And it's something to be proud of to have life experience. Yeah. What would you say?

Like, could you give me an example of that? Sure. You know, I went through a very public divorce. Ooh, that's tough. Yeah. And wrote an album that was wildly successful around it, which then I became, I think, for a lot of people, the girl who sings. every song was attached to this person because he was a public figure as well.

And so I think I then re-routed my brain and said, no, I'm gonna, it's a healing journey. I'm done with that. I'm not, that's not a part of my story. None of this is about him. And it's like, well, yes, but also that was a life experience that I'm grateful for. And it doesn't have to be negative.

It doesn't have to be something I never speak about or I never write about. Maybe I'll write a song about it one day. Again, I don't know. Life experience. shouldn't be something that we're conditioned to say isn't valid. I don't know. I think I had a lot of shame around it and now I look at it as a- Shame is a motherfucker. Yeah, yeah. It is a motherfucker. I really hate the idea of shame. The only place where shame is appropriate is if you do something wrong.

And it's okay to be ashamed when you do something wrong, but not for being a human. Right. and going through a painful experience or making mistakes different or falling down or the hard part about entertainment is going through something like divorce, which I don't look at divorce as bad. I look at it as painful because I've had friends who've gotten divorced and I've had to watch people go through it. It's really painful and hard no matter how friendly or how cool, still sucks. And then to do it in front of everybody and then have to deal with like people's

flippant kind of passing comments or deal with the world is mean. It's really mean sometimes because people are in pain or they're suffering or they just don't care. Whatever the reason is, when they're mean, it hurts doesn't matter. And to have to go through the pain of breaking up with someone in front of everybody. and then dealing with just the mean world sometimes is I can't imagine a worse thing to go through. But I agree with you. The era is still a part. It's still such a big part of how you got here.

And so it's like to embrace it is the right point of view. I think. Yeah, I agree. You just have to own the life you were given. And I like the life I was given even with the hard parts of it. I could have had an easier life, but maybe I wouldn't have had the life experience. Or maybe I would have gotten a record deal sooner, but maybe I wouldn't have the ability to make the music that I wanted to make, all these different things.

So I feel accepting of all of it. Yeah. Zen. I think you have such a cool story. What would you change, you know, when you think about it, if it was a book or a movie, it reads like a book in a movie, you know what I mean? So I think it's cool. And that's the gift you have as you get to write songs and sing songs about it and help other people that are going through it, regardless of what you have to endure when you go through it.

The bigger thing that we do as artists is share and wear it. And then people that you will never meet them that are going through it. Can they have something to ease their pain? Yeah. I think my greatest blessing and curse in life is that I was given a very big story and a big platform to be able to share with people. And like, yes, in the process, it's hard to be that vulnerable. But I wish that people who went through things could have the connection that I get to have every day where somebody's telling me, you know, in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, that I help them, you know, not feel alone or help them regain. their confidence or their self-worth.

I mean, that's, to me, the whole point of being on this planet is to make an impact. How long was that period? Which period? The divorce period. It was short. Yeah, like a year? Yeah. Relatively short.

It could be a long year, though. It was a long year. Yeah. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Oh, it's okay. Yeah. I have a Grammy for it. Yeah.

A little consolation prize. Yeah. That's not a bad consolation. I'll take it. It doesn't take away the pain, but. It helps. But, you know, it goes, you know what? Someone heard what I was saying, which is nice.

Yeah. When you get heard. Yeah. He doesn't have a Grammy. You know what? He doesn't, does he? He doesn't. I don't even know who it is, but he doesn't.

I'm sure people listening, no. I'm terrible like that. But you know what? Good for you. You got a Grammy. Yeah. Fine. And you made a classic, I'm sure.

And that's how we make good music. We live life and go through stuff. Yeah. I like being known for being honest. Yeah. I think that that seems to be when people, what do you know about Carly Pierce? I would say most people, one of the first things they would say to you is vulnerable or raw or real. Yeah.

Awesome. Yeah. Thank God. I feel that. Yeah. I don't know how to be anything else. To a fault. Yeah.

It's a good thing, though. Mm-hmm. But the new record, do you feel like it's the best one you've made? I do. The whole essence of the album is kind of my return to my roots of Kentucky and the Appalachian Sound of Blue and country. So I have a little bluegrass moment as well. Kentucky's cool. I love Kentucky. It's awesome. Yeah. Are you from like the like sticks? My family's from the sticks. I grew up in northern Kentucky. Okay. So the only part of Kentucky I really know is the is the part near Cincinnati.

That's where I'm from. Okay. So you could go across the bridge and you're like in a yeah. The heart. Lexington. Covington. Covington, that's right. I have a friend that's also from there, one of my best friend's wife is from there. It's very similar, weirdly, very similar to where I grew up in Maryland. Okay. Do you know Maryland at all?

I've been there. I wouldn't know much about it. Most people only know the DC part of Maryland or the Baltimore part of Maryland. That's me. But we're from Southern Maryland. Okay. So it's like really far. down in this like very rural place.

So it's like farms and there's like, there's Amish people. And there's like, but it's a, it's a watershed state. So if you look on the map, you see all the water goes through the whole state. So there's water everywhere. It's beautiful, but it's very kind of far away and removed.

So it felt like it was a nice place to grow up. But then I moved out of there as soon as I could. Same, but I love it. It's home. Yeah, yeah. Kentucky will always be home. And I think there's a reason that, some of my favorite artists, whether it be Loretta Lynn or Patty Loveless, Ricky Skaggs, the Judds,

they all came out of there, Bill Monroe. And I'm, this record is certainly kind of channeling that Kentucky side. In the bluegrass. Bluegrass is cool. It is cool. Do you have any modern bluegrass artists that you like? Oh my gosh. Is there any like the name that you would be like, if you would check out these five bluegrass artists of now? Of now. Or old. Yeah. I mean, Molly Tuttle is amazing. I think what Billy Strings is doing is really... Billy Strings is cool. Yeah, he's definitely at least bringing people over to our,

to like the traditional side of bluegrass. I love Allison Krause and Union Station. They're my favorite of all time. Sierra Hall, I think she's amazing. Sierra Farrell, she's kind of doing like a hybrid, cool kind of bluegrass thing. Those would be some of the people I would... That's cool you know about bluegrass.

I love bluegrass. In your family, who was the bluegrass... Was it your grandparents? Yeah, that's cool. Yep. My grandpa played claw hammer banjo. So it's got a little like, it's got a place in your heart.

For sure. It reminds me of home. And it reminds me of being on stage as a 10 year old singing with a bluegrass band on Saturday night. You know, I mean, that's what I did. And there's just something very, I'm so nostalgic.

And I don't know if it's because, you know, a lot of my family, like my grandparents passed away when I was young. I moved away when I was young. I'm so nostalgic. My friends are always like, why do you know everything going on with everyone in high school, but you left when you were 14? I'm like, I don't know.

Facebook, I love it. I can tell you what this person's doing, what this person's doing. But I have this like real sense of that being my identity. You're keeping up with the Kentuckians. I really care. Like, my friends think it's so weird. But I think it's that longing for home. Yeah.

And so I find it in my music to be able to kind of relate back to that. I talked to my uncle on the phone yesterday, which I hadn't in a very long time. and I don't know why. It's just, I don't know, like, I have so many uncles and it's everyone spread out. But I was really close to my uncles when I was young. And it was like so nice. It took me right back. I felt like I was probably like 12 or something.

Yeah. And it was like kind of emotional when I got off the phone. I told my wife, I was like, that was like really nice to hear my uncle's voice. Yeah. Nostalgia. I think he's like 70. now, 69 or 70, but it was really nice. It doesn't matter what you went through as a child, good childhood, troubles, whatever it was. There's something that home hits, you know?

Absolutely. Really nice. So like, I like to hear that you, the bluegrass does it for you. It really does. I love it. What's the next like year or two of your life look like? Well. Do you go hard with touring? I spend my time mostly on the road. I feel like it's gotten easier in the last few years to not have to burn it to the ground. And then, yeah, the album release, I think obviously when you have new music coming,

there's definitely a lot of excitement around that. So I think lots of new and touring and things are coming down the pipeline with this new stuff and I'm excited. That's great. I hope it's a big success. Yeah, I'm really happy. As an artist, you're constantly,

I've been in this business, I guess, at this level for a dozen. decade this year. And as you know, this is coming up on my fifth album and you're constantly, especially now more than ever, it's a different world than the way that we came up and trying to evolve with that and continue to elevate the way that I release music and learning from this generation, you know, that uses TikTok like it's nothing. It's so easy for them. And I'm like, how do I do this? I'm all don't know how to do this, you know, but. I'm not good at it. I'm not either. I can't do it. My assistant won't let me touch it because I can't do it. She's like,

did you try to upload this by yourself? I'm like, yeah, is it bad? Well, it's not great. Yeah. Please don't do this without me. But you know, it's just a different game. I don't know TikTok. I don't do it. I try. We have a, it's terrible. Mine's not very good either. I'm sure yours is better. Yours is better than mine. I guarantee it. Any effort you put into it is worth it because it is a absolute it is the radio it TikTok is the modern radio you have to do it you have to the way i i'm i try and we have someone that helps and we we figure and then every now and then i'll do something on my own and it's it's not great but yeah i'm finding my way with uh social media content you have to do it if this is your job you have to do it if this if you're if you're

marketing and doing all the things that you have to do for your career you have to do it But anyone that says that you don't is there may be one or two exceptions, maybe. Yep. But I can't think of any. Right. It's how we all interact with our music, movies, TV, each other, brands, how we find things, how we look, how we get information. Hate to say it.

Yeah, it is. Most people, by the way, I don't know if it's good information, but most people like go to TikTok, like how to do this. I do. Yeah. I use TikTok, but I don't post on it. Yeah, I found great stuff. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, for sure. What kind of stuff are you doing, how to? On TikTok? Cooking or something. My algorithm is. Recipes. A little scary. My friends are always like, wow, like, what is happening?

Crafting. Well, yeah. I mean, I like. You have hobbies? I like cooking. I love running. You love running? I love to run.

That's interesting. Yeah, but I hate it. Really? Really? hate running. That's fair. You know, we should do a video? Running.

Let's do it. I'm ready. It will be comedy. I'm ready. But no, like my algorithm on TikTok is like anything from like some artist video or something like that I like to dogs to like farting. Truly. Like did you hear me to farting? No.

Yeah. No. And like any given like small. videos of farting. Oh. The colonoscopy farting videos are my favorite. That's terrible. That's terrible.

They are my favorite. You've got to get a colonoscopy. And the farting that happens after, it's like, if I need just a good laugh or I've had a bad day, I just turn on fart videos. It's so bad. Yeah. It's so bad. My algorithm is terrible. Is it that bad?

No. Yeah. It's more like it's nerdy. Oh, yeah. It's like hard. Childish. hard collecting. Okay.

And theory videos on like sci-fi. Like there's all these little backstory type theory videos. And there's like, it's just really, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, golf. Okay. Yeah. Nerd. Products.

Yeah. It's terrible. Um, or cars. Yeah. Okay. Cool. So when you left home and you went to Dollywood, how long were you at Dollywood? A couple years.

And then I moved straight to Nashville after that when I was 19. What's a couple years of Dollywood like mean? Well, I did a show called Country Crossroads where... Was it every day? Six shows a day, five days a week. Holy shit. Yeah, it was a lot. Wow.

Yeah. That's like performance boot camp. It was. It really was. And I mean, to be 16, 17, 18, I feel like I learned, you know, obviously very different than what I'm doing now, but also similar in the sense you're putting on a show, the same show every night. people are buying tickets to it.

You're expected to give people a show. And I think it taught me how to sing sick. It taught me how to sing. It taught me all those kinds of things, like more than just, I don't know. It was a really unique experience that I'm grateful that I had. Yeah. What a way to grow up.

Yeah. Did you meet Dolly somewhere in those two years? I did. Wow. Yeah. So she comes and says hi to everybody? She does. That's really cool.

She does. All of her employees every year she does. She's awesome. What a cool is part of it. of your story. I just think that's so cool. It's so old school too. It is. I'm a very old soul, so checks. Do you have any like mindfulness practices? My faith is a big part of my life. Oh, okay. For sure. What's your faith? Christian. Okay. So I feel very connected in that way and feel like very led by that. That's nice. Yeah. And wine. Wine and which is also kind of,

there's a lot of wine in the Bible. Yeah, he's fine with it. Yes. He's cool. Tons of wine in the Bible. Yeah. It's good. It's good. Yeah. Listen, I think I grew up in a very religious house. So I actually am quite a bit of a, if I went on the Bible Bee, ever seen the Bible Bee?

Mm-mm. Oh, go on TikTok. Okay. Oh, I will. And look up the Bible Bee. Okay. These kids know every verse in the Bible. Oh, like the spelling bee.

It's like the spelling bee, but it's called the Bible Bee. Wow. And they say like they'll say they'll start the Bible verse or they'll finish the Bible verse and then the kid hits the buzzer and then they say the whole verse. And I'm blown away. I like look at these videos for hours. You like that, Nick? Nick. I am blown away.

I actually do sometimes know the verses though. A lot of the times. I had to like learn a lot. Yeah. We had to go to church a lot. Yeah. And so I was quite a little Bible nerd when I was a kid. I would say that my experience of the religion was a little hardcore.

It didn't make me run though. I was actually very good. I never got in trouble and never really wild out. Maybe on tour when I was older. No, I would even say though, I never like went to the edge of anything. Like I was always pretty scared. of getting in trouble. But I would say that, for the most part,

I would say that it made me actually a very, like, thoughtful person who didn't want to get in trouble or hurt anyone. And I think it was really a good thing. And I still keep it. But I had to kind of adjust some things as I got older, which, you know. I'm the least judgmental person.

And I genuinely just, faith has always been something really important to me. And just is a center for me and a life that feels very wild and unsteady. And it's a study for me that helps me while I drink. While you drink wine, which makes you not judgmental, which is really nice. It's the kind of Christian we like to hang out with. You know, but you have, you have to be an accepting person to work in our business because artists are wild and all of them are expressing themselves in different ways and they can also be very like strong with their opinions or they can be very in the moment of whatever their

opinion is, you know, yeah. So I think being an open accepting person is as a necessity and music. It doesn't matter what kind of music you're in. Yeah. The record, the tour, anything else you're excited about? No, just lots of new music coming. I'm very excited about it. I'm very happy to meet you. Yeah, you too. And I really love your story. Thank you. Thank you. All the awards, all this success. Are there any modern country artists that you just like got to work with or met that you just like love as people? Oh, gosh. I mean, I have so many. that I love, anybody that I've gotten to collaborate with, I love Kelsey Ballerini is one of my dear friends. She's cool. She's super cool. Anybody that I've worked with I've loved, our business

is pretty kind, our side. I don't know what it's like over in your world, but I like the country people. Country is nice. Yeah. I am friends with a bunch of country artists and have become friends, and I just love hanging out with my friends in like Nashville. Yeah, Nashville's fun. I just love being around country artists. I really vibe with them. We're cool. You are. Thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Congrats. Thank you. Now go watch a fart video. Yeah. Thank you for listening to this episode of Artist Friendly. You can also watch the episodes on Spotify.

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