Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Chase Rice

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by Chase Rice. After nonstop touring, the country star recently came off the road and limited his schedule to just a handful of shows that would “not look like anything like what I’ve done the last 13 years of my life.” Catching up with Madden in the Artist Friendly studio, Rice discusses finding fulfillment beyond commercial success, how stepping away from touring helped him rediscover his love of making music, and the personal growth that’s reshaped his faith, relationships, and outlook on life. “Why do I want my new music to be heard so bad?” he asks. “I’ve been racking my brain about that since we’ve been sitting here. Because if you know me for ‘Eyes on You,’ ‘Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God.,’ ‘Ready Set Roll…,’ then you don’t know me at all. If you listen to some of this new stuff, then you’re gonna get to finally know who I am.” ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Janice Leary, Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin Director/Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman ------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I had a massive hit. Everybody wants to be in the room with you now. And we didn't mean to write that. We just stumbled across it, and it became this massive thing that I all of a sudden now have to live up to. And for 10 years, that shaped, oh, I got to do that again. I got to sound like this. I got Florida George Lines blowing up.

I want to blow up. I got to make my sound like theirs. Where my true joy and music started was when I sat on a couch again, 10 years after all that with a guitar and wrote a song that only. I could write. Thanks for coming. Yeah. How was stagecoach?

It was a lot. It was unbelievable, though, man. Fun enough, I don't know the ends and outs of it, but it took us 13 years. I still have my lanyard on. Yeah. I had a night at Stagecoast last night. Did you stay up late? Until about three.

Oh, my God. But I got here on, I think I played Friday, so I got in on Thursday. Okay. I was awesome with my discipline all weekend. I was like I didn't, I had a good time. But I got what I worked. Right. Last night was my first night to like, I'm going to have fun.

Yeah. I ended up in Jen Pop watch. I'd never seen Post Malone before. Oh, cool. I've never seen him either. Really? No. It was cool.

He did a lot of covers, like classic country covers. But I was out in the wild last night. Out in the wild. I had fun. Man, out in the wild surviving. It's difficult out there, man. People doing festivals is, it's hard. It's a lot of work.

It's a lot of money. There's a lot that goes into a full-blown festival like that. But it took us 10 years to agree on the slot. You're always trying to figure out, like, where am I going to play? Yeah. And I'm not sure if Stacey, who runs a festival in my team could agree on anything. And then finally this year, she was kind of like, guys, do you want to be a part of the stage coach family or not.

And my team came to me. They're like, we just, we need to do this. And she did give us a cool slot. It was 4 o'clock on Friday. That's good. We wanted to play later, yada, yada, yada. I'm happy for no one to agree with me. But the only way we're doing anything anymore is we have to see,

kind of see the poster and like it. You got to earn it. And I looked out of the slot that we were trying to get. And we just got in long story short, we got in this big battle of like, I'm not going to play stagecoach unless it's the right spot. and at the end of the day I played at 4 o'clock, played for 45 minutes, and that is not what I remember at all about the weekend.

I hung out with unbelievable people, had an absolute blast. Saw Wyatt Flores play last night with Stella Lefty and saw my old agents, all my agents that I have now, saw my manager. I just spent time with a lot of people that mattered so much more than the 45 minutes that I was on stage.

And I told Stacey yesterday, I was like, I get it now. I was genuinely grateful to her for us finally figuring it out. She said, do you want to be a part of the stagecoach family? And I said, you know, we finally said yes this year. But now after seeing it, staying, not just getting on stage, getting off, leaving, but being around the people and being around the festival and being around all the different artists, the giant that stagecoach is,

it is a special thing. And I was just grateful to be a part of it this weekend. That's awesome. I think stagecoach is the best, one of the best, festival experiences. Yeah. It was awesome. In the modern festival landscape.

Yeah. And there's giants out there. I think they nailed it. It's sand in my boots. We did it last year. Watershed's a big one out in Washington. Love that one. Tortuga, massive.

Awesome. But stage coach has just this thing about it. I don't know what it is, but it was blast. And then I got to enjoy it yesterday. Like me and Shay Mooney from Dennis Cade. Do you know him? Yeah, yeah. We golfed all day with a bunch of the football guys.

and then we just went straight to the festival. Same with Sidney Sweeney. That was cool. You're sitting there looking at her like, this girl's an absolute superstar, but then you get on stage with her and she's just genuine, cool, awesome, can actually sing, which is shocked me.

Oh, that's cool. A good singer. That's cool. Scooter was awesome. Yeah, it was just a really, really fun weekend. The thing going into the weekend was, I knew I had a shitload of stuff to do

on my plate and schedule, but I just felt like conversations with me and God going into the festival was don't be in a hurry. Do not try to do everything. If you try to do everything, you're not going to get shit done. Do not be in a hurry, slow down and just be where you're at. And that's what I felt like I did a good job of doing that this weekend.

And it's like, you usually hurry? Yeah. You get in a hurry and you miss out on everything except FOMO. And when I don't hurry, there's a book, Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And I read that. And it's just kind of clicked with me this weekend and for whatever reason stuck with me. But when you're in a hurry, you just, you don't get. shit done. You don't enjoy anything. And when you slow down and you just accept where you're at

and who you're with, there was a guy named Tim. Tim was this guy at Madison Club and he invited me into his house and he was the only one there this weekend. His house is giant. I mean, this place is 12,000 square feet, one story, giant pool. And Tim and I ended up having breakfast every single morning. We'd have our avocado toast, our fruit and our coffee together. and just hearing him talk, this guy, I don't know exactly what he does or how much money he has, but it didn't matter. He was just a really cool guy and he let me stay at his place. That's cool. And we would just sit there and have breakfast every single morning. And this morning is the only day we didn't. But I'm just grateful for the whole weekend and the experience, man.

It's been, uh, yeah, sounds like a really fun. That's like a great weekend. It was. It was great. I'll never forget it. It was one of them weekends. And the cool part was I took it seriously. Like, I grinding my ass off and worked. And people, call it networking. At the end of the day, what I've learned a lot lately is just be friends with people. Yeah. If you're just and you can't be friends with somebody and you don't jive, you don't get along, whatever, they're just not your person. Don't worry about it. Send them on their way. You go on your way and you're better for it. But just being nice to people, being a good person and friendly with people is it goes a long way. Yeah, I agree with that. So the experience you just described to me

it sounds great, but also kind of sounds right. Sounds like that's what you should, that's the experience you should have had. Although I will say I understand when you are in this, you know, line of work, when you want to call it a career of any kind, but especially in music, you can run through it and rush through it and overbook and overdo it. But anyone can do that in any career. and it's a mindfulness it sounds like that starts to, I think that's one part mindfulness.

It also sounds like a little bit of like self-acceptance. I think there's a struggle in our business to feel like we should be there or we belong there or like we're important enough to be there or we're whatever. Yeah. Which is a real thing. Like if I'm not, I guess you would call it networking if you felt that

the only reason you were there was to meet people, but that wasn't why you were there. You were there to perform. So you were invited. And you were on the main stage and you played in a good slot. And people came and they watched you. And like you said, you have this career, a huge accomplishment. And I was also looking at your backstory.

And I thought it was really interesting. You were a former NCAA linebacker at UNC. Okay. So you have to be a competent enough football player to play in college. And then to make the team. Then UNC, which is a great sports school, and then to be good enough to do that, you have to work really hard and be competent,

which takes dedication, practice. And talent is one thing, but then talent with no all the other stuff, some drive, some figuring it out type thing. That matters more than the talent. Right. And then your former NASCAR pit crew member, which also take competency.

You got to be fast, too. Right. Changing tires. You got to work hard, learn the thing. so you can do it fast and do it well so you don't get fired off the crew after the first race, right? Or killed. Or killed or get someone else killed. So there's a lot of competency involved there that takes dedication, work, focus.

And you're a successful artist. Well, for songwriter and artist, which is two different things. Very different. But they blend together. But we know plenty of songwriters who can't go and be the frontman. and we know plenty of frontmen who can't write a song. And there's nothing wrong with either one. Yeah.

And so what I see is someone who got some level of drive to do things well. Yeah. And to succeed. And then you have to have a certain work ethic to then do those things and show up for them. And then likely someone who problem solves and can work through and around obstacles and all that. So there's no doubt in my mind that aside from talent and work ethic, you're probably a thinker. Very much. And you see a Rubik's Cube and you start on. It drives me crazy. Which is also a lot of artists. We're in our head a lot. It's a blessing and a curse. Exactly. And that can really help us in certain

situations if we have drive, we have talent, we have work ethic and we're not afraid to think around on a problem, we usually can solve it. Yeah. Where it can get in our way is overthinking. Yep. And then happens a lot. You know what I mean? Like we start thinking around on your present life is not a guy who needed to make it,

who needed to write a hit song, needed to make it, whether it was financial or whether it was proving yourself or all the things, likely a bunch of things. But now you're not, you no longer need, need it. You're here because you belong here. Yeah. That is so well. said i know exactly what you're saying you know what i mean and and that's what i had to process all the way until one day it's somewhere and i think in our 40s we start to arrive in our mind we're like oh

i've had an incredible life and i'm blessed but at the end of the day if i don't think i belong in a room i'm not going to be comfortable in that room and if i get to my if i'm in touch with my emotional experience about how I feel before I go somewhere like, wait, I got invited to that dinner party and so-and-so, so-and-so and so-and-so are going to be there and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I'll stop and go like, why are you apprehensive about going to this? And then I'm like, maybe because I just don't feel like I belong. Are you worthy? Are my worthy? Should I be in this room? Who am I? And then I go, well, do you feel that way? And I'm like, kind of

I'll have a therapeutic conversation with myself I'll be like if my therapist was talking to me he'd be asked me the same question do you feel that way? I'd be like yeah kind of why I'm like because I'm not good enough yeah

it's all blows down to that whether you believe you are or not good enough for what well I don't know I don't know to the next to zone's up and then you go all the way around on it until you either go eh you know what

I'm just not going to be comfortable being there and I'm not going to go or actually whatever I'm gonna go and either way I either arrive that who fucking cares I belong in that room or I don't I want to be there or I don't and I get past this like injured kid who's like am I a big enough rock star to be with these rock stars because they're real rock stars it's all comparison too it's like why are we compared is the enemy of joy or something like that thief of joy thief of joy Nick thief of joy comparison is a thief of joy you're

kill yourself. All I see is a badass kind of like experienced country dude who's had a ton of success. You could go through the details of what that success means and we could talk about it a hundred different ways and we'd still arrive at the same word success. And then you sharing your experience, which is what I got. I love it because actually we're all, everyone is having that moment unless, God, unless they're just, there are these people that are just so fucking developed in that self-esteem category, which is an amazing thing to just be so comfortable in your own skin. But that's just not the case for like most of us. Most of us are like still figuring ourselves out as we go in real time. And no matter how figured out we get, we still

have more to figure out. That's the work. But it's cool to hear that because that's actually Actually, probably the same kind of weekend I would have. But again, I think you arrived to this stagecoach experience. You had success. People liked it. You had fun. Show was great. And you made a bunch of friends.

And those friends aren't going to hurt your life. Yeah. No. You know what I mean? And the cool part about it is like you're talking about walking in the room. Do you belong there? You know, do you belong a stagecoast? Do you belong wherever?

whatever it is. If you walk into that room and you're just good to people and you're nice to people and you're happy and you're not using them, that's why I hate the word networking. I just feel like you're using people right away. Yeah. You're just good to people. You're genuinely a good human. I just started watching The Chosen. It's based on Jesus. It's his life. Oh yeah. The Chosen on Prime. I think they have their own station for it. Oh, okay. Okay. Because I just watched House of David. I love that too. That was good. Unreal.

David was a gangster. It was a G. But it humanizes the most important human that's ever lived. Yeah. And you get to watch him, you know, teach kids, hang out with kids, teaches disciples, teach people, and also laugh and struggle and, you know, be in absolute misery. It just humanizes the most important human. that's ever existed and that's not really arguably whether you believe he was the son of god or not

is not what i'm talking about yeah and absolutely no i i i am i'm not disagreeing with you but that watching that has in my head realized like if he could walk in a room and just be good to people which he was why can't i and don't i don't need anything from these people i don't want anything from them i just want to be around good people so if i'm walking into a room and i'm not comfortable and it's just a shit show or whatever the situation is that could make you feel bad inside. You also got to consider you maybe in the wrong room. But I also know that the best way that I meet people is usually when I show up somewhere on purpose. Yeah. I'm there. You know what I mean? So that is how I started defining should I go or not. Yeah. It's either I feel yes or I feel no. I walk around on both.

Like I know that probably sound like you, I'm an overthinker. I overthinker. I over. think everything. And God bless my wife because she has to deal with me talking about it with her so that I don't talk to anyone else about it because I talk so much. I will talk around one little decision with someone for a fucking two hours. I'm the same way, man. I like, especially if I smoke a joint or something. If I smoke a joint, you don't, don't be, I turn into the happiest, nicest human being on the planet, but I'm not sure. What about drinking? Like how, what kind of like drunk are you? Happy. Happy drunk. Me too, a little too happy. Yeah. I, uh, yeah, it's, some point i've gotten the point i'm four years old when i get to where i'm all of a sudden drunk

also i'm in different settings now that i was if i'm hammered at a bar everybody's hammered at the bar yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah let's yeah i'm in a lot of different settings these days to where it's like if you're the drunk dude there at the dinner party yeah you shouldn't be there no i had to learn that the hard way so you start putting yourself yeah it's not fun it's not fun you start putting yourself in situations you can tell when you're drinking or talking to somebody it's like in your two you're two gone and they're not. And I've also been the other side of that. I've been sober. I did 75 hard last year or two years ago and I was sober and I'm like around people that wouldn't shut up and they're hammered and I just sort of walking away. That's also one of the reasons why I stopped

drinking was just health. Yeah. Just I found as I got older a few years ago I stopped. Only like two years ago. Yeah. Just one day I was like, God, I always feel like shit after I drink. And I need to be healthy. And then I just stopped. It's a game changer. I felt amazing when I wasn't really. I get this clarity at like 2 p.m. every day. I almost felt like I was high, but I was eating healthy and drinking water all the time.

It was your brain function, you know, finally functions the way that it's supposed to. It's like it's not rocket science. Also, I did a lot of work on myself, therapy and stuff for me personally, drinking was some people,

I think they have a different relationship with it, like how they kick back. It's not how I kick back. Yeah. There's something dark in me that likes to drive fast. For me, it's a very similar thing. I don't know if this would make sense to you, but I'd self-sabotage. Yeah.

I don't know why. I think when you live, for me, when I live in shame, you know, and you get ashamed of the things you've done in your past, which you can't even freaking change, which is crazy. But you get shame and fear into my life. And I, drinking's going to help you for a little bit because you're going to, can run away from it. You get away from it, but it's not going to help you in the end because you're going to

have to face it at some point or you never face it and you don't get to live a fulfilled life, but there's two different types of drinking, I'll do too, or disappearing at some point where it's like one's happy and fine, your golf went the boys, it's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then in others, I want to run from this problem. I'm ashamed of decisions that I've made in my life. I fear people are going to find me out. Like at the end of the day, I said that to Tyler Hubbard one time.

Tyler's the Georgia guy of Florida Georgia line. Yeah. Which I think they're going to get back together, which is sick. I like those guys. Yeah, they're good dudes. Yeah. And I said, man, I'm just, you know, I fear people are going to find out in this town things that I've done in my past, which is just who gives a shit.

We've all made crazy mistakes in our lives, and we all have some sort of crutch in our life that's going to put that fear and that shame in our heads. Yeah. And he said, man, I know who you are. and I know your heart. And Shay Mooney said that yesterday, which meant a lot to me. We were talking about something that happened years ago.

He said, I didn't care about what you did. I knew who you were as a person. I knew your heart and I knew you were a good dude. And Tyler, go back to Tyler, he said, you might be surprised that if who you really are gets out, people might actually like it. And he said that and I was like, shit, that's a cool thought.

Like, just being myself, being good to people, you know, I've struggled a lot over the years with women. it's been that's my biggest crutch in life and you struggle how um just not taking relationships seriously using women for sex stuff like that is is and you realize like you feel like that's encouraged though like in music it is yeah and it and i thought it was what you got to do and you buy into the fantasy you kind of buy into the lie or the fantasy that like oh you become a rock star and this is what you do. Yeah. And it's never ending and it fills the hole. And it is so unfulfilling. Yeah. It can be very unfulfilling. It was for me. Yeah. And through the fall, my life has changed a ton

since October. How did it change? I was living in my airstream, or my Capri camper, which is a camper, a rodeo camper that goes in my truck. And I just traveled around a lot. And I wanted to spend a lot of time alone and I wanted to spend a lot of time out west in Montana and I wanted to spend a lot of time with my duck hunting buddies and it was just a lot of deep real conversations and you can't bullshit these guys they don't want that I don't want that but through a select group of duck hunting buddies I had a lot of real very real conversations and it just pulled out I think it made me grow up a lot with just these honest real conversations with these guys of not surface level bullshit but real life stuff and it just essentially made me take life more seriously and and that's

where my mindset it changed this weekend completely but that's where the mindset of just walk in a room and be friends with people and be yourself don't make don't try to make friends you're gonna your friends are gonna find you um but always just be good to people and then you leave people with a good experience and that really happened a lot this fall where it's just a lot of growing up and i think that happens naturally too in life Well, you know, all my friends, you find out your friends are really in your, I think, 30s. Yeah, you do. I think you keep in touch with a couple high school buddies, which I have, which is awesome.

Started getting back in touch with those guys really a lot in the last couple years. You keep in touch with a couple college buddies and you get into your 30s. And a lot of times kids get involved in your friends with who your kids are friends with their parents. Right. And one of my best buddies, Ryan Johansson, he played for the National Predators. there's forever. And his dad was sitting with me at a bar one night. And that's what he said. He said, you find out who your real friends are going to be the rest of your life really in your 30s. And those are the guys that you're going to stick with forever. And I've found my dudes

that are just encouraging good people and great businessmen. And that's really what my life has turned into is music is great. And now for the first time of my life, I'm proud of the music I've made. you know when even when we wrote years ago like i joked i was like i had no idea what i was doing i really didn't like i wrote cruise when i was 26 years old 27 years old which ended up being one of the biggest country songs of all time but i was that was the biggest blessing and curse that i could ask for because i had a massive hit everybody wants to be in the room with you now and we didn't mean to write that we just stumbled across it and it became this massive thing that i all of a sudden now have to live up to yeah and for 10 years that shaped oh

I got to do that again. I got a sound like this. I got Florida George Lines blowing up. I want to blow up. I got to make my sound like theirs. Sam Hunt's blown up. Oh, okay, now I'm going to go try to sound like that. Morgan Wallen's blown up.

Oh, now you've got to sound like that. Where my true joy and music started was when I sat on a couch again, 10 years after all that with a guitar and wrote a song that only I could write. And then wrote an album that only I could write and then recorded the album that only I could write. And then recorded the album that only I could write. record and then I did that three times and they're continuing evolved but it's uh it's turned into like i'm the only human on the planet who could make this music i've gotten to that point this year i'm taking my first year off of full touring and 13 years good for you and it's changing my life good for you

covid happened we all took time off that changed my career and life in a way but i slowed down and started writing songs on guitar again changed a complete way of how i make music um this year that's going to happen again. When I step back, I have conversations with people. You hear these conversations and I put them into music. I actually live experiences and I write about the experiences as opposed to being in Nashville. Three days.

I toured this week. I came home, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I wrote every single person in the room talked about what's radio playing. How are we going to write a good song? Then I went back on the road for three days. That was my life for the last 13 years. And now taking time away, it's like you actually write about real experiences

as opposed to what you think people want to hear pretty cool um but it's it's i wake up in the morning i drink coffee i got a thing called the blue book which is a uh devotional that i you know goes like a daily devotional goes along with the bible i sit there i have a fire right you found that the bible and like more devotion to that part of your life do you find it gives you i'm sure it does a lot of things so i'm not going to answer the question for you but um what is What is that do for you? If I am living life right, which I can be interpreted a ton of different ways, I guess, but if I feel like I have a relationship with Jesus, you don't want to go screw around and

do the things that you do that lead to the shame and the fear that I was talking about earlier. If I don't do that every morning, I want to go hide. I want to go hide from Jesus. I want to hide from God. I want to hide for myself. And what's hiding or what does that consist of? The difference between isolation and solitude. Like isolation for me is like, and it doesn't even have to be something extreme,

but like sitting on the couch all day eating like shit, watching TV, binging some TV show. Withdrawing from the world. Withdrawing from the world. As opposed to going out. In a negative way. In a negative way as opposed to going out. Solitude sounds so much better.

Solitude, man. In isolation. It is so awesome. Solitude is where I get that. I get it in the moment. And if I start my day that way, my day is going to go pretty good. And then you get around people and you're better to people. You're not using them for what can you give me.

It's more, then they get a good version of you. And when they're around you, they've experienced some sort of joy that they may not even understand why, but they know that they're happy when they're around you. And that's what that does for me. That's the solitude that I'm getting this year. That's what happens when I go out to Montana a lot. I can fish. I go 100 miles an hour and everything I do.

But when I'm on a river in Montana with a fly rod, my elk hunting buddies make fun of me. They're like, you need to come. They basically hunt fish. I don't even know what they fish because I've never done it. But nature. Nature is like the closest thing to spirituality in the physical form. Yeah.

But solitude, it's interesting how when you say, like isolation, withdrawing, alone, Solitude's also alone, but it's interesting because it sounds so much better because it's a state of mind and it's also that you're not alone because you're in like meditation with God. And from what you're describing, which sounds like, which prayer, silent reading, meditation on God, all that's kind of like prayer, but it's like solitude is something like that, which is meditation. Meditation also has a positive connotation to it. It's awesome.

versus withdrawing and being in isolation. And there's a lot of things that are all the same practice, right? Which they say gratitude, right? What do we do when we pray? First thing we do, we usually thank God. Most people, thank God. Thank you, God for this day. Thank God.

God, thank you. You're coming to him with an offering of thanks so that he hears you. Life is just not to be happy, feel good, get what you want. Yeah. That there's something else higher is like the transcend. of the design of the whole thing. 100%. And then that's the journey is how do we get to that transcendence

so that we're transcendent people. Yeah. So that a hit song doesn't make or break me or change me or make me happy or sadder. An award doesn't affect me, you know, so that I'm the same in failure as I am in winning so that I'm the same in on a good day as I am a bad day so that I can be, that's true.

To me, that's transcendence. Yeah. is to be immune to fame, money, all the things, right? And so all that to say, it feels to me like you're in the process of like this self-discovery. Because I saw that you went independent. Which is wild. Which is cool. And the label that I was with was awesome.

Yeah, but you felt. I wasn't giving them anything that they could take the radio. And in my opinion, the main reason you need a label at the end of day is they pay for everything, but they give you a horrible loan. Yeah. I mean, they give you a couple million bucks to promote, make, promote the album, and then you have to pay that back.

They give you your own money that you have to pay back. And I wasn't giving them anything that they could be, and to get you on radio. Radio award shows, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, yeah. And I wasn't giving them a product that they could even work with. And you said something that triggered a thought in my head.

Like, why do I want my new music to be heard so bad? I've been racking my brain about that since we've been sitting here. Because if you know me for a song called Eyes on You, drinking beer talking, got a man, a song called Ready Set Roll that I wrote probably back in the same year that we wrote. I wrote with this stuff. If that's what you know me for, then you don't know me at all.

And if you listen to some of this new stuff, then you're going to get to finally know who I am as a man. But if you only know these hits, you don't have a clue who I am. You're not my fan and I'm not your artist. But if you know my new stuff, you actually get to know who I am as a man. So that at the end of the day is why like at the end of the day, like you said, if it blows up and you're the biggest artist on the planet or nobody cares, but you're happy with it, you won. You literally won. And I think it was some artist, Picasso, maybe one of those big time artists didn't have a, you know, well-known name until after he was dead. A lot of artists. But was he happy when he was alive. And if he was, then he won. Who cares what happened after he died? Now he's appreciated. If my mom. music, you know, the last three albums I've put out. If they're appreciated in 10 years,

I don't want to look at that in 10 years and be like, oh, finally, I want to look at that 10 years and be like, it was there the whole time, y'all. And cool, it blew up all of a sudden. Doesn't really change my life because I've been living in the present. I've been enjoying it while it happened. I've been enjoying it ever since it happened 10 years ago. I think that's all either way. I think that's the figured it out part. And now we live in a world where everyone's famous. Yeah. Right?

You're going to be famous at some point in your life if you go forth and try everyone's famous. You don't really get to choose anymore if you are or you aren't. Yeah. So I feel like when I see you, you're like this good looking big guy who like, look, you like, look, you could handle yourself, right? Look like kind of tough. And, um, and you're like handsome and tall and like you're, you play football and you play country music. It's like that. It's a fucking man.

This is the man over here. I feel like you have more pressure to be whatever represents a man. There is like a balance, I think, of finding like, what's my version of being a man? I think a good man shows up and tries his best and like you can count on him. Yeah. Like that's a good man. You got to be able to count on him. You know what I mean?

Like I look at my dad and he grew up in a tough situation. Money wasn't there. I don't think. His dad wasn't great to him, which is wild because his dad was big Paul to me. And he was the nicest, coolest, awesome grandpa in the world. Yeah, you got the older, calmer version that had figured some shit out. Exactly. And I got, and then I got my dad, who by all means, should have never built the life that he built with what he was given.

And he got out of that and chose his own life and decided, I'm not going to smoke cigarettes. I'm not going to smoke weed. I'm not going to get into drugs. I'm going to marry her. Connie Liu, my mom. You call her Connie Lou. Connie Lou. We just wrote a song.

And is your dad, Paul? He's, uh, Dan. Dan. When you said Big Paul, I was like, well, where's Little Paul? Oh, PA, like Paul. Big Paul. Little Paul was actually my mom's dad, Harold. He had his shit together.

But he chose her, married her, had three boys, you know, didn't dive into the whole, I'm going to crave success the rest of my life. He dove into the hole, I'm not going to miss a game for these kids. That's awesome. And when his parents came around, his sister, all that side of the family, it was you're not smoking cigarettes around my kids. You're going to be good, good to them. You're going to be a good aunt. You're going to be a good grandpa.

And he laid the rules for his own life to the man that didn't treat him like he should have as a dad. Right. And that's who I got to see as what a man is. And, you know, I used a picture of him for an album cover two albums ago called I Hate Cowboys and All Dogs Go to Hell. it's a picture of my dad double fist and two course banquets sideburns mustache cowboy hat that's a fucking man in that picture but that's the Hollywood version of who my dad was

who my dad actually was was when big Paul died he took me to Cracker Barrel with my mom tells me in the Cracker Barrel that Big Paul passed away Oh it's tough how old were you Losing my grandpa wasn't the hard part that I'm dealing with right now I lost him when I was 22 and my dad.

You lost your dad? Yeah. I'm sorry. But what I'm dealing with right now is the memory of the day that my grandpa died. I sat with my dad or stood with my dad in the living room and hugged him.

And he cried for the first time that I'd ever see. So seeing such a strong dude deal with, he's the man. He is the man. You know, he's my dad. and yeah your dad's like your hero yep and seeing him weak in that moment was what made me realize looking back like that was the strongest i'd probably ever seen him to be able to hug me cry i

start crying and uh that was the most manly looking back that i think my dad ever was and uh special memory to have yeah it's it's uh it's sweet yeah as painful as it is it is yeah But 22 is young to lose your dad. Yeah. And when you lose your dad, you're in, it's a weird feeling because even my dad, we were, we were estranged for a long time. And then I didn't get to know him until later. And then we were really good friends.

And he was always, it was weird because I didn't know, I didn't know how to admit it because I had so many different feelings. I was angry at him for a long time. But I've regretted it so much being so angry at him because I realized, when I got older, I realized, like how hard it is. And then his dad was similar. his dad my granddad passed away when I was 20 or 21 but he was tough he was a world war two bed he was like he was um and he my dad got all of it from him my dad got all the stuff

and then so he had a really tough tough upbringing and then I could see him struggle he did not want to do that to us and he but he would have his alcohol thing was tough he was he was a alcoholic and but he didn't want anyone's help that was the thing that I think the toughest part was like, I think he could have got help, but he would never take any help, but all he did his whole life was help people. He was like, he worked like a dog, and he was at his funeral,

it was hundreds of people, and they all had a story about he redid their bathroom, he redid their kid's nursery, he redid their kitchen, he worked with his hands. And so on the weekends, he would help, he would do stuff for people.

He wasn't even like making money on the side. Like, you know what I mean? Like he was, and he worked like, manual labor his whole life and he was just like a hardworking old school dude tough tough as as you could be but had a a side like me that was sweet and sensitive and artistic and like didn't need to be tough and he struggled with it because he never let i see myself i am my father's son and where he's like a tough version of me like he's a tough guy but i'm like a sweeter more sensitive

more emotional version of him he never he never got to have the experience that I had. When we were older, we'd laugh about it because, like, as we got closer before he died, and then he died suddenly, and it was, it was, it sucked. But I was like, man, dad, you should, you should go to therapy. He's like, or I'd be like, hey, dad, why don't you go to, dad, I'm not saying rehab, but like, it's called rehab. Yeah. It is rehab. You should probably do it. Like, I don't want to say the word rehab, but like, you could go to a treatment facility and you could get off the alcohol and like it would make your life better and you could experience some more and I saw him so badly he wanted to like be artistic or be more like sensitive or emotional or whatever

that I think I am compared to him I'm like freaking the sweetest most sensitive most and to some guys I may maybe I'm not but I think I am so with him I would say you could go to rehab and he's like no man I'm good you know don't worry about me this is you know what whatever. And then when he died, it was sudden and I was heartbroken. I kind of always had this high hope that we would just keep getting closer and closer and closer and we would be best friends. And eventually he would get sober and eventually we'd live in a castle on a cloud and, you know, my kids would, you know what I mean? Like we have these high hopes like for these. And I'm not saying that that was impossible. Yeah. But even my dad, who I love and respect and I think he was

I'm very careful about saying anything that makes him sound like a degenerate of any kind because he was a good man. You could count on him. And he gave me, in the years he was around before he left when I was young, he gave me a good example of a bunch of things, how to work hard, good manners, respect for people, hating the right things. Like real bad guys, guys who hurt people, bad people, things that are evil. You know what I mean?

It's different than things that are flawed. Yes. You understand? Oh, yeah. And now he explained that to me. He's like a man has his flaws and he makes his mistakes. You help him back up and you try to encourage him. Because I think he was that guy.

Yeah. And I think he was in his own way telling me. He would always tell me about that. And as I got all, I was like, oh, you were talking about yourself and you just wanted your son to never judge you. Yeah. And because he had his stuff, you know, he drank and all the other stuff. Yeah.

What do you think you are to your kids? That's a good question, man. I hope that they just see me as their dad is a guy who loves them more than he loves anything else. That's all that matters. And just chooses them. Yeah. And then it is there for whatever.

It doesn't matter. I always tell them like, you're a human, I'm a human. We all have a lot to learn always. So all I want you to do is try your best. And whatever it is, we'll figure it out, good or bad. Sounds like you flip the script from the way you. you were raised and now you're doing it a different way that is a lot more healthy and in the right way, which is badass.

Best I can. Yeah. You know you're wise enough. And most artists that have careers. Career is a thing. It's like you don't have a career if you were only in this for a year. Right. Some people sit and they run from it and they're smart to sometimes.

Yeah. A career is something like just working at something a long time and becoming, proficient competent at it enough to make a living doing it and also be able to stay in it yeah and people this year for me when i told them i was taking a year off of touring somehow that turned into national news of i'm stepping away from music and i never said that so i don't know how that turned into that yeah you know how shit works these days with so that sounds more interesting yeah they want the headline yeah and then i remember brantley gilbert texted me and he said bud what's going on with you whatever. I was like, dude, I'm just taking a year off and touring. I don't know how that turned into that.

He said, good, because you're too good at this to quit. And that got me thinking, like, why would I ever step away from this? Like, making music for a living, getting paid to make music for a living. It's the coolest job in the world. Like, I love what I do. And I love writing songs. There's nothing else I'd rather do in the world. So the fact that I've taken this time off and realized that through a couple text was awesome because then you get to appreciate like how unbelievably blessed my life has been and I don't feel like I've worked ever in my life I don't find like my brothers I feel the same yeah my brothers go to their jobs in their office every single day and I one of my brothers just left his job to go do an underground utility you know becoming an owner in that and he's just happier

he's probably working his ass off harder but he's not sitting in an office every day and And he just seems happier. And that's the way I feel every day. And there's some negatives to it too, like the lack of a schedule, the lack of the nine to five, the lack of the routine. That's some negatives to it for me that can be. I don't try to let them be because I try to get in a routine of the cold plunge, the sauna, go hit the range, go hit the gym.

I've gotten big in golf lately. Me too. I think golf is the best game in the world. It's the best. It brings people together in a way that's just- The best thing I ever did was to do. start playing golf. Yes. I look back on my early career.

It was, I was investing in I want to fucking party. Yeah. That was my investment. It was just like, I want to beat a bar, I want to be drunk, I want to rage, and I want to hang with the boys, I want to find a girl, take her home, cool, now what? And you do that long enough and I look at it.

I'm like, I am the reason why I haven't been as successful in my career as I could, should, or want to be. That's on me. But I also picked a career that I can do my whole life. And now I'm investing in friends, family, God, golf. Me too.

But also. How often do you play? About four days a week right now. Yeah, I play two or three times a week. But I'm investing in these different things. The scenery is way different now. There's a bar called 10 roof in Nashville on DeMumbring Street where I would be there. If it's a Friday or Saturday, send them texts out, what's going on night?

I'll see it at 10, see it 9, whatever. I haven't been there in two and a half years, haven't missed it, haven't even thought about going to it because I want to go to the golf course. I want to go to my buddy Ryan's house and sit in the backyard and drink beer and sit around the fire

and hang out with his son Hank. Hang out with my dog. I want to be on an elk mountain doing that. I want to kill ducks with my buddies in the fall. And if we don't kill a bird that day, it doesn't matter. We had the best day anyway. I'm investing my time.

That's really cool. Your return on investment. You will get it back. And it's already showing. Yeah. Through the relationships that I made this fall, through this weekend, I invested in spending time with people,

not being in a hurry. That was my biggest thing this whole weekend was I'm not going to be in a hurry. I'm not going to try to do everything. I'm going to do what I want to do in that moment or what I'm scheduled to do, show up, do the job. And I don't know what that return's going to be from this weekend,

but I know that I had a blast. I met a lot of really cool people. Wyatt Flores played last night with a girl named Stella Lefty, came up on stage, talked to her for a little bit afterwards. I think she's going to be the biggest star on the planet in a year. And the coolest part about that was, like, I got a chance to talk to her last night. She was with, there's another blonde artist friend of hers.

I can't remember her name. Met both of them last night. And I walked up to both of them. I was just like, hey, are you two, like, are you two genuinely friends? They said, oh, my God, we love each other. So I said, hold on to that. Like, if I'm going to give advice and I don't like giving advice to people without them asking, but I took the liberty last night because I had.

17 course banquets. Yeah. And walked up to him and just told him what I thought. I don't know why in the moment. I just felt like I needed to tell him that. But hold on to that. Whatever success comes both of y'all's way, because you're both probably going to be crazy successful.

Stay friends. I think you told him because you have experience and you wish someone had told you that. I do wish that. We do that when we're older. Yeah. We say, I don't know if I'm going to get to see that kid again. So I'm going to tell him everything I fucking think.

Maybe he'll take something away with it. from it but and why it's going to come to my house at some point and white florida was a great artist out of oklahoma and i said dude i got zero plans of writing we don't need to write a damn song come sit on the front porch and we'll just drink coffee yeah because he's 24 or something like that and he's exploding and that's not easy let's just sit there and drink some coffee man and you know me and florida george lyne years ago we lived together we were best friends we wrote songs together we had amazing success together and then everybody started hating each other it's like why did we do that It's because of competition.

It was because of jealousy on my part, on Tyler's part, and just overall letting other people get in your ear. The managers they get in your ear. Yeah. Just any third party, any handler, third party, it could be any of these characters. It can be agents, managers, friends. It can be tour managers.

It's people who are afraid. It's all beer-based, right? Including why we would get jealous of each other. insecure, it's insecurity, it's self-esteem, and it's fear. So if I'm afraid that I'll lose what I have, if I'm feeling like I come from kind of a poverty, and so I had to fight against this as well, I was like, if I'm afraid of losing this because it's the only one I'll ever have, I'm going to act out of insecurity and fear, and then I'm going to do things that insecure, insecure, afraid people do. And again, in the same mindset, if he's getting the only one, so if he's getting the only hit

if he's getting the only arena tour if he's getting the only girl in town or the only whatever thing, whatever good thing there is the truth of life is abundance of all of that as much as we want. The success is more a byproduct of doing stuff

that you enjoy. You know what I mean? Yeah. What I'm doing now with the music in my career wise, if the music I'm making, how I'm making it, the quality of songs,

if that's not a pre- as much or more, and I believe it will be, and I don't believe it has been yet. If that's not appreciated more than what I was known for the first 10 years, then I don't have anything to do with it. If everybody collectively comes together as fans of music and says, this isn't good enough, we don't like it, then I'll go do something else.

I'm not going to go back to what I was doing to just try to make them like it. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing now, and if that's not good enough, then they'll decide that. fans, listeners of music will decide that and I'll go to join the PGA. Well, the beauty of it is you get to do what you want when you want. Yeah. So you don't have to choose any of it. And that's part of being independent.

That's the cool part about being an artist and being independent. But you can do whatever you want, however you want. And I know what you're saying. And I would say that that's a way of living. So when you feel comfortable, compelled and called, you do it. Yep. And when you're not, you don't actually have to explain.

Yeah, not for me. The older you get, the more you realize, like, I think for me, it's like, there was a time in life where I was very afraid of losing my, what I had. Yeah. I thought it was a gift that was given to me. And it was, it's a blessing, but it was more like a lottery I won versus like something that I could achieve and work hard and earn, which I did. and now I feel like I'm in this spot where I feel extremely grateful every day.

I'm very grateful to the people who made my music matter, which is just the fans, period. But at the end of the day, I can also be that grateful person who's also honest about where I'm at. And I go, you know what? We did a tour for seven years because it wasn't there. Didn't want to leave. Yeah.

I wanted to be with my kids. Yeah. And I understand if that took me out of the game, I was willing to risk it. Yep. I have a bunch of memories that I would never sell. Yeah. They're not for sell. Yeah.

And what I had to do to get those memories was stop, basically stop touring. Yeah. And now I'm back touring a little bit. And it's cool. It's fun. I don't know if I could ever do it like we did. Yeah. But we're going to do it as much as we can.

As long as I said, the only way I'm not playing a show is if we overdo it and I don't want to be there, it's going to kill the joy for all of us. But if we all show up and we really want to be there and we're excited to play and we give people our best, that to me became the bar for me with shows as like, I no longer thankfully have to do it. But I worked really hard to build some other businesses so that I could be that way. But I don't have to do it. So I only want to do it is if I feel like we show up and we give 100% and we feel like we're excited to be there. we're grateful we're there and we show up on stage and people are getting whether they realize it or not they're getting their money's worth yeah like every dollar's worth i didn't even really have a decision

to make it was about last september it's funny because like summertime i did a an interview and somebody said i said in the interview you know at some point i'll probably take some time off from this thing yeah had no idea a few months later i'd be i was on my tour bus and i looked around and i was miserable. I was just like, I hate being on this bus right now. I hate that I have to go walk on a stage and sing right now. And so it didn't even become a decision for me. It made it, the decision made itself where I talked to management, talk to agents and say, guys, I'm done. I'll do the shows I'm committed to for next year. But I'm not going on a full tour next year. And through that, I played for 45 minutes at stagecoach and I enjoyed it again.

Hey, you fucking loved that. You were psyched. I was psyched. Yeah. I was. playing my first stagecoach. And I had a blast doing it because I knew that I don't have to go fly somewhere tomorrow and play again. Like I just got to hyper focus on one show. And, well, two days before that was Red Rocks. So it's like Red Rocks and Stagecoach in the same week. That's a good week. And it was badass and I enjoyed it. And I loved it. And I got on stage and had fun making music again. I wasn't in a hurry on stage. I wasn't flying through a set list. Half the set list was just made up on the spot. and I really had a fun time doing music again. And I don't know if I'll ever go back to a full tour like that.

Will I? I don't know. But if I do, you bet your ass is going to be because I want to. It'll be honest. Yeah. Which is good. But there's a bunch of stuff you give up building this thing and then you find yourself in a spot where you're like,

okay, I built this thing. It's not going away. Yeah. Now you can turn your attention to some other stuff. Yep. So anyways, I think we're all at our age looking for that. Like your 40s is for that. Yeah.

Start looking for that. And it just started for me, but it's been a long journey to get to where I'm at now and it's gonna be a long journey to, but that's the whole point. Yeah. I love the saying, enjoy the ride. You get one trip in life and enjoying it is not always the easiest thing to do, but when you can figure out how to. And for me, it's slowing down, slowing down and actually enjoying the moments.

And there's a quote from a book, one of my first, favorite books ever. A line tracker's guide to life in the whole book. He says it a million times in the book. It says, I have no idea, I have no idea where I'm going, but I know exactly how to get there. And that's because when you're tracking a line, you don't know where the hell line's going to hell the line, but you keep stay on the tracks. Eventually you're going to find the line. And where I'm at right now is a lot of fun. Good man. I'm happy for you. Yeah. Good to see you again. Good to see you too, man. I'm excited to hear your new music too as you go down the road here. It's getting better. Good. And, you know, to some people, it may be getting

worse. And they're like, well, what is he doing? Why is he not making what I want to hear on the radio? And the answer is because I'm making the music that I want to make. And if it ends up playing on the radio, that's even better. But I'm not chasing nothing anymore. I'm just making music that I'm Yeah, dude. You're on the journey, man. That's the path, dude. Just making music that you like. Yeah. And likely some of it will end up on the radio. But it's a winding road that I'm a winding road that artistic kind of like artist development never stops. You got to follow that feeling you have of going down over here because it's taking you somewhere. You just got to do it. Everything I've ever done in life where for me it was God saying, it's almost like God put you in this corner and says,

there's no other doors. That's the door. There's only one door in this room. If you want out of the room, walk through that door. Everything in my life where I've felt so much conviction when I don't have choices and that's the only option for me it's always fulfilling and that to me comes from god and put that out your heart of like hey man this is what you need to do i'm not there's no riddles anymore this is the way out or this is the way through that's when you're at a fun place and you can make that decision you don't have to make that decision by the way but to choose what you know is right um no matter what that is in life to go through that door and make the decision to go through the door and I'm going to go through this. I'm going to go

get to the other side and I only have one choice and I'm doing it. Again, that question of who am I, what do I like, who am I today? I'm not the same guy that started this thing out and then who do I want to be? Yeah. You know? And you get to choose. Yeah. I had a lady tell me one time, she said, Chase, do you want to know what a version of hell would be for me? I said, I'm not sure I do, but I'm about to find out, I guess. And she said, you die, you go to heaven. God lets you in, and then he sits you down and says, okay, now I'm going to show you what your life would have been like if you do gone by my plan. And that's what I'm trying to avoid in my life is my plan is probably not even close to his cool is whatever God really has for if you just listen to him.

That's right. And that's where it's at. And that's a really freeing fun place to be. That's cool. This was a good talk, man. Yeah. Fucking great, bro. This is awesome, man. Fucking awesome.

Yeah, it's been a wild week, but it's been a really good one. I mean, like I said, I played freaking Red Rocks on Wednesday, stagecoach Friday, had the weekend. It's been a blast. Sounds like a lot of highlights and a lot of time to reflect. Yeah. I've had a lot of that. And then all of a sudden you go from the reflecting thrown back into the fire this week. I'm like, holy shit.

I forgot this is what my life is like when I'm working. That's a crazy life, but it's a crazy life. But it's all, none of it's on accident. Yeah. And it's an awesome life. Yeah. Yeah. I picked the coolest job in the world.

Yeah, dude. It picked me. I don't know. Yeah. Well, whenever you're around in L.A. And you ever want to play golf, hit me up. I will. I'll probably be back here at some point this summer.

Anytime. This is blast. Thanks, bro. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Artist Friendly. You can also watch the episode. on Spotify. Spotify premium users get no commercial breaks on my show. Make sure to follow, like and comment because I always read the comments.