Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 140 | The American Dream - Aaron Watson Is Living His...

Episode Date: July 3, 2019

Throughout his 17-year career that spans a dozen albums and more than 2,500 shows throughout the U.S. and Europe, 39-year-old Aaron Watson has stubbornly and sincerely identified with the everyman –– even as he’s proven to be the exception to the rule. His newest album "Red Bandana" has just released this past week and Country Music Star Aaron Watson joins the show to share about his life, family, and the making of his new album.  You can get Aaron's latest album and find out tour dates/locations here: https://www.aaronwatson.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to it, chewing the fat, with the American Dream. And Aaron Watson is, of course, living his American dream. And what better person to talk about Aaron Watson than Aaron Watson himself. Absolutely. So Aaron Watson, welcome to Chewing the Fat American Dream. You are living your American Dream, my friend. It's good to see you. It's good to be sane.

Looking great. I was just looking back, and I realized that it's been 20 years since you. you've been cranking out your music. Yeah. 20 years. Before we even go back a little bit farther than that, that got you to that starting point 20 years ago, even 20 years ago,

did you have any idea that you'd be where you're at me? Did you envision a little bit of where you're at now? I think I was dreaming big. I didn't think it would take me 20 years to get to this point. You know, I think I was 20. You know, and I was like, I'm going to take over the world and I'm going to do it. and the next year.

Right, right, right. I think there was that. But, but, you know, I realized somewhere along the way that, hey, this is going to be a grind, and you're going to have to earn it. And the real world stepped in. Yeah. And, but gosh, you know, I've never felt like it was a struggle. There were definitely, there's definitely been challenges.

Sure, of course. I've always, I've loved what I was doing. That's most important, right? Yeah. It's not a struggle then. Yeah, I've always been passionate about it. And I've always been committed. And I always understood that like, listen, what a great opportunity to get to do what I'm doing.

And you're going to have to get out there and you're going to have to work hard. And I definitely took the path less chosen. All right. So let's talk about that a little bit. Before you started Before you started releasing your music 20 years ago now back in 1999

You were raised in Texas Yeah Tumbleweed Texas Yes sir Yes sir And you know you were a good old Texas boy Playing a little baseball

Yes sir Thinking that maybe You know I spit a little chew out on the baseball field And round the diamond Every once in a while What made you realize Maybe that's not it Well, I guess, you know, of course, you know, when I was growing up, I was like I wanted to be shortstop for the Houston Astros.

And I guess that dream fizzled out, you know, apparently you have to be able to start for your college before you can start for a major league team. You got to be able to hit a curveball. Yeah, you got to be able to hit a curveball. And, but, you know, one door closed and another one opened. And, you know, my dad, my dad, he's, you know, he's. He's amazing. My mom and dad are amazing. And dad's a disabled veteran. He was injured in Vietnam. And, you know, to be able to make ends meet for our family, my dad was a custodian. And dad taught me a lot about work ethic.

Whatever it takes, man. I shared this earlier where I was about 11 or 12. And my friends were all going swimming that day. And I said, dad, I want to go swimming with my friends. And my dad said, well, I really need you to help me clean the church today. And I was like, well, dad, all my friends are going swimming. I don't want to go clean the church, dad. He's like, well, I really need your help.

And I acted like a little stinker all day. Like a kid, 11-year-old kid. And we were in a toilet stall. I was in a toilet stall with the big yellow gloves on scrubbing a toilet. My dad was in the toilet next to me. And he was scrubbing the toilet. And I'm just over there complaining. all my friends are swimming and I'm cleaning toilets and blah, blah, blah.

And I'm just fussing. And then finally my dad peeks his head around the corner and he said, hey. And I looked at him. He goes, do you think when I was your age that I wanted to grow up someday and be a custodian cleaning toilets? And I just got. Did you ever think that? Yeah. And I got quiet.

And he said, no. He goes, this was not one of my dreams. He said, but I got drafted. I got hurt. And you know what? This job, because of this job that God's blessed me with, I'm able to take care of you, your sister, and your mama. And he said, I'm going to show God how thankful I am for this job.

And these are going to be the cleanest toilets in town. And I didn't complain ever again. And what it showed me is regardless of what I was doing, I was going to give it my best effort. And that's the thing I try to, I teach my kids now. And really my dad's work ethic, cleaning toilets is not too glorifying. Of course not. For anyone.

For anyone. But he did it. And he got the job done. And we all appreciate it. Yeah. And we all appreciate it. And it's like I tell my boys. I don't know.

I tell both my boys and my daughter, I go, I don't know what you're going to be someday. But whatever you are, I want you to give it your best effort. be the best you can be, whether it's clean and toilets, or whether it's president of the United States. And you know, dad, this American dream, that's the thing that dad instilled in me is that if I was willing to get out there and work hard that I could do anything, I never want to, that is the American dream. It is the American dream. That's what I really want to, what I want to focus on. Without a doubt, there's opportunity. Even if I, I've told my mom,

my wife has said, well, what if, you know, one day your career ended? What would you do? I go, I don't know. But if I had to go get a trailer and buy a couple of lawnmowers, I could go door to door, wake up before the sun came up, and I could work until the sun went down, and I could find a way in this country to take care of my family. If you want, if you want opportunity, opportunities there. Now, you have to get your rear off the couch. Amen. But it's there. And I've always been given, opportunity. Now, there's, there's been, there's certain opportunities I haven't been given, but I found ways around them. And let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah. Mr. I'm too, Mr. Bigshot, Mr. I'm too good for a record label. Yeah. Mr. I'm going to do my own music myself. I like that attitude.

You know, people are like, why are you independent? And I'm like, well, for the first 10 years, I was independent out of survival because none of the labels thought that I had, what it took. When you first heard that, how many times did you go back to them and say, I am good enough, I am good enough, and at what point did you say, you know what?

I'm going to take this rubber glove that I've got with people cleaning toilets and ram it up there, but to do my own thing. You know, I think when I finally, I went back and I just kept trying to prove them wrong, and I felt like I was always leaving Nashville with my tail tucked between my legs.

And I think when I finally realized that I don't need them is we had an album called Real Good Time and it charted number nine nationwide. And I went, whoa, I'm an independent artist and I just charted an album top 10. There are major label artists that aren't doing that. And then the underdog goes number one and Vakero. And it just, and then here we are today. And it's finally, at that point, I realized, you know what? Of course, I could have a deal now.

Of course. But it's not because they believe in me. Don't call us. We'll call you, right? Yeah. They don't believe in me. No, they don't. They just, it'd be a financial thing.

Yep. I mean, they saw, oh, you know, we were wrong. Oh, gosh. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you were wrong and you missed the boat. Yeah. And now we've grown this great business.

And I have these wonderful people that work for me that they believe in me. We're growing not just my career, but we're also growing the record label. And we have, we have dreams about signing more artists down the road and give an artist an opportunity to live their dream. Oh, see. Now, you say that, but now you've turned into the record label of saying, ooh, that was not good. You're not good enough. You know, take a hike.

My deal, this is true, but I will not be wearing a coat and tie. I'll be wearing wranglers and old boots. Thank you. And of course, my Aaron Watson. Yes. My Aaron Watson. Absolutely. But the thing about it is.

Which can get at Aaronwatson.com. You go to Aaronwatson.com. And while you're listening, why you are listening, you can go head on over to iTunes. and Amazon and purchased my new album Red Band, and all the proceeds go into my wife's purse immediately. Isn't that true with about every album that you've made? Every album. I've never been paid.

I asked permission before I bought this old Jeep. But so technically she's kind of the record executive. There you go. Yeah, she's the man. I'm not the one telling you now. Hey, listen, you know, I will tell you this. There's a guy that label, he's still there. And I went up to him years later.

And I said, man, I sang you some songs a long time ago. And you shut me down pretty good. You were pretty hard on me. For a long while, I wasn't a big fan of you. Right. I go, but now I look back. And I'm thankful for your honesty because it pushed me to be a better singer, songwriter, performer.

Now, he was a little hard on me. I think when I'm meeting artists someday and they're interested in the deal, if they don't have what it takes, I'll share with them my heartaches. And I'll say, you know what? I've been in that chair you're sitting in right now. So I know how it feels

to have someone tell you you're not quite ready. So what I need you to do is if you want it, you got to get out there and work hard because you look at Willie Nelson's career he's not doesn't look like Don Juan No he does not Doesn't sing like Elvis

No he does not Doesn't put on a performer like No I've seen Willie a couple times Yeah a couple times in my life But you know what's amazing He never quit He just keeps on the road man He just keeps

He didn't technically make it Until he was 42 years old Redheaded stranger Yeah and that's one of the things that that's a great example that you know if a young Willie Nelson 21 years old sat in front of you and played you some songs you'd go ah you sound kind of nasly and you're a little out of time you might want to get rid of that guitar with a hole in it yeah and yeah exactly but that's a great example of a a guy who was relentless his work ethic

he never stopped you know a lot of a lot of you all have uh musicians successful musicians have a lot of the same philosophy and outlook. I remember just a story from Jerry Lewis once talking about Nashville. You mentioned Nashville and leaving Nashville, and he was asked how he felt getting turned down for so many times just because he played piano and not guitar. And he thought, I hitchhiked in, I'll hitchhike out. Yeah.

Well, you know, and it helps the dad raise me on Willie and Whalen, and they kind of had that Texas outlaw mentality. So that's helped. Well, George Jones in there. Yeah, yeah, a little George Jones. And then there are some Beatles and some Rolling Stones too. Hello. But, you know, it's, now I've taken on something different.

My career now is something that is inspiring young independent artists. That's what's great, right? It is the most satisfying feeling. I won a BMI award. And I didn't know I was going to win an award that evening. And they gave out these awards. They would call up the artist. And when the artist would get up there, he would have his label, his record label up there.

And there'd be four or five people from the label. And then he'd have his publishing company up there. And there'd be three or four people from there. There'd be the songwriters and all the songwriters published. There'd be 20, 30 people on that stage. When they called me, it was just me. Because I was the only writer and I'm the publisher and I'm the record label. And afterwards, I had a young man come up to me.

And he said, hey, I just wanted to meet you and just tell you that, like, my career, I thought my career was over. There were no labels that were interested in me. And I thought, well, I don't have an opportunity. It's never going to happen. He goes, but then your album charted number one. He goes, and now here you are. You were on that stage all by yourself.

He goes, I needed to see that tonight. He goes, you inspire me. You show me that there is another way to achieve my goals. And I just shook his hand. And I said, now I'd like to thank you. No doubt. Because what you just said to me inspired me and made me realize that what I'm doing has purpose.

And that's the American dream. That is. I'm living the American dream. You can do anything you want, but you're going to have to get out there and you're going to have to earn it. So let's talk a little bit about before 20 years ago, you know, and you talked about learning some life lessons from your dad. But at what point, and you learned some life lessons from your baseball?

coach. Yeah. Who said, you're not starting, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Like,

whew. And you know what? We might not need you as a pinch of your and sit down over there. But you can go over there and do, go watch the jock straps

after the games. We need somebody to pick up the baseball before the game starts. That was great. I was great. I was great at it. But,

and then you, you started playing music and you thought, man, this is something I could do. Yeah. I'm interested in what made that transition from I can do. You know what?

This is something I could do. You know, I always loved music. Dad raised me with music playing, and I sang in church. But I started realizing I would play the songs on my, some songs cover songs on my guitar, and my friends were like, man, you're pretty good. And then I got asked to play some little social events, like sorority fraternity type things. things. And I started writing songs and I'd mix in one of my songs and I'd sing it that evening with the covers. And I'd always have people go, hey, what was that one song? You sang a song I didn't

know, but I liked it. And I'd be like, oh my goodness, that was my song. And there started to become demand. Demand for my music for my product. Say that one. Yeah, yeah. Do that one, that one song. And that's when I realized, you know what? I think I've, I've, I've, I think I've, I've, think I've got an opportunity here. And I tell people, that's one thing. And I tell this to my, I tell this to my kids a lot. I'm like, listen, God gives us all unique special gifts and talents. You need to focus on what those talents are. Find what is your talent and develop it. You know, it's like you have to also be realistic. And at some point in my career, at some point in my life, I had to be realistic that I was not going to be shortstop for the Houston Ashros.

And I had to accept defeat. You know, I had to accept defeat. And I had to realize. But it wasn't defeat, though. You're talking about accepting defeat, but it wasn't defeat. It was just a... Well, yeah, it was... I don't know.

Maybe it was a little bit, knowing that I couldn't be what I had dreamed I was going to be. I had to kind of wave the white flag. a little bit, but there's, there's, but at the same time, I learned so many things from baseball that I've applied to my, you know, if you're, here's the deal. If as a hitter, you're out seven out of ten times, you're a Hall of Famer. Amazing. Think of that. It's amazing. Think of that. We talk about that, some friends of mine and some other friends of mine talk about that a lot. And so I've applied that. I've applied that to even like radio singles. They're like, well, this single just didn't really, didn't turn into a hit. And I was like, well, we just got to

keep on swinging. Yeah. You got to keep swinging. Step in the box, baby. You got to keep on swinging. It's one of my boys, my youngest boy, Jack, who at his All-Star game yesterday went four for five. And I was like, yeah, baby. I was proud. And, but a couple of, weeks ago, he, uh, he struck out to end the game. Struck out not swinging. That's kind of a no-no in my house. You don't strike. That's tough, man.

Yeah. That is not, that is, that is not accepted in my house. And I told him, he said, dad, I go, you know, I go, you, I said, Jack, you know what. Like a ball. It looked like a ball. Yeah. Yeah. I did.

I go, one thing's for certain. One thing's a fact. If you don't swing, you're not going to. hit that dang ball. And that's kind of my mentality with this. If you don't try, it's vulnerable putting out a new record. I poured my heart into this record. There are songs on this record. You read the lyrics and you're like, man, this guy does not have it all together like everybody thinks he does. I was completely transparent. And that's, that's, that's, you know, you feel vulnerable when you want to just be completely honest.

about your imperfections. And, but you know what? I'm like, oh, I don't know if I want to put this out. You've had 20 years of that, though. Yeah. I mean, you really have. You've had 20 years of putting your gut on the table, right? Yeah.

I mean, that's what makes it so good. It's what makes it so good. But even now, it's like, this is, you know, this is, this week, I'm nervous. I mean, we're putting this record out. I don't have that major label support. I'm going against all those major label artists. I want to win. The deck is stacked against.

me but that goes less and less stacked against you now and more and more oh way way less stacked against me than it was in the past but there's that part of me that goes well there's no way I can have a number one record

this week but then there's part of me that goes dad gumming if I don't I need to apply practice what you preach Aaron like you like you told your son if you don't swing you're never going to hit it so I'm out here this week and I'm swinging and I'm swinging for the fence and and you know what

this time next week, whether it charts dead last or number one. I'm going to sleep okay because I went out. I was swinging. I was swinging. So at one of these sorority parties, did you beat the wife and decide, oh, man, now I got to be a music star with a wife. Oh, man. Children. Gosh.

I mean, I'll tell you this, to be honest, everyone thinks, oh, if you have a band, there's girls everywhere. That's kind of true. but not girls that are like willing to like stick by your side. Right. And, you know, I meet this girl and I tell her I have a band and she didn't just run away. You know, and I met her dad. And he wasn't shook by the idea of his daughter marrying a guy who is a singer. Yeah.

I remember he said, well, let's talk about your business. What's your game plan? Because this is a business. And having her dad talk me through a lot of that, it had a profound impact on me. Like, he's right. This is a business. We're going to run this like a business. And, you know, bless her heart, what was she thinking?

You know, what's crazy? and I want all the listeners to listen to this point. My wife, before me, she was dating a guy who went on to become a baby heart doctor, a pediatric cardiologist. There's not a lot of us around, Aaron. Yeah, there's not a lot of those.

There's only a few of us who could do that. But yet she chose a guy with a band. I would just like to tell all the girls out there, it worked out okay for my wife, but generally speaking, do not ever choose the singer over the pediatric cardiologist, baby heart doctor. Probably the best choice is to go away from the singer.

Yeah. I'm just saying, girls, write that down on a piece of paper. All right, so Aaron Watts, an American dream, living it clearly, living it, clearly. And so blessed. The latest album, Red Bandan, Red Bandana.

Out right now. Make it number freaking one. Yeah, folks, get out there. Even if you don't like country music, this is your one good deed of the day. All the proceeds go into my wife's purse, go on iTunes or Amazon, buy that record.

If you truly hate it, come out to a show. Of course, you'll have to buy a ticket. But once you buy a ticket, then I'll give you your money back for the album that you so much dislike. I'll tell you what. I'm so confident that this album is heart and soul.

I'm so confident that you're going to love it. Go get it. Please help me pay off my wife's credit card bill this month. I'm begging you. There we goes. You heard the man. Go get the album. Red Bandana by Aaron Watson.

And also what you need to do is. while you're going and purchasing red bandana. Subscribe to chewing the fat, duh. Subscribe and tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your neighbors. Subscribe to chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. So when you get the daily podcast, you're going to get the daily update.

You're going to know you're going to get the alert. Boop. There it is. The daily boop. What does it sound like again? Boop. You're going to get that Monday through Friday. Then on Monday you're going to get boop, yeah, because you're got talking fear.

And then on Saturday, I, poop, boop, boop, bo. Whoa, wait a minute. I'm not doing that much work. You're going to get one on Saturday, too. Like you did with this one with The American Dream. Anyway, thanks to Aaron Watson for coming by. The guy is amazing. I love him.

And I appreciate him stopping by here for the American Dream segment. And we might as well end it with a song from the album, Red Bandana. Cut number six. Kiss that girl goodbye. much understood rainy days are just no good for leaving no need mix in misery and jam So it goes for icy days heartache and slick highways no time to wait you're gonna break if you bend and bend again But ain't fresh new start will warm your heart like the sun breaking through a cloudy sky If ever was a good day it's today that boy kiss that girl goodbye just like a red-eyed

light to tell lights in the night like a whisper in the wind that boy can kiss that girl goodbye name and names players love playing games and he played your heart like a little violent it's a brand new rhyme and riddle that you'll turn to play that fiddle and that same old song and dance is coming to an end cause a wish this was a good day yesterday that boy can kiss that girl goodbye he wants a good good Goodbye kiss He must be out of his ever loving mind If he really wants a goodbye kiss You tell him to go kiss it where the sun don't shine

If ever was a good day it's today That boy kiss that girl goodbye Just like a red eyes for you kiss that girl Go get it