Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - lyrics, love, and little ones: a conversation with the doleacs

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Today we sat down with critically acclaimed singer songwriter and breakout Country music star, Adam Doleac and his wife and number one supporter, MacKinnon Doleac! We became fast friends with this couple and loved chatting with them so much. Adam opened up about the inspiration behind his latest song “Bar Named Jesus” with Thomas Rhett and talked about how his own marriage often influences his music. Mackinnon shares her perspective on the ups and downs of being a wife and mom while being married to a country star. This couple was so relatable, genuine & fun and the conversation felt the same way :)  Love you guys, Shawn & Andrew Learn more about Adam Here ▶https://www.adamdoleac.com/ Download' Adam's latest song “Bar Named Jesus” with Thomas Rhett Here ▶ https://stem.ffm.to/barnamedjesus Beam Kids is now available online at shopbeam.com/COUPLETHINGS  Take advantage of our exclusive discount of up to 40% off using code COUPLETHINGS Subscribe to our newsletter  ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletter Follow our podcast Instagram  ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson  Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en #AdamDoleac #CoupleThingsInterviews #Marriage #Music  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things, interviews. With Sean and Andrew. Today we have two of our friends, which is also, we have found it makes for a hard interview. Because in the back of my mind, I'm so comfortable. And for the most part, with friends, we don't, I don't want to say don't care about their professions. Like we know them so much on like a human level, not the like profession level that sometimes I have a hard time asking them questions. We're talking about the doliacs.

Adam Doliac and McKinnon Dolliac. Adam is a phenomenal country music artist. Phonomenal. Who just dropped his new single, which is Bar Name Jesus. If you haven't heard it, you have to go listen to it. Him and Thomas Wrett. It is a great song.

This was a phenomenal interview with Adam and McKinnon. We really enjoyed the conversation, and we hope you do as well. If you want to learn more about Adam and McKinnon, we'll link their information down below, as well as a link to the new song, Bar Name Jesus. Enjoy this one with the Doleaks. Let me ask all this. Do you consider audiobooks, read it? I don't. He does. I do not. You did not

read. You do not use your eyeballs. He listens to audiobooks while he sleeps. Okay. Let me present this to you though. When you read though, are you saying the words to yourself in your brain? Okay, so you're not actually reading. You're saying the words to yourself. But you're using your eyeballs to consume it and then reading it in your head. But with an audiobook, you're straight up just listening to words. You listen to a podcast, which is the same thing in audio. No. It's not reading. If there's audio, it's not reading. I'm just saying there's different classes. Reading is like this.

Well, and you know when people say, oh, I read 100 books this year? I'm like, no, you freaking didn't? You listened to 100 books. Adam and McKinnon, welcome to this show. Thanks for coming. Thanks for having us. I don't want to bring up bad memories, Adam,

but I think these are the same pants I wore when we went golfing, and I had the worst round starting off. But then you and I... I was going to say, this is a good memory. We rallied, dude. We had an epic comeback. It was so much fun.

I actually thought about it this morning. I was trying to figure out what the situation was. I think we were like four down after four. This is day one or two? Two. They two. During our spa experience. Day one was kind of tragic for all of us.

But day we were down four after four. And then came back and we're either even or down one on number nine. Yeah. And double down and one. It was epic. That's a good memory. I remember Andrew coming back, giddy. We were getting a child.

We were giddy. It was unbelievable. Also, Andrew was getting picked up. up after that. We only played nine because you had to go. And on number like eight fairweight, here comes the plane that's picking him up, flying in. We're just waving at the plane. It was awesome. So we took a couple's weekend retreat, I guess. We'd never done anything like that, but that was a good time. We did not know any of y'all. That was our intro to the group. We did not know. Well, we had met Sally and Walker at dinner. We had like a dinner date. And then two weeks later, he's like,

you want to go on a golf trip with our friends? We were like, I mean, I guess, sure. Can we bring our baby on? I thought it was awesome. I'm ready to do it again. Yeah, I'm ready to do it again. And y'all let us bring Jack. It was supposed to be the weekend with like all the parents with no kids. And we show up with our little, what was he six months old at that point or something like that? He looks like Jack Jack. He does.

That's who he was for Halloween. I don't know if y'all saw that, but it was the best Halloween costume. Was he actually Jack Jack? Oh, yeah. We'll get you some pictures. He also put the little mask on him and we were for sure he'll, he's going to rip it off. Kept it on the entire net for hours. Seriously?

Yes. He had little ridges like burned into his sides from wearing it all night. It was really cute. He is Jack Jack. We just actually introduced him to The Incredibles movie. Yeah. He didn't watch it. Yeah.

He listened. Jack was a highlight of the weekend, but by far, one of my favorite parts was the private concert we got from Adam. I know. I brought the guitar. A little acoustic sash. It was amazing. And to have McKinnon sit there and give color to the songs was also really special. It was so much fun.

You had the muse and the player right there in the same room. That's right. I think we got the first. Take one of the early debuts of why we're here today, which is Bar Name Jesus. Did I play it that night? You played at that. I did. Yeah. I hope it was good. I was trying to think that had to have been one of the first times ever even trying to play it. I think you had to like look up the lyrics, but. Yeah, probably. That would have been one of the first times ever trying yeah. You said you like feedback. It's a great one. Like it's terrific. Thank you. I'm really

proud of that song. It's also in my world. I write a song a day a lot of time. So I have a Dropbox folder, which I've sent you guys as well. Yes. Smaller Dropbox folder, but I've got a bigger one with a thousand songs on it. And so a lot of songs get wasted, and a lot of songs get pitched to other artists. I've written songs for Dan and Shea and Lainee Wilson and Nate Smith and Gabby Barrett and Kane Brown. There's a bunch of people. Normally when I write a song, I pitch it immediately because I'm not that connected to a song.

If somebody wants to cut it, that's amazing. Let them cut it. I'll write another one. Bar Name Jesus is the only song in my life I've ever written. that I was immediately like, just do not pitch this song. This is my song. I want this song. I will not give it away.

Tim McGraw could call right now and try to cut it and I would say no. Like I just think this song's that important, both for me and just for me to release and get out into the world. And so I'm proud of this one. And I'm glad you guys liked it. What inspired it? It's something I've never really written about. I've been lucky to write a bunch of songs that impacted couples and have been first dance

songs and have meant a lot to people, but I've never really written. about my personal life in the way of Jesus and faith and that kind of thing. And I think it comes with just getting older, getting more mature, growing up and that and writing about stuff that really matters more to you. And so I had that title, Bar Name Jesus. I knew when I saw the title, I loved it. I knew it could either be really bad. We could write it really cheesy and bad, or we could write a really special song.

And so I wrote it with Josh Jenkins and Chris LaCourt. And Josh is kind of my pipeline to Jesus guy. when I have an idea that I feel like needs to be in touch with Jesus, I take it to Josh because he's so good at that. And it took us eight hours to finish that song. It was two different sessions. But we started with the title and kind of worked backwards. I remember the first line we got was where the well ain't whiskey and it don't run dry.

And then we like where the light stays on and there's always room for one more inside. And we're like, okay, these lines are universal. This is like shareable. And what we ended up with is a story that I think, will bring people to Jesus, which is bigger than anything I've ever put on paper. I think if, you know, if one person finds Jesus because of one of my songs, awesome. And that's what I hope happens with this. Is eight hours the normal amount of time, or is that a lot?

Is that a lot or a little? That's long. I would say, I would say two to four hours is normal. For just writing an entire song? I would say four. Four, but they can come out in two. For sure. They can fall out fast.

Four is like your everyday. Most people write from 11 to 3 or 4 o'clock every day. And is that just like a discipline you have, or is that you have that much going on in your brain that you have to get it out every day? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot going on in there. I probably don't even get it all out every day. But I would say, like, that's just kind of what you would call a day job. Like, I'm an artist and a songwriter. So the weekend is kind of one job where you're going to play shows and touring and that stuff.

Your day job during the week, you normally have a publishing deal and you're writing songs for that company. And it's kind of like, you know, normal people would be. nine to five a songwriter's world it's like 11 to 3 11 to 4 or 5 days a week and you have deliverables with the publishing deal it's like you have to write us X amount of songs yes but it's actually guess how many songs a year you think it would be 50 it's way lower 20 10 5 mm-hmm she goes why are you leaving the house so often you know no so here's how it's 13 songs a year it's normally 13 wow but I could write 13 oh please do i'd love to hear

i'd love to hear of go write 13 and turn them into us and we'll come back and listen on the podcast i would be fired um it's so if the four of us write a song that is one fourth of a song that's me writing 25% of one song and so it's 13 100% song so really 13 times 40 do the math no she's not very good

52 that was pretty good how'd you do it I did double 13 and then double I did the literal like oh wow yeah you two carried the one Yeah, interesting. Visual. You mentioned a lot of your songs are about love first dance songs. I want to hear how this team came to be because I imagine there's a lot of inspiration that has been drawn from your relationship.

Most of my inspiration comes from this relationship for sure. Yeah. Do you want to tell it or me? Or I can tell it. Yeah, let's have. He normally leads in with, we met on Broadway, which. Nice. It's a nice curveball.

It is, but people are like, oh, that fun. And I'm like, no, no, no. So this was 2017. February. February. But I worked for a company. It was startup company down in the pinnacle building on Third Avenue. So technically Broadway-ish.

And it was a interesting little place. This was obviously pre-COVID. Post-COVID, it probably would have been the coolest place. Basically, it was a studio where people could come and play like acoustic shows, but it was all live streamed in 4K. There's a whole like, very technical, but a studio room where they would do all these things and they would live stream it around the world so people could watch all of these artists play.

It was a little before it's time. Yeah. So, I mean, we had artists that came Brown, Morgan Wall, and Luke Combs. Like, all these people came in. This was before they had even put out music at the time. And Adam came to, so I was the event coordinator, so I would basically run the whole show other than the actual music side. And it was on a Thursday?

February 23rd. Jacob Bryant was the artist, I think it was. Wow. Yep. And he came with a friend of his to the show. and I just remember from my perspective I'm like I obviously saw people

coming you know in and out of there in and out of whatever he came in and I was kind of like thank you who is this guy and I knew the guy that he was with I kind of just asked around I was like who is that you know who's that guy and found out his name and then I looked him up on Instagram his account was private which

different time yeah different time it was private and his bio said Sony ATV oh this is funny which in the music world that is a publishing company I thought he like wrote ATV literally thought I was just writing

forward with this really or like works for like an ATV company I don't know like I knew nothing about the publishing world and so I was like okay that's interesting whatever and so then everybody all my people I worked with go talk to him go talk to him

I was like I literally couldn't like I don't know what to say like I just panicked so I didn't say anything which makes so much sense now such a panicking And I just overthink everything, so I was like, I don't, I truly don't know what to say. So I didn't say anything. And then at the time, Stormy Warren, I don't know if y'all, I'm assuming you know who that is.

And he was the MC for all of our events. He and I had a conversation probably two weeks prior that I was single and that I was potentially going to move back to Dallas, just to be with all my college friends, just like wasn't really into the Nashville scene. So he knew this going into this evening. Do you want to tell your perspective, I guess? Yeah, I'll jump in here. So then at this point, I'm doing the same thing she's doing. I see her, I'm like, oh, who is that? I'd love to meet her, et cetera.

And the only person I knew there, aside from the guy I was with, was Stormy. And I'd seen them talking. So I went to Stormy, and I'm like, hey, who is that? What's her name? She has a boyfriend. I love to meet her. He goes, yeah, her name's McKinnon. And immediately, I was like, oh, my God, what a cool name.

I've never heard that name. Fast forward to a few years later, walking into one of her family events, everybody's named McKinnon. So it's like. Yeah, largely. Yes. But anyway, so I go, he goes, her name's McKinnon. But unfortunately.

she's got a boyfriend and so I'm like okay so we were leaving I go outside and I did I went back in to try to do like the bump into and I was I was gonna hit her with like hey I've already done my research I know you have a boyfriend but just wanted to say you're beautiful or something like that and I never ran into you I think I did like two or three times I went into pee like three times and never ran into you now I know there was that back room that's probably where you were so I left we were standing outside the event was over and what was your friend's name that came out. Courtney came out and she super awkwardly hands me

and my group of friends I'm with these brochures from Thiel, Teal. Yeah, it was Aurora. Aurora, Aurora. And she's like super weird. She's like, we're sorry, we have to hand all these out before you leave. It's just a company policy or whatever. And we're all like, okay, I'm walking to the trash can and throw it away. And I look on the back and there's a number on the back of mine

and not on the back of everybody I was with. MC was Stormy's co-host on Sirius. him so she was there as well so i text her i'm like hey is this mac mckenon's number and she goes yeah that's it i'm like what the heck thought she had a boyfriend and then i ended up texting you that night didn't you text the wrong number because yes because your handwriting is trash your fours and nines look the exact same it's not trash you have good handwriting but your fours and nine's get a little mixed up yeah so i sent it and i said something you still have a screenshot of it but i was like really hoping there's a mckenon on the other end of this line blah blah blah

And you text me back that night Yeah And also this was The event ended at like 10 or 11 So by the time you text me It was probably like 1130 midnight Yeah I was still out on Broadway most likely She texted me back

And I think one of the reasons I got her was because I immediately said I don't want to speak to you again on text I don't like texting people that don't know how they sound Or how they're saying things So I said I'll pick you up Sunday night And I don't want to talk to you again until then Because I was flying out the next morning

So I got back so glad he said that. I despise texting people. I mean, at that time, when you're like in the dating world, dating people and then them saying something and you're like, oh, that was so cringy. But if you had met them in person or talking in person, you don't know how they mean it. So I was really happy that that happened.

So I said, I'll pick you up Sunday. I went to Fair Hope, Alabama, where my brother lived for the weekend. His birthday. It was his birthday, that's right. And told my entire family that I was going to marry this girl that I haven't talked. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Like a complete psychopath.

Didn't I? Oh my gosh. I mean, they probably thought I was nuts. And you technically hadn't met yet, right? Had not met. Had not met. Yeah. I'd seen her and we texted once.

Yeah. That was it. And I knew I liked her name. Yeah. And also couldn't find many pictures of you. I couldn't do like a search. That's probably private too. Who knows?

Yeah. And then I came back Sunday. We were supposed to go on a date. She blew me off for... I didn't blow you off. I just canceled. For her grandfather, which I liked, actually. Yeah.

And then we went on a date Monday, February 27. We went to Skulls, Rainbow Room. Nice. Oh, yes. I was determined to take this girl somewhere that I had never been on a date before. I don't know why. I guess I just because I wanted it to be our place. Yeah, how short is that list?

It's difficult to talk. That's the other part of this. I felt like at this moment of my life, I had dated or not really. You gave up girls for Lent. I had literally just decided to give up talking to any females for Lent. I was like, I'm not going to do it. I need a break. I need to give myself some space.

And I think I met you like. or not met you, but saw you the next night. I was like, hi. So we went on that date, sat there for four hours, talked about things we probably shouldn't talk about on the first date. Yeah, we got deep. Kids, the whole thing. You barely ate anything.

I had, like, two crab cakes. I had, like, crab cakes and had, like, four bites. I was afraid, like, my stomach would hurt or, like, you know, using your teeth. And then we went to cookout and got milkshakes. So, I mean, I clearly wasn't a lot. It's a solid first date. It was a solid first date.

It was a solid first date. I think I kissed you on our first date? Yeah, you pretty much kissed me. Yeah, you did. I pretty much kissed him too. But I like panicked. It was like that awkward. You're standing outside saying goodbye and you're kind of like, that makes me cringe thinking

about the moment where you're like, oh, we're just going to stand here and sway back and forth. Then like, who's going to do it? And I was like, screw it. Blanted one on you. Did it, yeah. And then she moved in seven months later. Yeah, that was. That was idiotic most likely.

Did it confirm that you're going to marry her that night? Oh, yeah. I was that way the whole time. Yeah. The whole time told my friends. I was like I'm gonna marry this girl Yeah I pretty much was too You were more than I realized

We went back and found messages I don't know when this was the other day It was like the other day She I found one that she sent me like What did you say? I think I kind of want to marry you Is that too much? It was like the fourth or fifth day or something But in our relationship like he's definitely the romantic one

Yeah So anytime I say anything remotely like sweet or romantic He freaks or he'll like mention it multiple times And notice I screenshot it So he screenshot it and sent it to me and was like wow You were romantic Yeah, she's more of a quiet type. Yeah, not my speed as much.

Words of affirmation not hurt more. I'm more of that than she is. Yeah. So that was eight years ago on the 20th. Yeah, we just celebrated eight years. And been married, how long? December was two. Yeah.

Man, this is going to sound so old school, but I miss those moments, the interactions where it's like you write your number on a brochure and that first exchange. Now it's like you look them on the internet. I know. I'm so glad we met that. That way. I know. We were, like, right on the cusp, too.

Yeah. Like, the fact that you were private on it, which is so stupid that that's like a, you know, prerequisite. But it was nice that you were, I thought you were doing ATV stuff, not music. So. I don't know what's brought it up recently, but we have talked a lot lately about what if we were in the dating scene now? Like, it seems so much harder.

So hard. It seems miserable. I don't, I would be very bad at it. I also feel like there's way too many options now where people are so obsessed with this idea of like I might bump into someone that is I like, but there's still 500 I can sift through on the internet should I compare them. I just can't imagine it. Yeah. Like did you have a mutual connection? We, you told us this. We had a mutual connection. Yeah. And I feel like that is such a big piece where people can, there's like a someone can vouch for that other

person, which even though it wasn't like close friends, we had two people that we were mutually connected with and I was kind of like, okay, he's a normal person. He's not a creep or any of those things. Like, okay, I can go on a date with him. Stormy still hasn't told us. why he's told me that she had a boyfriend. We asked him all the time. I've asked him like three or four times and he just skirts around it and never says anything of substance. Yeah.

He might have just had a few too many chardonnays that night. Maybe. I don't know. His nickname can be shardy sometimes. Yeah. Really? Yeah. What a tear.

I know. Sorry, Stormy. I think that the dating scene to me feels awful. There's too many options. There's also too much information. Yeah. Or like any situation you're not forming your own opinion about somebody is bad. and I feel like now if you meet somebody

maybe you have an hour with them that night or two hours and then you go home and you dig up everything you can find on them and you form this other opinion without giving them a chance and it's all kind of just skewed I think that would be what's so bad about it from every aspect you have LinkedIn and you can see

what skills people are endorsing you for it's like well she's not a good presenter she's not a good public speak to you even have like captions like how they're texting and how their humor is like Yeah, that is interesting. You strike me as a real southern gentleman, though, with the whole how you approach that.

I'm definitely a hopeless romantic or romantic. I don't know if I like calling myself hopeless. You grew up in Mississippi? Addisburg, Mississippi. My whole family's still there. My dad's side brothers always like to say their names are Larry, Barry, Perry, Donnie, and Ronnie. Five boys. But actually?

That's actually everyone's saying. That's incredible. Yeah. My grandmother was on one, I guess, when she did. I mean, I grew up that way. My dad is that way. Still that way. Still that way.

Yes, ma'am, yes, sir. Open doors. I tried to come talk to you before you had to come talk to me. So you wouldn't have to approach me, but I was lied to, so I couldn't do it. But yet you were going to. I was going to. And I tried even after the fact, but I couldn't find you. But the dream growing up in Mississippi was not to be a musician necessarily, was it?

No. Not even close. I have played music my whole life and always loved it. I had a drum set since I was two. My dad played drums in this band. I found pictures of them. They looked like the Beatles. They looked really official.

I thought it was the Beatles, I think, when I found the picture. My older brother played drums. He plays everything. My younger brother actually is, he can sing some Miranda Lambert harmonies. He loves. My young brother loves Miranda Lambert. He is art, like has artistic thing, but he's very creative, incredible writer, vlog writer, could write a book.

Yeah. He's a youth pastor back home. Photographer. Yeah. Photographer. She always puts an R in the word photographer. But yeah, I've always loved music. I started a praise band in high school.

It makes me sound better than I am. I think I did it just so I could play drums at school. And I was at a Christian school. I thought I was going to play golf. Back to our golf story. I wanted to play golf in college. When I was 12 years old, I quit playing everything else and just played golf. I played basketball too.

But focused on golf. Kind of was on tour back then, too. Me and Dad would go to a different city every single weekend, different tournament. Wow. And we would do that. I played in the AJGA, which is American Junior Golf Association and SJGA, all of it. Oh, tour for golf, not tour for music. Yeah, yeah. But we were gone every weekend like a music tour, you know, if I was just in a hotel room with that. And so I did that. My junior year, I got offered a full ride to play golf to Delta State, which is North

Mississippi. Ended up getting a smaller scholarship to Southern Miss also to play golf. In the meantime, my friends talked me into playing baseball my senior year. On the day of the first game. I'll never forget. We had a good team. They said, we need one more guy. We know you played until you're 12 and you're always on the All-Star team or whatever. I went out to the field, fielded a bucket of balls, hit bucket in the cage, started in a game that night because my school was tiny. Stop. My school was tiny. Like, there wasn't like I was having to beat people out. Your school was tiny and you're also a freak athlete. Well, I don't know what happened. I can't remember that far, but started that night, ended up having a good year. And I was six-four and

left-handed. So at the end of the year, Southern Miss, who's in the same town, Haddesburg, offer me a scholarship for baseball. And I told my coach, I was like, shut up, this is a joke. I thought you were kidding. They had also come to watch me in a game. I struck out three times on the same pitch. Like, it was bad. It was bad. And they still offer me a scholarship. Wow. So I'm a gut-feeling type of person. I felt like I could play golf until I was 90. So I'm like, I'll never get to play college baseball again. I'm going to go do that. So I called this golf coach who didn't even know that I played baseball. and said, never mind, I'm going to go play baseball.

And I was right. I could still play golf, which I'm glad I did that. And so two years later, I was walking into the College World Series. We played in that. Dang. Kind of where I got my first taste of playing in front of 30,000 people and loving it. That morphed into getting drafted, going, I got drafted late to the white socks and the minors and all that stuff. It was a glorified, we'll pay for your travel to get here and try out, basically.

So nothing major. but in the meantime my teammates all played guitar like acoustic guitar and i played drums we had bands and all that stuff and i had started picking up their guitar and fumbling around learning some like gavin negraw amos lee song stuff like that and they kept telling me i had a cool voice and that i should sing in front of somebody and i responded absolutely not that sounds terrifying i don't want to sing in front of anybody ever and so behind my back they went and booked me three shows they said they came back they're like we have booked you three shows at these small bars in Hadisburg, you have to show up and sing now.

And they all sold out because of baseball, not because I had any idea how to sing. And I just kind of fell in love with it. So at that point, that's when I went from maybe going to play minor league baseball to I'm moving to Nashville and I'm going to try this music thing. And so it was a random ride from golf to baseball to music, to even being in Nashville at all, to meeting my wife. I mean, the whole thing.

It's hilarious. My high school baseball coach who talked to me into playing baseball my senior year, whenever I see him, I'm like, you changed the entire course of my life. If he doesn't say come play baseball, I wouldn't know you. I probably would never be in Nashville. It's funny how just like one thing can change so much.

Would you describe Adam as a yes man McKinnon? Because I'm thinking like all these kind of random things, hey, come try for the baseball team. Okay. Come play at the bar. You know, you could have just not gone and played music. I would have said no. I would have absolutely said no.

Well, I wouldn't call myself a yes man, but I do believe I can do anything. What's the thing we always say in the music industry? Delusional confidence. He has this thing. Delusional optimism. He's like, yeah, I can do that. I'm like, well, you've never done that before.

So I can do it. I'm like, okay. Whereas like I would overthink it and spiral and there's 100 reasons why I couldn't do it. He's like, oh, yeah, it'll work out. It'll work out. It'll be fine. Yeah, it'll be fine. And I'm like, he could not.

You know, let's talk about those things. But I would say, yeah, I wouldn't have. necessarily say like yes man but super confident and kind of like you said follow like follows his gut be like yeah this feels good I'll do it like but like up and moving to Nashville like that's I mean and his dad owns a business in Hattiesburg that the plan was essentially for you to take over you know for him to take over the company you know which would be amazing and he'd be set for life and all those things but my parents have been amazing with the whole thing yeah as random as it's been like yeah they're so supportive that they've given

me i mean i literally was working as an electrician at this company it's an electric company and i've worked there my whole life and was two and a half years into the five years that you need to be ready to take over and just walked into his office and was like by the way i'm moving to nashville and he's he's almost to the point of like oh you you play guitar and sing like it was that new and he handled it so well and still to this day you know he's he's as excited about every song coming out as i am for sure maybe maybe maybe That part has been great. And have you all read Green Lights, the Matthew McConaughey book?

I've listened to it. So you've never read it. So you've never read it, but you've listened to it. To be fair, it's a good one to listen to it. His voice is. It's actually him? It's actually him. And I read it before the audio book came.

I got it like the day it came out. But there's a story in that book. He talks about his mom growing up. I think he was like 11 or 12 years old. And she entered him in Little Mr. Texas. The whole book, for anybody that doesn't know it, is he's going back through his journaled his whole life. And that is he's kind of reevaluating through his.

his journaling and he's going back and looking at these photos of him winning little mr texas and he looks at it closer 30 years later he's looking at the photo and he's holding the trophy and he looks a little closer and he can see on the trophy it says runner up and so he's like a 40 year old man calling his mom now going mom you told me i won little mr texas this trophy says runner up and his mom goes yeah but honey they had way more money than us and really you deserve to win and the whole thing and i was like that was my mom i think i have the delusional thing because my mom and both my people parents really have just kind of made me believe that I could pull off whatever I dreamed up. I think because of that, I've always been chasing after something just a little bigger

than normal. I think that kind of explains why I've done, what I've done, and I'm still that way. And I don't know that I would survive in a normal 9 to 5, just a normal life. I like working for myself and I like creating and being in charge of something. And so this, the music industry, while it's impossibly hard and so difficult has allowed me to do that. And so a part of me, even when it is really hard and really brutal, which it can be, still loves the chase of that and trying to figure it all out. So I think that kind of explains it. I want to hear more about the delusional optimism because this strikes me. I think it actually ties back to faith and, you know, the bar name Jesus.

It's not the purpose of faith is not like confidence or optimism, but it's a fruit of faith. It's so impactful. Whether you're talking about Vanderbilt football, going out and beating the number one team, Alabama. Like you have to have the delusional confidence or even I was doing some research on Alexander the great because he's like one of the people that came closest to conquering the world right and turns out like he's this young guy when he when he becomes king and he's like crippled by insecurity his dad got tragically murdered and he's like I'm not worthy of this right and the mom sees him in this role struggling for a while the mom pulls the son aside and after like a year or so says hey. that actually wasn't your dad that got murdered you're the you're the son of a god it shifted his identity in a lot of ways it's like oh yeah okay I got this I like obviously that's a weird kind of way to go about it but it just strikes me as such a different way to live life with that type of delusional optimism that is very much a choice I think some people may be prone to it easier than

others but is this a common concept of music I would say I don't necessarily know in in entirety like the music industry but I do think so much of what the way he is his parents like I think that at a young age it was always like oh you want to go do this okay great oh you want to go play this sport sure you can do this your parents really never told you no in that regard a little bit a little bit of golden childness too like whatever it was I immediately assumed I better be good at it like I need to I need to go show up for the family it's been a good and learning thing yeah yeah yeah in our relationship of being like that's not why I love you like I don't need you to like overperform for me to

love you. That part was so hard for me. Because he would go and do all these things and I wouldn't react in the way that he wanted and I think that was kind of this dial it back of like we're not, that's not our dynamic. You know, like you go do that and that's wonderful and have

confidence in that but that's not needed in our relationship. That was hard to get used to for me. Well, because you were used to like, oh my gosh you crushed it. Yeah. And constant praise. Well, also think about my world. I mean I'm literally always on a stage in front of people that are saying something like, oh my God, you crushed it. So good. Like it's just

compliments, compliments, compliments. And then you come back home. And, you know, for a while there, it's like, I used to call it reentry because I would be out on the tour bus for four or five days. And the whole world revolves around me. Like, everybody out there is working for me. They're either my band or my crew or fans that have bought a ticket to see me. And so you can get caught up in that sometimes and you get home and you're like, why aren't you excited to see me? What the heck once i figured that i was like okay take 10 minutes remember what's happening she's been home without you all weekend having to do everything living my life like my life doesn't just stop because you go on the road yeah so that was that was definitely which i have been on the road

with you so i do i understand it like you you get wrapped up in that world and then you come home and you're kind of like okay the world didn't you know our normal lives didn't stop just because it's definitely not normal out there because your business acumen and resume is very impressive in and of itself. What's the favorite role you've ever had? It's funny. Whenever I talk about like what I would, you know, go do or want to do, I, I'm very detail oriented. So I like anything to do with operations. Like how something functions and flows and gets from A to B. I'm not the big picture person. I'm like, I want to like talk about all the details. Not necessarily I can even come up with the idea. But if you have an idea, like I can help you get from A to B

with all the details in between. You've been very type A and all your stuff. Like the homeatic you were you were yeah like if you know people wanted to book the home at it and all that stuff i just think of myself as type a like i'm a chill type a like i don't know if people met me if they'd be like oh you're so type a but i am very type a with like certain things have you always been like that or is that because you married not a type a i think i've always been that way okay i think also just i'm the firstborn yeah and my parents got divorce i feel like i've always just kind of been the like just take control of whatever the situation is which is was hard in our relationship because it's like his response is you can't control everything but i can try yeah like i'm

gonna i'm gonna try and so trying to find that balance of not trying to control every single thing which is also very hard we have kids because i'm like oh yeah yeah you cannot really control anything you can do your best and show up but i would say that that type a and is i just Never really thought of myself as type A. Like, even in school, I could have been an A student. I didn't care enough to be an A student. I liked being a B student. Like, I'm good with the B.

You know, I can put in this amount of effort and I can get a B, but like, why get it? Like, I spend another, you know, seven hours and get an A. But you were literally controlling that? Yes, 100%. I was like, I'm controlling the outcome of getting a B versus, like, trying to get an A. My parents would kill me if I said I'm good with a B. I mean, I didn't tell my parents that. But I also played sports.

So that was like that, that's what I love to do. So the school aspect was just kind of a, you have to go to school and you got to get, you know, good grade, get into college. She is best teammate of, or friend or whatever she needs to be. If she's your friend, if she's your wife. Very loyal. Most loyal person I've ever met. Yeah. Kind of like right or die.

She's absolutely right or die. To maybe a false. If, you know, if we met today and you guys were, say you still played for Vandy and she had never heard of who Vandy was. and y'all had a game this weekend. We would go home after this podcast and we would turn the TV on and watch the game this weekend and by the end of the first quarter she'd be saying we. We should have scored there. I like that she just hops on board with the people she loves really well.

I feel like that's that's kind of how all your relationships have been. Yeah, which it's funny. I don't necessarily, I don't think of myself that way and then that's, but that's a constant theme when people are like, oh, describe her. That's always something that comes up, which it's funny. My brother said that. I think it was one Christmas. We were like going around saying what we loved about everybody, which is...

Love it. The movie version of Christmas. It was literally like you had to say something about the person next to you. I was like, why am I sitting next to this? Even though you love everybody, but it's your family. And my brother was like, you know, right or die, which goes back to being the oldest divorced parents, kind of like, I sheltered him from a lot of that experience when we were younger.

And still now, like, I just think about, like, Drew, like, she'll have to do that for the boys. It's just like something with, like, younger brothers. my brother's like hey uh like all my mom's what do we get mom for her birthday and like don't just i'll them oh request you like we'll sign the card you know like i'll handle it it's fine so that's like i guess type a and then being a girl older sister so so mckenon's loyal but before the show we were talking about how you value good feedback i mean we know several musicians but one thing that has been really fun with you is you've almost included us with your songs in a different way that we've it's been so fun

you're like hey what do you think about this one yeah you hear them before they before they come out yeah which is so much fun it's like I'm in a special club here when you gave the little private concert I was like I felt like a four-year-old I was like this is so cool you were choosing the whole time became number one fan yeah and that was cool for me because I don't I'm not also not the type I undersell myself most of the time so like I would I would never show up to that weekend even assuming that you guys knew my music at all. So when I started playing and you know, Erica knew, but like she was a big fan, which I had no idea. And you guys knew songs. I was like, oh, it's awesome. I had no idea that

you guys even listened. Something that's so interesting about Nashville, though, and like the friend groups that you find, I feel like there's such a difference between the personality and the person. I obviously knew your music. As you're giving the concert, I'm like trying not to sing it. I'm like, don't be weird. This is weird. It's not weird, though. I would enjoy that. But it's that whole thing of, like, we, you respect so many people within the industry. But as you're trying to make friends, you don't want to be like, oh, I am a fan. Hi. Yeah.

You want to sign an autograph? Yeah. Like, it's just, it's the person versus the personality. But it's really cool to see that so intertwined in your personality. Yeah. And your person, if that makes sense. Yeah. Because you're so free to share it, which is really special.

Speaking of sharing, he's, like, I would never talk about it. Mm-hmm. He'll be, like, at a bar. and somebody will start talking about and they just all of a sudden they're like talking about his career and like he but you're not in a you do undersell yourself and you're not talking about it in a cocky way at all you just love to talk about it and love to like bring people in like surprise you haven't played music for like you know random people like we met who was it Russell Brandt in Florida and they were like talking about music yeah oh it's randomly in Florida and Adam just like went up and talked to him they were just having a conversation about me but like that's kind of your vibe you're just kind of like you're just kind of like you're just kind of like Like it's not this thing that I think sometimes people put things on a pedestal. Like it's so far to reach. And I feel like you kind of bring it back down. Like it's just it's an art that you possess.

I think it's a beautiful form of humility. It might be the definition where it's not thinking too much yourself or too little yourself. It's like, no, dude, I can say, you know, you're not out there saying that. I'm just like, you're good at singing. And so it's something you enjoy. It's a passion. Yeah.

You're not hiding it out of like a false humility. Yeah. I appreciate that about you. Yeah. Thank you. But how is McKinn's feedback with your songs? Very, I mean, she either likes it or doesn't, really. It's literally that.

It's not, she doesn't know anything about music. She doesn't know that. I'm not a big music person, to be honest. Which is very interesting. She's more of a podcast listener and. I just don't, like, I get in the car. Every song that she knows, she doesn't know. Who it is?

Yeah, it's not like this. This is called You Somebody by Kings of Leon. It's going to be like, this is called you somebody, and it was in that movie. What was it called? Everything is a soundtrack. I'm very nostalgic. It's a reference to a movie for her is what all music is, basically. It's kind of like I did a cover of Dairy to Move by Switchfoot, and it's been going pretty viral online, and everybody that hears it goes a walk to remember.

Yeah, it takes everybody back to the movie a walk to remember. So, I mean, music does that to a lot of people. But as far as feedback goes... The balance is hard. I think at the very beginning of our relationship, it was like new music. This is amazing. And when he was writing a ton, you know, five days a week or whatever,

I'm like, yeah, that's a lot of songs that we're coming home with. Yeah, you know, like, love it. Yeah, okay. And there's some that are really good. And there's some that I'm like, I just know. But then if I hear one that I want to listen to multiple times, that to me is always like, okay, I like that song. And I make sure I tell you that.

Oh, yeah, she's honest about it. I'm good about that. There's no like, yeah, that's good, babe. None of that. But there are many times where his team or somebody will say, like, oh, this is the one we like. And I'm like, that's great for you and your team. I don't like that. Is McKinnon's on base percentage pretty good?

Like, of the ones that she likes, do they usually pan out well? Yeah, she's got a good track record. Yeah, and the one that I didn't like. That's the worst one. And I put it out and it doesn't do well. And it's not that it's a bad song. It just, it's not my favorite. It's not my vibe.

And so it was like, you do you, but. I love it. That's funny. By heart was one of her favorites. Yeah. It was her favorite, I think, at the time. Still my favorite right now, I'd say. Yeah.

Wait, can you share the one that you said you might not release? It's about moms? Oh, yeah. Oh, all moms go to heaven. Yeah. Is that coming out or not? Maybe. I don't know.

I've got to decide. I was thinking about putting it around Mother's Day or something. For sure. Not that it has to be around Mother's Day, but. It would make sense. It would make sense. It's right there. I have that song and I have another one.

I can't remember if I sent this one to you or not Probably not I think it's too new It's called playing catch And it's about it's inspired by being a dad But it's about me and my dad And just how he must have been looking at me When I was that age And that's something that you never really think about

Until you have a kid But that song makes me cry Like I rarely make my own self cry But that one does So and that's I thought about maybe doing like a All moms go to heaven And playing catch

One for mom, one for dad Mother's Father's Day situation But I love all moms got to have and I think I think it'll definitely come out at some point but I still have to produce it so it's just a acoustic work tape right now how has the career trajectory change since having Jack we've been in a weird place yeah honestly and not in a bad way not in a bad way part of it was October of 23 right yes September and then we were already pregnant and so we knew that you know Jack was coming in March and he had a tour scheduled so we kind of had to adjust that tour

because he obviously wanted to be home for birth and whatever. And so I think you went on tour, what, four weeks after or six weeks? Yeah, I had a show four weeks after. Yeah. It was, you know, it's like two shows, gone for two days and then I'm back home. But still, you don't really want to leave. But the way where the tour was, before he moved it, I didn't want to have any chance of not being home or like being in Boston or something. She calls and says I'm headed to the hospital.

So we moved it. But yeah, it's been actually a godsend, to be honest. I signed a record deal two months before COVID, famous, which was the song that kind of got everything going for me was about to go gold independently, and I signed my first record deal and got a great record deal. And then that was two months before COVID happened. And it was about to go to radio. And that was supposed to be the thing that really made it take off and make me super rich and

famous and all that good stuff. And none of that happened. COVID happened. And the rest of my time at Sony was just kind of fizzled a little bit. TikTok came into the picture that infused thousands of new artists that so like every label was just signing up and you just kind of got lost in the shuffle so in 2023 while those three years were good and I did fine didn't do the thing I wanted it to do and so I ended up asking out of that record deal they let me out of the deal luckily and so that was a huge game changer for me because

that meant I owned my music again and so every release I've had since 23 is owned by me I and the Masters and all those three years before, Sony collected every single penny of all of that income. So I had to go out and play 140 shows a year to make money. That was my only source of income was basically shows. And so leaving the label while it was a scary thing to do, it changed all that for me. I now have mailbox money essentially. Like streaming pays me. And that's how I make most of my, really all of my money now because we've been off the road. And it's been incredible. I've been able to be home. I've barely missed a day of Jack's life. honestly like it kind of blows my mind because obviously like I think our generation growing up like at least my dad like he worked nine five picked me up from school whatever I most dads which I feel like you're home or with kids a lot Jack doesn't know that this is maybe not as normal you know that he's so lucky that he gets both parents home all the time it just is such a special thing for him I feel like to get both parents and it's not this I don't

feel like I get burnt out as easily as I would if I was doing it all the time by myself. We split so much of the I mean, we've never, we've really never even had a babysitter. Like, I mean, we just... We've never had a babysitter. Other than your mom.

And your mom's great. She came on the couple's her both of us. Yeah, she came too. We brought our baby and a babysitter. I was like, hi, we've never met, but we're bringing my mom and a baby. Cookies with her. She's great. Yeah. I was like, all right, well, we're just... She's with Jack right now.

Yeah. Yeah. It's been honestly really, really wonderful that he's, and he's still working. It's just essentially more remote than it is. Yeah. And you know how it is with social media stuff and all that good stuff. But it has been really great to have this time with him. And I don't know if he will remember this time, but like even just for me.

I think emotionally they know. Yeah. They know. Yeah. It's been special. So now the goal is to get back. Do you have a show booked? Yeah.

I'm kind of in a place right now where I was, ready to get back on the road i miss it but i'm not ready to leave them at home so what we just announced was an acoustic tour called the dream house acoustic tour a song that was in the folder that i sent you guys it's out now and so um we're doing almost like pop-up shows so we just announced the first one we're announcing one at a time and in chicago we normally can sell like 1,500 tickets so instead of going to sell 1,500 tickets in one night we're going to do like 3 or four nights in a row in the same city at like 250 or

300 tickets and make these really small intimate shows just me and a guitar just like at the house that night it'll just be something like that you can tell the stories and I'm bringing Mac and Jack on the poster we announced there actually the openers with support from my wife and son

so we're doing it that way so we're easing back out on the road and then next year hopefully we'll get back with the whole band and the tour bus and all that good stuff and do it right but this will be a nice a nice walk back in and we can kind of slow reentry. Yeah, we can all go together and turn it into weekends and

cities we love and do it that way. The shows do start at 8th. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll have to work that out. Also, several people have asked if you were a singer, because some people are taking it literally that you're opening. You're opening. So you maybe need to learn one song. Absolutely not. You know, just something.

I will not be saying. What about the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem? Yeah, God bless me. National Anthem. She loves patriotic music. At least in the shower. Yeah, I do. You get some legrim wood. You get in the shower and you get, yeah. You go for God bless America and then like the national anthem.

And then there's some other ones I throw in there. But yeah, those are the ones you can like really feel. I would never sing those in front of other. It goes back to the team thing. She's on America's team. She's like, you know, she loves. Big American. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I'm just like, yeah. I love that your go-to shower song. Why? National anthem? Isn't she lovely? Stevie Wonder? Yeah, that's my face.

Yeah. Like when you find like that random fact about yourself Yeah. You have to share, it's like I sing the national anthem in the shower. That's what I sing. Yeah. God bless America. Maybe like find some new music to sing the shower, but.

Yeah, maybe so. I got to show you Jet the other day on the way to school. Oh my gosh. He learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance, which I thought that was just in our era kind of thing. Yeah. I still do it. You're teaching it at school. Still does it at three.

So he was just doing it. He put his hand over his house. and closed his eyes like it was a prayer and then he was having trouble saying indivisible that's a tough word he's an individual individual yeah it's so cute it has also been hard that's all hard well and we also do um the lord's prayer before bed every night and both drew and jet like know it start to finish yeah but instead of debtors they say daughters and i'm like i can't change it no no it has to be daughters i feel the same way It's like, you don't want to change

this little cute things they do. Jack hasn't started yet, but, yeah. It's like, you don't, not yet. Yeah. Not yet. We used to do that, too. We said, we said the Lord's Prayer every night. Yeah.

We just got to the place where we can read before bed and he's not trying to eat the book. So I feel like we're. That's big. Do you ever get those indestructible books? No, we remember we talked about this. I didn't even know they existed. Yeah.

I'm just saying, we're still on the face. Someone gifted it to us. Okay. We should look into it. But they can literally like eat it and it's not going to do anything. Because he had, I got him a book the other day. We went to Magpies and I got him a book and he's in the back. And then we get out of the car and half the carboard.

I was like, okay, well, hopefully you're fine. Yeah. Do you remember that phase where they used to just like eat and rip every single book? It's frustrating when it's like the good book too. It's a book that they want to read. That's also gross. Why are we eating a book? Would you say being a parent has helped or hurt your creativity?

That's a good question. I'd say a little of both. I mean, a lot of my creativity comes from being out on the road. being on tour, being in different cities all the time, meeting different people. I have a running list in my phone of just ideas and titles that just never ends. And so I'm always writing stuff down. Being home so much is a little bit harder in that aspect where you're not having as many new experiences with people. And, you know, a lot of titles are just things that people might have said in conversation.

Like you guys might say something in a minute where I'm like, oh, that's cool. I can spend that this way. I actually wrote one down while we were on our trip. Somebody said she don't fit in. And I was like, oh, that's a cool title because you can spend that. You know, it sounds like maybe she's got a group of friends that she doesn't fit in with or something. But really, I was going to spend it as, like, I don't really want my life to look like any kind of picture that she doesn't fit in. That she don't fit in.

And, like, that's how my brain works. When somebody says something, I'm thinking, oh, that's a cool way to flip that. And he'll be like, I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm writing down the title. Yeah, also, who are you all talking about doesn't fit in? No, no, I think it had nothing to shove in the car or something like that. Yeah, it had nothing to do. It had nothing to do with what I'm saying.

There was 12 of us in one car. I think Ewer Walker said it. I can't remember who it was. I put one of your names on the song. Perfect. I remember you telling the story, though, about, was it bikers in a bar who had the tattoo? Puzzle of Us. Yes.

I loved that story. That's one of my favorite stories. And Max, she makes fun of me because, I mean, that song, I wrote that song like 2015, 16. It's old. And I've told that story. That's a lot of fans' favorite stories. And I've told it a lot, and I truly can't remember what parts are actual, a factual. And he'll tell it, and I'm sitting there, I'm like, what?

When you tell it. the same story over and over, your brain just goes, we should probably add a little bit to it. I don't want to say the same thing over and over. But anyway, in that respect, I don't have as many ideas written down probably from not being on tour, but also having a kid changes everything.

It changed my heart a lot. It changed the way that I look at things. Just the way I think about things, it's like changed the definition of love. I had no idea I could love something that much. It's like I tell Mac, I'm like, I would maybe jump in front of a car for you, but, like, I'll definitely jump in front of the car for a day, 100%.

Yeah. But it's changed for the better in that way, I think. And just your priorities, I feel like time, just in general. Like, you just don't have the time. You have to, like, you had an eight hour day. And now you kind of have, like, okay, I have like two hours where I've uninterrupted time. Got to figure it out, which can be a little hard on the creative process, I would say. Yeah, it's just more focused.

Like, yeah. I used to go right. I would go right with, you know, whoever's on my schedule. Now I'm just a little more detailed of, like, I only want to write with, the people that I know I love right now. If I'm going to leave my baby for four to six hours, I want to know that it's worth it. And so I just,

I'm probably, I've been writing less than normal, but getting more stuff that I love because it's, you know, I know kind of what I'm walking into before I walk into it, if that makes sense. This is, okay,

so I'm doing my, I'm doing my dissertation on this exact, this concept where it's like, you're better and more effective when you're a parent, I think, just because of the time restraints that you have. And so you do, I think, more impactful activities. Yeah, you want whatever you're doing to matter.

Yeah, yeah. For sure. It's even like, I mean, I'll turn down, like, court side seats to a basketball game. I don't want to leave. I'd, like, force him out of the house to go the Vandy game last night. And I'm like, I don't think I can go. And I'm like, well, first of all, Jackson is me asleep. Yeah.

So you should go. And you did. I did go. And it definitely takes some getting used to. And I'm sure it'll be different with kid number two and three. It's just our first one and our only time. Oh, no. It gets harder. It gets harder. It's even worse.

I actually thought that exact thing, though. I thought, like, as a baby, it would be the hardest. And then it would get easier as they got older and easier as you get more. You just get closer and closer with them. They get cooler. Yeah, yeah. Like, I just want to hang out with them. That's the thing.

And I don't know that everybody feels that way, which is teach their own, obviously. Teach their own. Which I'm lucky, which I'm sure you are too. Like, I have friends who kind of feel the same way. Yes. So when we plan trips, it's like we're bringing the kids. or we're only going to go for this many days because we don't want to be away from the kids which we haven't left jack yet i don't have any plans to yeah i just like don't know when that

first moment is i'm going to be like yep do you remember how long how old how old was drew when y'all left for the first time uh it was within our first year okay but we always have this threshold of like two nights three days kind of like when you leave to get home is like our max if we're going without the kids two nights three days if we go past that nothing good happens yeah we call that the Vegas rule never stay in Vegas for longer than two nights yeah but it's the same with your kids it's like yeah they can make it two sleeps right and they know mommy daddy's coming back we can have fun and not start to like spiral thinking like why did we do this without our children right right I feel like that's a good that's a good amount of time that's good yeah but we've gone over that and

we've learned very quickly like we're never going to do this again yeah but that's a Terrible feeling. It is. I kind of felt it. I think there was only one weekend where it was three nights, I guess. There you go. And so it was, and three nights and the better part of four days.

And I was like, get me home. You started to feel like panicked. Panicked. Yeah. And you was like, I'm like, I'm like,

I mean, like, I guess. I'm like, what can I do? Especially on the road, too, because so much of touring is you, it's like, it's this whole day.

Yeah. And then it's like this show and then, but like, you just kind of sit around. So he'd be texting me like, I am miserable. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, oh, it's interesting. It kind of goes back to the creativity.

And in my mind, I never thought I'd say this ever. But I feel like as I've gotten older and maybe because of kids, I've appreciated more of the finer things in life because there's less of these grand adventures. Like, I think kids do tie you down to certain extent. Sure. You probably want them to. So you're not going on these massive weekend trips

or traveling across the world like you used to, footloose and fancy free. And so it becomes more of like this. sitting in the playroom and just being floored by oh my gosh my son wasn't saying this word yesterday but now he is today and oh my gosh i can't believe he could toss a ball a little further you know it's like you start to notice the small progressions and the subtleties a little more i would say your your creativity will take off as a result of that because yeah i don't know i think the awareness in a certain way gets enhanced you're also about to hit a phase with him where it just

start snowballing so fast. I feel like we just did. I feel like we just hit it. He hit 11 months. Yeah. And I'm like, they start walking and talking and learning and

playing and they have personality. It's just like, we also laugh. We're like, are we too proud? Like everything he does. He now, like I was somewhere yesterday

and he was just clapping for himself. He was like, does he always do that? I'm like, yeah. Yeah, he does. Because everything he does, we're like, yeah. And the,

clapping is so cute too so it's like you kind of want him to do it and we're like is we need to maybe doubt back a hair so they didn't go to school and think he just delusional maybe yeah I mean I'm I'm a huge cheerleader so I'm always 100% entertaining him but he's like yesterday he was you know he's got this little thing where he's putting rings on top of it yeah but he just figured out I mean I'm like he's we're just full on every ring full on quality and he does it for like 10 minutes I looked at Mac I'm like can you imagine when he hits a home run or something? Like, what are you going to do?

We're not going to be able to handle this at all. Somebody asked me this. They were like, when you became a mom, did it just like change your whole world? And of course it changed my world for the better, but like I don't ever feel like I wasn't a mom. Like it just kind of like happened. We just slid into it pretty well.

Like I don't feel like it rocked our world maybe as much as it does some. But I also don't think that was our personality in the first place. Like it just, it's kind of just been amplified. everything better, it didn't like take away my freedom as much as maybe it does for some people. I don't know how to say that. People who are similar to say with parenting who want to hang out with their kids in that sense. I can never imagine myself not being a mom.

No. So like I don't look back at days and say, oh, if only it was like that. It's almost like it rewrote all the history. Yep. I have always been a mom. That's the only thing and I don't ever want to go back. And you're kind of like, what was my purpose before? Not that like, you know, but I just feel like I'm kind of like, okay, this feels right. This feels like where I'm supposed to be. This is one of my favorite things that's happened as a dad

watching her because she's been, our entire relationship, she's been watching me chase this music dream. That's all she's ever known except for the first week when it was four wheelers. But it's all she's ever known is watch me chase this thing and have this passion

for this thing. And she's never been she's never had this career that she had to have the only thing she's always had since our first dates we talked about on the first date she her dream was to be a mom she had eight years of watching me or seven years of watching me chase this dream and i just got to start watching her chase her dream which has been really fun for me and she's such a good mom everything i tell her she's like being a dad is so easy because she's such a good mom and so and so that's been special for me is like I had to wait a long time to get to watch or chase a dream, but I do now, which is great. It is funny, too.

So I stopped working in December. So I was working up until that point. And when I would go to work, honestly, it was a break. I could, like, sit at a computer for, like, hours and kind of zoon out and go to the bathroom by myself or, like, all these things. But it is exhaust. Especially when they start moving. I'm like, oh, can we just chill for five minutes? Just sitting down in a chair?

It's like so nice. It is so nice. And we've been lucky. Like, Jack sleeps seven to seven. It has since week eight. So, I mean, we've been lucky on that front. But that's the thing is he sleeps hard, but he plays. He never stops through the day.

Yeah. And, you know, she breastfed for a little over 11 months. We just had a situation where Jack just stopped. It was tragic. Which is so his personality. I've learned this about him of just like, people are like, oh, are you scared to, like, introduce him with this or that or like he's not going to be able to transition. No issue transitioning.

He's just kind of like, but he does it on his own. He's kind of like, I'm over it, I'm independent, like, I'm going to do my thing. I was supposed to play golf, but now I'm going to play baseball. Maybe he gets it from somewhere. Maybe that's me. Actually, yeah, you're so right. I've never thought about it that way. He got the croup and then he just stopped breastfeeding and then he never went back.

It's like he forgot that he ever was on the boob. It's insane. He like thinks it's funny too. He'll like giggle. He just giggles when she tries to get him to and just. I'll like lay him on my chest. And he's like, nah, and I'm like, whatever. But it's just, it's so funny how I do feel like he hit 11 months and it was just like.

Different. Okay. So that's what we're doing. We're just like going with the flow and which, going with flow is a little hard, but it's a good balance. I don't know if y'all are that way. I feel you kind of have to have both. If you have two people who are two both flow. I'm pretty good with the flow.

I am very type of. Yeah. Because then if, but if you weren't, then there would be no flow. Alphabet and categorize. Yes. Yeah. We both like to be in control for sure. I'm a control freak that awesome.

so knows how to go with it. Yeah, that's actually very true. You are a control freak, but you are, everything will work out. Am I wrong? You know, it does most of the time. I mean, they work out, but maybe not the way you want them to. Oh, we should definitely get another couples trip on the books.

I know. It's really good. Absolutely. A droople? Those four. Yeah. Yeah. Also, how's the beam going?

The beam's good. Thank you for sending a sum. Jack's almost to where you can have it, right? I mean, it's a year. I also, like, feel like I could take it, right? Oh, is it two? Oh, I thought it was. was a year well we can drink it

but I was with Lauren she was like oh I drink it and I was like oh I'll drink mine yeah I want to know where the name came from I may not do anything for me as a songwriter in the room where's the name beam is technically a pre-existing company yeah oh okay so you're partnered with okay just a coincidence that's what I was getting out of like I never I never thought about that because actually in the back of the bag there is a beam yeah I didn't know that but I saw the name I'm like I wonder if that's where it came

yeah okay that's funny I did not I know it was an existing company The amount of times I've been told, like, oh, clever name. I'm like, it would be good. It would be good. The founder of Beam is one of his best friends. That's why we ended up partner with him. Yeah. Very cool.

But yeah, it's been going really well. And our kids, how's it? So when he turns two, I'll send you all the flavors. Like, he'll love it, I'm sure. I have one more question. Please do. Your song famous, you mentioned, was supposed to be The Breakout. Also, the breakout.

You're a huge name. Yeah, yeah. Well, it goes back to me. I never assume that I'm a huge name. This has also been the theme of his career essentially is like these moments that we're going to be this thing and then like a pandemic happens. Yeah, we've had some bad luck for sure. It's just like bad breaks.

I guess the question is twofold. One, do you feel like you've chased the dream and gotten it? And then two, how has fame treated you? I feel like I've chased it. I don't feel like I've gotten it. I feel very fortunate to be able to support my family by just making music. but as far as aspirations and where I want it to get to, no, I've not gotten it.

Interesting. Which you're the type that will there ever be something that is. I do also, I would agree with you. I could probably sell out a stadium one day and be like, I could still do this or something. That is the type I am. But even being realistic, I'd still like to see it continue to go a good bit further with the idea that I'm super, if you'd have told me 10 years ago

that I could make a good living, writing songs and playing music, I'd have probably at that point said that's the dream I got it you know what I mean so I've definitely extended the goal post a little bit but I'm still at the point where I love people I love anytime somebody walks up at the airport and is like are you Adam doliac like I love your music I love that you know some people they'll be like oh I don't want to annoy you or something never going to happen at this point you know maybe one day you get to a point where you don't want people to do that I can't imagine that but I just it's not excessive enough too to wear it yeah there's a sweet spot yeah there's a sweet spot so I still enjoy that

So as fame treats us just fine. I mean, it's not, it sounds weird to even say. Yeah, I would never even reference. Yeah, we're so normal in that world. But I am the type that would, I would enjoy being really famous. That'd be fun. That'd be fun. Like, if it were, can't leave the house famous, I'd probably be like, cool.

My nightmare. Like, no. But I think it's so cool what you can do with that kind of fame. That's always been the way I've looked at it. It's like, when you have that kind of platform, you can go, you can make so many people's days so fast. Just by, like, walking outside. saying hey or the rock does a good job he'll stop on those those tours so he'll pull up and just say hey to people i always think that's really cool and i think you can do you know i always have

way bigger dreams and things that maybe could happen like bar name jesus coming out i'd love to start some type of soup kitchen some way of giving back called bar name jesus i think that'd be awesome to lead people to jesus also do something good for people whether that be with the homeless or the story is kind of about an alcoholic and maybe it's something with a a or something like that That's like a pipe dream of mine. It's turned this song into something like that, a foundation or something that can give back. I think would be awesome. So whatever I'm doing, there's always a down-the-road idea that hopefully could happen with it.

You just never know what's going to happen with these songs. And this one, like I said, I think it's the best song I've ever written. I think it's definitely the most important song I've ever written, content-wise. We haven't even mentioned this, but Thomas Red is a feature on the song. Oh, let's go. I guess I forgot, I should mention that. Which was cool how that came about to it. I should tell you all that story.

Yeah, that's really cool. I knew Thomas, but not well. Not nearly well enough to send him a song and say, would you feature on this song with me? Have you golf with him? Never. Oh, man. We keep trying.

I've played in the tournament with him, but not in the same group with him. I was with her brother, Elliot. They've got a cabin in Swanee. And we were having a drink around a campfire, and I played Elliot songs from time to time like I sent to you guys because I feel like he's a good pulse on what's good and not. And I played him bar named Jesus.

And I played him bar named Jesus. he was like, you have to send this song to Thomas Rett right now. He's like, that's one of the best songs I've ever heard. And I'm like, we had... And he knows Thomas. He knows Thomas. He was about to say that they're random. He's really involved with Love One. So he leads he leads trips over to Uganda, which Love One

is their foundation and they do all kinds of stuff. So he knows Lauren really well and has gotten to know Thomas better. So he had his number. And so he ended up talking me into sending it to Thomas. And that's also like if I were to pick a perfect feature for this song, and he's a godly guy, he's a family guy,

I feel like if you like Thomas's music, you probably like my music too. And so I was like, all right, I'll do it. And I'd love to be able to tell you that. He texts right back. And he was like, oh, my God, this is incredible. I'm in. But that was not the story at all. It was three months later.

We were, and I'd already just assume that he listened, hated it, didn't want to be a part of it, was never going to text back. And now knowing Thomas, he's just not a great texture. But, you know, he's got a lot going on. He's got four girls. And he's a superstar. And I get it. But anyway, we're at the house one morning. And my phone starts ringing and it says Thomas Wrett.

And I'm like, well, I should probably step out and take this. And I answer the phone and he is crying. And I'm like, okay, we've never spoken on the phone before ever. This is the first time. I'm like, what's going on? And he goes, man, I just had one of the biggest God moments I've had in several years. And I wanted to call and tell you. And so he had finally gotten around to listening to Bar Name Jesus.

And he was going right down Hillsborough Road, right here in Green Hills. He said, he had his windows down. down. He said he had it blasting. He was like in the second chorus and he stopped at a red light and there was a homeless guy sitting on the side of the road that actually stood up and asked him like, hey man, what is that song you're listening to? I had chills. I got such chills when he was telling me this. And so he said he told the guy to come over to the window. He said they're at a red light. The light turned green. Traffic's going by and they're just listening to bar name Jesus. And he said the homeless guy started crying and Thomas said he started crying. And that's when he's he called me and said yes I want to be a part of the song you know he said I think it's going to lead people to Jesus I think this is a really special song and he said yes and that was probably six eight months ago

it's taken some time to actually get his vocal on it and get in his schedule and all that stuff but the song's finally out now and into the world and most songs it's like I'll sit at home and stress like is it going to get this playlist this one it's been a bit more calm I just feel like the fact that it landed in Thomas's world and he said yes and it's like I always say I feel like I should put Jesus as a co-writer on this song because it's honestly just like I can't wake up and write something like

this every day it's just one of those songs and I feel like it's God's kind of got this song and it's going to go where it's supposed to go and that's kind of how I feel about it and I feel like that's why Thomas is on it and with him being a feature I mean so many more people are going to hear this song and again normally I'd be like that's great for me and streams but I just I really feel thankful that so many people are going to hear this song and hopefully it's going to impact a lot of those people and I'm excited to get the feedback from it from everybody out there

what an act of delusional optimism to see that to Thomas there you go again yeah it's an unbelievable story what's almost more unbelievable though is that you nearly neglected to share a freaking story I'm like what do I got about it honestly yeah

it's a great story thank you for sharing that yeah that would have been really bad if I left without telling that story it is You said you got chills. When it was happening, I walked in, I was like, you're not going to believe what. Especially because we had kind of given up on the whole idea of him even being a part of it. Yeah.

And then that was the story that he came back with. Yeah, that's amazing. It was really cool. This is a real treat sitting down with you guys. What a pleasant surprise on the PR sheet today. I know. Amazing. It's great to see you guys.

Great to see you guys. For those listening that have not heard Adam's music, we'll link his information down below. Check out bar name Jesus, the new song. I love Adam's music because you do this. thing you have like a twang or something i was trying to describe it or whatever you do like some style that is so unique and distinct and i love it well i only know how to sound like me and that's a blessing and a curse so i'm glad you like it i'm glad you like it's great but we'll include adam's information down below and uh i hope i hope there's a next time yes that's too

likewise and a next trip that's right yeah yeah for sure for sure thank you guys yeah thanks guys