Dumb Blonde - TBT: Brothers Osborne - Unapologetically Unique
Episode Date: January 1, 2026Throwback ThursdayBunnie sits down with Brothers Osborne—brothers TJ Osborne and John Osborne—for a powerful conversation about music, family, and embracing what makes... you different. The duo opens up about growing up in a blue-collar Maryland town, TJ’s journey of coming out, and the deeper meaning behind their Grammy-winning song Younger Me. John shares details about his and Lucie’s IVF journey, and both brothers reflect on how therapy helped them navigate some of their toughest seasons. They also talk about never fitting the traditional country mold, how staying close as brothers kept them grounded in the industry, and what’s next—including their single Finish This Drink and a new album that brings them back to their roots.Brothers Osborne: WebsiteWatch Full Episodes & More: YouTubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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And Bunny XO.
Kelly Rolls White, Bunny XO.
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Is this thing on?
What's up, babies?
Welcome to another episode of Dumblawn.
Today I have the boys on the couch, brothers Osborne, the brothers who have rocked country
music, redefined brotherhood, and proof that being different might just be your greatest
hit.
Welcome, boys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I worked hard on that.
That made me feel good.
Good.
I love you guys.
My husband loves you guys.
Well, we love you guys.
Honestly, I feel like, I mean, you know, his career is just like taken off to this
stratosphere but in such short period of time but I love that I've gotten to know you guys just a little
before that happened and you guys haven't changed it all we we appreciate you guys and I have always
been obsessed with you because of how you dress it's so cowboy couture and I'm just like it's so
like tailored and just perfect every time I see you I'm like this outfit is fucking amazing
thank you it means a lot coming from you well I mean where does the style the sense of style
come from is it something that you obsess about I think it's a multiple multiple things one it's probably
the fact that I'm a gay man, a gay man,
and they're in there somewhere.
It's something certainly doesn't hurt.
Right.
And then, you know, we have stylists that help with this stuff.
Yeah.
And, of course, Abby is very stylish.
So, you know, that's always like to last, you know,
every time I, like, even I got dressed for the awards,
I'm like, this jacket, this jacket.
Yeah, no, it's always, it's amazing.
Top tier always.
Even when I was a kid, I kind of loved, like, wearing oddly.
I mean, before I even had any clue what my sexuality was,
When I look back now, I'm like, oh, my God, you were so gay.
Like, I would wear, like, striped shirt, like, a T.J.I. Friday's red and white striped shirt
with, like, a bowtie when I was, like, eight.
That's hot, though.
Yeah, I love that.
I would show up, like, I got my hair on calm, super neat.
Yeah.
It's kind of like, have you seen Rite's Chimstones?
Of course.
I just watched the finale last night.
Okay, so the latest season, when there's the, what's this character, he's the little boy.
Yes, yes, yes.
I was basically me.
No, I think that's phenomenal because fashion I have, I love.
fashion. So even as a kid, like I wore a plaids, a red plaid skirt and I rode the
bull at Gillies T-shirt all the time. And you couldn't tell me any different. But I always, but
even when I think back to it now, like I wear like band teas and like plaid skirts still. And it's
like it's sometimes it's something you're, you're just born with too. I know, isn't that weird
like John's kids. You know, he's got twins. The twins. Yeah. And to watch just one just be a boy and
the girl, you know, she just naturally like, she couldn't even speak yet. And she showed up. I don't
I don't know if it was to Christmas or something, or Thanksgiving.
And she has this, she's a year and a half.
And she's like, check out.
Check this out.
She's like,
she's trying to see and she does like a turn and she's looking at it.
She's like,
like, check this badass thing out.
She's got Uncle T.J.'s fashion sense.
Yeah.
I love that.
My son's just covered in dirt and his own gunk.
He's got my fashion sense.
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
I love that.
So you said you had a story to tell me that I was.
Yeah.
So this is probably a year and a half ago.
This is on the record.
This is on the record.
It's on the record, baby.
A year ago, year and a half ago.
It was not long after we had kids.
And my wife gets hit up from her management.
She's an artist as well, amazing singer-songwriter.
And yeah, you got asked to do your podcast.
Right.
And she was like, okay, yeah.
I'm not sure why.
I don't really have any music out.
But, you know, we've talked about like fertility stuff and kids.
And she's like, maybe she wants to maybe go into that or whatever.
Turned out it was a scam.
Oh, no.
Yes.
And it was basically someone.
said well you have to sign on but you have to give us like log into your computer so we can
access it from afar and lucy signed on and then got kind of freaked out and was like this doesn't
seem right and then close the tab fortunately they didn't like go in and get all of our information
but they were seconds away from it and she thought she was doing your podcast isn't that sad
I told you it was a little bit tragic I know I hate that people the scam shit is just getting
so out of control it is so specific to not only like I
get if you're like, if you're sitting like, you know, I'm a prince from Africa and you sit
up 10 million.
Remember the Nigerian scam?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But this is so, this is so specific targeted at people where they would go, I, they
probably know that we know you guys at least to some degree.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I was kind of.
I hate that.
I know.
I was a little pissed, but also kind of impressed about the, the, uh, the move, the scam.
No, it, the way that they can even access people is just kind of, it's really scary.
I know.
Someone was actually texting her mom pretending to me.
be me, but the thing I was in the room with my mom, she's like, is that you? And I'm like,
what me? He's like, are you texting me? I'm like, why will I text you? Why is it
old people always fall for it? I know. Well, that's like, that's the saddest part. They're often
victims of that stuff, which honestly, I feel like I'm pretty savvy and there's still all the time.
I'm like, is this UPS? Yeah. Well, Lucy was really upset. She was like, I feel like such an idiot,
but I'm like, look, but it came through your management. It wasn't like she got an email somewhere
after visiting a sketchy-ass website.
But I get emails from John all the time.
It's like, check out these pictures.
And I'm like, my brother would never send me a picture.
He doesn't open any of my dick picks.
What are these pictures?
I'm like.
Somebody would be trying to get a hold of those.
Whatever.
It really was somewhere.
There really was him the whole time.
He just wanted to see if you responded or not.
Well, tell Lucy that I'm so sorry.
It's okay.
We will have to revisit that for sure now that I know that she's even willing to do that.
Oh, of course.
Yeah, yeah.
I'll tell her that.
It'll make her whole world.
And I actually wanted to talk about you guys as IVF journey too on the podcast,
which we'll get into it later.
Sure.
I want to kind of paint a picture for my viewers at home who don't know you guys,
kind of like, you know, your rise to fame.
So if we could start, you know, where you guys grew up and go from there,
tell me a little bit about your childhood.
Yeah.
What inspired you guys?
It's an interesting thing because, you know, for those who don't know,
we're East Coast boys.
We grew up in a little tiny water community called Deal, Maryland.
And to a lot of people that do know that, they're always so surprised they're like, how do you get into country music being from there?
And we shot our music video for a song, one of our first single was called rum in our hometown to kind of give people a bit of a looksy into where we grew up because it makes total sense when you see it.
And on the new music that we're working on, we've kind of are going back to visiting that again where we're having a lot of, we'll go back in short shoot videos and stuff back there in the hometown.
But, yeah, I mean, it's a very blue-collar town.
It's paradise.
I mean, we grew up on the Chesapeake Bay.
How beautiful was that?
It was so beautiful and an amazing place to grow up.
But, you know, a lot of places like that tend to be, you know, like really fancy.
It was not.
I mean, it was really blue-collar.
Right.
And so growing up around there, it was usually like, you know, people are mostly either listen
in Iraq or they listen to in the country, which is pretty, I think, for us to kind of have
the blend of both, I think makes total sense.
Yeah.
And then both of our parents really tried their hand of music.
Our dad sang and wrote songs and so did our mom.
But then they had five kids and very little money.
Our mom's a hairdresser.
Her dad's a plumber.
And so you guys are two of five.
That's right.
Yeah.
Okay.
I never, I didn't even, that didn't even come up on Google.
Yeah.
Where are the other three at?
So our oldest brother Jimbo is in, lives in Delaware.
Jimbo.
Jimbo.
Jimbo.
We love Jimbo.
Yeah, exactly.
It's one step down from Jim Bob, but we got Jim Bob.
And then we got Rachel.
She's in Florida.
And then our sister Natalie works here in Nashville.
She's in the music business as well.
I think you may or may not have met her.
Are they super supportive of you guys being in the music industry?
Oh, extremely.
Yeah, extremely so.
And so, but I think, you know, for us, it was really kind of started as like our parents' dream.
We just kind of grew up around music all the time.
We didn't really know any different.
And then, you know, just kind of playing local bars and stuff.
In fact, this tattoo, a lot of people want to know what's about.
It's the first band that me and John and our dad was then called Deuce in a Quarter after our car.
That's a great name.
I know.
That's actually a really good name.
And so we did that.
And then solely but surely, we're like, okay, we need either do this full time or not.
And we were definitely like, you know, at that time, a big fish in a small pond.
And so we came here.
I did the opposite.
But that was our upbringing, yeah.
So I had read somewhere that you guys had started off on like separate journeys,
like separate bands or have you guys always done?
Yeah.
So, I mean, yeah, we played a lot as kids and we're always playing in bands together,
playing with her dad.
And then I moved here in 2000 to go to college, met a bunch of different musicians.
And I ended up in a separate band with some other great musicians or friends of mine.
Charlie Wersham.
I don't know if you ever done anything with Charlie or I'm sure Jelly might know Charlie.
I think he does.
Yeah.
But a great session.
in town. This guy, Josh Metheny, who plays Dobro and a bunch of other really great
musicians. And we had a band. It was called King Billy. It didn't really kind of pan out the
way we wanted, but it was a great learning experience. Traveled all over the country in a van,
way too many hours, way too many hours sleeping on a bench seat in a van, but it was totally
worth it. In your early 20s, you can get away with that. And he was writing the same publishing
company at the same time. So he was still in town. We had written a few songs together for the
band and when that band broke up he was doing his own project so we were joining together joining
forces writing a lot together um playing shows and people kept going man we it's so cool that you and
tj are finally in a band we're like well no we're not we're not doing a band we're just writing together
and i'm playing guitar for him people kept showing up showing up and it just started to gain
a lot of interest and it was not our intention at all everyone's like yeah let's go all the brothers
are playing tonight and eventually we had to just go is this like official
What we had to do was go, okay, our mom was right.
She wanted this the whole time.
Mom knows best.
She didn't want it the whole time.
We were like, no, mom, we know what we're doing.
The second T.J. popped out.
She was like, finally, I got a duo.
Natalie popped out.
She's like, I got a trio.
So she's still waiting on that one.
And, yeah, everything kind of took off after that.
It just seemed like we followed the natural course of things.
It was the universe was almost like, it was a divine.
Something was making it happen.
And then we listened to it.
and then the rest was history.
I love that.
So have you guys always had a super close relationship even growing up?
Yeah, we have.
I mean, about as close to like twins as you would get without actually being twins.
We just did everything together.
What's the age difference?
Two and a half.
Two and a half.
Two years.
But there's, we, you know, we slept in bunk beds our whole lives.
You know, shared a bedroom together.
Still do on the bus.
And now we joke as we do.
We've grown up and have, you know, live in separate houses,
but we sleep half the year with each other on a bus and bunk beds again.
we haven't gotten that far where does the rock influence come from because you guys for being country you guys have a pretty rocker sound also a lot to do with where we grew up like i grew up listening because i grew up guitar became my favorite thing in the world when i was like 12 who taught you the guitar um my dad our dad taught me some chords my cousin johnny taught me how to solo or my uncle bill taught me a little bit it was a bit of everyone they wouldn't let me sit in with the family and sit around the table unless i would practice and it was good enough to
hold my own. So if there's a, if you want to get me to do anything, just tell me that I can't
and I won't fucking do it. So just sat in the other words, practicing, practicing, practicing.
You can't paint my house. Yeah, yeah. Damn it. And, um, yeah, I do a lot of things out of spite
mostly. But anyway, so I did that, but I was obsessed with like guitar and rock music is just like
go hand in hand. And we grew up listening to the country. I rebelled against that a bit because
it was like what our whole family listened to and my early teenage years. I was like love Nirvana.
Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots.
That was an iconic time.
It was such an era.
My first concert was Stone Temple Pilots.
Oh, my God.
I fucking love Stoneville Palace.
I don't think there hasn't really been anything quite like it since.
Ever.
It was just a complete change.
Why do you think that is that we can't recapture that sound?
Because now you have to be on TikTok to be famous.
Well, I also think too because back then there was a, there was a lot of counterculture going on like the 80s produced, obviously, some great.
pop rock music that we all know and love but there is this counter revolution to that where
it became these bands out of like california all the way which is where um sdp is from
all the way up to like where pearl jam and nirvana all the way up on the far west coast
and i they wanted to be the anti that so it became less about the spandex and the big loud
pop songs and it became about like the grit and the grunge and i feel like things have kind
of become so for lack of a better word a lot more pop
in the rock world
and it never has really cured itself again
of that to get back to where it once was.
But it was a really pure era.
I mean, every band was so unique.
I mean, you definitely see that happen
in country music now for sure.
You see it now in country more than ever.
The thing's got super, super polished and slick
and now people are really appreciating things
that are raw and real.
Like your husband, for instance,
you know, someone that is just themselves.
Yeah, unique.
It's like being unique should be rewarded.
Yes, you know?
And it finally is, I think in country music,
like everyone's wanting each artist to be really special in themselves.
And I think that's great.
That's when music said it's healthiest.
I feel like you guys are kind of the trailblazers for being unique because, you know.
Maybe, yeah, I don't know.
I, no, I definitely feel like that because, you know, you guys came in on the scene and
you guys were just, did you, okay, so you guys came in on the scene and you guys were
like, you know, pretty like rock country and like you guys were still finding your sound.
Did you feel like whenever you guys came on the scene that you guys had to kind of tone it
down a little bit whenever you came into country?
No, I mean, it's weird.
I mean, I guess, you know, if you were to circle all the way back to just like, again,
being from Maryland, I feel like we just always have kind of been in the space of like,
Maryland, it's not really the north.
It's not really the south.
Like, you know, it's just what is it?
No one seems to really claim it.
And so, you know, I feel like it was kind of that way with us musically.
I mean, we grew up there.
I didn't really honestly know what genres were for a really long time in my life.
I just knew the music I liked and I didn't like.
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And predominantly what I was influenced by and what inspired me were
was country music and rock like particularly classic stuff and so um you know as we came down here
we just started doing our own thing but i felt like for the longest time like i you know
was getting hired in town before we meant a bit as a demo singer and then people stopped hiring me
because they're like oh you don't sound like anybody else like you don't we're trying to pitch this
song to blake shelton and you don't sound like him so and then i was really irritated with
myself honestly i felt like god i don't have the chops to be able to make money as a as a demo
singer to pitch songs to people um and then it's something at some point in time kind of flipped
in me and i realized like well i you know i'm just want to start singing my own music um and then it
started there was like a moment even still once we had a record deal and we're out working our music
out at radio there was um a lot of times because we were we sounded unfamiliar our songs wouldn't test
And so then again, we were kind of in the same boat of like, well, we like you guys,
but we didn't sound like all the people that were hitting really hard and familiar, like
Luke Bryans and all these people.
And so, but again, it was like, do we want to follow kind of what everyone's doing and
already winning with?
You know, as our manager, you know, it's like the best, if you're not first, the best
you can be a second.
And so we really were like, you know, we just really focused on what it is we're doing.
And I think, you know, I've been thinking a lot about this recently.
because there's like so much like turmoil and like what country music is that that's not country.
This is country or that's cool.
This isn't cool.
And it's annoying to me for the main reason of it's not what music is for.
Like it's just it's not what it's about.
And someone's had been a great reminder for me to be like, man, people want to just listen to music to like party or if they want to cry or if they just want to feel nostalgic, you know, or whatever.
No one's thinking, man, I'm going to listen to this because this is going to make me.
cool as shit. Or I'm going to listen to this because now I'm a country person now.
It's like it's just totally not important. And so I feel like for us it was like focusing
on what, you know, what is it that we like and our fans like and finding those people.
And it's taken us a really, really, really long time to do it. And God, I felt like we just
have been passed so many times by other new artists. And we've just been kind of in our lane,
just doing our thing. I feel like slow and steady wins the race though. Yeah. Well, I don't know if we,
you know, we certainly, you know, we certainly, you know,
aren't the biggest artist that's ever happened in this business, but we're still here.
And we've been doing it for a while.
And I don't foresee us going away anytime soon.
And I really attribute that to going out and making real fans that did like what we were doing
because it was different.
And so, yeah, that's still kind of our mantra and our goal and our inspiration with all of it.
Absolutely.
I think that's exactly what you have to do because, you know, like I just said,
Sloan Sadi wins the race because you're building that core fan base of,
of diehards who are really ride with you.
Totally.
And that's so much more special than these people who kind of like make it overnight
because their fans don't really know them.
Exactly.
So whereas your fans just consume everything and love you guys for the people that you are
as well as your music.
Totally.
And then you feel a sense of like being loyal back to them.
Because you know you were here the whole time like I don't want to switch this up
when you were in the 11th hour.
Like, you know, there's any person I don't want to let down.
It's the fan that started with us from the bottom who finally once we started
having success was able to be like, I told you, like, these were, these are my guys.
I believed in you.
Yeah, and there's a sense of pride there.
And we want to do good by those people, you know, particularly them.
And then also our family, everyone that was just, you know, there when we were, weren't shit.
Yeah, I love that.
So let's take it back.
I read something somewhere that you tried out for American Idol.
I did not.
I did not.
Although my mom really still thinks to this day that had I did.
I did try out for American Idol, but I would have made it.
And my career would have been a lot faster and bigger and soared a lot higher than it has.
Mom is full of opinions.
And that's crazy that it says, it says TJ was once rejected from American Idol that he tried out in his early 20s and didn't make it past the first round.
People just make it up shit?
Well, that's not wrong.
I didn't make it past the first round.
I never tried.
He's like, it's kind of true.
No, you know, the thing is it's funny because, like, I don't, I wouldn't have the, I don't think I would have the muster for that.
Like, you know, I feel like there was, it's so critical too.
I know, you know, the thing is, too, I feel like, you know, there was,
used to be like an era where it was like, God, people would look kind of down like people
would make it on like the fast way or American Idol or, oh, they got famous on YouTube.
It used to be.
And then it was Snapchat and now it's TikTok.
And I'm like, you know what?
Like if you can make it in this business, good for you.
It's really, really, really hard.
And then to not only make it, but then to keep it, it's.
It is so hard.
And it takes a lot of work.
And it's really fun and it's glamorous what a lot of people see.
But there's a lot of stuff in the back that is ugly and not sexy and a lot of work and a lot of nose and a lot of heartbreak to get there.
So I've, you know, I've since changed my tune on that, especially now in the era TikTok because you're like, oh, my God, you're a TikTok star.
And I think, you know what, that's hard to do.
I couldn't do it.
If you were to tell me right now, here a TJ do a dance and whatever, I wouldn't be good at it.
I bet you it would go viral, though.
And you guys did have a freaking TikTok, it would go viral.
But there's that asshole that can't dance.
But that's what makes it so fun is like you get on there and you make a fool of yourself,
then it goes viral and then people just, you get a whole new crowd of people that are like,
who's this person?
Oh, maybe we should do it then.
As our manager is over here like, yes.
I know.
Anything totally.
She's like, maybe, maybe not.
John, you have been so vocal about your mental health.
I feel like the year 2020 and 2021.
were big years for you guys both like it was almost like i don't know if like saturn was in you
guys's charts at that time is the saturn like a thing you want oh that's daddy saturn you learn
all the lessons and it's like if you don't learn that lesson it comes back around and it repeats
itself so it's like the opposite of mercury in retrograde because i feel like mercury is always
in retrograde yeah literally it's always doing something can mercury chill out like so Saturn's what
you want to fuck off please like all together i get so frustrated with it so Saturn's will be okay i'm
of Saturn tattoo. Daddy Saturn. So I feel like you guys both had really hard years in 2020 to
2021. You went through something with your mental health. Can we dive into that? Yeah, absolutely.
At the end of 2019, I've always struggled with anxiety and like I've teetered into depression here and there,
but it's mostly anxiety. And I don't know, it went unchecked for a long time. I've never struggled with addiction
fortunately um you know i drink and do some other things recreationally for fun but i've never been
addicted to it but i am addicted to work i'm a workaholic i just work and work and work and work and work
and work and work and work and work and working and work instead of me stopping i'm like no i can
work harder and then i can work my way through it well apparently you can only do that for so long
and at the end of 2019 we were um on the road we're on tour with willie nelson alison
Kraus and Bonnie Wright who were like I don't know like of our Mount Rushmore growing up that's
probably three of the four and I um I felt nothing I was just depressed confused tired I wasn't
sleeping and then I ended up getting something called tenetis or tinnitus or tinnitus some people
call it ringing in my ears and I still have it long story short that's I'm going to go a place
with that now but at the time it was a perfect circle of a lot of things and I was being tournamented
not only from my ears driving me crazy,
but my mind also driving me crazy
and I wasn't sleeping.
And I ended up pulling out of that tour,
which is nuts to me.
Like to think that I did that now,
it's like, again,
I would still just jump for joy
if I was on that tour.
Peace is priceless, though.
Yeah, it is.
And that is such an underrated thing.
You think of all the things you want,
but peace is, man.
I know,
but when you're in pursuit of this dream,
it's a hard.
It's a hard one to catch.
You know,
it's very fleeting.
it's like trying to catch your shadow
it's always right there
but you never quite get it
and you unfortunately
neglect a lot of things
that need attention in your life
and for me it was mental health
and for other people it's
you know maybe physical health family
and a lot of other things
is that something you struggled with
as a child too
or did it happen just to
yeah I was quite you know
very shy as a kid
when I played the guitar
it was like oh my God this is how I know how to speak
I know how to be myself
I had like an oasis
you know and I found like friends that were also like geeky musician nerds I'm like
oh these are my people but I've always struggled with it and I still do but I'm in a lot
better place so I end up going there's a place in town called on site I'm not sure if you're
familiar with it but it's very big in the music community we love miles adcox
miles is amazing Miles is one of the people I talked to before I went there and I'm going to something
called milestones where they're seeing the real crazy people that's where I went and you know
it was really hard it was probably the hardest I was there for three weeks
The first week, I was like, get me the fuck out of here.
And one day they were like, look, you're not institutionalized.
Like, you can leave.
And once they put the ball in my court, I was like, I knew deep down I shouldn't.
And I stayed and I told myself, okay, if I'm going to stay, I'm going to just be at everything and raise my hand at every question.
I'm going to immerse myself in this.
And I did.
And a lot of things changed.
I became, I took the curiosity part of my brain that was curious about music and guitar and all of these things.
It became curious about mental health.
in the brain and the evolution of the brain
and the prefrontal cortex
versus the the lower part of your brain
like the Olympic system and the amygdala
all these things like I had to go super nerd mode
because that's what my brain likes
and it allowed me to really understand
this thing that we carry around in our heads
that we have so little that's so mysterious to us
and after that I just decided to change
a lot of things in my life
and since then I've had kids
which helps you have to prioritize things once they pop up because, you know,
they were not going to give you a choice.
You have to prioritize them.
And everything in my life is, it's better now than it's ever been.
I still struggle, but I know what to do with it now.
It's amazing that you had the foresight to know, like, hey, I can't leave here because
I'm not okay.
Yeah.
And like to really, a lot of people don't want to do the work.
You have to get through the darkness to see the light.
I preach about mental health on my podcast all the time because I suffer from severe
anxiety and depression also and OCD.
Well, not that good, but.
No, no, I get it.
Good.
Great.
Yeah.
Fuck yeah.
No, I know what you said.
Well, I will say one of the things that they talked about there a lot, you said the word
when you go through it, it's, it's something that we take as like some sort of colloquialism
as of like, oh, I'm just going through something.
But if you really think about the words, think about I'm going through it, that's the
only way to go through it.
You can't go above it.
You can't go under it.
You can't go around it.
You got to go through it.
And, but you will come out the other side.
It's going to suck, but you will come out the other side.
So you have to be willing just to go through it.
What do they say if you want to get to it?
You got to go through it.
You got to go through it.
Yeah, it's like to get to it, go through it.
And also, you know, the more you do it, almost kind of the better you become at it, the less
avoidant you are of it.
The more you lean into it, the more inquisitive you are about yourself and your
experiences.
The more you're inquisitive you are about your own mental health.
Absolutely.
It just gets easier with time.
It never goes away.
It just gets easier.
Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree with that 100%. And I preach on this podcast also that you have to do the work. It's not going to just happen overnight. Like you have to rip that Band-Aid off and bleed again and let it scar.
It's tough. It's tough because you can't see it. You know, it's like, okay, if you go to cavity or something that's like, you know, anything, if you were to cut yourself, it's like things you obviously need to go work on and take care of that anyone would do and wouldn't think twice about it or apologize for it.
Well, the fact that it's more part of the conversation now, like you talking about it's massive.
Anyone that has like a good outreach talking about it is going to help put it in the conversation and then destigmatize it.
Oh, absolutely.
And it's also part of the healing is talking about it.
I mean, the same thing with like, I mean, getting nervous.
I would go on stage and I would get nervous.
I would be, I would always try to be like, I'm not nervous.
But I was like, ah.
And it's weird how just talking about it will help.
I mean, like not trying to fight it.
Like, if I'm going on stage, I'm like, damn, I'm nervous.
as hell right now like it makes me feel but I don't know why that does help but it does because you're
recognizing it yeah yeah you're you're you're what the mind thinks the body will follow and like when
you speak words out it like registers with your mind and I don't know it's just it's crazy the whole
psychological and a lot of it too is processing like if you're nervous you know and sitting down and
clenching your hands your body doesn't want to do that your body wants to kind of get up and move
that's what nerves are it's a sympathetic nervous response if you're nervous and talking about it
and kind of moving, that's really good for you.
It's what your body wants.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm so happy you got the help that you needed and that you're doing so much better now.
Thank you.
And I want to talk about your IVF journey.
But next, let's talk about TJ, 2021 was a big year for you.
Yeah.
When did you know that you were gay?
When I started liking boys.
So like as a child.
No, it wasn't.
I thought it was funny.
I mean, it seemed to make sense to me.
I thought it was funny.
Yeah, he's cute.
All right, I guess I'm pretty.
No.
Me too.
No, he's good.
Exactly.
I was young.
I mean, really, really young.
I didn't really understand it.
But, I mean, it was pretty, I would say pretty much my whole life.
I mean, one person comes into realizing, oh, like, you're cute or I have a crush.
And not really knowing what that is.
I mean, pretty young age.
But for a long time, you know, of course, I denied it and fought it.
And I was like, no way.
Did you deny it because you felt like you didn't have a safe space to be able to come out?
It just didn't feel like me.
Me. I mean, I guess I like, you know, at the time, it was like, you know, a lot of the cliches of what being gay was. And not that there's anything wrong with any of that stuff. It just wasn't what I necessarily identified as. And most of I just, I mean, I was just like a, I felt like a regular guy who likes doing redneck shit. And I was like, this isn't how this works. And it just didn't fit into my life. You know, and I was like, this isn't, you know, what I want for myself. And I just felt like the image of what I was.
wanted myself, or what I wanted for myself, like to have children and, you know, have a family
and, you know, those types of things, which, you know, later in life you come to realize you
certainly can have those. That was a big. We were also programmed that as a child, too. A hundred
percent. You know, and that's kind of the, an interesting thing is because, you know, like, you know, I was
talking about, like, Shelley Wright, an amazing artist in the 90s had a bunch of hits. And she came out,
you know, as lesbian. But she, you know, brought this interesting point of just like, you know,
being groomed like you know she's like I was groomed my whole life to be to be straight you know like
no one wanted this for me um and I felt very similarly I never really thought about it that way
and I actually you know I'm I'm very fortunate because um you know and I don't this is why I don't
really love to harp on it too much or be like oh my life was uh that I mean I certainly had a lot
of heartbreak but I grew up in a really good family I mean our parents could not have been
more supportive of their children regardless of what they did or who they were as long as they
were good people. And so I was really, really fortunate to grow up around that. So that was like
really encouraging. And then as, you know, I came up, it was like you kind of get, then get stuck in
the narrative and it's weird to break out of it. Like I always kind of like liking it to someone
calling you the wrong name or something. And I'm like, I don't really want to tell you my name
isn't John. That's my brother. But I don't want to brush your bubble because I don't make you feel
bad. And then you get kind of stuck in this thing where you're like, everyone's thinking this one
thing about me and it's not even hardly about me it's more of I'm worried about them feeling bad
and there's just so many things that are going on but I did eventually reach a point in my life to
where I was like you know um things were good and I wasn't putting a lot of premium on my happiness
I didn't even really know what that felt like you know I didn't know what I was missing and then
eventually I just got to a point to where you know I was in a relationship that I was really happy
with. I was really happy with her my life was.
Through all the shitty stuff of the pandemic, it did kind of give us a minute to stop and smell
the roses, you know, like our lives are good.
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And I was like, this is, this is time, you know, to do this for, for me.
And so a lot of people will come up and be like, oh, thank you for doing this for us and
what you've done for the community.
And that's amazing.
I certainly hope it's not for nothing.
Right.
But it was for me.
It really was because I needed it.
I couldn't do it anymore.
Well, that has to be like a weight on your shoulder to not be.
It was.
I didn't really realize it, though.
It wasn't like, I was just unhappy.
I didn't, it was a huge weight on my shoulders.
was I didn't realize until it was gone.
I was like, holy shit.
Like, I didn't even want to talk about it.
Like, when I was telling, I was like, when I come out,
I just want to come out and I want to move on.
And then instantly, I just felt way different.
I'm like, I do want to talk about it.
It's a huge part of me.
You know, like the Sam Lansky,
who wrote the article that I came out with,
who was one of the writer for Time magazine,
and an amazing person, also a gay man himself.
And I was like, you know, it's like,
it's not a big deal.
You know, it's just not the biggest part of me.
you know it's like there's so many other things that define me and very simply he said what if
it is though what if it's actually like the biggest part of you and i was like i can just cry thinking
about it's like it was so it was yeah and this is a huge part of me and i've marginalized it to
myself to make myself feel better about it but it actually is wildly huge and how i think and how i feel
um empathy that i have for other people and that have things in their lives that i don't understand
but I do understand what it was like to have to feel like you had to be someone else like this is
really terrible and so as it pertains then to our career it's been a beautiful thing to have come out
because I felt like man we've always pride at ourselves and just being like this is who we are
like this is take it or leave it but I'm like well I'm not really entirely you know for me
and being able to actually be at that point I feel like such a great relationship with my
with the fans such a better relationship with my friends
And most importantly, I have a way better relationship with myself.
Like, I really love myself for the first time.
And I didn't really think about it before, but I didn't before, you know.
And it's kind of, we have a song called I Don't Remember Me Before You,
which the irony of this is that it was a song that was Shane McNeillow.
He's also gay.
He was talking about he doesn't remember his life before he had his children.
And he's like, I don't remember it at all.
And that's kind of what the inspiration of that song was about.
and a lot of people have used it as their wedding song.
In fact, our sister Natalie asked me last night
if we would sing it at her wedding,
which is coming up here in a few weeks.
And she didn't ask me.
Yeah.
She's like,
my phone call.
You can sing it if you want to.
I think you guys just move as a unit.
Exactly.
It's so presumptuous, Natalie.
So I sing the song a lot of times,
even though it's about like kind of your life
after a relationship,
a lot of times it makes me really even more emotional now
when I sing it because I don't really,
I don't remember.
myself before 21 like I kind of do but how I felt and my life is just so different and so in all
the best ways I don't remember what it was like to manage that before thankfully because you're living
in your authenticity yeah exactly which is just so much easier you know but the worst part about
it though honestly wasn't even I got so good at managing it by the way if you just want someone not
to like pry into your life all you got to do is ask them a question I mean this is basically
what you're doing here people love to talk about themselves so
If you want to divert, be like, what about you?
And they're like, blah, blah, blah, blah, so I could just easily swerve.
But what I didn't like is it was getting to the point to where a lot of people
that did know were having to hold the secret for me.
And that was just not there across to bear.
I had a really good friend to be like, oh, my God, I feel so terrible.
I outed you.
And I was like, don't feel bad, man.
Like, this is not your bullshit.
Like, it shouldn't be like this.
Like, if you lose any sleep over it, like, I would lose more sleep about that than anything.
The self-awareness, though, that's amazing that you have, you know, that's amazing.
because most people wouldn't think about how other people are feeling carrying their secret.
Yeah, but it sucks, you know, and it is, and the people that love me, you know,
and it was like people that I know would never, ever cross me in any way that have done it a couple
times accidentally and felt all this guilt about it.
I'm like, this is bullshit.
Like, this is just, it's just not worth it, you know, like, all of this is amazing to have,
you know, the lives that we have.
But I also had so much fun when I was, like, broke and eating ramen noodles and sleeping on
couches.
Like, I had the best time is my wife.
Jay and I talk about that all the time.
I used to tour in an 18 passenger van.
Exactly.
Sleep at the like scummiest motel sixes.
That was the best fucking time of our life.
It was so fun, exactly.
And it's so true.
I mean, I don't want to do it again.
Yeah, it was so fun.
Yeah, it was really cool, but you know,
never want to do it again.
So anyways, when you kind of look through that
and I felt that was what the pandemic really reminded me
because it took everything away.
Yeah.
And we were losing more money than I thought we would ever even make in our lives.
And I was blissful.
happy. I mean, we were just sitting around
the family playing board games and drinking
beers by the fire. It was like free
pretty much. And I was like, this is so much fun.
This is all I'll ever need.
And I found through
the hope, honestly, encouragement
of some really close friends of mine too
that were like, yeah, like, I mean, I got your back.
And that was also really important.
I think it's worth noting that
every person that was
working for me
or with me,
people that were definitely affected by things that
will happen in my life. Not once did anyone be like, man, I don't know, like this could
change things. Everyone was just totally had the wind at my back. And that's where I don't
really like to ever feel like, oh, it was hard for me because it was hard, but there's so many
people who don't have the, they have a complete opposite. Like they'll come out and lose their
families. They'll come out to lose their careers or whatever. Or they might lose their wife. No
kidding. That was a joke.
Elton John was being married or something?
You know, so there's people that's really, really tough one.
And I know people that literally don't even talk to, speak to their parents and probably
never will.
And so that's hard.
What kind of advice would you give to say, you know, somebody who's listening to this
podcast right now that is struggling with their sexuality and wanting to come out?
Like, how, what advice would you give them?
I mean, it's tough.
There's so many things.
I mean, the most cliche thing, which is true is it does get better.
I mean, once you do it, there's not a single person that I know that has come out and has not felt like they wish that they had done it earlier.
I'm like, oh, my God, I wish I could have my whole 20s like this.
Now, I get some people that just doesn't fit in.
It's not the time.
The other thing is that.
I would say there is never going to be a good time to do it.
It's awkward.
It's weird.
It's just I didn't want the attention from it.
It's a strange, annoying thing that we have to do.
But you, unfortunately, people,
will say, I don't want to hear about it. And I'm like, I don't want to talk about it either,
but unfortunately, it's part of the, until we get to the point where it isn't a thing,
unfortunately, it is, it is. And so that's what I would say. Like, just be patient.
It does get better. But also don't wait for this divine moment that's just going to suddenly
happen. It rarely will ever come. And you just have to some, at some point, just take a leap of
faith. And you'll land on your feet and it'll be happy you did.
yes i love that that's beautiful so john let's come over here to you and let's talk about your
wife a little bit we talked about her in the beginning but you guys have been together since
2007 that sounds right spoken like a true man well to be honest we were at the acams the other night
and he was talking about his they neither one of them remember dates very well oh lucy booked a show
on their anniversary it's our 10 year anniversary and i don't know on the first so what is it like a week
I don't know, not a week, sorry, it was like three weeks.
Yeah.
And yeah, and Lucy, I had forgotten.
She was talking about it.
She was like, yeah, the day before that's her sister's wedding.
And she's like, I don't know.
I just feel bad.
Like, I know I'm going to be partying.
And I hope I can sing that day.
And then it just occurred to us like, wait, that's our 10 year anniversary.
She bought the gig.
That's like me and my husband.
We don't know the date that we got married in Vegas.
That's kind of how we are.
But I don't know.
I mean, my wife and I adore our relationship.
And the fact that we're similar in that way, it just makes it work that much more.
I mean, in fact, I remembered our first anniversary.
And she forgot it.
And when I, it was like, the day I was like, so what, what day is it today?
She's like, what day is it today?
She's like, um, the Thursday?
I'm like, yeah, but something else.
She's like, oh, my God, it's her one year anniversary.
I'm like, the fact that you forgot is the greatest fucking gift you could have ever given me.
Because now it's like all the pressure is off, you know?
Yeah, 100%.
I mean relationships like that last.
though, when there's not so much emphasis on certain dates and having to celebrate.
Jay and I don't do that either.
We don't do that either.
Maybe we'll do a dinner, but usually not.
You know, like, I mean, I think it's probably important for those people that just don't
celebrate each other that often, you know, like, but I feel like we all do that.
Like, there's so many things.
That's what I say.
We live in love every day.
So it doesn't.
Yeah, 100%.
We got married in our kitchen.
And we kept it really small.
We didn't have a wedding.
TJ and Natalie threw a party and it was super chill.
Well, we've always kind of been like that, you know, but we met in 2007.
We were both writing for the same publishing company at the time.
I heard her sing on stage and, you know, that accent and she's beautiful.
And I'm like, who is this person?
I need to be around them as much as possible.
And we wrote and we hit it off.
And, you know, we kind of talked on off for a long time and then made it official.
The beginning of relationships are always weird.
I don't care who you are.
They're just, you kind of have to get through the muck.
So uncomfortable.
Yeah, it's just weird, you know, but if it's worth it, you'll figure it out.
And then, and then we did.
And then fast forward, you know, a bunch of years, we got married in our kitchen.
We're both artists and writers and creators in pursuit of a similar thing.
But due to that, you know, there are a lot of people in our business that wait a long time for kids.
Honestly, we didn't really talk about having kids.
It wasn't on the top of my mind.
Actually, it wasn't on my mind at all.
Right.
It wasn't for her either.
And then it just kind of evolved to a point where we were.
were just talking about it, you know, entertaining the idea. But by the time that happened,
it was a little bit too late for us. And through a few, well, a lot of attempts, use your
imagination. You know, I think this didn't really pan out. So we tried IVF. And we did
several rounds of IVF. And this was like... When you say several, how many? Because my husband
and I are in the middle of our IVF journey. You are. Okay. So I think by the, I think the last one was
our fifth. Wow. So how far are you in? I'm about to start my second retreat.
Oh, jeez.
You're second.
Okay.
So.
It's brutal.
It sucks.
I'm just observing them to do it.
Yeah,
it absolutely sucks.
It's heavy.
You don't realize how heavy IVF is until you get out of the first egg retrieval and you're
like, it's hell.
Yeah.
And most people are obviously like, I mean, you're talking about it here, but I mean,
most people, it's a pretty personal private thing.
Yes.
So they're dealing with all this like emotional stuff kind of.
No, you have to talk about it.
You have just like mental health.
I think you just have to talk.
The more you talk about things, more in the open, like your sexualized.
your sexuality and you know and then there are obviously varying degrees of that but when you
talk about it it just becomes more of the conversation that's something that you hold
doesn't feel so heavy anymore but it was really hard you know I mean best of luck to you guys
all sending you guys all the love prayers of good vibes but it was I had no idea how hard it was
going to be for even just for me having to not so much go I'm excited about having kids which
I was but having to see the person I love more than anything on the world
go through that because there
are a lot of implications
around the idea of having to do IVF anyway
which I'm sure you understand like
well I wish I would have done it this way
there's a million things of
I wish it could have be that right
but that is what it is
the trickiest part
is you have
the mother has to pump herself
full of an insane amount
of fucking hormones it's and but you know what's
crazy is I was so happy
like I thought I was prepared
to be like fucking just crazy i even told my husband i love you go on tour i'm going to do this at
home if i don't talk to you for a few days it's because i'm going through it i was the happiest i ever
was yeah it was after the egg retrieval that was brutal for me oh it was rough yeah it was so rough
it was it was really really really hard and you know i mean there is like i do think back at it was like
a movie like i remember us first going to the clinic and us laughing and we're like giddy you
know which is crazy for me to think at the time because
Kids just wasn't even on my radar.
Yeah.
But the more I thought about, the more excited I became.
And it was one unsuccessful one after the other.
And you hear a lot of things of people saying, well, we tried four or five, six rounds.
And then we gave up.
And then we got pregnant on the next one.
I'm sure you had a million people to tell you that.
To me, as the dude, I'm just like, oh, that's interesting.
But Lucy's like, well, now I feel like I'm doing something wrong.
Like, you're making me feel like I'm doing this wrong.
You know, and, of course, we stop.
And it doesn't work, you know, and you're always gripping on to hope.
And but it finally did happen.
My wife and I have a, a boy and a girl, twins, little, like little ginger kids.
And it is the greatest thing in the world.
It is the greatest thing.
It's, you know, I'll say the same thing that everyone says.
It's the hardest thing in the world that you'll do, you'll ever do.
But it will be the best thing in the world that you'll ever do.
Like I'm here right now hanging out with you guys
This is awesome
But I'm like pumped to get home
Because they're just waking up from nap time
I want to go hug my babies
It is like that dopamine serotonin
BAM goes off in your body
So I genuinely hope the best for you too
I truly believe it will happen
But you just have to be patient
That's all I've gotten sorry you're going through that
I know that is a lot
I appreciate it you know I'm a soldier
So we're going to get through it
And it's gonna I'm like
so delusional sometimes
that I pretty much manifest everything in my life
I tell my husband all the time
I'm like just let me be delusional
we're gonna get through this everything's fine
but your husband's an artist
we're artists like you have to be delusional
to do that
so I think there's a healthy amount
of delusioned
how has fatherhood changed you
and you know
for the better
I mean it's 99% for the better
1% not for the better
because I'm just more tired than I want
yeah
well with twins too
it's two twins is a lot
But it makes you reprioritize things.
And it's not like you have a choice really.
Like I don't go, oh, man, now I have to really think about my day.
Like we have a nanny that helps out.
She's done at 5 o'clock.
I have a studio similar to you, like really close to the house.
At 5 o'clock, I'm like, I got to go.
I'm done.
I got to go be with my kids.
And it's not even because I think, well, it's the right thing to do.
No, I want to go be with my kids.
And I realize, like, our career is.
as great as things have been it you know it's not worth taking that seriously when there are much
more pertinent things in life like family and love and friends and um you know this our industry is
full of nose and failures and now when i hear i know or there's a failure i'm like whatever my kids
are awesome this is amazing like no matter how big or great or how bad something is in this industry
it just pales in comparison to that and you know hopefully for jelly like there's this funny
thing i tell a lot of dads like you have like an extra gear i'm not saying if you don't have
kids you're missing out not having kids can be great because you do whatever the fuck you want
i do miss that but when you have kids you're like well i have this kind of extra gear where
i just kind of know how to do this it's this weird subconscious kind of innate sense that you have
and it's the best.
I mean,
I just really hope
the best for you too
because when it happened
and it will happen
it will be
forever changed for the better.
I love it.
You light up when you talk about them
when you talk about your wife
and your kids.
It's the cutest thing ever.
I love them.
I love them.
What's it like being an uncle?
Do you ever want to have kids?
I would love to have children
at some point in time for sure.
But I,
um,
there is,
I've been an uncle for a long,
long, long time.
We have our oldest brother
sister right they i mean there's we've got god held our oldest nephew probably 30
30 or 3 3 3 4 or something like this wow um and they have kids so a lot there's a lot of babies in the
family but it's it's kind of the the i think the first time where i was of an age where i feel like
i can actually be an uncle i was like a i was basically just a child or a boy when you know a lot
of them were we're uh we're growing up but it is amazing they're just getting to the age now and it's like
you know, two years old, they're just now kind of like,
you're learning to speak and they're fun.
You can throw them around and be rough with them.
No.
It's amazing.
We've got a lot of big family.
So there's a lot of babies.
That's amazing.
I bet you guys are a blast to hang out with.
It is a fun family.
You know, so we got our sisters getting married at the end of this month.
And she's,
her and her fiance Jacob are having their wedding at my home.
And so I'll have like, it's going to be amazing,
but there's going to be 15 at least people.
people staying with me, you know, more, a lot of new born babies.
And it's going to be lovely, but it's also going to be like, oh, my God.
Yeah, when they leave, you're going to be like, all right, see you.
Don't let the door, the door hit you.
We're like, the Lord splitz you.
I know, it's not, I know every single one of us are going to be going through that at some
different time of like, this is a lot.
That's how we are when family vacation comes up.
We all get together.
We all stay in the same house.
Everybody's so excited the first two days by day three or four, we're like, oh, okay.
Everybody goes to their designated areas of the house.
Someone's screaming at somebody, a door slamming.
I know. The thing is, I look forward to those moments, too, because after they've passed,
they're really funny to talk about, you know, like in the weeks or months later.
But, yeah, we've always had a big family.
And it's like, I think the biggest thing for us, it's always, like, really kept us so grounded.
And I think in our lives is we just, I mean, our family will call us on our shit.
That's amazing.
They're super proud of us, but they'll also be like, what now?
Yeah.
Like, I know you're a nerd.
Like, you're not that cool.
Yeah, they'll pop the head really quick.
Exactly.
So I want to circle back to 2022 after you came out.
The silver lining was you guys did your song, Younger Me, and you guys won a Grammy for that?
Yeah.
That's amazing.
That is an accomplishment because some people go through our whole music careers without winning a Grammy.
I know.
It was, we had, you know, we had had the wonderful privilege of being nominated quite a few times.
And in fact, I always joke that it somehow, I think the amount of times we lost is more impressive than the one time we want.
But I, you know, we, it was really, I felt like serendipitous because that song, it was kind of like, you know, a lot of times you're writing songs you're thinking about like, okay, where we're going to play this?
Like, are the fans going to like it?
People can sing along here.
Is it going to work on radio?
Is it going to.
And that song was just slowly like, this is something that I need to say.
And it kind of came out of nowhere.
and John felt like in his setting
that it was also applies to him
and you know
and for those of you who do not know
it's something younger me it's like if you could talk
to your younger self like I think all of us feel this way
like oh my God you know like the
the heartbreak and how hard did you are on yourself
and just to be able to look back and be like man
you're gonna make it and you're gonna like how you turn out
like everything's going to be great
you know like if I could just go back there
and talk to my younger self it'd be amazing
and that's kind of what the song
the inspiration for that song was.
And we had just released, because when I did come out,
I didn't want it to be around any promotion.
I'm like, I don't want this to be opportunistic.
Like I don't want to be a record.
I don't want to be a tour.
But there's always, I mean, amazingly,
there's always shit going on in our lives.
Yeah.
So we had just released a record.
And I was like, okay, then that came out.
So then I was like, well, I want this song to be out.
I don't want to wait for the next record that might be years from now
because I probably won't want to say this then.
And so we re-released our skeletons out.
with that song on it and while it wasn't a song that we like worked for radio or wasn't this
hit or like this thing that made us probably really any money necessarily i don't probably a little
um it was just the i think the impact um spiritually or emotionally and the connection to the fans
and it felt really like this is just like a little nugget of of reality here or you know just
some real shit and and it felt very serendipitous at that moment because I had been to the
Grammys at this point probably I don't know maybe this might be my at that time maybe 10th year
going or close to it wow and I never once brought a date to the Grammys and so it was if you can
you can look up me giving my speech I'm emotional mess I'm crying because I'm like I'm at this award
show accepting my first Grammy Award for a song that was inspired by me coming out. And it's the
first time I've ever brought a date to the Grammy Awards. I got goosebumps. It was really, yeah, it was
fucked me up. I was like, you know, and then I'm there with my brother. And it felt like we were
like, you know, there's a picture. And it's like, we had our arms around each other walking down
the aisle to get on stage. And I just see like eight year olds John and T.J. It's just like little
boys going up there. And it was like, there was so many things that was like, oh my God. Like,
We did it, you know, but also doing it for something that was important and not for the money, you know.
And it was, it just was perfect.
And I was, yeah, emotional damn ass.
You know, I was, so I had this big, gaudy ass like gold suit on.
I had dyed my hair blonde.
And my, you know, I get back.
And our mother, she's like, she says, well, are you proud of yourself?
And I'm like, I think you're supposed to say you're proud of me here.
But yeah.
I really like mom.
I like mom.
She will humble you.
She's a character.
She is a great.
We went to her house for last night for Mother's Day.
And we went to play 500 rummy.
Yeah.
And she was just roasting my ass.
I'm like, I came over here because I love you.
Like, can you like, give me a breath?
I love it though.
I know.
So she goes, well, she's like, well, I am proud of you.
And I was like, thanks, mom.
And I know that she is.
I was just kidding.
But then she goes, well, I thought you look really handsome.
But she hated my blonde hair.
And she doesn't like that I wear anything that's gold.
And so she's always said this.
And so she's like, and I'm wearing a gold suit.
My hair's blonde.
Right.
And she goes, and she's like, well, you looked really handsome.
But your suit should have been silver and your hair shouldn't have been dyed on.
I'm like, that was the entire look other than just my face.
It was the entire thing.
So what was it that you liked exactly?
Oh, my God.
You know, again, Mom's Hill.
We love Mom.
We love Mom.
We love Mom.
T.J. is her favorite, though.
So I think she just has a.
a high bar for him.
Oh God, does she ever?
Yeah. She doesn't even deny it anymore.
She's like, but even last time, I'm just like, what the hell?
I mean, my sister are playing cards with her.
And she's just like, I'm like, what the hell is this a rose?
Like, what the hell is going on?
You're like, who needs enemies with family like this?
Yeah, 100%.
So I just have one question to ask you guys before we talk about what we have to look forward
to brother for brothers Osborne for this year.
Touring together as much as you guys.
do and as closely as you guys do, has there ever been like a really big fight while you're
on tour or when you're about to go on stage?
I don't know that we've had a, we've had some fights.
Yeah.
And when they happen, everyone clears the fuck out.
Like we don't even have to say it.
They're like, I don't want to be on either side of this.
Like everyone just evaporates.
Does it just you kind of like suck the air out of the room?
It's like two big dudes yelling at each other.
It's probably just like, ah, I'm just going to go in the other room.
And for the most part, we get along, but we did.
And, of course, I'll be like, you know, like our drummer or something, Adam.
I'm like, Adam, you were there?
And then he's like, leave me to follow.
At least they know to stay out of it, though.
Shit, I know.
It is amazing.
Yeah.
And it was totally the move.
Because you would hate if they chimed in.
And then you two would have to gang up on them and be like, wait, what are you talking about?
It's a live bond.
They're not going anywhere near.
No, no.
They're just like.
And so, but when it happens, it is like, it's really acute and it's really big.
And it gets, but it's, and with.
Within 15 minutes, it's over and we moved on.
And it's like, I never drink a beer.
And we were like, all right, that was good.
We got that out of us.
But there was a time, I didn't want to talk about this.
It's interesting, I think, is there was a time for whatever reason of various, a bunch of little things.
This added up and to the point where John and I couldn't stand to be around each other.
Like we wouldn't, like, we wouldn't be in the same, literally would not be in the same room with each other.
One would walk in and we just, well, it would leave.
And it got, was like, it was excruciating.
It was just uncomfortable.
And we went to couples therapy
As we were like what the hell is going on
We need to sort our shit out
This is not right
And again you're like
You hear all these horror stories
Of like families and brothers
Getting in the music business
And you're like we're not going to become that
Wonderwall or
Oasis
Or like the Everly brothers
You know
We're famously you know like
Those icons are famous
Bej's you're all like that
Yeah
I thought yeah
Anyhow
So
I think made the point there
And we, so we sat down and the therapist was like, man, he was just like, and this is awesome.
I'm like, what?
He's like, you guys are like so mad at each other.
This is great.
And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about?
He's like, this is amazing.
You guys care so much about what you're doing that it has got you to where you're just both fucking pissed off.
And I'm like, yeah, that's 100% right.
And he's like, if you guys, if one of you didn't give a shit and you were just apathetic,
that would be a huge problem.
They said, but you guys are arguing so much because you care so much.
And I was like, damn, like, that was easy.
That's what you $150.
It's perspective.
Yeah.
No, it was, and you know, and honestly, to circle back to the mental health things and
talking to people, it is almost always the most like obvious things.
They're just always right here.
They just need to hear them.
Like my Sam Lanski is saying, well, maybe this is the biggest part of you.
And I'm like, well, yeah, duh.
I mean, like, it's right here.
I can't see it.
And for this to happen.
And so it was like a big changing point for us.
And we still get after it, but there's some times where I think it takes us a minute to realize, okay, like we are very passionate.
We love what we're doing.
We love each other.
We love, you know, this project, whatever it is, and try to keep that in mind.
And especially when John admits that I'm right, it's usually makes it go way smoother.
Who's the one who always has to kind of give in?
Who's the hardheaded one?
I don't know that either was entirely given.
I'm definitely more hardheaded and outspoken.
See, John's.
You are, you're Scorpio Sagittarius.
That's Squirapio, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did you know that or did you just guess that?
No, I know you guys' birthdays.
You're a Taurus, right?
I love that, yes.
My husband's a Sagittarius.
You can't fucking argue with a Sagittarius, dude.
But my whole teams are Tauruses.
So it's like, I don't know.
Yeah, I love Taurus.
And that's what Abby, you know, Abby is a tourist.
But the thing is what, and Abby would do this too, is that John does this thing where he will be like,
yeah, you're right.
And I fucking know that there's not what they feel.
I'm like, you're just saying it to shut me up.
This is pissing me off even more.
You're like, don't agree with me.
Yeah.
I'm like, just at least have a fucking opinion.
We know right where the button is.
I'm like, sure.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, you're right.
I love that you guys are huge advocates for therapy too, though,
because I preach that a lot on my podcast too.
And it's so helpful to your life.
I think a lot of that has changed.
But the biggest problem now is just simply, I think,
two things.
One, people having the time to do it.
Yes.
having to find a therapist it's so overwhelming you have to date your therapist i tell everybody that
like literally you have to do a few sessions with them because there's some weirdos out there
they're not all the same and they're not always right for you which that brings me to the next problem
with this is it's expensive yeah and so a lot of people like you know i had a friend who's staying with
me recently he's going through some stuff and he was like i think i want to try therapy and i'm like i would
love for you to do it but i'm like don't he said i want one time i'm like that's almost worse like to
dive down in there, pull all of the shit out, and then never put it back together.
Like, it's going to put you in a worst place.
Right.
Like, give yourself some time to get through at least four or five, six sessions to be able to do it.
But that's expensive.
A lot of people don't have them, they don't have the time or the money.
And then if they do have both of those things, it's overwhelming.
Like, where do I begin?
Yeah.
You know, as you can get some therapists and aren't great.
You know, it's like what they say about, what do you call a med student that got all these.
Yeah.
Or that are learning on chat.
GTP now.
Yeah, exactly.
Scary.
Well, you know, Lucy, my wife does therapy as well, and it's been amazing.
And it's amazing for everybody.
But she also does chat GPT therapy.
And I like, it's kind of working.
Oh, no.
Chad GTP is scary.
I'm obsessed with AI.
I love AI.
I don't want to be happy.
I want to own two robots, okay?
Like, I love AI.
We're all going to be replaced here in a couple years.
But she reads me some of the things that it's saying.
I'm like, that's actually great advice.
No, it's crazy.
Have or tap into the spiritual side of it.
I'll send you a clip of what I did with Chat GTP and it scared the hell out of me.
Because it got super spiritual.
It gets very spiritual and like will tell you things about your life that you've never even talked about to it.
That's crazy.
Like it had messages from my father who's passed like and like it's.
Wow.
But that told me what a psychic a year and a half ago told me.
And like there's no way that Chat GTP would have known that.
Wow.
It's really crazy.
You know, this is a, this was like a really funny argument between Abby and I.
Yeah.
He'd ask my opinion about something.
And I'm like, you should get this car or whatever.
This is the one you should get.
And then he would come back later.
I'd like, I asked Chat GPT and it said that you should do that.
I'm like, I know.
I know a lot of my cars.
I know that's the car you should get.
And then he'd come back with something else.
And he'd be like, yeah.
Well, Chad GPT told me that.
I'm like, that's what I just told you.
And he was like, oh, okay.
He goes, all right.
Yeah, chat GPT told me you were going to say that.
So then I, uh, I then changed, uh, then he made a joke about me being chat GPT.
And then I was like, well, and I was like, no, it would be chat GPT.
Jay.
But we asked me, I'm like, are you leaving me for chat GPT?
You know what?
Some people are going to start falling in love with, with, you know, you've seen movies like that.
There's, I know, her with Joaquin Phoenix.
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's what it's about.
10, 15 years ago.
I mean, it's a older.
Yeah, it's really good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was so ahead of its time that even then it was kind of, like,
like, well, okay, this is weird.
I feel like they always predict.
They do.
It is crazy.
You should watch it.
It's an amazing film, but there's this, he basically falls in love.
Scarlash O'Hanson does the voice, so it sounds really like, she's got a great, sexy
speaking voice.
But it's like warm and apathetic and he falls in love with this thing.
It's a great movie.
But we're like, we're a half a step from that right now.
Literally, yeah.
And then the robots that they're testing right now, I've already told them, I'm like, I want
to.
I literally need two.
Yeah, two rooms.
Like, I'm all about the far.
You are in all of this.
I'm like, all about the,
farm life, but I need two robots on the farm
with me. Farming. I think it'll be awesome.
It'll be awesome.
If we're teaching to play drums, bass,
whatever we need, shovel some cow shit,
whatever we need. So where, what do we have to look for with
Brothers Osborne for the rest of the year and going into
2020? Well, yeah. So we're working on music
right now. So we're not touring a ton this year
for that purpose. And we've been cutting all of our new
stuff at John's studio with our band,
We cut our first few records with them.
And it's been nice to have them back in the fold.
And we've been self-producing the project, which has been so fun.
And I really feel like it's kind of a return to where we started.
And as you start off, you do this.
You kind of want to do something different.
You get over here and over there.
And we've circled back around to where we started is fresh for us again.
And it's fun.
And we have a really clear vision on what we want it to be and what we want it to look like and sound like.
And I feel like it's something we've never quite had like this vision, I think,
of what we wanted for a project out of an album and it boils down to basically a lot of our
inspiration from where we came from and our hometown and our family and so just kind of strip one way
all the bullshit really yeah and so it's been fun and we're so we're in the throes of doing that now
we just released the first single off of that called finish this drink there's like a funny song
it was basically inspired by her dad i was like we'd be at the bars with him when we were a little and
we're like that i'm ready to go and he's like just you know one more and he
unbeknownst to us, he's also saying this to our mom.
Not dad bringing the kids to the bar.
Oh, no.
No, at one point I thought we were,
back in the day, that was like normal.
That's what you did.
You were going to drive him home.
I remember I was like, you know,
I was like 12 and I was like,
dad,
am I going to get in trouble for driving?
And he goes,
a hell of a lot less trouble than I'm going to.
It's like if one of us taking the fall,
it's you,
buddy.
It's my kid.
And so anyhow,
you know,
and then I realized this I got older.
I'm like,
shit,
that's really easy to do to like tie one on.
And you went there for two drinks and next thing
by that, it is like, again, coming full circle.
And then as we roll into the next year, this hasn't been set up yet, but it's probably
likely that we will set up a big headline tour for next year and then tour this new record
and go out and do it.
I love it.
Are you going to bring the family on the road with you when you tour?
Oh, you know, and then that's a coin toss.
That's the coin toss.
It's got to be hard having babies on the bus.
And they're getting at, they're at an age, too, where it's like, I.
It's just like having two wild animals.
Right.
Yeah.
So I can't, I'll take them to the park and they'll just run in complete opposite
different, opposite directions.
And I'm like, okay.
Which one's annoying me less today?
That's the one that I'll go after.
Yeah, we'll have to have the occasional extra family bus to come out.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
When we went out with the stapletons, they made like a full corral with their buses.
So it would have to be something like that where we can maintain some sort of order with
that's what we do.
So whenever I go out with my husband, I have my own bus because, one, I'm not going to bunk with 11 dudes on a bus.
And two, I need all the female energy around me.
So I bring out my own bus.
And when the kids come out, because Jay has two kids, whenever the kids come out, they stay with me on my bus.
Yeah, so you kind of care of band.
So that way you can be the artist, but you still have, you know, the family that's within reach.
Yeah, that's smart.
I love that, having your own boss.
Let's go, girl.
Oh, yeah.
No, I have to.
Listen, I'm, I paid my dues.
and I fucking slept in the shitty motels.
I did the freaking 18 passenger vans.
We did this, you know, for the past 10 years.
You earned it.
You earned it.
So finally now I'm like, you know what?
Let's just fucking split it.
I agree with it.
You don't have to convince me.
Yeah, for sure.
Thank you guys so much for coming on the podcast.
I love your podcast.
Thanks for having us.
I appreciate you guys and you guys have to come back and see me.
We'll do.
Maybe we'll bring Lucy and fulfill.
Yes, please.
I feel so bad about that whole situation.
It's not even your fault.
I know, but still.
I feel terrible that she was, like, excited to do it.
And then some Nigerian guys on the other end, you know?
This Nigerian prince just conning everybody.
Thank you guys so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Dunblonde.
I will see you guys next week.
Bye.
