Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Dan + Shay

Episode Date: September 5, 2021

Since their debut in 2013, Dan + Shay have made a name for themselves as one of the best-selling duos in all of music, racking up 3 Grammy Awards and a staggering 8 billion streams of their songs. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the country music duo to talk about their new album Good Things and the story behind their professional partnership born out of a late night house party in Nashville.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Great conversation for you today with one of the biggest selling and hottest duos, not just in country music, but in all of music. They are Dan and Shea. As a matter of fact, they're one of the biggest selling duos in the history of any music. They have, I think, 8 billion streams. I'm not making that number up of all their songs.

They're big hits. You know them. If you heard them right away, if they don't ring a bell. Tequila, Speechless, and 10,000 hours, collaboration with Justin Bieber. The first two, Tequila and Speechless, were off their crazy smash number one album three years ago, self-titled called Dan and Shea. They blew up Tequila, you hear at every bar, speechless, you hear at every wedding, a ballad written about their wives. They are Dan Smires, a 34-year-old from just outside Pittsburgh, and Shea Mooney, 29-year-old from the tiny town of Natural Dam, Arkansas. He says the sign on the edge of town

claims a population of 500, but he's never seen more than 100 people around town. So we get into some of that with them. I'll give you a little bit of background where they're talking about their new album, Good Things, which includes 10,000 hours, that song with Justin Bieber, which actually came out two years ago, but it wasn't on an album. It was just a single, so it's on this album, which they worked on, created, recorded during the pandemic. You'll hear how they pulled that off. The conditions of this interview, so here's how cool they are. They are rehearsing for their arena tour, which starts this week.

Actually, they're resuming it. They got three shows in to March of 2020 before they got yanked off the road because of the pandemic. They're resuming that this week. They were rehearsing in Nashville. I couldn't get down there because I'm chained to an anchor desk six days a week in New York City. So they flew up for like three hours to New York City, sat for this interview, and we did the interview. We thought it would be cool on a sort of rooftop bar in New York City. Well, here's the

problem. It was 102 that day. You heard that right, 102 with the heat index. And this was a literal greenhouse. The place has a tropical theme. So it was just a big glass room. So inside that case, I'd be shocked if we're any colder than 105. The crew, the guys had towels over their heads and their necks, people sitting there watching, just observing, we're sweating. So bless them. The two of them sitting with me, we held it together pretty well, but my gosh, and we ended the day with a tequila shot, which was delicious and went along with their song tequila, but the physical temperature of the tequila was probably in the low 90s. So let's just say it burned a little on the way down. So that's your setting.

Dan and Shea sitting in stools across from me. It's 105 and a great. greenhouse on top of a building in New York City. Here are now talking about their new album, Good Things and so much more. Dan and Shea on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Hey, guys, thanks for doing this. So good to see you. This is awesome. Look at this vibe we got here.

This is sort of your vibe matches the shirt, Dan. Like, we've got it all going on for you here. It's intentional, man. It's perfect. Thanks for having us, man. It's good to see you. I want people to know that you guys are in the middle of rehearsals for the tour. And you flew here to New York flying right back.

to Nashville to do this, so I cannot thank you enough. That's one part of it. Number two, I'm going to put the temperature at 103 in this greenhouse right now. It's not the heat that gets you. You know, it's the humidity. It's what they say. I read it in a book somewhere. So I want to thank you doubly for doing this. Of course. So, Dan, tell me how rehearsals are going. I mean, you had, you're out on tour for three shows, March of 2020. You're selling out Bridgestone in Nashville. It's about to explode. And then boom, everything stops. It's so crazy, man. I mean, you never expect that to happen. We work our entire lives for this. You know, it's a dream to get to the level. I mean, it's just such rarefied air to get to the place where we can do an arena tour. You know,

we've had such great support from everyone around us, our team, our families, our friends, our fans, and you get there. We get a taste of it. Like, we're all in. I mean, we're looking at MSGs sold out all these amazing bucketless venues. And all at once, I mean, the entire world shuts down. And it was just, it got to our heads a little bit, man. You know, I think everybody, I speak for the music industry, when I say it's like we were all looking around like do we still have a career are we going to be able to do this you know and uh I I think the first couple weeks were sort of shell shock I remember a lot of pacing around my yard like just pulling weeds even all kinds of like odd jobs landscaping you know trying to stay busy and then I think you know after a few weeks of that it was like

man we this is a crazy opportunity that we have there's you know blessing in disguise silver lining not being on the road for a year and a half like let's let's make the most of it so we made an album. And now here we are a year and a half later, like with a new album, out to the fans, a couple singles that have gone up the chart, gone to number one that we've not gotten to play live a single time, which is like, that's a craziest thing in the world. Because usually when you have a number one song, you've got a song at the top of the charts, you're out there feeling it. That's a tangible energy from the fans singing it back to you every night. But we just, it's like, do people actually know this song? Is somebody is, I don't know,

is somebody playing a prank on us? But here we are in rehearsals, man, and it's going amazing. We're working new songs into the set. And I think, And, you know, speaking to our artist friends, speaking to everybody, crew folks out there on the road, it's like the energy is high. Fans are ready for it. We've waited long enough. And I think, you know, I think it just causes us to appreciate the moments a little bit more. You know, usually those rehearsal days are grueling. You know, you're in there at 7 a.m. You're working until past 7 p.m. It's just long, long days. But I think we're all looking around and joining it a little bit more, appreciating, you know, the people, the friends that we get to spend the time with. And then it's all that much more worthwhile when we get out there and feel it on stage, man. We've gotten a few shows under our belts this summer, and it's like, I get goosebumps

even thinking about it. It's crazy. Yeah, I mean, Shay, you guys probably were like the rest of us where you thought, all right, we're going to shut this down for a week, maybe two weeks, and we'll be back out on the road. You never could have imagined it was going to be a year and a half. What was that like to wait this long to get back on stage and sing those songs to your fans? Man, it was pretty crazy. You know, I feel like, like Dan said, it was shell shock at the beginning of just what do we do now?

And a lot of kind of waiting around, like, have we heard anything, just kind of, you know, trying to get updates from everybody. And then I think it kind of turned into, all right, we're going to try to settle in. And I had had a baby, our youngest, Aims, he was born two weeks before our Bridgestone shows. It was just kind of a wild thing anyway. And was kind of preparing myself to, you know, see what that looks like having a young child on the road. And that was the one big blessing in disguise for me and my family was just being able to actually be there. And, you know, there wasn't a lot of – I'm sure if we look, we can find a lot of positives. But at that point, it was just like, man, this is really a terrible situation for everybody.

And, you know, as the time went on, I think it was a learning curve of everyone, everyone just being like, okay, we're in this. We have to figure this out and kind of settle in together. And there was a lot of time, I think the biggest helps were just the community that we have there in Nashville and being able to talk and the technology that we had. You know, being able to get on Zoom or whatever it was and to be able to still write songs and to be able to kind of help each other cope, I think. And, you know, Dan and I were always constantly texting of, you know, what's going on? What are you doing? Yeah, what are you doing? Three hundred days to work.

No, you know, I'm prepared. A lot of people was like, you know, working remotely and a lot of people are figuring that out and what that look like with their jobs. And we're just kind of like, we don't have anything else besides this. You know, we can't get out on the road right now. We are forced to be in our homes. And for us, that was a difficult challenge because we're so used to go, go, go. And we're, you know, preparing for tour and always kind of thinking about tour and can't wait to get out to our fans. And that was just like, all right, you have to wait and you have to take this time.

And at first it was hard, but I feel like we definitely grew a lot in that moment. and I think we appreciated moments from our past, even that we had never truly gotten to appreciate. Dan and I would sit down and have talks for an hour of just being like, man, we do need to appreciate what we've already gotten to do because we are the luckiest guys in the world to have ever been given this opportunity. Because just to say that we were about to do arenas and then it was pulled out from under us, just being able to say that is incredible. And realizing that there is, you know, you need to find the positive in that of, you know, thank God that we got here. You know, we actually made it and we're able to be able to sell out these arenas and the people want to come see us and that in itself is a huge blessing. And just very thankful to the community that we had around us and our friends and our family for helping us get through that and figure out what life was going to look like in those moments in this last year and a half. And I think Dan and I maybe took like two months off of quarantining ourselves and we got back together.

And it was, I think that first song we wrote was I should probably go to bed. And that was just kind of where it started right there. Yeah, you guys were very productive. Okay, we're down now. we got to do something. So you dig in on this album. You already had a couple songs written and done, as you say. But what was that process like different from what it had been like in the past? You've been writing songs together for nine, almost 10 years, I guess. What was it like over Zoom? Is it the process different? I mean, I think you're used to

being in a room together playing and working it out. What was it like to put good things together? Yeah, and there's nothing quite like camaraderie being in the room with your friends, feeling that energy. You get on an idea or a song or you write a chorus and everybody's like, it up and down. But, you know, it was a learning curve at first to get on, you know, on a FaceTime or Zoom and try to write a song that I feel like it was good for us. I feel like it caused us to go back to the basics, how we used to write songs, just sitting there with a pen and paper and an acoustic guitar and really diving and deep on the idea. Because on Zoom, it's like only one person's talking at once, you know, and one person's face pops up on the camera. So whenever you've got

an idea, it really, you had to really bring it, you know. It was like all eyes on you versus being in a room. People are talking. There's music playing. It's, you know, it's high energy. You can get away with saying something you might not. No, people just don't really react. Exactly. Okay, that one didn't land. But it's like just you on the FaceTime and no one says something. It's pretty embarrassing. You got to gather your thoughts, man. So everybody was bringing their A game. And, man, I feel like we tapped into some of our best material, just doing that. I mean, we were in our own world. You could put everybody on mute and

kind of just dive in and focus on your own and be in your own space. I think it was cool. And it was then for us when we made the album, we recorded it, you know, luckily we've kind of always done that just on my laptop for better or for worse. I apologize to the fans out there. I wish you guys would do it more pro. It's like, man, we just always did demos on my laptop. And that's kind of how we first got going. We were just two guys who loved country music, moved to Nashville. We wanted to write country music, whatever that looked like, whether it was for ourselves or for other artists. And we just did these demos, you know, whatever playing, whatever we could, just whatever guitar had a couple strings on it. put a demo down and then, you know, we started walking around town and people are like, like these songs, do you ever think about putting them out? And we're like, I mean, maybe, I guess, you have a band name? I guess Dan and Shane, you know, and that's kind of how that came about. But I think the fact that we had done that for so long gave us an advantage in this time where we could just kind of camp out and guest bedroom my house. I had a mattress. I got videos of it on my phone, you know, it's like mattress leaning against the wall.

You know, I'm pulling dog blankets, you know, out of the closet, laying them on the floor. Hey, Shay, can you hold this pillow over your head? I'll get the perfect acoustic, you know. You would think at this point in our career, four albums then. Yeah, I should get a proper studio. Yeah, exactly. I got the best singer in the world here, and he's like, you know, having to hold a pillow over his head to reflect the sound.

So it was funny, man, some good behind the scenes content on that. But I think the fact that it's just the two of us in the room, I mean, putting our stamp on it, I think that, you know, by the time it gets to the fans, they feel that it's genuine, it's authentic, and it's us. You know, it's nobody telling us what we should sound like, what we should say, what we should do, whenever it gets to the fans.

I feel like that's why these fans have connected with this album. I mean, it's just we left no stone unturned, man. We tried everything. You know, our fans deserve that. The people who have gotten us here deserve that from us. It was like, if we had an idea, we thought it was good, how do we make it great? How do we flip that idea on its head or take the production, which may have been this direction or may have been this style and change it up a million times until we know that it's

right. So I think, you know, having all this time on our hands was just a bit of a silver lining to all of it. We really got to try everything. And it felt like making a first album again. You know, it's like they say you have your whole life to make your first album. Then you got about two weeks to make every album after that, right. So it was like, we never thought we would get that time to dig in again.

And we did. And I feel like, you know, the music, we're so proud of it, man. I think it's reflective of all the time that we spent on it. And you guys had such success with your last album three years ago with tequila and speechless and all the hits that came off that as you sat down for this album, did you feel like, okay, we got some pressure on us now? People are waiting to see what we do next? Can we live up to that incredible monster hit?

Absolutely. I'd like to say like, no, man, we didn't really even think about it at all. It was like, I mean, that's definitely staring you in the face. It's crazy to think that it has been three years, which I feel like in our minds, the last year and a half, it was kind of, we'll say two years since the record. That just was a long time. It was an asterisk. Yeah, it was an asterisk. But it was, man, there definitely was pressure, but it was good pressure.

I feel like the more that you build your career. And I think that that has just has to be the standard. That has to be the bar. that you reach for. You know, you're not always going to have the tequila and the speechless songs or the 10,000 hours, but our fans have continued to help us grow, and we try to listen to them. You know, being out on the road helps a ton, which is why this last year and a half was very difficult, because you're out there, you're playing songs. We didn't get to play, I should probably go to bed after it went number one. We still haven't gotten to do that at our show yet,

and that was a crazy thing because you can feel the songs reacting as you're playing them live. I mean, you can feel it as it's going up the chart. There's a direct correlation between what's going on kind of, you know, on the radio and just over all, all the socials, you can feel it kind of in that moment. So it was definitely a bar as we were trying to reach. We'd had, I guess, you know, three number one singles off this record already, which was, you know, as we were writing it, we had, I guess, too, you know, at that point. And it was like, man, we really have to make sure that we're bringing our A game.

Because if you don't, I mean, these are going to be standouts. It's like, yeah, they had a couple hits on there. And then it seems like they might have quit halfway through. I'm not really sure what happened there. But it was a good process because I feel like everyone felt the pressure in a good way. It was more of an excitement of like, all right, we have, you know, not having a bar would be a worse situation of like, all right, we have to figure out what a hit song sounds like. We have to figure out what our fans are going to like.

And we had that bar that we could reach for, which is a huge help, I think, when you're writing an album, we can look at and know what our fans are going to want to hear and then kind of just be able to be genuine with it of like, all right, let's just kind of shoot for the stars on this and do everything possible we can do. And luckily, unlike our last album since, I guess, the first one, we had the time to do that. Like Dan said, you don't have the time to truly put together, you know, an album like that. And there's so much that goes into it that people don't think about. And we were on the road and trying to prepare for that and making a good show.

And there's so many, and we're very hands-on with that. So we're, like, trying to design a stage and design, you know, a tour and everything. So we never really had time to truly dive into an album. So this was a very welcome, you know, I guess it wasn't so welcome. We obviously did not want to go off the road, but it was a nice surprise to be able to have the time to be able to work on that and really dig in. And Dan could spend two months on a kick drum sound and EQing one little sound. We could do that with a songwriting process as well. And that was just, it was a lot of fun because it did remind me of kind of those early years whenever we weren't trying to think too much into or trying to get in there and write great music, you know, something that we connected with.

Because I think at the core of it, you know, songs that your fans are going to like. I think from those early years, we weren't thinking about, like, okay, what are we going to, we're just writing stuff that we loved. And we're just like, we love this. We were bumping it in my car and, like, blowing out the speakers of my Jeep at, you know, two in the morning and just so excited about these songs that we had created in the magic that had happened since we got together. And I feel like that really translated on our first record and kind of continued, you know,

that. And we're able to do that especially on this record of just being able to sit down and kind of tell stories and talk with our co-writers and really dig into those songs and make sure that it was, it was purposeful and not just, you know, all right, we're going to try to do an album now. We got a month. Here we go. And so we were able to really dig on that and just make sure that everything was genuine in us. And it was just a very, very fun process.

And hopefully we don't have that much time again before we go out of the road. But it was a pretty awesome process for sure. So, Dan, you produced this good thing, this record, right? And I understand you've got a checklist. Oh, yeah. As you go through, like, this is how we're going to make a great song. So what is your process when you're producing a record? Man, my brain is all over the place.

It's like, you know, social media. It's the live show. It's this. It's that. You know, and I think, you know, for my mental health, like checklists have really helped me. And even as just mundane tasks, like, I know I'm going to make a coffee first thing in the morning. I know I'm going to make the bed. No, I'm going to go for a run.

So I put those things on the checklist every day. It's a little redundant. But when I check those off, you know, at the end of the day, I can look back and be like, maybe I did accomplish something, you know, because I think you can get caught in that cycle when you're making a record. You're just spending a lot of time on one thing, you know, EQing a guitar, dialing a drum sound, whatever it may be. And you look back on the day and you're like, I didn't accomplish anything. And then you get in your own brain and you feel like you, you know, slowed the process. But having that checklist, you know, gives me just an objective thing to work towards every day.

And I just went old school, man, analog, like records were made back in the day. You know, you had the board. And it was like drums, bass, guitars, acoustics, piano, lead vocals, background vocals, and all those things just. I think it allowed me to simplify the album process a little bit because it's daunting. To make an album, it's a lot of work. You know, not only us, but our entire team, it's like there's album art. Now there's all these different platforms. You have to deliver something different to everybody.

And it's great. You know, it means the music's getting out there. And it's nice that, you know, there are enough fans out there that are demanding the music that, you know, we have, I don't know, that we can put different versions of songs and, you know, different videos out to different folks. but it's a lot of stuff. So I think, you know, at the beginning of the process, it was like, all right, cool, let's keep the focus. Let's draw this out. And I, you know, as it started going, as I was like checking away drums, all right, we're making progress here. We almost have an album.

And it was, yeah, it was such a good feeling. And it's never done. Anything in the creative process, it's hard to say it's like, it's done. I always tell this story, but we had a song from the ground up on our second album. Song was released before the album came out. It went number one, country radio was like double platinum, did its thing. there were still like five little tweaks that I heard in there. I was like, ah, it drives me crazy.

So every time it would come on the radio, no one would ever hear it. It was like a little like the smallest little edit in a breath and a vocal. I was like, it always drove me crazy. If I was in the car, I'd be, hey, man, how's it? I'm like, no one hears that. I could try to fight. If you told me, find the things that bug me for a million dollars. I'm like, I guess I'm not getting there.

Honestly, when you're so deep in it, it drives you crazy. But now I could probably not even go back and find things. You get far enough disconnected from it and you forget about it. But, you know, that I went back after the album or after the song had gone number one and I changed those things. So it was, I got it right on the album. So I felt good about that. It was a sigh of relief. So you're a perfectionist.

Yes, too, too a fault. Yeah, say to me. Jay, do you have a checklist to or you just get in and let it rip with your vocals? My checklist, I did it for about a day. And then I realized that it was making me feel worse about the things that I wasn't doing. Because there was just like one thing. It was just like, get up. I was like, well, I kind of did that.

It was stayed in bed with the kids for like an hour. If I could sing like this guy, I wouldn't need a checklist. What Dan didn't know about his checklist, is I'd sneak in there every other day, and I'd just erase one little thing. Oh, yeah. Ben-Moshin, like, I haven't done that. He has to follow all the things on the board,

so I'd just sneak things in there. Totally. It would probably work. It would probably work. I must have written this. Okay. I haven't done the checklist thing, but I do, you know, I try to mentally do those things.

I think it's a very good thing. Dan just, he does a lot more things than I do. And so, like, it would just not feel as good for my checklist. I'm like, Got up with the kids. Heard screaming for an hour and a half. Like ate breakfast kind of at 11, you know. But no, it's awesome.

And I love being able to see the process too for him. It's like watching that from the outside perspective of, you know, when we sing the vocals and as the process is happening, you know, I was going over to his house a lot. And I mean, every time I'd go back and this guy, I mean, it's like, the thing was just filling up. And I was like, we're going to do this, dude. Like, it's going to get done.

And it was a really cool thing to see. And I feel like that's a checklist thing has definitely been a nice process to watch Yeah, that's right. It was like not fully committal, though. It was dry erase. So at any point, you can wipe it off. Oh, the drums aren't right. So next time I need to like do it in permanent ink or something.

You still have that, right? You still have to. I was like, do you have to put something over that? Like it would be so easy for someone to trip. And then that part of history is gone forever. It's a dry erase board. It got tricky with a dry erase board. You like smudge it, you know what I mean?

So I was covering some of the exits on the border are a little sloppy. I got to redo those ones to make those more perfect. This is the perfectionist. It's so interesting to hear you guys say that this process for this album was like going back to the beginning. Because I don't know if everybody knows your fans do, but everybody knows your origin story, we'll call it, which is this now famous meeting at a house party in December of 2012 in Nashville. And then going back to your house where there was like a fort of some kind in the living room. It's probably a better way to put it in the search or whatever that was.

So what do you remember about that night, Dan, that really led to all this? It's just the 10 years, you know, it's been 10 years since I moved to Nashville, which is crazy. Time flies. But I mean, moved to Nashville, love country music, had a dream, didn't have any money to my name. You know, graduated college. All my friends went off and they were working jobs, making great livings, you know, establishing a career. And I'm like, I'm going to go try to write songs and got, I had no money. It was like, found this house, had a buddy that I knew through a mutual friend who ended up becoming one of our best friends. And he's written, I think he wrote four songs on this album. So we've stayed friends ever since. And, man, it was. Man, it was. just anything we could do to get by. And we had this house. We found it. It was like a hundred bucks a month in rent, which I don't know, you can't even get a meal for that. I'm sure I lived in that neighborhood at some point. Barry Hill, man. It's Barry Hill 10 years later has come up. It's cool. Cool restaurants, cool bars. Not at the time. No, not 10 years ago. It was a little suspect. Yeah. Found this house and the heat didn't work. D.A.C. didn't work. The locks didn't work on the door. It was like a folded plexie glass thing. You could reach in. It's how you got

in the house. It is, but the keg in the back were. There was a candy. Somebody left over, probably a previous tenant. Keg of PBR was probably growing things on the surface. But hey, we were talking to anyways. You had the important things covered. Exactly. Things were definitely got. I think the first time, so I came in, my friend Andrew that I think I was living with, actually, at the time I was, I think I was staying on his couch.

My buddy Brandon's couch. We all lived kind of together in this thing. And he was like, there's these two guys that are, they're having a house party tonight, a mutual friends of Dan and our friend Andy, who's talking about early. And he was like, let's go to this house party. He's like, you know, they got a house over here in Barry Hill. and they have a keg and I'm like I'm in I didn't even need to know the details it's like I don't need to know their character like they have a keg like I'm down let's go and none of us had any money it was like anytime

there were going to be free drinks involved we're like I think we should really seize the moment here guys so they need to do this sure we haven't slept in a week let's go to this party and uh it was crazy I walked in and I remember getting to the house thinking I don't know if I'm in the right house or not because I got to the front door and the door was kind of like locked and so I reached inside the window was kind of what did like this And I reached in there and I was like, this is either going to be a great time or I'm breaking and entering and I'm going to jail. At that point for the keg, I was willing to risk it all, really. I was like, I'm going in.

And so we went in there and I remember Dan and Andy and our guitar player now, Justin was there at this party. And it was just a, it was a great time. I think we ended up staying up until probably 2 a.m. And there was a moment where everybody was passing around the guitar and kind of playing their songs. And I was like, I'd like to take a crack at that. You wouldn't believe it. This guy hadn't said a word the entire night. I was too busy back at the cat.

He's completely quiet. Everybody's passing the guitar around Nashville style. In this tent, we overlooked that detail. Yes, that's right. The tent is in the living room. We went to this place called Music City Thrift, just down the road from where we live. We bought like $6 with the sheets. We tented it out.

I mean, it was the only way we could stay warm. We had a little space heater. We huddled around it. Wrote songs, whatever it took. And when he walked into the tent, he's completely quiet, like chilling, like this shy little guy hanging out. Shagga. Yeah, which I found out later is not the case. We're all singing.

And then it's like two in the morning. can I try one? And he started singing and I was like, everyone was like, oh my gosh, it's the best, it was the best singer I ever heard in my life. Pulled out my phone. I still have the voice memo of this and I like held it up. I didn't know what would come of this. You know, I didn't never expect to be sitting here talking to you in New York City and all these crazy accolades behind us. But I recorded him. I was like, and I labeled it best singer ever. It was December 7th, 2012. Wow. He was doing a cover. And the next day, I was just like, we need to write songs. Like we had both been chasing this dream separately. Obviously.

without much success. I was living in a house with no heat, no AC, no food eat. I mean, I was sneaking in to the hotel across from Vanderbilt, actually. I probably shouldn't name the hotel. I'm probably going to come after me for all the continental breakfasts. I think I know that what you're talking about. There's a great back entrance there. I would dress like I was staying there. You know, it'd be in like flip-flops, sweatpants. I had a whole backstory. I was, you know, a crew guy, got flown in for this tour, got in a little early. Our tour manager said we could go get the continental breakfast. It's walking out with like a half dozen bananas, like a couple packs of cereal. Whole deal. I probably shouldn't have said that on.

Do the people at Lowe's know you did that? Oh, wow. It's probably about time to head on. Statute of limitations is up. Whatever he took to get by, man. And I heard this guy sing, and it was like, we should write. It was like we wrote the next morning. I think it was like 7 a.m.

Don't know why. I think we were still up from the night before. I would say the next day, but I think it was that morning. Yeah, yeah. It was the same day. Probably a better way to describe it. We wrote two songs that day. And honestly, we haven't stopped.

It was insane. I mean, the first time we wrote got put on hold by a major artist. And it was like, man, up to that point, we couldn't get anyone to respond to an email or, you know, take a meeting with us. We were sneaking into the C&T Awards. We were doing all this madness. And then from there, it was just like it happened. It was like it was meant to be. And one of the craziest stories about this is we didn't realize this until like a few weeks after we met. Shea had lived in Pittsburgh, like, I don't know, less than a mile from where I grew up.

We didn't know each other. Oh, wow. Yeah, you went up there. Pretty insane, man. I mean, it was like, I was describing like where I was like, yeah, I lived in Pittsburgh for a second. He was like, well, we're at? And I was like, well, I was over here. It was like, here Allison Park and all these places. And he was just like, yeah. He's like, that's where I grew up. Like a mile. And it was just kind of a crazy. Like, and how long were you there? I was there for about a year. About a year or a year and a half. Honestly, I'm not great with time nowadays. Could have been seven years. I don't know. But I was there for about a year. And I just remember discovering that and thinking like, wow, we were probably there at the same time. And you think about those things, man, you look back and you're just like, you know, those moments thinking back to that house party. You never think that those are the moments that are going to kind of change your life. I mean, if there was one pivotal moment, I mean, that was it. Meeting Dan there in that house party. And I was just thinking that I was going to go for some free beer. So the moral of the story is always go to the party. If there's free beer.

Go to the party if you're in Nashville, you got to go. Your life philosophy really paid off. It did. And who would have thought sitting in that makeshift tent that this is magic? The two of us were going to take over the world. I mean, that's crazy, is it? It's wild to think about it. When did it start to feel like, okay, we're making it as songwriters at first here in Nashville?

I mean, when you got together, something changed, obviously. What was the moment for you? I would say, like, our first moment was when we got that first song put on hold. at that point we didn't really know what a hold even meant. We were just like, do we need to buy a house? Should we retire? I think looking around and like, I don't even know if I could be here. We're so famous.

It's unbelievable. But it was incredible. Like with that moment, and I think back to those times of getting excited about little things. And I think we have kind of gone back to that of remembering like all these things that we get to do are all big moments. I mean, being here with you having these opportunities. I mean, this is a lot better than getting a song on hold. But I think honestly, at that point, we were just loving every second of it. And we've still been doing that after all these years.

But I think the moment probably for us was having the first time that we heard our song on the radio was for me. Our friend worked at the radio station. We had 19 UME out. And we had just written this song, like not that long before this. And I remember like we got the word. And it was, I think it might have been in the morning, right? It was probably like seven in the morning or something, which was very, very early at that point. I mean, it was like for us, I was getting up at like 10A.

because we were like trying to make it you're out you know you're on broadway trying to do play these shows till late and uh so we got up and we heard that our song was going to be on the radio and uh that feeling i'll never forget it and i it's it's always very very special every time we hear our song on the radio but thinking about that first time was just like this is the moment that you know you grow up and you listen to these artists on the radio and it's it's otherworldly you think that these are i mean it's just something magical about hearing that on the radio and just being like this is your dreams realize it's right in front of you and it's it's right in front of you and it's it's otherworldly and you and it's it's you and It was just a very special moment that we got to have. And getting to hear that for the very first time, we ran out. I legitimately blew the speakers out on my Jeep. But it did not work after that, which was a real bummer because I did not have the money to fix them. That went on. I still have that jeep. But it was a very, very special moment for that was the first time that I was like, we might really do this thing.

That's got to be surreal to be on the other side of the radio. You listen to your favorite artists your whole life coming through the radio. And now it's you. You're on the other side of that equation. Honestly, I still feel the same as we did that day. Every time I hear a song on the radio, I freak out. I'm like, oh my gosh, I got to pull over and make a video. It's like the coolest thing in the entire world.

It's so glorified and we're so lucky, man. There are so many people in Nashville and all over the world making great music every single day. And the fact that they choose our song to play on the radio is like, I don't know. It blows my mind every single time. I just get that same feeling. Every single time I pull over, I text Jay. I'm like, it's on this station. It's like, it's so surreal.

You're driving down and you see like, people like because this was always my thought. I always had this mentality like a dream. Honestly, like when I was coming to Nashville, I was like eight years old and I was driving down the road, the interstate. And I remember hearing a story about Blake Sheldon of him hearing his song in the radio for the first time. And he like pulled up to a red light and it was on the radio and he rolled out his window and he was like, rolled down the window. He was like, you hear this? That's me. So I like, I was always like, man, what an unbelievable feeling that must be. And I remember like one time that I was driving down the road and I had that moment. And I was like rolling down the

window and I was kind of like, you know, looking at her window next to me. And the lady had her window rolled down. And I was looking at her just like, she probably knows. She had no idea, obviously. Like, and I was just sitting there and I was like, you know, thinking like, gosh, she probably like, like, this is so cool. And she rolled up her window. Like, this guy is insane. I was like saying. I was like, you know, she was just like this guy's psychopath driving down the road, like really likes that band for some reason. Waiting to be recognized that ever came. Hasn't yet. No, it hasn't not happened yet. So I'm curious about what both of your families thought, you in Western Pennsylvania, who went to college.

not for music, but for finance and football, I think. What did they say to you when you said, I'm going to Nashville to become a songwriter? They thought I was crazy, man. I mean, I'd done music my whole life. I loved it. You know, obviously, since I got a guitar in sixth grade or something like that, and it was always such a passion of mine.

You couldn't give me to put that guitar down. And I went to college, I went to school for finance. And like I said, all my friends were here in New York City, working on Wall Street, making a ton of money. And I think they were like, what, you have a degree from such an amazing school? And I think they probably wanted me to get a real job at first. I was like, I'm going to Nashville.

I got my guitar in the trunk and I try to make it. I don't want any money. I don't want any help. I'm going to do research groups to get paid $10 to try on a T-shirt to chip in towards paying my rent or sneak in and snag the continental breakfast at the local hotel, which will remain unnamed. But, you know, they supported me, man. And, you know, I think when things got going, they were super proud. And, you know, everybody in my hometown, it's like, you wouldn't think it.

But Pittsburgh is like, loves country. music. I mean, there's three massive country radio stations in Pittsburgh. You know, Kenny Chesney does, I don't know, 25, 30 stadiums a year. And Pittsburgh is always one of them, Heinz Field, where the Steelers play, always sold out. I went to that show every single summer and it's just like such a hot bed for country music. So it was like, everybody in my hometown was like, dude, you're on the local country station. This is crazy. But it took a while to get to that point. I think there were a few years just that the gray area ambiguous. Everybody else is making a living and I'm kind of not, right? You know, I'm sneaking into hotels, doing the thing, trying to get by.

And it was all worth it, man. It was a lot of work, a lot of hustle, and a lot of faith. And, you know, I'm so grateful to have met this guy. Because I don't know where I would be if I didn't. If he didn't come to that party that night, I honestly probably would have moved back to Pittsburgh or gone to grad school or done something else. I don't know what I would be doing. Thanks for the keg, dude.

It's probably still there. Probably doesn't taste any of the day. What about for you? I was joking with you, Shea, that as I was reading about your hometown, they don't even list a population. And instead of listing notable people, it says notable person, and it's you. Well, they don't know Logan Cluck. I mean, they clearly haven't met him.

My friend from home, he's pretty famous around it. Man, it was growing up there was such a special childhood. I mean, looking back especially now, just, you know, being in a city like Nashville, obviously, it's not New York City, but it's much bigger than where I grew up. And now that I go back home, I was able to really appreciate what that was and how special that was to live in the middle of nowhere and have the people around me that I had. And my parents, I grew up in church singing and, you know, we would, every Sunday I'd be up there. Like, I was three years old with like a guitar. I couldn't play the guitar, but I'd like put it up to my ear

to where I could hear the vibrations of the other guy, thinking that I was like nailing it. You know, every other than I am now. I mean, I was up there. I was, you know, every time on stage, I'd love to be on stage. And from an early age, I always, you know, me and my sisters, my two sisters, Gabby and Eric, we'd travel around. And we would sing in different churches and we would go everywhere. We just loved making music. And everybody in my family did something in music. Both sides of my grandparents had a piano at the house. And every time they were like, oh, we'd do specials. They'd like, oh, he's got a special. That's how they said it. He's going to do a special today. And we'd get up there, you know, Thanksgiving dinner.

And I'd play this horrible song. And it sounded awful. But they stuck with it, man. When I was probably, I think eight years old was the first time we went to Nashville as a family, like, you know, the three kids. And we made an album. It was just like all these songs that we were just kind of put together. We always love to do it. And my dad was always the best. I mean, and my dad and my mom, and they would, uh, they definitely championed that of just kind of letting us if music was what we wanted to do, then that's what it was. And I never felt, you know, pressured to do that. My dad had a construction company. And I kind of had that of, you know, after working construction for, I was like, I think I'm going to dabble in music.

You know, I think I'm going to try that, try to go down that path. And they were always, you know, very, very supportive. But, you know, after coming to Nashville, I just had this moment, probably when I was eight years old, I told my dad, I was like, I want to be a singer. And he never said, like, that's awesome, son. Anyways, let's go back over these plans for what your real life is going to look like. He was always very supportive. And we're like, you know what? I think you can do that, you know, and that definitely had a role to play now with my kids' lives of just being like, man, if you want to do this, you have to chase after what you want to do, no matter what that is, whether that is in finance or if it's in music. And maybe I'll advise him against

the music industry now knowing what I know. But, man, it was such a great childhood growing up. there. And my whole family, you're already very famous in a small town anyway. There's a million songs about that. But it's so, I lived that. It was like, I'd be out at the local park. I'd be on, it was called Lake Lou Emma in Bambear in Arkansas. We'd sit on the back of like one of our trucks just playing songs, you know, hoping people would, you know, walk up and that they would, you know, give us a dollar or something. And I'd be making up songs in the Walmart parking lot, like to girls walking by, you know, thinking I was killing it. It was not popular back then. They did not like it. But I had so much fun doing that, you know, and that's, I was always, always singing.

And so I gave it a shot, man. And that was at that point, before I met Dan, I was pursuing this thing and just trying to do whatever, whatever it took to kind of get to Nashville. And it's just crazy thinking back that that one decision to go to that party completely altered the course of my life. And maybe my family was, you know, they were just so excited and saw, they listened to the music that we were writing. And they were like, this is really, really good. Like for the first time, everyone was like, this is really good. going to be something. And so it was just, it was very exciting for everyone, especially for my parents who had been championing that my whole life. I told you that you could do it. It was just, I'm getting

emotional think about it. No, I feel it. I mean, what did both your parents think when you say, both of your families think? We sold out Bridgestone Arena. We sold out Madison Square Garden. We're selling out these iconic venues from being under that fort in your living room to stand on stage in Madison Square Garden. Yeah, I think they're all so proud of us, man. I mean, you know, even where I grew up, it's not quite as small of a town as Shea, but it's still like, you know, not a lot of people are pursuing country music from that town. I mean, we've got a few musicians that have come out of there. Christine Aguilera, went to my high school, I think for a year or two, and obviously she became a big star, but for what we were doing, it was like,

I think that sense of pride, I mean, especially in a blue-collar town like Pittsburgh, I think people are pretty, pretty excited about it. And we're coming back to the hometown, same weekend as MSG, I feel like it's going to be like an experience. Excitement overload. A lot of people, a lot of friends, a lot of family. But, man, that's surreal. I think that's going to be another special one for me. Where the Penguins play, you know, I've seen so many games there. And it's just like being there, all my friends are hitting me up. Dude, we got tickets to the show. It's like, I'll probably be more nervous for that than anything.

You just bring the A game in the hometown. It's like, you hope that one's sold out. You hope it's packed. Everything else, like, doesn't have to be sold out. MSG in the hometown show. It's like, see, we're doing okay. The tent was worth it. It was worth it. Well, I think you've done it. I think you sold them out. I think you're in good shape on both of those.

So people don't realize even before Tequila, you guys had success. You know, I mean, you had number one songs and big albums. But Tequila obviously took things to an entirely different place. Every time it comes on the radio, you've got to turn it up. You've got to sing along with it. You've got one of those songs forever. When you were putting that song together, Shea, did you know this feels a little different or this does feel special?

You never could have imagined it was going to become what it did. But did it feel like something? different? It definitely did. There was a moment when I first heard that demo that Jordan Reynolds was singing on. I felt the absolute just magic on that song. And I was just like, man, this is just something different, you know? And it was, I think everybody kind of knew when we recorded it, that it was just like, this is crazy. And the production was just so, I think that's probably my favorite song that you, I mean, I say that probably on every side. I'm a big fan of what he does. But it was just something that just felt very elevated and felt more kind of, you know,

universal and just bigger. And we'd had hits at that point. And it was, you know, I think you have to grow. But there's always a song. If you look back on every artist that has really taken off. There's always kind of that turning point where I think the buildup, I guess, it's kind of the accumulation of everything. I don't think it's ever truly, you know, just one song in an entire career. But there's one song that is kind of that booster that is just like puts it over the top. And for us, that was tequila. And we knew it from, you know, the moment that we put it out. And it was, I think we were, you know, pushing another song at that point. And we kind of. And we kind of. kind of got to this crossroads of like, all right, we either put this song out right now or, you know, we're going to have to wait. And I remember Dan and I were in London, I believe, and we were getting ready to pick what the next single was going to be. And we had this song. And pushing about is never like, when you tell that to your radio team, they're like, they try to act. Because I'm like, oh, that's super, that's super great. I can't wait to like struggle for the next year, try to get this to the top of the chart, you know. But it was, they loved the song. But it was, you know, for us, we always, when asking ourselves, what songs should we push next? It's never,

all right, do we need a tempo? Do we need, like, what do they need? You know, we say, like, in kind of the, you know, keeping with the genuine mentality of what is our best song, what are we going to put forward to the fans, what do they deserve? They deserve our absolute best every single time. And we felt like tequila was just an absolute game changer. And we didn't know, I mean, pushing it at that time, I think it was not even, it's not going into like the winter months where it's like, it's right after summer, you know, this was like, we pushed this. We pushed this song and it was like a not probably the ideal song to push about it in everyone's mind and Dan and I really fought for that because we're like man this is this is what we want to put out there

this is what we feel like where Dan and Shay is going where we want to go and it just it reacted in such a big way and after that it was just it was kind of game over we were just like man this is it took us to that place where we were trying to get to and didn't know quite what that looked like because we had some hit songs at that point but that was a that was an absolute turning point in our career. And it was very excited. We could feel it at our shows, too. Like, they sang all of our hits, and we had a great following. It was awesome. But that was the moment that it was just like, you could feel it at the shows. When we play that song, like, you play for the first time it comes in and you're like, oh, this is about to, we're

to bring the heat right now. You know, everybody's excited in the room. And that was kind of the first one that was like, they're about to do, you know, the song. You know, they know what's coming next. And it was really exciting. And still to this day, it's just, I get chills every time before we do that song because it just was such a special point in our career. How do you explain it, Dan? Why did it catch fire the way it did? Why do we all turn up the radio when that song comes on? It was a perfect storm of things. I think obviously Shea's vocal performance was one of the most iconic vocal performances I've ever heard. It's powerful, it's strong, but it's still vulnerable and emotional. And that's really hard to do. I mean,

you can see it when people try to cover that song online. It's a really intricate melody. The intervals are really difficult. Not anybody could sing it. Only this guy could sing it the way he did. think that was like, you know, probably the most important thing. The lead vocal is the most important thing for a song to react and be successful, I think. And just, I don't know, it was a perfect storm of things. We had built, you know, a foundation. We had a core fan base. We had toured like a punk rock band.

We were doing five, six, seven shows a week. Building loyal fans, which I think has been super important to the longevity of our career. And at that point, it was just that song. It was just, I think, the original demo was just a piano and a vocal. It was just a great country song. You know, it told a story. the payoff was right. The melody was catchy. It was singable. And I don't know. It was just one of those things. I look back and try to explain it. And I wish I could because it would be way easier moving

forward to do it again. But man, we really dug in on that. And like Shay said, we had to push back a little bit. You know, it wasn't the obvious choice to be a radio single. It's, you know, there are so many great songs going to radio every day. You want to be competitive. You want to keep the pace up. You don't want a song that stops the radio. But I felt like that song stood out, you know, for whatever reason. And it was dynamic and it was special. And it was authentically Dan and Shea. It was, you know, we weren't trying to be something we weren't. I think it was just the best version of ourselves at that time.

And I think subconsciously we knew that. That's why we fought so hard for it. And I think we knew right away, man, the reaction from the fans was, it was tangible. We got out and played it. I think it was a week after it had been out. And we were playing like a small show in a club. And it was 10 times louder than anything we'd ever heard our fans sing back to us. And we were hitting up our team.

We're like, this could be the one. This is different. And we're so proud of that one. still to this day. Like, every time we play it, there's, you know, you got to have that song. There's still probably people who buy tickets just to hear that song, which is okay. That's how we fill up these rooms. It's only play it last, so they don't leave. I can't leave. Can't leave. You got to wait for tequila.

Very smart. That's a hype moment. I mean, there's nothing like being on stage in front of our fans. We always savor it. I set it up like Dwayne the Rock Johnson and, you know, in the middle of WrestleMania or something. It's like, you have one more song left in you, you know? It's like, you get the crowd super hype, and then we bring the level down. This song is called, people start chanting it a little bit, Tequila. And we just let it, we'll bring it on, man. It's special.

I just got excited thinking about that moment. I also got excited thinking about The Rock, because Dan and I sometimes pull up videos of The Rock when he was doing WWE and just like his speeches. Oh, so much conviction. Oh, yeah. There are literally millions.

And millions are the Rocks fans singing, Rocky, Rock. And I was just like, me and Dan, like, before we got us just like, I'm about to go wreck this show. This is how we try to get in contact with Clay and the Rock Johnson. Every time he has to take. The tequila line. He does.

Yes, he does. Yeah. We've never met him, but we always, like, every time he posts on Instagram, we'll, like, comment, like, hey, we're the tequila guys. Like, you want to send anything? He looked at our pictures, and he was like, yeah, no, I'm okay. I'm good. I'm good. I'm actually all right.

What else we got? Yeah, what else we got? We interviewed him on this show with his tequila so we can maybe make this partnership happen. Let's get you involved. Let's get you involved. I like that you're watching YouTube videos of The Rock before you go out on stage. I'm talking, like, minutes before. It's the most hype thing I've ever heard in my life.

It's amazing. Like if somebody was going through a tough time, like I'd like said up, like, listen, I think I need to share something with you. Like I'm about to share some, like, inspirational thing and it pulls up like the rock. Like heckles triple it. But I guarantee you, if they gave it a shot, then they would absolutely, they'd get through their time. Anything. It can heal most things. It's pretty good.

All right. We're going to make that connection happen. So a lot of people would be lucky to have one of those songs in their careers. You've had a bunch of them. I mean, you've won three Grammys, three years in a row. for tequila and speechless in 10,000 hours. You're just on this run where you have three of those songs that you're talking about, where everybody's singing it back to you.

People hear it on the radio and they sing it. They know every word. There's a karaoke bar somewhere right now in the world. Somebody's singing all those songs right now. Is that a cool thing to know that something you guys sat in a little room together and dreamed up has had that much power in the world? It doesn't feel real. It honestly doesn't feel real.

And I think that is the realization. when you get out on the road, when you, you see these numbers and you see like this song is doing well, until you can actually be in front of those people and feel that energy and feel the actual tangible like they are there, they know the words, and watching the journey and thinking back to that journey of what that look like of writing the songs and being there in the room of just our buddy's house and then doing a demo to recording it, to it becoming a hit on the radio. There's so many things and people that are involved in making that happen is already mind-blowing, but then having that full circle moment where they come out to the shows and they are singing that.

And what blows my mind is it doesn't stop there. Right now, I mean, there's millions of people probably in like the next few states over, whatever. Listen, I really went for there. There's literally millions. There it is. And millions of dead and shape it. And it's, uh, but that blows my mind thinking about just like right now, there's, the chances are pretty high that somewhere our song is being played right now. And someone has a personal connection with that song, which just always kind of blows my mind a little bit.

because you just, it's honestly mind-blowing to think about it. I can't think about it too much all the time because I'm just like, it'll literally explode my brain. And it's just, I'm so thankful to be a part of, you know, so many people's lives. And it's not just, you know, we get to see the stories. And, you know, social media, it's an incredible tool that we have to be able to see more than we ever would. But when we get to sit face to face with someone and they're just like, I use your song in my wedding or just these incredibly touching moments and using these videos of military homecomings and watching these things come to life. and you're just like, that was an idea that was written down in our phone. Like, I cannot believe that these songs have such an impact on people's lives.

And it really reminds me of how universal and how healing music is because you hear all these stories. And we saw it a lot on Glad You Exist, because we had Glad You Exist.com where people could go on there and they could post a picture and, like, share a story of, you know, their loved one, whoever it was, their significant other or their kids or their dog. And it was absolutely just heart and mind bending. I mean, it was just a incredible experience for, I think, for the fans to be able to have an outlet and have a song that they had the words to say and to share with someone. But for us, like, looking at those stories of just being like, we wrote that song just because we really liked it. We wanted to say something to our fans that we were just, it was a phrase that Dan had written down on his phone that he said in his everyday life, like, glad you exist. And when you bring a title like that up in the room, like, glad you exist is not an easy thing to like, yeah, that sounds like the perfect bluebird moment. It's glad you exist.

And so to have moments like that where it's just, it truly is mind-blowing to think that millions and millions of people, you know, even at this very moment are having that experience with our music and connecting with that in such a personal way and have every single person is a, every little, you know, view. You see one view. If you look at that and you're like, man, that's not a lot of views. That's one person. But then you look at the family that that affects. And then that is just a trickle-down effect. And it's just, it's so insane to me that meeting at that house. party was not only the, you know, a changing moment for all of us, but now look what we've

gotten to be a part of because music is so much bigger than all of us. I mean, it goes out of the world and we're not responsible for what it does after that. And it's just every single person has a story and a connection with that. And music, not just our music, but music in general is literally can change the world and bring a smile to people's face. And I think that's a pretty incredible thing. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Dan and Shea right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Dan and Shea.

So did you set out, Dan, to be sort of the romantic song guys? I mean, or did that just happen? Because so many of your hits are classified that way, the ballads that Shea was talking about. Totally. Was that like a thing you had in your mind? Like maybe that's our lane. That's our way in or did it just happen? I don't think it was a conscious effort to become the ballad, love song, wedding song,

kind of guys. I think it's just, those are the songs we grew up listening to and loving from our favorite artists. And I think, you know, we're obviously in love with our wives, Abby and Hannah. And I think whenever we get in the songwriting room, that's the first bit of inspiration that comes to us. And I think those songs, man, they just sometimes just fall out of the sky. A song like from the ground up, you know, was a big wedding song for us on our second album. And, you know, that song we were just hanging out one night. We were recording vocals on another song. And the song, that song was like an up tempo, feel good. The opposite before we were about to write.

We just like got to sharing stories. I'd just gotten back from my grandfather's funeral and my grandparents were married for 65 years. And we're telling that story. And coincidentally, Shea's parents' grandparents were married for over 65 years as well. And we were just talking about that idea of love and, you know, wanting to be with our wives. 65 years is an incredible time to be with somebody. And that song just sort of poured out of us. And I think on the next album, we were both like, I don't know, had we gotten married yet?

Or were we in the process of it? I'll get back with you on that one. I think so. I think so. I think we had gone there. I believe we had. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, I had this title speechless in my phone. I didn't know what it was about. And then it was just like we were talking about. I maybe just got him back from a honeymoon or something. And you're like, man, that moment when we saw our wives. It was on camera and everything. You know, it was like, that moment. It's like, that moment. It's like, that moment. It's like, that moment. It's a big deal. You know, the photographer's like, all right, you're going to look this way and you know, going to turn around at the right moment. But it really was that. It was like, stop me in my tracks. I was speechless. And it was like, we got to write that song. And we did. And we did. And we did. And. And on that one, not to get too side track, but the album was done. This third album, the self-titled album was done. And it was like, speechless just came to us out of the sky like that. And it was like, we got to put this on the album. We sent it to our team. And everybody's like, the album's not done.

9-1-1. Like, we got to record this. So we did like a quick emergency session and recorded that. Wow. The 11th hour and became one of the biggest hits of our career. And man, it's, you know, for us, you can never have too many of those love songs. Too many of those wedding songs. People are always going to be in love.

People are always going to get married. And we've got a song on our new album called You that we're already seeing. It's like it's the same kind of thing. We're seeing people use it for their engagement videos, for their promposals. That's a new thing. It's like, it shows my age. We weren't getting promos. No, we didn't have that either.

Yeah, it's a whole wedding videos. And just to be, you know, have a song be a part of somebody, the most important day of somebody's life is really cool for us, man. So for, we can't have too many of those songs. Every time we get in the room to write, if somebody's like, oh, let's do a wedding song. No, you can't have too many weddings. songs. Wedding bands effectively now just become Dan and Chee cover bands. They just come up and do your whole set, basically.

We actually just played in our friend Bobby Bones. We played it as a wedding. And the wedding man was like, dude, it's so good to meet you guys. We literally play your songs every weekend. Yeah, I'm sure. Wedding songs and Christmas songs. They'll pop up every year. So we try to get as many of those. You've done a few weddings, haven't you? We have done a couple weddings, man. We've got to do some really

cool weddings. We got to sing at Justin Bieber's wedding. Joe Jonas. There's been a few. Really cool moments that we've gotten. gotten to have. But it was, playing weddings are very nerve-wracking. It's honestly one of the most nervous I've ever been. Like, I could go do an arena. I'd be fine. Really? But then you go to a wedding because there's so much weight, like especially you're just doing one song. Yeah. It's kind of like doing, you know, the national anthem. There's so much pressure. You got to remember all the

words because everybody knows the words. And you think you do until you get up there and you're leading these people in the words. And you're like, you have a panic attack, pass out halfway through. But it's just a, it's a very nerve-wracking thing. Because people, like, you have a whole show. It's I guess being a quarterback rather than a kicker. You got like four plays. You got a bunch of opportunities to redeem yourself. That's like a show where it's like if I fall down, which I have numerous times, Willie, it's okay because I'm going to get back up and then by the end they're going to forget about it.

But the wedding, you fall on that song. You're done. You're done. If you mess up the words, you've not only made yourself very embarrassed and everyone looking at you, but you've also ruined that person's day, which is that's a lot of, you know, I'm sure that all of our friends that we played for, they wouldn't put that much pressure on us. But it's definitely a nerve-wracking thing. And I think especially some of the times we got asked, like, there was a couple times that there was the dad had asked, like, said, like, you know, the bride is a big fan, it's my daughter. Will you guys come and surprise me?

We're like, yeah, let's absolutely, let's do this. And I remember one time in particular, like, we were standing outside of the place. And it was kind of our first to do this, like, surprise, we're here. And it was so nerve-wracking because Dan and I had this thought of, like, what if her dad has no one? When was the last time that your dad was, like, really in tune with what you were listening to? Are we 100% sure that she loves Dan and Shea? Because she could have been like, I love this other person. And we walk in, she's got no idea who we are, ruins her day.

She, like, looks at the day. Like, I don't know what to do. Starts crying, runs out of the room. That's what's happening in my mind. Like, right before we wanted to go. Yeah, there you go. Just a case. Yeah, we learned some other ones.

But I really, like, we walked in and she, like, started crying. And I was like, thank God. This could have went. First of all, I was nervous because I was like, she cried because she's excited. Right. And she cried because her day just got ruined. They ruined my wedding day. We are not Scott in the Creery, and she is mad.

But it worked out good. And it is nerve-wracking, but it's a very special thing to be able to get to kind of see that full-circle moment of writing a song, like, speechless about our wives, and being able to be a part of someone else's day is just, it's pretty incredible and very special to be there. So hopefully we'll get to do, if things don't work out, one day we'll have a real career, I think, as a wedding day. Oh, that's locked in for good. They'll go down the list. Dan and Shane, they're probably are. They're down.

Yeah. We can afford them. Let's get you. Okay. Okay, last question before I get you out of the greenhouse. Was there ever any consideration at the beginning of being Shea and Dan rather than Dan and Shea? Dude, it's a great question. I don't know how the name came about.

It was always just like we never set out to be a band. We were just two best friends writing songs. We would walk into a place like a publishing, you know, somewhere that we were trying to get a free meal. Hey, man, you want to take us out for lunch or a beer? Oh, yeah, you've got a company card. Let's go. Dan and Shea here. Dan and Sher here.

Dan and Sher here is. It was just like that was the way it went. But now that I analyze it in reverse, it was like, maybe it was because if it was Shea and Dan, the word and ends with the D and then Dan starts with the D. So there's a little bit of gray area due to Shay and Dan. You've got to like, it's a little more difficult to say. It doesn't roll off the tongue as much, having the D of and the D of Dan back to back. We have a whole chart written out if you really thought about this. You know what I'm saying?

You really dove into this. He's got another checklist. Yeah, he's got another checklist on the other side of that as a reasoning. And also, Shea and Dan just sounds a little silly. I think it's the... See, exactly. You tied the two letters. Shandandah.

You're right. Because Shannon Doa was already a band, and that was too close as well. It's like, Shay and Dan. It just like, did you say Shianna Doha? No, Shia and Dan. They were like, I think you just said, you made up that, is that a made-up word? So Dan and Shay was. It was, everyone just called us Dan and Shay, and it was just kind of went from there.

And also, we had had a couple of band names that were absolutely atrocious that we will not talk about in front of the country, Willie. And there was, I'll say one because it wasn't our idea. My lawyer one time, like early on. we had did this showcase thing, and he wrote down this thing thinking, like, had an aha moment of like, guys, you might want to get over here. Because this is about to be life change to type it on his iPhone. It was kind of a peck situation where, like, he clearly, I mean, it looked like he was writing a 1,000-page document. And he was just writing this thing out, and he has this big reveal, and it kind of does this with the iPad. And we're sitting there, we're like, oh, like, things are about to heat up, dude.

This is like, this is our future. Welcome, you know. And he flips it around, and it says, school's out. And Dan and I, we just should have seen the look at our faces. We didn't know how to have. He was, yeah, so Schools Out did not make the cut. So, I mean, Schools Out sounds like either a really bad pop punk band or a really incredible, you know, some kind of crazy band.

I don't know what it is, but Schools Out did not make the cut. So I don't think we'd be sitting here with you, Willie, if we were called Schools Out. I think you were wise to have him flip that iPad back around. I think it was good. Yeah, yeah. I immediately took it and I was like, why don't you try it? Pretend like we didn't see this. Let's go back five minutes of our lives.

I think you were wise. Dan and Shea, history was made. That's great. Guys, thank you so much for doing this and for coming all the way from Nashville and sitting here with us on a hot summer day. You're the best. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you.

It's a blast. And we'll see you at the garden. Absolutely. That's awesome. Thank you, good for having us. It's great. As I said, after our conversation, we broke off, still about 105 in that room and did a tequila shot. Boy, were they troopers. They said they never turned down that offer. They're asked all the time

and sent all the time free shots because of the song Tequila. And they say that is just a nice perk of the job. My big thanks to Dan and Shea for a great effort for making the trip up to New York from Nashville. Their new album, Good Things, is out now and you can catch them out on tour across the United States this fall. Thanks to all of you for tuning in this week, as always, if you want to here are conversations with all of my guests each and every week. Be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist.

We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.