Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - GRAMMY NOMINEE: Chris Stapleton (October 2023)

Episode Date: February 3, 2024

Chris Stapleton sat down with Willie Geist in Nashville. The two discussed the country superstar’s latest album and his stunning Super Bowl rendition of "The National Anthem." Stapleton is an 8-time Grammy winner and 4-time 2024 Grammy nominee. (Original broadcast date October 29, 2023.) 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. Man, oh man, am I excited to bring you my conversation today with eight-time Grammy winner Chris Stapleton. Full disclosure, I'm a massive fan of Chris's. He and I have gotten together several times for conversations, and I was thrilled that he invited us down to Nashville ahead of the release of his new album called Hire. He brought us into the interstate. as you'll hear where he makes his music. This is a place where his team gets together, the walls lined with guitars and drums and amps and all this cool vintage stuff that he buys when he's out touring and out on the road. It's kind of just where he goes to write with his guys and with his band and then to rehearse and to get ready for tours and do anything related to the music he makes. As I said, he's won eight Grammy Awards. He's won 15 Country Music Association Awards. He's the reigning ACM entertainer of the year. The accolades go on and on.

And you probably know his story that he came to Nashville in 2001 as a songwriter. Successful at that, wrote hits for Luke Bryant, Darius Rucker, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, you name it. And then in 2015, released his own debut solo album called Traveler. It was a huge success, won a couple of Grammy Awards, and he was off and running. So I think you know his story. You may have heard him sing that national anthem at this year's Super Bowl. We get into all of that. Absolutely stunning.

He talks about how nervous he was and gives us a tour of the place where he makes it all happen. So sit back, relax right now. Enjoy my conversation with the great Chris Stapleton right now on the Sunday Sitdown podcast. Chris, it's great to see you, my friend. Yeah, great to see you. Thanks for having us in the inter sanctum here. You're welcome. Thanks for being here.

Is this kind of where some of the ideas are? are cultivated and brewed for new album like hire? Yeah, well, this is where a lot of things happen. We, you know, we kind of moved into this place during the pandemic to make, you know, to do TV spots and try to make, do something. We weren't playing shows. We weren't doing anything else. And it kind of turned into more of a creative space. We would rehearse in here and I'll come in here with some of the guys and we'll write songs in here.

If I'm going to write with somebody, we'll do it probably in here. Yeah, a lot of things happen in here. And it's become very much a staple in the wheel. It's like a playhouse, I imagine, for a musician. You come in here at guitars and drums and whatever else you need. Yeah, it's a candy store a little bit. And it's a place to put all that stuff, you know, and have it out. And, you know, oh, yeah, let's grab that and see what this does.

And then you might find a hit song, just grabbing things off the wall. Well, that's the hope. You know, that's the hope. But also the hope is just that, you know, you get to make the sounds that give the vibrations that make it feel like the right thing, you know. Well, congratulations on hire. You were nice enough to give me an early listen to it. It's just phenomenal. Thank you.

Your fans are going to love it. Your fifth studio album, where were you coming from when you wrote this one? When you sat down and said, it's time for a new one, where were you in that writing process? Well, I mean, there are some new things on there, and there are some things that we wrote in the studio on there. But there's also, you know, like the title track higher is, what year is? It's 22 years old, 23 years old. So, you know, that's something where that song was on the first demo session I ever did when I moved to town as a songwriter. So I wrote that song by myself.

And it's been hanging around ever since. So that's 2001. You've just come to town, your first demo. So that's been sitting there waiting to be something for a couple of decades. How do you decide when to pull that one off the shelf and put it in an album? Well, that one's a pretty high level of difficulty as far as singing goes. And for me, maybe not for somebody else. You're up there, some of those notes.

And I don't know. I think I was probably afraid of it for a long time. And my wife would always obviously push, you know, bring her up. into the mix real quick here, would always push for that song. And she was like, you should try that and I was like, I don't know if I have it right now. I don't know if I have that anymore. Because I wrote it when I was 23, you know, like, and you get to be in your 40s. You're like, oh, maybe I don't have what I used to have.

But I've been working with a really great vocal coach named Rob Stevenson, who has helped me really, you know, not only get back some of the things that I thought I didn't have anymore, but find some other range. That's really nice. So where we cut that song is about at least a step, maybe a step and a half higher than it was when I did the demo. Oh, is that right? Wow.

So it's, it was a little bit of a, you know, like a challenge to myself to try to do it, I think. So, and that one was, you know, a little bit of a battle to give, but we got it. You've got range with this thing that extends your range. Well, it's, yeah, it's, that's me on a good day. White Horse is the hit that's out right now for single off the album. What is that song about exactly? And is it true that when you ran it by Morgan as you do everything,

she was like, I don't know. Well, that song's the reverse of hire. It's like I would bring that one up because I like rock. I like guitar lyrics and stuff. That's how I hear things. I don't think of songs as lyrical things. It takes me so long to hear lyrics in a song. I want to hear all the other stuff first.

I'll listen to everything in a song maybe 10 times before I even hear what somebody's saying. And if all that stuff feels good to me, then I'll start paying attention to what the lyrics are. So I think of songs in the reverse of most maybe songwriters, but maybe people in general, I don't know. But I think those things are important to me more than lyrics are even. But I always like that groove. And Dan Wilson wrote that song. And yeah, I always just want. wanted it, we played it, we used to play it out live a long time ago, pre-traveler.

And it just kind of crept back up. I said, well, maybe we can try it again. And if we hook it, maybe you'll be okay with it. And I think she, she liked it after we got it. I think what I'm hearing so far, Chris, is Morgan gets approval on these songs. Oh, of course. Yeah. Or at least discussion. You know, be like, hey, just let me have this one thing, you know, like, And we do that. Well, she's got good taste. Oh, yeah, great.

And everything but man, that's what I like to say. I don't know. I think she did all right. You're talking about your process of writing a song, which I think is fascinating to people, watching for someone who's had so much success and why it's different and unique in all of music. So when you come in here, you're getting to write some new songs,

an album coming up, how do you start, Chris? Like, the blank page is in front of you. What happens next? Well, there's no one way. And I don't know that we actually wrote anything in here that wound up on the record. Some of the things that we are on the record, we wrote in the moment in the studio. It's like David would say, hey, we need, I want to, I was trying to write like a hillbill at Billy's stairway to heaven or something. And that's how the fire came out.

And it's not anything like a hillbilly stairway to heaven, but it got us to play a different way and start exploring musically a little bit. And then we wrote lyrics in the moment and put that down, and that's what's on the record. So there's some of that. And then there's some of the older songs that have been hanging around for a long time. There's a song like the bottom on there. I did write that one here with Lee Miller, just the two of us. That was more of a traditional Nashville way of co-writing where two guys come into a room at 11 o'clock and sit there until they write a song. And then you take it into a studio and record it.

So there's all the ways that you can do it. And I'm open to all those ways all the time. And I think if you are, you can get a range of things that are, you know, varied and fun for different reasons. Do the lyrics come first for you generally? No. If it's just me alone, I'm strumming and humming, strumming and humming until I'm mumbling something that might sound like a word. I was like, well, what does that sound like, you know, phonetically? And a lot of times I'll have a melody or a guitar lick or something like that.

That would be where I would start most of the time. Or there's other weird times where I've dreamed songs before. I woke up with the chorus in my head. Is that right? Yeah, you know, Parachute was one of those songs. I woke up with that chorus in my head, took it in the writing appointment that day, and we finished it. That's wild. I've heard a couple other artists.

I think Lenny Kravitz says that once in a while. He wakes up in a cold sweat, right down, whatever he was thinking. So that really happens. What does that dream look like? Take Parachute, for example. How does that work? You know, I don't remember the dream. I just woke up with the melody, you know.

So, and I rarely remember any dreams. I don't, I can count on one hand maybe the times I've remembered actual dreams. But, yeah, you always kind of have your antenna up in the air and paying attention. You know, something could happen right now. You know, I could be talking about something. And if it struck me as something that was a song, I'd be like, hold on just a second, humble something in my phone. I want a song writing credit if that happened.

Well, for sure, yeah. I would, I would, if you say something that... We'll talk to my people. Your lyric. Yeah, I'll have my people call your people. We'll find the right cut. We'll do lunch or something. Whatever works.

You don't strike me to someone who does lunch. No, not generally. There's a lot, the beautiful love songs on this album, sung to and about Morgan. It takes a woman is the song that's out right now. Yeah. What did you want to say in that song? What did I want to say? Well, I mean, that, I wrote that with...

My good friend is Jerry Sally and Ronnie Bowman. And Jerry Sally was the first person I ever had a co-write with in Nashville. And Ronnie has been a long-time friend. I wrote things like Nobody to Blaine for Kenny Chastney with Ronnie. And he was in my wedding, you know, things like that. And he's kind of a bluegrass legend, really. And it was a big deal for me to meet him and get to know him because I knew a lot of his music from that world, you know.

And yeah, we. I think, I don't remember where the idea. I think we were all sitting around thinking about our wives, you know, and also trying to do the, you know, there's an old country music songwriter saying of how do you write a song, and the answer is, what do women want to hear? And that's the real answer. And I think that's, you know, but also that's really a tribute to,

you know, Ronnie has a wonderful wife. And we love her so much and I love her. my wife, and we were thinking about them in that moment, you know, and all the good things that they, how they make us better, you know, and that's really what that song probably is. Again, a very old song. That song's probably, it's at least 15 years old, maybe older, at least. So hearing you say that about that song, too,

now I'm wondering, is there like a catalog somewhere in here of songs you can block from? or somewhere? No, I mean, at the publishing company, they have. But you've written a lot of songs that the world hasn't heard yet, is my point. That they may hear down the road. You know, I have a stockpile of things. I really don't have to write any songs if I don't want to, you know, but I do just for fun, but not as much as I used to.

I used to write three and four times a day, three or four songs a day, you know, because that was what I was kind of obsessed with when I moved to town. I thought that was the greatest job in the world and it is. And I got to figure out how to keep it. And that means, you know, law of averages, let's hammer down right. Right. And I would wake up writing songs and I would go to bed, writing songs. You've had a chance to play some of these.

You're out very busy touring out on the road. I got a chance to hear you play a few of them in New York over the summer. Single called Crosswinds about truckers. Great tune. what's been the response from your audience as you introduce a song they've never heard before at these shows? Well, it takes a minute. You know, sometimes, you know, we try not to eat up too much of the show with, here's a song you didn't pay to come here. But, you know, we introduce them slowly and maybe do one or two a show, just partially for our own enjoyment, but also, you know, to test them out on people. And, you know,

the response is generally good. And you know, and you find one great thing about people always, having their phones and recording things, you find that as you go on playing, even before the record comes out, more people are familiar with them because they'll show up on YouTube on an iPhone video or something like that. So, yeah, you don't get things thrown at you for too long.

That's a great song, though. I was telling me before, that's a really powerful song. Thank you. And it's also just a cool song. Yeah. Trucking. You know, it's one of those country music categories that, you know, truck driving song.

It's good. You know, I was thinking about listening to all your songs and how beautifully you write songs, and you sort of don't do the beer trucks and college football, all of which... We just talked about a truck driving song. Well, yes. That's true. That's sort of like a tribute to truck drivers, I would say. Is that a conscious choice, or it's just not the stuff?

I love all three of those things for the record. But sometimes there's a country music formula where you play into that. Sure. And, you know, I've written those songs, but those songs don't necessarily feel like me all the time. I don't really drink beer either. That's the other part. So I'm just like, you know, it seems a little inauthentic if I'm sitting here talking about how much I love beer. I don't. So, sorry beer people. Whiskey guy. Whiskey guy. Yeah. So, yeah, that's the reason for the beer thing most of the time. I mean, I wrote a song for Luke Brian called Drink a Beer. Oh, yeah. But again, and I sang on it with him, but that's more authentic to him than.

it is to me. So, yeah, I try to stick with things that I feel like, I don't know, it's just not, it's just not the vein for me most of the time, you know, and I like trucks. I own a truck, you know, but I don't have to celebrate it all the time. Just things that are authentic to you. I think they're useful. They are. Yeah. But also what I'm kind of saying is you're not, you're not writing to a formula that's going to be a hit. You're just doing your thing and it becomes a hit. Well, hopefully, sometimes. Sometimes not. It's okay if it doesn't because it's still doing the things that we want to do. And I think that's probably the most important thing to me is that we're

doing things, when or lose, musically, that we feel like are authentic to the moment of what we're doing and where we're at. So if we're doing that, I think we're doing things. in the right way. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Chris Stapleton right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Chris Stapleton. When you said Hire was written in 2001 for a demo, and that's the title track on this album,

does that give you a moment of pause to look back at the last 22 years and to think, my gosh, I came to Nashville hoping some of this would maybe happen, and it's so far exceeded my dreams? Is it a marker for you? Not until just now, but yeah. But I just mean having that song out in the world now that you wrote 22 years ago, one of your first efforts. Yeah, well, it's not, I don't think it's quite out in the world yet.

Well, it's about to see. It will be when they say this is. It will be when the same is, okay. Yeah, I think certainly there's always moments to reflect, and I've talked about, I think, I think a lot of times in interviews, how songs, but gain meaning over time or the meanings change over time based on, you know, where you're at in your own life. And we do that as listeners, too, I think, when we listen to music, you were talking about your dad, your, your, and your son play the drums on songs that he knew. And it really, those things can hit us different ways over time. know. And so I don't know exactly how that's going to hit me when I hear it out in the world

or see how people respond to it. I think I'll have different feelings. That's when the songs get meaning to me is when people assign the meaning to them. You know, I can think a song means one thing and I can write it and I can sing it. And then it goes out into the world or you see people singing it back and you see that it means something to them that's probably not what you intended or maybe it's exactly what you intended, but you see it in real time. And that's when those things will start, you know, being, I'll have to reflect on that, I think, at that moment. It's got to be something, though, when a stadium full of people sings any song that you sat in a room and wrote, and they love it so much and it means so much that they know all the words.

It doesn't get old. It's a really humbling and addictive experience. at the same time. You know, when you hear that, it's a buzz, you know, to hear that. Even, you know, I remember the first time I heard somebody, I wasn't even on stage, a crowd full of people singing a song that I wrote with somebody on stage. And that was, I was in the middle of the crowd, you know, just looking around.

People know this thing that I had a hand in, and it's really a unique experience. I think the songwriters and, you know, people who go out and sing the songs get to have. When I was thinking about your journey in Nashville and how far you've come, it was 10 years ago this month. It might have been this week. I don't know that what are you listening to came out. Oh, yeah?

Yeah. October of 2013 as we sit here. It was 10 years ago. And when we came and saw you this summer, you sing that song on stage. Everybody loves it and they're singing it back to you. but I know sort of the history of that song, and you make a joke about it at the show where you say... I do.

I said this song shot straight to number 46. But again, that song maybe didn't do what you hoped it did, or the label hoped it would do, and they didn't put out the album, and now look at you. So that's got to be a nice thing to be able to sing that. Yeah, well, I mean, and there was a lot of stuff around that song,

that's the only song I ever recorded that I didn't play on. So it was a... it was a weird recording for me in that way. And that was, you know, at the request of the producer. And Tony Brown's great producer. I'm not knocking Tony, but that was something that he had to discreet on in a moment. And I don't know. Yeah, it didn't do what anybody wanted to do.

But it also, if it had done something that everybody wanted it to do, we probably wouldn't be sitting here talking about the record that we're talking about. We'd be talking about a different record or talking about nothing. Who knows? And a couple years later, Traveler comes out, and the rest is history. Right. Eight Grammys, entertainer of the year, all the things that have happened for you, including this year, the Super Bowl National Anthem.

That was a good one. It was a great one. What is the level of nervousness going into the Super Bowl anthem? Terrified exponentially beyond belief. But, you know, sometimes I agree. I agreed to do it. I always would kind of shy away. The National Anthra was a hard one.

For any singer, I don't care who you are, on a number of levels, because you can be immortalized for really screwing it up, or you can do a passable, serviceable job, and everybody's like, all right, cool, he got it right. Or, you know, hopefully you get something beyond that.

But just to get through it, if you get through it, There's this, your shoulders drop and you go, okay, I didn't screw any of that up. I don't have to hear about it forever. You know, there's no, I didn't fall down or, you know, it's a lot of eyes on that song and a lot of judgment on that song if you get it wrong. So I might have worked on that more than I worked on anything to do for any television performance ever. But I was very nervous.

I had a sinus infection that day. So I didn't do, I shod away from some things that I might have done as a singer that day. But whoever, well, really the power of that after I watched it, you know, watched it. And I didn't, I don't like to watch things back, but people are like, man, you should really go watch. Go watch it. Whoever, you know, the team at the Super Bowl that did all the edits with the coaches and the, You know, the guys on the ship and the fly. It was a really brilliant bit of editing in my mind that really made it feel maybe more powerful than it would have with just me doing it.

It was really great. That part of it, I think, was moving. Were you aware afterward that the Eagles head coach had tears coming down his face, that Jason Kelsey was choked up and that you had a role in that? Well, I think he had talked about, the coach had talked about listening to Whitney's version over and over in preparation for the moment, like getting pumped up for the game. And I think maybe that was in his mind. I don't know what was in his mind. I just talked to him about it. But yeah, you know, I was aware after people were like, oh, you made, you make people cry.

I was like, okay, good. I'm going to go watch the game. And, you know, I was, there's a lot of coming down off of something like that where you're just like, all right, I did it. I did it. I did that thing. I know you don't watch stuff. There's, they're amazing YouTube videos. There's one where Luke Combs and Joe Rogan watch it together.

And then they get choked up. I don't know if you've seen that. Just watch it. Well, if you're telling me, we'll go watch it. I'll go watch it. It's kind of, it's, it was a beautiful performance. And now the debate is Whitney Stapleton, the best Super Bowl anthem of all times. time. I know you won't weigh in on that. I'll defer. It was amazing. It was really beautiful.

That you've had so much, you know, in the sense, traveler, for so many moments like that. And I know that you have gratitude for all of it. And you're grateful that you get to live in Nashville and write songs and even make music. How have you grappled with that side of it that you are well known and famous and all those things? It seems like you and Morgan keep it. as normal as can be around here? Well, we try to, but we're also sitting in a room full of, you know, instruments. And, you know, we get to do, I'm sitting here talking to you, you know, this is not normal. But, yeah, we try to keep for our family, for sure, try to keep things as normal as we can.

And I don't know. I don't, what's a good way to put this? I don't do this for the fame part. I was never, that's not a thing I like to chase. I'm in it for the music part, mainly, and the fun part, you know. And also, you know, then there's, and we're well beyond that. You know, that's how I make a living. But that's, yeah, that's what I meant it for.

Among the achievements are collaborations with just about anybody you can name in music, the biggest names. Are there people out there that you'd love to do a song with that you'd love to do a song with, that you have not yet done a song with? Oh, sure. I mean, there's, pine the sky stuff like, you know, like hang out with Paul McCartney or something like that,

you know, would be top of the list. There's all these legend guys, you know, and ladies that it's always fun to get to, even just sit in a room with them and let them tell stories and their experiences. You know, those things, I always gravitate to that,

you know, people that were influences and things like that. Yeah. And those things you have less time to do than maybe guys that are younger than me or people that are younger than me. I don't know. I like things that whatever comes up, you know, if it's super weird, most of the time I'm just like, yeah, people won't understand what's going on. Let's do that. That sounds great. Like you enrage against the machine, those kind of.

Yeah, I did something with Morello. Yeah. Yeah. And what a wonderful guy. He is. And when those things come up, I'm like, are you sure that you want to do this? Okay. You're sure that your people will think that that makes sense?

You know, they're like, yeah, let's go. And I'm just like, yeah, okay, let's do it. And just see what happens. Because the beautiful thing about that, when you do things like that that seem so out of character or like opposing forces or something like that, you wind up with something that neither party would have done on their own. Right. You know, and that's cool. Something surprising and original. Yeah.

Yeah. Something that's neither, like neither person would have done by themselves. Question I think I've never asked you or talked to you about is when you first realized you had a, your voice was special or different. Was there a parent or a music teacher or somebody who said, because your voice is so distinctive? Well, my parents always told me I was special and different as any good parent would. You know, but, um, uh, was it early in your life? Was it when you got to Nashville? What did people say, hmm, there's something different about him? I, I always sang. So that was always like one of, one of my things that I would do.

So it never occurred to me that to not do it or that it wasn't a part of, I don't know. And then I think at some point, people only made me regard to this special or something when you start to have some kind of notoriety with it. Otherwise, you're a dude that sings. You know, like, there's lots of people that can sing, you know. I don't know anybody who sings like you. In other words, the way that voice comes out of that beard is different. I think that that maybe takes, even when I moved to town, if you listen to things from when I moved to town, I'm not the same singer. You know, I spent a lot of time trying to be other people, you know, like I love Vince Gill.

I've tried so hard to be Vince Gill and sound like Vince Gill. There's lots of recordings, demo recordings of me, like wishing I was Vince Gill or, you know. But I'm not, I'm not any of those people. And eventually, you hopefully, through all those influences and also focusing on what it is that you do, you find out what that is. And then you put that out there. And if that's something special that people think is special, that's great.

And they do. Yeah. They do. Well, I appreciate it. It's great to see you, man. I think we might walk around. around a little bit? Sure, yeah.

See some of your gear if that's all right? Yeah. Stick around for more of my conversation with Chris Stapleton right after a quick break. Welcome back. After our sit down, Chris and I hopped up and he gave us a tour of that amazing space where he makes his music. Well, we'll start with the chair. This is the chair that I've sat in for every record that we've made, but it was in my

parents' little kitchenette when the seat used to be yellow vinyl, and then my mother recovered. in maybe the 90s to what it is now. But I always have carried this chair with me. It moved to town with this chair. And so I sit in this chair anytime I'm making records, and I'm sitting down. Sometimes I'm standing up. But if I'm sitting down in a creative capacity, this is the chair.

What's the significance of it to you? It's a comfortable chair. That's where it ends. That's the main part as I get older. But it, you know, I like to have little things with you that you carry with you through time. And I think those things, much like I like the old studios, RCAA and places like that, I think those things inform what we do in ways that maybe you can't completely understand. But if you have those little bits with you, while you're doing it, whether it's a thing or a mentality or whatever it is, I think that's good.

I think that's a good thing. So that's familiar. It's home. It's familiar. It's home. Yeah. It feels comfortable. And so this is the rehearsal space?

This is where we've pretty much got this set up as we would set up on a stage dimensionally. Normally there'd be a microphone here and things like that. But this is how we would be set up on a stage. We'd have a table in this general, you know, that amps kind of sitting out there just because it's sitting out there. But I'm sure for camera purposes. But yeah, this is what we would have on a stage. And so we're set up like we would be on a stage. you'd be standing in exactly spatially what you would be standing in if you were on our stage at show.

And so that's how we operate even when we're creating things. We kind of stand this way and keep the groove going that way. You know what I love on stage two when you perform, you and Morgan sort of cheat your mic stands to each other a little bit, right? Well, I cheat. The reason I'm cheated is partially so she can see me. Right. But also, I like to have one ear to the drums and the backline. So I've always cheated that direction,

much to the dismay of the people who have to watch me from this side. So I try to, you know, do that kind of stuff for them every now and then. But I like to, you know, I'll have this ear to the monitors and this ear to the backline. And that's very much what I'm doing when I'm turning this direction. And it also gives her a point of reference for, you know, singing harmony and things like that. if she can see me. Now, she doesn't need that as much as I need those, you know, spatial things. She could put her microphone over there and she would be fine.

It's also, I mean, as somebody who watches when you're singing a song with harmony and it's a ballad or something like that, it's nice to have you too sort of connected in that way. Sure, and that's what I also hope for. You know, I like for people to feel like they're watching, watching us play. not like we're playing at them. Does that make sense? Yeah. I don't like to pander to see the audience too much,

although part of that is required. But mainly I'm looking to get the swirl of whatever the music is happening in here, and then the audience gets to watch that. And I think that translates, hopefully. That's what I feel like doing most of the time. Has your performance on stage changed much over the years? No, we set up exactly the same on a, giant stage in a stadium, especially as we would if we were in the tiniest club in America.

You know, the dimensions are the same. I stand in the same spot. The same place that we played when we were playing a club that held 200 people is the same place that I stand when we do the other thing. So, and that was something that came from, you know, he just passed away. But my buddy, Mike Henderson, he was like, that's the way to do it. And that's the way you don't get freaked out by a giant stage. He's like, just set up like you're doing your normal thing. Right.

And you'll be fine. Right. You're home. You know the landscape. Yeah. Just step into it, whether it's Nissan Stadium or station in. Doesn't matter. Same thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Now, there might be times on a smallness day that you might have to tighten it up. But for the most part, we would stand exactly like this. And if we could have it, the room to do it, this is how we would stand anywhere. Love that. So some of these guitars have, produced some of your biggest songs, have they not?

Some of them. A lot of that stuff is on the road right now, because I carry the things that I play on the records on the road most of the time. There's a good story about this guitar. This was the guitar that was supposed to play the national anthem because, you know, it has American flagstuffer on it. And I picked this up at that shop that I won't tell the name of where they have nice mojo stuff.

And so I was really excited to play. play this guitar because I think it looks incredible. It's a 68 telecaster thin line. And so I went to plug it in, you know, at the Super Bowl, and there were so many broadcast signals going through the air interacting with the old electronics that it was just this whee! And so I was like, oh, no, I don't get to play this. I had, I played, what I played on the thing was a backup of a new, it was a new fender

that I, telecaster that was a reissue of a 70s. I had brought us a backup just in case something happened. And so that became the main guitar because it didn't have as much noise. Wow. And you just discovered that day of? Did that throw you at all? Well, there's no way to know. Yeah.

There's no way to know until you get into that situation with that many. Because there's more signal flying around on that day than we would have in a stadium or anything like that. It's like you didn't need one other thing to worry about on that day. And then you lose your guitar. Well, you know, it's disappointing, but it's not an impassant. mountain. Yeah. It's a beautiful guitar. Yeah. So it'll get a job someday. It was, it was, it was, it was up to play quarterback and, you know, towards ACL. Didn't get to play in the Super Bowl. This is an, this is a copy of an,

well, this is the amp that we built for Fender, but I made these in green one year and gave them to openers as a gift. So we do stuff like that. Very cool. Very cool. And that's the actual one that we, uh, did a reissue of a 62 for instance. the Fender was kind enough. I went to Fender and it was kind of like, because I was using these old amps on the road, which is terrifying sometimes, you know, because it's, you know,

you're using a 60-year-old thing on stage. And so I went to Fender, I said, hey, could you build me one of these just to have? And they're like, well, can we sell them? I was like, sure, you can sell them. I just need the thing. So, but it's turned out to be a really good thing for them and for me. I get to have new versions of it all the time.

Yeah. And I think they've sold some. and I wind up with a lot of buddies wind up using them in the studio. And they've found new ways to get used other than how I use them. So I think it's a good thing that we did about bringing it back. They've never reissued that amp. That's really cool. And those will be on stage with you?

They're on stage with you all the time. I usually have two of them. These are other things that experimental things. This is an old drum machine from I guess the 70s. I think Sline to Family Stone you should use these. Not this one, but based a lot of their. kind of feels off of this drum machine. I think that would need some service right now.

Treasure trove. Yeah, it's just all kinds of, this is fun stuff. I could get lost in this all day. This is a guitar that we reissued with the iPhone. It's a U.S. built. There's a guitar. A frontier was another guitar that they hadn't made in a long time. Particularly this is like a U.S. made, and it gets them factory one.

So, I don't know. It was fun. I like to kind of revive things that I'd say. thick or cool. You're bringing back a lot of cool stuff. Yeah. I don't know. You remember the first time you picked up a guitar, Chris?

First time I picked up a guitar. The first time I remember, there's a picture of me somewhere, and I've got the picture somewhere of me in RCA Studio B on a tour here in Nashville. And they used to have the instruments in there. And picking up, I'm holding a telecaster sitting in a chair. And that's the first known memory I have of. of picking up a guitar. I have the telly that I play on stage now.

It looks very much like that guitar, which is funny to me. I didn't realize that until I... And when was that? That picture, you figure. It was probably six or seven. Okay. So, 84, 85.

Yeah. Somewhere in there. Something like that. And then a few years later, you're making records in there, you know? Yeah. Well, I make them an A. B is the little one that you take aure of.

Okay. Yeah. B is the one that, you know, know, it's kind of a famous Elvis place and things like that. A, you couldn't take a tour of. I'd never been in A until we walked in the first day to record Travelers. That's cool. Full circle, man.

That's a Walkins Dominator back there. That's a, oh, my gosh. You know what that is? Yeah. This is on Whitehorse, but this is what Marshalls are based off of, basically. So when's that from, you figure? Here's a huge pedal. Oh, there they got.

This petal just one thing. And this is all from your picking on the road? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Or just, you know, unfortunately, getting on reverb or eBay or things like that. Those things are the devil. Oh, yeah. But also awesome.

At least you've got a place to put it all, right? Yeah. That's very cool, man. Here's what kind of drums you guys. What kind of drums? Ludwick. Yeah, we got a little. Lovewoods. We've got probably some Rogers back here, George.

Mainly Lovewoods. I sent some of the Rogers to New Mexico, I think. That's a 50s WFL kid up there. Oh, man. The green one. That's beautiful. It's like a museum, man. You know? He's got some 70s.

Mesa Bovieve up there. That'd be like Santana back in the day. Yeah, yeah. There's a 70s theme here, is there, man. 60s and 70s. That's where a lot of the good stuff happened, you know, gear-wise. And 50s. There's a lot of good 50s stuff, too. I don't know.

Yeah, anything I think's cool, I'm going to grab it. Yeah. You know, and hope that it leaves to something. Right. Just mess with it. I hope that my accountant doesn't call me going, hey, what are you doing, man? Stop it. Stay out of other shops in Oklahoma City.

I'll tell myself it's a business expense over and over, more than an addiction. Oh, man. That was fun. Thank you, man. My big thanks again to Chris for a great conversation. You can hear his latest album, Higher, beginning on November 10th, wherever you get your music. And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with my guests every week,

be sure to click Follow 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.