The Bobby Bones Show - BONUS EPISODE: Ryan Hurd Interview

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Bobby had Ryan Hurd stop by the studio to discuss his journey from song writing to becoming a performer. They talked about the difference in being an opener versus the headliner, the fatigue of a tour, life and behind the scenes on a tour bus, and much more!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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you're opening for Sam Hunt this past weekend. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What's the difference for you as far as your mindset before you go on stage, if you're like the main support act or if it's your show? Oh, it's so much easier to open these days.

It's just a different feel. Even if it's 2,000 people at your own show, like, or 1,000 people or whatever, or less than that sometimes. me, but they're there for you. So it's just a different, a little bit of a different mindset, but there's also like no pressure. I don't get nervous. It's the shorter set. It's usually 45 minutes. So that's like, by the time I'm kind of bored, it's like, all right, it's over. And you go hang out. And Sam has always been cool to us. I toured with, we toured with him

on the 15 and a 30 tour when Marin was on it. And so we know the camp. And the next night I went and we did Summerfest in Milwaukee for the first time. And TR was the head. headliner that night. So I got to see Sam and Thomas this last weekend. So that was really cool. But it's just a little bit of a different mindset, but there's also less pressure and I don't get very nervous at all or anything. You're in a cool place where you can absolutely go headline your own shows and you have a ton of songs and people are very passionate about you. But you're also, you can make pretty decent chunk of change being main support for another artist. And like you said, play it. I was talking to Dan and Shake is open for Kenny right now. And they're like, it's awesome.

Yeah. Like we could go out. We don't have to, you know, take all our equipment. Go out and just have fun. Yeah, it's a different, it's nice to switch it up, like switch your days up too because at some point you want to headline all the time and you want to play late in the day at festivals. But it's also nice to be done at like 8.30 and you don't have anything else to do. Like, all right, I'll just like watch the show or drink a beer or go to bed.

So I think everybody enjoys the change of pace. When do you get tired? meaning in a year, is there a season and you start to go? Because for me, we know we start in January doing the radio show. And if I take out all the other stuff, the TV, the traveling, but just the radio show alone, about June, I start to get fatigued for the first time. Is there a touring fatigue? And when does it usually hit?

So I'll preface the answer by saying we basically took two years off. Like we did shows during COVID times, but not like a tour. So those were pretty easy to just kind of come in and out of. So we started second week of January this year. And I think that once you start, you're just going to be tired the whole year. I mean, you do shows and you ride buses and you get it. Like, it's really fun, but there's not a whole lot of rest in it. So the way that I kind of manage my time is if I touch an airplane or a bus, that's a work day.

Even if it's like I'm leaving at 9 o'clock at night or getting home at like 7 a.m. On the bus drops off, drops me off at my house. That's a work day. So Sunday, to me, is not a day off. I usually have to take another day off in the week just so I can have like some time to my, to just be a human, hang out with my kid or whatever. But usually Sundays were just worthless people. Like we both get home, get dropped off.

And then you just kind of like look at, look, I look at Mary and she looks at me. Like, let's take a nap. because you just, no matter how you do it, it's exhausting. The travel just wears you out. Josh Thompson used to say this thing, and I'm sure he didn't come up with it, but he said, you don't pay me for the show. The show is free. You pay me for getting there and getting back.

Like, that's the part that's work. So we really are blessed to both get to do it. We have like this weird, like, I don't know, we just have an understanding about where we both need to be. And we're really blessed. be making a living on the road, but it is exhausting no matter how you do it. It's, it'll wear you out all year. I think there's a romantic thought of being on a bus. And listen, I, I've, you know, done little tours in cars and vans, and that really stinks. And a bus is much better than that.

But even when you're sleeping on a bus, you're driving overnight. And I never, because I'm, and we, I have a big, what they call the star bunk in the back. Like, you know, I have my own little room. but you're never really comfortable because the bus is always moving or hitting the thing on the side of the road. You're just never, you never just totally safe feeling. You're always like, knock on wood, let's make it tonight. So I sleep better in a bunk. I don't know. I mean, we have every kind of bus you could imagine out between the two of us.

And I still, I sleep in a bunk because I. You like to be confined like that? Is that more comfortable? For whatever reason, I just, those crew buses ride smoother to me. and I just that's what I like. So we have on, you know, Marin's bus has a star coach in the back and we have our own like apartment back there.

But it just feels like we bounce more on it. So I like the bunk for when I'm just out with myself. But hey, that bus, I'll never, ever speak poorly of touring on a bus because it saves you. It really does. Like getting home at 7 a.m. getting to have a whole day with your kid, have like half a weekend almost on Sunday.

For us, is usually what it is, is pretty special and important. And, uh, you know, I do remember the one time where I was like, I can make a lot more money if I just like suck it up and drive the van. And Marin's like,

no more van. Like we, you, you need to be home. Yeah, your quality of life is terrible. Right. So that was like five years ago.

And I just remember her being the one that made that decision. And it was a good decision. It was like a family decision. Like whatever, even if you like, don't make as much money. It's good to get home. The thing about the bus,

and we'll get off this, but I think that I learned early on was, first of all, we had to run on it. It was like five grand a weekend. And I was like, I was like, what? Yeah.

You cannot get in that deal anymore either. Because they're so hard to get now. So before pandemic, I pay like five grand a weekend. And, you know, that comes out of the money that you're making. And you're like, wow. And then you got to pay,

if you drive over eight hours, you've got to take an extra bus driver. And most of the trips are over eight hours. So we have to put two drivers and that takes an extra bunk and you're trying to fit everybody in. And what also is you don't really drive in the daytime because you don't want to be awake while you're moving. No. You know, for the most part, you know, if the bus would leave, we leave at 11, midnight, 1 o'clock. Your goal is to get on the bus and sleep.

Yes. That's the, when the bus is moving, you want to be asleep. Exactly. And so when you see people on a tour, we're like, man, it must be so cool. The goal is to be asleep on the tour bus. Yes. It's good to have when you're awake, but it's to be asleep on the bus. It's definitely a tool.

and it's part of it and it's really important and it is fun. Don't let anybody tell you that being on the bus isn't fun. It's blast. But it's what you dream about when you're 14 years old is like living on a tour bus. I'm serious. Every day I get up on that thing, I'm like, gosh, I really wish I was home, but this is pretty sweet.

Yes. But you're right. It's like there's little things about it that I think. And it's really fun showing people. Like whenever you go, I go everywhere I go, my day starts at 3 o'clock when I go to 11 and in my own like sound checks at three and then I'm on. We have radio and then we have friends and we have meet and greet and we have,

but every day someone's like, hey, can you meet my friend? And I love doing that stuff. So you, and then like whoever you got there too, like I'll always have guests out too. And I love having them up on the bus because they're just like looking around and everybody wants to know like what's on the inside of it. Yeah. And mostly it's bananas and protein bars for us. Yeah. And we got like, you know, if anyone wants a beer, you can have a beer.

Eddie's the only one has beer on our bus. But don't get out of hand either. Because we're all working. So keep it between the navigational beacons, as Alan Jackson would say. The Bobby Bone Show is proud to be supported by Grand Canyon University, an affordable, private, nonprofit Christian University based in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. They say higher education is outdated, irrelevant. Well, GCU doesn't settle for the status quo.

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I have a question because you come to Nashville and you have always been an artist, but your path started as far as your commercial success as a songwriter. So it's a very interesting journey from a songwriter to a performer. What's it like looking back at that career journey now? I still think of myself as a writer. And I know Randy Goodman hates it when I say that. at my record label president. He hates when I say I think of myself as a writer,

but that's where everything starts for me. So I love getting to do both things. I talk about my career as a pair of shoes. Like I have a right foot writing songs for myself and other people. And then the left foot is being an artist and singing them and traveling and touring. And I can't really imagine doing this without both. And someday I'll probably have to back one of them down. But while they're both working, it's really fun to get an opportunity to,

to still write for people like Jordan Davis and Marin and Lady A. Like those people are my friends and it's so natural to write songs with them still and I still have that opportunity to get on their records. And I feel like I still have a lot to offer as a songwriter for other people. And then at the other, we just talked about it. And then I get to get on a tour bus on Wednesday night and go play my songs for a bunch of people who know them and that's a dream come true. So, you know, I do.

both things and I still get to and I don't really, I don't have to make a choice yet and maybe someday I will, but for me, it's like that journey is sort of like I've gotten to do everything and I still get to do everything and I'm really enjoying that. And the great thing about a bus is you can actually ride on a bus if you want to. Sure. It's hard to do that in a van. Yeah, I was out with Thomas this weekend. We played Summerfest on the same night and so we wrote a song. It was great. So we, it's always fun to see your buddies on the road and it's always, you know, I've also, I've also, Also, as an artist, my music has been the best marketing tool for me. So I put out an album and, like, you know, Cole Swindell and I became buddies because he liked

to a T and I liked breakup in the end. We talked about it on Twitter and then all of a sudden we were writing songs together. And I don't think I've ever had a cold cut, maybe someday, but that's... I've had a few cold cuts, pad. That's a good example of, like... Oh, a cold cut. There's a cold cut. Cold cuts.

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to have some cold cuts. But that's a good example of, like, my artist thing, opening doors as a writer. Do you ever think about what it would be like if you went down a different road in your life, as in maybe not an artist or a musician? And were you ever close to that? I, as soon as, like, halfway through college, I was, so I went to Belmont and everyone who goes to Belmont, a lot of, most people who moved to Nashville to go to Belmont.

Belmont do music, one way or another, music business. But I went and saw everybody doing these music programs, either the business side or the performance side or something that had to do with music. And I was like, they're all going to zig, I'm going to zag. So I went and did sociology and econ and got a degree and was going to go to grad school. And then about halfway through, I kind of found out what a songwriter in Nashville was. so I kind of put all of my eggs in that basket and started writing country songs and so I guess like I would have gone to graduate school and maybe done something else but I've never really had to I think the cool part about music is like most of us don't have a plan B and so I don't know I always say like what you say I'd be the left fielder for the Cubs no I wouldn't but But, like, I liked sports growing up, and I liked music growing up, but this is the only job I've ever wanted since I was 11 years old.

So, I don't know, man. Maybe when I was a kid, my dad used to work in advertising, and I always thought, like, hey, if nothing else, I can go do something like with my dad, either at the company he's working for. And at one time, he had an advertising agency. Like, maybe I'll go do something like that, but it never really came to that. So it's mostly like thinking about what I'm going to do after all this is over because your window doesn't last forever. I mean, for some people it does, but like being realistic about my own life. I hope that we have a whole lot more success. But at the end of the day, like you're only given what you're given.

And so I'm trying to really enjoy this part of my life. And then you also in the back of your mind are like, okay, what happens when I'm old and nobody cares about my songs anymore? It happens to everybody. It happens to everybody. That's more what I'm sad. That's more what I think about. We're all going to die. Oh, man, what a sad.

Yeah, but you can be, you can do this until you're done. Like, for me, it's like, what happens when I'm 40? And like, a lot of people are 40. I can do this only if I get higher ratings. Me too. Yeah, I'm true. Me too. Your road to Vegas in the IHeart Radio music festival has been a unique one.

How does it feel playing this awesome festival? I'm just thrilled to be invited. I looked at the bill the other day. I just couldn't believe that my name was next to everybody else's. I mean, obviously, it's been a dream come true to have my songs on the radio. That's every single time somebody plays your song, whether I wrote it or whether I sing it. And that's a, every time it's a dream come true because I grew up listening to country radio. So to get an opportunity to go to a festival like this for the people that have supported you and made your dreams come true is a massive deal for me.

And to get to play it on the same day as Marin is really. fun. We always love doing that. And it's a busy day, but it's going to be a lot of fun. There he is. Ryan heard. Ryan, good to talk to you, buddy. Let's go. Get your Bobby bones on. Bobby Bow. Air Tasker handles your never-ending to-do list.

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