The Dale Jr. Download - 545 - Luke Combs: Self-Funded Singer To Stadium Headliner

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is joined by country music star and fellow North Carolina native Luke Combs this week on the Dale Jr. Download. On the heels of releasing his latest album “Gettin’ Old” in 2023, Luke connects with Dale via video chat in the midst of a long-running stadium tour. The two chat about Luke growing up in Huntersville, N.C., and realize that they lived about 20 minutes apart for some time. Luke also talks about his family’s decision to move to Asheville, N.C., and attending Appalachian State University, where he changed majors a couple of times and found work as a bouncer at a local bar. It was during these years that Luke found inspiration to pick up a guitar his parents had given him in the seventh grade and learn to play, a decision that would put him on a trajectory to country music stardom.Luke explains that his entry into live music and the recording industry was humble. After learning a handful of songs, he asked the owner of a local bar he frequented if he could perform, to which he easily obliged. He also found a local studio to record at and self-released his first couple of EPs, helping to build a grassroots following. When his single “Hurricane” found its way to the top of the country charts on iTunes, Luke brought in enough money to stay in pursuit of his music goals a little longer, and soon after, he made the move to Nashville. While there, participating in songwriting sessions with like-minded musicians, Luke began to take meetings with record labels, eventually finding a home with Sony. Through the strength of a string of successful records and No. 1 hit singles, Luke quickly rose from being an opening act to headlining one of the best-selling tours in country music history.   Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. We got a great guest for you today. Luke Colmes is going to call in and we're going to do an interview and I can't wait to do this. I've known Luke for a while and have a lot that I want to know more about. So let's get started. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Everybody is Dale Jr. Back again.

Hey, everybody's Joe Jr. Doug. Luke Colmes. You had a chance to meet Willie Nelson? I ended up at Willie's house, and it made me wish that I would have taken your dad's route. All right, so we're in the Bojangles studio for this week's ally guest segment with Luke Colmes. And for a limited time, from now to June 9th, you can get a sausage-bowberry biscuit.

That's a new offering on the menu at Bojangles. You can get this for free using the promo code Dale Jr., D-A-L-E-J-R. When you place an order on the Bojangles app or on Bojangles.com, D-A-L-E-J-R is the promo code free sausage, Bowberry Biscuit ordering on the app or online for a limited time. That sounds amazing. I wish I had one right here in front of me. But let's get right to it, man.

want to thank Ally for this guest segment. They bring us a lot of great guests every single week, and this is the same type of stuff. A great ally in Luke Combs. Luke and I, you know, from North Carolina, both really proud of where we're from, and I appreciate that about him. And that really was the one thing that kind of made me want to listen to his music, was like, this guy's from my home state, and it's something that he's proud of, and I, too, feel the same way. about North Carolina and my hometown and all of that growing up there. And so, you know, I started listening to his music more, became a fan like millions and millions of other people across the world.

But he's just a normal guy. You know, he definitely is aware of his fan base and the music that he's creating and the quality of music he's creating. He's very confident in his own abilities, but he's super approachable, super easy to talk to. And I want to learn not so much about what's happened in the last five years, but really how his childhood was and how he was introduced to music

and how he learned to play music and the route that he took to fame. Because I think we're going to find it to be pretty interesting and unique. And there's no direct path to becoming a megastar in the country music world. So let's get a start. Let's bring Luke on in. All right. So here we are on Zoom. This isn't really Zoom, but we're going to call it Zoom. And Luke Holmes, man. Great opportunity to sit down and interview you, man. We've crossed past a couple times in our lives. Yes.

And so I wanted to say thanks for giving us some time today. Oh, man. Gosh, thanks for having me. Yeah. Yeah. So where are you? I am in my manager's office, actually, is where I am. currently. Is that in Nashville? It is. Yeah, it's in Nashville. Yeah. What's this week look like? What's you doing? This week. Um, well, obviously yesterday was Memorial Day. Um, what did you do? Uh, nothing. Got in the pool. All right. Got in the pool. Hang out with the kids. Made some hot dogs. You know, this kind of the standard standard stuff, you know, which was awesome. That's exactly what

I wanted it to be. Um, obviously today I'm, I'm doing this and got some other content stuff going on. And this weekend I go to Phoenix, play two shows in Phoenix. Right on? So you're touring, and you've been, seems like you've been touring for years now. But how much time between shows do you have? What's a break? What's a normal break? Because when I see some of these tours and there's not any time off,

it's one show after another day after day. There might be a day off here and there for the team. It really depends on the tour, right? I mean, this year is really awesome for us. We do two shows in the same city every weekend. So you're looking at, I'll usually go out there Thursday morning. We do our sound checks on Thursdays. And then play the show Friday, Saturday, go home Sunday.

So usually Sunday afternoon I'm home, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I'm home. And then I'm off again on Thursday morning. So really like three and a half days off, you know, four days off a week, which is, I mean, more than you could ask for for sure. You're living the life of a 2004 NASCAR driver. That's pretty much the schedule for what we were doing back in the day before they got rid of practice. All right. So you are, you're from Huntersville, North Carolina. You're born in Huntersville, right?

And you spent most of your childhood, I would say, in Asheville. Yeah, but I mean, I lived in Huntersville until I was eight. So, I mean, a good portion of it was there. I mean, as far as, you know, as far as, like, remembering a lot about Huntersville, I do. But, you know, really four to, like, what do you really remember, four to eight? What was Huntersville like for you as a child? Oh, gosh, man, it was awesome. I loved living there.

You know, it was a lot smaller than it is now. Yeah, where were you? Like, literally, where were you? We were right by the railroad tracks, like, just past, like, the old, like, historic downtown Huntersville. Yeah. The old downtown, we were just maybe a mile past that, like, literally right beside the railroad tracks. So if I get off on 77, what exit am I getting off of? 23.

Okay, okay. Yeah, damn dude. All right. Yeah. We were like 20 minutes from each other. Yeah, not far for sure. All those years. Yeah.

Not far for sure. Yeah. What did you move to Asheville for? What was going on? Well, my parents, you know, my parents wanted to move there. And I mean, this would have been 98, I guess. We moved. And at that time, they were just, they felt like Charlotte was getting too big for them for their liking,

which is funny to say that now considering I mean Huntersville feels like it's in downtown now when I go back you know but back then it was still relatively small but compared to you know my mom grew up there her whole life you know so my mom's like from there live there her whole life so from what she grew up knowing Charlotte Huntersville area

as to where it was in 98 was a drastic difference even for her so you know they always love the mountains They always went. My parents always went on vacations there. They loved to camp and do outdoor stuff. So I think that was just a good place for them. You know, they both were able to find really good, really good jobs there. And so, yeah, man, they took the leap, and we moved there in 98.

Do you remember having any kind of an opinion about it? I remember just being like, well, I mean, I remember being like, well, you know, I mean, it was not great because I had, you know, I had a good group of friends. Even at that time, you know, especially being an only child, that was really important. You know, like my friends were like my brothers, right? Like I didn't have any, I didn't have anyone else at home. So when we moved, it was like starting over in some ways. However, my parents made sure that when they bought a house, one of my best friends in the whole world,

who I had known since I was born, he was the same age as me. and his parents and my parents were really close. They actually lived a mile from where we moved in Asheville. And so we ended up going to elementary school together. So I had like one built-in best friend. So that made it like a whole lot better. I'm having to just meet like completely new folks. But it turned out, turned out really good.

When your parents would buy you a guitar when you were in the seventh grade, but what other things did? did you occupy your time with? Like, I played video games. Yep. I wasn't, I played little soccer. I wasn't in the sports too much. But, yeah, I had my friends on my street I played with.

Sure. Shoot BB guns and all that stuff. But a lot of that. What were you doing? I mean, a lot of that, we lived in like an old, like kind of an old, like maybe 70s type. Not really a neighborhood, not like a, not like a, you know, it didn't have like a name. It was like a named neighborhood. But this kind of hill that we lived on had probably, I don't know.

30 some odd houses back in there. So it was like that neighborhood feel. You know, we could run way off the main road and stuff. So we rode bikes around and played flashlight tag just like anybody else. But a lot of video games for me too. N64 was kind of the one that I really remember. Like the predominant part of my childhood was dominated by it. It was around that time.

So a lot of that. How do you play flashlight tag? I mean, it sounds. I can imagine what you. It's only, so essentially we would go around the entire neighborhood and, you know, 9, 10 o'clock at night, and we would hide, there was one guy that was looking for everybody. And it would be, I mean, it was like, looking back now,

it's like you would, I don't know how we got away with doing that, to be honest. Yeah, sounds fun. Because we're just running through, you know, all kind of people's properties. Yes. I'm sure they were like, who's this person with a flashlight running through my yard at 10-30 at night. We did that when we got older with night vision goggles. Yeah, see, we didn't have any. We get on.

No MVGs here. We get on, I had all this property that I still live on in North Carolina. We had all these dirt, these trails through the woods, and we get on golf carts and go hunting for each other on golf carts with night vision goggles. That sounds incredible. Yeah, it was fun. So when you get this guitar, the seventh. grade. I got to ask you about this, learning how to play the guitar, and this is a process for you, but I have a guitar, and I got that guitar buddy. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah, and I was messing with it.

And I'm telling you, man, like, I'm going to be 50 this year, so shit's sailed for me, but I badly all my life have wanted to learn how to play the guitar, even just in a rudimentary sense, just be able to kind of play a little bit. And it's a bit intimidating. And so I want to know what learning how to play the guitar was like for you, because you kind of left it and came back to it. And so what does that even mean? Like so when you get this guitar and they put it in your hands and you're like,

I don't know how the hell, you know, how do you teach yourself to play guitar? Yeah, it felt like, you know, I think I was in seventh grade when my parents got me this guitar, right? So I was probably, what are you, 12? Yeah. There's something, somewhere around that age. So, man, they got it for me, and I think it was for Christmas and didn't really know what to think. You know, I had never really expressed interest in like, oh, I want a guitar or it was like a bigger idea, right?

Yeah. They put me in guitar lessons that year, that next year. And man, it was just not for me, dude. I did not want to, I did not want to be doing that. I did not want to be in guitar lessons. Because it was like, right, I remember it's like, it's something your parents want you to do. Yeah. So like when you're that age, you know, you're 12 going on 13.

Like, the last thing you want to do is what your parents want you to do. How did you, how did you take to the physical aspect of playing it though? Like getting, figuring out how to use your fingers. And, I mean, it's tricky. It is. I mean, that came, that all came later. man you know it's like when i would take these lessons and stuff it was like well if you do this and then you come back next week you'll have practiced and i mean i didn't practice you weren't doing

it no i wasn't really i wasn't applying myself at all yeah i loved to sing and i think that's why my parents got me that guitar because they figured you know one plus one equals two kind of thing i think was there thinking on that um but man it just felt like something i wasn't interested in and so I really didn't put anything anything into it. But once I decided that I wanted to learn, which would be, you know, with eight or nine years after that, you know, I'm 21 years old at that time, I still had that guitar in the closet in my parents' house, hadn't been touched and God knows how long, you know. And it was in horrible shape.

I mean, not from like, you know, it wasn't like broken or anything, but just years of sitting there and have never been played. never being taken care of really in any real sense. And it wasn't a really high dollar guitar anyway. So it was already going to, you know, be tougher to play than others. But I didn't even realize how difficult it was to play until I played someone else's guitar. That didn't happen for a year and a half or two years, you know?

So I really learned on this like brood. I mean, the strings, if you know anything's by guitars, you know, the strings are, you know, this far off the fretboard, right? Like not far. Mine were like probably like that. But I didn't even, I wasn't even aware. It was not good, right? So I think learning on that guitar really helped me develop my finger strength even more

because I had to really, had to really get after it to be able to play those chords. And it worked and it was fine for what I needed at the time. But yeah, it was, it became something I wanted to do, right? Like it was never, there was no drudgery in the process because it was, I mean, there was a lot of frustration. Sure. But it was still like I was bound and determined to learn this thing. And I don't really know why. You know, it was just, I finally was like, man, I understand this. I get this. You know, so I'm really appreciative, you know, to my parents for getting me that guitar those years ago. It was like they knew something that I didn't know. When did you get to where

you were at the point where you felt comfortable playing in front of other people? Probably. It was probably, it was probably, it was probably, probably quick by normal terms. But for me, I had been, I had been, like, singing in front of people forever at that point. So, like, that was never,

and I had a lot of confidence in my ability to sing. So I was never worried, like I almost felt like I could use my voice as a distraction away from my guitar playing, right? It was really just like, no one's, and so to this day, no one's ever going to come to one of my concerts

to hear me and play guitar. You know what I mean? I guess, I can play some guitar and I can write songs. I can play good enough to write my own songs and figure stuff out. But that's kind of it, you know. Yeah. In guitar terms, I'm still a really bad player.

But I can get by. I can do enough. That's wild. And that's all I wanted to do. You know, it was really to be able to write my own stuff, accompany myself, and that was really important early on. It's not, you know, I've got a seven-piece band of guys that are all infinitely more musically talented than I am, especially instrumentally speaking.

Yeah. And so it's not as much of a necessity now as it was then. But that was why I was learning this because, man, I want to be able to perform for people and sing for people like I used to. You know, there is no chorus class when you're 22 years old. You know what I mean? Yeah. There was no other way I felt for me to keep singing, which was something.

that I really love to do other than learning how to play, right? Like, everyone wants to hear the guy that plays guitar, sing and play guitar, but nobody wants to hear the guy sing that doesn't play guitar. Yeah. You can't go to a party, and there's a bunch of girls there and just sing. That's what, you know, that doesn't work. You got to play guitar, you know.

You decided, which is, this is something you're absolutely hugely proud of, but you ended up going to Appalachian State. What, what, so, you know, this is, this is, fun because this is Luke Cohns before he's a big star. Sure. You're going to App State. What's your degree going to be? What are you going to do?

Gosh, it depends on the year. You know, it's like. Yeah. When I got there, I think it was, you know, it was like business or something, which would just felt like the safe. Yeah. Whatever, you know, like at that time, it was like, who cares what I'm doing? You know, I'm up here to have a good time, you know.

It really was like on a. important for me at that time. So I did business for a year and then I actually transferred to criminal justice. So I really wanted to be like a detective, like a homicide detective is what I really wanted to do. But that ended up not working out. You know, really the thing that held me back a lot was I loved all my focused classes, right? Like my criminal justice classes, I love that. I was really interested in all that stuff. But like math, science, like all the required classes, like your freshman year maths and your sophomore year sciences and all that stuff. I just had no interest in any of that stuff.

And so that was what really held me back was I love to learn stuff, but I only seem to want to learn stuff that I want to learn, which was a big problem in school for me. You know, because there was a lot of stuff that was uninteresting to me or I felt like wouldn't be useful to me. you know, which I know now is probably a poor outlook in some ways, but that was the way that I was. You know, and I can't change that now. And I'm still that way in some ways. So that was what really held me back in school was the classes that I felt like were unimportant to what I wanted to do. Or like, why do I need to take, you know, two different chemistry classes to, you know, to go into law enforcement? You know what, you know, like what?

you know, what is that? Why is that? So that was really my beef with, with college in some way. And also, man, I had, I was really focused on having a good time, too. Yeah. You think you'll ever go back finish? I'd love to, honestly, at some point, I've looked into it. Yeah. You know, we've reached out to them and they're definitely willing, willing to let me do that. And it's something I would love to do. But it's something I want to do, you know, when I have time, when my career is not as busy as it is now. Sure, sure, yeah. I do know, though, man, like you're a massive App State fame.

I am. Like, you know, even though you didn't, you haven't finished your degree yet, I think you'll go back and get it all done. Yeah, I'd love to, man. Because it really does, like, it bugs me a lot, to be completely honest with you. Just because I feel like it was this achievement that I wanted to achieve really bad at the time, and I didn't apply myself like I should have. of. That's been a big thing in my life in a lot of different avenues, I feel like.

You know, there's a lot of things that I wish I would have done or I wish I would have tried harder at. Those would be some of my biggest regrets. You know, I feel like I let myself down in that category from time to time. And so, yeah, there's a lot of those, you know, you know, stones left unturned that I kind of would like to go back and get in a lot of. another hack at, you know. Yeah, well, it takes, you know, talking about your, your love for App State and North Carolina, I mean, I want to learn, I want to know more about that. So, you know, you've got a lot, you're very proud of where you're from and

representing the state of North Carolina and your roots. I love that. We, you know, North Carolina, there's a lot happening in the state, a lot of great things going on in this state. Yeah. but we rarely have stars in either sport or entertainment that are from North Carolina, right? That are always reping us. So you're one of those people that make a bunch of people like myself from North Carolina happy when you go out there and talk about it.

So talk about that for a minute, just your appreciation and love for your roots and where you're from geographically and how you weave that into what you do every day. Yeah, you know, I mean, I had such a great experience growing up there. You know, I had, you know, all my, you know, a lot of my favorite memories of my life are made there, right? I spent every second of my life there until I was probably 20, gosh, I don't know, two or three, you know, like, I mean, obviously we went to Myrtle Beach or whatever, you know, we didn't, I had never even been on a plane until I was 25. So that whole You know that state of North Carolina You know especially You know, App State

You know, I grew up in the mountains And then I went to school in the mountains And you know, those that I feel connected to that That place in some way I feel like that in some way is a part of A part of who I am And you know I feel

In some ways the most like myself When I'm there You know I just I do miss that I do miss that place, you know, just the, I mean, it sounds corny to say, but like just the air, the smell of the air in, you know, in Boone or, you know, you get out in the woods somewhere in the mountains, it just feels different to me. Yeah.

And I just feel connected to it. So I am very proud of being from there. And, you know, I'd love to, I'd love to have a place there one day when there's time, you know, when there's time for that. You know, we got two, you know, two, my oldest son's not even two yet. So we are in the thick of it. It's a stadium tour and diaper tour. It's like, it's full-blown. Yeah.

When you were, I want to talk about that, your family in a bit, but I wanted to know when you were going to at-state, you worked as a bar bouncer. Yep. what in hell kind of experiences must you have had as a bar bouncer and I'm surprised

there aren't any really good stories out there of hey man yeah loop through me out one night I'm sure there's some they probably just don't remember it was me to be honest but they really remember much from some of the folks that I encountered at that time you know i was lucky that uh you know boon uh people and people enjoyed their um people enjoyed

their their smoke as much as they did their drink there um i think that's probably a pretty known thing um but so i think most most people were pretty gentle there um you know as far as when people were going out to have a good time there wasn't too many people looking to looking to have a fight you know every once in a while there was what was the name of the bar it was town tavern so they're still they have gosh i think three or four locations now but at that time that was the first one and it had just opened i mean it was brand new and like you know when there's a new bar and boon it's a big deal there ain't ain't a lot of bars up there so anytime a new one opens man it's crowded and they got great food the environment was great

The location was great. It was walking distance to campus. So it was a popping spot. It was popular. But it wasn't very big. So a lot of the issues that we would have at that time were not really people inside the bar. It was the 50 or 60 people waiting to get in the bar that are already drunk or whatever. You know, they're waiting to get in.

And, you know, I can only let as people leave, you know, I can let two people in. or, you know, so that was more of the issue for me was, you know, just making sure people could make it inside was as much as the problem is almost more so than getting them out, you know, at that time, because it was such a new place, you know, my first night that I worked was Halloween. So that was first time bouncing, busiest, you know, one of the busiest bar nights of the year, especially in a college town. So it was wacky, man, and it's cold and Boone too, man.

Yes, freezing outside. You know, from, you know, you start working at 8 o'clock, you know, or 7 o'clock, and it's, you know, bar shuts down at 2. That's a long night standing outside dealing with drunk people. Yeah. So how long did you bounce? I'd say probably at least a year, year and a half, for sure. What makes a good bouncer? Man, I think avoiding trouble, to be honest.

You know what I mean? I think, you know, being able to, uh, I think being able to, uh, I think being. able to talk people out instead of throwing people out is is the the most important skill to be honest i mean if you got to get in some kind of physical altercation every night you know if you're in a hundred fights you're you're going to lose a couple of them for sure yeah but if you're in no fights you're not going to lose you did you get in fights ever i wouldn't say fights man yeah just kind of wrestling but it's yeah it's more like you know it's it's more like grabbing people and making sure they get out like let's say man people were generally pretty calm you know yeah

And it wasn't a biker bar or anything like that. You know, so it was mostly harmless college kids, you know. So you played at the same bar eventually. Yep. Was that? And were you bouncing and playing there ever at the same time? I think there was a small window of crossover for sure. So people started to, you know, had started to like, you know, obviously there wasn't a lot of bouncers at this place.

It wasn't very big. There was really two of us, maybe three at most ever. So two of us would be working at a time at the first. front and there was three guys that rotated in that. So if you went to that bar, you know, twice a week, you would, you would go to run into me one of those nights at least. So, you know, and like I said, it wasn't a huge place. So people kind of, you know, they stand outside for an hour and, you know, they remember you on campus. You know, they're like, oh, that's the guy that, you know, stands outside the bar or whatever. So that helped in some ways. So how do you start playing?

Like how do you, what is the first, you know, first gig you played and how do you get, how do you start to create these opportunities to be able to play in this bar? Yeah. You know, at that time, I was, I was really learning, you know, I was teaching myself guitar at that time. Quietly, you know, just in my apartment, whatever. You know, I wasn't, I wouldn't say I was a well-known figure on, on campus or anything. You know, I wasn't, you know, I went to, I went. out and had a great time and stuff, but I had no way was I, like, you know, some super popular guy or anything like that.

Yeah. It was really just, you know, I hung out. I played rugby for a couple of years there. Rugby? Yeah, I played rugby there for. Damn. About three years. That was a really good time.

I enjoyed. Like, wait. I had a lot of friends, you know. Was there, you were on the school's rugby team? Well, yeah, I mean, it's not like a scholarship type deal. I got you. But, yeah. And so I enjoyed that.

a whole bunch man I really enjoyed that and some of my best friends that's rough yeah it was fun dude I loved it though man it was so fun you know I'll tell you what man a lot less injuries in rugby than football yeah because when you're not wearing pads you're a lot more

cautious about what you're doing to your body sure yeah you know what I mean like when you don't have a helmet on and you got to tackle someone you're a little bit less reckless than when you do have a helmet on because you understand that like the chances of hurting yourself are a lot higher than hurting somebody else. So,

so there's a lot less injuries in that, at least head injuries and stuff. I mean, obviously, you know, people tear ACLs and stuff like that just as much as they do in any other sport. But man, I had such a good time doing that. It was so much fun. And so I had buddies that, you know, a good

group of friends that I had been doing that with for a year. You know, there's probably 30, 40, some of guys. You know, we had two sides, so an eighth side and a B side. And so, you know, 30. some odd, 40 some odd guys that were kind of doing that consistently together. And we were all pretty close net. We spent a lot of time together. So I would, we had a bar that we hung out at a lot that at the time was called Parthenon Cafe. It's not, it's no longer there. There's still a bar.

There's a new restaurant bar. I think it's a Mexican place in that, in that same, same building. But actually the bar I worked at, the bar I was working at, I asked my boss, Justin, I was like, hey, man, you know, I've been learning to play and stuff and can I play a show here? And he was like, well, he's like, we're in the least, we're not supposed to have live music because there's apartments upstairs. Yeah. And so I said, well, I live upstairs. And I know everybody else that lives upstairs. There's only seven apartments up there.

So I know everybody that lives up there. And if I played, we would all be downstairs. And he's like, well, he's like, well, I don't want to like, he's like, it's too much of a risk. because if I lose my lease, you know, I'm like screwed. You know, like if I lose my lease, then like my, I go out of business, you know,

and so I could understand that. I got respect for that. I was bummed out, of course, for sure, because I wanted to play. And so I was hanging with some of my, my teammates at Parthenon. And the owner of Parthenon was awesome. He was a total wild card.

Just kind of whatever, just whatever happens he was down with, you know. And so I asked him, the next week or whatever. I was like, hey man, can I play like a gig here? You know? And he was like, yeah, whatever. He's like, go over to the calendar and just pick, put it on there. Like that was how my first show happened, you know? I wish it was that easy to book shows the rest of the time after that. But so I went over and picked a date out. And it was, he was like, oh, we'll just do a dollar cover. Whatever, you know, I give you some free beers and that'll be

it, you know, so I wasn't going to get paid anything other than people coming. And so my buddy Adam, he let me borrow his guitar. Or no, my neighbor actually let me borrow his guitar. And Adam let me borrow his little speaker set up that he had. And so I made 200 bucks, man, like 200 and some people came to see my first show. People that I knew, friends of friends kind of thing. You know, it was just like, hey, I'm going to just be playing country covers, whatever. And it was fun, dude.

loved it. I had so much fun. And I used that show. I went back to the bar that I was working at. And I said, hey, I had this show across the street. I mean, it's right. I mean, it couldn't be a quarter mile from each other. If that. I mean, if there wasn't buildings in between, you could see the bars. You know, they were that close. Yeah. And I said, hey, man, I played a show over here. And I made, you know, 200 people came out to this show. And I said, I could either continue to do that over there or I could do that over here, you know, kind of up to you. And so Justin was like, well, yeah, man, what the hell? Let's do it. Do you remember that first show? Oh, yeah, for sure. So what song did you play that you knew you were like, this is going to get them going? To the hit? What was the hit?

Crew, man. Cruz was the, that was the song, dude. That was, like at that time, it was like, that was the song. It was like, that wagon wheel, dude. And that was before. the Darius version. Because, you know, Old Crow, they got discovered on the streets of Boone, right? Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So people actually, people loved them there. So they were really popular. And that song was already, like, wildly popular, too. So, you rock that one. You rock and Cruz. I'm trying to think what, you know, a lot of Luke Bryan stuff was going on then.

You know, he was killing it. That huge album that he, his, you know, his biggest album he ever put out came out that same year. So all that stuff was massive. Al Dean stuff was huge at that time. So that's got to be interesting, man, for you. That makes me think about this. So you see these guys now, right? And you're kind of on their level.

And you're on your run to this, you know, megastardom, however far it goes, right? And now you cross past with these guys and you covered their songs, you know, a handful of years ago. Right. Does that conversation ever happen? Do you ever go, hey, man, I used to play bars and do it and cover your song? I don't know if we ever talked about it. I just kind of assumed that it was understood, I think. A known thing?

I mean, I don't think they did the same thing. I don't think that anybody that's come up has ever not. Not covered, right? You've been doing, I mean, it's been a lot of their time doing covers, you know. Yeah. If you started out gigging the way that I started out gigging and the way that other guys gigged, I mean, you know, it's different now, I think, you know, with social. media and stuff, like people don't have to go out in gig as much as they did to get to get deals,

right? Yeah. I mean, obviously, I was helped tremendously by social media as well. But for me, the answer was always playing shows, right? Like, nobody's going to see a picture of me and go, man, I got to go see that guy. You know what I mean? Like, I had to get people in. Like, if I can get somebody in the door, I know I can make them want to come back, you know?

And that was always, for me, playing shows was always the way of doing that. You said that you felt like you weren't received well of the music industry early on because you didn't look like the typical country music star. And you just mentioned just now like you needed to get them in the room in the tent, right? And so, but now, I mean, I've got a couple, I've got a friend of mine who also doesn't look like the conventional country music star that's trying to get some traction. And you're sort of opening up this whole new, you know, avenue for, for, you know, musicians that want to make it in the business. You know, how, you know, how did you, you know, how did you finally kind of get some traction?

How did you, you know, I know, I know you got people in the room and you use social media, but what was the one thing where you went, oh, hell yeah, that worked? I'm going to keep doing this. what was the magic, I guess, to get people to plug into your music? I think it was just, you know, I think for me it was always, I just wanted to write songs that I felt like I loved and that I enjoyed, you know, in songs that I would want to listen to, you know, that was the ticket for me. It was always, it's always started with, well, how do we do,

how do we get the best songs out there, the best music, right? Like, I think, you know, back in the 90s era, like, people didn't tour as much either because they sold some of CDs, right? Like, yeah. So at that time, it feels like the music industry was more. Touring was almost a way to promote your album in some ways. And now it feels like it's the reverse. Like, you make albums so that people want to come see your shows. And I think it really is.

that I think that's where it starts right like people find a song that they love or a song that they you know a song that they can relate to or that they hold on to and you have an opportunity especially in today's climate you know if you can make your song go viral on you know tick talk or whatever it may be you will people will come see you because they're interested in well man I really like that song so let's see if let's see if this you know this person this guy or girl or band or whatever has more to offer. You know, they go, oh, man, I love that. I love that song.

So I'd love to go see the show and see what else is going on there. So you really do have an opportunity to more than ever now make a career if you want to, kind of regardless of, you know, your looks or the way that you're interpreted visually. You know, I think, and with the power of social media, you know, if you're watching, you know, if there's a million different things coming up with the same song on it, you're like, what is this song? Why is everybody like this song? I'm interested in this song now.

So you have a chance to put on some shows and go do that, but you got to have, you know, your show's got to be killer. Yeah. Like if they come to the show and they hear the song and then they're like, well, man, that was kind of brutal. Like, they're not, how are you going to come back? You know what I mean? You get kind of one shot to make your first impression,

at least in a live show setting for me. So did you ever have a show though? You were like, damn, that sucked or, you know, if I blew that. I'm sure there was a million of them that I was like, man, I think the crowd was really into that, you know. But none that really stick out to me. Really? Yeah. It was more like gear issues that would stick out more than anything.

Like, well, I'm lugging my own speakers in and then one of them blows out. And I got one speaker and I've only played 20 minutes and I still got to play two and a half hours. hours on one speaker and people are like turn the damn music up turn the yeah and I'm like there's nothing I can do you know yeah I'm kind of I kind of stuck so that was yeah that was tough for sure I went and saw the red clay strays in Charleston about a month ago and they had an issue like the late they were up on stage getting ready to play and there's something going on with an audio issue on one of their right one of their amps or something and so the

lead singer just broke out and in a sung Acapella, I think, for like five minutes, sung some old country song, man. But I was sitting there thinking, they're freaking out, right? Oh, yeah. They're freaking out. We're in the audience going, yeah, they'll fix it. They'll be fine. We'll drink another beer.

You know, right there up on stage thinking that they're having the worst moment in their lives up there. Yeah, that everyone's like, we're about to leave if we don't. Yes. We're like, we're not leaving. This is going to be great. You'll fix it. I can get fixed in five minutes. I'm out of here.

And I don't want to repeat it, too, you know what I mean? Yeah. But yeah, it can be wild, man. Those, especially early on when you don't have like anyone help, you know? Yeah. If there's an issue now, I mean, even at someone the Red Clay Strays level, like they've got a team of people in place. At least a few crew guys that are helping them sort through those problems while they're happening. But, dude, when it's just you in the bar, man, there's like, there is nobody to help, dude.

Like you are the sound guy. You're the, you know, you're the setting up. the mic stands and they're running the cables and your guitar string breaks you got to stop playing and change it and it's like i mean it's that's breaking strings to me was always the most stressful early on because i'm like well man it's going to take now i got to change this string up here on stage in front of a bunch of drunk people that really want me to play right now and there really is that that i'm not playing right now and that was always like you always felt like it was like looming there was always this looming like

well come on to fix the guitar you know like what's going on why aren't you play because a lot of people if you only play guitar you don't even know that guitar strings break yeah you know what I mean it's like having a flat tire on a race car and having to get out and change it yourself you know what it's like it's it would be a pretty tough situation for sure with the NASCAR season well underway it seems like the new die cast releases from lionel racing just keep on coming you got chase elliott's universe throwback that's the throwback to my victory in the 2014 Daytona 500. Their late model diecast built on Lionel's brand new tool that we were begging them to

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It's that easy. And for the latest die-cast content, don't forget to follow Lionel Racing on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok. Let's move on to your decision to go to Nashville. I think about all of my life, right? You're looking up at entertainers, watching movies and TV shows. shows and comedians and all that stuff. And all of them eventually, like, want to move out to L.A. They're going to move out to L.A. to try to F.

and make it. Right. And I imagine as a musician and a country musician, especially moving to Nashville's very similar, similar sort of challenge, everybody in Nashville wants to be, you know, you're just assuming, right, that everybody in Nashville is wanting to be a musician, wanting there's going to be a thousand loop combs move to Nashville every week right right and so what was motivating you to make that decision to go to Nashville where was the confidence coming from that you were going to make it work um I think it is a mixture of things right

like I had played so many shows by this point and I'm going okay I know I can do this like i know i can play shows i know people like shows i know i can make a living doing music for sure like i already knew that at this time what is a living you know paying rent having food yeah you know having beer money you know at that time that's what it was and i were doing great you know i was like pay my own rent i don't have to borrow any money from anybody you know i was driving the same car i drove in high school so i don't have a car payment you know i don't have many expenses other than electricity and cable and water and

apartment and insurance. I mean you know so things were great right. There's no kids. There's no anything right. So making a living for me that's all everyone wanted to do is whatever my you know my living situation was or would become that was to support that and be comfortable whatever that looks like

you know I don't I didn't need to live live in, you know, some penthouse, you know, apartment somewhere. You know, it's like, I'm fine where I'm at. You know, I'm cool with this. I'm happy. I think being happy and being fed and they having, you know, clothes and stuff. You know, that was always it, right? Yeah.

You know, there was never anything beyond that growing up. So I had no expectations of needing anything better than that. Yeah. And so that was making it, you know, in my opinion. So really when I moved to Nashville, I didn't feel like there was any pressure to be anything better more than I already was. Because in my mind, I had already made it. Right. Like I'm already doing something that I love to do.

I'm having fun while I'm doing it. I'm good at it. And I'm happy. Right. So I felt like maybe you moved to Nashville and get a publishing deal to be a songwriter. whatever like anything beyond what I was already doing is just extra stuff there was never like man if i don't do this or this i'm going to be unhappy like i just i felt like i had already figured out the cheat code to life at that point by just being happy doing what i was doing and and making

you know enough money to get by and you know i mean that was really it that was there was no I couldn't be let down in some sense of the word because I knew worse comes to worse, you know, I can move back to North Carolina and play shows here for ever if I have to. Yeah. Whether that's just at bars or whatever, like I can do that and I'll be super happy doing that, you know. So I think that helped a lot.

You know, it helped a lot. Like there was no timeline. There was no pressure because I was. had some of my own music out. I had saved up a bunch of money at that point. So like I moved to Nashville. I don't have to get, you know, I don't have to go get another bouncing job or working at a restaurant. Like, I had made enough money, been smart enough to save enough to be, be able to live there for a year, year and a half and not playing any shows or whatever. And I would be fine. I would be able to survive. Yeah. So I just wanted to go out there and give it a shot,

you know and see if you know am i you know am i i feel like i'm good am i good enough to be better than this i don't know so i really gave myself the opportunity to go to town and just give myself an opportunity to to see what i the way i stacked up against everyone else that was doing the same thing so there's a lot of i'm not i don't know about this but there's i i'm kind of getting the idea that there's a lot of avenues to take there in nashville to be successful to your point to make a living right you got you know people on Broadway that are playing gigs at those bars regularly yep and they make good they make good money there then you have people that are coming in through record

deals that are on you know they're not down on Broadway they're they're making they may have one though I mean there's so many options like there is no straight line from A to B right What was your route? My route was come to town. And like I said, I had money, right? So I had money that I had saved up from playing gigs. And selling, you know, the couple of songs I had recorded previously.

And so there was no, I was like, I just need to, I can come here and just focus on music for a year and a half. You know, figure it out from there. You know, in a year and a half, I'm going to have to figure something out. Like, how am I going to get some income coming? Because there is no, there is no gigs like there was. North Carolina in Nashville. You can't just walk up, you can't just go down to the bar and say, hey, man, I'd like to play. I mean, you can, right?

But then it becomes, then I'm doing, you know, in my opinion, in my route, I would have been doing what I was already doing in some way. You know what I mean? And like at that time, playing with my band back in North Carolina, like I had got to the point where we were making some like, you know, a couple thousand bucks a night type situation. for the right gig. So that's not going to happen on Broadway, you know. And so I said, well, man, I feel like I've already done my version of Broadway was in college, you know, like book and shows in North Carolina, traveling around.

And I was spoiled because I said, well, why would I go down on a Broadway and make $100 if I didn't go in North Carolina and make $400 to do a thing? And play less. and people actually would maybe listen to songs that I wrote if I was in North Carolina. So I really wanted to focus on writing songs and writing my own songs and having my own material. Where do you go to write? I mean, I would really write anywhere at that time. I mean, there's no publishing deal. There's no anything.

Who are you writing with? I'm writing with people I meet in town, right? So there's, you know, at that time, you know, songwriters nights were a huge thing at that. What is that? So it's like, you know, you'd go, there's a few nights. I mean, there's one, I'm sure there's a multiple every night in Nashville. But at that time, you know, there's three or four that had a really great reputation for, you know, established riders, young and up-and-coming riders, people with no prior, you know, kind of exposure or connections. Like where all those people would go to listen to each other, it's almost like the, I don't, I don't,

have really a racing comparison, but it's the racing version of what we're going to the dirt track. You never, you could see Dale Jr. in his prime might be racing at the damn dirt track. Okay. You don't. So, so you go there and fast. Right. Where, what does this place look like? Is it a bar or did a restaurant? Like what does it look like? It depends on the night of the week. I mean, there's three or four at my time. So at my time there was whiskey jam. You know, that was Monday nights and obviously Rikajam is so much bigger than it was then. Yeah. You know, it's

so much bigger now than it was then. It was really just kind of a writer's night at that time. What is it even happening though? Like you walk in the room, sit down and people are just like getting in groups right now. No, it's like it's not, there's no writing taking place. It's people playing songs they've

written. Okay. Yeah, and so usually in a bar setting. It's usually right. So you hop up there. Hey, I wrote this I want to get you go up there, play it, and you come off. Some of, maybe like you say, some of the more established people, maybe the guys in the room. Yeah, it's like you never know who would be in there, right?

So it is a bar. They might. There's some small amount of Vanderbilt college students there. They might, but you're hoping to get notes. You're hoping that somebody hears you and go, and it's not necessarily, hey, son, I work at Sony Records and you're in a record deal. It's not really that. Right. For me, it was more meeting other like-minded people who write songs.

And getting together and writing songs together. And then we begin writing songs together in the future. That was the goal at that time. And then after I met enough of those folks, you know, that I felt like I wrote good with that I got along with that I was friends with, it just goes from there. And then, you know, over the course of the next two years, like all of a sudden one of us would get a publishing deal. And then... What does that mean? So then you're essentially, you get paid. like a, they called a draw.

The term would be a salary. Essentially a salary that you have to pay back, which is a super weird thing. The whole publishing one is wild, but that's a whole other hour podcast to get into. But you essentially get a salary that you,

if you write a hit, you pay back, right? You're writing a song somebody else might hit. Yeah, you're hoping so. And you're writing five times a week, maybe more. Have you wrote a song? that someone else took and made a hit out of yeah how many number one times I

number ones I think probably one I think the one song that somebody else did that was a number one and so let me ask you this so like I've talked to some of your friends and about this a little bit and there's some people that enter in the circle that we know that right yeah and have wrote some songs. They also are trying to like have their own music career, right? As musicians and singers, but so when you know, like you believe in yourself, like I can freaking do this. I know I can do this. But right now I'm going to write this song that somebody else is going to take and do what I want to do with it. Sure. How do you just, how do you justify that in your mind?

I think, well, again, there's a few other, there's a few other pathways, right? So like, I think, in my opinion, some of the best guitar players in the world will never step on a stage because, one, they might not want to. Two, all the guys that are my guitar techs on tour are incredible guitar players. Are easily good enough to play guitar

in a band, in a stadium for almost anybody in the world if they want to. But some guys don't want to do that. You know, some guys are really great songwriters. And, you know, one of my best buddies, Jonathan Singleton, he produces my records for me. It's one of my favorite writers ever. He's an insane singer, insane guitar player, insane producer. Dude, he had a deal, did the artist thing, and he's like, it's just not for me, dude.

Like, he's got kids, he's got a wife. Like, he loves being at home. He loves hunting. He loves being in town. He loves, you know, going to his studio and, or going to our public. company that we own together and writing songs with our writers that we have and trying to make other people successful is like what's fulfilling to him so yeah you know just being talented at music and just being a great songwriter or just being a great singer it doesn't always mean that you're

gonna want to do the artist thing sure and for me there was being an artist was never like this is the only thing i want to do i got you again like i just wanted to be to whatever avenue that that would, you know, whatever avenue I stumbled upon would have been enough for me. I got you. You know, you write songs five days a week with people that I love and try to get artists to cut those songs would be amazing to me. You know what I mean? It may not, you know, unless you reach that A plus plus level of songwriter, it wouldn't be

as monetarily beneficial as what I do now is. But again, it was never about the pursuit of like wealth. or like money. Like it was just, it's all about like, how do I be happy? Right? So like, I think Jonathan's situation is one of those where he's found what makes him happy in the music business and there's so many avenues that aren't, I'm the guy singing the song on the radio.

Yeah. So many opportunities to be successful and enjoy what you do doing music and you don't have to be the artist. So how do you get to the point of where you're going to make, you're going to cut your first EP? Yeah. I mean, that happened in college, though, right? Yeah.

I had done that before I moved to Nashville. Like, you know, I found a little studio I could kind of rent out and go to and, you know, pay X amount to have some studio players in there and bring my songs in. We cut them. And then I released them kind of on my own. Yes. I used a service called TuneCore where you can service your own songs to those digital platforms. You know, this is pre-streaming. So this is iTunes, store, you know, those kind of.

the Amazon music, Google Play Store, or you would actually go physically buy a song for a dollar. You couldn't just admit, you know. So you would go, you went in, you make the record, you pay for the record. And then a year later, you got another one you're going to make. Yep. Like you're banking all that, you have all these songs you've written,

you've banked all this stuff and you're like, I'm going to just keep pushing out albums. Because that was really my big source of income, you know, because I had, you know, not a ton of, but I had 60, 70,000 followers on Vine. So if I put some songs out, you get, you know, a couple thousand of those people to buy it. You know, that's a couple thousand bucks that I can make

and continue to pursue music, you know, and continue to write songs without being paid to do so. Yeah. Right? So Hurricane is kind of the first single. Yep. That got outside of your bubble. Yeah.

Yes. You saw your, is that the first song you saw on the charts? Yeah, that was my first single. That was my first single. Are you, are you, are you, when you like, I don't know how you would access billboard at this point. But like when somebody did you go, hey man, did you look and see it and go, holy shit, you know. I think, I think at that time, the success for me was, so when Hurricane originally came out, you know, I still didn't really, I didn't have a deal. really or anything. So I had put it out on my own accord. And then at that level of my career, the thing was like, well, how many, like, where will it sit on the iTunes, like sales chart?

Yeah. And like the country genre. Like that was kind of the bar at that time. That was. Yeah. And so, you know, it got up real high there. And so, you know, I knew people were buying it and people enjoyed it. And that was really great. Because for me, I was pumped that people loved it. but I was more so pumped like, okay, well, now I've bought myself more time to, like, continue to chase my dream and continue to try to get better and continue to try to refine my skills and give myself an opportunity to do, you know, to do this without having to focus on anything else. But money was real tight at that time, like you spent.

Yeah. I guess you spent your last 200 bucks to master that attack hurricane. It was. Yeah, that was really, like I said, I had reached kind of the end of my savings to be able to be there. And, you know, so I was really excited for that reason because I continued to, I could, now I could go out and keep making music and trying to chase my dream, whatever that looked like, you know. You signed a deal with Sony. How do you, do you know that's coming? Are you hearing some, like, rumblings or is that like a, you know, out of the blue phone call?

Well, I took a bunch. You know, I had a team. By the time that all comes to be, you know, there was finally a team in place. This is, gosh, I mean, a couple of years after, you know, a year, at least a year, a year and a half after a hurricane comes about. You know, I have a team, kind of a small team in place at that point. And so we went and met with, I don't know, maybe four, four different labels that were all interested. Really? Yeah.

And so you kind of was like, I was kind of prepared for it at that time. So I got you. I kind of had, you know, my choice, my choice of the labels, almost all of them at that point. And so I was really able to kind of negotiate a great deal and figure out where I fit in the best at. And yeah, that ended up being Sony and I'm still there. So it worked out. Yeah.

Why did you want to, what was it about Sony that was, you know, what were the things, the boxes they checked that made you want to go there? I think, you know, it was funny. I had had a meeting with their A&R staff. maybe a year before that and it was like it was just me i went in there by myself two different folks um and they were like man you know we'll we'll let you know call you back kind of thing and um you know there's a lot of those meetings in nashville i call it i call it the nashville no is the it's never a no it's the hey man we'll be in time you know what i mean it's like yeah that's the oh yeah that might as well be no right oh yeah and so it was really

You know, when we had those four meetings all within a week of each other, when we went and did the Sony meeting, which would have ultimately been my second meeting, they had the entire label was at this meeting. Like everybody that worked at this entire label pretty much was at this meeting. My other meeting had been, you know, one or two folks and, well, play us a song and grade. You know, I already had my first record was already done at that point. So, you know, I already had a product that was ready to go. and when we went in with Sony it was like, here's the marketing plan here's what we think about this

here's how we're going to do it, here's why we want to do it here's when we're going to take it to radio like they had this whole plan laid out you know like they were just in my mind they were more excited about it than anybody else was you know and it felt like everyone else was like more just reacting to

something that other people were reacting to in the sense of they were like, well, if somebody's going to sign this guy, we should sign him. Because, you know, and then we would just go from there. But Sony already had this whole plan in place, which is why I enjoyed that so much. So they re-release hurricane. Yes. What does that really mean? Well, nothing.

In theory, they just serviced it to radio. So it had already been out for some period of time. And so then they just start using their team to promote it. country radio. Does that mean, so hurricane, would it be like, hey, you know, hurricane has, hurricanes well known in this geographical part of the world. Sure. It's me. And now it's like reaching the, you know, sure. The entire country and continent. Yeah. So they're, yeah, so they're just, they're going out trying to get it on the radio, which gets it, you know, in the ears of millions that was a whole new people, right? So that opens up the door. You know, at that time, especially,

you know, it's the ultimate marketing tool. Because that's what I always needed was like, I need people to hear my song. Like, people aren't going to get it until they hear me or until they see the show. Like, they're not going to see a promo photo and go, man, I got to check this guy out. You know what I mean? Like they were just, that was the hugest moment for me was being able to get that songs in the ears of millions and millions of people when they drove to work or when they were driving home from work or when they're on the lake or whatever it is. and that was the new at that time that was the big version of hey man my song blew up on TikTok you know yeah it was that version of like everyone's hearing it and everyone's going what is

this guy who is this guy like I want to hear more you know exactly that was my opportunity you released um this one's for you yep um five number one singles yeah yeah so i mean is it is it like going from zero to 60 in terms of like your your whole life everything all your lifestyle you're making a living yeah you know yeah it changed is this like all overnight yeah it felt that way i mean i was playing so many shows though that there was no there was no i mean you're making a lot of money but i you hardly even have time to spend it at that you didn't have like that moment where you're like god dang i pinch myself because i can't believe these you know these songs that I you know they're good you love these

songs but now they're you know people the world's telling you they love yourself right yeah yeah after the other I have honestly that one of those moments at every day at some point I mean still I'm just like I just really can't believe it because I never expected any of this to happen you know I mean I knew that I was I moved here in hopes that I would be able to achieve my dream whatever version of that, you know, the good Lord was willing to lay in front of me, you know. Yeah. That was what I wanted. So I knew that I guess it was possible, but did I think that it was a realistic goal? Not particularly. You know, I just wanted to, I just made all these really small achievable goals

over the course of, you know, it was what's a goal I can achieve in the next three months? Yeah. And it was just a series of those until the goal. goals all of a sudden are massive. Right. It was never like, when I picked the guitar up, I said, man, one day I want to sell a stadium out. Because how do you get there, man? How do you get there from that to that?

You don't, there's no realistic path to get from there to hear. You have to go, how do I, you know, be able to play one song on the guitar and sing it at the time? And then it goes, now I want to play a second song. And then after you can play 10 songs, you go, well, I'd love. love to, maybe I want to write my own song. And then you go, well, now I can play 20 songs and now I want to go play a show for people. And then I go, well, now I want to play a show once a month. Now I want to play a show once a week. And now I want to play three times a week. And now I want

to record my songs. And now I want to move to Nashville. And now I want to get a publishing deal. Now I want to get a record deal. Now I want to get a song on the radio. Now I want to get, you know, another album put out, and then now I want to get, play red rocks, and now I want to play a, you know, arena, now I play a stadium. And it's like, it just, you know, it was, it was a crazy version of baby steps in some way. Yeah. Just, you know, Eric, you became, Eric Church was one of your heroes. Eric also went to At State, like you did, North Carolina guy, proud of North Carolina. A lot of similarities. A lot of similarities. he's there.

You had the opportunity to collaborate with him. What was that, you know, what's that moment like when you're, when, you know, I mean, I know you're, I know you're established, but you also, you know, you, I do this with, I do this with race car drivers, right? You know, I get in the room with, uh, any of my dad's peers, right? Yep. Even though they're normal people to me, I also am a bit starstruck and amazed to be sharing the room with them, right?

is that similar to how that experience was with you and Eric church? Oh, definitely. You know, I mean, it's like, you know, you're just kind of, you know, you're so busy and, you know, it does to me. It was so my second album, but like it still was so early on in this new way of life for me, like the new reality of what my life was and, you know, the places that I got to go and the things that I get to do, you know, are still all so new to me at that time. And, you know, I've been a fan of Eric forever. And so I never really got to spend any time with him, you know, up, really up until that point. You know, we're like in the studio, you know, together working on this song. And I'm just like, dude, this is crazy, you know, like, this is a guy like, you know, I'm watching, you know, I'm listening to him when I'm 20 years old and can't even play guitar yet going, man, this guy's sick, dude.

Like, he went to school here. like, you know, I love these songs, I love this music. And yeah, dude, it was really surreal. I mean, I've had a lot of those moments where I just can't believe that what I'm doing, you know, is what I'm doing. You know, and that was definitely, definitely one. You had a chance to meet Willie Nelson and hang out with Willie. Willie's a good dude. Willie and way, way back in like 1986, they had, Willie had a tour.

Wrangler was a sponsor for the tour. They put Willie's tour on the back of Dad's race car, the Red-Headed Stranger Tour, I think, was what it was called. And Rangler got Willie and Dad and Richard Childers' dad's car owner together, and they're riding down the road in a limousine, and Willie Nelson fired up a joint and asked Dad and Richard if they wanted to smoke, which I thought was one of the coolest moments ever. and dad's

dad always said he didn't take any take a drag off of Willie's joint but I'm damn that had to have been pretty tempting Oh sure Yeah So I mean you've you've had the opportunity to be around You know in Eric Church Willie Nelson

And And Do you have any really cool stories A bit hanging out with those guys and enjoying You know when you're not working Yeah you know Man I ended up at uh i ended up at willy's house in maui one time um and i it made me wish that i

would have taken your dad's route if that makes any sense yeah if that makes any sense to you um yeah dude it was it was you want to talk about the probably the most surreal moment of meeting somebody being in the same room with somebody was you know we're down there for the BMI does this songwriter's trip in Maui once a year and they only invite a small handful of people down and and I was lucky enough to get to go down there me and me and my now wife we were newly engaged at that time went down and just wild wild time played a few songwriters rounds at a few different places my first time in Hawaii too obviously you know and just nuts um and so willie

lives out there. So he's always kind of around the festival and stuff. And, you know, I got to just say hello to him really quick, like in passing on the first night. And, um, and, you know, I'm thinking like, dude, this guy meets infinity million people, dude. He's Willie Nelson, dude. You know, at that time, he was probably 84, 85 at that time. Um, and so the circumstances are my wife, uh, was still working at the time. And so she had to go, she was like, I got to go fly back home. And, out to this trip, you know, to get back to work or whatever. And I said, well, I have a radio show in Seattle. It was like three days after this Maui trip ended. And I said, well, I really don't want to fly all the way back to Nashville and then fly the way to Seattle. So I'm just

going to stay out here for like two extra days and then fly straight to Seattle. So the festival kind of ends. And one of the guys that I had met at the festival who kind of hosts the first night kickoff at his house there. He's a builder, you know, it's a construction business there. And I didn't know anybody in Maui. So I had this, met this dude. I had his phone number.

He's probably in his late 50s, I would imagine. So he was like, oh, we can play golf or what, you know, just whatever. And so we went and played golf one day because I didn't have anything to do. You know, I one thing, one day I just drove around the rental car and like went and sat on the beach by myself for a couple of hours. It was kind of sick, actually. But we're playing golf and he's like, hey, man, do you want to go play poker at Willys tonight and I was like yeah that sounds really sick you know he's like yeah um

so he's like oh I'll pick you up at the hotel or drive you out there so we drive a decent ways out kind of into like a you know different side of of the island there and and when we got there he was like he was like man Willie's old school you know you got to like bring you got to like bring you got like bring show up with something like some beer or whatever kind of thing so I got my little you know six can thing of Miller lights or whatever and so when we get there he gets this guy gets a phone call

and he's like hey man he's like I gotta take this call just go in the garage and I'm like man dude like I'm about to walk into Willie Nelson's house solo I'm not sure if he or anybody here knows that I'm coming to this

right or even knows who I am at all right let alone am I walking into their like the garage of their house to Willie Nelson's house. I'm also potentially like a burglar at this point. The more. It's like this guy I'm with is like he's the end. He goes all the time because he lives there and stuff.

And so I'm like, you know what, man, it's cool. Like I'm going to pop in. There's going to be all kind of stuff going on. Like I'll just kind of slip in and whatever, man. And dude, when I tell you, I walked in there and I walked down the hallway in the garage and it's only Willie Nelson. there. There's nobody else in there. Wow. It's this garage room and he's just sitting there watching TV on this little tube TV above the refrigerator sitting at the poker table. And I walk in

just holding this thing of beer dude and it was just like, he was just like, oh hey man, you know, like there was no like, who are you? What's going? Right. And he, and then we just talked like for 20 some odd minutes and nobody was in there that guy was still on the phone and like I don't know if that was like intentional like I feel like maybe someone had like told him I was going to come but I have no inkling of this at all

but like he was just like man who do you record for and I told him I was signed at Columbia and he's like man I'll sign at Columbia for 40 some years you know and we just talked about music and whatever in the festival and, dude, it was the most surreal thing. Yeah.

Like, ever. Like, I'm in Maui. Not only I'm in Maui, in Willie Nelson's garage alone with him talking about, you know, music and just, it was crazy, man. It was definitely nuts. That sounds like an incredible story, man. I appreciate you sharing that.

Yeah. I, uh, every once in a while, man, you have these moments where you're like, how in the hill did I get here? Yeah. And that's definitely It has to be one of them. Oh, for sure. One of the coolest thing that you've done most recently

was cover Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. Yep. And man, that thing got legs and it seemed like, you know, you were kind of working that project for months, which culminated with a performance with Tracy Chapman at the Grammys. Which I think everybody was so thrilled to just see her play in and singing that song along with you. You know, describe that experience of,

and where that ranks and what other things you've accomplished, you know, you're writing your own songs versus covering this iconic song, right? And how popular and well-received that was. Yeah, I mean, that song to me is, you know, been a huge part of my life ever since I was a kid, right? It's one of the first songs that I ever remember here. And it's probably my first favorite song.

ever had um you know my some of my first you know experiences with music or to that song you know um and falling in love with music so and that song has been and when i taught myself to play guitar you know it's one of the first songs that i wanted to learn how to play you know and it was way above my pay grade as a guitar player at that time and it took me months to figure out how to play it and sing it and so i've covered it my shows and it's just like followed me around in like the best way for like my entire life it feels like um and so when we went to record that you know it was really there was no plan for like man let's record this cover and people are going to love it it was just another one of those things where i loved that song and it meant a lot to me and i wanted to do

my own version just for me and then when i put the record out i mean people just went bananas over it for for for some reason i mean obviously that song is so great it's been heard so many times but it's yeah man that moment with Tracy is up there in my top five career moments without a doubt I mean if it's not one or two you know yeah I mean it was just like it was just a magical like you know it was really like you know and the music business can be so like drudging at times and you yeah feel like you're going through the motions and there's all these different things happening but that was just like one of the most pure like musical moments that I've ever had in my career and probably will ever have in my career for sure.

When you when you decide, okay, we're going to record this or I want to record this, is I kind of wonder, is it, I guess do you feel, imagine you do feel a lot of pressure to make sure you do this song, it's justice, right? And you want to make Tracy happy and you want to make people, you know, receive the song well do you cut the song on on a demo and play it back and like scrutinize it tweak it you are you more critical or tougher on yourself trying to create a song like that than maybe even something you wrote i think yeah i think it was more like you know how do we just how do we completely honor the original recording but just make it you know sound like my thing in some way right you

That's why I didn't change the, you know, people always, you know, some people give me slack for saying, you know, check out girl in the song. You know, like, that's the song. That's what the song says, right? You know, it's. And so I just wanted to really honor that version, the original version. And, you know, I didn't think in a million years that Tracy would ever hear that version of that song. But I knew that.

Really? No, I just, well, I didn't, again, like, I didn't know or think or have any intention of that. being a really popular right it just happened on its own you know and so i got you i didn't think well man you know i'd love this to get in front of tracy and then you know it's like i knew that maybe you know somebody would play it for her sometime but all i wanted to was for her to hear it and go yeah man like that guy like he like i appreciate him doing you know keeping the song true to itself that's all i you know would would have wanted out of that um but yeah it was it was really cool, really cool career moment. That whole kind of, that whole thing happening. It's really

full circle for me. Well, we know you got to get going, man. I wanted to be able to talk to you for a little while longer. We got so many things that we didn't get to in your own career. And also, there's some cool connections that we have. You wore one of the Sundrop, Lake Model Stock shirts during one of your music videos. I did. We shot some of one of your music videos down at my western town. You came out. and played my foundation event one night, which is going to be peak for our foundation for many, many years. No way we're going to be able to top that for a while.

And I just wanted to be able to talk to you today. I'm thankful that you gave some time. I love getting to know you better and learning about how you made your way all the way to Nashville and became a star. Luke, you're a great dude. We wish you all the best going forward. Say hello to the rest of the family for us. and enjoy everything coming your way, bud.

You're a good dude. You work hard for it, and you deserve it. Appreciate it, buddy. Let's play some video games, all right. All right, man. I'll see you out there. Thanks, buddy. All right.

All right, so reactions on the interview with Luke. I really enjoyed that, man. I wish we had more time. You know, we're sitting there. I got my notes in front of me, and I'm, you know, we're kind of, I like to do like a traditional chronological, you know, helps me understand his route, right, and how he got to where he is today. Unfortunately, you know, when we're doing about an hour and a half,

you're not, you know, we're not going to get to everything, and we'll just have to see if we can get Luke to come back. And I've always said that these interviews aren't the end-all be-all for, this is not the only Luke Colmes interview for the Dale Jr. Download. and for any of our other guests, we always are wanting to have people back. We'd eventually run out of people to interview if we went if we went that route. But there was a lot that we did not get to that I was hoping we could talk about. But anyways, a lot of fun, learned a lot about him, learned a lot about the music industry.

Always kind of interesting to hear people now after everything he's achieved, go back. back to his roots and explain that process and see if he can put himself back in that space, that headspace that he was in, just trying to make it. And he does a really good job of helping us understand, you know. We all think, you know, and I sat down to do this interview thinking when Luke was a teenager, he dreamed of selling out stadiums. Well, he didn't. He dreamed of writing the first song and then writing the second song

and learning this chord and playing this one gig and then playing the second gig. And he just kind of like steps up the rungs on the ladder, right? And it's really cool to hear his perspective. And man, not many chances you get to interview a megastar like that and dive back into some of their experiences and their younger years. So a lot of fun. It had to come to an end, but maybe we'll get him back on down the road. I want to thank Ally for bringing us the Ally guest segment.

Every week they bring us an incredible guest to the table or to the beach house, however you want to look at it. and Luke Holmes is an ally for us, man. He's been awesome. I asked him to come out to play our foundation event a couple years ago, and he came out there to do that for nothing. This guy rarely does anything for nothing, and he's a megastar, but he still got a great heart,

and that was a big night for the foundation, and our guests were treated to an incredible, show by him and Luke's friends. And he wears that sundrop racing shirt of mine on his music video, which I thought was so, so cool. And I really appreciated that as well. And that song, Where the Wild Things Are. So good.

It's a great song, man. Such a great song. And we play it in the house and the girls love it. He's definitely an ally. So we want to thank Ally for helping us every week have such incredible guests, no matter what you're saving for, whether it's a new house, a new car. Maybe you're saving to buy a NASCAR charter. Who knows?

We're all better off with an ally. White flag. All right, so it's time for the white flag this Wednesday. The Teardown with Jeff Gluckin, Jordan Bianchi, drop Monday. Everything that was going on this past race weekend at Indy and at the 600. You'll want to listen to Jeff and Jordan. Yesterday, action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin drop, door bumper clear. Our Dirty Air Show is also out that you can listen to from yesterday.

Dropping today, Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden Post Indy 500 Speed Street. We're going to catch you all their comments about what they thought about the race weekend. Tomorrow, DJD Reloaded is back. And Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTart and Tampa Tims. And don't forget the Denny Hamlin bracket challenge is back for its second year. go up against thousands of people, including myself, who are going to fill out brackets. It's a single elimination tournament featuring 32 drivers from NASCAR's Cup Series. The tournament stretches over the course of five NASCAR Cup Series races in June, beginning this weekend at Gateway.

Fill out that bracket now to participate. This will end June 30th at Nashville. There's all kinds of prizes for the ultimate winner of this bracket challenge, but also prizes for 11 additional winners. It is free. Don't cost a thing. We're just letting you have this. Come get it.

The bracket is opening on, it opened on Tuesday at 10 a.m. and it closes at 3 p.m. on Sunday right before the green flag at Gateway. So you have to fill the bracket out now. You can't fill it out later. Dirtybowmedia.com slash bracket challenge. It's been fun.

this is our first recording from the, this is our first week recording from the beach house. We call it the sandcastle. So, yeah. It's not something you're supposed to laugh at. I thought it was a good name. Okay, thank you, Andrew. I'm sure it had better, it has better.

A better response would have been, well, it's a great name. You busted out in laughter. I like the name. That's how I react to a good name. Oh, I did it too. Oh, see? Yeah.

All right. Well, I've enjoyed this week. We'll be doing this again from the beach house from time to time this summer, and we'll be bringing you some great guests. Since we're zooming or recording these remotely, we can have guests like Luke Combs and other people that might not be able to make it to the studio. So that should be fun this summer. Something for everybody to look forward to.

We'll see you later. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.