The Dale Jr. Download - From Whisky River with Chris Stapleton: Daytona Bound

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with country music superstar Chris Stapleton and Justin Allgaier to discuss their groundbreaking collaboration: taking JR Motorsports Cup racing at the Daytona 500. They explore the unique partnership that blends whiskey with racing history, marking the first time in JR Motorsports' history to compete in the Cup Series.In addition to the news, Chris talks about his long-standing relationship with Buffalo Trace and how it led to the development of his own blended whiskey. Chris reveals how the name “Traveller” came about and his hands-on approach to ensuring the quality of the product, from bottle design to the whiskey inside. He also reflects on the connection between NASCAR and country music fans, expressing his excitement about seeing Traveller Whiskey on a race car at Daytona.Chris Stapleton opens up about his personal journey, from working third shift in a factory to becoming a household name in country music. He shares the struggles and rewards of balancing fame with fatherhood, talks about his early days of songwriting, and reflects on the influence of legends like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. What was Chris’s most nerve-wracking moment? What does he avoid doing while performing to make sure he doesn’t start laughing? Who is his biggest critic? Chris answers these questions and more as he dives into the stories and moments that have shaped his life and career.Tune in for an exciting conversation about racing, whiskey, and music, as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chris Stapleton, and Justin Allgaier dive into their collaboration and the passion behind their latest project! 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. We're back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. We're not in the studio today. We are down here at Whiskey River. I got Chris Stapleton coming in, Justin Alguire. We're going to talk about our Daytona 500 announcement and a lot more. It's going to be a lot of fun. Let's get started.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. All right, so sitting here with Chris Stapleton and Justin, Justin and Chris. I mean, we've been working on this minute for a long time, trying to put together something that's not easy to put together. But we're here today and announcing, finally able to share, I guess, with the rest of the world, what we're up to. And I kind of want to get y'all's individual feelings

about, you know, the realization that this is going down. It's a real thing. Yeah, I mean, it's been cool for me. You know, the process of this is kind of superseded me being a part of it. just trying to get through the end of the year. Obviously, we were going for a championship last fall, and so the question never got asked if I would drive it. But when the question finally came of, you know, would you be the driver?

When I walked into the office, I'll never forget, the faces were pretty stoic, and I thought maybe I was in trouble, right? Like, I didn't know what to expect. And so they started running through the process of what was going to happen and that travelers was going to be part of it, and you were going to be part of it. And I kind of thought in that moment that we were just, they were going to tell me the program.

and tell me who is going to drive it and just what Junior Motorsports was up to. And when I got asked to drive it, it was really special. And then to see, you know, to see your involvement to understand what you've wanted to get out of this. It's been special. And I mean, the Daytona 500, you've lived it, you've been a part of it. I've been lucky enough to race it twice now and there's no race like it. So this is a really cool experience. And cool that we're able to get all together like this.

and to have this program going. For me, I selfishly just wanted to see the car. But beyond that, I just love the history of racing and whiskey a little bit. And that's kind of how it all started, I think. And when I thought about pie in the sky, kind of things that I would want to do to kind of advertise this product that we have

that I'm real proud of. And this was one of those kind of like, what if we could do this? And I happened to know Rick Hendrick and he kind of hooked us up and we built it from there. And it seemed it was a very easy process to me. I don't know how you felt about it on your end. I was like, this is really happening. Okay. Cool.

And we set a couple rounds of designing this car together and here it is the day and it's a real thing. And I got to see it today and it was sometimes in those moments, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I can feel like I didn't think those things could really, those things really happen, you know, like, and then we're here doing this, and I'm going to show up it and get to watch the Daytona 500 with a car that has a whiskey that I'm involved in on it. So I think that's, for me,

I don't think it's going to get much better than that. It's going to feel like, you know, I already feel like one of the Super Bowl or something. It feels like that just to get to make the thing, you know, and I think, I love creating things. And as somebody who likes to create things, my part that I can contribute to is done.

And you guys obviously have a lot more real work to do in it than what I do. But I'm thrilled to be just a tiny part. Well, we went round and round on this design. And it was fun to see how involved you got into that. And just being preview of the emails going back and forth and hearing, you know, your opinions and thoughts, it meant more knowing that it meant something to you and that you cared what your brand looked like on the side of this car. But we got to unveil the car today. Yeah. And I talked to you earlier about how it looks good on paper and then there's

the actual car you're standing next to and then the car on the racetrack. And those are three different things, right? I really feel like that the paper version of this car right here does not do the real thing justice. When we saw that car in person just now, man, it just jumps out at you. Yeah, me, me too. And I like both versions. Yeah. I like the paper version. Obviously, I wouldn't have said, let's do that. Yeah. But yeah, to get to see it in person, it's a very, I don't know, like a reality check moment. I don't know how you feel. As long as you've been racing or you guys been in racing when you see the car that's a new car or something like that, we're just like, thought, this is cool.

This is our thing now, you know, for a minute. Yeah, I think it's interesting because, you know, both of us, I think, really enjoy the design aspect of it, right? We've been very lucky to have great-looking race cars, and he's driven a few over time that haven't been as good looking, but it's kind of what you end up with. But I have to imagine that the singing aspect of it is very similar, right? You come up with a song that you think is going to turn out one way,

and by the time you see it, you know, actually record it. It's a little bit different, and then the public perception of it is even different yet. Like seeing your design input in this and then looking at you as an artist, right? It's been cool because I feel like no matter what you do, you're very intentional and very involved in it. And that to me is something that, you know, representing a brand, right, whether it be travelers or any of our other partners, you want to know that they're invested in it, right?

And we see that really, really clearly. And it's been really special. and I think that getting the car on the racetrack, stuff like today is difficult for me because you're like ready. I'm ready. I'm already thinking about, okay, what do I need to do?

How do I need to hit my specific marks and be fast on the track and obviously qualify our way in? And so it's cool to see the process that's been put behind it. Yeah, there's a lot of preparation not only just putting together the package and getting Junimerge sports

and traveler happy. but then the driver, the team, the car has to get put together. I went and looked at the car the other day. We have to get a roster of people that are going to get this car through tech inspection and get it out on the grid and picking those individually, right, finding who can do what. Then the driver's got to get himself ready. You're going to prepare for racing a cup car at Daytona as opposed to what you've traditionally been doing in the Xfinity Series for all these years.

And one thing that I do love about this too is it's almost a continuation. of that celebration of you winning your championship. You know, that was a very, very emotional experience and very important milestone for us both. And this was, it was fun to let you know that, hey, this is something that we want to do and we want you to be a part of it, you know. You know, it's been cool.

I've been a part of Junior Motors now for a number of years, and when you see somebody advance in their career, right, Listen, you've accomplished anything and everything that you've ever set out to do in the sport of NASCAR. And, you know, as a team, I mean, you know, I remember when Chance 2 we started and being a fan of that. And, you know, being a fan of Junior Motorsports, you know, it was about the same time I started kind of my professional career was when Junior Motorsports was kind of getting up and going. And you go, okay, at some point, the natural progression is to go the Cup Series. But you never really know, I mean, you know, for a long time, you were very content with being exfinite. Series only. And only in the last couple years of you and Kelly and LW really talked about

the Cupside. And so, you know, being a part of this organization for as long as I have now, it's cool because not only do I get to see it happen and kind of come to fruition, but get to be a part of it. And, you know, obviously I've been a huge fan of yours as a, you know, from a professional standpoint of watching you and, you know, trying to emulate what you do on the racetrack. there's not a, there's not a cooler thing that I can think of to have this, this relationship with you. And then you add in somebody like Chris, who is,

is talked about not having any NASCAR experience, right, of being at the racetrack and these like that, but to see your passion for it already and to see your excitement level for it. Like it just adds to this whole program that, that for me, I'm like, just pinch me, right? Because like, is this,

is this really happening in the way that it is? So it's been special, you know, to have the championship last year too. You just tie all that together and you just go, man, And it's been an amazing couple of months that I don't want it to end. I know that that, you know, that, that, you know, once the season starts, it's kind of, you know, lost a little bit. But it's been really, really special.

So, Chris, I want you to try to help us understand what Traveler is. How do you, how do you develop this brand? Tell us the origination of the name. Well, okay, I'll do all that. It really kind of started. I had a relationship with the Buffalo Trace, it's the Stiller. And a Buffalo Trace product has probably been involved in every record I've ever made in some way. So mainly E.H. Taylor for the longest time, which is a Buffalo Trace product.

And a big fan of Harlem Wheatley, who is a master distiller at Buffalo Trace. And think of anything that you can't find or get, and he's probably had his hands on it in some way. Well, I've been approached by different whiskey companies and things like that to do. do things before and none of that ever felt like the right thing you know and this came up as an opportunity they wanted to make a blended whiskey which they'd never really done they're at buffalo trace and they wanted my involvement they were a little bit down the road but they hadn't wholly chosen the blend and so I got to do a little bit of that with Harlem and pick pick that out and they had a different name for it originally and I didn't really care for the name I said well how about

how about we just be real on the nose about it and call it Traveler Whiskey so we can, you know, draw that line really easily for people. And they said, well, look, we have to check and see if that's an available name or who owns, you know, all the copyright stuff that would go through. So maybe four or five days, I thought, well, we got it back and it turns out somebody owns that. I'm like, oh, man, that's no good. But then it turns out that we own it. So they already owned it.

They didn't even know they owned it. Really? They already owned it. And so that seems like a, like a serious. serendipitous thing where that was just what I was supposed to be called. And as far as what's in the bottle, I mean, it's a blend of whiskey that Harlan, you know, has put his hands on. He's the greatest master distiller. He's like the Michael Jordan of the craft, in my opinion. Not that means a whole lot. I'm not a distiller, but for my money, he's, he's, he's hard to beat. And what he's done here is something that's very, um, and what we, you know, kind of pick. out together, it's approachable for people who don't necessarily, aren't necessarily whiskey drinkers. And I think that comes through. But if you're a whiskey drinker and have been for a long time and you like full strength, you know, barrel-proof stuff, there's something

there for you too, you know. So it's really, it's a great product. I'm most proud of what's in the bottle. And, you know, obviously much like the race car, I worked on the design of the bottle and what it needed to be and we arrived at that. But what's in the bottle is really what the meat of it is. And if that didn't hold up to anything, I don't think we would be getting to put it on a car or any other things that we're going to do with it. It's really done well so far,

and we're looking forward to, you know, growing it and making more people aware of it. And this is all part of it. Yeah, I was going to ask you, could you kind of talk to, of all the areas where you could market and do market? What was it, I guess, about the NASCAR Daytona 500 that excites you guys? Well, and again, this is immediately in the chart of some of this stuff. There's part of me that just thinks it's so cool to see the brands on the cars. It's one of my favorite modes of advertising growing up to see those kind of things.

But beyond that, I think there's a lot of kind of cross-pollination between fans of racing and fans of country music. And I think even distill it down even more than that. There's probably a lot of cross-pollination between people who like you and like what we do as well. So I think all those things kind of converging into this make that make the most sense for me. Obviously, we were trying to be other places and other sports, but this is an important one for me. What do you think? It's been a couple of reality checks in this process, bailing the car and all of those things. Can you imagine what that might feel like to stand on the grid?

Is Justin's starting to buckle up? I don't think I'm going to be able to know what that is. I'm sure you. I'm sure you. I think I think you guys are sitting here smiling. about it because you're like he doesn't know what's not to be honestly like i mean i've said it before but like i've done this as a driver for many times i've done it as a driver and there's a there's excitement but also pressure nerves and and you're you're the one it kind of in control of everything

in terms of how things go that day but um as an owner it the thing about being an owner and i think you may also experience this is once it's on the grid and and before gentlemen starts your engines it's out of your hands at that point. Right. Right. And so there's a lot of, there's not so much pressure anymore. Yeah.

But it's a pride's thing. It's like watching something you had an involvement in creating, go out and do what it's supposed to do. But how he turns the corner is up to him, right? It's no longer in my hands. And so, which is kind of nice. It's so funny how, you know, I look back at the championship last year.

and I've known you for a long time, right? Freshly and both as a friend. And your emotion from last year was not what I expected on you. Yeah. Right? And it was awesome. Like, it was really, really cool. But in that moment, I realized that you don't realize how these things affect people differently.

Some people, it's very sentimental and it's your pride, you know, it's what you've worked towards and it happens. And other people, they just, it just kind of is what it is. be interested to see Chris's involvement like when you get to the racetrack because I think he's a lot like you and the fact that you know he's put the time and he's put the effort into what it looks like and he's

passionate about the brand of travelers and the whiskey that I mean just you saying it's what's in the bottle that's important to you right? You take a lot of pride in what you what you're promoting and what you're part of and I think that's what's going to be interesting to see how you react and I'm going to be

honest Daytona 500 the flyover before the Daytona 500 is to this day whether I'm in the race or not, it still gives me chills. Like it's that one moment that I look forward to every year that I'm just like, ah, it's just cool.

And I'm excited to see. It's like a blue angel. It's the Thunderbird. It's the Thunderbirds. I think normally is the Thunderbirds, but it's, yeah, it's just really cool. Yeah, all the races that we go to are great. The pre-race ceremonies are a lot of fun.

But Daytona, the Super Bowl, the World Series, $5,500, they all are miles ahead of any other experience that I've had at a racetrack in terms of the traditional sort of build up over the course of like the two and a half hours you're out on the front straightaway. There's a little concert. Drivers go through intros. There's different things.

You know, the anthem and so forth. All of that stuff is it's sort of a. signal of the enormity or the size of the event, how important it is. And it really is like we can sit here and talk about it all day long, but we mean get there and stand there in that moment is when you really realize like, damn, man, it doesn't get any better than this in our world, right, of stock car racing. Like that, that pre-race at Daytona is a celebration of how big and important our sport truly is. And so, man, I'm hopeful and thankful that we're,

going to be able to experience that together. We've worked really hard to get to this point. We got a lot of work left to do. I'm excited about it. Yeah, all the way. We got all the tools. I mean, we've got a, we're going to have a great race car. We've got a great driver. We've got great partners. And we've got all the right people in the right places to go down there and get done what we want to get done. All right, Justin, we're going to cut you loose, man. You've got some more work to do? I'm going to get to know this guy a little bit better. The little bit that I've gotten to know him today so far. He's an amazing human being. I'm excited to have them as part of this program.

So thank you, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Dale. Appreciate it. As you were talking, I was thinking of a funny story. We've played at Daytona before, like shows. Yeah. And there's a very distinct moment I remember where we had a golf cart and we decided to take a lap.

So I've actually taken a laugh at Dayton on a golf cart, but this will be a little different experience. Watch. Ain't done all that. I am you know I I I've we sat down yesterday me and my crew and we're going over some notes and and a lot of this stuff is going to be just curiosity about about your life and decisions you make and why you do things you do but um I'm a little scared don't be scared I you know I just you know your your life's pretty fascinating uh and and the success that you had is incredible and um 10 gram and 19 CMAs, 19 ACM awards. My wife Amy and I will sit down and watch these award shows. And I'm not well versed enough to really truly know how important or how big that is for you.

You're nominated for all kinds of awards all throughout the calendar year, right? Sure. But like help me understand the awards that you're winning and how do they make you feel. how do they compliment the work you're doing

or how do they affirm the work you're doing? What is the award that you won? You were like, I wanted this. I've wanted this my whole life. I always like to win an award that was for an album. Really? Because that's a body of work that you create and that's what it is about for me.

But I don't make music for awards either. Or at least I want to believe that. It's not the goal. And when you are given those awards, it is a compliment from your peers. And it certainly gives you some visibility that maybe allows you to play some nicer places. And it creates awareness from television and all these things that we know are helpful when you're trying to be something that you want people to come watch. So when we say in our sport of NASCAR, if you win the Daytona 500, your life changes forever from that moment forward.

It's different, right? So what's the award or awards that changed your life? Well, there was a very distinct moment, and I've been in Nashville working as a professional songwriter since about 2001. But in 2015, we put out a record called Traveler, and that came out May the 5th in 2015, and it did well, or did,

what I wanted it to do. You know, my goal was to sell 20,000 records. And so I could make another record. That's always kind of been my... Is that the box that, you know, if you get to get to this... If you sell that many,

you're going to get to do another one? Well, that was, yeah. That kind of like... That's in the contract? Well, no, not in the contract necessarily, but that's enough you can go play and that feels like an audience and all these, you know, it sounds funny to say now.

It does, yeah. But that was my goal. And that was the most... I was in a couple of bands before that, one of them that we had some moderate success in a bluegrass band called Steel Drivers. And 20,000 records was kind of the goal, and that kept you moving, and you could book gigs and do all those kind of things. But that record became, you know, kind of known around town,

and I'd worked around town as a songwriter and written songs for lots of people in town. And so we got to the 2015 CMA Awards, and we were nominated for, you know, several of them with no real thought of winning any of them. And we won, I think, everything we were nominated for. And then to add to that, they had given me a slot to perform. And my wife was smart enough to go, hey, you should call. I knew Justin Timberlake a little bit at that point in time. And I was like, you should call him and see if he'll do the CMAs with you.

And he agreed to do that. And that was. How do you make that phone call? Call and go, hey, man, would you want to do this? Yeah. And usually it's yes or no pretty quickly. You know, with guys, I mean, he doesn't have to do anything. Yeah, I got to come do it.

And we got on the phone with the producer of the show, and Justin wanted eight minutes, which is a lifetime. That is. And any television. The whole performance needed to do that long. The whole performance needed to be eight minutes for us to put together what he envisioned us putting together. We had talked about putting together. And I thought that was going to be a very. very strong pushback and you know Robert Deacon was kind enough to go you know if

you guys need eight minutes let's let's go for it it's real really was kind of a crazy move for him to do that but we got that eight minutes and we won awards that somebody who nobody knew who they were at the moment should not have won and it was a really big I I always say that we probably built a fire, but that threw a match on it, you know. When you walked out of there that night, did you know, were you pinching yourself a little bit? There was a lot of disbelief in what had transpired in that evening. But then from there, you know, we had booked some shows out on the West Coast in 700-seat

theaters or something like that, and they were half-sold or something like that. Right before the show. And then they're all of a sudden all that stuff sold out. not long after that we're booking bigger things trying to see how my manager would say how deep the river goes and turns out it went pretty deep and we kept

trying to make more music and keep building on that and this whiskey certainly would not exist without some of those things I don't know we try to do the things that we feel like are good and

how do you there's been moments in my life where I'll find myself conversing with people that I never thought I'd ever be talking to, right? Sure. And then you've got to come home and be normal, you know, to the people that you grew up with, your family, your sister, or whatever, right? You know, and so I've always kind of been, I've always kind of had a hard time understanding how to live in both of those worlds. I mean, if you figured out, you'd let me know. Right. Is that something that you think about or because...

I try not to. Yeah. Because you're a regular guy. We try to be. Well, you have to be regular in part of your life when you're taking your and running your kid and jumping in the car. No, I'm a different to the school. There's a kid jumping on me at 5.30 in the morning,

right of how late I stay up. And then you're standing on a stage in front of an audience, a TV audience of millions on the other side of the country somewhere. And I've always, that type of stuff never. always found that to be incredibly overwhelming shifting from one to the other. It is. It's hard to flip the switch sometimes. And it's almost like I used to work in a factory and I worked what they call a third shift in a factory at one point and you become nocturnal and you become part of that shift. Well, working as a musician is kind of like

working a swing shift where it's a night job and then when you're done with that, night job you've got to flip back over and your day job being a dad or whatever you're doing your schedule flip so that that part is the hardest part for me is is is kind of living into time slots you know like it's because you know could you when you sleep yeah yeah well after a show you know yeah just because there's a lot of you're absorbing a lot of energy I'm sure driving cars in some ways it's like this. There's a lot of energy, a lot of adrenaline, and sometimes it's, you know, three, four in the morning before you can get back down off that, you know, and you go to bed.

Yeah. And you're back up in 10. So that was something you dealt with. I dealt with that too. I would go race to race and I would come home and I wouldn't go to bed. I'd go downstairs and sit on my bar stool in the basement and I'd sit up until 2, 4 o'clock in the morning just because I can't go to sleep. I mean, go to lay in the bed when my eyes wide open. It was a waste of time. It is a waste of time. You have that same experience coming off stage.

Absolutely, yeah. Every night, no matter how tired you actually are, you know, there's just a lot of energy. Energy is the only word I have for it. Like you absorb or are the focus of some of this energy. You're in it with people playing on the stage, you know. And then you've got to dispose of it a little bit. You have kids of various ages. What are their ages?

15, 14, 2, 6es, and a 5. Right. And so there's a bit of a decade there in between groups. Sounds bad when you say it that. Well, I was just wondering, like, how has being a father and managing your involvement in their lives and your arc of stardom, how has that changed what you could and couldn't do in the past? Like so I'm assuming, you know, when you were getting, you know, trying to play 700 seats, you were riding up down the road in a 15-passenger van more than likely. A little bit.

Some buses are a lot of time. Spent a lot of time doing things. It took a lot of time. And now maybe things are a little bit easier in terms of getting people places, getting yourself places, getting yourself back home, even taking them with you. Sometimes, yeah. But it's also more complicated because there's more moving parts and bigger productions and things. things like that.

Yeah, I don't know how we did that. I have a great partner in life. And we raise kids together and we work together. And we do everything together. And that's made that possible, I think. Talk about her. Talk about her? How did you meet?

How did we meet? We wrote at neighboring publishing company. She had a record deal long before I did. that didn't work out as they do and she wrote her publishing deal like was at the neighboring we shared writer rooms basically

with another publishing company and we would pass each other in the hall that was it. Did you know Morgan how long did you know her before y'all decided that you were going to ask her on a date or did she ask you out? I asked her to a writing appointment at 8 o'clock at night was that intentional? Oh yeah

yeah. Oh yeah yeah and And, you know, they just kind of, I don't know how much songwriting we actually got done. Yeah. You know, it's fine. Yeah, it was fun. But you're, that's been the deal for you. Pretty much, yeah.

That's, and she's, like, now she's in the band? Yeah, she's in the band. Integrated in everything you're doing. Sure, yeah. She, you know, produces records and all that stuff. She's always been my greatest asset in this business, I think. That's really unique. It is really unique and hard sometimes because we're married too.

I'm not going to pretend that that's not, doesn't enter into it. Everybody, we're married 17 years at this point. But it, you know, it's been a good set. With all that going on, what makes you decide to have more kids? You know, you've had two kids. They grow up. They're, they're growing up. And then even decided to go back and.

Well, we decided to have one. Well, we decided to have one more. And then we had twins. Oh. That's how it happens. And because, you know, we were both, you know, at a point we were like, well, maybe we could have one. You know, like, I think you forget how hard it is is what happens really, you know. But I would not change, I would not change it.

You got rid of, I mean, you know, you sell a, you don't wish your life away and you don't wish your kids to grow old, but or grow up too fast because everybody tells you it goes too quickly. but you got rid of the diapers, you got rid of the changing table, you got rid of the stroller. Yeah, we could go take a shower. You got rid of all that, and then you decided to bring it all back into your life. Yeah, we did. You know, all I can say is we're crazy people. But I love all my kids and my wife loves all our kids. They're all unique and wonderful in their own ways.

Yeah, for sure. How are they like to come on the road with? Well. Well, um, did they get the chance to? My, look, my oldest two kind of grew up on the road. They homeschooled my mother-in-law traveled with us for a time up until about fifth grade. So, they're, you know, their education was, they would go to museums. Oh, so like when you're at a venue, right, you're sick.

Yeah, we'd set up a schoolroom in a venue. Right. And my mother-in-law, I was a retired schoolteacher, so she would teach them. Yeah. And, but they'd also have education like, you know, my son learned how to play dominoes from the truck driver. Right. You know, things like that. But there's a lot of nefarious things going on at a concert.

Not at our concert. I know, and you're busy. I know, you know, and your wife's busy. Like, well, but you know, you can make time. It'd be like hanging out at the racetrack. I think about, to put it like this, so I think about when I was a kid at the racetrack. I'm a dad, right? So I know what it's like to worry about my own kids.

And when we, when we go places, I'm like always wondering, like, are they getting into something? Are they, you know, where are they? Like, can I see them? and when my dad when I would go to the racetrack with my dad and I was 12 hit I took off like I it's I mean it's a big

you know big property big I was wherever I wanted to be but also they knew that but he never was like where the hell you been but people knew whose kids you were I know that people were looking out for it and you didn't even know it you know so that's what it's like yeah a little bit I got you so um you're

growing up uh your family were coal miners, worked into coal miners. Yeah, my dad was coal miner and both my grandfather were coal miners. And so did you think that was something you were going to? I worked outside the mines a little bit in summer sometimes. Yeah, you went down in the mine before? No.

I went down in one. Did you? Yeah. We had a coal mine partnership on our expenditure team, and I went down down in one, way down in there. And they took me in one of the veins. Like how high of a seam were you in? I mean, see. Well, like, how high was the ceiling?

Oh, like tall as me. Oh, that's it. Boy, dude, it was crazy. I was, there was this big machine and it was as long as I could, it was as far as I could see. And this machine was like, would move forward and grind at the wall. And so we were in between where it was grinding against the wall in the machine. And we walked all down. I hated it.

Like I was like, I don't want to be in here. Well, see, my dad didn't work in a mind. That would be kind of like a posh mind. No. Compared to what my dad worked in. He worked in stuff that was, you know, maybe 24 inches high at a high point, and it could get down to 16 inches and they'd have to cut rock with a cut machine. The guy's bending roof bolts, you know, to snake them up in the ceiling to hold the ceiling up so it didn't fall in on you.

So it was man stuff. Yeah. You didn't want to do that. It was hard core stuff. No, I don't want to do that. Yeah. He loved it. What jobs did you have?

What jobs did I have? I've worked any odd job you can think of until I had enough money to, quit and play music. When did you decide I wanted to write a song? When I met a songwriter. I didn't know that was a thing, you know. Do you know who was? Yeah, Steve Leslie. I got him, Steve Leslie. I was living in, well, I had moved away from Morehead, Kentucky, but I had been living in Morayette, Kentucky, and there's a university there, Moorhead State University in Kentucky. But like, I mean, do you have, did you do anything before you thought about songwriting that would be even connected remotely? I went to college for a minute, but not.

Not music. No, I didn't like go to music school or anything like that. So you never thought about writing song. I took one guitar lesson when I was like 10. Yeah. Is that how unique? That was it. And then the guy quit teaching guitar lessons.

And then you just taught yourself the rest of the way? Pretty much, yeah. And I had, you know, I had an uncle that played, his brother played in kind of a regional band. I had, musicians are great in that. I'm sure, I don't know if it's probably this way where I sit here. But if there's a kid that shows in. they'll show you things. Oh, yeah.

If you show the initiative, they want to help you. Yeah. Anytime you were around a musician, they can play anything. They're happy to show kids how to do things. So that's a lot of my education, there's people to show me things. And even as an adult. But you meet this songwriter guy.

Yeah. And you're like... I didn't even really meet him. A buddy of my met him got his number, and he passively said to my friend, Jesse Wells, he said, hey, if you know anybody that writes songs, I'd love to help somebody out. And that was the conversation.

He gave my buddy's number. And me, I was dumb enough. My buddy said, hey, I know you write songs. He knew you wrote songs? Yeah, my buddy did. He said, hey, I know you wrote a few songs. You should call this guy. I want to go back to when you tried to write the first song.

The first song. What does that even look like for somebody who's doing this for the first time? Well, you know, I mentioned my uncle's brother. His name was Barry Potter. He wrote song. They traveled in this kind of tri-state area in a band. He wrote his, he wrote songs. So the notion of writing songs was not foreign to me.

Like, I knew somebody made them up. What I didn't know is I never read liner notes and like a record or anything that tells, like, who wrote the songs. Like, I always thought if George Strait recorded the song, he made it up. And nine times out of ten, it was a guy named Dean Dillon. But, you know, I didn't know that at the time. So writing songs. was just something I did. It was...

Is it? Or I'd try to impersonate Vince Gill or Brooks and Don or any of these guys that you listen to. I want to learn how you improve as a songwriter the way a person might improve a profession. Like, so when you wrote... I mean, if you think back... So I had a friend of mine and I'm like,

you know, he's sang music for 20 years. And if I say, man, I love that song from 2000, he goes, I hate that song. That was when I wasn't very good, you know. And so like when you look back at some of those earlier pieces you've worked on, well, you know, how do you get better? How do you progress? I had a buddy who used to say that you can't make yourself be a songwriter,

but you can get better at writing better songs more often if you are one. And so I think that's really good, a good notion. I think that's true of a lot of things. you've got to have some level of talent for it. And so without ever having known him at a time, when I had the opportunity to, I met this guy, Steve, Leslie, he brought me to town. I met some people.

Thankfully, they were some of the right people. I got a publishing deal. I moved to Nashville. And four days later, I had a publishing deal. That's nobody's story. Most people are in town seven years or something like that trying to do that. I moved to town and four days later, I had a deal as a songwriter.

That was my job. When you walk into the room to start working, are you by yourself? Is there multiple people in the room? Well, I saw already had done it at that point. Really? But I very quickly said, here's what I'm in my mind. Here's what I would like to do is as many of these guys that have been around. I've gravitated towards the older guard of guys.

The guys that have been around that knew what they were doing. And those are the guys that can show you how to do it. And that's who you learn from. Yeah. Is the guys that have been there the longest. Yeah. It's sitting in. So if you're.

you know, if I said, hey man, I'm going to sit in a room and watch this happen. How long is that process? Is it days? No, no. Is it one day? Well, I mean, it depends on the songwriter. Yeah. I'm sure it happens quickly sometimes.

I mean, I can write a song in 10 minutes. Yeah. Or I can write a song in... Are there templates in your mind for... No. No. I mean, I usually, I'm not strong. You know, I'm getting...

I'll start with an instrument. If it's just me. Yeah. But I've written songs plenty of ways. I've come to the room and a co-writers would have... have an entire lyric written and hand it to me and go, I don't have a melody for this.

And I'll just write the melody for it. I've done it always. And always are valid. Yeah. There's some so in our notes here there's a song that you wrote oh you should probably leave. Oh yeah. So

apparently you recorded it for every album. At some point, yeah. But you didn't like though you didn't like it you were you were like up it's not it doesn't make the cut or it's not ready and finally eventually get it you know sometimes you still hook it you know what does that mean well just means it wasn't the right version of it it sounded you know it has different sounds and you you keep toying with it or just didn't feel like it had all the glue or right the

didn't resonate and so and i'm still not you know that one's difficult for me that one that's one of those ones that the recording of it and and everybody will argue with me but me. I still feel like there was a better version of that one. Somewhere, just that had been done. Yeah, well, I feel like maybe we play it better life now. Well, I'm sure that's the same for a lot of, I mean, I'm sure there's some songs that you're like, this is a great song for a stadium and this is a great song to listen to in your car.

Yeah. Or whatever, right? Well, or just like comfortability or blocking in musicianship, you know, like. So you've written thousands of. songs I have right and so when you go make the next album are are all of those songs in that pool still possibilities or is it I wouldn't say all of them but definitely I don't feel like anything's off limits so like you you it's like a forgive me for a terrible analogy but like you're you're cultivating this

garden right and you pick some of the shit out of the garden and you put it on albums and it's out it's done right but the rest of the stuff is still there and you're continuing to write songs and continuing to fill that garden up, right? And so when you make a next album, you don't go to make a next album and say, I'm going to write 15 brand new songs.

No, I've never done that, and I don't know that ever could. And also, I just don't write that much anymore. Yeah. It seems like a very difficult way to be making music is having to write an entirely new album every time you sit down in your cast to do it.

That's the way a lot of people do it, right? Yeah, but that sounds like... Work. Well, not necessarily work, but it sounds like pressure to be in a good moment. Yeah. I think for me, the beauty of having a library of things to kind of pick and choose from is you can tell if they age well or not. What is the right? What's a good moment to write a song? Oh, there's any moment could be a good moment. Like, you know, I could get an idea out of something that you and I.

I are talking about right now, and I would probably go, excuse me, and put it in my phone. I may never listen to it again, but also I may listen to it 10 years from now and go, oh, yeah, it's so obvious, I'll write this song right now. Who are your influences? Influences? I have a lot of them, but, you know, outlawed country guys, Willie and Wayland. Who took you under their wing? Who was the one?

Oh, under the wing. I would have to say, and he's no longer with us, a man named Mike Henderson. He, I was in a band called the Steel Drivers with him and I probably have written more songs than Mike than I have anybody. I wrote starting over and broken halos and Midnight Train in Memphis or any number of things that are on records with him and there's another guy named Hal Anderson who have written a lot of songs with and Al's still with us but he's, you know, once again I gravitated toward these guys that were 20 and 30 years older than me because I wanted to know.

what they knew or be able to learn from what they had learned and they were kind enough to share as much of that as I was able to absorb. Yeah. You were a good student, class of alledictorian. I was. That part's true. Really? Yeah. So.

I'm trying to figure out what the question's going to be. Well, no, I just, so you played high school football. I did. You had a very traditional high school childhood life. I did. I did one interview where somebody said, you lived a charmed, you've lived a charmed life. And I think I took offense to it for a minute.

And then the more I thought about it after I got out of the interview, I would say that that was exactly accurate. Yeah. So did you want to be a football player? I would definitely, if I was good enough, I wasn't. If I had been good enough, I would have played football all the way. What positions? I was a lineback.

and a fullback. Yeah. Who is on your radar? So like, do you love, I mean, I imagine you love Discovery music, like hearing something? Well, here's the thing. My wife is the discovery person in her house.

You don't hear something. And I listen to Tom Petty, you know, or old blues guys. You stay into the tried and true stuff? Well, I do. I'm not as great at the discovery. I will hear things and go, oh, that's cool, who's that?

you know yeah but i don't go seek i'm not a seeer really not really is there a is there a artist that you're looking you look at and you go they're good they're going to be oh i mean there's a bunch of those there's a bunch of them do you have a i mean tell me i'm going to go i'm going to write it down and i'm going to go listen to it well some of these guys i think you'd have to go watch them well i can't go watch them i need to go i'm just going to leave and go right to my house all right No, I mean Give me one

Well, there's one There's one Cat is probably one of the most talented people I've ever met His name is Marcus King Oh, I know Marcus Well, I don't know Marcus, but Marcus We used his We used him in the NBC NASCAR pre-race stuff

And he did some work for us But yeah, well Marcus is Freakishly talented Yes And Don't hear me say that maybe No, it's fine Yeah.

He's really great, and I wish all good things for him. But he has talent above most to anybody that I've ever run across in recent years anyway. So you're 46 years old. I am. Where do you feel like you are in your career? You said you don't write as much anymore. Are you, you know, I think, I guess what I'm trying to say is like when we think about race car, I always try to compare things like that and and a race I always believe there was like an age where a race car driver tends to kind of nose over

the performance goes away and they you know you've got to start thinking about a life shift so there's this end of the career there's a middle part and there's a beginning right you know and and You've done this in a lot of variation songwriter you're the and then and being the man on stage and this and the in the in the star of the show and So like where do you feel like you are? What's left? Oh man, I wrestle with that one every day. Like it's hard to know where you are, really. I mean, I play with guys still.

Like I'll play shows with Willie Nelson or George Strait. And when you do that and you see that these guys still going. Can still do it and still get it done. You're like, well, maybe I'm in the middle. Yeah. But there's also plenty of, that's the exception of not the rule. Do you talk to them? Do you talk to a guy like George Strait about how to sustain that longevity because at the rate you work, you can't, you know.

No, but I should. Yeah. You know, sometimes, you know, you know. I wonder if they are intentional about how often they work, right? Well, I think, I think he is for sure. And I think Willie is too. You know, they have, they find the processes that work for them and they stick to that. Yeah.

And I think a lot of that is figuring out when and how to say no. Yeah. Because we all get in modes where there's more availability to say yes than you have capacity for. But, and you want to say yes to all the good things. Yeah. Because there's lots of good things. But the truth is you can't do it. What is your favorite part about being a musician?

Is it being on stage, singing live? My favorite part about being a musician is, there's a thing that happens I call it autopilot but when you get on a stage with a group of guys that

and living and I'm watching the band as well when you're playing a song that you may have played a hundred times but everything's buzzing everything's connected and there's a connectivity

I'm sure there's a similar feeling of racling when all the stars are lining up the car's working right the track feels good, the weather is right. You know, like you see Elaine or whatever it is. I don't know. Same thing happens on stage where you get in this moment where everything, you're not thinking. There's not a thought.

The music happens. The music happens and then you can pay attention to what everybody else is doing in some ways. And people can start stepping out of that within. it's a hard thing to describe but that's my favorite moment in music is when everybody is connected in that way and when that connection happens it's it's a little bit of an out-of-body thing to yeah and but it also that stuff gets thrown out that energy gets thrown out into an audience if you're even if there's even an audience there yeah and that energy will come back to you and we'll inform what you're doing because and that's how things can happen in a live music setting

that will never happen without it. And that's why live music will always exist, too. And it's hard to describe, and that's the best I could do at describing it. But that's the reason we go see live music is to have those moments. Yeah. How much does the artist on stage feed off of the crowd's reaction? Like if you're standing on stage and you happen to just lock eyes with somebody in the crowd and they're having the best time of their life, how does that affect you?

It's dangerous for me to lock it. I'll start laughing. Really? Yeah, because not because I find it funny. Right. Because I'll get distracted and I'll mess up. So what are you trying, where are you looking off in the middle of distance?

I'm concentrating very much on people on stage a lot. Really? You know, if I, if we're not playing a song, I'll break out and I'll talk to people or whatever. But when it's time to play, sometimes because people will do crazy things in an audience. They'll lose their mind or, you know, or, you know, in rare.

instances, you know, take their shirts off. Yeah. Who knows? Like, it's, it's very, um, that can be, it's dangerous. It can be challenging to concentrate on what you're trying to do for everybody else when you see somebody. For you know, what about as a group like when, you know, for example, when, when, when the entire audience does something in unison? That's, that's a proper thing. And usually you, you prepare yourself for that and you're conducting. You know it's coming or you anticipate certain moments or you steer it that way. Yeah. little bit. Yeah, that must be pretty awesome. It is. It is if you can, you know, get people

locked in and it's harder with bigger crowds because you can't really see all the faces, even if you want it to. But you can, yeah, when you can have those moments, those shared moments of people singing along or a really great moment in music is when you have like a song that is a new song or something and then then there's the first moment where everybody's kind of locked in on that and singing that. Those are good moments. You know, you wrote songs for Luke Bryan, Dirk's Bentley, Tim McGraw,

all kinds of people, all types of famous people, right? And that was for the most, for, I'm assuming this, now you can correct me if I'm wrong, but for a chunk of time that was, that was your bread and butter, and then you became. For about four or five years, that's all I did. Right, and so there must have been a lot of satisfaction in seeing that song

that you wrote become what it became. but then a completely maybe a different experience altogether writing and singing and your own song you sang becomes successful what's the difference um it's it varies by the song you know sometimes when I was first having people was fortunate enough that people would record songs that I wrote there was a real moment where some of it was frustrating because they would change a melody oh yeah change a word or Yeah, that would be like, I work on this thing. I didn't even think about that. I work on this thing and then you've done this.

And then over time, I came to appreciate that as artistry, not as them trying to mess with me. You know, like it wasn't like they weren't trying to mess with me, you know, in some way. Yeah. But that was just being young stuff. Are you ever in the studio when this song's getting produced or created when they're tracking this song?

Rarely, right? Rarely. Yeah. So you're not. Hey, I was wondering if you'd ever been there to help steer the song toward what your vision was. I know, and, you know, on the totem pole of getting songs recorded, songwriters are kind of down here. Gotcha, yeah. You know, everybody else is up here. But I know, but after a certain amount of success, though, you would gain some leverage or no?

Well, I mean, I'd be invited to sing on things once people, once that was the thing, you know. And certainly, people wouldn't want to play things for me sometimes. And majority great experiences of that. I don't want to make it sound like I hated everything that everybody had recorded. I've enjoyed success in winning as a driver and I've done it also as an owner and there are two different things and I wanted to get I wanted to understand for you As a songwriter when you know, I guess when George straight takes your song and does something with this one thing But then you do it yourself. What's well? Here's the other thing that I think is important to note. I think a lot of things that I had success with as a songwriter I could not have had success with and what I mean by that is

a good example of that is there's a song called Your Man that Josh Turner recorded you I don't have you ever heard that song it was the first number one ever but he was perfect for that song me singing it is okay but him doing it and the way they did it

and it was what made it a hit and what made it a thing that I probably would not have done in the way that he didn't and couldn't do Yeah. So I love that about songs is they can become something different when somebody else is doing it. Yeah. But I like that success.

I like that. It feels very validating as a songwriter to have that happen. And I'm a good enough singer sometimes. I think when I'm singing my own songs, sometimes. maybe it's hard to know if it's the song or what I'm singing. I don't know. It feels different as an artist to record your own songs because I've never really talked about this. So I'm having a hard time putting work to it.

Was there, was there, so you're having success writing, the decision to go and be an artist yourself was a, Was there any risk involved? Sure. So I guess you can continue being a songwriter and do that as well and see where that goes. A little bit. You didn't have to leave something to go to that. Well, I mean, when I really started touring, I was in a band called The Steel Drivers.

And I took, you know, if we want to apply numbers to it and risk to it, I took about, because I was spending so much time on the road, not really burning up the earth, making money or anything. I wasn't losing money. but I took probably about a 40% hidden income from songwriting because I wasn't doing it. Yes. So were there people in that world going, we want you to keep writing songs?

Why are you not? There's plenty of people. Why are you not writing songs anymore? No, like the people. I mean, I fulfilled my obligations. Right. Contractually. Yeah.

But I know. But I mean, these songs that you wrote were great. And they didn't, the people like the, I guess, record companies and the executive and so forth, weren't coming to you and going, hey, knows you haven't wrote any songs, lately.

No. Really liked to write a few more songs. Well, I mean, I used to write a bunch, too. Like, and I used to write, you know, two and three songs a day.

Five days a week, really? You know, and so I had a pretty good stockpile at that point. And it wasn't, you know, it didn't,

I always looked at it as all part of one wheel, too, like, if I was going to liken it to what you're talking about with the racing, experience. I am positive that you having been a race car driver makes you a better owner. Yeah. A race car team because you understand things that you can't possibly understand

unless you've been out on that track like that. The same, I feel the same thing about, I am a better, I'm much better at making records and doing my own thing because I've done enough songwriting for other people and even singing on other people's records or playing on other people's records. I've done enough of that that I understand what it is maybe I do that is valuable or worth letting people hear hopefully. I think I have understandings that you can't have if you just show up and get a record deal or or if you have never written a song, I think I have understandings of things musically

and that you just can't have unless you have that experience. Has it always been country that you wrote? I mean, I've written songs for lots of different people, but... Is there like a genre that is out... Is there a different genre that you've wanted to write for, have it never thought, you know, you just haven't done it? You know, I've had opportunities to do... The only thing I have never done just because I don't know what I can contribute to it,

and I've had opportunities to do it. It's like stuff in electronic music, but I've worked with rock musicians. I've worked with hip-hop musicians. I've worked with R&B acts. I've worked with all kinds of people. Really? And I love doing all those things. I also like seeing what I can contribute in something that people think it's not my thing.

Right. Wow. Yeah, they wouldn't expect to see you in that space. And I think I've done a lot of that. you know, if you really dig. Is that something, so a lot of people might not know that you wrote a certain song, right? You probably encountered that many times where somebody goes,

damn, I didn't know you wrote that, right? Someone else was singing the song. You'll say that it wasn't a big deal. You were just writing songs. You just enjoyed writing songs, but... Well, I wanted to be able to cut them, too. You know, like, I wanted to keep getting to make music for a living. That's always my goal.

It's still my goal, a little bit, you know. So when a song that you wrote, to say Luke Bryant sings blows up was there a little bit of like god dang man I want to be I want I want I want to I want the full experience that you're having now right no no no I enjoyed that role yeah and um I only really took a like a big commercial country deal because a friend of that I'd known a long time was in a position to kind of offer me that and he took me to lunch one I thought we were just going to lunch he said his name of Brian Wright and he said hey I'm curious if you would ever get the end of the lunch like would you ever think about coming over here

making a record I was like well let me go home and talk to my wife about that yeah and that and I got home and I said hey Brian offered me a record deal today and I was like what do you think she's like well why wouldn't you do it I couldn't come up with a good reason not to. So that's kind of where that started. Damn. Yeah. How closely do you watch the charts? How does that matter? Well, I have done that before, but I don't. So when your first, when your first song gets on the charts, you're, you can't not, right? Sure. Yeah. Well, as a songwriter, like there's, there's, there, oh, these services where you can watch real time. Oh, what things are doing.

And that will drive you crazy. Right. And you're just, it's not worth it. When you're writing, your first song, your first hit that you sang hits the charts. Oh, I can't watch that either. I have learned not to watch it at that point. Why? I probably know the answer, but I just. Well, the reason is because somebody will tell you if it does good, and somebody will tell you if it's gone. So there's no real reason to watch it.

You just go do the next thing. I guess like the billboard charts would be my, when I would probably, because I watched those my whole life. Right. Right. I've looked at them as a music fan my whole life. Has the importance of the impact of the billboard chart changed over the years? No, it's still important. I'm not saying it's not important in any way, shape, or form.

I didn't know if there were like a new way, a new way. Well, I mean, streams are different things. So the amount of. I mean, but all those things are important in ways that they've always been important. they are visibility. But it doesn't change how I make something. Yeah. I'm just as proud of something that died in the 40s

as I am something that went all the way to number one because I believed in it. Are there things, I guess that brings the question. Is there songs that don't? So I got, you know, I have a buddy that's in this band and, you know, of course everybody does, right? And you're like, God, this is good. Why isn't it, you know, why doesn't everybody know about this?

Are there songs that you created that didn't do as well? And you're like, that was a fucking good song. I mean, that should have, you know, that was, that song had every, ever, that song had every right to be number one or in the top ten. Right. It sounds just luck, though. Yeah. I mean, I'm incredibly lucky in a lot of ways.

But it's also for the song, the timing has to be right for the song. Timing has to be right for the song, but also. Is there songs that you released in the wrong moment? It's just like, God, just... I don't know. I don't know that you can know that. You don't know that. Or it just served the purpose that it was going to serve in the moment,

and you believed in that moment. And, and... Next. You know, like, you keep on working. It doesn't... What about physical gold and platinum records? Physical gold and platinum records? Those were all nice to have.

Yeah. But that's a weird calculation now, too, because it's not all based on... It's different, yeah. It's not all based on... physical copies. Physical copies. There's a streaming component, and that is a calculation that seems arbitrary a little bit to me.

But, you know, yeah, they're important in that you can say, I have one of those or don't have one of those. So like in the 80s, you know, you would see artists photographed with their gold record, their platinum record, because it was a true measurement. Right. We didn't have digital. Right. And so that's changed down to a bit. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm not going to pretend to know everything about how those kind of Where do you put all your gold platinum records? Do you hang them up? No. I got to be honest with you, I have a lot of those things, and some of them are wrapped up in box for my kids to look at maybe one day. Do you worry about that?

So I don't have a bunch of my trophies either in my house, but that's Amy's just more Amy than me. but um I'd have that you'd have a shrine yourself. Yeah. I would.

Well, um, but, uh, I think about my kids and what they will, will that, will this matter,

right? Well, these things, there's shit that I have that was my dads or there's stuff that I've kept, that's mine,

and I'm like, I'm wondering, am I, I, I'm worried too much about this. You know, they're going to look at this and they're not going to feel what I feel.

you know or not going to feel what you think they should feel or they might feel yeah um I don't know that's that's a complicated I know you just got to let it go let it happen I guess I you know and I do hang on to a lot of that stuff I do know I and mementos from various points of making videos or any of that kind of stuff I hang on to those things and have them put away if they do want yeah but it becomes a point too where you're just like what are my kids going to do with all these ss. What is the, uh, big run to Goodwill.

Yeah. I hate to think where all this shit I'm, I'm hoarding is going to end up. But, uh, and I'm, some of me is a little, I feel a little bit bad that I'm putting all that on their shoulders and they'll have to deal with it one day, but, um,

that's what I'm talking about. Like, I don't know. Yeah. I'm putting something on them. Yeah, they're going to be like, God, this is our mess to clean up. I hear, thanks, Dad. What the hell's you keep this for you?

So when you're making an album, do you get involved or does it matter to you, which single gets released? Are you, can you influence that? The record label will go to you? I can. Yeah. And the way that our agreement is is we have like, you know, a mutual agreement of things. Oh, yeah. And so a lot of times, it's just a discussion.

And I have a really great, I will say I've been fortunate in that my label experience has been really great. overall you know like they're always they'll listen you know if I really feel firmly about something that may may not be the easiest path for them you know on a single but also if they have something they want and they feel really strong about it I'll be like okay maybe one for you one for me yeah you know like yeah he's got a picky moments sometimes do you get nervous about an album release as far as public perception reaction or is that changed because you know singles get out you know there's a little bit of the album release I'm very much believing the album as an art form

and and I like that more than I'm just like a resting on a single necessarily it feels like something that doesn't matter to the world as much but I'm old enough it still matters to me Do I worry about it? I want it to do well. Worry is probably not the right word. I definitely very strongly want it to do well, and I want it to be well received, and I want it to be as good as it can be within my capabilities

and everybody that's working on it. I want the best of myself and other people that are working on. record. That's what I want. And if we do that, I'm worried about how the other stuff goes. It's fine. Who gives you the most honest credit? Oh, that's my wife all the time. Yeah. Has she ever told you, hey, man, that's not doing it. That's not it. Oh, all the time. Oh, yeah. All the time. And you're, and you got to work hard to, to be, like, objective and open to that criticism. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the good. It's hard to hear from her.

Well, no, I'm used to it. But, yeah, she doesn't let me get lazy on anything musically at all. And even sometimes, you know, there'll be things that we kind of let go. She's like, she's like, you still didn't get that. Oh, yeah? Yeah, oh, for sure, yeah. Super Bowl National Anthem. That was a big deal.

It was a big deal. Did you know that it was going to have that effect? I mean, did you, I mean, it's the National Anthem and it's been saying millions and millions of times, and by thousands of very good artists of all types. Yeah. Do you practice it? Do you make a couple runs? Oh, yeah, I'll practice that one.

Yeah. Yeah, that one, I don't get nervous to play necessarily. That one, I was like, I'm going to make sure I'm, I'm his. prepared as I can be. For this, because that's, you know, I would have people ask me to sing the national anthem for various things. And I jokingly always said, no, I'll just do it when the time I'll do it at the Super Bowl, you know. And I just turned it down a lot.

Yeah. And I do say now that I've officially retired from it as well. Yeah. Because, and I have to give credit to, and I'm not saying my version wasn't good, I think it was good, but all the TV ads. editing that they did while I was doing it was just spot on everything that they did to make that moment feel as big and nice as it could. They did it and they executed it flawlessly.

So yeah, yes, I prepared for that and yes I worked on that. And that was genuinely nerve-wracking. Generally nerve-wracking. I was live, live. There was no pre-record anything. I guess in your, as you're going through that song, are you building confidence and you're like, man, this is, did you get in that moment, I guess, where you're like, it's an autopilot kind of thing? Did it happen and it's like over and done before you even knew it? I do, I do have a thing in my personality that the more pressure there is like that, I, it makes me focus.

more and I think that that I realized that I was doing something good in the moment I don't know I realized I was not messing up that that that was my goal to not mess up yeah like not mess up the words not flubbing you know a guitar lick or anything yeah that was my goal was to get through it to a degree that all right I executed the national anthem without insulting the national Yeah. And that was that was my goal. Where did you were I guess moments later you're off the field and in a in a Exiting in the hallway of the stadium did you have a moment to where you were like and Yeah, you know well I think the people that were with me and around me they were back slapping and you're like holy crap. Yeah, yeah and so I was like and then I could drop my shoulders a little bit. Yeah, okay, I did the thing. Yeah, let's go watch the football game.

Oh my God. That'd be like winning the Daytona 500. Like the most, that is the most elation I've ever felt in one singular moment. And then having to sit down and watch the Washington Commanders play a football game. I mean, I don't know if I could sit still. I just imagine the whole time you're at the Super Bowl, you're just... I didn't watch it back for the longest time. Yeah.

Because people were like, did you watch it? I'm like, no, I didn't watch it. Yeah. But you finally did. I finally did watch it. Yeah. And you were like... I was like, all right, I got it.

Good deal. Man, I got to wrap it up because I got a lot more questions I want to ask you, but man, we'll do it. It looks like you're on the last page. Yeah, man. It's just some clean up here. I am thankful to be able to sit down and ask all these questions. I'm absolutely super curious about what being a performer is like and all the things that run through your mind and your processes. and I'm just really, really thankful that we got a chance to sit out here and bull-h-h-h-h-ha-ha.

Yeah, man, I've enjoyed it. Yeah, it's nice to pick your brain, and there'll be a lot of people that'll enjoy a lot of the information you gave us today. And, man, I'm excited about what we're going to do in Daytona. I'm thrilled about what we'll do. We're going to have fun. We're going to have fun, and it exists. That's the thing for me. There's always anything that I'm trying to do is like, all right, we've put ourselves in the position.

Yeah. We've put ourselves in the position. for good things to happen. And that's all I'm ever really looking for in life in general. It's just like make some good choices and work on some things, work hard on some things that you believe in, and then maybe good things will happen. That's what I'm looking.

I think we're going to have some fun and some good things are going to happen, buddy. Thank you, Chris. Yes, sir. Thank you, Dan. All right, so I'm here with my sister Kelly, and we're going to be discussing some really big news. Man, maybe the biggest news that we've ever had to tell. Would you say this is the biggest?

I mean, I feel like our championships and things like that are pretty big, but this is pretty big. All right. Well, we've never really sat down to have the conversation, but we are today. Junior Motorsports is fielding at a Daytona 500 entry for the very first time. And there's a lot of details we'll get into around that, but let's tell everybody, I guess, how this happened. Yeah, so an opportunity came knocking, which was Travelers Whiskey. which is Chris Stapleton, who's a part owner of that venture. And they wanted, you know, I'm sure fans have noticed they've done some things around the races,

you know, advertising and whatnot. And so they wanted to make a pretty big splash and wanted to be in the Daytona 500. And we were lucky enough to give them an awesome plan on partnering with Junior Motorsports. And here we are, ready to make it happen. This was a long process. It was. One that I watched from, you know, from my perspective, not being in the office every single day from, you know, nine to five,

seeing all of the details and the back and forth in conversation with travelers. But Traveler Whiskey and Chris, Chris is very involved. He's been involved in design of the paint scheme, the branding, and, you know, all of, all of, all of the things you would hope in terms of a partner in engagement and curiosity and and he's checking all those boxes. So that's been really one of the nice things about this. That reminds me honestly a lot about, you know, the same way that you get involved in in terms of those things. And, you know, I was really surprised too that obviously you have

a similar situation with high rock. Yes. And your vodka. That's right. And so, you know, I was just really glad that it all came together. The high rock folks were supportive of us. Travelers was supportive of the fact that we're in the same situation. So there was really, you know, there's really a lot of synergies and understanding of the same concept of what they're trying to accomplish and what you guys have trying to accomplish. And it's so exciting too to have Justin as the driver. Well, I hadn't mentioned that yet. So we are going to have Justin Algar drive the car. and, you know, when we went, I think when we sat down and really thought about it, one of the things that I appreciate about Justin is not only is he fast and not only has he helped us have a lot of success here at Junior Murder Sports,

but his professionalism off the racetrack with our partners. just, you know, he does a great job with his crew, engaging with his team, keeps a pretty solid attitude outside the car and inside the car. And so if you're going to, if you're going to go to the Daytona 500, it's like, you know, you're going to, this is this, in my mind, you know, I have no idea, you have no idea whether we'll ever do this again, right? We don't know. You don't know.

But this is really, I mean, we have no other plans to ever enter another event this year, at least, right? So we're going to the Daytona 500. You want a driver obviously that can go out and do a good job, and he's very capable. But I think in our situation, it's never been more paramount or more important that the job the driver does outside the car has to be done well. because this is a one shot for traveler, right? They need a great experience. They need to come away from this going, yeah, they're not looking at just performance on the racetrack, right?

Right, exactly. They need a lot of things to happen, and there are a lot of things they want to accomplish that won't happen on the racetrack in this whole process. Justin is a guy that can really help us get to that mark and meet those targets for them. And so it wasn't as simple as, hey, who do we think of win the Daytona 5th?

100. Well, yeah, because there's a lot of people. I know, you know, I know you remember this. You know, we, we really exhausted a list, which Justin was part of, the list. And we kept coming back to what you just explained. We kept coming back to the fact that we need this to be, we need to perform, you know, no doubt about it. We want to make the race and all those things. But we need this to be successful all the way around. And like you said, Justin is just somebody that we know we can count on him and that was very important that junior motorsports knew we could count on you know the driver to to be as good as he is outside the car for travelers so um yeah super super exciting i know one of the things too is you know a lot of people um ask you know why car number 40 oh yeah so because

that's not really something that is um doesn't really have a semblance to our team or you know and usually the way you pick numbers and all those kinds of things you know we usually have some sort of reasoning behind it, you know? Yeah, well, it's a connection to the blend number 40 that, that travelers utilizes in every bottle. So, you know, much like, you know, kind of like high rock is 88 proof. Yeah. Right.

So there's a connection to the product. And that was, you know, I'll be honest with you. I really, I was indifferent. I really, you know, and I think in a lot of scenarios, I would have been very matter of fact or opinionated, I guess, about a specific number. Yeah, I expected that from you. We're diving, yeah, but I mean, this is a moment where we're kind of diving into a very limited pool of opportunity in terms of what number you can run.

I mean, this is the Cup Series. They're all pretty much. You'd be in utilized. Yeah, they're all spoken for. Yeah. So, and I think, too, that it's, you know, it's Justin and him coming off of the championship and this feeling like a bit of a still of an extended celebration of that. Yes.

It really, and it's travelers' first experience and allowing them to have a little skin in the game on terms of they were involved. They were very, you know, they were very particular about the design of the car, and we all compromised a bit. And so them having this number that they identify with is, I think, fair. It was an important piece. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, I'll be honest. I am not nervous. I'm sure there'll be some moments where there's... I know. I'm really curious about that from your perspective because, you know, and, you know, recently in the past couple weeks, as we've waited to be able to announce this, I've just seen, you've seen other open cars that are going to be on the docket,

obviously. Well, hey, I almost feel like that we can't go down. We're starting at the bottom. And we're not expected. I think that's another part of it. It's like there's not an expectation. There's zero expectation. We're at the bottom and the only way forward is the only way we can go is up.

And so and two, I believe like I personally, obviously, I personally hope that this is the start of more opportunities for us to compete at the cup level. And should it be a situation where it's, It's very challenging. It would only motivate us to continue to go back. Because that's how we work, right? When we don't entirely succeed at something, we retool and try again. Yeah, we won't be satisfied for sure. We don't fail, right?

We don't love to walk away from something about trying to succeed at it. And I love another thing that you've always said. We race. You know, when we, as, and what I mean by that is, as life has changed, you know, retiring from full-time cup racing and becoming a dad and this whole our our own personal interests have changed one thing that doesn't is we race yeah we're we're a motorsports family legacy team for it till the end right right yeah and it will continue beyond me and beyond you and um and so that's one that's one thing i guess that's one of the the motto for me on this is this is what we do natural for us

Yeah, and it has not been easy trying to find this opportunity for us to enter. We are, and there's a lot of key elements that are creating this possibility for us that we're thankful for. But I wanted to say, like, let's talk about this on a very personal level between you and me. I have, I've reached out to the crew chief, right? And I've said, hey, what's the status? He's like, well, I'm already building the chassis. I'm picking out the body panels. We're already starting to.

I'm like, all right, I want to come to see that. I want to see this process come together, right? And I've told Amy, I said, you know, if I go to Daytona, I'd usually just show up for the day of the Xfinity race and watch our guys run and compete and go home. I said, hey, I want to be there as soon as the car gets pushed out on pit road. I want to be there in the garage when they're rolling it out of the hall or I want to see it. Yeah, I think that all of these things.

Yeah, I want to experience. And you've said this from day one, you're like, no, we're going to be down there. You and I are standing together and taking every moment. I know. And taking every moment of that experience. I was prepping Amy. I was like, you understand. Like, I'm going to want to see all of the things, right?

And it'll be very proud. And I want that for you too. And I want to do those things with you. And because this is something that me and you have thought about and talked about for years over, you know, a couple decades. And I want us to both be a witness to it, you know, together. So that should be a ton of fun. I'm really looking forward to that.

Regardless of the end result. Yeah, me too. It's just one of the very, it is, it's a cog in the big wheel of all the things we've done around motorsports, but it's one I definitely can't wait to experience together. Yeah, the result for me will just kind of be. like icing on the cake because it just takes so much to put it together, you know, from start to finish, like you said, the initial phone calls with travelers and putting together our plan and, you know, going through the process of paint schemes and then going through the process

of really how we can make this happen. And I think we have to give a nod to Hendrick Motorsports because obviously Rick was one of the first phone calls of like, Mr. Hendrick, is this something that you think we can pull off? And he's like, of course, you know, I'll advise and assist on however you guys need because I also felt and we've talked about this as it relates to cup racing because we've had a lot of opportunities to have conversation around cup racing with people but it's important to us that it be ours that we had a hand in it like you said you want to go see the prep of the car you want to have a hand in we don't want to just put our attach our name to something you know we really want it to be part of our fabric part of our DNA to have our hand

and everything. So this opportunity is like that, and I'm excited about that. But, you know, kind of giving a nod to Hendrick is important because we had to ask all the stupid questions. Where do we buy parts? What do we do? What does this look like? You know? And so that's been a process too. And their team has just graciously jumped in and been available as they usually are. As they always are. Yeah. Well, I can't wait for, I know, you know, our announcement is, is out and we've got a few more weeks before we actually see ourselves in Florida down at the racetrack. But there's a lot of prep and a lot of things that have to happen not only just with the race car and the team and pick crew and driver and there's a ton of things that got to get going.

But there's more happening, you know, around the partnership, the sponsorship, making sure that traveler has a great experience and that everything. Because there's things, let's hear a little bit, I think, about like, what is, what What are the things that happen outside of the garage, away from the car, in a deal like this? You got a one-race sponsor, Daytona 500. You understand the marketing and advertising and activation on site at the racetrack. What all does that look like? Yeah, that's kind of part of it.

You know, you mentioned earlier the performance part is not as big as the marketing part. And that's because obviously this is a one time. And I don't know if it'll be there only one time, but this is the first time. that they're going to have a sponsorship opportunity with the car. And, you know, they want to see good results. And they were all about, you know, impressions and the marketing plan and the PR plan. And we had to get very detailed into that to even get the opportunity to say this is what, this is how we think our team can go to work.

These are the assets around junior motorsports, around you, around me, and how they can, what they can look like. And so, you know, one of the interesting things that just probably the average, fan doesn't think about that that we've had to juggle is point of sale stuff in the stores, you know, that sell product like high rock and travelers. And, um, and the timing of all that around the announcement and when that stuff goes to the stores, because they had to ship that product, that material and put everything together, websites, um, all the POS point of sale materials and stuff that will go into the stores. Um, and then hope that like stores, like stores,

managers and people like that just leave it in the back room until we announced the whole program, you know? And it's like, oh gosh, please let this, you know, let this work like we hope it's going to work. But you got to be prepared. Yeah, there was a website and there was a website with a quick moment. With a, there was, there was, there was a moment a couple days ago. Yeah. Where a website went live with a sweepstakes or some part component of this whole marketing plan with the car. and Justin and Chris Stapleton and I know that our team was like oh no put you know get that get that back behind closed doors and I sat there and looked on the internet all day long waiting for the first person the one person that saw it find it screenshot it it and was like hey what's this

hey y'all praise that it didn't happen wasn't happening but yeah you know there is that that's the kind of thing like when you talk about how when it how it all comes together is just and the the the input that Chris and his team had, just putting it all together. It's been a process and just a lot of those little details that go behind the scenes. So I'm so excited about it. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah, makes me feel so good, you know, that the way you're looking at it in terms of our company and doing this and there's our family background and everything and our families, you know, LW, Amy, our kids, like, it's a big deal. I mean, my kids are older. Obviously, they ask to go to the racetrack unlike yours, you just bring them along, let's go.

And they're like, you know, I want to be there. I want to be there. And yeah, it's just a really cool opportunity. So it might be once in a lifetime. Who knows? You just never know. We didn't know about this opportunity would come to the table. So here we are.

Looking forward to it. So that number 40 travel risky Chevrolet will be out on the racetrack in Daytona. Hope everybody will tune in or come down there and celebrate this with us and enjoy Junior Motors' initial entry in the Cup. cup level and wish us the best of luck we're going to have some fun with it check out dirty mo media on twitter facebook tick tock and instagram