The Viall Files - E642 Going Deeper with Dustin Lynch Plus James Marsden, Taylor Swift, and Bethenny Frankel

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Welcome back to The Viall Files: Going Deeper Edition! Today we are joined by country superstar Dustin Lynch to talk about his new album, career highlights, and love life. First, the household gets together to discuss some recent pop culture headlines - like Bethenny Frankel doubling down on her makeup donations, Taylor Swift wearing Travis Kelce’s birthstone, and Kevin Costner finalizing his divorce. We also have a Texting Office Hours caller who is debating blocking her brother - but isn’t sure how to explain it to her sister.  “We love a long winded king.”  VOTE for Nick as Sexiest Podcast Host here: https://people.com/sexiest-men-alive-poll-2023-7964300 Start your 7 Day Free Trial of Viall Files + here: https://viallfiles.supportingcast.fm/  Please make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and as always send in your relationship questions to [e-mail] to be a part of our Monday episodes. Join us for our new LIVE show on Thursdays at 9PM ET/6PM PT on Amp, available in the Apple app store. Android User? Listen here: https://www.onamp.com/   To Order Nick’s Book Go To: http://www.viallfiles.com  If you would like to get some texting advice on Office Hours send an email to [e-mail] with “Texting Office Hours” in the subject line! To advertise on the show, contact [e-mail] or visit https://www.advertisecast.com/TheViallFiles  THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Vuori - Vuori is an investment in your happiness. For our listeners they are offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://www.vuori.com/VIALL     Drizly - Drizly is the most convenient way to buy beer, wine, and spirits, with delivery to your door when you want it. Download the Drizly app or go to https://www.Drizly.com    Rocket Money - Stop wasting money on things you don’t use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to https://www.RocketMoney.com/VIALL    Quip - If you go to https://www.getquip.com/VIALL RIGHT NOW, you’ll get 20% off any Electric Toothbrush, Mint & Gum Dispenser, Water Flosser.   Episode Socials:  @viallfiles @nickviall @nnataliejjoy @dustinlynchmusic @alison.vandam @liffordthebigreddog @dereklanerussell @genevievegoodman 

Hello, loved ones. We interrupt this important broadcast to deliver some exciting news in this household. Oh, yeah. Some sexy news. Some sexy news, if you will. Our very own Nicholas Vial, the host of The Vile Files, the namesake, if you will, has been nominated for a category we didn't even know existed. And it is the People Magazine's sexiest podcast host. Now, you might know People Magazine. They have their, you know, sexiest man alive category. They have other categories. They have other categories. Who knew?

We don't just have to go general anymore. We can literally pick the sexiest podcast host. So go to people.com. Place your votes. Sexiest podcast host. You're crazy. sexiest podcast host. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another exciting episode of the Vile Files Going Deeper edition.

I'm your host, host nick joined by the household it's almost a full household well it was a full household this episode our pop culture correspondent had to go get something to eat um and then go to the chiropractor pregnant problems whatever what are you gonna do uh so she's with us this episode uh for our wonderful interview with the great dustin lynch big big fan uh for all you country music fans out there uh we were excited to have dustin on and he did not disappoint though i can't wait for you guys to hear dustin what a handsome fellow biggest takeaway lovely lovely nugget oh say something else why can't i what man wants to be described is a lovely nugget he reminds me of someone who

you'd meet out at a bar and you could trust with your drink okay yeah kind eyes yeah kind eyes very kind eyes great smile great smile he really great voice yeah great voice yeah i wanted to ask him to sing but i figured that'd be obnoxious that might have been a little far yeah because i could just hear his beautiful voice and his speaking voice yeah i feel like you got to do it sneaky be like wait how does that song everybody would obviously know go you know i'm kind of like bait him into it like can you sing it yeah yeah it must be annoying i was really surprised his favorite taylor so song is style i kind of love that for him though i do too but like i didn't see him as like a 1989 girly yeah neither did i yeah i'm a 1989 girly get in line bitch just kidding

immediately i was like taylor swive albums can only belong to one person, clearly. Yeah. Immediately, I was like, he kind of looks like Joe, and he's a singer, and he's like a nice country Nashville boy. You want him to date Taylor? I don't know. But did you see that she was wearing a necklace with Jason? Kelsey. Or Travis.

Travis Kelsey. Jason's his brother. Yes. Do you think that's a coincidence or nothing that taylor does is a coincidence also hi amanda she's she's with us remote how are you feeling sniffly are you still covid free yeah yeah still testing negative for covid like gonna keep going because i've heard it's been like people will be testing later but like sad that i'm isolated you know it's never fun to be like i might get everybody i see sick and feel really guilty about it are you feeling better though

like what are we talking here what are we what are we talking symptoms just like sore throat a lot of mucus showing up to the party uninvited oh i'm sorry queen yeah thank you it's a it's yeah it's really not like that just like like we were kind of saying before we started rolling like in normal or pre-covid times like you show up with a cold you'd be totally fine but like now we have a new found etiquette or being considerate about people which i'm here for and so it is it sucks when you're sick and you're forced to like stay home knowing that like you could probably power through as we all did but like yeah no one wants to get fucking sick you know yeah the important of consent like

i feel like i've been sending all these messages being like just so everybody's aware here's the situation do you want me to show up to improv practice or not to mask is everyone saying no tbd tbd wow tbd yeah i feel like taylor and travis are tbd anyway back to trailer and taylor and travis would taylor she has said she liked to troll her that she loves to put easter eggs on jewelry and clothing items she has specifically said that before she has oh well then they're fucking I mean Travis is a only she could pull that off also like if I started fucking

someone and then was like where well actually if I was if it was a woman I think that would be cute and fun if it were a man they'd be like what the fuck but I also think while I agree that she nothing goes past her she's not doing anything you know randomly she's a very calculated

and fun woman in that way i will also say to play devil's advocate it isn't opal which like looking at the jewelry she's wearing in this photo it seems to go very well with her other jewelry it would be one thing if he was an august birthday our birthstone is like the peridot or like it's this weird lime green that would be i mean i just i feel like i'm really disappointed this take because like if you know taylor like i know taylor oh i'm so sorry i'm so sorry you would you would know that she's not going to be obvious with her easter eggs she's gonna she's gonna make sure it matches her outfit and it's she's gonna make sure it's subtle necklace she's just not own an opal necklace. She's just not going to come out with a sign that says,

I'm now having sex or dating. We don't know. We don't want to speak on Taylor's sex life. That's not our place. But yes, she's going to be subtle about it. She's not going to wear his jersey and nothing else. Correct, yeah. Although that must be a huge win for every professional athlete.

Well, what's the best Jersey, a basketball jersey, not as cool, a baseball or a football jersey. Your girl wearing your jersey. I think football is a cute baseball. Their outfits are too tight.

No, but the, their outfits are way too tight. It's a button up. It's yeah. It's a button up. It's a perfect. And you can wear like, you can still wear it.

You can even style it. And then you have like a cute top under it. Oh, I agree. A football jersey is like, you're just, it's, you're drowning. I don't think we were thinking like full outfits. I thought we were talking around the house. Sure. Naked.

No one else's home. Fine. Not wearing any underwear. I would style a baseball jersey. I would wear a football jersey naked. Yes. Case closed. Well, if you were dating a baseball jersey. I would wear a football jersey naked. Yes. Case closed. Well, if you were dating a baseball player, you wouldn't want to wear his jersey?

It would be like, I'd look like Winnie the Pooh. It's not big enough. Their outfits are way too tight. I've been saying this for years. You can see whether they have a butt, whether they don't have a butt. I don't think you'd wear the pants and belt, too. Also, you're probably not the same size as your professional

athlete boyfriend. I'd die. I'd lay down and die if I was. Travis Kelsey is 6'5", 230, 240 maybe. Yeah, which is why we'd want to wear his jersey naked. Yeah. It's like when you wear your boyfriend's sweatshirt or sweatpants

and you're like, this is not even the size I would buy for myself no literally when you put on there i've put on some meanwhile i'm stealing natalie's sweatpants all the time well but you know she had some big oversized sweatpants and they were tight on me you know who's not sharing sweatpants anymore i don't know if i need to have that disclaimer. I missed my transition. Oh, what? What is your transition? Sorry. I thought it was going to be good. I said, you know who's not sharing sweatpants anymore? Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner.

This is a real case closed. Yeah, Derek. Derek, give us a little audio. Case closed. Yeah, the case closed. Kevin Costner. They played that in court When Derek was on jury duty he recorded that illegally Oh my god

That's great speaking of jury duty James Marsden Oh yeah anyway Kevin Costner and Christine Barngarner That was so good you just had to ride the high Well yeah but we didn't Get to the story we just played the derrick audio and we're like yeah pick up on your easter eggs i'm kind of sad we won't be able to talk about him anymore i know there's no well he better get up to some

shit if i know anything about a messy queen is that they will continue to be messy agree uh so this is just a uh a plea christine if you're listening well even like kev like in his healing era i can't wait to see what kind of like dates he goes on know what i mean i'm excited to see yeah yeah what do you think kev's new age range is what's kevin how old is kevin i literally was gonna ask the same he's in his 70s is he 68 don't age him don't age him out oh my bad kev but it looks like he's in his 50s when you were dating nanny's mom oh my god maybe his mom's babe she is how old is she early 60s perfect i think she just turned 60 well how, how old do you think Christine was? Take a guess.

49. 48. 49. How'd you know that? She's 49? Yeah. Hell yeah. So maybe he'll go even younger than that.

That's, yeah, it's 10, that's about 10 and a half. The pendulum has to swing, but then it'll swing back. How old was she when they first started dating? When they first started dating. 2004, they were married. That's when they got married. What would that be? They've been together for a long time. Yeah.

Married 19 years. Damn. Lots of time to build up resentment. So, 30. No, she won't be 30. No. He might get some heat for that. 39?

Yeah, late 30s, early 40s. And he could go... She's almost in her 40s. She's mature for her age. Do you think I could pass as 39? Do you want to date Kevin Costner? I don't know. I'm just so happy for the goddamn guy.

I love him. What personality is surfacing right now? I don't know, but I love him. I don't know, Amanda had a really good transition again. Why do we keep losing these transitions What was your transition It was just you know who's not in their 40s anymore James Marsden

Because that bitch turned 50 What Did y'all see his cake Where Sunset Tower What did he say specifically You'd have to ask her pop culture I wonder if he was like,

like, I wonder what a compliment from James would be like. She was at Sunset Tower. I reserve the right for the fiance to correct the story, but I wasn't there. And she was getting an Uber. This is while you were together? Oh, yeah.

Oh, because otherwise she would have dated him. Obviously. He's a catch. And then it was like, he was like, so where are you ladies going tonight you know and then she said like back to my boy we were i don't think we were engaged we weren't engaged at the time and then he made a comment like of course you're taken or something like

that i think it was something like that he looks damn awesome for natalie oh no he's absolutely gorgeous seriously also like why were we invited to his party? I know. If he wanted to date Natalie that badly, he should have invited your pregnant fiance to his birthday. Look at that hair, that smile. Oh, my God. He's such, like, Hollywood classic hot royalty. Yeah. It was weird.

He always played, like, the guy who couldn't get the girl. Weirdly enough, when I was announced as a Bachelor, I was compared to James Marsden's characters that he played in movies is the one who like never got the girl like 27 27 dresses that's such an amazing movie and he gets to like play on like the cynical like doesn't believe in love guy but he gets the girl in the end he does but he gets cheated on in the notebook anyway he had a picture of himself on his birthday cake i don't think he probably designed the cake but but it'd be really funny if he did. It was from the model days.

If you guys had to have like, let's say one of your Instagram photos on your birthday cake, which one would you pick? Which one would I pick? To pull up next to Instagram. Literally. Well, yeah,

like a good shirtless one, right? Probably show off those. It's been a while since I've posted. I'm definitely in like my dad era. I'm definitely like envious of Tyler's thirst traps. No, the one against the wall, that stone wall was good. What stone wall?

On the right. And that was my paradise days. This one? No, that's me running. That's during pandemic. That's a stone wall? Oh, this stone wall. How many stone walls are you posing on?

Oh, what an unfortunate shot there. Look at that. You look fit. I was fit. Look at you cooking. Yeah, wow, there's a lot. Some of these running photos are really unbecoming. Yeah, Harry Styles looks much better running.

Go screw up. What is this? Oh, my God. Nicholas. What even was that, a pond? Why are your pants unbuttoned? I was modeling. Nicholas. What even was that? A pond? Why are your pants unbuttoned? I was modeling. This is my modeling era.

Why are you giving Tom Schwartz in this? Fashion frames. Yeah. All right. We can be done now. All right. This is uncomfortable. Wow.

But really any of those. Wow. I need to get back in shape. Lots of options. I need to get back in shape. That's the biggest takeaway. I really feel bad for Natalie in that regard. That you're aging out of your hotness?

Well, I'm still obviously in decent shape, obviously. I love how I say obviously. I mean, obviously. She takes off his shirt. But I'm not as in shape as I was. That's early when I met Natalie right there. This one? Yeah, Natalie took that photo. Oh. That's the most in shape I've was. That's early when I met Natalie right there. This one? Yeah, Natalie took that photo.

Oh. That's the most in shape I've ever been by dating Natalie. Your arms look good. Yeah, they look all right. I have a question. What is that like for men? And I'm sure every man is different,

but do you have any insights on like the ways to compliment like muscle growth? Because like my boyfriend's really been hitting the gym and he looks great and i don't i realize i like don't know the words to be like big muscles good job i think you just say like yeah your body's looking good you know you look diced as hell diced yep that's what i

hear that's what i hear i would just say uh that you just say I'm really noticing your arms I don't know just yeah tell me you noticed I don't I mean I do I just wasn't sure if there was like

a more specific compliment men are not picky when we receive compliments and I do think men are compliment starved I do I totally agree I don't think men

receive enough meaningful and sincere compliments from their partners but I feel like men sometimes don't accept compliments receive enough meaningful and sincere compliments from their partners. But I feel like men sometimes don't accept compliments well. Like, they'll be like, yeah, I know. Like, you know, or like, they'll be like, not like kind of like, and maybe it's just because like, they're starved of it and they don't receive them enough.

But I will say, sometimes the reaction is not what you would want. I hear you on that. But nevertheless, compliment your men. Persist. Persist. Persist. They need it. What is Bethany Frankel? What did Beth, what happened? Is Bethany just in her villain era? used makeup or potentially stuff that she'd used before. And then basically she kind of dug herself a deeper hole because she had said that this TJ Maxx cashier couldn't afford the palette that she was getting her, giving her in this bag of used makeup products.

And a bunch of people were commenting, why would you say that? And she literally responded to the question in comments by saying, because she's a cashier at TJ Maxx. So insinuating that because she works at TJ Maxx, she couldn't possibly afford the bag of things that she was given. And then it just flooded a whole other comments of how tone deaf she was, how ignorant it was. A cashier can afford it if they save for it.

Came across as entitled and rude. I don't really care about any of this in a sense that like she definitely stepped in it for sure but like why the fuck are you recording you donate like what does that need to be documented why do you need to put that on fucking tick tock

you know if you want to do something nice for someone just go fucking do it and shut the fuck up you know you don't need to document it you don't need your hero shot if you want to give some people at TJj maxx and like let's not pretend that like you know if maybe she could afford it but like she's not affording it because of her salary from tj maxx and if you want to do something for nice for people who are employees at tj maxx that's awesome because like they probably can't afford i don't know like maybe they can but like sometimes that makeup is so fucking expensive but if you want to do a nice thing just go do the nice thing well don't expect praise from it it

feels like it kind of deflates the value of doing good things and maybe it's the catholic in us because we were always taught that by you advertising something good that you did you're not really doing it for the right reasons but i recently saw even someone i know post this whole thing on instagram about this like big good deed they did and it was not only a grid post but a story post and all this other stuff and I was like okay but then then I question why like why do you need to share it like

one of my good buddies used to live in LA and his wife would volunteer a soup kitchen every fucking Wednesday so every once in a while we'd go and help I wouldn't like I didn't like Instagram it and be like, look at me, I'm serving food. It's so gross that people do that. So my biggest problem is her just even trying to get fucking credit for giving away fucking samples, which she does get all the

fucking time. It's not a good deed. The people who are accepting Bethany's charity are doing Bethany a favor because she does get so much free fucking shit sent to her house all the fucking time that she can't keep up with it. So she needs to give it away. It's not even a good fucking deed. That would be like Natalie filming a TikTok

when she gives us some of her old PR stuff. Oh, you poor ladies. You're so destitute. You look for the podcaster like you can't possibly. I'm so good. Yeah, but like, what is this? I don't think Bethany is stupid. Is she just like in this whole like, you know what?

I'm totally embracing the no press is bad press era. God, maybe. Where did we land on that? Is that true? I don't think that's true. It used to be until nowadays. I mean, there's so much press now. I don't know.

Seems like she tripled down. Yeah. I don't know. I just don't know why she's filming this shit. True. It was bound to backfire. You know what didn't backfire? What interview with dustin there we go nice nice like a bunch of amazing transitions y'all oh michael and danielle broke up what took them so long to announce is my question well because he had that kind of ominous

statement weeks ago if not months ago that was kind of like i'm not going to talk about this relationship right now so i feel like a lot of us in the community sensed that they were not together. But now it's official. Oh, by the way, speaking of Bachelor in Paradise, next week we got Rachel Recchia with us, former Bachelorette and now you're a star of

Paradise, looking for love again on the beaches of Bachelor. Excited to talk with Rachel. Her and I have a lot of history. Can't wait to get into it with her. It's going to be a lot of fun. I. Excited to talk with Rachel. Her and I have a lot of history. Can't wait to get into it with her. It's going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait to talk with Rachel, have her on the show.

And that is on Tuesday for Reality Recap. But we got a lot of content coming up for y'all. Bachelor in Paradise, Golden Bachelor, Special Forces, Love is Blind. We'll be watching some TV. And you should too, because we'll be talking about it. Before we get to Dustin, don't forget we have another episode of Better Date Than Never live tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. Don't forget to check that out. We'll be popping off in the chats.

It's a ton of fun. People sharing success stories. People sharing what I like, my favorite, the failures. Because we like to learn through our failures. Either way, it's fun. People are making friends. So join us. That's tonight live at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Also, don't forget to send those questions to asknick at thevilefiles.com for all things Ask Nick, texting office hours. If you haven't checked out the Tyler Cameron episode, be sure to do that. It was a doozy and an amazing Ask Nick episode dropped on Monday. Dropping another update special on Vile Files Plus this Friday. I don't know. We're at 14, 15 updates now behind Vile Files Plus. So if you love those updates

and I know you do because you guys just be listening to all the ones we put on Classic. Do yourself a favor. Sign up for Vile Files Plus. It's free. Just go to VileFiles.com and you will have plenty of content to enjoy all right the one the only kind eyes himself all right all you workout warriors out there if you are not checking out viore you are making a huge mistake let me tell you especially uh ladies who are listening to this show uh you got to be tired of the crap that your husband or your boyfriend the stuff that they're wearing to the gym chances

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when you want it. Drizzly, the go-to app for drink delivery. Dustin, welcome. How's it going? It's going great. Yeah, we're excited to have you. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, congratulations on all your success.

Buddy, you have a new album coming out? I do. We are listening to your music this morning, rocking out. Just as important, this is my first... What do we consider this podcast? Relationship? Yeah, relationship, pop culture. This is my first, y'all. There you go.

There I am. Yeah, we love that. Pop is cherry. No, it's not your first podcast, though. No, no, no, no. No. You're really just ready to peel. I've realized through the years that I get cut off a lot when I'm doing interviews because

I can be long-winded. We love that. So please cut me off. We love a long-winded king on a podcast. But a lot of, I forget if I'm doing radio or something that these guys are looking for quick bites. Yeah. I'll get to talking and telling a story.

And it's like, well, you asked the question. I'm just going to tell it. But so podcasts are fun. Yeah. That's awesome, man. We're excited to have you.

We're excited to maybe peel back those layers, you know, get to know the real Dustin Lynch. Come on. I got nothing. You know, I was, I was telling some of my team what I was doing this week and,

and starting with you guys. And a lot of them are fans and they're like, Oh man, Nick's going to go in on you. I was like, what's great though is I have nothing to hide. That's good. So at least I don't think I do. Are you sure?

Maybe we'll find some dark corner that I haven't explored yet. I was Googling your ass and it was hard to find some, you know. You know why? Because there's not like, I think, which we can get into this and we probably will. But I think I've learned a lot about myself. I'm not a great multitasker. So I've been uber focused on music and career, making sure I don't screw that up. And then uber focused on building my home life personally, but I've neglected finding that person to do it with.

Maybe right here at the Vile Files. This is my flag in the sand. We're going to raise it up right now. I love that. And start the journey of figuring out, you know, is life better with a plus one? I don't know. It is. I find it to be.

Yeah. I do miss, like, I look back on this past year and I haven't done like a, I don't know what you want to call it, a trip with a plus one that like extended amount of time. I got to do a couple last year and really love that. Like just the, the mental break of going and exploring a new city with somebody. And I haven't done that this year and I kind of miss it. So are you fully single at this point?

Yeah. Okay. I am. When was your last, you know, relationship, not like date or anything like that, but like when you really were,

it would have been, I ended it. Uh, it ended March of 21. Okay, so a bit now. Yeah, it's been a bit. But you know, we got, life got back to like normal then for me, you know, touring and back to doing shows in 21 and then 22 was crazy. Even last year was kind of weird for us catching up on shows that have been moved a couple

years and this year has been pretty proper and scheduled out. So you're ready i think i'm ready yeah and and honestly like the the creative process of an album it takes a toll on me i love to be alone and and just think and work through what i want to say and because albums are big moments this is uh the sixth album we've got to record kill the cowboys number six which is cool it's like, what do I want to say? You know, and how grown up do I need to be? I know at some point I've got to grow up a little bit, you know,

with what songs I'm singing about. I can't sing. That's interesting. Yeah. That you're thinking about. I can't sing what I was singing about 10 years ago. Sure. I mean,

I still can, cause I'm still there. I'm still single. Do you feel almost self-conscious a little bit? A little bit. Yeah. When you're writing music. Well,

like a lot of my friends in country music are, this is what, I think this is a lot of pressure I feel, which is why I'm probably looking super inward right now. But a lot of my friends are married and have kids that are, that I grew up, you know, in the Nashville ranks, if you will. Like we moved to Nashville at the same time. We started playing bars at the same time.

We started getting publishing deals and record deals. And a lot of those guys have wives and kids. And here I am not getting invited to trick or treat nights. And like the wives, the wives are steering that ship, right? I mean, the husbands, like my artist buddies are not, are not going, hey, we should do a caroling night. Like this is all the girls making all this happen. But I feel like this loner out here that doesn't get to go to this cool stuff with my buds. So, yeah, there's some pressure coming.

And the country music fans are absolutely avid supporters of personal lives. Yeah. Outside of any other genre. I mean, without a doubt. Like they're more invested. I toured with Thomas Rhett in 2019. And TR and I have since day one. He was actually in college

the first day I met him. I was writing with his dad, Rhett. And Rhett was like, hey, you mind if my son comes and grabs lunch with us? He's got, you know, break or whatever. Yeah, sweet.

It was Thomas Rhett. We toured in 2019. So he and I go way back before we had anything going. Wow. And I'm standing on the side of the stage like the second weekend with Rhett, his dad. And I'm like, dude, how the hell did we get here?

And Rhett said something. He goes, man, he goes, what's crazy is a lot of these people are here for Lauren and the kids as much as they are TR right now. They're that invested in the family and his daughters. And God bless his soul. What's he got three or four now girls. I mean, we got to keep supporting Thomas. The man's got it.

He's got a bunch of weddings. But I see what you're saying though. I was telling you before we started recording that I like recently got into country music. Now he took me to stage coach. And I think that was like the thing I noticed the most about just the atmosphere other than like listening to all the great music was like the community. The community was just all about just like family and connections and like, you know, the people you love.

And it was just that's the vibe of that whole atmosphere was really great. And that's I think that's really kind of what drew me in to the music. It is. Yeah. And those festivals are so much fun because you have a lot of, you know, like-minded people like that that are spending days at a time and getting to mingle. And I have to ask though, like there had to be a song or an artist that you were like,

all right, I've never given this a chance, but I kind of dig this or that. Do you remember who it was? No, it was probably Zach Ryan. Probably. Was it?

Yeah, I think so. Natalie and I listened to a lot of his music. She was playing it. And I proposed to Natalie with one of his songs playing. And so, yeah, it was just like kind of easy listening. Who at Stagecoach? Because I feel like that was your first. Chris Stapleton.

Yeah. You know, like his, I always was a Tracy Chapman fan. That was my mom's favorite song luke holmes i'm sorry i'm still learning i'm still luke holmes ah not that wasn't stage coach but yeah like tracy chapman and he like redid that and i really enjoyed that but i'd probably say zach bryan like zach bryan was the like probably the first artist i started like turn on his whole album and like listen to it through and i like on my own without Natalie in the car with me so like that was like the first time I noticed I'm like oh shit man I'm like really enjoying this stuff once you kind of

break that seal then I started like just listening to more music I was driving Natalie's car and she had the country you know radio station on and shit in the past I'd be like click and turn it to something else and now now i just listened to it but like yeah i just never really gave it a chance i was like nervous to play country music in the car with him for a while because he'd be like next like not interested at all and then finally i'm like you're gonna love this people have to grow up you have to love this if we're gonna be together you have to love this i have to love this. It really kind of took a hold of me, and I really enjoy it. I just always love hearing what artist gets you into a genre.

What was it for you? Who was it for you? For country? Yeah. Oh, gosh, that's tough. I mean, my whole life, you know, Alan Jackson and George Strait probably would be who I obsessed over as a kid and still do. Baby, who did we see at Stagecoach?

He got the award and Alan Jackson presented him the award. John Party. Yeah. He got inducted into the- Yeah, we were there. And I just was really touched by, we were really close to the stage and really enjoyed his show. And then he got done and they presented the award and like

he got me all like choked up because i could like here i'm seeing this like rock star country singer yeah everyone's singing just like oh you're the best right but like he can't and i saw like the boy who like like you were talking about like how do we get here and it was just like you could see him just like have this holy shit moment i mean like i can't believe i'm here i can't believe i did this and it was like such like a really cool moment to watch and just kind of a humbling experience for him but like it's like you saw the man not the star and that like to me that was really touching and i feel like country artists do a better job of kind of connecting with their audience and like staying connected to their roots a little bit obviously it's so much about

like your lyrics and and music seems to be about your roots but i i wonder if my interpretation's right you know as a country artist because it just feels like you know you you guys seem more relatable than say other you know musicians yeah i think you know there's probably a bit of of acting that goes on oh no there is okay i know there is i mean even even honestly even with within our genre or a little bit of an offshoot like the more of the americana like i'm too cool for school i'm not gonna go do this because you know it's nice to have some mystery okay you know and i think you know in certain stratospheres of of fame country music is still very much so centered around the united states and canada that's our big markets australia mexico actually is starting

to really pick up some steam which is exciting that makes sense though brazil is starting to really pick up some steam which i'm super thrilled about to hear and would love to go tackle that at some point. But, you know, streaming is still so new that before streaming, country music didn't exist anywhere except here in the States. Like even before my record label, probably the first half of my career, the gentleman that owned my record label, we were a private indie mom and pop type label. He just did not like Canada and would not service our music to Canada because he had a- Who doesn't like Canada? I know, right?

He had a beef with whatever taxation or distribution deal that they had. And he's like, middle fingers, don't need you. And we're sitting here like, but we do need you. Please. So I'll still forget, like we were just up there playing with keith urban a couple weeks ago and we go into this you know one of our big hits off one of the first couple three albums and i'm like oh crap forgot we weren't up here during this this day of our career you know and the crowd's looking at us like is this new

because they just you know they, they don't know it. But streaming has opened those doors. So it's getting exciting. But to your point, I think because we're so involved with just the North America and we tour so extensively in North America, I mean, we tour, I think I've been to every city in every town pretty much in the States at this point. I think there is that personal connection. We just see more of these, of the people, you know, and we're able to tour more, I guess.

What are you most proud of when it comes to your new album? Oh man, that's a great, I haven't been asked that question about this album yet. I think just being vulnerable and having a bit of an openness of, hey, this is where I'm at. And I think I'm okay with it. I'm single, I'm 38 years old.

It props up being like, and being okay with that. I have no regrets that, you know, I'm sitting right here and like the things I've been able to accomplish and experience, but it's a struggle of like, if I give up that freedom and the adventure, am I going to be creative again? You know, can I be inspired to write? You asked my last relationship ended in 21. It was about a two-year relationship long distance for a while and then uh the pandemic kind of made us pull the trigger to move in together we're actually out here living in hermosa beach whenever it got

kind of weird and i'm like hey let's get back well yeah i was like let's get to the farm in tennessee because you want space yeah space and like we know we can eat there we can like go get something if we need it like we can literally yeah literally go to the woods and get it not the grocery go to the woods and get it and uh so we did that and that kind of forced us to move in which was great because i think there's that you know with long distance relationships with i struggle with i purposely have never dated anybody in nashville because i just don't want the small town. Yeah. The circles like talking. And so I try to stay out of that world. So long distance is kind of what I've found

some comfort in. And but then I fall into like two weeks off and then you see someone and it's three or four days of just awesomeness, you know, and then you go miss them again. And then there's another great event, like if she's coming to shows or, you know, if it's a red carpet at like an award show or, you know, we're going to do this thing. So the pandemic helped kind of remove all of that glossy space and fun that you would, you would go, okay, well, when are we going to link up next? Uh, you know, so-and-so is playing a concert or a ball game. Let's, let's go see them and support them.

It took all that away. So then it's like, okay, now we have normal days. Sure. And I think I learned from that, now we have normal days. Sure. And I think I learned from that, like moving forward before any commitments made, I'm going to have to for sure. Have normal days. Move in with someone or have them move in with me, vice versa, and have those normal days.

Yeah. Because right away you just start learning things that I don't think you ever, you ever see on those couple three, you know three days that you get every now and again. What do you think is... He's got that smile on his face. What do you think is the biggest challenge for someone to have a normal day with you? When someone moves in with you

in search to get to know all your little kind of picadillos and bad habits and things like that. Oh, what's their biggest challenge being with me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you think? That's great. I, what's their biggest challenge being with me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, what do you think? That's great. Um,

I think that I'd never, I'd never like to slow down and stop. I've realized it's so funny. Like a lot of small talk, you know, my circle is, you know, sports.

So it's like sports. And then, but then you move into like, you know, what are you watching? Who are your teams? Uh, I'm a Titans fan and my dad played for the Gators.

So that's like my college, my pro football. Okay. We'll see what the Titans do. But right now, the Nashville Predators are our city's team, Nashville's team, hockey. So that's kind of who I follow. The Titans are one-on-one.

Yeah, well, we got some building to do. But yeah, I think just not being able to slow down and staying on the go. I love doing, I love tackling new things. And I was getting to the point of like, I've realized I don't really watch any TV now that I haven't been

in a relationship for two and a half years. It's just not something like I'm going to go home and sit by myself and go. Watch a series. Yeah,

I haven't done it. So, I kind of miss that. This is really trivial, but like I miss going out to eat like new restaurants. It's kind of like,

how many times can you ask your boys to go eat? Yeah, it was like more normal in the twenties when you had like nothing to do and you're like, Hey guys, let's just go out. And you'd all like, you didn't really, when we were like in our early twenties, it wasn't like, what are we, are we going to hang out is where are we going? Right. And that you would just like roam in as a group to like whatever new place. Right. Yeah. And as you got older,

you know, my friends all got married and had kids too. Yeah. It gets a little weirder where you're like, it's like a mandate, you know? It is. Yeah.

Dude, I've seen you three times already this week. That's enough. What else do you want to talk about? There's this great restaurant, dude. We should get, check it out.

Yeah, for sure. So like, I feel like I'm missing out on that. And we were talking before we started, started filming here, taping, you nashville is really growing got some great restaurants and all that popping up so yeah raise the flag it's time to go on dates again there we go what do you is what is your biggest challenge i mean other than obviously being famous i mean that's a challenge but you know i hear this all the time man it must be tough finding somebody

that you can trust sure and it's like that sucks sucks to hear being where you are and all that. And it's like, I don't know, you know, because it's been a weird year for me and my like close group of buddies. I would say like five of the 10 guys I hang out with the most have gone through or going through divorce right now and they're thirties. And so, yeah, I don't know. It know it's it's is there a theme i mean every relationship is different and has their own struggles have you learned anything from your boys who are going through the divorce like have they spoken to you about maybe regrets or things they gotten wrong do they speak to like maybe a moment where they feel like they kind of lost connection with their wives and things like that or is it just you know i think probably a little bit of the repercussion of us not touring okay because if you think about we're doing for sure

75 cities sometimes 100 in a year and i've been blessed to have a lot of the same guys out on the road with me so we all started in a van but single living off taco bell and jack daniels you know and that like life has progressed sounds like a country song i look back at old pictures of us i'm like yeah you could tell that's what we were living off man um but but we've gone from that and so the girls that they met along the way you guys remember how big spring break used to be in panama city what the hell am i talking about before i get whale track guy single oh divorce got it okay so panama city beach used to be in Panama City. Oh my God. What the hell am I talking about before I get whale track? Guy, single, oh, divorce. Got it, okay. So Panama City Beach used to be

like Spring Break. I went there for Spring Break in college, yeah. MTV made it famous. I saw Steve-O there jumping off. It was like Eminem was like one of the first guys ever to like Club La Vila,

the phone parties, the whole thing. Oh my God. So coming up, I think Kenny Chesney took over early on for the countryside of those. And then Luke Bryan took it over from Kenny. And then some kind of way, I think Kenny Chesney took over early on for the countryside of those. And then Luke Bryan took it over from Kenny.

And then some kind of way, I just started manifesting, like, I want to be next in line. Luke had gotten to where he's like, dude, you're a little too old to be here. And he kind of... Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, spring break. And so we come through town. And no kidding, in one weekend, two of my very dear friends end up meeting their wives at freaking Spinnaker Spring Break. What?

Spinnaker. Is that not crazy? What are the odds of that? Wow. So go Spring Break. Go to Spring Break. Meet your wives. Yeah.

But anyway, so you start there and they've always missed their guys. Right. I think, and I'm not talking about everybody, but like, I think when schedules changed for the pandemic, I think it probably just like in my relationship, it got real like, Oh,

you're not this person that I'm used to having gone 150 days a year. And now you're here all of the days and you're annoying. I don't know. I'm just guessing but like it's just it's weird to me that it's an adjustment for sure that many guys in my life are going through it and and you asked what have i learned um that it sucks you know um it takes the wind out of everybody's sails but but you know a couple of guys you can kind of see a weight lifted off their shoulders once they get to the other side of it yeah i think

maybe they were fighting it for a while you know where it was it was kind of a drag before ripping the band-aid off happened there's always light at the at the on the other side of that i think for sure do you feel like there's just uh just being a guy what's your favorite thing about dating what's your least favorite thing about dating like what's your peak in your value? I get in my head, like least, least favorite thing for me is, is probably why I haven't allowed myself to date in Nashville. I just don't, I'm scared of the gossip that happens afterwards. You know, I feel like as guys, like I'm not going to go back on tour and be like, man, so this is how this date went.

And then they're not going to give a crap to ask me about her or, you know, it doesn't get that deep with us guys. And I just know with girls, cause I've seen it. It's just those group chats, man. It's just going to be talking about, you know, everything I know. And, and I think I see that through just girls that I work with. And that's probably the scariest thing. My favorite thing is honestly like the, the conversation and the excitement of getting to know somebody. Like, I think I do enough, uh, talking on camera and like interviews to where i can sit across the table from somebody and just it you have to i would think like either i'm gonna be i have an off day

or the person across from me has to absolutely suck if we can't keep a good conversation going because i'm just so used to and and what's so bizarre is like I'm an introvert um you are yeah big time man that's why I started like that's why I started guitar and in high school and just it's like how do I and maybe I still don't know how to talk to girls in public settings I don't like because I don't have any time I've never really had any time starting in college I was on stage a lot of the nights we were out you know playing college bars or then it would we moved on to playing like frat parties and sorority events all over the southeast and so that that's a hell of a crutch you know what I mean like there's not that okay I'm here

she's there the band's there how do I get her over there with me on the dance floor like if you and I went out tonight in LA yeah I would be would be terrified. Well, L.A. is. To approach. L.A. women are terrifying. But like just to approach. I see what you're saying. Because I've always had the crutch of when I'm out, you know, and especially now, like I don't go out. And when we're doing concert stops, like we'll have friends backstage, but there's no hang time for me publicly. So how are you meeting?

How do you want to meet someone? That's what I got to work on. Yeah. And I think that's what we're going to figure out today right here. Are you like a dating app? I want a game plan. By the time I leave this couch,

I want a game plan and a playbook. Okay, perfect. We'll write it out. That's a lot of pressure. Well, I DM'd Nick on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah, I think social media is is is very helpful you know but i've learned it's but you gotta be safe you got you know you gotta be i i've learned

like early on and i kind of regret like not jumping out here earlier in my career but i realized early on it's easy to create this character in your head about somebody just based on watching them online or meeting them at a party or something, then following them and then watching their life online. And then you actually hang out with them and you're like, oh, yeah, that's not, that doesn't match up. So yeah, I think you still have to get in there and get in the trenches and actually, you know, get real. Well, I mean, like we have like a few hundred thousand women listening to this. What's your type? I think I have it figured out, man. I think like I'm, I'm in love with the

great big personalities right now. Okay. And do you, if you find that, like, I'm a bit of an introvert as well. Like, I feel like I can be a big personality at times when I need to be, but generally speaking, I can be more reserved. And like, I feel like Natalie is a much bigger personality that I feel like balances me out. And I've always been drawn to generally bigger personalities. I've finally found a big personality that I enjoy. Yeah. I can't take it all the time.

Yeah. Because sometimes... I'm probably like you. Well, in the past, I made the mistake of confusing big personality with like someone who i just didn't find to be i guess in the long run kind or you know just complimented me you know so yeah like just because you a big personality can like be like a shiny new toy that you see and you're drawn to and then you realize you know hey you're a great person but maybe not for me uh yeah and i've found like a big personality can can happen for a few times and then you realize oh it's just the act is over yeah you know they've their stick is

yeah the stick you know i've had that but you said complimented and i think for me like i've learned like i have to be around a very diverse group of people there has to be ambitions professionally for me right now, just because if I'm sitting at a table with guys and girls that have gone through it already and are well above me in years, substance and being able to hold conversation and be able to talk about ambitions and plans with life, that's important. And I've found myself in situations where my plus one hasn't had a lot to say. And that's, I think, also a reason like I'm so guarded on letting myself bring along another because I don't want it to be a negative. I don't want to walk away and it be a negative. What do you mean by that?

we're going to go to this event, ask a girl to be a plus one, join. I mean, like I, I have to, I guess I want to be comfortable with knowing what they're going to bring to the table. If you know,

I don't know. We're sitting at a table and, and like a social artist and his wife and his wife and my girl have to start talking. I need, I need it to be a win. You can't just bring some person you meet online or some girl you met at a bar who,

you know, you might have thought might. I went through one of these last fall. Do you have a story where it went south? Yeah, I went through one of these last fall. You're like grinning. You're like, please tell me your story. I love an awkward story. And I thought I had figured it out where we had hung enough and she was super sweet and around me was fine. But then when we go to this dinner, it was just lockjaw, you know.

And it was just painful, man. Like the husband and the wife were asking questions and barely getting answers. And I was like, no. Because deep down inside, I wanted it to work so bad. You wanted to like wow them. That could be maybe like your biggest struggle is someone in your shoes. It's just, you need someone who can kind of hold their own

and act as if type of thing. I felt like I had that struggle a little bit. Like I'm not quite, you know, in your shoes or at your level and no, I'm not on stage and things like that. But you know, I had a public platform and dating was complicated coming from the Bachelor franchise and people only knowing you is like your dating history.

And so I dated other celebrities and I dated other people in the business type of thing. But like meeting Natalie, she was a small town girl, but at the same time- And you guys met how? I DMed him on Instagram. She slid in my DMs. I lived in Georgia.

He lived here. But she could, like when I would bring her around friends, she did just what you kind of described she like held her own you know and she i didn't feel like i had to always like make sure she was okay you know i like making sure she's okay but like she could like hang with my friends and it didn't matter whether i was hanging with like my family or like my hometown friends or friends from la that you know the kind of a sceney, she could always just adapt. And that made me feel very comfortable and kind of safe in a sense.

So I totally get what you're saying. I've learned. I'm in a lot of situations where I have to quote work the room. Yeah. Even if it's like we set up tents and stuff backstage where we host friends and we'll have to have you guys out now. I'd love to. Yeah.

Yeah. It'd be fun. But you know, a big group will show up and it's like, okay, I got to make my rounds. And just like you were saying, like with Natalie, I have to have somebody that can be okay with talking to maybe people they don't know or care about for an hour while I go talk to whoever it is, whether it's radio folks or, you know, anybody in the industry or just friends or family or whatever. What's your love languages? Get me started. I can get you, I can get there.

Okay. So we got. Y'all pass it around and I'll figure mine out. We have. Natalie's is everything. Everything. All of the above. So the love languages are physical touch.

Quality time. Quality time. Acts of service. Acts of service. Gifts. Receiving gifts. Words of affirmation. Words of affirmation. Words of affirmation.

That's the five? Yeah. So words of affirmation, like you like to be complimented. Reassured. Reassured. Told. I love that. I love, what was the?

Physical touch. Like, you know, holding hands, kind of caressing all the time. Just always, you know, touching on each other. Acts of service. Acts of service. They make you talk. Acts of service. I've you coffee. Acts of service. I've learned this.

I've learned, I would say, in the past year, and it's nothing crazy, but just simple pick up the ball if I drop it here or there is huge for me. That's how you like to receive love too. I've always been an active service guy. That's how I also show love. I like to do things for my people type of thing.

But I realized that i probably enjoy receiving it more than i thought in the past you know and like me doing it was almost a way of me kind of telling my partners that like oh interesting this is how i like to receive love yeah i wonder if that's why i like to host so much like i love hosting days evenings whatever you know when i, have time with friends and yeah, that's, I can see the connection there. And when you host, who are you bringing over? You bringing the, your, your boys and their wives?

Yeah. Do you like to be set up? I don't mind it. It's not, I don't think it's ever worked. Yeah. The problem with this setup for me, like, okay. A typical fun day if I'm hosting is I love to be on the water. So we'll, we'll get the boats out I saw that

on your Instagram and uh yeah say somebody was like hey this you know my friend or whatever friend of a friend that we really want you to meet and then I feel like I have those people watching us it's like these this audience watching this is the next season of the bachelor why is he not swimming over to her right now it's's like, I don't like that. It hasn't worked yet. Yeah, that's brutal. You know, just talking through friends is like, maybe that's how it finally works out for me.

You know, where it's kind of just friend groups and timing's right. I don't know. I don't think it could be a setup. It's like, hey, we're bringing over, you know. Girl, yeah. I hate setups. I just, you know could be a setup. It's like, Hey, we're bringing over, you know, girl. Yeah. I hate setups. I always,

I just, you know, I just never like, you know, girls, they, they, they love to prop up their friends,

you know, you're a beautiful queen. You're the best. And like, they are beautiful, but like, it's just like girls will gas up their friends so much that they forget that like, maybe they're just like,

not my type, you know? Like, it's like, yeah, no, they're great. You my type you know like it's like yeah no they're great you know like but like she's the best and i'm like no she is but like just not for me you know like i also have learned at least i want to say my family but my friends i've learned to pick up on their context clues of if they endorse somebody or not through the years of

just like probably doing it the wrong way enough to where you know like when you break something off your friends are finally like honest with you like dude she sucks yeah i've had that a couple times and then like i've probably just been ignoring a little bit of them not the negatives but there's not any positives coming yeah yeah so i think i've gotten better at picking up on those and she's nice. She's just nice. Yeah, exactly. So I don't know. I'm a work in progress as we can see. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah.

Shit. I mean, how old, you know, you're 38? 38, yeah. When I met Nick. What was your slide? I'm intrigued. I just saw a photo of him on my Explore page on Instagram. And I just sent that photo to him and said, you're unreal. Ooh, okay. Yeah. Groundbreaking. page on Instagram and I just sent that photo to him and said you're unreal yeah groundbreaking

uh and yeah he quickly responded I mean well it was like two hours so I mean that's gonna make anybody's day well I mean I that was the hope for sure that he would at least be like thanks but it actually went somewhere but it took 10 months of him denying me to actually want a date so maybe you might go through that what do you mean what do you mean denying you i would come to him and be like listen like i you know i like you we were hanging out every you know we were long distance i was in georgia and he was in la and i'd fly out here for a weekend and we'd do that whole thing that you were just talking about and finally got to a point where I was like, listen, like I like you,

I would love to date you. And he was like, no. And I was like, okay, perfect. And I'd circle back a couple months later and be like, Hey,

just want to let you know, I do still like you. Would love to date you. And he's like, no, thanks. That happened a couple more times. That's so fun,

but I'm good. And then finally, how many words did it take to beat around the bush to say no thanks though I'm pretty direct so I was like I'm sorry

no yeah that's kind of how I had my own reservation that's unbelievable yeah that you would

actually no I know I know and the fact that I like stuck around and kept asking but finally I was like

okay I'm done with this like I'm moving on and he I had a meltdown that's what it needed i get it yeah are your dms open yeah they are it's wild too you know what i um we we try to i constantly create music and write and record but really packaging an album and releasing it like you know we had started kind of i don't know a week or two ago putting out hey new album coming new, drop a new song here and there.

I've realized recently, like every time we drop a new song, it's an open invitation for people from my past or, you know. Oh, yeah. Love the new song. Hope you're doing well. That's it. Totally like this. You know, like I'm harmless, but we should hang out again. you know like i'm harmless but we should hang out again or yeah um so that that's uh it's always weird yeah that's been a new a new thing the past couple weeks so it's it's gotten pretty active yeah do you have a one that got away or somebody who's just kind of like you do i do yeah well i don't know like you say one that got away that means that that makes me feel like it's still an option and it's not an option okay how did you how did you first take it though it sucked man so i i uh i dated this girl that i was completely in love with and i was i went to college to be

and i was i was pre-med so i was i was in her mind and her family's mind and in my family's mind, going to be a doctor, which is a pretty secure. Sexy. Hot. It's a pretty secure. Yeah. We love a doctor. And then I made the, I had to make the decision. I just had this what if, like I was having so much fun.

I was getting paid in college to go to frat parties, y'all. Like that's ridiculous. So I had to make this decision. Like, okay, do I hang this up? I really want to do music for a living. It's ridiculous to think you can pull it off, but I just, I couldn't live with the what if. And so I put med school on the back burner and she hung in there with me for, I don't know, maybe almost a year. And then I think reality hit to where it was like, I'm living in this crummy rental house with two other musicians that are just getting going and like the glam of he's going to med school and

and she was kind of ready yeah she had this so i got axed man okay and that stunk because i was like this is the one right we're gonna do it we're gonna do it they break your heart yeah bad i mean i i was best friends with the john mayer album for a long time after that shit yeah yeah i know continuum started to hit different we're kindred spirits yeah i was a lot of john mayer for heartbreaks yeah come back to bed it's amazing they're like i kind of like this is probably a little bit of the taylor swift in me if you will but like i kind of love in a way going through breakups as a songwriter but also just as a music fan because songs hit different man when you're like when you're feeling it yeah you start noticing lyrics and yeah you feel like every song is written for

you i know you're like oh this is so me this is so us but like right now right now i'll be completely numb to relating to a song like that i would say right now the song i relate to the most is and you said chris stapleton earlier is uh his song white horse y'all heard that song yeah that one's damn good love it love it love it what do you relate to the most about it what's the lyric at the end of the course i ain't there yet i ain't there yet yeah um i don't know i just feel like i'm kind of that character right now he's he's realizing he wants something but still trying to find what it is and do you feel like that's that's you like what do you feel like you're searching for so do you i mean i guess the question do you feel like you're 38 you're at the point where you know your buddies have gotten married to have kids and you're ready

you just haven't found it or do you feel like you're still i don't know if i'm ready like i don't want to be direct and go, this is it. I'm finding somebody and I'm doing the thing. I want it to be more natural. But then I question, am I letting it be? Am I open enough to letting it be a natural thing? Well, I mean, I know I get a lot of shit for how Nell and I met,

but that was kind of part of it too. I had been single for a long time. I was a serial monogamous in my 20 too. I had been single for a long time. You know, I was a serial monogamous in my twenties, you know, I had three serious relationships that ended for a variety of reasons, you know, but it kind of took up most of my twenties. And then after the, my whole like bachelor experience, you know, I was pretty much just single. And part of it was just like, I wasn't really sure like what I was looking for type of thing. I had a hard time kind of figuring out like what, what, what I was looking for or what

was what I needed. And then when I met Natalie, I still felt like it almost like I needed her patience to kind of like shake me out of my own kind of shell. And, and I was really comfortable being alone and I was comfortable being set in my ways that I really, I needed to kind of like, almost like wake up to like be willing to like jump into something, you know? Cause it was like, well, what am I, are you talking about me right now? I feel like you are. I was talking about me, but you know, like as I hear you speak, it very much reminded me of how I was at 38. Yeah, I'm really comfortable.

I spent a lot of time kind of getting some things I wanted in life in place. And yeah, now it's like, okay, what's the next level? I don't know. I think this album is really discovering what's the best version of me in 5, 10, 20 years. Man, the ongoing battle of do I want kids? Do I not? Am I weird if I don't? Yeah.

Do you feel self-conscious about that? Not wanting to have kids possibly? I love the idea of helping kids. I don't know if I love the idea of zero to screaming years through, you know, to data. I don't know. I just, I value my, my time that I have off. I don't know.

I don't know if I'm. Do you feel judged for it sometimes? Absolutely. Yeah. But then I have friends that don't have kids that are up in, up in their years and that have adopted and changed kids' lives in an incredible way that had no chance. That's amazing. And I've had, I've had guys and girls, you know, the older that, that decided to have

kids and love it. So I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm still, that's, that's one of the big, big question marks right now. I feel like my, uh, my dating pool goes out the door pretty quick if I say I don't want kids, which is probably why I also can't answer that question. Yeah, but it's a tough one because it is something that a lot of people, you know, you know, there's a lot of people who aren't ready or don't want kids or just unsure, you know,

did you guys decide you wanted kids? Yeah. Yeah. I knew I was at a conversation early on when you were dating. I wasn't really a conversation. kids or just unsure you know did you guys decide you wanted kids yeah i yeah i knew was that like a conversation early on when you were dating it wasn't really a conversation i it was always i always wanted to and she always wanted to so we didn't really have to like talk about it it's just at some point i think we both mentioned that we do i just i noticed how much fun i'm having with my niece and nephew and my close friends, kids, just teaching them how to,

I have a farm. So like bringing them out and teaching them how to do stuff, you know, and fish and surf. And I don't know, something intrigues me about it. A little Dustin walking around, you know, Hey daddy.

And then I'm around kids, you know, that are airport or whatever. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Airport will make you not want to have kids for sure. Surely my kid wouldn't be like that.

It's like, I don't know. Also, I think it's different when they're four or five and you can talk to them and do stuff with them. And then when they're babies and they're just screaming, it's like, no, I think I'm okay. Yeah, but Natalie, it just doesn't work out where I can't give them away for four years and they come back. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You'd have to take them from the jump. Do you think you have a selfish side to you?

Oh, big time. Yeah, absolutely, man. I think that's something that is probably as you, as you speak of you, but you're speaking of me in a very sly way over there.

I really was. I think, I think selfish is definitely something that I've had to build and learn through the, through the years of like professionally, like sticking up for myself, you know, and,

and what I do. And there's a lot of, probably a control issue that I have. Yeah. I was going to ask you, I feel like you really value stability more than the next person. Yeah. That's probably what I'm trying to let go of and get out there a little bit.

No, but I very much relate to that too. Because again, I went from this life of selling software, a very normal corporate job. And then I was like, fuck it. I'm going to move out to LA and see what I can do. And I was just living in my buddy's house. Just felt very unsettled. And so even though I was dating and meeting people, I knew deep down, I was like, I just don't feel like I'm my best self right now.

I value that stability. I've wanted to feel good about myself first. And I wanted to meet my goals, you know, but I feel like now I wonder now that you are kind of on top of the world and your careers, you know, just on this amazing rise that you really have settled into being Dustin Lynch, the country music star, and you're no longer trying, like you've made it, you know, and your, your career is only on the way up here on the way up now. And I wonder now if like, maybe you are more kind of your heart's a little bit more open and you're a little more settled because you have that stability. You got that farmhouse you're hosting. And now it's just like the only thing that's missing maybe is that partner in crime. Yeah. I think it's unlocking the next level. Yeah. For me, if we put it like that, having somebody in in my past like the ups and downs of the music industry it's nice to have somebody there to celebrate it with um it's it's cool to have

the band guys and everything in my family but to have have a girl at the house that's there for you on on the good days and the bad there's a bunch of them um even if the career is going up there's still a bunch of days that are sure yeah put out music sucks sometimes man because like like we put out a song it's so funny this this is how volatile putting out music sucks sometimes man because like like we put out a song it's so funny this is how volatile putting out music is right so yesterday on the phone we're talking with my team

and it's like man the feedback on this song Chevrolet that we put out with Jelly Roll recently you know this is what we're hearing and on my side

I'm getting unsolicited text from the gatekeepers and tastemakers in my world they don't do this all the time because i put out a bunch of music and i'm getting texts going man this is such a great moment blah blah blah and then i wake up this morning and i see a review online and out of 10 i got a 0.5

and that's what you hold on to and so it's like is that a full review though yeah and this this particular outlet hates my guts because I'm you know label me whatever you want but they they lean more

like that ain't real country and so it's one of those things but it's still you want to you want everybody to love what you do

and it's never gonna happen for any artist but that's the ups and downs of like I've learned to let that roll off my shoulders, but there still are days where it's like, it's frustrating for this or that with anybody I know in their paths.

But for mine, it is music and releasing it. And to have somebody there for those is great. How do you get yourself out of those ruts now? Man, I think it's, I have to go in and create again. The tough part about creating music for me is being a bit of a workaholic and trying to force things. You want to stay busy. But when you're creating songs, if you're not in that flow state where it's coming easy

and fun, I've had to teach my kids, okay, to not work for a few months on trying to write songs and go live a little bit and feel something. Go get inspired. Go out and do stuff with friends. And then when I come back and I write, uh, you know, the feeling whenever we, we get a song that feels a little bit special and different, and then I'm still addicted to hearing it on speakers in my truck. Um, that hasn't changed since day one. I think that's what gets me out of it. It was like, Oh, this is why this is why like there's a song called George Strait Jr.

On the album. And it took us two years to write the damn thing. Cause I knew we didn't have it right. We just kept going back and trying to figure out how to get it right. And on the way home from recording the demo, I played it and it still makes me tear up. Like, cause I was like,

we got it. You know, it's like two years of, of grinding away at, at this song and like boom there it is it made me feel what i knew it should make me feel then i'm like so excited then of course you put it out and hope people like it sure isn't always the case but that's what keeps it fun what was what's been the coolest moment of your career i'm glad you circle back to that because i wanted

to talk about the opry a little bit earlier when you mentioned John Party and Alan Jackson came out and invited him to be a member of the Opry. The Opry is an institution that for a lot of your listeners, maybe they don't know what that is. It's an institution that has been around since the 20s, I think. It was the original radio show that was broadcasted on AM radio. It was like the first, one of the first entertainment outlets that people could tune into in this country and it hasn't missed a saturday taping since even through all the wars through the flood like it flooded we had a big flood in nashville um through covid we still were we're taping and recording just with nobody in the building which is incredible experience i would say you know one of my

proudest moments is being invited to be a part of that. Just the legacy it has. Like a lot of my heroes are a part of the Opry family and were inducted to be that. And it happened shockingly early in my career, but I think it happened because they knew how much I loved, you know, I grew up watching and listening to the Opry. That's kind of how I was consuming country music before streaming was out. You had the radio and you had the Opry. And so the Opry was a big part of why I was a country music before streaming was out. You had the radio and you had the Opry. And so the Opry was a big part of why I was a fan and wanted to move to Nashville. So getting inducted to be a member of that family is way up on the mountain as coolest things that I've accomplished. Because it showed me that friends and peers in the industry thought enough of me to be a part of that. And not everybody is.

And I get to be a face and carry the torch for country music across the world. And that's just really special. And, you know, I see we'll go and we'll play shows there. And if you guys ever get to come to Nashville, please let me know. I'd love to have you out. But you've got artists that are in their eighties playing and it right now it's taping on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, I think, but they're going in and they're playing with their, their bands. And it's taping on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, I think. But they're going in and they're playing with their bands and it's like, man, to see that and know that if I can make it there, if I'm blessed enough to be able to sing and play at that age,

I'm going to have that opportunity. It's really cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. All right. You ready to give some relationship advice, Dustin? I was going to say, everybody in this room. Dustin, we learn through our mistakes. awesome yeah all right you uh you ready to give some relationship advice justin i was saying everybody in this room justin we learn through our mistakes the least experienced man yes nonsense

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has been crossing normal brother-sister boundaries with me over text. Okay. And you're thinking about blocking him? Yes. Okay. You sent in a novel of text messages. Is it mostly via text messages? It has only been over text message.

We don't live in the same state. So the only times that we're able to really see each other is over holidays and it never comes up when we're in person. So yeah, just tell us more. Like what's happening here? Set the stage, tell the story. How did it happen? Buckle up.

All right. My brother-in-law has been texting me probably on a daily basis, consistently throughout just the workday, not normally post-work hours. If I don't respond, he will continue to text me multiple times, often following up on his own commentary. Sometimes he will make some pretty sexist comments. If I call out a sexist comment, he'll begin to rationalize it and then continually respond to himself until I answer, which is usually 15 minute increments until I

answer. I'd say that this has been going on for about 10 months. The text started conveniently after my ex and I broke up last fall. It started as just game pigeon games, like the little iPhone games you play back and forth. Who started that? It started with him. I thought this was him just checking in with me. He plays it with my little brother as well so I thought it was

just trying to be nice. I feel like you only play those video games with people like you're flirting with. He's also only texting during work hours because that's when he's away from your sister. How many times have you guys hung out in person? We've never hung out one-on-one.

My sister's always there. It's always family. But like when they were dating, engaged, like how many years, how many times do you think? I've known him since I was about 10 because he's been a family friend for a long time. He and my sister started dating much later, got engaged very quickly after dating,

married probably a year and a half later. How long have they been married for? They've been married for two years. Okay. But like every holiday, you know, like family holiday, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, do y'all live in the same state? No, no, we do not. So it's whenever we see each other for holidays really,

or just a random offset trip, usually for me seeing my sister, not him. We got to read some of these text messages. Yeah, this is... Do you have a favorite, Dustin? He said, also, I love the top you were wearing on TV. Super pretty color. Thank you.

I had a fun time going on the taping. And then this is where it gets bizarre for me. Do you consider that top blue or green? often men and women see shades differently for some reason doesn't respond and then he says i would say it's a beautiful shade of blue doesn't respond and then i don't know how many i'm going i mean there's so many where he just doesn't stop do you think he like because i keep seeing he's sending ceos professional you ladies are taking over is he in a weird way trying, do you think to encourage? Like what is your professional path?

I think that I take a, if we're talking traditional, non-traditional, I think I take a non-traditional viewpoint of women in the workplace. I think we should be in the workplace. I think it's really cool that we are. women in the workplace. I think we should be in the workplace. I think it's really cool that we are. I think the biggest difference between my sister and I is that I don't automatically assume that the woman should be the homemaker or care for a family just because she's a woman. I believe it should be a choice. And I think my sister takes a more traditional viewpoint on that. So I think my brother-in-law kind of takes a similar one as well, where I think they both know that I want to have a career even when I have children.

I'm very proud of my career. I've worked hard and I will continue to do so regardless of where my family status is in the future. And I think that they just kind of talk about it in a different way. It's coming from a very, I guess, like conservative point of view on family and women in the workplace. Well, and some of the texts are being surprised that he's working with women or how many commenting on how many women are going to college these days. Like, it seems very antiquated. He says things might actually be objectively better once you ladies rule the world. As a guy, it pains me to admit it, but it might very well

be the case. I must get a mani pedi in punishment for my error. I'm very excited. He writes, what's his error? It was a game pigeon error. I think things started to get inappropriate to me when he would make comments about how I choose to do my nails or how I choose to dress. comments about how I choose to do my nails or how I choose to dress. And he would talk about comments like punishments or rewards for winning or losing a game pigeon game. And at first, I thought it was kind of like a joke. It was weird, but it was a joke. And then I realized more and more, this is so inappropriate. I do not like it. And I don't want it to continue. And then you write, I don't think that's a punishment. He writes, he, he, he, yeah,

now I have an incentive to throw our games so I can get treatments on the regular. Okay. And then he writes, I'm a naughty minx, ha ha. And then you write, I can't text. That's crazy. And then you write. That is nuts. That's really crazy.

I can't text during the workday. Honestly, the comments you frequently make generalizing about women are sexist and make me uncomfortable to receive. I'd prefer you didn't send those types of comments to me. Then you're right. It's truly no worries at all. I don't want to bother you. And I'm sorry I haven't meant anything that way.

I thank you for telling me and I will absolutely refrain from that moving forward. I appreciate you saying so. I thought, okay. That happened after I called my mom last week because I hit my breaking point. I completely broke down. He made one last sexist comment and I got very uncomfortable. I refused to reply. He sent probably eight to 11 text messages following up on his comment. I got extremely uncomfortable, called my mom, cried to her about it, told her the whole thing. My mom told me I should just ignore it. I don't think that was

the right thing to do. I felt as though she wasn't really taking me seriously. And then we came up with those two text messages that you just read out loud. The first thing I can't text during the workday. And the second being don't second being don't send me sexist comments. And since then, that happened this last week. That happened last Thursday. Monday morning rolls around and he's already broken the boundary that I tried to establish

by texting me mid-morning on a Monday. And then on Wednesday, sending a, it's hump day. Yeah. morning on a Monday and then on Wednesday sending a it's hump day yeah then he wants to talk about Aaron Rodgers torn Achilles so okay I'm just wondering because it's you know probably really complicated like understanding how to factor in your sister with this, where I totally understand like this is kind of, she's not a part of the uncomfortable messages, but also like she's sort of the reason that you're connected to him. And so I'm curious for you, like how has the sister been a role? Is that like, does it feel like she would be a resource? Do you have a sense of whether she might like be helpful, kind of take your side or see where you're coming from? Or does it seem like something where she might get a little more defensive and it's not worth trying to bring her be helpful, kind of take your side or see where you're coming from? Or does it seem like something

where she might get a little more defensive and it's not worth trying to bring her in? So I think this is where it gets a little bit more complex is that my sister is not a texter and never has been since God knows how long. Whenever we got our phones in junior high, she just never texts. So I know that she's not texting her husband in this way during the day because she doesn't text period um the times where my sister and I do connect is over the phone and usually we talk for about like two hours on the phone every week which I find is our way to like heart to heart however she would definitely take her husband's side so I'm not sure how this would go across I don't even know if I should tell her.

What do you think her side, like what side is that? I guess is my question. Like you're just being dramatic, Anna. What are you talking about, Anna? You're being so crazy. Why are you making this a big deal when it's not that kind of thing? Okay. I mean, not knowing them and I'm on your team because I kind of know you right now. I think you absolutely have to tell her because the next family function you go to, even if she disagrees with you, at least it's out there. And then you say that she doesn't text. So it kind of cuts, in my opinion, it cuts him some slack on, you know, in a way it's like, if he's not texting her and if he feels comfortable, I don't know which else passed. If he feels comfortable

texting you, that may be why it's so heavy up front. But obviously now things have changed because you've let them know what's up. Question. Have you ever just tried not ever replying ever again? Yes. I get probably 15 to 20 text messages if I don't reply. Okay. Yeah. That don't reply. Okay. Yeah, that calls for blocking. Yeah. So that's the thing. It's like, you could have just been like,

all right, I'm going to do what my sister does and not text, and then he'll just stop. But he doesn't. And that's weird. It's just weird. There's no other way to look at it. I don't know. And I'm not saying he's trying to make a move on you.

I don't know why he is doing what he's doing, but it's a bit inappropriate and it's a little aggressive and it's fucking weird. It's just weird. I would say weird. Yeah, that would be the word I would use. There's no reason for him to be talking to you this much. It's like he's doing this out of boredom or out, you know, like there's no reason behind any of these texts.

But what does blocking accomplish? Well, then he knows that like, okay, I guess the boundaries set. I look at like, what's the next in-person experience if you block? I mean, I think it'll be awkward regardless. Like it'll be awkward because like you've obviously had to be like, stop sending me these messages and he won't stop. And that's like uncomfortable in itself. And then if you block him, I don't think he would ever like that would never leave

the two of you if you didn't like one you know like he's not gonna go to thanksgiving and be like well anna blocked me this weekend you know like i don't think that would be a topic of conversation do you think nally's right about that do you think he would tell your sister that she blocked him i I have no idea. The only times that I've heard him refer to us texting or the comments that he's made to me are like, oh, I played Anna in this game pigeon game and it was a really tight game.

And he'll tell my sister that in front of me openly. I've heard that before. It's like he's doing the game pigeon so he has something to block off the naughty minks and nail comments and women going to college like he's leading with games so he has something to talk about yeah he's like no i told you we just play game pigeon i told you do you think you know knowing that it's not exactly clear how it might play out with your family like does blocking him feel like a solution or do you feel like you would feel like

you need more kind of like advice or stuff to kind of like the possible ways that it could go down and like you want like more insight on how to navigate that? I think I would need insight on how to approach it with my sister. I don't even know how to bring it up with her besides saying I am so uncomfortable

and I don't really know what to do with it. It's my fault that I have not bring it up with her besides saying I am so uncomfortable and I don't really know what to do with it it's my fault that I have not brought it up sooner and I own that and I take full responsibility for that that I haven't owned up sooner but I didn't know what to do because I was so uncomfortable you could just make it as like with your sister and just go to her and be like could you like tell your man to stop texting me and kind of make it a little like jokey kind of in a way. And then like, or like,

why does he text me so much? Is he bored? Yeah. You know, kind of ask your husband blows up my phone, you know, you can kind of make it to where it's not so serious to where she has to feel defensive and she has to protect him.

She could just be like, Oh, what's he doing? And then you can be like, he is always bashing women, blowing up my phone. And then, you know,

then that can, she can take that up with him. It seems like to me, there's like some gamesmanship of he's finding satisfaction and getting you riled up, you know, when it gets into the articles he sends and you send back, it's,

it's almost, it has a little bit of that, like big brother kind of poking the little sister. Yeah. To me, like in a weird way way because you're not six and twelve anymore you are objectively adults yeah and also don't blame yourself for what's going on i think like i appreciate you trying to take accountability and your role in this but clearly you've already established i don't like when you send me these things or you're not responding so it's not like you're kind of like jabbing back in a way where he's like,

this is great, acceptable behavior. See you tomorrow. I have sass back, to be fair. I think I included some of my sassy responses in those text messages. I'm not the most cool-headed at all times and I have sass back my fair share. But he probably just finds that entertaining.

My sass is warranted. He likes seeing that reaction is what i think yeah but you drew a line in the sand and so now it's like hey sis i drew the line this is what happened afterwards eight messages unanswered there's your grounds for bringing it up i know you've you stopped messaging him and then he'll send eight messages but it seems like then you eventually respond like when was the last time you texted this guy back? Since I drew the line in the sand last Thursday. That's Thursday. Okay. And how many messages have you received from him since?

Two, which is a lot better than the norm. That's great. Okay. So I would give it a couple of weeks. Of just not responding? Yeah. Just see, just don't respond. Not like respond less, like never respond. And no matter how many messages or how many articles he sends you, no matter how crazy it is, don't respond. See if he just stops. Hopefully he gets a hint. I feel like he will. And then you don't have to block him and it doesn't become a thing. don't have to block him and it doesn't become a thing if he doesn't stop and he keeps going then you have more grounds i think at that point to go to your sister to be like hey listen we had this back and forth it got weird for me i started feeling uncomfortable i don't want to make a big thing of it because i thought maybe it was just some miscommunication maybe just weren't seeing eye to eye so yeah i, I told him, I pushed back a little bit. Eventually I just stopped responding to him because I just didn't want to be dramatic

about it. But the motherfucker keeps blowing me up, you know, and I don't literally know what to do other than block him. And that feels weird blocking my brother-in-law. So like, can you help his sister out? I feel like that's the approach, but like, I would give it a week or two and see if you never responding to him, if he finally gets the point, because I think he's used to eventually getting a reaction. And I think Dustin kind of hit on the head. I think he gets off on riling you up. And I think he has this kind of brother-sister relationship. I think every once in a while he crosses the line that maybe can come across as creepy, but chances are it's just loss in translation and text and he's just maybe not self-aware. I hope so. Yeah. But up until this point, it sounds like you have always eventually given it. And it doesn't matter if he sends two or three or 10 in between your messages,

as soon as you reply back, it kind of breaks that seal and you got it. And then it starts to cycle all over again. So you have to not reply at all, no matter what he sends, no matter what he says that could trigger you, you just have to not reply. I will be doing that. No problem. You don't have to ask me twice. But the second part is you think I should wait to tell my sister and have that conversation until after that? Yeah. You waited this long. I don't know what's going to happen between now and then.

You guys don't even live in the same city. You're not going to see him. So I don't think there's a ton of urgency. It doesn't sound like. Unless it's like weighing on you and it's something that you, you know, are having trouble. You think about it a lot and, you know. Yeah. then in that case, I think get it off your chest. Yeah. I mean, if you want to tell your sister, tell your sister, but I'm getting the sense that

you're afraid to tell your sister because you, you know what, how she will react and you know, she'll take his side and it will potentially cause a rift between your relationship. It sucks in family situations to be forced to like pick a side, you know? And then when you're in a relationship and family, it's like, you always want to like, you want to fucking choose your partner's side. And it's easy not to choose your sibling's side, you know? And her default is going to be to defend him. You're, you know, that's, that's what partners do. Unless you have some urgency, unless you need to, I think this problem might solve itself by not replying. And it's only been a week. And you've gone a week

without replying. What you haven't done is completely stop replying. You're in the beginning stages of this new phase. And I think if you give it a couple weeks and not respond to him over a course of a month, then I think it'll be pretty obvious that you're done having these types of conversations with him and you've proven to him that he can't get a rise out of you and he might just lose interest. I think there's going to be a bridge, though, where is this done forever

or can it be cordial ever again? I think there's going to be a bridge, though, where, you know, is this done forever? Or, you know, can it be cordial ever again? That's what is going to have to happen. And, like, when's that appropriate? Well, I think maybe just like the next family event, I think you kind of go in, chill, and you kind of suss out the situation. Let him almost, you know, take the lead is maybe a weird way of saying it, but see how he responds. Hopefully he just kind of gets the point. And I would feel uncomfortable if someone clearly made it clear that they didn't want to talk to me with past messages. So the hope is he'll be like, you know what, maybe I pushed my limits and I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead before, you know, I don't know.

That's the hope. And then moving forward to be super objective. Family, you know, maybe a lot more just direct as specifics and less conversational. And I would say more normal. Yeah. A more normal brother-in-law. Relationship. Maybe, you know, your chats that you have with your sister down the

line maybe i don't know maybe what if he says something to her and she's like why don't you ever respond to you know so and so and then you could say listen i don't you know i feel weird bringing this up but just like it just got weird you know he just was blowing me up at work and sending me all these articles and then i kind of asked him to stop and then he didn't. So I just stopped responding, you know, and kind of when you say it, just say it like down, I don't want to say downplay it, but like you've moved on from it. You know, it was like, I just stopped responding. You know, sometimes when, when someone asks us a story that we're involved in, we kind of have this, Oh my God, yes, like, let me tell you about it. Like it's drama, you know, you tell it in a more dramatic way. I don't want that. Yeah. And

so it almost comes across as like, yeah, it's drama and it sucks, but you're kind of into, you'll never believe what happened to me, you know, type of thing. And if it ever comes up, I would take a more like, yeah, I don't know. Like it was weird. And so I just stopped responding. But like, what, what did he say? You know, almost, yeah, sound confused, but like, you're just like, I just, I just, I was tired of having these weird conversations with your husband, you know? So I just stopped doing it. And you've done nothing wrong.

So I think it's important to remember, like, you can be as honest as you want to be at any point in time, because like nothing that you've done has been out of line until this point. Like you've done everything you possibly could to try to like shut it down to keep it respectful to keep it like in a normal place it hasn't been there and so if it does come up with your sister like you can whatever details that like you want to share you are allowed to share because none of them are damning towards you just being like yeah I didn't bring it up with you because I really didn't want to sound dramatic or I didn't want to like make a situation uncomfortable or kind of like whatever else, like anything that

you want to share, please know that like you should feel comfortable sharing because like the honest to God truth is that like everything you've done has been like with good intention, trying to like protect everyone involved and keep things like healthy. So you don't need to hide anything just because the situation has been uncomfortable and weird and bizarre is in no way an indictment of the way that you've handled yourself in it. And so like, you don't have anything to hide. Thank you for saying that.

And yeah, I think it is best to take the non-dramatic approach. I don't wanna be dramatic at all. That's not really my MO, especially within my own family. And I think in past I've always been seen in my family as more of a peacekeeper. So I'd rather keep that reputation than all of a sudden become the dramatic one. Damn, family. Well, give us an update.

Let us know how it goes. Yeah, give us an update. I'm all in now. But yeah, give it a couple weeks. Don't reply. And then I think reassess. But if he doesn't stop, then I think you're eventually going to have to say something to your sister. If you don't reply at all and two or three weeks in, he's still blowing you up.

That's so fucking weird. And you'll be able to like go to your sister and be like, isn't this? I don't. This is weird. Please ask him to stop. You know, when do you think the next in-person family hang is it'll be Thanksgiving

where all of us are together again I think you should jump back on for a post Thanksgiving recap oh I was like what

yeah like after the hey bro happy Thanksgiving no we love a Thanksgiving update and also mom already knows so that's a

good thing you got mom in your corners you're not alone in this. I still stand by. I think he found your button and he saw it. He saw it react. And so he just keeps going.

Don't love it, but I agree with you. All right. Well, keep us posted. Good luck. You betcha. All right.

Great. Take care. Bye. That was a doozy. Yeah. Fun, right? That was a doozy. Yeah. That was cool. Dustin, we were obviously talking a lot about touring and you being in all

these cities. What I do. What do you do? Will the people be able to possibly see you live again soon? One of the best things about putting out a new album is we get to play new songs. Yeah.

And playing 100 shows a year, it's nice to have new stuff to play. That's awesome. I actually often wonder this question with any artist, I go see a concert, because you mentioned it's exciting to play new music, but as an audience,

we always love the hits. Yeah. And we love listening to music that we recognize and we know the songs too. How do you find the balance as an artist to like mix it up? And do you ever get sensitive almost, or that, that vulnerability of putting out that new music when you're playing it for the first time, you know, where people haven't streamed it 35 million times or whatever it is, like some of your other songs, like how do you find that balance or do you just push through? Well, you know, we're at that point where we can't play all of the hits and play new stuff yeah so something's got to go and we'll get hate mail we don't play you know whatever song whatever person

wanted to hear that night but it's just it's kind of part of being where we're at is there an artist you toured with that you've just kind of been in awe with their process and yes i mean with that like a no hesitation keith ervin okay and he was my first thank goodness man i learned so much from that guy was such a huge fan of keith i couldn't believe when he called me to go on tour with him and you know because of of he's passed like he's very regimented in his days this is this day and this is what i do just to keep him on track and at least he was when i was touring with him i assume it's still the same and as a young artist back in our taco bell jack daniels days it was great to see the great one of the greatest so dialed in and so professional and just detail oriented to the max about you know

not just the show but everything that was going into his body and how much rest he was getting and all of that so it was just like a big brother to me. I love him to death. And yeah, that would probably be my top, you know, like this is this is the guy that's laser focused. And but I'll say like everybody at that level, man, they're they're at that level for a reason. They're all great guys. I haven't met one person that's been around, you know, that's an A-list like headliner that stuck around and had staying power.

That's been a dick. Like everybody's great people think that goes a long ways. Yeah, for sure. I know you said it took you two years to write George Strait Jr. Was a lot of the album writing process like that? Did it take that long? What was, were some of them easy? Some were easy.

Yeah. It's already so weird. Like some days you go in and within an hour, it's like, boom, there it is. You know, when I started releasing music, all we have is Twitter and and facebook you know like yeah what was streaming songs that didn't exist what was instagram didn't exist tick tock yeah and recording the way we write and record songs in nashville has completely changed too like now i thrive off of guys and girls that can build tracks as i write and they'll pitch in some ideas, but then they'll, they know when to like, okay, they'll get that line or whatever they're working on. I'm going

to go back over here and start programming and playing guitars and whatever. And when we come out of, you know, usually that evening, I have a recorded version that in a lot of cases we could release in the public would probably love. It's that good quality. And so there's just, just super talented people that some days it's quick like that and I can go home and brag to my friends or whatever.

And then like with George Strait Jr., it was just about that title was special to me. I thought it could be a clickable, like cool title. And I hate saying this,

but to put it simply and the guys I wrote it with are my brothers. Like it was just cheesy, the first version. And I knew it couldn't be cheesy. Yeah. And we just had to figure out how to make it cool and dope.

And it just took a while to get there. What comes first, the song title or the song? All depends. I'm very melodic driven as a writer. We like to have a title to steer the room. But sometimes you just start with melody and words fit. Right. But I would say I lean melodic.

And once we get those melodic lines, I can kind of fill words in. Melody is what keeps me coming back to songs. Yeah. Like even my favorite bands, I'm 20 years into listening to the band Incubus. And I will go to their concert tomorrow and, oh, this is my favorite song. And I'll just like mumble words

because I don't know what they've ever said. And I don't care. It just makes me feel amazing. I relate to that. She knows ever said and I don't care. It just makes me feel, it makes me, I relate to that. Yeah. She knows every word to every song. Yeah. So I don't know.

I've just always been a melody fan. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I know a lot of, I've got a couple of buddies from Georgia who now live in Nashville. I don't know if you know, Trey Landon,

Dylan Marlowe. I do. Yeah. Yeah. So I know they do a lot of like writers rounds. Is that something that just like starting off songwriters do, or is that something that even you still now will like go and listen or go and even play? Yeah. One of my favorite things right now in life is helping younger artists and

songwriters that are coming to town. Cause I came to town not knowing anybody and it took a while to figure out that side of the business for me. And writer's rounds are still, were back then when I was getting going and still are what I'm telling all, everybody I'm trying to help and mentor, if you want to call it that. Along the way, like these are so important to just go and sit next to somebody or just be in the crowd and think about the craft of songwriting and the stories behind the songs. And how did that person get to this idea? Well, a lot of the times they lived it. Reminds me as a songwriter to go live a little bit. So yeah, the writer's rounds are very specific to Nashville, the Nashville community. I still love playing them. If I do one this year, it'll be the most nervous i ever am because i never do them but it's fun it's a fun challenge you know because when we're on stage i've got a bunch of guys that are awesome musicians helping me shine and when it's just a writer's round it's me and a guitar

and it's just different it's fun you're i mean how does it how does a writer's round work so it'd be a people who don't know what that is a few artists in a row on stage and it's kind of one by one they just go in rotation and tell a story play a song oh shit really on the spot absolutely man it's so unique and special to nashville anybody that visits nashville every night of the week there's writers rounds and these young artists and writers and hall of fame artists and writers doing them too it would be like to compare it to like uh like not open mic how, how comics comedians will go around and like try their new stuff. Sure. You know, here in town at laugh factory or whatever.

Yeah. Artists aren't doing that, but songwriters are, you know, and, and I still think when I'm filtering songs, I put myself on stage mentally most of the time with new music. And it's like, does this work with the new album coming out now when we play these songs live in front of a crowd i promise you we're gonna play one and i'm gonna go ah didn't feel right up here and it just won't it's how it goes but then you play some and you go oh man whatever that wavelength is uh it just works with what we do and that's play music in front of a lot of people that's awesome yeah that's great did you start off as a songwriter is that something you did yeah yeah you did yeah i mean i didn't

know that's how it was going to go i had to learn that but i saw started off as a writer it's a crazy tough road so you're working off of what they call most of the time what they call a draw so you know a publisher in most cases is is giving you a check every couple weeks, but you owe that money once you start making money back to them. And they're betting on, all right, I'm going to give this kid $20,000 for the year over the course of three years or whatever it is, hoping he makes me more than that at the end of three years with his writing. And that's a lot of how the system works. So it's a crazy fun time for young aspiring writers or artists that are listening, honestly mingling.

I assume a lot like it is, you know, in most creative towns, it's just mingling and going out constantly. It's a grind. Like you're constantly going out to rounds and different showcases and just bars in general and meeting artists and writers that you kind of vibe with and like creating with and like hanging out with and kind of are about the same things um and it just takes a lot of socializing and figuring out who that cast is and i work pretty closely with a dozen guys and girls create most of my music i've just spent enough time with them i think they know who i am and where i'm at in my life now after this podcast a lot of people know where i'm at but they definitely

know where i'm at and kind of what i've been through and they're constantly right thinking for me and pitching me ideas along the way and then when we get create um it's usually pretty pretty good start pretty close start to like where i need to be you know it's not nothing off the wall right right what are you about you know they they know me closely and that helps out a lot and that's what those years of doing life together and you know being broke together and be going out together um growing up together yeah you grow up together and uh so it becomes a lot right now i think I have a pretty efficient group that creates with me. Do you have a favorite Taylor Swift song?

I know it's random, but we have a- It would be from- Not random to us. Yeah. Well, I don't have my phone. It would be from the 89 album, Style. That's a great one. I noticed really early on that you're wearing friendship bracelets. I was like, is that a nod to her? early on that you're wearing friendship bracelets. I was like, is that a nod to her? No. So I, I, I honestly, God, I have this backpack that I'm not wearing it now, but I have my cowboy hat here for some other stuff we're doing. And I reached in a pocket and I saw this. I'm like,

that's awesome. So I grabbed this. I thought it was a little girl that handed me this the other night on stage. And I'm like, that's so cool. So I wear it. Like sometimes I'll get, you know, whatever random bracelets. And I saw the Taylor Swift thing happened. I'm like, that's so cool so I'll wear it like sometimes I'll get you know whatever random bracelets and I saw the Taylor Swift thing happen I'm like that's so cool she would bring me one and it has my name on it and then I got going around I'm like oh wait a second and then there's a phone number and you didn't text it

no but you're wearing it but it's dope yeah it looks great thank you yeah I figured I'd rock it I reached in to my backpack this morning I saw it I'm like what the hell we'll rock that today we could talk for hours man it's dope yeah it looks great thank you yeah I figured I'd rock it I reached in to my backpack this morning I saw it I'm like what the hell we'll rock that today Dustin we could talk for hours man

it's been great having you on it's been awesome fun yeah we'd love to have you guys out to the show we'd love to yeah we'll definitely make it happen congratulations on

all the success your new album Killed the Cowboy make sure you guys check it out when does it drop? September 29th September

the day after my birthday that's right hell yeah so celebrate by getting dustin's new album uh stream it wherever you stream check it out uh everywhere follow them all the congrats to you man it's been awesome to to you know just see all your success man thank you man thank you guys for having me on yeah it's been a pleasure like i've needed therapy for a long time and I just started my new journey with you guys right here. The chapter begins. It's what? Blank pages to fill in. Come on in. Schedule an appointment. All right. Let me go get myself in some trouble and I'll come back.

I'd say, you know what? Just take more swings. More swings? Open up those doors and windows to the rooms you want to fill, man. You just say yes to maybe meeting some people even if it feels a little anxious. Maybe even in Nashville. Okay.

Yeah. I love it. Ladies, anything for the playbook? Eat more Taco Bell. Drink tequila. I knew you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say that.

Taco Bell Jack Daniels. Bring it back. Bring it back. Bring back the Taco Bell. I still eat Taco Bell. It's just not... We went twice the other week. Isn't that the wrong?

Don't admit that two days in a row that's our little secret I'm sorry I swear there's something in Taco Bell food there's a there's a drug in there

that makes you addicted to it absolutely it's good because once you pop that top man what do you get just tacos any of it like I'm all over the map

most of the time you're gonna still show up to that drive-thru like give it give it one of everything when did it get so, like I'm all over the map. Most of the time. You're going to show up to that drive-thru and like, give it, give it, give it to me. One of everything. When did it get so damn expensive?

I ate it a couple of weeks ago. I was running late trying to get some stuff done at the farm. And the only thing open on the way back to town was Taco Bell. Like, hell yeah. So I jumped in and I had, I don't know, four or five things and it was 26 bucks.

What? That is crazy. That's crazy. That is crazy. I heard on the, I heard on the i heard on the um the radio the other day they were talking about burger king and it's a eight dollar burger now what eight dollars for a burger at burger king at burger king yes it's getting wild what yes that's what they said on the radio damn that's crazy well Well. So Taco Bell, that's what I get. I don't know. Taco Bell, Jack Daniels. That's what I'm depending on.

Ask me what. I don't know. If you had any pointers. Yeah, just be more open. More yeses. If you're anything like me, and it sounds like we had similar paths. It feels like. Dating, man.

Our kindred spirits. Well, I never went through the public craziness like you did, though. What I assume you hit on it craziness like you did, though. What I assume, you hit on it, like dating in the bachelor years. I can't imagine the opinions. A lot. There was a lot of opinions. And there was like the dates where they

revealed themselves as huge fans after the fact. You know? Tell me about Josh. And I'm like, what? Are you invested? are you invested in these like you're actually

this is a real thing I made a genuine attempt at making those relationships work yeah but you know you're trying to do that off of meeting someone

after a few weeks and spending a few hours so yeah I think it takes a while to get to know somebody seeing them

like you guys were initially you know a couple days here couple days here, a couple of weeks off, a couple of days here, a couple of weeks off. Like it takes most of the year to actually hang out. Check your DMs. After this episode, I'm going to start saying yes more. Check those DMs. Yeah. I mean, listen, I, uh, I had, I had a lot of reluctance, but I had to power through it, you know? And I, I always found reasons. There was a time similar to what I'm getting the vibe from you. There was a time where I was just finding reasons to say no to situations or to people, you know, to dates, you know, uh, looking for problems even with her, you know? And, um, yeah, you gotta keep your guard up and things like that but you know I think

when you find when you find a connection and you you know you you see a little glimmer of a light just peel back some layers and give it a shot love it you never know you never know but yeah either way you're gonna you're crushing life so you don't need that much advice for me it's been a pleasure man thank you guys for having me on all right it's a blast thanks for listening guys don't forget to send those questions at asknick at thevilefiles.com we man Thank you guys for having me on Thanks for listening guys don't forget to send those questions At asknick at thevilefiles.com We'll see you tonight for another episode of Better Date Than Never Bye