Try That in a Small Town Podcast
In 2023, Jason Aldean's groundbreaking song and video "Try That In A Small Town" resonated with a resurgence of conservative values in America. The writers of the song, Kurt, Neil, Tully, and Kelley, took the opportunity to launch the Try That In A Small Town Podcast. This platform allows them to reveal the true inspiration behind the song and discuss the importance of common-sense values. With a lineup of influential guests, the hosts will entertain you with the stories behind their music, while also addressing challenging topics affecting our communities and country.
Try That in a Small Town Podcast
Standing in God's Light: John Rich's Fearless Path :: Ep 50 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
Country music maverick John Rich pulls no punches in this raw, unfiltered conversation about his remarkable journey through the Nashville music scene. Describing himself as an "anomaly chaser," Rich reveals how his greatest successes came from championing the unexpected talents and sounds that traditional Nashville often rejected.
The multi-platinum artist and three-time ASCAP Songwriter of the Year takes us behind the curtain of the legendary "Music Mafia" movement – 72 consecutive Tuesday night jam sessions at Nashville's tiny Pub of Love that launched the careers of Gretchen Wilson, Big & Rich, and others. Rich's storytelling about fighting to include "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" on an album when executives insisted it would ruin their credibility offers a master class in trusting artistic instincts over industry formulas.
From his early firing from Lone Star to writing Jason Aldean's breakthrough hits ("Hicktown," "Amarillo Sky"), Rich shares the hard-won wisdom of building a sustainable career through unwavering authenticity. The conversation takes surprising turns as he candidly discusses his spiritual awakening and transformation in his 40s, leading to a deeper purpose behind his music and public voice.
Perhaps most compelling is Rich's unflinching account of speaking truth to power – including confronting former President Trump about vaccines at a private dinner with senators present. This commitment to conviction regardless of consequences reflects his approach to both his faith and his craft – an unwillingness to compromise his values for acceptance or approval.
Whether you're a longtime country music fan or simply appreciate stories of resilience and reinvention, this episode offers a rare glimpse into the mind of an artist who has consistently defied industry expectations while creating some of country music's most enduring anthems. Subscribe now and join us for an unforgettable conversation about music, faith, and the courage to stand your ground.
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Speaker 2:I am an anomaly chaser, somebody like Big Kenny what is that? That's an anomaly. Cowboy, troy is an anomaly, gretchen Wilson was an anomaly. Big and Rich is an anomaly. If you look back through my career, it's been the chasing of the anomaly and the winner of Celebrity Apprentice is.
Speaker 2:John Rich and the confetti starts falling. And I stood up and go oh my God, wow, I can't believe it. Trump walks over to me, puts his arm around me and we're waving at the crowd. He leans down in my ear and he goes did you hear? I'm thinking about running for president? I swear 2011. And the arrogant, satanic side of this industry has no concept of that. They hate kids. They wish they would never be born in the first place and if they are born, they're going to try to grab them and twist them into their nasty, evil, wicked intent, because if you come from my kids, I'll kill every last one of you the Try that in a Small Town podcast begins now.
Speaker 4:All right, welcome back to another episode of the Try that in the Small Town podcast. We are at the Patriot Mobile Studios. We've got Kalo right there, thrash, we've got TK and tonight this is super awesome We've got a great guest. He's a multi-platinum selling artist. He's an ASCAP three-time songwriter of the year Three. That's pretty impressive. And also he's a pretty dang good businessman. Let's uh, welcome John.
Speaker 2:Ritz thanks for the invite, as I was trying to figure out the intro there.
Speaker 4:I'm sitting there going through and I'm like, oh my god, major superstar, major prolific songwriter, prolific producer. How would you describe yourself as to somebody else, like what are you in the music business terms?
Speaker 2:what I'm in the music business sense of everything nobody knew you.
Speaker 4:How would you describe yourself like? Oh I'm a songwriter. Oh, I'm an artist.
Speaker 2:I am an anomaly chaser.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what has always interested me in music is finding the things that nobody else sees. That I think, whether it be a song idea or an artist that's out there somewhere, or somebody like Big Kenny what is that? That's an anomaly. Cowboy Troy is an anomaly. Gretchen Wilson's an anomaly. Cowboy Troy is an anomaly. Gretchen Wilson was an anomaly. Big and Rich is an anomaly.
Speaker 2:If you look back through my career, it's been the chasing of the anomaly. Like I get bored with the redundant nature of the industry, I've always been more interested in chasing the things that are not going to be popular with the industry but I know the public's going to love it. And in that has has been a lot of stories of me back and forth with publishers, record labels and so forth. But to me that's the biggest um rush you can get is to see something or think of something that nobody else is really thinking that way and then follow it. You know I remind people all the time Declaration of Independence. It does not say we have the right to be happy in America. It says we have the right to pursue happiness in America.
Speaker 2:And the word pursuit in and of itself means to be in motion. That means happiness is a moving target. What made you happy in your 20s is probably not what makes you happy in your 30s, and it's probably different in your 40s and 50s and 60s and so forth. Life changes. Happiness is a moving target. So I've never been the one to said if something didn't work out and a lot of stuff I've done hasn't worked out just like for all of us I appreciated the shot I was pursuing. Happiness Didn't get it on that one, but I'm an American, so I get to come again and again and again and again. That's the pursuit of happiness. So I think my attitude has always been that I want to chase down the thing that I think is the most interesting deal and see what happens.
Speaker 5:Hey, don't worry folks, he's going to get warmed up soon.
Speaker 4:I don't know if that was the answer, you're looking for.
Speaker 3:I'd rather want a more literal answer. No, I was jealous of the mafia there for a while.
Speaker 2:Mafia was absolutely an anomaly.
Speaker 4:It's a really interesting point. We go way back. We all kind of got to town probably around the same time. It's not like we hung out together, but we all knew of each other. And of course we knew of john way back in the day and tully was telling him a story before we got on camera how he?
Speaker 4:met john, but the music mafia was that exactly and I remember this. I know you remember this because we were going to that thing, yeah, and I mean it was yeah, I'll let you describe it, but it was a jam session, basically open to everybody and anybody, and kid rock was there and three doors down I mean bon jovi, anybody would show up talk about the music mafia.
Speaker 2:So, basically, what you had was is a group of artists singer, songwriters that none of them fit what was currently going on in nashville not none of them, but they all had immense talent and some of them were rock. None of them, but they all had immense talent and some of them were rock. Some of them were blues guys, some of them were bluegrass guys, some of them were spoken word artists.
Speaker 6:I mean you had a painter there. I remember we had a live painting. She would paint live.
Speaker 2:She would paint the room live is what was going on. Anything that we saw that blew us away somebody's talent, regardless of where it fit or didn't fit. We would invite them to come be a part of this thing. So it turned into this carnival kind of atmosphere. But you guys know, everybody that took the mic knocked your brains out. That's where James Otto came in.
Speaker 3:I was getting ready to say James Otto. James Otto is one of the most brutal singers that ever walked he really is John Nicholson.
Speaker 5:remember that guy oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Freak of nature, talent, yeah. So Big Kenny and I looked at this situation and Nashville was still very it was very equation-driven. It still is to a point. But back then it was like the favorite phrase they had was well, that ain't country.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good, but that ain't country and I would hear people say that and I go. You know what? That's what they said about Johnny Cash when he showed up he ain't country. I got to have lunch with Eddie Arnold one time when I was in Lone Star Joe Galante, who was running RCA. He said, man, if there's anything I ever do for you, joe, just let me know. I said there is, he goes. What's that? I go. I'd like to meet eddie arnold. Wow, he goes really. And eddie was on rca. He still had a record deal there. He said I'll set up a lunch for you guys.
Speaker 2:So I sat down, went to at the sunset grill oh yeah, yep me and eddie arnold sitting there and mr arnold looks at me and he goes. He's probably 80 at this point. He goes yo man, mr galani there says that your music's kind of different. I said yeah, it is, it's kind of different. He goes well, you know what? However, it sounds to you up here, just make sure it always sounds like that on that record. That's all you got to do. He said listen. Uh.
Speaker 2:He said back in my day people told me I wouldn't country. You know why? They told me that. I said why'd they tell you that, mr Arnold? He said because I'd wear a suit jacket and sometimes I'd wear a bow tie and sometimes I'd have strings playing behind me. And everybody says I should be playing with Count Basie and I'm in that end of American music. But he said but I know I'm a country boy, that's just how I hear it in my head. He said so, however it sounds in your head, make sure that's how it sounds on whatever record you make. It was one of the best piece of advice I ever got. So Music Mafia was that it sounds this way in our heads. Here we go. Gretchen Wilson is a bartender at that point at Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar working doubles and she's coming in there destroying people.
Speaker 6:Oh my, I mean just one of the most vicious singers that ever walked.
Speaker 2:And what happened is we did 72 Tuesdays in a row. We picked the worst night of the week at the smallest spot in town, the Pub of Love.
Speaker 4:Pub of Love cross from 12th and Porter right Maybe crammed 60 people in that room?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and by the time we hit the 72nd Tuesday, big and Rich was signed, james Otto was signed, cowboy Troy was signed, gretchen Wilson was signed. Shannon Lawson was taking a run at that point.
Speaker 5:So everybody in there got their shot.
Speaker 6:That's amazing, what a great time in town too. Though you mentioned 12th and P, it was a different feel for the town yeah.
Speaker 4:We were talking about it and it. It's unfortunate that you know I don't know if we're the old men in the room talking, but it's like you were saying here before we got on. It's like that's where you found people, that's where you collaborated, that's how you kind of mixed. You know your musical influences together and it.
Speaker 2:It's unfortunate that I don't think that that happens today it's hard, yeah, it's hard to cross-pollinate people when they've all got headphones on sitting in their home studio and they're not out in the live scenario. Because I'm sure you've got the same stories.
Speaker 2:I've walked in before and not known who I was really going to see, but that guy just did something, said something, sang a certain way and I went that is bad to the bone, whatever that is, and then I would go I want to incorporate some of that what I'm doing, right, like you're saying you would start to, and I think nashville was always that way until here recently yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, I'm going going back a little bit because, as I was telling you before researching you yesterday, even deeper, because I've always had a huge respect for you, just as a writer. The first song I heard of yours that I knew as yours was redneck woman, which I'm telling you I want to. I want to write that they wrote about a group that's not been talked about in forever and it comes from a real place, you know, because you you were a double-wide trailer, never hungry but didn't have a lot of extra lights and you saw those christmas lights hanging around.
Speaker 5:Yeah, your place might have been on your place, you know yeah, for sure but but even back before coming to town and Opryland was around, you know, back with the ride and the music and bluegrass and all that stuff. Well, three of us, including you now, tried out at Opryland Me and Neil did the same thing and we got callbacks but we didn't get to work there because they asked us to dance and we couldn't do it. You got a pass because you're a rich kid, because they didn't make you dance.
Speaker 2:you said you could two-step, but you got the job anyway, which is amazing right, yeah, because I wasn't going to audition at all and I was a senior in high school and a friend of mine said I had been singing at school and you know meeting girls in the parking lot, you know singing at the whatever bonfire party and this good friend of mine, marcus peters, he goes, he has a tennessean out goes. Look at this Arpin Land's having auditions. You should go audition for that. I said man, they ain't going to hire me. He goes, why not?
Speaker 2:I said because you've got to be able to dance and it's all this like stage stuff. He goes. Well, just, you should audition anyway. You know there's going to be a bunch of good. So I loaded up and drove my Dodge Dart Swinger over there and auditioned and I got the call back and then I told them I said I am not, I ain't into the dancing thing. They said can you dance at all? I said well, I can two-step. And they go well, if you can two-step, we'll just keep you in that mode of you don't mind doing that.
Speaker 6:I said I don't mind that it was the wrong thing.
Speaker 2:Dean Sams, where he invited me to be in a band that became Lone Star.
Speaker 5:Lone Star and your first number one. Yeah, it came from there.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's where all that. And so where Dean Sams is wearing his headset, mic Right.
Speaker 2:On the keyboard. I hate rockers' keyboards. Got that keytar going. I love Dean. Dean gave me a shot. Let me tell you how bad I was. So Dean comes to me at Opryland. He goes hey, a bunch of friends from Texas, these are like, they play the Texas circuits. These guys are great. We're going to put this little band together and just play locally around Nashville. He goes you play bass, right? I said I mean yeah, I can play a bass. I mean well, how hard could it be?
Speaker 6:It's got four strings, it's got four strings.
Speaker 5:It's got four strings.
Speaker 1:That's the best lie we've ever heard on this podcast.
Speaker 2:It's got four strings. He goes cool man, and he hands me a cassette and he goes here's the top 40 songs on country music this week. We're going to have our first rehearsal this Saturday and I went OK and I put it in my pocket and I called a friend of mine who was an actual professional bass player and I said hey man, I need to come over to your house, I need to borrow a bass. I need you to show me how to play bass on these songs. I can play. I can play guitar well, but I was like never messed with a bass much, so I spent 12, 14 hours a day five or six days in a a row going over those particular songs playing thumb wow, couldn't do that playing like this.
Speaker 4:You didn't play with a pick, you actually went, I mean that's.
Speaker 2:I was never played. I was not a bass player. Yeah, so you know you're playing guitar like this, so this doesn't make sense if you've never done that. Yeah, so I get it down. I come walking into the to the rehearsal. It's richie mcdonald, michael brit, dean sams, all these guys and they look at me walking in with a borrowed bass. No case cord no amp. That sounds like no tech.
Speaker 3:Who is this?
Speaker 2:guy like I remember richie mcdonald going uh what is going? Is this a joke? But we do the rehearsal. I'm terrible on the bass but I was the only guy in the band that could sing higher than richie, that's right. So because I could hit that third or fifth above, richie.
Speaker 2:They sat me down, they said you're gonna have to get better on the bass. But I was the only guy in the band that could sing higher than richie, that's right. So because I could hit that third or fifth above richie, they sat me down. They said you're gonna have to get better on the bass. But you're in the band but you've got to get better on the bass. I said I'm ready, like I didn't know. I remember I asked our drummer, a guy named mike tucker at the time who played in a band called canyon out of texas before that. I asked Mike Tucker. I said man, what is it I'm hearing? When I listen to a record and I hear the bass note, it sounds like it's got this punch to it or something. Is he hitting it with a pick? He goes no, that's the kick drum.
Speaker 6:That's how far out.
Speaker 2:I was that's awesome.
Speaker 6:Any video.
Speaker 2:I saw of him you're hitting the bass, You're not playing. It was badass. That was to distract you from how I knew about the instrument.
Speaker 6:The no news video, though you look good doing it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, and that's how you battle man. That is right, that is.
Speaker 1:So I owe those guys a lot. I have to say they I owe those guys a lot.
Speaker 2:I have to say, they gave me a shot when I didn't deserve it and that was the springboard Give people.
Speaker 4:A little back story. How long were you with Lone Star? And then, if you want, to talk about how it ended.
Speaker 2:I was with them. Our first gig was December of 92. My last gig with them was New Year's Eve, going into 1998, so the last day of 97. Wow yeah.
Speaker 4:And did you end up leaving? Was it mutual? Did you know?
Speaker 3:that you wanted to do something solo. They fired me. Why? Why'd they fire?
Speaker 2:you Because I deserve to be fired Really, because I was. You know how I am at 51. I'm a rather intense individual. You can imagine me in my early mid-20s what that was all about.
Speaker 5:This is a safe space you had that number one just right out the gate so they were all married, kids and all that.
Speaker 2:I'm totally single and I'm writing number one songs. I got money. I'm running around. I'm wanting to record songs like Save a Horse, ride a Cowboy. They're wanting to record Mr like Save a Horse.
Speaker 5:Ride a Cowboy. They're wanting to record Mr Mom Right, that's okay, that's not bad. I don't agree.
Speaker 2:Opposite views, and the more aggravated I got, the more aggravated they got. They're like hey, sit down, you're the junior member, which I was, and eventually that just became unsustainable. So they had a meeting called in a meeting I don't know what it was about. It was about me and they said New Year's Eve, the gig we just did in Kennesaw, georgia, I go, yeah, they go, that was your last gig.
Speaker 2:This was like January 6th or something, 7th or 8th. They said so you need to get your stuff off the bus and I'm sorry and I went, that's it. They go that's it and go from the phone ringing all the time to nobody's calling. The agent ain't calling, the manager's not calling, the press is not calling nobody. You also lose your publishing deal because of that right because back.
Speaker 2:Then you get the record deal. You got a publishing deal. Well, if you're not on the band anymore, that's the only reason we gave you that. Yeah, so the publishing deal is gone. The the income from the road is gone. You're no longer john rich of lone star, you're just john rich who gives a shit yeah and you go, you go overnight into that and then right after that is when they put out amazed, right after that uh-huh and I'm
Speaker 2:sitting at home can't afford the rent. Watching the cma awards, watching these boys sing, amazed, the biggest song. They've been out 20 years and there's four of them and not five of them because I'm sitting at home was that right after?
Speaker 5:was that released right after you said I'll show them, they won't be, they won't be anything without me. I had the attitude of I'll show them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and galani galani actually gave me a solo record deal on bna and I made a record and they put out two songs and they both just didn't even break the top 50 and then he dropped me from that. So I get fired from the band. My solo deal tanks. Now what and right about then is when I met Big Kenny, ran into him at Douglas Corner.
Speaker 6:It's amazing in life. We talk about it a lot in this town, especially these stories where it's amazing in life. We talk about a lot in this town, especially these stories where it's like one one thing leads to another and how that happens. And uh, it's, it's like how we came to meet you like, like you know, to segue into that and what you've done for our career with jason, oh, heck yeah, you know, you write hicktown and we were struggling and we were you and we were.
Speaker 6:you know, we've been with Jason for years and had no money. This song comes in, you know, which was the cornerstone not to jump ahead too much, but the cornerstone for the whole thing.
Speaker 4:No, absolutely there are a couple essential pieces in how Jason Aldean's career took off. Obviously, jason being who he is, michael Knox, who believed in him from the start and John Rich not only wrote Hicktown but he wrote a lot of people don't know that single. It's not talking amaryllo sky, which was the next thing. Yep, johnny cash. So the four first jason aldean singles were john rich. Maybe talk about that a little bit because, like tully said, I mean that was hugely instrumental to j Jason's career and our career with Jason.
Speaker 2:So one thing I tell people I do a lot of speaking engagements now, which is interesting because I have a high school diploma, grew up in a double-edged trailer. Who am I to speak to? Anybody, but I'll get booked. At these places there's four or five thousand business people and they want to hear the story. Business people and they want to hear the story. So one thing I always stress to them is I tell the story that we're telling right now about how you hit that wall, going 100 miles an hour, what you do next when nobody cares about you, or what you're doing. That's going to be where you make your bones right there.
Speaker 2:So there was a four to five year period where I did not have a record deal, didn't have anything going on, and I said, well, what's the last thing I can control? Is there anything in my control anymore? The answer was no. I can't control what the label did, what the publisher did, what can I still control? I can control this pencil and I can control this notebook and I can control that Gibson guitar right there. So find something you can still control and control it. Well, now for you, that may be how many push-ups am I going to do today? How many am I going to walk a mile today? Am I going to call 30 people today and try to get a new job? Whatever that is, focus on the thing you can control and control it well, and eventually you will start getting some traction and you'll build yourself back out.
Speaker 2:So what I was doing in those days when I ran into Jason the first time was I was writing about 200 songs a year that nobody cared about. But Michael Knox, uh, knew a bunch of my songs. I had land, at one point, landed a little deal with Warner chapel and he was my plugger and he said man, I got this kid come into town from Georgia. Uh, he and he was my plugger. And he said man, I got this kid coming to town from Georgia, he's trying to get a record deal. Man, I played him some of your demos. Man, he loves them. I go, that's cool, I go. Which ones do you like? And he said Hicktown, emerald Sky, why Johnny Cash? Just a man. He starts going like this.
Speaker 2:I said well, I like his taste in songs. Those are my favorite, knox. I got to tell you, man, I mean I'm hoping to get those cut Right. I need to get some cuts. He goes, I mean he's just going to use them in the showcase.
Speaker 6:One of our 50 showcases. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:Just use them in the showcases, I said. He said, if you get signed, you know that'd be great, right, and maybe he'd cut them. I said, yeah, you know that's great pitching them though, right? He said, of course, keep pitching them. And then we all know what happened. And now dean gets that deal, and then he did cut all those songs and then it was a firework show. So I'll give you an interesting little piece on the calendar. I believe it was april of 2004 I think that's when it was was hicktown redneck woman and save a horse ride a cowboy.
Speaker 2:All went for ads that month all that month, those songs the same month and I really think that is when the crowbar blasted the door open and just all hell broke loose in Nashville, Like Florida Georgia Line has told me and Kenny. When we heard those three in particular songs, we realized, oh, if that'll work, what we're doing might work. Oh, 100%. People started coming to town. So I mean, mean you never? Even yeah, understand the ramifications of wood shedding like that and even taylor swift jumped on the john rich.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she did, she used to call me all the time right before yeah back in the day she was back in the day. Hey, if you could reverse time back back to those years with taylor, she would have been sitting right here with the rest of us.
Speaker 4:We remember her the same thing back in those days. I mean, it was a different person back then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she used to call me about all kinds of stuff, wanting to write songs. But then she'd say hey, how do you and Kenny look at regular stuff, like at an award show, like a red carpet, for instance? She goes you guys just seem to make everybody else is doing it, but when you guys do it, it makes the news and everybody's doing it. I said take the regular things and think them through before you do it and make something up. She goes yeah, you guys just rode horses down the red carpet with a bunch of hot girls dressed like aliens. I went right. I said that's just so we would get. We would chew up all the press, and so she would call me for advice, like that.
Speaker 4:Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:Hey, so Sam Horace.
Speaker 4:I don't think people realize that was the second single off that album, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the second single.
Speaker 4:The label hated that song Okay so I got to ask this Wild West was the first one right it did. I don't even know what it charted it didn't make the noise. Mid-20s In your mind, did you guys think that Wild West was going to be the thing that broke you? Or did you know that you had Save a Horse in your pocket?
Speaker 2:We wanted Save a Horse to be the first single.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now Paul Worley was running the label. Thank God for him, because short of him we wouldn't have gotten signed anywhere. Everybody was like said I think big and rich is a thing. Originally they said we don't think you should put save a horse, ride a cowboy on the record at all. Oh wow, because people will not take you seriously if a song that ridiculous is on your record and big kenny's going.
Speaker 2:But man, they love it at music mafia. I mean we play it, we just go crazy, I mean. And I said I said he's right, man, I mean they go nuts when we play that song. We're like come on, man, just let us make it an album cut and paul goes okay, fine, we'll just bury it down in the lineup. So we put out wild west show. A few weeks after that we put the whole record out so the fans could now get their hands on a record. And next thing, you know, there's radio stations calling the record label saying, hey, the fans are blowing us up in tampa wanting us to play track seven off the horse of a different color record. You, okay, if we play that. They're like sure, and that just started taking off. So it forced wild west show off the air.
Speaker 5:And then here comes save a horse which, by the way, never went top 10 wow, now I would have lost my house on that because and it just proves that that, that you know there's so many different opinions and flavors and stuff, like when that song came out, I admit, and I did love it, but I thought you can't say that. You can't say that. You can't say that but then think about that song I agree, I still think I should, but I had nothing out at all.
Speaker 5:I had nothing to speak on and you're just listening to everything else and it didn't sound like everything else. But to think that Save a Horse, ride a Cowboy is a timeless, because it's one of my. Every time it comes on, every time you hear it just the intro on your commercials and stuff like that, just the guitar.
Speaker 2:It's like, oh my God, it's one of my favorite songs, last songs, last night. My son starts going daddy, daddy, come in here and I'm. He's watching the mass singer and the entire cast of the mass singer, which are all in their costumes, are kicked. The whole show off with save a horse, ride a cowboy.
Speaker 3:I'm like I guarantee you, the label took credit for it yeah, that'll never work.
Speaker 2:Bigger and bigger but it didn't go top 10, and you know why. So we were the number one selling record in country music for like seven weeks in a row. We were selling over a hundred thousand units a week. While that song was out number one on the sales chart by a long shot. Country radio said we're we're dropping the single because it's not researching well what a great word if you want to know how much bs country radio is, that's, it didn't go number one either.
Speaker 4:Well, hey, you talk about those songs.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you talk about hicktown and and why yeah, emerald sky, johnny cash, just a man yeah all means so much to us.
Speaker 6:So you know it took us a long time to get a deal with jason like it took us a long time and we were playing those songs every showcase. And I see people that you know, we know now that walk up to us and hug us and stuff. I remember walking, seeing those same people walking out of those showcases. You know, wow. I remember amaryllis sky. I remember seeing people turn around and walk out and by the end of the showcase we're playing love, I want to be in which you wrote with jason yeah, for nobody.
Speaker 6:And you've fast forward a couple years and you look at amaryllis sky and hicktown amaryllis sky. I remember, uh, the label calling we're on the bus going to some club and the label calling saying, hey, amaryllis sky is dying. It was at 17 and it was dying. And I remember, uh, I never forget, joe jamie from broken bow at that time called us and she said I told the radio what are you going to play if you don't play Jason Aldean and Emerald Sky and that song? That song didn't go. Where would that go? It wasn't number one, no, but to this day we play Emerald Sky. It might as well be a 10 week number one.
Speaker 2:Ba-dow-dow-d. It might as well be a 10 week number one.
Speaker 6:It is so, it is so to this day, people of all ages. It's like Hicktown it transcends the genre like Save a Horse. You know, I remember when Save a Horse came out we were in a very struggling band called Rushlow playing some really light songs.
Speaker 6:Dude and I remember me and Curt and Rich were in our house in Hermitage, dude and dude, and I remember me and kurt and rich were in our house in hermitage and we're sitting there in hermitage broke into the struggling band and that video came on and me and kurt said we are screwed. I said that is what we need to be too. That's what we are right like right, just unabridged.
Speaker 4:Do see what you are yeah, when nashville was trying to. You got to fit in the box.
Speaker 5:It's just one small miscalculation and you could have been John Rich. One small thing.
Speaker 3:You should have put a fur coat on. By the way, I was going to say.
Speaker 2:The thing that I think me and Al Dean have in common as people and as lovers of country music is if country music is a hobby to you, get out. It's not a hobby to me, it's not a hobby to jason aldean, it is serious business. I can't tell you how many new artists out there now that open for big and rich and get them on the road. I always come out to the bus man, hang out. I'm gonna get to know you a little bit and I'll always hand him a guitar. I'll say, all right, I got a challenge for you. They'll go okay, what is it? I'll go play three songs that were hits before you were born. Just three. They can't do it.
Speaker 3:They cannot do it.
Speaker 2:And so what you start to realize is what's the difference in them, them and guys like me, and aldine and others. We study country music, we go deep into it. We I want to know eddie arnold. I want to know him. I want to. I want to go. Take johnny cash's songs apart and see how does he get so much impact with so few words? The most efficient lyrics that were ever written in my mind were johnny cash. I mean, you can write the whole song down and there's still that much of the page left, but it's an absolute monster. You can write the whole song down and there's still that much of the page left, but it's an absolute monster. Because you're mine, I walk the line Okay, that's a book in one sentence, and so Aldine has always been deadly serious about the craft.
Speaker 3:The artistry of country music. We talked about that on an episode.
Speaker 2:We're on that one. The last time we and wasn't I don't know what a month or two ago, when we were writing BMG. But country music suffers if it has artists in it that don't take it as seriously as we take it.
Speaker 3:Well, these young writers come out. We're out in the kitchen and these young writers come outside and we got David Lee Murphy with us. So we're standing in the kitchen there and these kids come out, these two young guys and one of the guys, and we're just talking and they're looking at us and they're looking at David Lee and the dude goes. So what do y'all do?
Speaker 4:David Lee Murphy's standing right next to me.
Speaker 3:I'm like what do we do. I thought it was a joke.
Speaker 6:I'm like you'd have to know who I was, but this is David Lee.
Speaker 1:Murphy right here and there's a mural that's on it.
Speaker 3:I'm like what do y'all do? I'm like, these kids don't know. They haven't studied, they didn't, they didn't grow up listening.
Speaker 6:And worse than not knowing there's a. There's a blatant for me, a lack of respect in the genre. That's just the truth. Like these, these young artists today, young writers there's some good ones, I'm not going to lump everybody into a category and you're right, there are some really good ones but for the most part, what I feel is a lack of respect.
Speaker 6:they already know everything and they haven't done anything, and that's I know for a fact. That's not how Jason was or we were Like. I remember opening for you guys, when we were with Jason and really learning Hicktown was probably at 50 and we're opening and you walk off the bus, it's July and you've got a full length leather coat on.
Speaker 6:And I'm saying to myself and we watch your whole show. We watch your whole show and we're like, man, this, this is what we need to be, this is what we are. You know, this is how to do it and uh, unapologetic. But but they don't have that. They already know everything. Now you got guys, grown men, dancing in a mirror, singing into a hairbrush. I mean, I'm it's insane.
Speaker 2:The art suffers yeah with that with that attitude I mean for us.
Speaker 2:I remember in lone star I walked in and met don cook for the first time and I knew his name because I would read the backs of all the records. I knew who everybody was. And don don goes hey, nice to meet you. Yeah, it's gonna be great, maybe, producing this first lone star record I'm going Don Cook, and then he goes hey guys, come in here. And here comes Larry Boone and Paul Nelson come walking in and Chick Raines, and I went oh, I mean, I knew it, that was 19. I was 20 years old. I knew all those guys. I'm like these are the names I've been seeing on the records that I've been studying. So anyway, we could go on a long time about that. Oh, we could go on and on.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah, and just respect-wise, like Atelier said it, and I'm still writing almost every day and you're writing with new people, which I like, but every time, and there's so many people, you don't know the names, but I Google everybody before I write with them.
Speaker 5:I want to know a little bit of something. Where are they from? Do they have a story? But like, but I will and I'll look, and if they've had one thing that I recognize, say, oh dang, it's good and and then then I'll, then I'll close it up. Nobody I don't think anyone knows that I write with, that. They don't know that I've ever had even a song recorded. Nobody says anything. They don't.
Speaker 2:They don't say, say hey, hey, man, thanks for driving 50 minutes. Man, I love that song you wrote back they don't say anything.
Speaker 3:It's a rarity, didn't? One of them, though, was like want to write something. That Brad that was a long time ago, he had like 15 Brad Paisley number ones, and the guy wanted to write. He didn't even know he was writing it was like 10 years ago.
Speaker 5:But yeah, he said man, I have this one idea I said it's right down the middle for Brad Paisley Anybody?
Speaker 2:Oh my.
Speaker 5:God.
Speaker 1:And the other guy knew.
Speaker 5:The other guy says dude, you did not just say that, right, his buddy knew. And he goes wait, you're nicer than I am, because I would have said yeah, bye. It's just kind of funny they should research.
Speaker 2:I mean times read the names, like Mark Cass Stevens. I'm like, wow, this guy plays a hell of an acoustic. You know Don Potter. I'm like who's playing the acoustic on the Judds records? Because that was the best acoustic guitar ever, don Potter. I'm like I hope I get to meet Don Potter. So then I got to meet Don Potter and I was like man, that was my ad. It still is.
Speaker 6:They don't have that, though, john yeah it sucks. They don't have any of the respect, Like I remember flipping around.
Speaker 6:Lightweight, looking at the writer and every you know. For me, I always looked at the bass players Michael Rhodes and you know all these Glenn Wharf, all these great guys that I idolized, bring Nadello, oh guys, and all the players. And when I got to town I started meeting those guys and I'm like man, see, they don't have that, though they don't have that sense of like, respect to me. I'm not. You know what they're, you know what they're missing.
Speaker 2:By not knowing that, they're missing the opportunity to become inspired.
Speaker 2:That's right that is really what they're missing. It's it sure, respect and all that. But when you don't have a full appreciation as to who has come before you and how great it was, and then you get the chance to walk in a room with them and feel that pushback just from who they are, and that inspires you to want to be great like them, to do work as good as their work, to do work that'll last decades, like what they did when they don't even know who they're looking at.
Speaker 5:They don't even have the opportunity to become inspired well, you can't be inspired when you're already know everything. That's a great point. I used to walk when you're already know everything, there's nothing.
Speaker 2:You're supposed to be in awe of this person? Yeah, because you don't know who the person is.
Speaker 3:I used to walk the halls of music and I would be like the door jam would be here and I would my half of my face I'd be like this and and I'm looking at Bob McDeal and I'm just, oh yeah, I'm kind of like I didn't want him to see me, but he's got that cigar and his feet up on and he's probably writing you know, baby's got a blue G-zone or something, I mean. But I'm just watching him like he's just sitting there not saying a word.
Speaker 4:What's he doing?
Speaker 6:He's got that gut string.
Speaker 3:Yep Single string. I studied that stuff.
Speaker 2:Dennis Lindy. I was 19 years old, dennis Lindy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I met Dennis Lindy one time. He was a Hermon. He never came out. I got to meet him one time at Iguanas again in the Hillsborough Village and I went Mr Lindy, I just can't even, and I'd already had a bunch of hits and stuff and I was like I just can't even know who the hell they're looking at. That's right, and some of it's hardwiring. It's the way you're raised, I think.
Speaker 5:I interned for. Reba McEntire at Starstruck for years and Mark Sanders was there and he was having his big run and everything. And you got to go to the parties and you got to see the platinum records, gold records, all that and I'm enamored. So I remember one time going up to him and said said, hey, if I, if I ever get a song recorded, I said, can I ask to have a writing appointment with you? Yeah, but I knew I couldn't just step in and write with him for no reason.
Speaker 3:Gotta earn that, that's right.
Speaker 5:But if I were to get a song recorded, would that earn me the?
Speaker 4:right, I agree. Hey guys, we're in the middle of an incredible conversation with John Rich. Stick with us. We've got to get a couple of words from our sponsors. We're going to be right back.
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Speaker 4:Join our original glory family and help ignite that original glory spirit. All right, we're back. Uh, try that. In a small town podcast from the patriot mobile studios. We have john riss today. This is super interesting. He's agreed to spend the next three hours with us. It's so awesome a couple of days let's go.
Speaker 3:We've got to mention our new sponsor, wow.
Speaker 2:Try that in a small town. Whiskey, I like that.
Speaker 6:For some reason, john Rich, these guys didn't even know about this one.
Speaker 2:Whoever came up with that did a great job For some reason John Rich autographed the back of this bottle.
Speaker 3:No, actually it is John's.
Speaker 5:He knows something about branding.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, that is mine. There you go, look at that it is, let me turn this toward my camera here.
Speaker 6:We paid full price for that too.
Speaker 5:We did, Did you and when we say we, we mean Neil's wife in Atlanta, neil's wife, yeah.
Speaker 4:She'll expense it, I'm sure. Hey, let's pivot a little bit and maybe we'll segue with it. I'm going to open this while you're talking. Yeah, maybe pour some uh in.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it was 2010 or 2011. You were on the celebrity apprentice. 2011 is when it came out, okay 2011 and you won the season.
Speaker 4:I did, yeah, uh, is that the first time that you had met trump? Give us some similarities or differences from when that whole experience?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's the first time I'd met him was I was on the set of that. He did not listen to country music at all, probably still doesn't. But you know, I went on the show to play for St Jude Children's Research Hospital, which in country music you guys know that's a huge deal, absolutely Trace and people like that who had been on it, and I thought I don't know what they're doing to these people behind the scenes. But they must be torturing them because they don't normally act like that in real life, like that does not look fun. Like why is Clint Black screaming at Dennis Rodgers? Clint Black?
Speaker 6:stays pretty chill. But Clint Black, I don't know hey man.
Speaker 2:I said I don't know what they're doing, but I ain't doing it. So it was the third time they came back to me again. They flew to nashville. The producers of the show said you've got to come do the show. You might win the thing. I mean you got to come do it. I said I'm okay, I'll play for st jude children's hospital and surely, to goodness, I can keep myself under control if I know a bunch of kids in memphis are watching the episodes wow because, that's what I knew it would be surely I can keep myself in check.
Speaker 2:So I went, okay, I'll do it. It's saying a lot, by the way, keeping me in check, yeah. And so I went and did the show and uh, you know that was the year it was gary. Buy Meatloaf, lil Jon.
Speaker 4:NeNe Leakes Star.
Speaker 2:Jones, I mean the most insane people ever and I'm going through it. And I said, well, I'm going to see if I can win it. And so I stayed in there, stayed in there and when it was all over I had won the whole show. And I remember on that finale it was live tv mbc there was over 20 million people watching that, oh wow.
Speaker 2:And Trump goes, and the winner of celebrity apprentices you got a good impression, by the way, because John Rich and the confetti starts falling and I stood up and go oh my god, wow, I can't believe it. Trump walks over to me, puts his arm around me and we're waving at the crowd. He leans down in my. He's a big guy, he's a big dude and I'm average. He's big. He leans down and he goes. Did you hear? I'm thinking about running for president 2011.
Speaker 5:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:So he was thinking about taking on the 2012. And I looked at him. I said yes, sir, I did hear that. And he goes. Do you think I should do it? And I looked at him I go, might as well, he goes. Why the hell not right? Why the hell not? And he goes, great job. And he slaps me on the chest a couple of times and walked off.
Speaker 2:John, that's an incredible story In my ear, I'm the only one that heard it, because all hell is breaking loose on national TV with the confetti and the lights and everybody's screaming and hollering. And that's what he's saying to me. Oh my God.
Speaker 4:Of course, that's what he's saying.
Speaker 5:Here, try my watch. You look good on your wrist.
Speaker 2:He's like glad you just won the biggest show on TV, but what about me?
Speaker 3:No, exactly.
Speaker 1:That was amazing.
Speaker 3:It was classic for a while Did you keep your relationship since then with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we text each other. So I text him during the Super Bowl. He hit me back. He goes yeah, not much of a game this time. I don't hit him with heavy stuff Every now and then if something's going on, I'll say you might want to look at this situation.
Speaker 3:I want you to tell. When he asked you why he's getting booed at his rallies, and he asked you.
Speaker 2:He wanted your advice. Yeah, so you know. If you think about um, what is the best way to serve someone Well? Is it to tell them what they want to hear, or is it to tell them what they need to hear, knowing they're not going to like what you have to say? Are you serving them well by BSing them? No, you're not. Okay, start with that. So I'm sitting around a table not much bigger than this one. It's Trump in the center where you're at. I'm just to his left, herschel Walker is just to his right, marsha Blackburn, senator Bill Hagerty and Lindsey Graham my least favorite politician in the world.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Don't mention words. I'd rather go hang out with Tim Walz.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, Tim, that's getting right. I would jazz hand it up with Tim Walz if you said I don't have to sit across from Lindsey Graham again.
Speaker 2:Okay, as I said in a post on X not long after that, I said had dinner with Lindsey Graham a few months ago. It took me a week to get the sulfur smell out of my suit jacket. Do you want to know what I think about that guy?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, so we're sitting there at dinner. This is awesome.
Speaker 2:We're sitting there and this is awesome. We're sitting there and everybody's eating their food and and president trump is not president at this at this time and he's talking to the senators and talking about really important stuff and I'm just minding my own business going. I don't know why, how I got in this room. Well, okay, I'm sitting elbow to elbow with him. It's about an hour into dinner. I hadn't said a word, just been listening and Trump gets through eating and you've seen him do this move right here, wherever in the big boardroom, he does this. Okay, that's what he does. He goes.
Speaker 2:Can I ask you a question, john Rich? He never calls me John. John Rich, I look at him, I go. Yes, sir, what's the question? He goes well, you do a lot of big shows. You're an entertainer. Yes, sir, you play for really big crowds. I go, I do. I play for really big crowds for a long time. He goes. Have you seen these rallies I'm doing? It's 30,000, 40,000 people. I said, yeah, it's unbelievable. I bring up the vaccine. This is the question from the president united states, a guy who is very proud at that moment of the fact that he was able to stomp the gas pedal and get that thing out, because he's under the impression this is going to fix the problem operation warp, speedp, speed, that's it.
Speaker 2:Okay, so here's a guy who, to his own admission, one of the biggest egos on the earth, yeah, and he's very proud of this and I respect him. There is no limit.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:But I'm being asked a very direct question. And so, man, I went, looked at him and I said okay, I'm going to tell you the answer and you're not going to like it. He goes okay, what's the answer? You're going to look at me like this. I said let me start off by saying this we, the American people, do not trust the people that you were forced to trust at the time when this was happening. Let's start there. And I said by the people we don't trust, here's who I mean the fda, the cdc, the nih, the who, fauci and all the rest of them. I said, mr president, we consider them to be a bunch of murderous, depopulationist psychopaths and his reaction.
Speaker 2:That's a good way to say his eyes are he goes, unbelievable, unbelievable he's stunned?
Speaker 3:no, he is stunned that.
Speaker 2:I said that. I said now let me tell you why they're booing you. I said because all of them, including me, I me. I said I would boo you.
Speaker 5:I would boo you, you did not.
Speaker 2:I would boo you Really If you brought that up. And here's why. And he's looking at me and I'm thinking to myself this is the last time this guy's going to invite me to anything. He's never going to call me again. I'm throwing massive shade on a former president's in his mind, one of his biggest accomplishments on a former president's in his mind, one of his biggest accomplishments.
Speaker 2:And it dawned on me nobody had told the man what I was telling him right now, because they all work for him, they all got something to gain from him. They're not going to tell him this because they're not serving him. Well, I don't work for him and I think a lot of him and I want him to understand the truth about it. So I said here's the problem, here's why they're booing you, mr President, because every human being out in that rally, either themselves or they, know someone directly who has been harmed by the vaccine or has even died from it, including me. I said I got members of my own family who were forced to take it against their will to keep their jobs. And now they've got all kinds of problems, big problems, heart problems, lung problems.
Speaker 2:And he's looking at me and he looks around the table and he goes. This is unbelievable. I mean he goes. Has anyone else heard this? Herschel Walker? He was running for Senate at the time. He goes. Mr President, I mean down in Georgia. My constituents come up at my rallies and what John just said, man, I hear it every single day.
Speaker 2:Looks over at Marsha. Marsha's sitting there, going, you know, looks around the table, and then Lindsey Graham, who's sitting across. So you're here or I'm here. I'm sorry, but you're Lindsey.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry, no, you're here or I'm here.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, but you're lindsey, you're lindsey graham and you're me, okay, um as I'm going into the part where I said even in my own family I have lindsey graham busts in with swishing his Chardonnay around and said Mr President, if you listen to conspiracy theorists like John Rich, the Democrats are going to take credit for what you did and they're going to beat you in the next election with it. So I'm looking at Trump and he's sitting over there and he does that. And I looked at him and I said do not interrupt me when I'm speaking. Do you understand me? What?
Speaker 6:And he looked at me and he goes.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't mean to disrespect you.
Speaker 6:I go, yeah, but you did, oh, so Right now you look like Wyatt Earp Trump is right here you're.
Speaker 2:Lindsey Graham. Okay, I'm holding him you're Lindsey Graham.
Speaker 2:I look at him one more time. I go now, let me finish what I was saying, oh man. And then I finished it. Okay, trump ended that by saying so, I guess, no more vaccine talk. I said I think that's a good idea. I said I think you're going to learn a lot about it. But yes, I think that's a good idea, because that's the only thing that would make us ever boo you. Mr president, you're right. I mean, that's one of the things I think a lot of people didn't agree with him on.
Speaker 4:And it was the vaccine and him being proud of it, and jason actually has a story. That's one of the things that I think a lot of people didn't agree with him on. And it was the vaccine and him being proud of it, and jason actually has a story that's similar well, the thing about trump and the vaccine.
Speaker 2:Trump never mandated the vaccine. No exactly, trump said you're all the doctors, go figure out how to make this yeah, right to make this and he trusted these people that we now all know we're a bunch of depopulationist animals. We all know that now, but he never mandated it because mandating an experimental medical procedure violates the Nuremberg Code. It's a crime against humanity which I hope we see that play out because people need to be held accountable for that in a major way.
Speaker 2:I think it will. So that was the story there. So you know. Again, he has called me since then. He does text me back from the Super Bowl. He has invited me to more. So I did not lose my friendship with him. I think, if anything, based on a couple of things he's asked me over the last year or so, he probably appreciates the fact that I'll give him say something to him that he don't really want to hear, that A hundred percent fact that I'll give him say something to him that he don't really want to hear that.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:You know. And so if you go, if you, if you go, look biblically, go look at the go, look at Daniel. So Daniel's a Hebrew Nebuchadnezzar comes in, they take over Israel, they, they take Daniel, they castrate Daniel, they throw him in a hole with all his friends. And and, Daniel, you know, I mean, can you be any lower than that?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:But little by little, daniel got to be known as a guy who was directly connected to the boss and he would say things that would happen. He was a prophet. And so Nebuchadnezzar hears about Daniel, and Nebuchadnezzar starts leaning on Daniel and elevating him up, up, up. He's no longer in a hole, he's now living in a nice spot and the king is calling him every now and then. And the king goes to Daniel and says I had a dream. I can't remember what it was, but I want you to tell me what it meant. And he goes well, how can I tell you what it means if you can't remember what it was? And he goes well, that's what the last 10 sorcerers that I brought up here that worked for me said, and I just cut all their heads off. So I need you to tell me what my dream meant, but I can't remember it. He goes okay, give me a couple of days. So Daniel goes and he asks what was his dream? God tells Daniel what the dream was and how to interpret the dream, and Daniel comes back. And it's not good news for Nebuchadnezzar, but Daniel told him anyway. And then, not long after that, nebuchadnezzar says he was out in a field eating grass like an animal for seven years and, effectively, daniel was running Babylon for seven years and the only reason he got in that position is because he was willing to go to the guy who could kill him, knock him out and tell him the truth.
Speaker 2:So when you ask yourself questions in daily life, like I've got a really good friend here, somebody I think a lot of, and a conversation needs to happen with them because it's the truth and they don't realize it and you're weighing this out Do I tell them the truth about the situation? I would want them to tell me the truth, whether I liked it or not. Do you do that for other people that you care about, regardless of the outcome? That's a really important thing you have to think about on the daily that I think about. I run into so many people and I know we all do, but these days we talk about all the music and stuff and I love talking about that. But the stuff we're talking about now, those are some of the circles I'm in for whatever reason. God's put me in these circles and I can sit in the room cause I don't work for them and I can give them these blunt answers that stick I was going to ask you.
Speaker 4:I mean, you had become like a prominent, uh, conservative voice and actually Christian and conservative voice. I saw your thing on tucker. It was incredible. When, like when, did this thing happen? Was it a conscious decision?
Speaker 3:did? Is it something that just tell about the wall you hit?
Speaker 4:yeah, or was there a moment that's like I gotta talk about.
Speaker 2:So I gotta say when I was a kid, my dad's a preacher. He's a prison preacher slash street preacher. My dad preached 34 m. He's a prison preacher, slash street preacher. My dad preached 34 Mardi Gras in a row on the French Quarter with a guitar around his neck. Oh my God, as the parades would come by and throw stuff at him and spit at him and on and on. 34 years in a row he does this. I had no idea.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, that's my dad. He started at 19 years old, right Like Like when he was a kid doing it.
Speaker 2:It started at 19. Yeah, he doesn't go to Mardi Gras in his 70s, but he's still going after them, right? So my dad baptized me in a horse trough in Emerald Texas. So all that career. It's interesting when your music is centered around rocking party, rocking hard country music, save Orchard. That's the atmosphere around what you're doing. When you walk into the room, it doesn't matter where you are. That is what they want. Just like a comedian, Be funny, All right.
Speaker 4:Be funny.
Speaker 2:Chris Farley right, be the funny guy on SNL. He goes. I don't feel like being funny. Be funny. Do you feel like he's disappointing people if he didn't try to start cracking jokes or falling down? Same thing happens in music and it takes a lot of artists out because they can't separate their onstage persona from who they actually are. See, the onstage guy needs to be 5% and the other guy's 95%. Like Jason's great at that. He gets onstage and Jason's an animal. He comes offstage. He's just a regular dude, right. That's why he's still around. So I wasn't very good at that for a very long time. What you saw on stage, that's how I was out in public. You all have seen it.
Speaker 2:Go google it, look it up I mean done it a few times of that, a few times of this. I mean a lot of stuff. But right about the time I was hitting 40, still, I was one foot in, one foot out of that whole thing and he just finally had enough of it and what it was.
Speaker 3:He being God.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the boss Sitting in a hotel room. All of a sudden I felt him exit. I felt him leave, walk just door shut, because he will do that. If you go long enough and you don't listen, and you will not bend, you will not repent, you will not turn and you belong to him, he'll just walk out. I felt it and it was like total abandonment is what that felt like. It was the worst feeling I'd ever had in my life, like sick to your stomach, like I. Whatever protection I had is gone. I mean, I'm standing here wide open. Something horrible is getting ready to happen to me. That's how I felt.
Speaker 2:That went on for a few weeks and I read in Psalms where David wrote about that. When David you know, david messed up horrible many times and God had walked out on him and he was begging him please, please, pick up the phone, god. He said you know, I'm not talking to you until you. And when David finally got right, he said all right, I'll walk back in. So a few months after that he walked back in and turned it back on and that is when I started digging and reading and I'm looking at my kids and my wife and I'm going okay, enough of the nonsense.
Speaker 2:That was a piece of my life. It is now over. Now, what am I going to do? Because I got a lot of ability, I got a lot of connections, I got things I can do and say, but I don't 100% understand what I'm looking at. So it's basically a reboot.
Speaker 2:I started digging into this stuff and realizing that that preacher on TV what he just said is not true, because it says, right here, this, but he just said that, and those don't go together. That guy ain't telling me the truth. And so I start reading well, if that ain't true, what else? What is, what isn't? And you start reading through it and you start.
Speaker 2:I started learning all this stuff and sitting with my dad on the regular asking him just pages of questions Well, let's dig into that and we'll go into it, and he'll go, I go. Wow, it was mind blowing, and so the more I got into that. Then my music I started looking at songs, going this needs to be said in a song, this needs to go over here, and taking our skills in music, blending those together, getting away from the record label, getting away from the publisher, getting away from the whole machine of nashville and being able to stand on my own and say whatever I want to say to whoever I want to say. Whenever I decide, I want to say it is the position I found myself in, which is where I am today and where I will remain. I will not take a contract with anybody, under any circumstances ever.
Speaker 3:What about Lindsey Graham? Well, Kayla's Lindsey.
Speaker 6:Graham though.
Speaker 2:People like Lindsey Graham. It's a good example that Christians are not supposed to be a bunch of weak-kneed, spineless, silent fence riders. Wow, A a man which you're not.
Speaker 5:Can we pivot to Sean Combs, Because you mentioned your kids right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And so it's a song that you I don't think you've.
Speaker 2:I have not put it out yet.
Speaker 5:They've been read we know a little bit of the lyrics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're okay talking about it, it's called the Righteous Hunter.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and it was preach on that just for a second, just because you're checking your curious.
Speaker 2:So, sean Combs? So in my mind, america will never get back on God's good side until we eradicate people whose feet are swift to shed innocent blood, which, in Proverbs 6, is one of the things that says people. People. That says God hates. See one thing, preachers. Preach is God loves everybody. Everybody's welcome. God loves everybody. It does not say that anywhere in the Bible, matter of fact, it says quite the opposite. In Proverbs 6, it says the first thing God hates those whose feet are swift to shed innocent blood, meaning kids. So as long as this country allows kids to be targeted, abused, trafficked, murdered, as long as that continues, america will never straighten out, nor do we deserve to straighten out if you're going to allow that to continue.
Speaker 2:So I saw a video of Sean Combs standing on a stage in front of all the spotlights some award show or something and he looks into the camera with this demonic look. You can just see the demon in his eyes. He says I own your kids. I own them. I take their souls, I determine what they listen to, what they wear, where, where they go, who they hang out with. I own your kids. Like that, I went. Who's going to say something to rebut that? Preachers? Where are you at Country music artists? Where are you at Christian singers? Where are you all at? Anybody going to say anything? No, at anybody out. Anybody gonna say anything. No, nobody's gonna say anything. I said, okay, so I'm gonna say something about it. So I went upstairs, pulled out a guitar and I started writing this song called the righteous hunter, because if you come from my kids, I'll kill every last one of you. You better put one right between my eyes or I'll kill every last one of you. You better put one right between my eyes or you're all going to die, all of you. That'd be a hell of a way to die. I'd be perfectly happy dying that way. And the arrogant, satanic side of this industry has no concept of that. They hate kids. They wish they would never be born in the first place and if they are born, they're going to try to grab them and twist them into their nasty, evil, wicked intent. And what does God say about people that do that? He says he hates them.
Speaker 2:So you run into scripture that says pray for your enemies. You guys know that scripture. You're supposed to pray for your enemies. I went to my dad one time. I said dad, I got a real problem with that verse. He goes yeah, what's your problem with it? I go how am I supposed to pray for a pedophile? He goes oh, no, no, no, no, hang on. He goes, sit down. He said it says pray for your enemies. It does not say pray for God's enemies. He said there is a delineation there, son. I said okay.
Speaker 2:He said let's go into Psalms and read what David said. And David said I hate your enemies. With a perfect hatred Meaning. We are supposed to be on the offense on behalf of our daddy, because they're on offense on behalf of their daddy and our daddy created their daddy and can wipe him out by snapping his fingers. So when you see the enemy and you know they're an enemy of God, like Sean Combs and people that do stuff like that, and you're a real Christian you better pick up everything you've got and hurl it at them, light it on fire first, then hurl it at them and run straight at them, straight at them, and I don't see people taking that attitude in this country, especially not many christians that'll do it. There's probably atheists out there that'll charge them harder than the christians will.
Speaker 2:So this song, the righteous honor I have not released it. Yet I am debating how to handle this because it is one of the most jarring lyrics. I think it is the most jarring lyric I've ever had anything to do with. People run around this town undercover looking for a soul to take, but they better stay away from the righteous hunter or hell is all they'll pay, because I can see around the corner and I know you're coming. If you had any sense you'd run, but you ain't got a clue what a daddy will do. You better give your soul to Jesus while I get my gun. That's the first half. So I'm sitting on that right now Trying to think about what's a video look like to that? How you know how are people going to take this when they hear that it is true?
Speaker 2:It's a true statement If you come from my kids, give your soul to Jesus before I kill you, cause that's that's what's going to happen, and so I know that's an intense thing to talk about.
Speaker 5:I mean that's the's going to happen and so I know that's an intense thing to talk about. I mean that's the actual thing happening in our country. Yeah, and when you're you know, you said that you had wrote that song in anger, in which we're always trying to draw common entities and we have a lot in common with you, or fan fans of you and everything you do. But but Aldeans, try that in small town. It was created in anger, different but the same, because we were tired of people getting hurt, punched for no reason, little ladies getting knocked out on the sidewalk or hitting a baseball bat on the sidewalk. So we were angry that things were happening like that in America. So that's why we wrote it and Aldean put it out, because it's in line exactly with what he did.
Speaker 3:So when you said I wrote that song in anger, because I think that's the only song I think I've been a part of that ever started in in anger because you love people.
Speaker 5:But you're not, that's right. You're angry that people are innocent, people are getting hurt, yeah, so you're right.
Speaker 2:I mean, how often do we sit down and write songs out of anger?
Speaker 5:right, I know hardly ever, and that's why it just struck. I just stopped.
Speaker 6:But boy, when you do we talk about your kids, your children. I don't know anyone that wouldn't feel that way. When you talk about your children, people coming from your children and that, and make no mistake, that's what they're doing. Yeah and uh, if you don't feel that way about children, then I don't have, you shouldn't have children. I think you're in the wrong spot. Yes, you know, but I think that song needs to be heard. My opinion, uh, just because it hit just you saying that I got goosebumps. Just you, well up with tears, singing about your kids, and all you do as a parent, all you do, is figure out how to keep them safe, correct, number one job, and that's all we do. Then people should hear that.
Speaker 3:It ain't just Sean Combs coming after me. We're getting bombarded from all angles.
Speaker 6:It's the system in general, it's everything. So I think, by all means, I hope everyone gets to hear that, because it reiterates why, as fathers, we exist and as a father why exist is for my children.
Speaker 2:So that's good feedback.
Speaker 6:You're the first guy I've ever if you don't like hearing that, then maybe you shouldn't have had kids.
Speaker 2:Well, you're the first man I've sat across to give me any feedback on it, because I haven't released it. The only people that have heard it are family members.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I did put the lyrics up just to see what people would say. But yeah, the look on your face right now is exactly the look you ought to have on your face.
Speaker 6:If you don't forget.
Speaker 2:And the enemy doesn't understand who they are actually messing with. They don't have a touchstone in their own lives to know that level that a regular man or woman will go to to protect the kids. You know why? Because they hate kids. They try not to have them in the first place, and if they do, they're going to try to take them away from you and screw them up. They have no love for them whatsoever, so they don't even know what that feeling is. It's kind of like the new country singer or songwriter that doesn't know. He just walked into the room with Bobby.
Speaker 3:Braddock.
Speaker 2:He doesn't even know what he doesn't know because he doesn't even realize who that is. They don't understand the men and women of this country. When you step across the line for our kids, the game is over for you at that point. And I just took that that Combs would stand there and say that and nobody. That wasn't like breaking news, that every pastor in the world was coming at that as hard as they could and I didn't see anybody.
Speaker 3:That's the disappointing part about it too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Why does it fall to the country singer-songwriter Right?
Speaker 1:But you know what it's true If that's what it is, then that's what it is.
Speaker 2:That's right I've also said this and I believe this is absolutely factual that God only opens doors for people who have enough nerve to run through the door, because you don't know what's on the other side of the door. Could be a pot of gold on the other side of the door, could be a flame door, could be a pit there's no telling. Could be full of fishhooks I don't know what's over there. So when he kicks a big door open like when Trump asked me about the vaccine, that was him kicking a door open for me, because Trump needed to hear that. He desperately needed to hear that Door gets kicked open. I go okay, I'm going to tell you the answer and I'm looking up going. What in the world?
Speaker 2:is about to happen, but you got to take it and I hope more people come on on. What are we afraid of? Yeah, you got nothing to really be afraid of. Worst thing they can do is kill your meat suit and then you get released and you're gone anyway that's right, but I think you know listen to your passion about what you wrote.
Speaker 6:I think god laid that on you to do that, so that's why no one else did it probably right you know, I mean because that's that's what he does. It's there's no rhyme or reason in our minds or why, but like listening to what you said you were supposed to do that you know, we're created in the image of God.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was looking at that a few months ago, going so I am created in the image of God himself. That means every characteristic I have about myself, he has that characteristic. His is just perfect, mine is not perfect, and I thought so. He has anger, he has it. He also has humor. And I thought I he has anger, he has it, he also has humor. And I thought I wonder what he finds funny, I wonder what cracks him up.
Speaker 2:You know there's another scripture that says pray without ceasing, for this is the will of God, pray without ceasing. Well, how are you going to do that? You're just reading that on a one-dimensional level. You would think so I'm supposed to be on my knees all day long, praying every single day. Would think so I'm supposed to be on my knees all day long, praying every single day. No, the way I view that is you got a cb radio in your truck and, instead of just turning it on when you want to talk, turn it on, turn the volume all the way up and just start driving. And what'll happen? Uh, every few minutes or every few hours, you'll hear a trucker come through and start saying something and you're listening to what he's saying. That's like like that's God as the CB. He's the one you just got to leave it on. Just wake up in the morning, turn it on, leave it on till you go to sleep and he will tell you things. He'll send you songs, he'll tell you all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 5:Well, and thankfully, you know, you have the color in our lives that we have and the color in your life that you had in that, that moment when you said, hey, things need to change a little bit, because if you wouldn't have a platform, let's say, you would have came out with revelation. You know that great song that great epic video and the battle, the battle and everything. If you had came out with revelation, instead of save a horse, ride a cowboy nobody know who you are.
Speaker 5:Correct, right, right, you, you. Everybody does know who you are. And now you, you do that, and then millions of people hear it, that need to hear it.
Speaker 2:it's just amazing to me to always I had that realization not longer than a couple of years ago that, yes, he allowed me to be in the country music situation to build that, build an audience, but to get good at being a songwriter and being able to take something and push it, but when he was ready for me to be done with that part of it and I wasn't ready to be done with it yet that's when he had enough and walked out and when I said, okay, if I now yield. And then he came back and then it was like here's what I want you to do now. And that was 11 years ago when I started slowly walking my way into where we are today. What happens 10 years from now, I have no idea, but we need to all be ready for whatever it is.
Speaker 2:We are the, you know, our daddy, my daddy, can beat up your daddy, remember when we used to say that my daddy can beat up your daddy, well, our daddy can beat up their daddy. We should never be afraid of them at all.
Speaker 4:Amen Golly. John this is one of those things. I wish we could go another hour or so. We're so appreciative of your time. You know, when we started this podcast, we didn't actually we might not still know what the hell we're doing.
Speaker 6:I think that's obvious, thank you, and the grass is green and the sky is blue. Boom, and that's obvious, thank you.
Speaker 5:and the grass is green, the sky is blue, boom and that's it.
Speaker 4:But I'll say this uh, we did want to highlight people that you know stood up for what they believe in, often against the mainstream. Stand their ground, have conviction, and you are, like exhibit a of that. We're so thankful for you just as a person and, of course, sharing your story with us.
Speaker 2:We're very thankful for you well, it's been fun to sit with you and we can always come back and do it again okay, one last thing, one last memory I want to.
Speaker 6:I want to thank you specifically for helping us and jason get where we are today. I remember specifically cma awards 0506 I can't remember which, which one it was. We played hicktown. Uh, first time we ever did anything on television, play hicktown. We finish it and we look out and and you and big kenny are standing up and I'll never forget it. I remember looking at the crowd and that from then till now like thank you and thanks for coming on today, because this was a highlight for all of us today. Thank you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you bet man and the countless amount of money, the folds of honor that you've yeah, 100 raised the scholarships for for those kids that you do so much good. We're just're just honored and very thankful.
Speaker 2:We've all got a gas pedal, stomp on it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yes, that's the way I look at it.
Speaker 2:It's been an honor sitting with you guys, man. What a table of talent this is. So anytime, man, I'll come back anytime, yes.
Speaker 5:Appreciate the conversation.
Speaker 1:Appreciate you, brother, you bet Yep.