Eric Paslay on “Come Into Our World,” a Song for ALS Awareness

Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling singer-songwriter Eric Paslay joins me to talk about about the night he drew my song idea out of a hat.

Eric brought his unique songwriting experience, "Song In A Hat" to Hop On A Cure's "Harmony for Hope"" event and something magical happened there.  My "Song In A Hat" idea was randomly drawn.  This led to me joining musicians Eric Paslay, Kristian Bush, Chris Gelbuda, Cyndi Thomson and DJ Goodman on stage to witness my song idea turn into an actual song - in under just 10 minutes.  My idea was "Come Into Our World."  My intent was to have a song created that would invite others to understand ALS and join our fight for a cure. Here we learn more about this master of music, talk about that evening and how we can wrap up the song and release to the world.  

Eric has made a significant impact on the music industry with his hit singles "Friday Night", "Song About a Girl", and "She Don't Love You".  He has written and co-written many hits for other artists, including Lady A, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Amy Grant, Dierks Bentley, Charles Kelley and more.  

Eric co-wrote Jake Owen's "Barefoot Blue Jean Night", the Will Hoge/Eli Young Band song "Even If It Breaks Your Heart", and Love and Theft's "Angel Eyes" all of which were number 1 singles on the country charts. 

He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 10 years old, and uses his platform to advocate for diabetes awareness, inspiring and supporting others living with the condition.

Listen in to our heartfelt and powerful conversation bursting with HOPE.  Thank you for sharing with a friend.

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Transcript

Welcome And Mission

Paul Carey 0:08

Hey, I'm Paul.

Christian Carey 0:10

And I'm Christian.

Paul Carey 0:11

Welcome to I'm Dying to Tell You. Inspiration shared by our mom who is dying from ALS.

Christian Carey 0:16

There's no cure for our mom or anyone else with ALS. But right now, she's on a mission to find and share stories of inspiration.

Paul Carey 0:23

Coming to you from Cincinnati, Ohio, we're happy to introduce the one lady we've both loved since the first day we laid eyes on her. The Queen of the Queen City, our mom, your host, Lori.

Hop On A Cure And Harmony For Hope

Song In A Hat Explained

Lorri Carey 0:49

Hello, hello. I'm Lori, your host of I'm Dying to Tell You. Thank you for being here. If you are coming back, welcome back. And if this is your first time listening in to I'm Dying to Tell You, welcome, welcome, welcome. So happy that you're here. I am so excited to tell you about my guest today and why I'm doing this episode. This one's gonna need a little bit of setup. So if you do listen in, you already know about Hop on a Cure. And Hop and a Cure is a nonprofit that was started by John Driscoll Hopkins of the Zach Brown Ban and his amazing wife, Jennifer Hopkins, after John, also known as Hop, was diagnosed with ALS in 2021. So one of the signature events that Hop Honey Care has is called Harmony for Hope. And it involves music, obviously, and really great talent who come together to help raise funds for ALS research. So my husband and I, and some friends of ours, went to the Cala and something really incredible happened. So one of the special parts of the programming at Harmony for Hope was that Eric Pasley, a amazing singer-songwriter, he's a platinum-selling Grammy nominated artist who has his own hits out there, like Friday Night, Song About a Girl, and She Don't Love You. Uh he has also written and co-written many, many songs for other artists, including Lady A, Rascal Flats, Amy Grant, Dark Sventley, Charles Kelly, and more. He co-wrote Jake Owen's Barefoot Pluming Night. And he also co-wrote Keith Irvin's Mild Heart. Obviously super talented. So Aaron Pasley does this thing called Song in a Hat. Song in a Hat. Where audience members have a chance to put their song idea into a hat, and then ideas are randomly drawn, and Eric and whoever he's with create a song about that idea right on the spot. And at this event, Eric was joined on stage by other incredible singer-songwriters, Christian Bush of Sugarland, Chris Calvuna, Cindy Thompson, and DJ Kidman. So it was quite the lineup. So anyway, we get to this portion of the night. Ultimately, somehow, my song idea was drawn out of the hat. And I remember when I wrote the idea, I was like, there's no way that my name is gonna be called, but if it is, I'm not gonna miss my shot here. And I just knew that I would want a song that invited everyone into our world to really, really understand what it's like to live with ALS. Because I feel like if you knew you really knew what ALS does to a person in a family, in a community, that you would pour your heart and soul into helping us find a cure. So right now I'm just gonna share a little bit of what happened that night after they drew my name. I went up on stage. I'm gonna play you a little bit of their collaboration and then talk to Eric more about that night and about his generous heart and his crazy ability to be able to do this. Okay, so here's a little snippet from that night. And remember, my song idea was come into our world.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Um got you. I got mine. I know G-E-D.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

All these are deep thoughts, you gotta finger pickle.

Lorri Carey 8:10

What ended up happening was Eric just closed his eyes and went for it. I'm really hoping to do a follow-up episode where the song is actually a song, it's final, and it's out into the world one day, so stay tuned. That's uh a dream, and I hope it comes true. But for now, let's go jump on Zoom and talk to Nashville's Eric Pasley. Let's get a rotat.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Heck yeah. Good to see you.

Lorri Carey 8:59

It's good to see you again.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

You got a good hat. We got the good hats on. I got my typical brown one.

Lorri Carey 9:05

You know what that's funny. I I love a hat. When you can't lift your arms to do your hair, the hat is key. And then so I can lean my head over and put on my hat. I just noticed, actually noticed this last time too, I did an interview. Lifting up my headset is getting very hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Yeah.

Lorri Carey 9:30

Like up and over. So yeah. Um, but yes. Having a hat is key.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah.

Lorri Carey 9:38

I have a whole collection.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Oh good. I have like a probably 200 of these.

Lorri Carey 9:45

Do you have like the same look?

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Same brown hat.

unknown 9:48

What?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

People always ask if I have tattoos, and I tell them I don't even know what to put on my hat.

Lorri Carey 9:54

Oh my gosh. Well, tell me about why in the brown. Why in the same hat?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

My brother found a brown hat at our local Goodwill that said country place on it, Temple, Texas. And I wore that brown hat for my first tours, I think. So I just got used to wearing a brown hat. And then that one completely just disintegrated because I wore it so much. And I found these brown hats because they looked like the same color.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And uh, and there you go. Twenty years later, I'm still wearing a brown hat.

Lorri Carey 10:28

And you is it like the same brand? The same same brand.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

It's same exactly. Okay. It's cheap and work. Sometimes I have to buy two just to get one that fits right.

Lorri Carey 10:38

Oh, yeah. There is a difference on the fit, especially for women. You know, some of them are the big hats, but I don't care. I kind of like them all. So well, thank you so much for agreeing to come on. I really appreciate it. And so I met you in October at Hop on a Cures Harmony for Hope, There Gala. And I literally just got off a call where everyone's still talking about the event. And these are people that watched online.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

That's cool. That was an amazing event. It was a cool event. And uh it was always it's always fun when you get to include music in a in a fundraiser and all that, I think. I mean, I like it because it means I get to be involved somehow, you know?

Lorri Carey 11:36

Yeah, yeah. How did you get to be involved with that?

Eric Pasley Joins The Conversation

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Um, I've known John a little while just through uh shows and you know, Zach Brown band and all that, but my publicist was actually the one that kind of was putting together the talent and all of that. And she was like, Do you want to do one of your song in a hats where you write a song on stage with the crowd and have guests come? I was like, That sounds great. I think John would love that and the crowd would love it, and we'd have a good time, and and it worked out great. So, you know, so just you know, it's the music business. You just someone you know knows an event gone says, Hey, will you donate your time? Absolutely. So it was just uh meant to be in a great time, and here we are.

Lorri Carey 12:17

After everyone said we loved the talent, we love that so much. So it was great to hear, and you know, just seeing what you normally wouldn't see at a concert or an event like that, you know, hearing backstories about the songs and a whole different perspective.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah.

unknown 12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Well, and I mean the talent was crazy. Christian Bush from Sugarland. And uh yeah, I mean, yeah, it was Cindy Thompson, she's that was great. Annie John sang, that was great.

Lorri Carey 12:55

Yeah. Him and Levi Lowry.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

And uh and Levi was just a really, really good show.

Lorri Carey 13:04

Yeah. So I want to talk about what happened at Harmony for Hope, but I'm always interested to hear the backstory to creative artists who are able to make a living doing what they love. Because I know it isn't an easy road. But how did you even get the music bug?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

I think you're just born with it. I don't know. I didn't have it taught out of me. I don't know. I uh I just I I used to s sit in front of a CD player, you know, the radio and and listen to songs that I loved. And I picked up my dad's little guitar and started playing along to a melody, and one of my brother's friends walked by my room and was like, Man, I didn't know you knew how to play guitar, and I'm like, I don't. He says, Well, you're playing it to the music. How are you doing that? I'm like, Well, I just listen and play it. You can't do that. He goes, No, I can't do that. So I I discovered I could play by ear where you kind of hear it and match the note. Um, which apparently not everybody can do that. I don't know. But uh yeah, so and he was older, so you know, to have an older, cool kid say that's cool, definitely made me uh like playing music on that. But I just I love playing music, I love what it does for people. I'm I'm grateful I can put lyrics and melodies to that, is what I eventually discovered through playing and writing. And I just thought everybody on the radio wrote their own songs.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

And I love peeing.

Finding Music And Writing By Ear

SPEAKER_01 14:34

So I'm like, well, I'm gonna be on the radio. So I just wrote and wrote, and uh so I've written a bunch of a bunch of songs over the years, and you know, led to Nashville, led to music business degree, just any reason to stick around was kind of the advice I was given about Nashville, because it takes a long time for for that to work if it is gonna work. For all the business to line up with the talent, you know. But um and gratefully all that lined up, signed a publishing deal, signed a record deal with Capital, and and had some hits as a singer, have some hits as a as a writer, and all that. And just through all that, I we started thinking about how what kind of show would you would I have wanted to go see when I first moved to Nashville? And it was always the writers' rounds where you have the people that wrote the songs for them or for someone else, just whatever, just a writer it could be. I mean, that's Paul McCartney to Billy Joel to Michael Jackson to you know, not Elvis, which is interesting, you know. And uh um, but um, and it led to the song on the hat where we what we did at the show, where people always ask, how do you write a song? And you know, we kind of just show them where how our wheels turn and our brains on the spot, you know.

Lorri Carey 15:48

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I feel like everyone appreciates that behind the scenes look of a song and and the whole process. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

I always like how stuff is built, you know. It's like walking an old building over in Europe and go, Who laid those stones? You know, you'll never you might not know, but you're there's a lot of souls that get to enjoy it and make memories in it. And that's this I kind of view it as songs. Like not everybody knows I wrote whatever hit what Barefoot Blue G Night Even Breaks Your Heart, whatever. But yeah, yeah, but I know that they're making memories to it, and that's really cool, you know, and and uh and also it's you know harder. It's it's uh Oz is cooler if you think there's one wizard, you know. Um and the same with you know when Beyonce's on stage or Garth Brook or whoever's on stage, you'd rather think they wrote it just themselves. They sat in a in a dark-lit basement broke, you know, and wrote it by themselves, you know, and and maybe they did, but a lot of times there's three or four, and pop can be way more than actually wrote it, probably 15 writers on a song. I'm not sure how you do that, but yeah, um, but ultimately it really is amazing just to like hear the stories of who wrote the song and why they wrote it and how they wrote it, and how someone might have heard it, and and and all that. It just you it shows you more how difficult the music business can be and how it's uh there's a lot of faith going on, and just keep your head down, keep following your heart, keep writing what you believe in, and and maybe eventually those music stars will line up, you know.

Lorri Carey 17:29

Good point. And you always think that that song, the lyrics, are about the person that's singing it, that that's their personal experience. And then you learn that no, actually, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Well, there was a time where people were better actors as singers, of storytellers, not that I wasn't this person, but I could be. You know, there was there was a time where there were more there were more songs of, you know, I mean, you know, it's there's there's a whole lot of songs Reb is saying, and and there's a lot of storytellers where, you know, boy named Sue wasn't Johnny Cash. He wasn't a boy named Sue, but he sang it as if he was. So I feel like I will say I feel like there is a lot of that that has been lost over the years, but I think it's because people really want to know like who are you and what are you about? Um which also means we have less stories of made-up things that um, you know, but it's fine.

Lorri Carey 18:29

So do you think that the songwriting, because you're also a performer and artist, like, do you feel that songwriting is kind of where you're gonna put your efforts and your energy in the future?

SPEAKER_01 18:46

I've I've never thought they were separate. I just always put them together. I put them together. If if you know, I'm not on a major record deal, so as far as like Radio Land and all that where songwriters make money. If we write a hit song, I'm gonna see if someone else real famous wants to record it that has a record deal right now doing the radio game, you know. So but if it's for me, it's for me and I don't pitch it. You know, I'll put it on one of my records. Yeah. Um I I don't ever see myself not performing in a way on the road, whether it be on a songwriting stage or with a band or with just me and a guitar on the on the theaters that we perform at, not necessarily as songwriting, but but it's just kind of who I am. I'm a songwriter first. Taylor Swift, she'll say, they'll say, What are you, a songwriter or a performer? I'm a songwriter first. I I would think Paul McCartney and John Lennon, all those cats would probably say the same thing. You you have nothing to sing if you don't write it. Right, right, right. Or find it or have hear it from your friend. Um there's we would just be hoodlums on stage standing with nothing to say, you know. So it's kind of you have to have the song. A lot of times people think that they're sometimes they're separate, but uh there's I mean, as you saw, there's a lot of songwriters that are great performers too, you know.

Lorri Carey 20:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

And some that aren't, and that's great too, you know?

Lorri Carey 20:09

Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned song and a hat, and that that gives people the ability to see how a song is created. So tell me about just your general song and a hat process that you you know go to a venue and you set it up, and how's it work?

How Hits Are Written And Shared

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Yeah, we we show up to the venue, and when the crowd comes in, they're handed a little slip of paper with a pen, and we have them write down a song title, an idea that you'd want to write. And so that's usually less than 10 words, hopefully. Hopefully three or five or something. Um, but people write down their little song idea and they put it in a hat. You know, we pass around these little brown hats, and people put in their ideas, and like with you, we we literally pull the ideas out of a hat, and whoever happens to be the one, we we see who that is, and they come up on stage and kind of let us know what their idea, what what made them write that idea down. Like, why did you write come into our world or why did you write, whatever the title it is. Um, and then it kind of gives me a better heartbeat and pulse of what universe we need to fly through musically to fit the emotion and the idea, and uh, and then just see where the where the where the lucky uh God-given talent of writing songs takes us, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

And uh and it's always it's I I mean, I don't overthink it because I'm the one up there writing with the other writers on the spot, but it's just kind of you know, I've written thousands of songs to just follow your follow your gut is the best is the best instinct I know to do. I and I usually just close my eyes and go with it and see where it goes. And And it's not perfect. It's not always just you don't land the plane perfectly always or wrap up the title exactly. But it it shows people how we get the good building blocks to eventually work on the magic pieces that we get in the beginning to write a great song.

Lorri Carey 22:17

Yeah. And it might not be perfect that first round, but it's genuine and it's heartfelt and it's real. And to me, that's like the most important thing, and everything else will fall into place for sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah. If you don't have that, I don't think I think people know. You can write a great song, but if the soul's not in there, exactly. You can tell, you know, and that's that's it's a it factory that I don't even know really what it is, other than you you just know, or you people will can feel it, or they know if you're doing it for money or for doing it for the right reason, you know.

Lorri Carey 22:55

Yeah, for sure. So circling back to Harmony for Hope, you did the song in a hat. I thought that you were going to draw one name and write a song. And so you drew a name, a gentleman, and I think his idea was grapple with that.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

I'm trying to remember what it was. I can't remember. I heck, I write songs and can't remember what it was. I I just kind of erase my mind and go to the next one.

Lorri Carey 23:29

Second chances.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

It was.

Lorri Carey 23:32

Yeah, it was second chances.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Good job.

Lorri Carey 23:35

Yay, my six-day old brain worked.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Here we go.

Inside The Song In A Hat Method

Lorri Carey 23:39

So I thought there was only gonna be one. You pulled out someone's entry from your hat, and the idea was second chances, and a gentleman came up on stage, and you guys wrote a great song really, really quick, and it was super impressive, very entertaining, and we all thought, okay, that's it, that's the song in the hat portion of the night, and it was great. And then you all decided to do one more, yeah, and you had Christian Bush pull the name, he pulls it out, and he says, Larry, and then and then he said, from Cincinnati, and I'm thinking, hmm, there's someone from Cincinnati here that I don't know. Because we're in Atlanta. And then he says, Oh no, it's Lori from Cincinnati. And I swear, I still was like, hmm, who is that? I have I had no, it took me a minute, as you know, to register that it was really me. And then all I can think of, I looked up and I'm like, I'm gonna walk all the way up the stairs and all the way over to the other side of the stage in front of everyone. And uh you all were great, like waiting for me.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

And you did it. Sorry, we sorry we put it all the way on the other side of the stage. Yeah.

Lorri Carey 25:20

No, it was good, but I was like, I can't believe they call my name. And then you all were reading the name of my idea, which was come into our world. You're gonna tell me what you were thinking when you read that, like, oh crap.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

No, I mean, you know, my thought is just thinking of you having ALS and John and there and so many people in the room, and uh there's a lot of people in the world that have been given uh not fun diseases and certain things. I have type one diabetes, it's very you know, it's not as uh serious as what you have. Um it can be if you don't take care of it. Um but just the empathy side of writing is important. I think empathy in life in general is extremely important. Oh, and sympathy as well. And just kind of my thought was well, you know, welcome to our world is as just kind of where my mind thought. I'm just if I were in your shoes in that moment and everyone else's, I just kind of went there and honestly, I I believe in hope. I believe in light. Yeah, I I believe in light even though I see darkness, because that prove there is, you know. Yeah, um, there's never true darkness, there's just lack of light, you know. And uh that's usually when I close my eyes, that's where I hope to go. That's where I hope the song leads to. Um, I do believe in hope. I do believe in beautiful things even after this. And uh, but yeah, that's that's that's where I went. And I don't remember exactly what I sang about. I think the second verse had to do with being a bird. I don't know. I think it I think it was somehow beautiful. I I rarely write the whole kind of song on the spot, but you you're inspiring, and the room was inspiring, and somehow ended just up, just closed my eyes and kept going. I think I even wrote a bridge. I don't even know.

Lorri Carey 27:21

Yeah, it was insane.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

I know it's recorded somewhere, and we should definitely finish it together.

Lorri Carey 27:26

Oh, yeah, no, for sure. I haven't, I posted it, and in our ALS community, everyone, including the ladies on the call, when I just jumped off that call right now, uh, were like, hey, what's ever gonna happen to that song? Oh my gosh, it was so beautiful and amazing, and um, on and on. Because I feel like, again, you don't know what you don't know in type 1 diabetes or cancer or ALS, like if you haven't lived it, really lived it, you just don't understand. And it's no one's fault. Like you just simply cannot understand, you know, and there's so much with ALS, like the ability to move your body at all, your ability to, you know, not be able to talk, like to breathe on your own. It's overwhelming. Like, there's so much. And I feel like if someone was able to come into our world, get a true sense of what it is like to live with that, then they would invest, and I'm not saying monetarily, but invest their heart and soul into helping others going through ALS or anything else.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Yeah.

Creating “Come Into Our World”

Lorri Carey 28:54

And I think people want to help each other. It's just that they don't know. They don't know. You know, when someone is in the later stages of ALS or not even that, a lot of people shy away. They see someone in a chair, a young person that can't move, can't talk, they don't know what to do, they don't say because they're afraid to hurt that person. So in turn, they do nothing at all. Or they're like playing it safe. I don't want to take a chance of hurting them anymore.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

But in reality, you're almost hurting them more because you're leaving you're not even being engaging with someone that can still hear.

Lorri Carey 29:49

Yeah, yeah, and can still think, yeah, can think clearly.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

See and feel. Yeah.

Lorri Carey 29:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

It is interesting. It's it's I mean, our world is full of people who choose ignorance, you know. They go, uh, it might be harder for me. I'm just not gonna do that. Just gonna smile and nod and walk away. I mean, that is unfortunate that a lot of people are taught that. Um, when someone's help uh needs help or whatever that situation is, it's it is uh thank you for sharing that though. It's I've I mean, I always try to walk up and say hi because I was also, you know, a kid growing up in the hospital and things and be like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_04 30:28

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Um but I don't think I've ever heard anyone uh say it just like you said, how people literally shy away to think, well, I don't want to upset them or can they do they even know I'm here? Yes, they do, you know?

Lorri Carey 30:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah.

Lorri Carey 30:44

Everyone's heart is in the right place, I think. It's just um you don't know. So that's why I thought that's why I wrote down, come into our world, because we just need people to help. You know, we need more awareness. And if you knew, if you just knew the impact that Alice has, you would you would help. Um so I want to talk about how you were even able to write that song on the spot. And one of my favorite parts in the evening was after you got done singing Christian Push, Chris Kampuna, Cindy, everyone they just said that's a hit. They're like, Christian threw his hands up in the air, I think, and he was like, all right, that's a hit. You know, everyone was like, okay, done. Yeah, how are you able to do that?

Empathy, Hope, And Honest Songs

SPEAKER_01 31:47

I don't I'll I'll I close my eyes for a reason. It's just I'm following my guess. Following that, and yeah, I think that we're all been given abilities to whatever that is, be really good with numbers, be really good with, you know, being the life of the party, being really good, whatever that is, laying block, which I like doing too, stack and block. But um just the the ability of I know that I'm able to make music and put, you know, look at a room and and go, well, there's a story here. What would be the best way to tell this story? You know, or look at someone's life, or look at a tree, go, who planted that? How many years ago? You know? Yeah. Um just anything and go, there's a song in everything, and there's a story in everything if you stop and and watch and listen. And and there's also a cause-effect or risk-reward on why would someone do that to themselves, or why would someone do that to someone else when it comes to the sad and happy love songs of the world. Um, and I've I definitely have spent a lot of time writing songs. So I do that because I hopefully when a great idea shows up like yours, you don't mess it up too bad, you know. But I will say that to be able to do that on the spot is not common. It's not something everyone does. Maybe I'm just crazy enough to put myself on the spot. I don't know, just take a take a risk, you know. Um, and uh, but I I'll I mean I personally think it's just and it's nothing of me. It's just I I believe that God gives us all cool, really cool ingredients that make the world a lovely, tasteful place if you use it right.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

And he gave me the ability to be able to write a song on the spot-ish, you know.

Lorri Carey 33:35

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

But mainly write a song and then just kind of have a little fun with it and see if we can do it, write it in five or ten minutes, you know, sometimes. And uh, and like we were saying, I I do believe there's more truth in those songs than if you're just staring going, well, what do people want to hear? You know, and be like, Well, they want to hear the truth and something real. And uh uh, but that's you know, I'm I I know don't overthink it because the moment I start overthinking it means I'm gonna stop being able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

You know, having a three-hour, five-hour co-write that's set up on the calendar is is meant for overthinking sometimes. But I have started doing the kind of song and a hat approach of like, well, what's the idea? Well, we could write it this way, this way, or this way. Let's just follow our gut and see what falls out in three minutes, and then go, well, let's write that version, not this version, or let's write this version. And usually the room of of creatives, like, we know which river we should float down, you know.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

What sounds more real to that title and what sounds like we're trying too hard, you know.

SPEAKER_03 34:40

I love it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

So it's helped it's helped me even just in my profession of writing songs of you know what, we overthink this too much. We're all gifted writers in a room. Let's stop overthinking, you know.

Lorri Carey 34:52

Yeah. I just had this invision of someone getting on your calendar to do some songwriting. And like you said, it's typically, you know, three, four, five-hour block, and it's like five minutes. Oh, oh, no, no, no, I'll meet with I meet with Eric, I forgot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

I actually, I mean, I we will, you know, take it's uh the joke is we spend like you know an hour writing a song and four hours talking or three hours talking. But um uh I have there has been writes recently where it's like we'll finish the write where it's like maybe took us two hours, we wrote a really cool song, and I'd be like, hey, you want to try to write a song in 20 minutes, 30 minutes? And uh almost every time that's the song everybody loves the most.

SPEAKER_04 35:35

Yeah, right. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Well, because you're like, cool, we did our job. That's a great song too. And I mean, maybe we uh you know, our job is to write a great song, but yeah, our our job is to write a our job is to write a great song. Usually we always get a good song that could still be a hit, it's good enough, you know. Yeah, and occasionally you you get lucky enough to to where the great lines up to where every line really just fell in order, right?

Lorri Carey 35:58

Well, it certainly did on that night, and it was funny because I had a couple of people send me a note and say, Was that staged? I'm like, no, it was not staged. Like it's not from like pulling my name, and I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah, and I people ask you, like, well, people ask, do you you had to have had a melody or something written? I'm like, I don't, I really don't. Because not every melody fits every idea, it doesn't work that way. Like right now, when we're talking, there's a melody going on. You believe me or you don't, right? Like there's inflections and melodies. Um and uh, but people do ask that. They're like, Did you just throw that title in there? I'm like, man, if I'd be if I were smart, I'd do that, but I'm not. So I just trust my gut instead.

Lorri Carey 36:49

Well you can tell that night because even you know, everyone else on stage was completely blown away. And so, like, okay, if we're blown away and they're blown away, legit.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

No, it's I'm blown away too. I don't I just show up and see what God lets us catch, you know.

Was It Staged And How It Works

Lorri Carey 37:10

I am gonna say to my listeners, I am gonna put the link to the video of the night at Harmony for Hope, where Eric created that song within minutes. I'll put that link in my show notes. They can be found on Facebook and Instagram, both at I'm Dying to Tell You podcast. Okay, so in the middle of creating a song, your insulin pump went off. And you mentioned that you had type one type penis. So I am just in awe, like of you and John. You both uh share your stage for a purpose, and you do that for type one type penis. Tell me what motivates you to do that.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

I mean, like we were saying, just we all have we all have something. And uh I I think it's better to let the world know w who you are, and when when you have a disease that that is takes over a lot of your life, it's probably better for your friends in the world to know that that might be part of why you can't or can't be somewhere or or why you're having a pump go did, you know, in the middle of a room. Uh and uh but you know, I think telling the truth is a is is the best way to live life. Um and uh my truth is I have diabetes, you know, type 1 diabetes. I'm not just type 1 diabetes, I'm all kinds of things. I uh I always make sure that there's a lot of people I meet that have a sickness and they just act act as if that's their own identity, that's the only identity they have. That's not true, in my opinion. Hear all kinds of things. Um, but I am grateful that I can relate to you know other people that have type 1 diabetes and get to be involved a lot with breakthrough T1D, um, formerly known as JDRF, uh to where we raise money for that and awareness and and hopefully finding a cure and better treatments like insulin pumps and and dexcoms and CGMs over the years that have helped me, you know, have a better glucose level. But uh doing that, and I think it's just encouraging people to, you know, if you have whatever disease you have, if you have bipolar, if you're have ALS, if whatever it is, it's probably better to let people around you know and love so they can understand you. And if they're not gonna love you for that, then they're not your friend anyway. You don't need to hang out with them.

Lorri Carey 39:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

They they got their own issues. It might not be a disease, it might just be a it might be a disease of lack of empathy, you know, whatever that would be called. But um, but you know, I love doing that and just getting to go to h hospitals and hang out with kids and and uh encourage them to take care of themselves and and everything. Um that's just kind of the goal. I actually thought I was gonna be a pediatric endocrinologist up until 18 or so, just because it was around great doctors and nurses, and there was a big hospital in my hometown in Texas, and I was like, Well, I'll just be a doctor. That'll be I can relate. Um I think I'm smart enough to do that. Who knows? I probably I probably would have made it through. But um uh but that and then music found me, and I was like, well, I'll just I'll make the the music of you know uh uh the drug of music, you know. Here's here's here's a here's a pill that we can all listen to. And uh and uh and I I mean you know, music's a powerful drug. Like some people use it for good, I think some people use it for bad. Uh and not that they're meaning to, but you know, we're all looking for an escape sometimes, and and uh I think it's better to find hope as opposed to just find an escape into another dark place, you know.

Living With Type 1 And Speaking Up

Lorri Carey 41:08

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

That being said, I still can write a really sad song. So it's and those those I think are hopeful because it means you're not alone.

Lorri Carey 41:19

Oh, well that's true. That's true, yeah. That's reality there. Oh you and I have something in common in that we both are storytellers, like through my podcast and through your music. And if I was to say what is my number one message through my podcast, it is to let people know that they are loved and alone. Do you have a universal message that you want people to know through your art?

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Um yeah. I always call it songwriter talking. It's like I just kind of feel like I have a free pass to think out loud sometimes as a songwriter. Because that's how you get to the the true song. But um one thing that that struck me recently, and I might have said it there, is none of us chose where we're born. Right? So that means you didn't choose your accent, you didn't choose what you look like, you don't choose the the the flag you're under, right? You don't choose if for some reason your immune system or your body decides to develop type one diabetes or ALS or cancer, right? Um But the thought is if if none of us chose where we're born, then the next heartbeat in our chest is do you choose to love anyone from wherever they're from? Because if you can't, you need to look at your heart for that. Because none of us chose where we're born, so you need to make sure that you love everybody from where they're from. And that includes their football team, that includes their politics. Because guess what? They were probably born into it. Yeah, did you did you choose your football team? No, it was either the the the team on the station or the team your dad rooted for and the team your grandfather rooted for. And that's that's uh that's kind of the thought that I'm running down these days is really think about if you're gonna be prideful about where you're from because you had nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

So my hope is that people will start rewiring their hearts and realize that we're all born into a situation that most of us didn't even choose, and that I hope that people find uh a way to find love and forgiveness and hope for everybody in the future after that heartbeat.

Lorri Carey 43:45

Yeah, it's that simple.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

I know that uh brevity is something I should work on. That I do that in songs. What I'm trying to say in a few words, but um I haven't put that idea into a song yet, but maybe I won't. Maybe it's just a thought on stage. But um yeah. But yeah. But I really I am really, really happy that that we've gotten to know each other a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

I'm grateful that somehow that your song idea fell out pretty good. And uh we definitely need to I I definitely need to get it finalized and record it for everybody, you know. But it's uh we can work on the maybe we can work on it to make sure if we need to tie up some loose ends on it a little bit better.

Lorri Carey 44:29

Yeah. So how would we do that? How when can that actually happen?

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Well it's just set we gotta set up a zoom right and we'll finish it. Another five minutes I'd probably take a little longer than that maybe but who knows it doesn't have to. Honestly I just need to listen to it again and and we'll go from there and see where what it needs to be. But maybe it is done. Who knows?

Lorri Carey 44:51

Oh okay well I'm gonna hold you to that you know it we'll do it thanks before I let you go what are you dying to tell us?

Music As Medicine And Meaning

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Dying to tell you that you're love beyond belief. Regardless of the cards that that the world has given you we're all love beyond belief farther than you could ever imagine. And on hard days it's hard to believe that and on good days it can get you can get lost and thinking everything's fine and I'll live forever. And uh I do believe that we live forever and I do believe that there's someone up there that loves us beyond belief. And whatever hardships you're given does not diminish his love for you.

Lorri Carey 45:35

Mm-hmm yeah oh that's great. Thank you so much Eric for joining me today and we'll definitely be in touch I really appreciate you getting to know you and just see what you've already done for our community joining John and everyone in the room you know supporting us living with ALS it really really means the world. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

I really appreciate you letting me be a part of the hang hey great job doing this great job with growing good stuff with the dirt you've been given as I've been that's my that's the that's the old soul farmer in me.

Lorri Carey 46:18

Oh there you go that Texas boy thank you again Eric and I can't wait to stay in touch and see what could happen with this song in the future. And thank you all for listening I really appreciate you being here like I mentioned before I will put a link in my show notes that you can go to and watch the video at Harmony for Hope showing this whole thing going down. And you can find the show notes on my website and Facebook page both at I've dying to tell you podcast and if you're new here I'm pretty much everywhere on social media all at Abdine to tell you podcast so Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn and even TikTok hey I appreciate you being here letting me share all of this with you and letting me share Eric with you as well until next time know you are loved and not alone thanks for listening thank you for listening to our mom make sure to visit her website at I'm dying to tell you podcast dot com where you'll find photos and show notes about this episode.

Christian Carey 48:06

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