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Oct. 1, 2024 - This Past Weekend - Theo Von

01:37:38

E534 Brooks & Dunn

Brooks & Dunn are a country music duo featuring songwriters Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn. They’re known for their many hits like “Neon Moon”, “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”, “Red Dirt Road” and more. Their album “Reboot 2” comes out November 15th featuring new takes on their classic songs. Theo meets up with country music legends Brooks & Dunn to talk about writing some of their biggest hits while still strangers early on, memories of their friend Johnny Cash, and the competitive side of making music. Brooks and Dunn: https://www.instagram.com/brooksanddunn/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/theo to get 10% off your first month Shopify: Go to http://shopify.com/theo to sign up for a $1-per-month trial period. Manscaped: Go to http://manscaped.com and use code THEO to get 20% off and free shipping. Rocket Money: Go to http://rocketmoney.com/theo to cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money. Boot Barn: Boot Barn: Visit http://BootBarn.com and use code THEO to get 15% off one item now through October 30th. ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Ben https://www.instagram.com/benbeckermusic/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Producer: Cam https://www.instagram.com/cam__george/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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	Some new tour dates coming up.
	Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
	La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
	Moline, Illinois.
	Colorado Springs, Colorado.
	Casper, Wyoming.
	Billings, Missoula.
	Bloomington, Indiana.
	Columbus, Ohio.
	Champaign, Illinois.
	Grand Rapids, Lafayette, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas.
	Get all your tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R.
	And thank you so much for the support.
	Today's guests are icons in the world of country music.
	If they had a Mount Rushmore of country, you might see these fellas right up there on it.
	They had solo careers before they joined together to create one of the most popular tandems in the history of country.
	You know their many hits like Ninyon Man, Mamaria, and Bit Gini, and many, many more.
	Their new album, Reboot 2, comes out November 15th.
	It has new takes on their classic songs with folks like Morgan Wallen, Jelly Roll, and Lainey Wilson.
	I am so excited today to sit down with Mr. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn.
	Brooks and Dunn.
	Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you my stories Shine on me And I will find a song I've been singing I'm gonna stay And I'll be Yeah, thank you guys for coming in, man.
	Good to be here.
	Good to see you guys.
	I watch you all the time.
	Not just saying that.
	I watched you with Post Malone the other day.
	I don't know how far back that was videoed or shot.
	Oh, yeah.
	Funny stuff.
	Yeah, he's wild, man.
	Yeah, he's really, he's just like an infectious thing, kind of.
	Isn't it funny?
	Yeah.
	Yes, sir.
	No, sir.
	Yeah.
	He's like a kid who got in trouble, but he's going to keep partying.
	Yeah, you're right.
	Have you stopped drinking?
	Worst time of your life?
	Well, it's when I was drinking.
	Have you stopped?
	No.
	What's different?
	Well, I mean, he's an interesting cat.
	He's absolutely a sweetheart, though.
	You talk to him.
	It's like Mr., you know, Mr. Theo.
	He's the nicest guy.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, he's super nice, man.
	You guys have had such a career, man.
	Thank you so much for all the music.
	Yeah.
	Thanks for letting us hang around this long, you know.
	Appreciate it.
	Been around how long?
	Several semesters.
	Yeah.
	Does it feel, did it ever feel, did it feel like, because you guys got part, did you guys get paired together or how did it kind of the beginning become?
	We're not going to go through all the history, but I just want, you know, just so some people may not know.
	Classic story, you know, right out of the movies.
	Just a friend of ours who we both had a lot of respect for, Tim Dubois, great songwriter himself and whatever.
	He's actually an accountant at Vanderbilt as well, you know, smart guy too.
	But he just invited us to lunch and thought we might be a good pair up.
	And, you know, Ronnie and I are just kind of growling across the table at each other.
	It didn't make any sense to us.
	And he said, look, you guys can both write songs.
	He goes, just go see if you can write a song together.
	Okay.
	So I think that was Tuesday, maybe Thursday, we wrote Brand New Man.
	Friday, we wrote this song Next Broken Heart.
	And Ronnie had already written Neon Moon and Boot Scoot and Boogie.
	And I had another song Lost and Found.
	And we just screwed up and been riding the bus for 30 years trying to figure out how to get off.
	Yeah, it's like we weren't brothers growing up.
	Yeah.
	Did it feel like a pressure like you had to be like, I just want, yeah, like, because with comedians, they don't really have that where you kind of kind of partner you up.
	I guess for television shows and stuff, they do where they package shows.
	But yeah, I wonder, did it feel, did you guys feel a pressure like we have to?
	Or it was just.
	No.
	No, we felt broke and hungry.
	Yeah.
	What's the motivation?
	We felt up a little bit.
	We felt like none of this shit's really working that great.
	Yeah, I mean, I'd had some success as a songwriter, written a couple of hits and whatever.
	And Ronnie just been out in Oki, you know, hiding, writing great songs, totally unheard of for somebody who hadn't been in Nashville, really studying the craft, so to say, to show up with songs like Neon Moon and Boot Scoot and Next Album, Hardworking Man, and used to be my Ronnie just had written all these great songs by itself, which, you know, now I can't even tell you who's out there writing songs by themselves.
	They'll probably watch and go, hey, how about me, dude?
	But, you know, it's a co-writing town.
	It just really is.
	It's becoming more and more of a co-writing town.
	More and more writers on every song.
	I saw one with nine riders.
	Nine riders.
	I mean, what the heck?
	We used to like, we'd throw a bet you'd be 50, like, you know, three riders in the movie.
	Did it feel like over, did it feel like you guys had to, because I bet it's like once you get partnered with somebody, it's like, dang, we're part, this is a long ride, and you don't really know how long the ride is when you start, you know?
	Did it feel like you guys over the years, like you had to be best friends?
	Did it ever feel like a pressure to be like that?
	Maybe, but we didn't, I don't think we took it to heart.
	I mean, it was like, hey, we.
	Tim, back up on your story a little bit for me.
	But Tim had heard me playing a bar in Oklahoma, and he was circling through, and Clive Davis, and he were putting a label together.
	So he told me, he says, I'm going to sign.
	He said, I've already got Allen Jackson and Diamond Rio.
	He already had a boy singer and a band.
	Yeah, Pam Chillis.
	And it's like he's going down the list.
	We didn't realize this at first, but he was going down the list going, okay, now I need a trio.
	I've got a trio.
	Now I need a duo.
	But we didn't know that until after the fact.
	The judge were breaking up.
	He saw an open slot on the CMAs.
	Might have been true.
	No, it wasn't true.
	I didn't think it was that manipulative.
	Yeah, I saw you guys do your walkout with Morgan.
	How was that, man?
	That was cool.
	He's got it stirred up.
	And it's like, okay, so where do we start?
	How about that, Kevin?
	Did you know about it before what it was or no?
	I really didn't.
	They were trying to explain to me what was going on.
	And like, we're going to look back and you guys come down the hallway and then y'all are going to walk out together to his stage.
	You know, we're going to film it and it's a big deal.
	I'm like, okay.
	We keep up with it to the extent that we know how he's selling out stadiums everywhere and it's like, you know, get out of the way.
	And he's crashing websites and Live Nation.
	If you announce ticket sales at all, it blows up through the roof.
	And I had did a walk-on with him at Bridgestone when he played here a couple years ago.
	Oh, yeah, I saw that show, actually.
	I was at that show.
	That was awesome.
	But yeah, to do that, it's kind of an interesting thing because you're back there.
	You don't really know what's going on.
	You can kind of start to hear people cheering, but you don't really know.
	So did you do that with him?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I got to do one with them here in Nashville.
	Yeah, with DeAndre Hopkins that plays for the Tennessee Titans.
	Yeah, sure.
	But it's still kind of confusing because you're like- Yeah, D-Hop.
	Oh, that's what I meant.
	Oh, what did I call him?
	DeAndre.
	No, but we didn't.
	When I did it, he wasn't doing the walk yet.
	So we were in Kansas City the other night with him.
	Is that right?
	Yeah.
	No, no, no.
	Yeah, we were in the city.
	Yeah, Kansas City.
	Yeah, that's where you guys had to walk out with him, right?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, because it's kind of wild.
	Yeah.
	It's just this thing, I guess they kind of just started it.
	Yeah, you don't know.
	Yeah, you're right.
	You're just kind of thrown into the fray there.
	Yeah, you just kind of don't know what's going on.
	Well, am I supposed to walk here and be cool?
	Am I supposed to rub your shoulders?
	Right.
	And it's starting to get weird.
	People are rubbing on him and people are.
	Yeah.
	Right.
	It's getting starting to get a little aggressive, I feel like.
	Right.
	And the only thing you notice is it's like, stop doing that.
	And they tell us, he's going to walk fast.
	Okay.
	You're going to walk fast.
	Yeah.
	That's it.
	And off you go.
	It'll be cool when he just starts wrestling.
	Yeah.
	Towards running decks.
	It's him and his agent just back there fist fighting.
	Oh, I think, yeah, it's definitely bizarre because you like, you don't really know what's going on.
	And then he's like, all right, let's go.
	And for him, it's just, he's just getting, you know, heading to work.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	It had to be weird because you get to the stage and then you guys can't go out to the stage.
	So it's like.
	Yeah, it's like, yeah, we're on.
	It's like, stop.
	Yeah.
	No, this is not your show.
	Stop hearing the cameras off.
	Follow that guy.
	Yeah, it really was like that, man.
	Because I didn't even play anything, but I was like, I could try.
	I was like, let's do it.
	That's how we were.
	You just wing it.
	Go wing it.
	Oh, yeah.
	And DeAndre's like, he looked like he was ready to just run a 40-yard F flat, you know?
	So I was like, yeah, let's get him out here, dude.
	So that was interesting, man.
	What's been one of the tougher things that came with fame that you guys realized?
	Because you guys went to being, obviously you were doing well in your careers individually.
	But even as you were just saying, you guys, the first couple of songs you put out were hits.
	That's right.
	First four were number ones.
	Yeah.
	I mean, that's a lot of number ones, dude.
	We just called some buddies up in a panic and started playing honky talks and bars.
	Even our manager told us not to do it.
	I said, no, man, if we're running off, like we're knocking hits out of the park right now, we need to have a tight band.
	You know, when they do, are we getting a place where we're in front of a lot of people?
	So we went for the first year, year and a half, playing clubs everywhere from here to California.
	Which was the coolest.
	It was animals.
	The coolest memory for me because I probably like Ronnie.
	I mean, just a lot of years of turning corners on clubs and stuff, and there'd be four or six cars in the parking lot.
	Oh, yeah.
	You know, and you just have to go.
	Some of yours, too.
	And one of them's a girl you came to invite to impress.
	Exactly.
	And a couple of guys that don't like it because they want her too.
	She's not cute at all.
	Yeah, you set your stuff up, you know, and nobody cares and whatever.
	And then next thing you know, we're parking down the road to get to a place because the parking lot's full.
	Those were great nights.
	They really were.
	You know, you really couldn't screw up too bad because it was fired up.
	And that's kind of what you dream about when you're learning to tune your guitar.
	You know, just, man, just the club's part of it.
	I mean, the whole Coliseum thing and that other kind of success was, I wasn't even thinking that far.
	This was just like, man, it worked.
	Yeah.
	It was so crazy because we don't know each other from Adam.
	Even at that point, we don't know each other from Adam.
	We would learn in interviews about one another.
	About each other?
	Yeah.
	Like, I didn't know you did that.
	Now, as you started to get famous, I'm just curious about this kind of stuff, you know, because fame and popularity is such like a, it's an interesting thing, right?
	And it's its own thing because you can't exactly plan for it.
	Like, were there things that you kind of missed kind of immediately about that?
	Like, because once you kind of, once it starts to happen, it's hard to put it.
	You can't really put your life back into that old jug, really.
	No, and you don't see it coming.
	You can't plan for it no matter where, where it is.
	I think, you know, even if you grew up around it, which I didn't, but I can remember, this is so strange, Deal.
	I can remember going home after the first, like, say, run, the real, like, tour railroad open for Reba or whatever.
	And my wife and brother-in-law going, she said, you've changed.
	I'm like, what?
	You changed.
	She said, you're not the same.
	I didn't feel like anything was any abnormal other than I was going out on a bus and singing in front of people.
	I didn't come back going, you know, I'm famous.
	But people's perception of you changes.
	Don't you think?
	Yeah, it is.
	Yeah, and it's kind of uncomfortable because you don't, you kind of wish it wouldn't.
	Well, you need that safety net of normalcy to come back to, especially at home.
	And it was just kind of, All of a sudden you're getting pushed in the corner in a way by that whatever perception is of fame.
	I just did a bunch of acid, so we're heavy with this.
	Oh, I'm not even here.
	This shit's just coming, it's coming out of cosmic space, right?
	Mushroom, not acid, acid job.
	I think that it's funny.
	I'm just, my wheels are turning just thinking about those times.
	And honestly, I love somebody made a statement one time.
	We're having a conversation like this and said, yeah, I want to be a star.
	I want to be a star.
	I want to be a star.
	Will you people please leave me alone?
	I've never felt that way.
	You know, I mean, like Ronnie for so many years.
	I was 36. He was 38 when we met, you know, with nothing going on, really.
	And I mean, that's pretty old to just get started with a career where you're put together by a record company and to think you're going to have a 30-year-long or something.
	Well, we didn't think about the 30-plus year run.
	Our philosophy was, hey, you got three, three to five years.
	Let's maximize it.
	Let's take what little money we make.
	And I was going to go, our big, Janine, my wife and I just, just got married in Oklahoma.
	So our goal was, you know what?
	Interest rates are like 10%.
	And this was back.
	Tells you how far back it was.
	Interest rates are 10%.
	We make a million dollars.
	We can live off $100,000 a year and live like kings.
	That we drove up to the first house, bought this little house in Nashville.
	We got, we're just here for a little while.
	Save your money.
	Yeah.
	Honestly, I don't know if you remember this, Ronnie, but we were sitting in the Nashville airport just shooting the bull.
	And we've always just, I guess, had kind of a natural just a couple of guys and we're smart asses, just, you know, just goopballing all the time, talking to people just like we are today.
	And anyway, these two girls came over and I saw three of them over there talking.
	And they came over and asked if they could get an autograph.
	And they had a CD and whatever.
	And, you know, we just shot the bull back and forth a little bit and whatever.
	And I mean, they were sweet and whatever.
	We signed their CDs and I've always been happy to do that.
	Glad anybody cares, you know.
	Oh, yeah.
	And man, a couple of minutes later, their friend comes over and said, our friends told us what you said.
	We're getting rid of all our CDs.
	We've always thought y'all were so great.
	I mean, just teed up on us.
	And we're looking at each other.
	I'm going, I'm trying to remember this conversation, what I could have possibly said that, and I mean, I like to think of myself as a good guy, nice guy, and have always respected our fans and everything else.
	I'm like, what just happened?
	But it made me realize that moment, that minute that we spent together totally wraps somebody's impression of you and what kind of human you are and how they'll tell everybody they meet for the rest of their lives that they're just jerks.
	That's the part.
	Did you ever find out what you said?
	I have no idea what we said.
	You were involved.
	Don't tell me.
	Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
	What did you say?
	I wasn't there.
	I wasn't there.
	Don't suck me down that rabbit hole.
	You guys feel like you get on this one, like this one-minute game show to prove to somebody that you're okay or something.
	I don't know.
	Yeah, that stuff, it's like...
	You got to be quick.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, and the job is you want them to think you're okay or something.
	Because you're the guy for the job.
	One minute.
	Yeah.
	You can do it.
	I can't.
	Yeah, that kind of stuff gets a little tricky.
	Was it tough?
	Like, what about having a family and stuff and touring so much?
	Like, what were things that, like, yeah, what's that like?
	Like, is it hectic?
	Dude, I had just been married.
	I mean, we just got married, came up, and June Carter Cash gave us a little cabin on top of the hill, not far from their house to live in.
	Wow.
	And so a nice little house, like something out of a magazine.
	But it was on top of a mountain by itself.
	And so was she.
	And boom.
	We had a hit right out of the big gate.
	We're gone.
	And it wasn't too long.
	It's like, I mean, we didn't have, we had like cell phones, but we didn't, thank God, have cameras.
	But I started getting these terrorist faxes, I called them.
	Like, she would fax the hotel because I talk longer than we talked so long on the phone.
	They go, okay, all right, all right.
	All right.
	I'll be home, you know, in two weeks.
	I know.
	I understand.
	I get it.
	I love you.
	Bye.
	You know, ring.
	I'm not answering the phone.
	That ain't going to happen.
	So not 10 minutes later, I get this knock on the door, and it's like they slide this stack of faxes underneath.
	So she started faxing me.
	It's like, what the hell?
	And this goes on for, I don't know, a few months, and we sorted it out.
	But to this day, I mean, man, she's had to go therapy over it.
	Oh, I'm sure.
	With her or without her.
	With her.
	At her request, obviously.
	Because I'm broken.
	She's not.
	Anyway, that's the long thing.
	I wish Chennault had one of those.
	Because we had a cell phone per se on tour, but it was like something that the Army would use.
	It had a suitcase thing that it was in and all that.
	The second you press the button, a helicopter would come by.
	18 bucks a minute.
	Long way from 18 bucks a minute.
	It's important.
	It's cheap, man.
	It wasn't.
	Yeah, but it wasn't with our wives or anything.
	We were a little.
	We wouldn't give our wives a number.
	It's important.
	It was strictly a beer phone.
	You're like, we need an airdrop now.
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	But my kids were on the bus in the summer.
	It was good because we were still playing a lot of fares and stuff back then.
	And, you know, during, it was kind of like summer vacation, honestly.
	It was.
	And I didn't, I never, never mind.
	We got, fortunately, we did have some success and made a little money and were able to get our own buses pretty early is the reason we're still sitting here having this conversation.
	There were 13 of us on one bus with the merchandise, boxes of t-shirts and stuff like that.
	And then one of our guitar players slept in the back with the merchandise.
	Oh, yeah, there's always that one.
	It was animal house.
	I got human gerbils back there just burrowing in a bunch of extra large back there.
	It was absolute animal house.
	He just completely just covered himself with nine mediums back there, you know.
	It was a guy named Bird Burton, who is the famous guitar player for the amazing rhythm aces and a bunch of rock stuff.
	And he'd come up there, bless his heart.
	We're trying to, you know, really trying to keep him around.
	So you have the sofa at the back with the merchandises.
	He goes, we don't have any blankets and you sleep under t-shirts, right?
	Anyway, it was Animal House.
	It was like Animal House?
	Yeah, we had one guy that's like, you know, all the bunks, like there's what, nine, six to a suicide, I think.
	Yeah.
	And then the back lounge.
	And there's one guy that we called him, what, Fred Sanford.
	He was the junk man.
	And you couldn't stop at a truck stop and he wouldn't go in and like buy a freaking seat.
	Sounded like a CB radio and a bunch of chips.
	You hear him at four in the morning.
	Turn over and be like an ace hardware in his bucket, okay?
	Sandbag sprinkling at night and stuff.
	Like, what?
	And then all of a sudden there's the wall and then the bunks and you see like the chip bag would like fall down through to the next guy.
	He's like, God dang, man.
	It was crazy stuff.
	Truck stops are great though.
	Oh, man.
	So much fun.
	There's so many stuff in there.
	Especially when you cross the border.
	Early on, Faith Hill was opening up for us.
	Oh, wow, huh?
	Yeah.
	And I forget.
	Oh, and way.
	Y'all struck out with her, I guess.
	Damn, huh?
	We got stranded in Canada in a snowstorm.
	Yeah.
	A lot of stuff.
	I couldn't have set the table any better for one of you guys.
	It was rough.
	So in the first truck stop, I go in and I'm looking at all their cool stuff in the freezer in Canada.
	And I pull, it was an eel.
	It was a frozen eel in the freezer.
	And I'm like, wow.
	So I bought it.
	I mean, I have no idea what I'm going to do with this, but I couldn't resist.
	That was a phase when everybody started interrupting.
	But that was a phase when everybody was playing pranks on the road.
	Oh, good faith.
	And Faith was like, she was one of the guys.
	I mean, you have to keep up with that.
	She would throw stuff.
	And an eel could come in handy.
	Furballs at you.
	In all kinds of reasons.
	Who'd even had an eel?
	I don't even, some people don't even.
	Canadians.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I think that was the point.
	That's why you bought it.
	It's like, look at this.
	What the hell?
	So she's a little bit of a nicer snake.
	It's the most Canadian thing, you know?
	Yeah.
	But we get to the end of the tour, and sure enough, I walk by.
	We're fishing to go to the stage Faith is on next.
	And Wade Hayes had just gotten off stage.
	I went by to tell him, you know, good show and whatever.
	And he's kind of leaned over.
	He's looking pretty peaked.
	And I'm like, did you okay?
	He's like, no, man.
	It's like, Faith put salt in my drinking water on stage tonight.
	I go, oh, and then he was six.
	I'm like, that's wrong.
	I got you, dude.
	So she was at a hotel, but we had the codes to her room and her fictitious name, whatever she was using at the time.
	So me and Doug make a run.
	Well, first I put the eel in the microwave, and the eel didn't even have a head.
	I mean, and then once you've thawed him out, he got real slimy, you know?
	So we head over there.
	That breaking childhood, it must have had.
	Dude, you know it.
	Bring your own food.
	Pull back the covers and just laid him out right where those pretty little feet were going to go, you know.
	Kind of pushed it down so we put the covers back, just made it look really good.
	Anyway, and the next didn't hear a thing.
	She didn't say anything.
	We just keep waiting for the other shoe to fall.
	Nothing.
	So we're going through customs, getting back into the States the next day, you know, inside.
	And I go through and, you know, lady's going.
	She goes, Mr. Brooks, I go, yes.
	She goes, I need you to come over here to the side.
	And I go, yeah.
	She goes, apparently there's been a complaint filed against you about some stolen jewelry by Miss Faith Hill.
	And she starts pulling this rubber glove on.
	And I go, don't do that.
	Don't do that.
	It ain't in there.
	You better not be kidding her.
	She went to God.
	She couldn't hold it.
	She finally broke.
	I go, come on.
	It's not our first day.
	Leave me alone.
	You're not even in this game.
	You did sing a little higher that night.
	The world was fun then, too, when things were a little bit more simple, you know.
	Oh, yeah.
	In a lot of ways.
	Yeah.
	That was a lot of fun, man.
	And you couldn't capture the moment as much, so you had to enjoy the moment because that was the only, you know what I'm saying?
	Well, you got too much downtime.
	I mean, it was not, you know, if you're not on stage doing something creative, you're doing something destructively creative on the backside.
	Oh, yeah.
	You know, you know, you've been out there.
	Oh, it's the dark arts out there, brother.
	It is.
	Did you guys ever have a comedian that opened up for you guys?
	I know sometimes they used to do that on shows.
	Gary Muldeer.
	Oh, really?
	Yeah, still a good friend.
	Love Gary.
	Yep, we did, what, Vegas?
	Vegas a couple times with him.
	It's hysterical.
	I don't know how many times, but he was out with us quite a bit.
	That's a tough gig, I feel like.
	Well, but he played guitar as well.
	Well, you know, Gary's like, he does play guitar, and it's, you know, it's incredible because he just did a, we did a show together out in California not too long ago, and he played, because he always, he's got a Johnny Cash voice, and he'll do Ring of Fire or something like that every now and then.
	He's, he's hysterical, though.
	Just real, real straight-faced joke teller and can just break you down.
	I got to tap in with him.
	I've heard of him before.
	I've seen a lot of like, because comedians, you go to the next club and the other person's just been there, you know, and I've seen a lot of his, you know, seen his name a ton over the years, but I've never been there.
	He's been around forever.
	But he actually performed a song and it was, God bet, this thing had 20 verses.
	And it was, it was, it was, I'm not kidding.
	It was like, but it was a real country music analog kind of take you through this whole journey of thing.
	It was really neat.
	Big time stand-and-oh because I've seen him perform, I don't even know how many times at this point.
	And everybody there was like, wow, you got that off your chest.
	And he did not tell a single joke.
	Really?
	He sang that one song and left the stage.
	So it was so cool.
	But it was a humorous song.
	No, it wasn't funny.
	It was a real song.
	It was.
	He was a comedian.
	He is a comedian.
	He's a great comedian, yeah.
	Maybe that's his idea of comedy.
	Him and Roger Miller toured.
	Him and Roger Miller toured together.
	Wow.
	And you've heard of people doing these Rogerisms, these funny things that he told all, he knows all of them.
	I mean, if you ever run into him, get him going on Roger because he's one of the great historians, the keepers of the Rogerisms, too.
	Great guy, funny comedian.
	Yeah, I need to run into him.
	Yeah, what do you feel like, like, like being a duo, were there other duos that, like, in music that reached out to you guys over the years to help learn how to navigate that, like, that template kind of?
	Does that make any sense to you?
	Yeah, it does make sense, but no, no.
	As friendly as they say, you know, the world of country music is, it's so darn competitive.
	You know, everybody hates one another.
	They act like they don't on TV.
	You think people are really competitive, though?
	Oh, heck yeah.
	No, big time competitive.
	One of my favorite things is Dolly Partner in an interview years and years ago.
	They were talking about somebody being, she goes, oh, honey, there's room for everybody.
	No, there's not.
	You want to get down to it?
	No, there's not.
	What's the most competitive part?
	Is it people trying to get the best songs?
	Is it like, where does the competition really come in, do you feel like?
	Because that's interesting.
	I think just by nature to be here and be in this game, be in your game or anything, there's a competitive, don't you feel?
	There's a competitive dynamic that runs through it.
	Especially in the beginning, for sure.
	Yeah, but you want to catch it like, how many number ones do you have?
	Who had a number one this week?
	Who has it?
	And we can be cool and sit back and go, you know, we don't care.
	No big deal.
	We're not in it for that.
	We're in it for the love.
	And that's not the case.
	But that's also healthy.
	That's what keeps you going.
	We do make some real friends along the way.
	I mean, you do.
	There are people that you're competition.
	I mean, David Lee Murphy is a great example.
	He said he wrote with him yesterday.
	You know the song Dust on the Bottle?
	Happy little dust.
	That's David Lee Murphy.
	Him singing, him writing.
	Turned into writing a lot of great songs, too.
	Yeah.
	And we got here, both got here in 79, literally swept floors for Charlie Daniels for 30 bucks a night.
	I was, you know, getting rent paid and playing writer's nights and stuff.
	And still, he's on tour with us now and, you know, going out with us next year.
	We toured again last year and we've toured together before.
	We've got real friends that the competition, I can't say, I don't know, maybe it does go away or something.
	And at some point in your life, I think you have a certain amount of success.
	You still want to succeed, but it's like you're not so ferocious.
	Like when you start and everything matters.
	And it's not that everything doesn't matter anymore, but it's like everything kind of turned down the heat a little bit.
	You know, let's simmer here and see if we can't do something real, something good.
	Now we kind of know you build confidence too.
	Again, like I said, Ronnie and I, we didn't figure we'd go a year or two.
	That's why we were desperate through pretty much through our whole careers, just kind of, this isn't going to work.
	This, we, you know, we're always doubting ourselves, you know, always trying to do anything we could to do something really special because it's probably going to be our last song, you know, our last video.
	I mean, we've always kind of felt a little desperate, I think.
	Does it feel like it's out of your control sometimes as a musician?
	Because a lot of it is what songs you get, right?
	And you can write your own songs or you can write them with other people, but does it ever feel like it's out of your control, kind of like how well you keep doing, or does it feel like it's in your control?
	You know what it is.
	I mean, 60%, 70%.
	I don't know how much you can add to the Diamond McCullough.
	I can add up to 100%.
	Of luck, right?
	No, I've got to add that.
	I guess.
	I don't know.
	We could try to do more.
	I can't even.
	A lot of it is luck.
	But it's the thing if you're working at it and luck strikes, it's like you're ready for it.
	You've got your ball metal and bang, catch it.
	And we're from there.
	But we work hard at it.
	I mean, we're songwriters before we're singing.
	Right, that's a good recipe point.
	Y'all weren't up there just, hey, somebody sell me a hit.
	You're like, I have the ability to make my own hit.
	It's all about the song.
	It's all about the song.
	And then as you move through the business, you meet people.
	You meet people that are pitching.
	You're giving you good songs too.
	And you can't write them all.
	Timing has a lot to do with it, too.
	It really does.
	What do you mean?
	That's luck, too.
	Yeah, certainly.
	That is.
	Yeah, time is just luck with a clock, huh?
	There you go.
	That's great.
	Write that down.
	We both had some kind of solo record deals before we had a duo deal.
	Ronnie was singing his ass off before I met him.
	At 38 years old, why wasn't he a star already?
	Right.
	You know, I don't know.
	I'm going to bring it up, Age.
	I'm just saying.
	It's 38 years older.
	Are you afraid of that?
	You only look 38 older, Johnny.
	Yeah, is it tough to age gracefully?
	Is it tough to be like, because even I notice it, you know, in my own career, it's like, you know, you start to do good and you're like, oh, well, I'm getting older.
	And then you're like, you start to see the younger guys that are doing well.
	And you're like, oh, well, this is all going to, is there a graceful way for this to end?
	Or does it just end?
	Or like.
	I think you just play that one by ear, you know?
	I keep telling people, I'm going to die in denial about related age.
	It's like, I'm not going to know how old I am.
	I don't want to know.
	It pisses me off to see every article, somebody writing stuff and you go, well, and so-and-so, you know, 80 years old, whatever.
	Legal age out of this.
	Willie's out there rocking.
	He's cool.
	Oh, yeah.
	Go to Willie.
	He'd be the standard bearer for that.
	But no.
	I mean, McCartney, they're still out doing their thing.
	Yeah, I actually saw him in a bathroom a couple of months ago.
	We were in the same bathroom at the same time.
	Wow.
	What'd you do?
	Huh?
	What'd you do?
	So number one?
	Did you try to shake his hand or anything?
	No, no, I didn't do anything like that.
	I freeze.
	Just let it be, dude.
	That was a little bit more.
	Wow, you said something to him.
	I think I honestly, I probably said like good day or something like that.
	Like I think I was probably trying to welcome him in like a British tone or something.
	Good day, Mike.
	Yeah.
	I freeze.
	I freeze anytime I get around somebody.
	I'm balked by somebody.
	Oh, you're in Ireland.
	Good day, Mike.
	No, they're like prisoners from England or something.
	Good freeze.
	I'm never cool around somebody famous.
	I wish I could be.
	Yeah, were there guys like that coming up that you guys met?
	Or what question had I just asked?
	Let me make sure I stay on topic.
	Sorry.
	Were you ever in the bathroom with Paul McCartney?
	Paul McCartney was in the bathroom.
	One time I was also in the bathroom with them all.
	Montell Williams, okay, who's a talk show host, and Kid Rock one time, and I urinated right between them, dude.
	Oh, wow.
	That's a DMZ, man.
	It really is.
	Incoming.
	You make the wrong move there.
	Anything can go off and either way.
	Yeah.
	Either way, it was.
	I just want to try and shake hands just to see what they're going to do, though.
	Hey, man, it's just, I've always, you know, just, especially if you reach over the stall top.
	Johnny Cash said that the strangest thing like that that ever happened to him, and he said he was in a stall in the airport or something.
	He said, this paper slips under the wall.
	I was like, we're good.
	Like, hey, that paper likes men.
	That's all I'm saying.
	So you guys got to meet Johnny Cash?
	Yeah.
	No way.
	What was he like, like, just as a regular guy?
	Was he like a friendly guy?
	Was he kind of like a stoic guy?
	Stoic, quiet by nature when you first meet him.
	And that in and of itself is intimidating.
	Oh, yeah.
	And then as you get to know him, he's a 17-year-old kid.
	That was it.
	I mean, he do just crazy.
	Funny as all get out.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	My wife, her first husband invented the car one piece at a time.
	And Johnny sang about it one piece at a time.
	He built that car.
	He built a car.
	Oh, built that car one piece at a time.
	Sorry, yeah.
	He built a car.
	So he.
	Or Johnny really built a car?
	Sorry, I'm confused.
	No, her ex-wife built the car about the song that Johnny sang.
	Got it.
	He liked a song, and him and his bud said, man, let's build it.
	Let's actually build it.
	They're always going around.
	They own strip coal mines in Oklahoma.
	Johnny did?
	Or his friends?
	No, no, Janine, my wife's friend.
	Okay, got it.
	So they were well acquainted.
	They all became fast friends, traveled the world together.
	I mean, really, really tight.
	And so when I was brought in, her husband passed away.
	And when I was brought in, it's like she's marrying or dating a musician, you know.
	And Janine goes, I'm going to take you to John and June's house in Nashville first time that she did it from Oklahoma.
	And I went, no, I don't really want to do that.
	I just kind of saw that one coming, you know.
	And John.
	And of course, John's real quiet.
	And would you wear over that?
	Did you get dressed up or what?
	You know, black, all black.
	No, I mean, wearing jeans, what I have on now, this kind of stuff.
	Were you nervous or not?
	You remember?
	Yeah, yeah.
	I was super shy and quiet.
	And I'm going to kind of come out of my shell a little bit these days.
	But he was obviously glad to see her.
	I mean, I'm the new kid on the block.
	You know, you don't just screw up.
	It was just long drinking.
	Like a water girlfriend.
	Your girlfriend bringing you over to meet her parents.
	He was just pervert or whatever, yeah.
	I mean, I don't know you, but I mean, you're a pervert.
	I'm sure most of us are.
	That goes with it.
	You've been better not a pervert.
	And Johnny knew that.
	Pervert himself.
	You show me 70 people.
	Yeah, I'll show you 70 perverts.
	You're a comedian.
	You're a pervert.
	Wow, that's pretty fascinating, though.
	And did people look up to him as he this?
	Was he as because now he's almost, there's an idolatry about him in a way.
	You know, you see the t-shirts with the Johnny cash and just says cash.
	But he's always been that way.
	He's always been that way.
	Listen, here's a funny thing.
	So the log cabin that they had us live in.
	So June did that for Janine, not for me.
	You know, called her and said, look, okay, this guy's going to try to make it in the music business.
	You know, good luck.
	It ain't going to happen, but we'll give you a place to live.
	We'll give you a flammable home.
	Right.
	Temporary residence, okay?
	Because it's not going to last long until I find you, a guy with money.
	So thank God we have these hits right off the bat.
	And suddenly June goes, whoo, okay, you're in.
	She told Janine during that first visit, she said, look, here's how it goes down.
	She says, the odds are a million to one, no, 10 billion to one, you know, that they'll make it.
	And if he does, it's not going to last long.
	It's just not the nature of the business.
	And number three, they're all crazy.
	If they do make it for a long time, you know, so she called her babies, it was Wayland Jennings, Willie Nelson, Hank Jr., Larry Gatlin.
	I mean, just the wild boys of that era.
	Oh, yeah, the feral.
	Yeah.
	So she goes, you know, just look.
	Not insurable.
	They put us through hell.
	She says, so get ready.
	You know, she said, there's no good to it.
	So anyway, where was I?
	With Johnny.
	You said, was he stoic and stuff?
	First day there, June takes Janine and they leave the house to go shopping.
	No, so it's just you and him?
	And me and John in that house alone.
	Okay.
	John does a minute to get ready to.
	Yes, sir.
	It's like I'm the unwelcome guest, or at least I'm feeling that way.
	Oh, for sure.
	John's quiet anyway.
	He hasn't like.
	And what's he just polishing a gun or something?
	No, no.
	Probably.
	Yes, pretty close to it.
	He comes out of the far end of the house.
	There are two black leather recliners in front of this TV.
	And he sits down and he's watching like CNN or whatever.
	And I sit in the next one, just sitting there, and no one says anything.
	I'm like, fuck.
	Longest day of my life.
	I didn't know what to say to him because he didn't talk.
	But now I know, know what I know, he didn't talk to anybody.
	Right.
	And all of a sudden out of the blue, he goes, you see these news reels here, these things.
	He said, that's a loop.
	And he said, you know, I'm an addict.
	And I went, okay.
	And he goes, I used to sit and watch TV for days until those loops would end.
	And then he said it would start a whole other cycle of the news.
	And he's explaining, you know, how TV works to me and that stuff.
	And through the eyes of being high.
	Yeah.
	You know, and shortly after that, it seemed like two days that we were sitting there.
	It was probably a couple hours.
	And Janine and June come back.
	They've been shopping at Steinmart.
	I like Steinmart, actually.
	Some of the sleeves are a little different.
	June took her there in her new blue Rolls-Royce that John had just given her for her book.
	So there's a little dog, you know, yin-yang there.
	Yeah.
	Janine was just pale white.
	Now, she knows no strangers, so you never see Janine down.
	So she kind of walks and she was like, she's just been scared by a ghost.
	And so I kind of peeled away and met her in the back of the house.
	I said, what happened?
	She goes, I'll tell you later.
	I can't talk about it.
	Well, June had read her the right act on all this stuff I just told you about, you know, they're not going to last, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
	And I said, can we go now?
	She goes, no, we got one more day.
	He goes, stay with us, please.
	One more day.
	Right.
	But no sooner did we get here, and they were the most absolute supportive people in the world.
	John came up one day.
	We were getting ready to shoot the CD cover for Brand New Man, the first CD.
	And I said, he was always into everything.
	He goes, what are you going to wear?
	How are you going to do your hair?
	That kind of stuff, into image.
	I said, well, I don't know.
	I said, I've got a few things, ideas.
	He goes, all right, I'll be back.
	He said, he Left, getting this Mercedes shot out, it's down the hill.
	He needed a goat to get up the mountain to it.
	He goes flying down the hill.
	I guess he goes home, comes back in an hour or so, opens the trunk of the car, reaches in, and hands me this black suit.
	And he goes, He goes, I had this back in 1972.
	It was made by Manuel.
	And he goes, I was sick back then, which meant he was sick.
	Yeah.
	Right?
	So he was skinny enough for me to wear my skinny ass to get out of that suit.
	You know, he goes, don't tell June.
	She doesn't like me giving stuff away.
	And I have it to this day.
	I wore it on the back of that CD cover.
	Oh, wow.
	That's crazy.
	Oh, it was.
	Hey, man.
	Check the pockets, dude.
	Let's party.
	That thing's got something.
	Man, the parties there, too, was strictly lemonade, lemonade and iced tea.
	Really keeping it sober?
	Keeping it completely sober on the table for sure.
	Oh, yeah.
	You know, and nothing in the back kitchen.
	I mean, she was pretty.
	You wore the pants in that deal, huh?
	At that point.
	Was she pretty much a...
	Let me add spice to that little story is that that particular weekend that we were there, he was on furlough from rehab.
	How long do you have to be in rehab?
	You get furloughed?
	I thought that was a military.
	I don't know.
	Johnny Cash, right?
	Only Johnny Cash would have went to boot camp.
	Right, for rehab.
	Right.
	And so all of a sudden, at the end of the day.
	How many tours did he do?
	Right.
	Oh, he did a lot.
	But the day before he's supposed to go back, this is a Saturday.
	He's going back on Sunday.
	He comes down with the flu.
	June's having no part of that.
	She's completely just, no, we're done.
	So she wanted to talk to him, and we're caught in the middle of that.
	And I'm going, June, can we go home now?
	Can we go home now?
	She goes, no, no, no, no.
	Please go home.
	Janine can tell this story better than I can.
	So June goes to Janine.
	She goes, y'all have to drive me to the hospital.
	Take him to the hospital here in Hendersonville.
	Make sure, just see what's wrong with him.
	She says, I'm not talking to him.
	She says, he can walk as far as I'm concerned.
	Okay, we got it.
	So we get in the car, start to get in the car.
	John wants to drive.
	Okay, so John drives.
	He drove.
	Yeah, man.
	But it was like pedal to the metal, boom, off all the way.
	Pedal to the metal.
	And Janine said, well, he drives.
	He started nodding off and he nodded back off, man.
	He nodded off.
	So we get to the hospital and they're rolling him in in a wheelchair.
	And Janine goes up to the desk to give him all the information.
	And they take John back.
	And he's there maybe an hour.
	And then we come back.
	And he goes up to his room, you know, his hospital room at the house.
	He's playing it up, man.
	He's like, I got pneumonia.
	I can't go back.
	You're going back to rehab.
	So June goes, well, how did it go, Janine?
	She goes, well, they asked for his doctor.
	And June goes, oh, hon, he's in rehab.
	The doctor was in rehab?
	The doctor was in rehab.
	Oh, Lord.
	He goes, oh, sweet.
	He hadn't made furlough yet.
	Dr. Nick's in rehab.
	Okay, we can go now, right?
	She goes, pretty soon.
	Wow, that's a great stuff.
	That's my first Johnny Cash in June Carter.
	Unbelievable.
	Yeah, experience.
	We had Ric Flair.
	We spoke with him one time, the famous wrestler, you know, him.
	And he's quite a character.
	And he was in a rehab center.
	And the doctor got it put in there with him.
	And he was in there.
	And one day they're giving pills to both of them.
	And he's like, why are you giving pills to the doctor?
	I'm like, no, the doctor's in here now.
	We're like, damn.
	So apparently that's part of the deal, man.
	Well, it's just everywhere.
	It looks like that.
	Oh, yeah.
	Look, so many of my friends, I mean, I go to recovery meetings.
	So many people deal with, you know, that sort of stuff.
	Was it tough for you guys to keep it clean over the years?
	Did you guys get tempted with drugs or alcohol?
	Or what was that like?
	Never.
	I don't know, really.
	Tempted with drugs or alcohol?
	Yeah.
	No, not me.
	Did you, Ronnie?
	I'll go with you.
	You only want you to explain this.
	We might have took a drink or two along the way.
	I don't know.
	I think Ronnie took a lot of pills, but I never did.
	Foul.
	Foul.
	Yeah, but I have allergies.
	Oh, now you do.
	A lot of allergies.
	I've never seen somebody in that dust.
	They'll give it to you, bro.
	I'm from Louisiana, too, dude.
	I started drinking at a very early age.
	That's true.
	Wow.
	Was it hard?
	Yeah, were there certain points where you guys had to tell each, like, at what point do you guys ever have to be like each other's like caretaker?
	Yeah, not caretaker in the sense, like, actually physically, but just like, you know, and then how hard is it to take that suggestion from the other guy, you know, like from the other lead?
	We don't do it much.
	We don't do it much.
	I mean, that's one of the unique dynamics about how we, you know, the relationship we have.
	We don't do that.
	If it is, it'll be some comment in passing, and you know, and you'll know.
	Honestly, we sit here laughing about this stuff, but there's not a lot of nonsense that goes on.
	It's like we're up there to do what we do.
	We appreciate where we are.
	And God knows we know the pitfalls.
	Yeah.
	And have we ever been overserved on stage or whatever like that?
	Yes.
	Has anyone ever told us you swear in your words?
	Yeah.
	No.
	You swear your vehicle.
	You know, you've already written that song.
	Don't write it again in the middle of it.
	You know, that kind of shit.
	But yeah.
	We've had a few faux positions.
	People don't believe when I tell them this.
	We have never, I mean, we're both, you know, hard-headed whatever's, you know, I came from a pipeline background.
	Same with him, you know, and it's, we have never raised our voices to each other.
	Wow.
	Have we ever been mad at each other?
	Yeah.
	Have we ever been pissed at each other?
	Yeah, for sure.
	We'll go off and pal.
	But that's it.
	You know, we've always been able to go to our separate corners and come back later.
	And some of that, you think it was just because you started to achieve your most success that people would know you from once you were older?
	Like, you think if it would have been younger, like, do you ever think of like the blessings that?
	Because it's kind of a blessing and a curse because everybody wants to be 27 and famous, you know?
	But if you're 38 and you get popular, you know, it's it feels a little different, you know?
	Has a lot to do with it.
	You appreciate it.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Because there was a point for a long time where there was no plan B. Yeah.
	You know, and we both felt that.
	And so you learned to appreciate it.
	It's just beating into you through the ranks.
	Yeah, dude, we used to slow dance to y'all's music, dude.
	I would be so nervous, dude.
	God, dude.
	I just couldn't even.
	I would stand so far away from the girl, like as far as I could, but still touching her a little, like this kind of, you know.
	Barely touching her.
	Ten fingers.
	You were down in the trenches, man.
	Look, you were on the floor.
	See, we're up there on the bandstand going, I don't look right.
	What's going on, Diggy?
	Get up against it.
	Go on.
	What are you doing?
	I couldn't get up.
	It was 10 years.
	Whole front of my body sweating.
	I never knew you could sweat just in one hemisphere of your body.
	And never move.
	You guys, we were talking about songwriting earlier.
	You guys, your new album has a lot of like some of my favorites on and people that have, that we've been able to have on the podcast before.
	I think Ernest is on, Hardy, Morgan.
	Yeah.
	Lainey.
	Lainey Wilson.
	How amazing is Lainey Wilson?
	She's great.
	She's special, man.
	She's special.
	She's a Louisiana girl.
	She's from right up the road from where my farm is.
	Yeah.
	I mean, literally, we're honestly 18 miles apart.
	Oh, that is close.
	You're from Covington, I think I saw somewhere.
	Did you really spend, grow up there?
	Yeah.
	You did?
	Yeah.
	I grew up there.
	Our town is, we have this tallest statue of Ronald Reagan there.
	Somebody stole the arm, but they got it back.
	They got it back?
	Yeah.
	Somebody like.
	How did they get it off?
	I don't know.
	Is it bronze or is it?
	I think it's bronze.
	100 or something?
	Oh, no.
	It's special.
	Oh, there you go.
	So which arm?
	Huh?
	Was he the army, his right arm or his left arm?
	I'm not sure.
	You can Google that, too, how they get the arm off.
	Yeah.
	You can weld that stuff.
	You can Google that.
	How did they get the arm off?
	How did they get the arm off Reagan?
	In covet to Louisiana.
	A lot of welders now there, right?
	First of all, find covet torches.
	Exactly.
	They got torches.
	That's pipeline country, man.
	Damn right.
	Oh, we can get an arm off.
	You want an arm?
	Yeah.
	How far.
	They tried to recycle it.
	That's how they caught the guy.
	And yeah, they took it to like the local illusion.
	Oh, because he's thinking it's maybe copper or something that he can buy somewhere.
	Oh, he's like, I'm going to get me.
	Hell yeah.
	I'm going to give me a couple hundred bucks for this ride.
	Yeah, they cut it.
	I guarantee he's a welder.
	Look at Ronnie.
	Oh, that was in Poland.
	Yeah, so they must have done it.
	But they did it by us, too.
	Somebody got it off, but they got it back on.
	It was a copycat.
	A copycat arm thief.
	Wow.
	That's dark.
	What?
	No, they did it in Poland.
	How far?
	Okay.
	How far is Covington from El Dorado, Arkansas?
	It's a long way.
	South Louisiana.
	Okay.
	Yeah, he's close to Batman.
	Because we talk a lot about northern Louisiana, where their farm is, and Monroe, and all that.
	All my grandparents are from El Dorado, Arkansas.
	Okay, beautiful country out there.
	I mean, it's pretty.
	Shreport's kind of gone through it.
	It's been through some things, you know.
	It's pretty funky, which is where I went to school.
	Oh, yeah.
	Whatever, yeah.
	They just tore down the tallest building in Shreport.
	What?
	Really?
	Bring it down.
	Doing.
	Not the Beck building.
	This was an empath.
	They did a beautiful implosion.
	I watched it the other day on TikTok.
	I wonder if that's where it was.
	That's where my father's office was.
	Was it a drone attack?
	Dude, I don't know.
	The tallest building in Shreport.
	There it is.
	Just brought it down, yeah.
	I think it was the...
	Yeah, it was a bank building.
	You're right.
	Yeah, because I think the middle when Nick got it.
	The bank building's 20 stories high.
	Must have been the richest, richest building in town.
	That's pretty fancy right there.
	Beautiful building.
	Look at all those.
	What did they tear it up for?
	Real glass windows on them.
	Yeah.
	I don't know.
	That's it right there.
	Wow, wow.
	Probably somebody's wife was trying to build it.
	Look at all the buildings around it.
	It wasn't the tallest.
	It was the only.
	Probably for a casino.
	It could have been, man.
	Street 4 is kind of wild.
	I've been like, there's a lot of haunted.
	Everything there seems kind of haunted.
	That's Louisiana in general.
	It's like New Orleans.
	Yeah, everything's haunted.
	Like, do you want to buy this haunted biscuit or whatever?
	It's two extra bucks.
	It's good.
	It's got some damn ghost jam in it or whatever.
	Everything does.
	It's got voodoo all over it.
	Is that hot?
	I hope so.
	Ghost jam.
	Yeah.
	But yeah, everything in New Orleans haunted.
	It's like, oh, you haven't been this haunted.
	This is haunted.
	It's like a nursery for children, but it's haunted.
	Okay, so I read this article.
	Well, I guess it was online.
	It's like the top 10 most least desirable states to live in.
	And Louisiana was number one.
	Oh, wow.
	I can't imagine that.
	That's what I'm saying, bro.
	Come on.
	Champs.
	You got to have it.
	Everybody's not into haunting.
	Look at it.
	Apparently.
	49 states worth of people that aren't into haunted.
	Yeah, people don't like shit haunted, bro.
	I'll just stay off there.
	I forget what it was based on.
	Oh, you want to live in the natural realm?
	That's fine.
	We do another thing.
	You don't have a monkey foot under your pillow hanging from your one end.
	Yeah, you don't have a baby that's chewing on a lucky rabbit's foot.
	That's your problem.
	You wouldn't know a hoodoo man from Colonel Sanders.
	What?
	Oh, everything there is haunted or soaking wet, dude.
	Yeah, that's Louisiana.
	Yeah.
	Or Mill dude, you're missing.
	Yeah.
	Everything's got a little bit of mold on it.
	We go down there.
	You go down there all the time because your farm's down there in place.
	Are your buddies three, four?
	Love it.
	We go down there and duck hunt on the marshes.
	I've never been duck hunting.
	It's going next week.
	Are you?
	Oh, yeah.
	Is it more enjoyable than turkey hunting or do you feel, is there something different?
	I think so.
	I like stuff flying.
	You know, I've shot my share of turkeys, but really don't care about popping them anymore.
	It's like, you know, it's like, do something.
	You know, you're like, gay, I'm over here.
	It's almost like you're attacking like a bird in a wheelchair.
	Exactly.
	And they get all puffed up, too.
	It's like some, you know, he's on his last, he's making his last move on her.
	He's so puffed up, he can't even walk anymore.
	You know, he's just like.
	Like knee at the dance.
	Yeah, just like doing that.
	Got his two fingers up there just trying to get close to her to do the neon moon.
	And then you go, bam.
	He's headless.
	Shit, sorry about that.
	Yeah.
	Turkey's done all the work of calling him in.
	This place we go down in Louisiana is called Little Patana Island, and it's like going to the four seasons.
	I shouldn't rat us out.
	Really?
	It's beautiful.
	Got a lot of good turkey.
	Unbelievable.
	Ah, turkey's ducks.
	A good friend of ours, Jim Flores from Houston, owns it, and it's unbelievable.
	And what kind of ducks do you get out there?
	Everything.
	I have pictures of the sky full.
	I mean, of just, it's unbelievable.
	Do they go in shore?
	How do the ducks go?
	They migrate at different times.
	Oh, so they're not like releasing them and then they come back and they're going to be.
	No, they don't release.
	No, it's all wild.
	It's just cut off down in Missouri and whatever.
	There's a lot of duck habitat on the way for them to stop and eat and whatever, especially with climate change.
	We won't get into all that.
	But like Arkansas flooded timber, a lot of those ducks come out of the rice fields and stuff, and they're primarily greenheads, mallards, you know.
	But by the time you get to the marsh, you got every kind, you know, teal and mallards, and you could go on.
	You have a fat stork up there even.
	Oh, everything.
	It's like Africa.
	It's like going out into the marshes.
	No.
	You're in that kind of environment.
	Oh, wow.
	So it's so natural.
	You mean it's really cool.
	It's so real.
	And are you in a boat or are you in a boat?
	Everybody gets their own guide in their own boat, too.
	And you have to hide underwater or scuba tanks.
	You have scuba tanks and shotguns.
	Is it really your line?
	No, but the blind about as big as your sofa.
	And it's sunk in the water, and then it's covered with, and every guide has his own group of blinds he has to take care of.
	A lot of straw and stuff, natural stuff.
	Okay, so you're hiding in there?
	Is there mugs or anything in there?
	Bugs everywhere, man.
	Mugs everywhere.
	Bugs everywhere.
	Snakes, alligators, for real.
	Alligators all over the place.
	First thing they do when they get to your blind, the guide will get out and make sure there's nutriia, no water boxes, snakes and gay.
	You got to clean up all the appetizers.
	Get all that out of there.
	Exactly.
	Then they'll take a look at it.
	Bad way to start a duck hunt.
	Come back, pull on a P-ro, sink the P-ro next to your blind, get in there and start quacking at them.
	Wow.
	Ducks are good to eat, too.
	Turkeys, you know, people can say what they want.
	You can fry anything or whatever, but turkeys aren't that great to eat.
	And some people are just food, just real creeps when it comes to eating.
	You know, I've had owl.
	I don't know if we can say it or not.
	No, you can't.
	Well, I didn't.
	You just did.
	I didn't have it.
	You ate an owl?
	You just said you did, though.
	Huh?
	You just said you had owl.
	Did he not just say he had owl?
	I didn't do it.
	Wait a minute.
	I think he said eagle.
	Yeah.
	No, I didn't say eagle, dude.
	And if I did, it was a wigged eagle.
	I don't eat bald eagle.
	No, but I did have, we had owl.
	My sister grilled up two owls.
	You just said you didn't eat it.
	Was it fry?
	Tronny did it.
	I ate anything.
	You're an owl eater.
	A bald eater.
	You didn't have a lot.
	Didn't have a lot.
	There's not a lot to them.
	That's the trick.
	You didn't swallow?
	I didn't inhale.
	They're the frogs of the animal kingdom, of the bird kingdom.
	I was the frogs of the bird.
	Why don't you pull that skirt up?
	You know, I've done some things in my day, but nothing.
	But even just to look, it's- Pull up what I'm talking about.
	Let's at least see the...
	So we just...
	And the owl's eye.
	They were of age, too, the ones I'm talking about.
	Man, these were adult owls.
	You're not supposed to do that.
	So much for whiskey.
	Now, what are we doing?
	Brother, something needs to take care of.
	That's disgusting.
	Oh, my God.
	They migrated over from Chernobyl.
	Yep.
	It was a Russian owl for sure.
	They just had, what did I just see about Russia, dude?
	They're giving away.
	Well, there's a war in Ukraine.
	There's a war in Ukraine.
	No, but it was something exciting.
	Oh, Vladimir Putin urges citizens to have sex during work breaks to address Russia's dire birth rate.
	Yeah, he's just trying to get, he's just trying to make everybody happy.
	He's trying to put an army together.
	He's trying to earn an army.
	Like, hurry up.
	That's not a bad deal, though, dude.
	Now, that's the kind of stuff we need around here.
	You know what I'm saying?
	It's like, you know, when everybody's really down over there and depressed and whatever, it's like, okay, sex on work breaks.
	Okay.
	That's a lobbyist, man.
	That's a board dictator is what that is.
	Literally, brother.
	Yeah, he didn't have to push that through Congress.
	What are we going to do?
	What are we having for lunch?
	Depends on who texts me back.
	Everybody duck, right?
	I'm proud of him now.
	No wonder Trump likes him.
	What?
	The only thing about communism is starting to sound appealing, right?
	I'll tell you this.
	Yeah, communism sucks, but I'll tell you what, the lunches are good.
	Lunch break is hard to beat.
	What did I just see?
	I saw another call that did you see that Pizza Hut thing?
	I don't know if you can find that, Nick.
	It was Pizza Hut now.
	Listen to this.
	People are having such a tough time getting jobs.
	What is that?
	It was Pizza Hut will put your resume on a pizza box to help you get a job.
	Whoa.
	Whoa, whoa.
	So you can send.
	I took a leave of absence 78. I've got like a 50-year hole in my resume.
	Okay, so I've had this idea forever.
	Sorry.
	Sorry.
	But it's like we're always talking about random ways to promote records and do things, right?
	That's a good way.
	What about Amazon boxes?
	You know, you go to Amazon and go, hey, what if we like, what would it cost to put our logo or whatever on an Amazon box?
	How many people?
	I'm sure that's non-negotiable.
	Everybody.
	I bet that's a, dude, I wouldn't be surprised if they, I'm amazed they haven't done that.
	Yeah.
	Really?
	Because they own most of the, that's something most of us see all the time.
	Yeah.
	But yeah, that pizza, now you can put your resume.
	You can send it to somebody you're trying to get employed by.
	You send them a little, you know, send them a little pizza.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I'll tell you this.
	If I'm having a slice, I'll, because you're putting, you're feeling good.
	You're eating pizza.
	Yeah.
	So I'm going to think that guy's pretty quality.
	Your endorphins are already stimulated by the pizza.
	And you look over there and go, you know what?
	I like that guy.
	I know.
	A couple of weeks later, you're like, hey, what happened to that pizza box?
	Never mind.
	We need a new guy in the tech department.
	We need it.
	Yeah.
	What happened?
	But then you might start just naming your workers.
	You don't know their names.
	You just name them like the Italian guys is like extra pepperoni.
	Like, yeah, remember we hired him, you know?
	Or meat lovers is the guy that's maybe a little zesty, you know?
	Big sausage.
	Spicy sausage.
	So with the new album, is it going to be, tell me about it a little bit.
	What made you guys want to come back and make more?
	Because at a certain point, do you feel like you've made enough or does that never go away?
	What is that kind of like?
	The first one was just to keep everything between the lines, not stray very far from the previous cuts.
	The first what, you mean?
	The first record, Reboot 1. Oh, okay.
	We're on Reboot 2 now.
	But neither of these were our ideas to do.
	It was our managers, which is, he's had, this is the first good idea he's had, I think, in years.
	Yeah, look.
	I've had managers.
	I know what you're talking about.
	That's why I'm a man.
	He's a great man.
	He's a big reason we're here.
	Is he?
	Why Baltimore is the day after Sacramento?
	I still haven't quite figured it out.
	His big saying is, hey, what are you bitching about, man?
	He says, I give you 85%.
	Or his other one is, this is a charity.
	I wouldn't need to do this.
	I mean, damn, Clarence, you're in.
	He goes, I know.
	So what is 15% enough?
	It's like, never mind.
	Poor little children.
	And what is his name just so we can.
	We're 30-something years without a contract.
	He's got Aldine.
	I mean, these don't even.
	He speaks fluent, Brooks and Dunn, and we couldn't do it without him.
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	I can imagine that.
	Yeah, you got to have somebody to handle a lot of stuff for you.
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	This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.
	But yeah, so tell me a little bit about it.
	What was it like getting to work with some of these artists?
	Had you worked with them before?
	No, no.
	Lainey is, you know, she comes in and does her thing.
	They all get to pick their own songs, 18 artists.
	Okay.
	They pick whatever song they want, and that goes on without us.
	That's all up to them.
	And then maybe they haggle about it with management or whatever.
	Anyway, everyone showed up with their own version of the song.
	And it was like, you have artistic creative license to do whatever you want to do with this one.
	Oh, dude, I can't put me up there.
	I can't do karaoke.
	I mean, if it's Christmas carols, I can do it, but it's like even some of that, I get nervous, like in the second stanza or whatever, you know?
	Yeah.
	Nolani has to feed me words to my songs in my left ear.
	Oh, I thought she was feeding you.
	I thought you was going behind a speaker and eating bird seed out of her hand.
	Yeah.
	She has to feed me whiskey all through the show.
	I did a tour over in Afghanistan with Robin Williams and Lewis Black and Kathleen Madigan.
	And Robin just impressed me because he seemed like he's just ad-libbing everything.
	And the one thing that I learned from him before, and we would spend all day on Blackhawks, going to real remote places everywhere, and then at night we'd do in Kandahar, Cabul or whatever, some larger shows.
	But he was, before he would go on, he had a little piece of paper, he'd just written a handful of notes and whatever, and he would pace back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
	And I was just really impressed at his professionalism and the way he and knowing you guys do people just make it look so easy, you know, that when you're flowing through your deal and you got your deal clicking right.
	And it's, I was just, I learned a lot.
	And Lewis was hysterical, as you can imagine, just hanging with him.
	He's spent any time with him.
	Yeah, he's very entertaining.
	He's very smart.
	The way he talks is funny.
	Yeah.
	Just to listen to him, you know?
	Yeah.
	He is so aggravated.
	It really is.
	Of course, we couldn't, you can't drink over there at all, you know.
	And it works, probably.
	Well, yeah, when we got there, Lewis has this giant bag like you carry around, this huge kind of smaller duffel bag.
	It's like a man bag.
	You can go across the world.
	You can go around the world.
	It's completely full of those airport scotch bottles.
	You know what I'm saying?
	Minstrel allergy medicine.
	And they're like, damn, I didn't know Jim Bean made allergy medicine.
	That's insane.
	Look at all these different colored allegors.
	Dude, you guys are funny, man.
	We didn't mean to be.
	It's probably helped y'all over the years being able to laugh, huh?
	Yeah.
	You got to laugh.
	You got to have a sense of humor.
	It's like comedians for the most.
	You see this profile, and to correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like, you know, it's kind of a lot of comedians are kind of dark, right?
	Oh, yeah.
	Yeah.
	And it's kind of, it's anger coming out in humor sometimes.
	More times than not, not to go Dr. Phil here.
	Yeah, no.
	Yeah, I think it probably is.
	A lot of them are dark, yeah.
	I mean, definitely a lot of them, you lose a lot of them to suicide.
	Yeah.
	It's a pretty dark.
	Too much downtime, too, you know?
	Yeah, that gets kind of scary.
	Yeah.
	You know, everybody out there gets that.
	No matter what business you're in.
	We're on a bus for, you know, you're sitting venues or whatever.
	You don't go to a business.
	I'm being on a bus, dude.
	I used to ride Greyhound.
	That'll make anybody want to take their lives.
	Oh, shit.
	I used to work on a farm up in Natchez, Mississippi in the summer, and I'd take a Greyhound up from Baton Rouge.
	And they put all the inmates on there.
	It's a lot of missing people on there.
	Like, I remember a dude came up and he was like, have you seen me?
	He said to me, I'm like, you sound damn missing, dude.
	It's just like, that's a crazy thing to ask.
	Oh, God, here, you know, I don't know if it's even still where it was.
	My sister had this au pair who came from France, this real sweet girl that I'd met up in Maine.
	And I told her, you ought to come visit Nashville sometime.
	Forgot all about it.
	And I get a call one night at the house, you know, and Mr. Bros is crying.
	I go, yes, Mr. Bridge says, it's Rosa.
	It's horrible.
	I go, what has happened?
	What is wrong?
	I'm here.
	I'm here.
	I go, you're wishing in the middle of Nashville.
	I go, you're here in Nashville?
	Yes, I'm here.
	I go, where are you?
	What is wrong, Rosa?
	I'm at the gray dog.
	I go, the gray dog?
	You're at the Greyhound bus station?
	So, my God, I go, look, do not go to the bathroom.
	Go sit in a chair.
	Don't talk to anybody.
	Don't look at anything.
	I'm on my way.
	It's like emergency.
	Oh, my God.
	It's like being the opposite of a hospital.
	That's true.
	My wife, when she's having a baby, it's like, I've got to save her.
	Like right now, this is an emergency.
	Every row of the Graham bus thing gets weird to you.
	First, it's weed, and then four rows later, they're doing like abortions in like early term, but still.
	It gets real dicey, dude.
	It gets real dicey on Graham.
	But you had to have to rescue a French woman from a Graham bus.
	Was this her first time in it?
	I mean, this was her time.
	Because she had been on, up north, they've got real trains, you know, tram and stuff.
	But they, on the schedule, if you look at it, I'm like, how did you get here?
	She showed me her schedule.
	They put a Greyhound bus in the middle of Amtrak.
	It's like you go from these beautiful, nice things to America.
	Yeah, you can work on your computer to, oh my God, what happened?
	A lot of people on there, yeah, just testing pills on each other.
	A lot of people, yeah.
	A lot of people drinking their own bathwater.
	I had a dude selling 40-proof bathwater once.
	I didn't have a lot, but I had a little.
	It wasn't that bad.
	It wasn't that bad, dude.
	I'll say this.
	It kind of had a peppermint snop vibe to it.
	Oh, God.
	There's a rotation.
	Jerry Clower was one of my favorite comedians.
	Did you guys ever get to meet him?
	No.
	I ran into him.
	Oh, no, I didn't get to meet him.
	He was the famous Southern comedian, yeah.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	He was great.
	What about Brother Dave Gardner?
	I never watched him.
	Oh, really?
	You got to check him out.
	Brother Dave Gardner is his name?
	Oh, yes.
	And he was like...
	He was sort of the country Lenny Bruce without using a lot of foul language, but some real dark humor and very inappropriate humor.
	Oh, good.
	That's him, Brother Dave.
	Look at him smoking that cigarette.
	Telling you how it is.
	Got his suit going.
	Checked out hair.
	It's shining, man.
	Oh, yeah, no.
	That cover up on the right, I've got that album.
	It's all torn over Dog Who Chewed the Corner Off.
	My dad loved him, though.
	Wow.
	Start listening to him.
	He was something else.
	Not like your average Yee Haw country comedian.
	Was there an artist that's passed and you guys were admired growing up?
	You went to their service or anything, somebody you guys really miss.
	Cash for sure.
	Did y'all go to his service?
	Were you allowed to go or how?
	Oh, wow.
	That must have been really interesting, I'm saying.
	In June?
	June, same way.
	We were at the hospital and had a heart attack.
	Wow.
	Didn't get to go to Merle's, but was he a funny guy?
	What was he like?
	He could be funny.
	He wasn't being funny on this one.
	No, he came out and did the last five or six dates with us on our tour in 2010.
	We were shutting things down.
	And it's just one of those instances where you meet somebody famous and Hag just shut me down.
	I could not carry on a conversation with him.
	It's about as bad as Cash.
	He just didn't like Chatting.
	Well, no, he didn't, but he liked you, and he let you know.
	Where John didn't let you know for a while.
	He just smoked you out just to see what you got.
	Merle.
	You could survive it.
	Merle agreed to go on tour with us, but we had to perform with him every night, which, of course, was on stage together.
	Yeah, throw us in the briar patch.
	I mean, that was such a huge honor and whatever.
	But he would come up with some obscure songs and whatever.
	And I'll jump.
	It wasn't like Silver Wings or anything.
	He was throwing his curveballs from way in the back.
	Like, okay, tonight.
	I was out there singing Pit Bull or something.
	Drive it in person.
	And I hopped up on his bus one afternoon to find out what our song was.
	And we were in Woodstock, New York, I remember, and he's up there burning one down.
	And he goes, you need to sit down.
	I go, okay.
	What is it, Merle?
	He goes, what the hell's wrong with y'all?
	I don't know, Merle, what's wrong with this?
	He goes, all them people out there.
	What the hell's wrong with y'all?
	I don't know, Merle, what's wrong with this?
	All them damn people out there, and y'all want to quit.
	Merle.
	That's a good point.
	I said, great guy.
	It was ingenious, isn't it?
	Our last thought, yeah.
	So, Merle, you know, I got to tell you, Poncho and Lefty's probably one of my favorite songs ever.
	I said, and watching you and Willie in that video, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
	You two, y'all are like best friends.
	I mean, Ronnie Dunn and I didn't even know each other when we met.
	You know, we've bullied our way through this freaking career for 20 years.
	We have not taken a break, you know, and we've just gotten to a point where we think it'd be the best thing for us.
	We've made it 20 years.
	You and Millie, Willie Nelson made one album together.
	And he goes, yeah, but we only had one hit.
	Okay, Merle, what's my song?
	And he started laughing.
	I'm like, you win.
	You're smarter than me.
	You always will be.
	It is crazy to think, though, when you almost say that to some people, even me hearing it from you guys, like, yeah, this is going to be it.
	Because it's, because, because it's, but that's just, it is what it is.
	It's like your life's at where it's at, you know?
	When you've taken breaks, what are other things that you've started to fill your lives with that became like important to you or that meant something to you?
	I know you have your vineyards.
	Uh-huh.
	Yeah.
	My friend Chrissy started.
	Yeah.
	But that was, I started that 20 years ago and other things.
	Really, what I really wanted to do, and I'd been offered a couple of bit parts and movies and stuff along the way.
	And, you know, making a movie takes a long scheduling and all that.
	And we really, we did tour 20 years without stopping.
	And I kind of did some theater in college.
	I went to Louisiana Tech, you know.
	Oh, hell yeah, dude.
	Yeah, and enjoyed all that.
	The red fern grows.
	They used to do that musical up there.
	Oh, yeah.
	A lot of good.
	A lot of beautiful.
	All right, covered.
	Don't get me started now.
	Talk amongst yourself.
	There's a war you don't want to see.
	Look, Rustin Bruce.
	That'd be a great battle.
	Bring the bar back.
	Terry Brad's good.
	Anyway, but I got in, told, called William Horse, you know, and said, books, listen, said, hey, I don't want to start a movie.
	I'm not qualified or, you know, don't have the chops, but I would, if there's a bit part or something, maybe some, some, whatever, if something comes up, you know.
	Yeah.
	And so, yeah, they started sending me some things, and I actually started doing some movies, this and that.
	And my son had studied film at Vanderbilt in English and wanted to be a screenwriter.
	And one thing led to another.
	He came out and started writing with some guys that had produced, I co-starred with Ernie Hudson eventually in a Western.
	Oh, sweet.
	I'm not familiar with Ernie Hudson.
	Yeah, you are.
	The Hudson River?
	No.
	You are.
	He was in Ghostbusters.
	He done know him.
	I don't remember.
	He's in the original Ghostbuster.
	Oh, he was.
	Oh, the top guy with the glasses?
	The only black guy in the movie.
	Are you kidding?
	Oh, shoot.
	That Ernie Hudson.
	Oh, that's Ernie.
	I know who he is.
	Oh, Ernie Hudson.
	Ernie Hudson.
	What's your son?
	Ernie Hudson.
	Yeah, I could tell you.
	No, I'm joking, Ernie.
	No, that's a...
	Yeah, so I got to do that a little bit, and my son wound up being a screenwriter, went out to L.A. to be Tarantino, and he writes movies for Hallmark now.
	Does he really?
	He does.
	Oh, that's awesome.
	Well, Hallmark still makes a lot of movies.
	A lot of places aren't even making movies.
	True.
	Kudos to him.
	At least he's got some work.
	He's got movies a year or something.
	Hallmark does.
	Literally.
	Some of the studios hardly make any movies anymore.
	So good for them, man.
	Wow, that's it.
	You've been in movies?
	No, I just wrote a movie with me and David Spade wrote a movie together.
	He did like Tommy Boy, and you know who he is.
	And so we wrote a movie, and I think we're going to start making it on January 6th.
	He was the Ghostbusters.
	Yeah, he was, dude.
	He was the black guy.
	With the glasses.
	Yep.
	With the glasses.
	And one arm.
	One arm.
	Yeah.
	So I'm scared about it, but I think it's going to happen.
	We worked on it for so long, and now it's supposed to happen.
	Now I'm like, I'm scared, you know?
	That's natural.
	That's normal.
	Yeah.
	I think, yeah.
	Be as scared of something maybe that you don't know how you can do at it or something.
	But we also have done it all ourselves.
	So it's like, so that feels good.
	You should talk to Billy Bob Thornton.
	Really?
	Yeah.
	I mean, think what he did with Sling Blade.
	Oh, yeah.
	Sling Bob called it a sling blade.
	But they sat and did that.
	So ZZ Top was out.
	So I was like, oh, and this kids.
	Billy Topp, I mean, Billy Topp.
	ZZ Top was out with us.
	And Billy Gibbons was telling about the editing process after Billy Bob and all of them finished it up.
	And Dwight Yoakum.
	Oh, yeah.
	He says, I go to this little apartment building in L.A. It's hot as hell.
	He says, I go up, second floor, right?
	So I knock on the door, and he says, you know, it kind of cracks open.
	And they go, ah, he says, me, Billy Kelly.
	Oh, let me in.
	Come on, what are you doing?
	So it's Dwight Yoakum, and they're all in their white wife beater t-shirts or whatever, sweating all over the place, in there with old school hand editing machines cutting sling blades.
	Wow.
	Doing all that.
	I bet he's a fascinating guy, Billy Bob Thornton.
	Yeah.
	And Dwight Yoakum.
	I've been working with him on Taylor Sheridan this next series coming up with Landman doing some music stuff together.
	But it's just fun.
	It's fun.
	He's got a band?
	He does?
	Yeah, yeah, Billy Bob Thornton has a band yet?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	You've known that for a long time.
	I've never gotten to see him play, but I would probably enjoy it.
	Have you seen it, Tim?
	Billy Bob Thornton's band?
	I think they're going to be here in a while.
	I'd love to go see him, then.
	I'm going to make a point of that.
	They're coming before long.
	He told me the other night.
	Yep, Boxmasters.
	That's it.
	Next month.
	They got their gigs starting opening for ZZ Top.
	Bill Ham, their manager.
	And you guys opened for ZZ Top at one point, right?
	Is that right?
	Yeah, we co-headlined with them.
	That's what I'm saying.
	That's what I meant.
	A long time.
	Had a blast.
	Yeah.
	Ronnie, what about you?
	What's something that you've enjoyed keeping your time with and when you have free time?
	I go out to tinker at the farm a little bit.
	I'm always writing songs or something, but I grabbed a camera and a buddy of mine who's been a 25-year photographer for Sports Illustrated moved back to town and we hit it off.
	I'd just been to Cuba doing some photography and playing around with it.
	And he said, show me your stuff.
	And I did.
	And he says, okay, you're going with me.
	So we took off for like a year, year and a half, two years, shooting everything, Shine Rodeo, Galapagos, all over the place.
	Wow.
	So you really enjoyed it, huh?
	Yeah.
	Do you sell any of the prints?
	I'd love to buy one at some point.
	Yeah, I'll give you all you want.
	I'd love to give you one, but we shot some great cowboy stuff.
	Did you?
	Awesome, yeah.
	Dude, I just went to the PBR like two weeks ago when it was here.
	Yeah.
	Oh, that was bull riding, but I love rodeo.
	Rodeo is one of the best.
	Man, I'm with you.
	If you take your wife or kids out, you don't know what to do with them.
	If there's a rodeo within 40 miles, my parents used to do that.
	It's a blast.
	Have you been to the prison rodeo in Angola?
	No, I'd love to see you.
	Are you kidding me?
	Have you been?
	Dude, yes.
	Went just recently and actually played down there.
	You know about the rodeo.
	Yes, I know about it.
	It's unbelievable.
	Eight seconds for freedom, they call it.
	Yeah.
	For freedom.
	But it's six seconds.
	You know, the first event is called Busting Out.
	So, yeah, these I've got a friend, Breonna Calhoun, who she does prison reentry.
	And we stayed at the warden's house.
	No, I want to be the warden.
	Oh, dude, he's fantastic.
	Yeah.
	I want him on the show.
	Yeah, we stayed up making gumbo and drinking beer till about one o'clock in the morning.
	But the rodeo, the first event busting out, they put six prisoners on six bulls, and they're PBR bulls.
	They're real bulls because they do a PBR exhibit kind of thing there.
	Put six guys on it.
	They release all six of them at the same time.
	Of course, the prisoners stay on for like a tenth of a second, and then it's all hellbreaks loose.
	And every event at the rodeo is like that.
	There's one called Pinball, where they set up eight hula hoops in the middle of the deal.
	Eight prisoners stand in the hula hoops.
	They release two bulls on them, and the last one in the hula hoop wins the prize.
	No, it's fantastic.
	Nothing to lose.
	You got to go.
	The prize is just a little bit of sunlight.
	You get two hours in the cage outside.
	You get to use a harmonica for 10 minutes.
	Big time brackets.
	You get a ball to bounce.
	There were 96 volunteers this year.
	And it happens twice a year.
	You should really go.
	It's unbelievable.
	I didn't know you could just go.
	Oh, it's like it's a 20,000-seat arena.
	See, there it is.
	Wow.
	It's a real, look at them.
	That's it.
	That's pinball right there.
	Oh, my God.
	I'm not kidding.
	What bull?
	We got to go on the Pincino.
	It'd be fascinating.
	This is the place where even the bulls are afraid to come out at you.
	Going out there.
	There it is.
	There's 20 wife out there.
	Yeah.
	That's amazing.
	I'd love to go to that.
	I'm going to try to get to I'd love to interview the warden because it's a fascinating thing.
	There's not another prison, I don't think, that does something as famous as this.
	Look at this.
	Here you go.
	No, no, no, no.
	You're just going to stay.
	Oh, man down.
	See, he's still got one in there.
	Man down.
	He's walking.
	Yeah.
	He's a pinball wizard.
	He's like, no, never mind.
	No, he left the station.
	Oh, rodeo is so fun, man.
	Shine rodeo.
	You get a press bunker where you're ground level.
	And that's a big phenomenon.
	Yes.
	Daddy of them all, they call it.
	And there's another one that's real organic.
	We went to.
	What's the name of that?
	In Montana?
	Miles City.
	Miles City.
	And that's where the breeders bring all the rodeo stock in.
	They have for years, years.
	I mean, 50, 60 years, whatever.
	And people watch them.
	These kids, local cowboy kids, climb on these horses and they'll ride.
	I mean, they used to run 300 horses plus through a day.
	They ride them to see how they buck, and then every now and then they'll stop and have an auction.
	And then they go right back to it.
	By the end of the day, these kids are back there and pick up trucks with like liters of whiskey just tuckered out.
	They move, man.
	It beats them to death.
	Yeah, a buddy of mine's daddy sells, I guess, horse semen or whatever, however they, I don't know what they call it, your horse.
	Is it straws?
	It's semen, and it is straws is how they sell them.
	Yeah, they sell, I don't know how much you can get.
	I guess you can get a, I've never seen the containers they put it in, but I know that they mate with other horses, and they'll have lines of horses coming up to mate with their horse all spring.
	Sure.
	He's like a quarter horses.
	I think he's like a mad horse.
	I can't do that for thoroughbreds, but quarter horses you can't.
	For racing horses?
	Racing horses have to be actually thoroughbred.
	The male's got to get on the field.
	Oh, you can't artificial cinemato.
	Yeah, I think I'd rather.
	Yeah, that's a part of the deal.
	They got to watch it.
	You can't be selling semen in the thoroughbred business because it's so expensive.
	You know, I mean, this is a secretariat semen, whatever.
	Can you prove it?
	You know, it's like.
	Oh, hell, the Celsius is $3 a can.
	I can't even imagine how much.
	They do it with everything.
	Wildlife, you know, deer, things like that.
	You name it.
	It's all out there.
	Did you guys ever get to play Asia?
	That's one last question I was thinking.
	That's random.
	That's a good question.
	Asia is, I guess it's China, Vietnam, Thailand.
	Thailand.
	Come on, give us some countries.
	Japan, Korea, North and South.
	There you go.
	Malay.
	I just said that, but yeah, Malaysia again.
	Maybe that's why they call it Asia.
	Asia, yeah.
	Malaysia.
	Yeah.
	They just, yeah, it's a big.
	Sacramento.
	Sacramento, yeah.
	But you guys, how far, how far?
	I'm just curious, how far, because your music was like, has been a fixture in my life, you know, and so many people my age, but I just wonder, like, what other ethnicities and stuff listen to?
	They've never heard of us.
	We did a thing for Rock My World one year.
	It was a record company's great idea.
	They came in with all these cue cards and whatever.
	Every country you could, all the ones you just named, everything you could think of, but phonetically, how you would pronounce our new song is called Rock My World.
	We would love for you to like it in other parts of the world.
	Right.
	You know, that kind of thing.
	And so Ronnie and I, you're as stupid as we are.
	You said yes.
	We said yes.
	And we're every language you can think of, you know, from Japanese.
	And they had the cards in it sounded like that.
	Oh, yeah, it sounded right for you.
	My sister's got a home in Italy.
	My brother-in-law's like, I'm over there watching a soccer game.
	He goes, and your commercial came on in this bar and then break.
	He goes, and it shut the whole place down.
	He goes, everybody's on the edge of their seat.
	They're looking light.
	And at the end of it, they go, so I still have no idea what we said in Italian.
	There's probably some exorcist thing that makes your head turn around back.
	As long as there's some young Vietnamese kid sitting somewhere going, that's what that is, man.
	We might put that back.
	The new album and the new tour, will they come out simultaneously?
	How does that kind of work?
	Pretty close.
	I think the new album comes out in November.
	The 15th.
	Yeah, and we start touring and heavy stuff starts hitting in February.
	February, March, April, something like that.
	We're going to stop for a minute.
	I think you're going to go do your deal.
	I'm going to run to Africa and come back, and then we're going to pick it up at the other point.
	Run over there in June.
	Run over there to Congo.
	I'll go down to FAFSB and Coventry.
	Yeah, we'll be over in Murphysborough if you need us, dude.
	He's down there.
	Well, not Murphy's, Smyrna.
	I mean, it's really Murphy.
	Sorry, we'll go to Smyrna.
	Gulfstream promised me they'd have it fixed by then by plane.
	You got it, we're good.
	Something you also wanted to get out there?
	No.
	No, we're selling that record right now.
	Reboot 2. Got to have it.
	Got to get it.
	It'll change your life.
	It's fun.
	Your show and nonsense and everything is fun and games.
	Yeah, I appreciate it.
	I feel lucky to have a job, man.
	Really lucky to talk to you guys.
	This has honestly been one of my favorite episodes, I think.
	It really has.
	You never said that before, right?
	I've said it for three times.
	Every freaking show.
	It probably got back up.
	It's been like, yeah.
	And also, you guys have such a good sense of humor, I think.
	Sometimes you get with musicians and they don't talk.
	They don't, they're musicians.
	I remember Tom Petty would like to go and talk showing the talk, right?
	There's a reason why they handed him an instrument.
	Last guy you wanted to do is have Tom Petty come sit by you and do an interview with him, right?
	I guess.
	How's your voice?
	It's all right.
	Phil Basser told me I was interviewing him, you know, doing the countdown show.
	And so how'd you get to be such a good piano player?
	He goes, well, actually, I was a drummer when I was a kid.
	Oh, really?
	I said, I've never heard you play drums.
	When I was a kid, man, all I wanted was a drum set.
	Christmas, I get a drum set.
	He goes, I just beat on those drums relentlessly, day and night, whatever.
	He goes, I got good at it.
	I go, what happened?
	He goes, I came home from school one day and my drums were gone.
	There was a bicycle sitting there where my drums used to be.
	Shit, man.
	I go, what'd you do?
	He goes, rode my bicycle.
	I got real good at it, too.
	Yeah, that guy believes in himself too much.
	My drums are gone.
	That's one of those guys.
	Rode it to Cincinnati.
	Kicks, Brooks, Ronnie Dunn.
	Thank you guys so much, man.
	Thank you for all the years of wonderful music and entertainment.
	And yeah, I'm going to come and check out one of the shows on tour, man.
	I'm excited about it.
	Please.
	Come see us.
	I will.
	We certainly will.
	Thank you guys for kidding.
	Really fun.
	Joy to have you.
	Big fans.
	Now, I'm just floating on the breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
	I must be cornerstone.
	Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.
	I can feel it in my bones.

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