- 1 day ago
Brantley Gilbert stays on his grind, continuing to push the boundaries and shake up the world of Country music. His latest effort is the song, “Good Damn,” which arrives everywhere this week. But first the singer checked in with Katie Neal from the beach, to talk about new music, his journey to sobriety, and so much more.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Hey, Miss Kay, how are you?
00:02I'm doing good.
00:03Well, I was doing good.
00:05I woke up this morning and when I opened my phone, Brantley, the first thing I saw were
00:10your bare butt cheeks on a beach and a Speedo.
00:14I was like, no, it's too early for this.
00:18Never too early.
00:20What is wrong with you?
00:21What were you doing?
00:25Just having some fun.
00:26We're at the beach.
00:27I can't tell you where because people will get weird, but my kids were out there.
00:33Wife was out there.
00:34We were just cutting up, having a good time.
00:36A UFC fighter buddy, my Jimmy Rivera and his wife and kids were with us.
00:40My brother's with us.
00:40It was a big crowd of us.
00:42You know, just the tearaway pants and a Speedo were pretty much undefeated.
00:49So, like, why not?
00:51Oh, my God.
00:52The way that I laughed so hard.
00:55Do you all like magic?
00:58You have been cracking me up on Instagram.
01:01That big fluffy robe you're always wearing.
01:04Yeah.
01:05Hey, if you can't have fun, what are you doing?
01:08Yeah, exactly.
01:09I feel like between that and the fall that you had a few weeks ago, you've really been
01:13nailing the content, bud.
01:15That was actually pretty bad.
01:16I cracked a couple ribs and a grade three concussion.
01:21So, that was kind of wild.
01:23That was truly wild.
01:25Have your ribs healed?
01:27Not all the way.
01:28I don't think yet.
01:29But they're getting there.
01:30You know.
01:30Yeah.
01:31Getting a little mobility.
01:32Moving around a little bit.
01:33Yeah.
01:34That was...
01:34You can see with the tearaway, I've got full range of motion now.
01:37Yeah.
01:39Everything is good.
01:41Everything is good.
01:41I also saw you guys had your first bus incident in 178 days.
01:46What happened?
01:47The Real American Beer folks backed through my mirror on one of my buses.
01:53Uh-huh.
01:53So, yeah.
01:54Luck's been real strong lately.
01:55It's kind of like the Murphy's Ball thing.
01:59Which is, you know, it is what it is.
02:02I think it's kind of funny because folks have this thing in their mind where I'm this serious
02:07dude all the time.
02:08And we're just kind of...
02:10I don't really do social media.
02:13I probably shouldn't say that on this interview.
02:16But I just kind of send videos to management.
02:20And my manager, Aaron, is a good friend of mine.
02:22So, a lot of times, I'm just sending him videos.
02:25Like, look at this dumb crap that happened.
02:27And then it winds up on the internet.
02:29So, yeah.
02:30Fun.
02:31I can only imagine the stuff that you send management that doesn't get approved to go on social media.
02:36Oh, it's wild.
02:38It can be wild.
02:39I'm sure it is.
02:40All right.
02:40Well, let's talk about this new song.
02:42Good damn.
02:43Tell me the story behind this one.
02:45We wrote this song in Texas.
02:47Me, Hardy, Taylor Phillips, and Brock.
02:49It was...
02:50This thing's a banger, man.
02:52It was a lot of fun to write.
02:54And Hardy and I have always been back and forth on it, talking about how awesome of a song it
02:59is.
02:59It's just kind of laid under the radar.
03:02You know, we signed with BMG.
03:06One of the million awesome things about being over there is they kind of leaned, you know, on me to
03:13kind of lean in creatively.
03:15And we've got to take this project.
03:18So, songs that have flown onto the radar before were part of the over 100 songs that I turned in.
03:24You know, we kind of started listening through.
03:26It was cool to have fresh years on them.
03:28And people that are excited about us, you know, that are, you know, really pushing me to kind of even
03:35go outside the box on what, you know, I've done over the last five years.
03:38It's just kind of crazy because I live outside the box.
03:40But it's been an awesome transition.
03:44It's been awesome working with them.
03:46And, you know, when we started listening to these songs, that one made everybody's list every round.
03:52You know, we whittled down from 100 to 70 to 50 to 30 to 20 and then to 15.
03:58So, yeah.
04:00And this one, early on, Loba was crazy about this one.
04:04Just was playing it in his office.
04:07And, you know, everybody, we were texting back and forth and everybody was like, man, Loba is jamming.
04:11Good damn.
04:12You know.
04:12Really?
04:13Oh, my God.
04:14So, I was like, let's go.
04:16I'm talking to, you know, when it was time to make that transition, which I'll just say right off the
04:23bat, there are still folks at BMG, I mean, at Big Machine that I love and care about and will
04:28to the dead.
04:29I talk to them on a daily basis.
04:30And, you know, but it's been awesome to be this shiny new toy somewhere and kind of, for the first
04:37time in 15 years, you know, I've been at the same label for 15 years.
04:41So, it's all a new experience, but, yeah, songs like this that have kind of flown or were, you know,
04:49kind of pushed to the forefront again and got fresh ears on them.
04:52And this is one of the ones that we, it's always funny because listening through songs, you know, you go
04:57back through demos to pick them for a project.
05:00There's songs that you never skip and this is one of them.
05:03Every time we came across it, it was like we played it.
05:06So, we're stoked.
05:08I love that.
05:08What year did you guys write this in then?
05:10Did I miss you say that?
05:12Well, it's a tough one.
05:13You know, I've kind of cut back on Willie Nelson recently for no particular reason, but my memory's been a
05:19little better, but I don't think it's that good yet.
05:22Yeah.
05:22Well, that's great, though.
05:23So, it's probably been at least a handful of years, right?
05:25Like you were saying, this has flown under the radar.
05:29Yeah.
05:29I want to know, I was kind of wondering, like, how much of this song did you pull from real
05:34life, your relationship with your wife?
05:36I'd like to say a lot of it.
05:38You know, this song oozes with confidence.
05:40And, but let's face it, she knew me before any of the music stuff happened.
05:47You know, she's kind of unbothered by me.
05:51Uh-huh.
05:52I bet.
05:53Which is kind of funny.
05:54You know what I mean?
05:55It's like, yeah.
05:57But, no, I sang it to her and I played it for her.
06:00She likes the song.
06:00She doesn't like that it cusses.
06:02You know, she hadn't missed a Sunday since she was born.
06:05So, this album's got a few of those.
06:09I was going to say, how's it when you're, like, playing this song for the kids and you're like, sing
06:13it, but don't say it?
06:14Well, we have another version.
06:16We have one that says, good, dang.
06:20Good dang.
06:21There you go.
06:23Friends, honestly, you play them.
06:25The kids bop version.
06:26Yeah.
06:27Yeah, yeah, you know.
06:29So, what else can you say about this new music that you've turned in and the project that's coming together
06:34so far?
06:35And this thing really is its own playlist.
06:37Like, like I said, we've always known where we belong as long as there's a box that is, you know,
06:42the country music genre.
06:44We always know where we belong and that's outside of it.
06:46You know, close enough to touch it, but, you know, outside the lines.
06:50And this one kind of pushes the envelope a little bit even for us, which is really fun.
06:54And for me, as a songwriter, it's just like even less rules.
07:00You know what I mean?
07:02And we really wanted this one to cover all the bases and then some, and I feel like it does
07:06that.
07:07And there's songs out here that I've been excited about for a long time.
07:11You know, some of these songs are older, but we also wanted to be reminiscent of some of my earlier
07:16albums.
07:17So there's some nostalgia in there.
07:19There's definitely some stuff that leans a little further back stylistically and sonically.
07:25So, you know, that part's been really fun.
07:28That's awesome.
07:29Yeah.
07:30So a lot of my early records are, you know, have been people's favorite and also my favorite from time
07:35to time.
07:36You know, they kind of lean back to when there were less filters.
07:40We weren't really trying to write a number of ones.
07:42We didn't ever think we'd get one.
07:43We were just trying to write a good song, you know, and that was the approach I can say, honestly
07:49say we took on the majority of these.
07:52It was never like, hey, let's write a number one song or let's try to hit.
07:56It was more about, hey, let's find a cool song and let it be what it wants to be, you
07:59know.
08:00That's amazing.
08:01How hard was it cutting down from the 100 songs you turned in to the 15 that you're at now?
08:07That was a chore for everybody.
08:09I bet.
08:10It's a really good stuff, you know.
08:12And I'm blessed enough in my career to have been able to write with the who's who of who's writing
08:19hit stuff in Nashville for years.
08:23And kind of these are just a collection of songs that are, you know, really sonically different.
08:30And, you know, content on them is different.
08:33We're not talking about the same thing over and over and over.
08:37And we're not chasing radio with it, you know, for a long time.
08:40It's like you'd write a song and it's like, oh, that's a cool song, but it's never going to touch
08:45radio.
08:45So why put it on an album?
08:48This is like, you know, the frame of mind has changed a little bit.
08:51It's like with Timeline, you may get two singles.
08:55Maybe, you know, three if you're ultra lucky.
09:00It's like, you know, we'll target a few and then with the rest of them, let's have some fun.
09:06Let's tell a story.
09:09Let's go back in time a little bit and give folks what they originally and I originally fell in love
09:15with about music and about songwriting and about country music.
09:20That's all.
09:21Yeah, you know, it's a gloves are off kind of thing.
09:25I always love to hear that.
09:26I'm really excited to hear the rest of the stuff that you've been working on.
09:28I really love this song.
09:29I do want to know, how are all those babies ears doing?
09:32Oh, they're open.
09:34They're eight, six and one.
09:36My little guy's getting some words figured out.
09:38He's got walking figured out.
09:40He's mobile, so that's dangerous.
09:43But he's starting to put some words together.
09:45He's the cutest little dude I've ever been.
09:47And, you know, the other two are doing awesome.
09:50Yeah, I would say, how's that sassy, fabulous little girl of yours?
09:53She cracks me up.
09:55She's the best.
09:56She lost a tooth the day before yesterday, and she was real stoked yesterday morning.
10:01She was like, the tooth fairy left me $20.
10:06And I was, you know.
10:07Wow.
10:08I was just real proud of that.
10:10Inflation has found the tooth fairy.
10:12Yeah, I was like, the tooth fairy's balling.
10:14I thought we were, I thought she did like five or ten.
10:18But, you know, I mean.
10:20I think I used to get a $2 bill from the tooth fairy.
10:23Yeah.
10:23I asked her, I was like, well, how'd you get $20?
10:25And she was like, I'll let the tooth fairy keep my tooth.
10:28She's going to be pulling out all of them teeth now.
10:30You know what I mean?
10:31I'm thinking about pulling them out.
10:33Oh, my God.
10:34That's amazing.
10:35I want to know, like, just some fun stuff you guys have been doing.
10:37What have you been binging?
10:38What's been going on on the bus?
10:40How are you guys staying busy?
10:41Really and truly, we've been, you know.
10:44The other thing about this project and this new label is, you know, part of them pushing
10:51me creatively on this album was co-producing and being a little more involved in the co-producing
10:58process than I have been on the last couple albums, which has honestly been a lot of fun.
11:04My co-producer, Brock Berryhill, is a really good friend of mine.
11:08So, we're on the phone until the mid-hours of the morning all the time.
11:15But it's been all about this album for the last few months.
11:17You've been grinding.
11:18Yeah, really and truly.
11:21You know, because we've had a lot of songs to listen through.
11:25And then, you know, once we got down to the 20, it was like, all right, so, lyrically,
11:33did any of these cross over?
11:34And they did.
11:35You know, we wanted them all to have their own space and live their own little world.
11:38And, you know, so, they were just kind of going in and dissecting them and seeing if
11:44anything needed to be rewritten or kind of, you know, shied away from something else.
11:50So, that was part of it.
11:51And then, what do we want them to sound like?
11:53You know what I mean?
11:54And with this album, more than anything, it was like, instead of steering them towards
11:59something, like I said, like, used to, we steer them towards radio.
12:03Like, if something was too rock, it was like, all right, well, let's ease off of that a little
12:07bit and kind of ease it more towards our genre.
12:11And with this one, it was like, no, I'm going to change it all.
12:14If it wants to be a rock song, you know, I grew up working on and playing on farms.
12:19Like, country's all I know.
12:21And I don't write songs about things I don't understand or haven't been through.
12:24So, it's like, you know, nobody has a PhD on what is or isn't country.
12:29A thousand percent.
12:31You know what I mean?
12:32It's just like, let's get it, man.
12:33Let's let them do what they want to do.
12:35Exactly.
12:36I was like, country looks like so many different things.
12:40You know what I mean?
12:40Like, I grew up listening to a lot more, like, rock music, but also loved country.
12:46Like, there's many.
12:47I think the thing is, is like, other genres get sub-genres, but we're not allowed to have
12:51one.
12:52You know what I mean?
12:53Which I don't think is fair.
12:54Oh, yeah.
12:55It's your center.
12:56You know what I mean?
12:56Like, I've always been one of those, man.
13:01I like a little rock music.
13:02I like a little rap music.
13:04You know, I've got to listen to a little bit of everything kind of guy.
13:10So, you know, some of my favorite albums, when I first signed on over at Warner Chapel,
13:16they had, like, demo CDs.
13:18It was like, what somebody had written over the last several months, you know, they'd go
13:23in and do a demo session.
13:24And a lot of times, on the way out the door, you could get, you know, somebody's project,
13:29what they'd been writing on for the last several months.
13:31And, I mean, you know, some of the most talented people on the planet, when it comes to writing
13:36songs, are in Nashville.
13:38And, you know, not just that publishing company, all of them, but, you know, even just in-house
13:44there at Warner Chapel, I remember those being some of my favorite, you know, collections
13:48of music, it was kind of like the mixtape thing before that became cool.
13:56So, I always like doing a little bit of everything.
13:58It's like, I listen to a little bit of everything.
14:00I want to write a little bit of everything.
14:01You know, that's kind of what, part of what made me fall in love with that part of my job.
14:06I also feel like you're also, like, getting involved in a little bit of everything now,
14:10especially with, like, Real American Beer.
14:11Like, I was stoked to see you put out an NA beer this last week.
14:14Like, that's awesome.
14:15Talk about that.
14:16Yeah.
14:16So, you know, we teamed up with Hulk Hogan before he passed.
14:22I grew up thinking that dude was, like, second coming, you know, and got to be friends with
14:27him there towards the end, thanks to DJ Silver.
14:30And, you know, we kind of wrote the theme song for the Real American Freestyle League.
14:36And then that kind of led into meeting the Real American folks and see what else they were
14:41tied in with.
14:41And, you know, the coming out with the beer thing was super cool.
14:46And the more conversations we had about kind of this, it's kind of trending in a way.
14:51You know, a lot of people are kind of easing off alcohol.
14:55The decision I made in 2011, you know, I didn't mind for so much health reasons it was.
15:02But it was more that I'm, like, allergic to it.
15:05Like, I break out in handcuffs and bad decisions.
15:07So, it was something I kind of needed to table.
15:12And going in on NA beer was cool.
15:15It's like, hey, man, you know, like, when you're grilling out, everybody's grabbing a steak
15:20and you flip stuff on the grill.
15:22Nothing beats a cold beer.
15:24And we sing songs about cold beer in almost every country on the planet.
15:29So, you know, being able to crack one open with the guys and cheers them and, you know,
15:35without the hangover and without the relapse is awesome.
15:37I always tell people, like, if I relapse, it's not going to be a regular relapse.
15:41It's going to be an apocalypse.
15:43You know what I'm saying?
15:44Like, a tectonic shift of bad shit's going to happen.
15:49So, yeah, it was cool to team up with them on that.
15:52You know, $1 of every case sold goes to the USOs.
15:55One of the honors of my career is being able to work with the men and women that selflessly
16:02serve this country and make sacrifices and experience losses that we'll never understand.
16:08And, you know, being able to give back to them a little bit is worth its weight and gold to
16:12me.
16:13So, them being on board with that.
16:15And, you know, it's a company really geared towards God, family, country.
16:18And that's, you know, I don't really partner with anybody that or any product that I don't use
16:24or anybody that I wouldn't stand behind.
16:28So, it's been awesome from the jump talking to them.
16:32It's like we're from all over the country, right?
16:35Yeah.
16:35But it's, you know, all of us are like-minded in that we love our country because they're
16:41self-patriots.
16:42And just kind of coming out with a product that focuses on all those things is worth its
16:51weight and gold.
16:51It's been a lot of fun, too.
16:53There are some cool cats on there.
16:55Oh, I'm happy to hear that.
16:56Also, I want to tell you, you are a topic of discussion almost on a daily basis here in
17:01the studio because my executive producer who sits next door, whenever she takes a Zoom
17:06call, the stuffed ram that you gave me, the taxidermy, is like right behind her over her
17:11shoulder.
17:12So, anytime she meets with somebody new, they're like, what?
17:16And she's got to take a good old story.
17:18And that, it really is one of my most favorite things.
17:21I don't know if I've told you this, but my hope and dream for that wall is that someday
17:25the Country Music Hall of Fame is going to call and they're going to put it on.
17:28They're going to take the whole thing and make a display.
17:30It could be the greatest ever.
17:33From Katie Neal's private collection of weird taxidermy.
17:38It really is.
17:39It's awesome.
17:40You can't beat a squirrel riding a goat.
17:42I mean, who does that?
17:43Oh, my God.
17:44And it just gets the long hat.
17:45And it's a real saddle.
17:46That's a legit saddle.
17:47Yes.
17:48And the teeny tiny cowboy hat that it's carrying, I mean, it gets better and better the longer
17:53you look at it.
17:55I don't think I'll ever do normal taxidermy again.
17:58Why would you?
18:00Yeah.
18:00Yeah.
18:01Well, and it's been funny because every time somebody comes in, they're like, oh, yeah,
18:03I'll bring you something.
18:04And then they look up at that.
18:05They're like, I don't know if I got anything for this wall.
18:10It's undefeated.
18:11It'll never be done.
18:12It never will be.
18:14Before I let you go, I want to grab a couple of stories behind songs that we're going to
18:17play this week while we've got you.
18:19So I know you probably have done these a couple of times, but we'll reuse it next week.
18:23Story behind Bottoms Up.
18:25I don't know that I've ever actually heard you tell that.
18:26So Brett James and Justin had started that idea, and Brett came out on the road with me, and
18:33we finished it.
18:34It was kind of one of those, man, it was kind of wild when he played me what they had.
18:38It was like, all right, that's cool.
18:40It's got a different little vibe to it that I hadn't heard in country yet, which, you know,
18:46gets me excited.
18:47And then, you know, we kind of finished the song.
18:50It was one of those that really wrote itself kind of fast, which that's always a good feeling.
18:56You know, when something kind of acts like it wants to be written, you kind of have to
19:01give it a little guidance.
19:02That was my first experience writing with Brett, too, and just seeing how freaking talented
19:08he was and, like, the confidence he had in his lyrics and in his song direction.
19:14It was wild.
19:15It was one of the reasons that we invited him to every retreat we did.
19:19You know, after that, number one, I just loved being around that guy.
19:24But, two, he was insane in a writing room.
19:28It was just like, songs like that where it was like, I don't know who says we're, you
19:33know, we're outside the box, pretty good with this one.
19:36You know, every line that came up, we pitched it.
19:39If it was right, he knew it was right.
19:41If it was wrong, he knew it was wrong.
19:42So, I just remember it being really quick and him being really sure about it and sending
19:49it to the label, me being unsure.
19:52I wasn't sure if I was crazy about it.
19:55You know what I mean?
19:56It was like, I kind of didn't know if it was too, like, gimmicky or something for me in
20:02a way, but he was like, no, I'm telling you, it's a hit.
20:06Send it to him.
20:07Just, you know.
20:09That's amazing.
20:10I said it.
20:11Everybody flipped out over it and it became, you know, our biggest single ever.
20:15So, Brett was right.
20:17He was right.
20:18And he is, oh, so missed.
20:20Could you also do One Hell of an Amen?
20:22Yeah, One Hell of an Amen is a long story, but to shorten it a little bit, a buddy of
20:30mine, a good friend of mine from back home, did a couple tours in Iraq and when he came
20:35home from the second one, it was like the first time I'd seen, you know, like a guy bring
20:42the war home with him pretty heavily when it affected him and it had really like, in
20:48a way, almost foundationally changed who he was.
20:50You know what I mean?
20:51It was just kind of a, a tormented soul at that point.
20:54And it was one of the things that really led me to dig my heels in with veterans and
21:01active duty guys and girls.
21:02That was the first time I'd seen that close where I really knew this guy, you know, and
21:06he went away from two tours and that's the first one.
21:08It was kind of like a boy becoming a man type thing.
21:10And then the second time he came home, like it was, it was, it was giving him a run for
21:14his money.
21:15Uh, proud to say that that dude now is, is a dad, he's married.
21:20And I don't know if I know anybody that's as excited about being a dad, uh, than he is,
21:25but his, his battle buddy over there is, is war buddy.
21:30This guy I heard stories about, and this is one of my good friends from home.
21:33So it was like, who's this dude?
21:37Who's your other best friend?
21:38Yeah.
21:39What's going on here?
21:39And I never got to shake hands with him, but, um, heard all his stories about him.
21:43And then, uh, he passed the Kirkuk City, I write and JG was there, saw the whole thing
21:49happen.
21:50And, um, you know, just learning who he was from, from JG and then getting to meet his
21:56mom and his sister and learning what he meant to his community.
22:00It was just like, man, this, this, this dude had a real legacy of just being an incredible
22:05human.
22:06Um, um, and then, uh, a close friend of mine, uh, I was closer to his brother Kyle's age
22:13than his age.
22:14Guy's name was Corey Potts.
22:16Listen, when you talk about an all American kid, man, this, this, this, this dude, I don't
22:20know anybody in, in, you know, this is before and after he passed away.
22:25I've, I've never heard a negative word about him.
22:27This dude just loved everybody and loved his country and, and loved his school and love
22:33playing ball and, uh, loved his family and, uh, in his early twenties, leukemia took him
22:39and, and it really smoked our, our whole community.
22:43It was like, you saw, uh, a small town that, you know, everybody knows everybody's business
22:50and, you know, it's the grapevine and the dirt and all that stuff.
22:53But, you know, when he passed, it was such a unifying thing.
22:57Like everybody kind of came together and, uh, to celebrate his legacy and, you know, to
23:03kind of be there for each other.
23:04Cause he, he was a loss that struck our community hard, man.
23:09I mean, um, and he, you know, I just, I saw what those two men's legacies meant to their
23:16community and their family and, uh, couldn't help, but wonder what those legacies would do
23:22on a grander scale.
23:22Um, and, and kind of give them to people who, uh, other folks who had, you know, legacies
23:30that mirrored theirs or related, you know, were, were similar to theirs and that's the
23:35song that keeps giving them because it's, it's, it's taken on so many new meanings over
23:40the years.
23:40I mean, even for me, uh, I saw it number one, the week it went number one, I was on
23:45my honeymoon
23:46and, uh, my grandfather actually passed away a couple days before.
23:51And it was like, man, you know, he's a Navy vet and, uh, it was, it was one of those
23:57things
23:58that he, you know, it hit me different.
23:59It was like, I wrote it about this, but you know, it just, it hit me hard in so many
24:05other
24:05areas of life.
24:06And one of the most rewarding things about being a songwriter is having somebody come to
24:10you and say, Hey man, like this song really helped me through something, you know, or this
24:14song inspired to change.
24:15And that one more than anything I've ever wrote, uh, been something that, that, because
24:21it was more, you know, we wrote it more instead of a grievance or a mourning of a death, it
24:26was more of a celebration of life and a shared legacy and a magnification of legacy.
24:32Right.
24:32So it was like, we can be, you know, sad because somebody passed, but man, we're really selling
24:39them short if, if we don't celebrate their life and their legacy.
24:43Absolutely.
24:44Thank you for sharing that and for taking the time today.
24:46It's really great to see you.
24:47New music sounds great.
24:48I'm so excited to hear more.
24:50Have fun out there on the road.
24:52Yeah, I know.
24:53It's going to be great.
24:54All right.
24:54Thank you guys so much.
24:55Appreciate it.
24:55Have a great rest of your day, Brantley.
24:56Yes, ma'am.
24:58Hey, it's Katie.
25:00See more interviews, performances, and more of your favorite artists by subscribing and downloading
Comments