- 2 days ago
Zach Top joins Katie Neal this week for the 'Superstar Power Hour,' opening up about life off-stage and sharing the stories behind a few of his biggest hits.
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00:00sack top thank you so much for coming to see us today what's happening how are you glad to be
00:04here
00:04doing all right yeah i feel like you have been so busy all over the place i know you got
00:08tons of
00:08shows and stuff going on what have you been doing when you're not on the road are you
00:11working on anything at home oh yeah i don't yeah trying to keep my garage clean um impossible a
00:18bunch of golf yeah it is it is you get it clean one day and then the next day it
00:21looks like a
00:22tornado came through there but do you have like a workshop out there and stuff or yeah a little bit
00:26yeah i got some tools and yeah i like to tinker around with stuff but yeah doing some of that
00:31playing a little golf um how's your golf game yeah it's rounding into form yeah i've i've been sitting
00:37for the last three years i've just been floating around in eight handicap and i told myself this
00:42year i'm really committed i'm gonna get down under a five so we got some work to explain what that
00:48means to me like i feel like i hear people say handicap all the time and i'm like oh it's
00:52just
00:52it's your uh what you usually it takes average i think it's out of 20 rounds it takes your best
00:58five or six or something and whatever you shot there however many over par you are is your handicap
01:05so i'm a minus eight so usually i'm shooting eight over par okay got it yeah and so it's just
01:11you know
01:12it's a way to be able to what's that is that good is that bad like what is an amateur
01:16golfer like
01:17that's pretty solid okay it's pretty solid um yeah if you you know um getting down below that
01:23you start to be really pretty dang good are you doing lessons or are you just golfing more to be
01:28better at yeah just playing you know i got the whole i sit in the backyard and i got a
01:32net i hit
01:33balls into and i got a little portable simulator set up and then i take videos of my swing and
01:38then
01:38look at my swing the whole say that looks bad and then i try to do something different and
01:43it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't yeah i did not understand the longest time
01:47why golf was like why people a were so obsessed with it with them be like when you start playing
01:53like there's so many things that have to go right all the same time and it's it's ridiculous i find
01:58my i would like be at golf lessons like screw because i'm like oh my god why am i so
02:03mad about
02:04this it's like you think it looks so easy but it is not it's frustrating yeah when you watch somebody
02:08who's good at it it they make it look easy and then you go try and do it and it's
02:12yeah and i haven't
02:13been out in years i like you need to get back into that but yeah i'm like it's such a
02:17disease
02:18in the music business too everybody yeah you know well that's the thing is i'm like there aren't that
02:22many women who play golf so if i can just be one of the girls that plays golf you get
02:25invited to all
02:26the stuff right i guarantee you especially yeah chicks that can hit it because then you you know
02:31you get in a tournament in a scramble tournament or something and you play from the women's tees and
02:35hit it way by everybody so it's uh everybody's excited about that okay i gotta i gotta pick up the
02:40golf you know i started she was training anderson about it because her mom oh yeah great golfers
02:43she goes i'm like i need to go out with you yeah oh yeah she's super fun i played with
02:47her a couple
02:48of times she's a great time that's so funny i was thinking about you know everything that's happened
02:51since the last time you were in here and we talked which would have been stuff like the grammys
02:57which is like crazy what was that experience like like talking about going to the show getting
03:02to do all this like wild super fun um it's funny you know where uh the country world is somewhat
03:09the
03:09red-headed stepchild it seems yeah you know that i shouldn't say that i was honestly surprised you
03:16know that you all the awards are earlier in the day and then they i think only it's only a
03:21temporary
03:21album of the year or something that they uh announced um on the actual broadcast but anyway we got in
03:27there
03:27yeah won the award that was incredible um but it felt like it was so they bounced through them
03:33awards so fast in that uh earlier broadcast uh because there's so many to give out yeah um but
03:40yeah that was surreal winning it and then what was funny they had so many of us like i know
03:45me
03:46laney wilson uh charlie crockett was down there noah khan um who else anyway there was a pile of
03:56reba was down there they said a whole bunch of us country people like right up front uh you know
04:01got a bunch of tv time um in between i was um photobombing trevor noah while he was announcing
04:08and stuff oh my god that's so fun yeah spend time with reba is always just like does she just
04:13warm
04:13your heart yeah that was first time first time i'd met her there um so that was pretty cool
04:17everything you want her to be yeah yeah exactly like just so like right warm and happy and like i'm
04:22like you've been mad a day in your life and if you were mad was it still funny like yeah
04:26probably
04:26probably um yeah no it was super super fun time i uh i always i feel like i'm very hesitant
04:33to go to
04:33award shows it's a lot of especially i mean cmas is easy because it's right here in town but like
04:38gearing up to we just did the acms that's in vegas you know when you gotta obviously grammy's
04:43being in la it's a whole trip to go out there it's a lot of getting the logistics of it
04:47are a lot
04:48yeah it's a big old hassle but every time i go i end up really having a great time it's
04:53fun to just
04:53see everybody exactly that's yeah that's one of the most fun parts about it just everybody's there
04:58and so you get to catch up with you know we hardly ever see each other nobody's ever in town
05:02at the
05:02same time we're all on the road doing different stuff so you never see anybody um and so that's a
05:08fun uh fun way to just run into everybody and catch have you found a spot yet in your house
05:12where you
05:13are putting your awards i'm so bad at this no i there's a couple random shelves and then there's
05:20a room down in my basement that i've been saying i'm going to turn into sort of a little wall
05:26of
05:26shame um and i just have stuff stacked on the floor and uh uh yeah no no great organization too
05:34i need to
05:34turn it into something at some point um but i'm just renting that house right now i'm looking to buy
05:38a
05:39place right now so once i get in a little more permanent place i imagine i'll house somebody's
05:43probably going to have to just do it for me i'm never going to get around to it how's house
05:46shopping
05:46going it's good you're enjoying it yeah yeah yeah i i mean i found a place i really like so
05:52um just kind of trying to always like figure one last little perusal of the market to make sure
05:58there's nothing else i can't live without seeing right um and otherwise probably make a move on
06:02on that place so there's so much that goes into buying a house i just bought one like a year
06:06and a half
06:06ago and i still am like y'all let me buy a house like i don't even know what half
06:10these words meant
06:11yeah i just kept signing that's kind of how i feel yeah luckily my business manager and our
06:17realtor are you know they've been doing it a long time so they you know they'll keep me uh keep
06:21me
06:22out of any big potholes for sure you are out right now the cold beer cold beer and country music
06:27tour
06:27you've got a whole slew of like awesome artists opening up for you talk about like what have been some
06:32of the fun things that have happened so far with these guys like i feel like you gotta be like
06:36cutting up just having a great time with them yeah 100 um yeah pumped about our our support
06:40cast uh this year a couple guys that we've had out with us before jake worthington cole goodwin
06:45um those guys i feel like we were when i was just doing little little clubs um they opened a
06:52few
06:52shows for us and just been fun to kind of be on the rise a little bit at the same
06:56time so it's always
06:57fun to take them out and then uh yeah marcus king um what a voice yeah i feel like that
07:03might have
07:03been a mistake i don't know that i want to follow him like i don't want to come out after
07:07yeah exactly
07:07exactly um and then obviously marty stewart living legend um it's pretty cool to yeah be around that
07:14uh the marty party is uh is alive and well so um yeah it's fun last night i met uh
07:20marcus or i guess
07:22i don't know when this is airing i'm speaking as if it's whatever present time uh but marcus played
07:28municipal auditorium last night and uh so i went up and i sat in with him for a song and
07:33um that was a great time got to i hadn't seen his show in a while so actually getting to
07:38stand
07:38side stage there and watch a bunch of his show and then get up and play with him and uh
07:42and charlie
07:42star too that was pretty fun we uh we both got up there and sang and picked with marcus a
07:47little bit
07:47which is yeah it's yeah it's a great time i feel like there's not necessarily a ton of that i
07:53feel like
07:54that was a more common thing back in the day and there's just not as many um at least in
07:58the
07:59mainstream country world not as many just like jams like that that happened so it's fun yeah when
08:04something like that comes up um it was it was super fun i had a blast and marcus is a
08:09killer and
08:09yeah excited to have him on a bunch of shows i also bet it was fun to like go to
08:13a show and like
08:13get to be a little bit of a fan like you probably don't get to do that very often anymore
08:17do you right
08:18no it's fun it's fun when uh yeah when that pops up and you ain't got nothing going on
08:22right and i can yeah can make it out to something like that as blast what does show day look
08:28like
08:28for you and the band like do you guys like wake up do you have a thing that you always
08:31do do you
08:31go golf do you work out do you guys like yeah you know things that you do together a little
08:35bit of
08:35both um yeah i'm in my phase now i used to look at guys with their gym trailers and you
08:41know riley's
08:42got a big old gym set up out there and i'm sitting over there drinking beer at 10 in the
08:47morning and
08:47laughing at him for working out and now that's me too oh no i thought i i thought i had
08:5310 or 15
08:54years of good hard living in me and i'm three years into full time being on the road and uh
09:01and i'm
09:01already slowing down so um but no yeah so we do uh do a little working out in the morning
09:07and yeah
09:07a lot of times go play golf it's fun to you know always in a new city see a new
09:11course um you know
09:13that's a fun fun little way to get away from the venue for a little while too and because you
09:17know
09:18it's you're in a park touring yeah exactly it sounds like it'd be glamorous and fun but yeah
09:23you're just sitting in another parking lot every day and uh and it's you know they usually have it
09:27set up really nice it's comfortable and we're on our buses and stuff like that so there's nothing to
09:31complain about but it is nice to get out of the parking lot and away from the venue go see
09:35some
09:35green grass and stuff like that yeah do you guys have anything that you do before the show is there
09:39like a shot a prayer anything like that are you just like here we go yeah we i don't know
09:45yeah
09:45we don't really have any set ritual um but yeah usually everybody kind of shows up about an hour
09:51before before the show and starts hanging in the green room and having a couple drinks and um yeah
09:57have a little communal time together so do you guys like have music that you're listening to or
10:01is that when you put people in demo jail and you're like listen no no i do not i'm not
10:05gonna be
10:06that guy no no but but uh yeah no yeah we always got some music bumping in the in the
10:13green room and
10:14yeah our little bar cart set up it's you know our little gal mary um sets up all our back
10:19of house
10:20stuff for us and keeps everything stocked up and whatnot she always makes it feel fun and vibey so
10:24it's a good hang and yeah but nothing yeah i know a lot of folks have a little ritual thing
10:30i feel like
10:30maybe we need to it comes with time right like something happens there's like a funny joke or something
10:34made that becomes like the thing for every time after that we have two minute taters um while
10:40we're all standing around at the side of the stage about to go on two minutes before the show starts
10:44our tour manager comes around and he's like all right two minute taters two minute taters and that's
10:48just running around fist bumping everybody that's something that happens every night i was like are
10:52you having potatoes two minutes before you're going on stage because that sounds awful i don't know why
10:57it's taters yeah two minute taters that's incredible you also yeah nothing like two
11:01minutes before you got to go sing load up on a bunch of mashed potatoes yeah what is it how
11:06many
11:06taters can you eat in two minutes exactly whoever eats the most wins hysterical i love just the visual
11:12thought of that is too much you also a few months ago announced you've got the kymes jeans
11:17yeah collaboration which i feel like has had to be like a fun thing for you yeah big time did
11:23you
11:23get to like you know have any influence on like anything specific that you wanted on the jeans oh
11:27yeah like something all of it yeah it was funny when i when i started uh working with them um
11:34shoot
11:35it's been a few years ago uh that matt kimes sent me some clothes first and um i started wearing
11:40them shirts a bunch and uh that kind of you know became part of my thing they make those kind
11:46of
11:46wacky throwback stripy shirts um so i've been wearing that type of stuff yeah exactly exactly
11:54um the yeah so i started wearing those and then at some point i saw matt out in uh vegas
11:59at nfr and
12:00he's like man don't like them jeans what's what's the deal and i was like yeah no not really they
12:05don't
12:05fit me right and he's like what what do you want to do then i'll make you some jeans and
12:10so
12:10it started there and we went through you know five or six different iterations trying to get them
12:15just the way i liked them and then uh and then yeah landed on something that i fell in love
12:19with
12:19and yeah yeah i've been wearing them for the last couple years and then yeah i finally actually
12:22made them available to the public uh this year so yeah so he was just making these just for you
12:28for a while yeah for a little while oh my god that's wild that's like the dream because there's
12:32something more like it's more difficult than like buying pants like you buy the same pants for like
12:3610 years and then they change something you got to find new pants yeah exactly yeah exactly yeah
12:41hopefully i can keep these yeah exactly right where i need them you got a good deal going with
12:45it yeah yeah i'm excited about it it's fun to yeah crazy stuff that you never really uh anticipated when
12:52you want to be a singer and a songwriter and now all of a sudden i'm involved in the making
12:58of jeans
12:58right um so it's what else are you manifesting like what's the next thing past jeans that you're like
13:03i don't know i like probably not much no i want to i it's been like it's been really fun
13:10getting to see kind of the inner workings of how all this stuff works selling to retailers and selling
13:16online and um you know kind of seeing how the sausage is made and it's kind of making me feel
13:21like all right that's enough i don't need to you know it's like i want to sing and play i
13:26don't
13:26need to i don't need to be too much of a fashion mogul or uh you know it's i i
13:31like the idea of
13:33being in you know it can kind of raise your people's awareness of you in general if if you're
13:39involved in more stuff than just singing and playing but that's all i really want to do so
13:44it's uh yeah we'll see how much more stuff i take on i was gonna say is it like you
13:49think more like
13:49entertainment stuff like is acting or like any of that on your radar no you're like no thanks not
13:54really i've read some scripts i'm not like i'm not saying never but i'm i don't know i'm like you
14:00said like you're just like you want to just you want to play yeah yeah that's i'm good at that
14:05and
14:05i'm there's a reason i do that for a living and i didn't become an actor for a living you
14:09know right
14:10and um and a bunch of people do it and do good at it i was just talking to riley
14:15he's in that uh
14:15marshall show yeah he said he's really had fun doing it it kind of made him nervous going in there
14:21for the same reason that it's like this isn't what i this isn't my thing so i don't know if
14:27i'm gonna be
14:27any good at it um but anyway he he said he's he's really quite enjoyed it and it's obviously you
14:33know
14:33stuff like that for sure uh raises people's awareness uh of him you know i worked for laney
14:38when she was on that yellowstone uh show too that was that was a nice little bump for her um
14:43so i
14:44don't know we'll see if it's like if it's something that uh you know introduces my music to more people
14:52and help sell more tickets then i'll always consider it yeah um but yeah not uh not itching to get
15:02into
15:02the acting world yet i don't i'm made to be listened to not looked at you know did you see
15:07jelly dabbling in the stand-up stuff yeah he was like out at netflix is a joke they did like
15:13the
15:13comedy festival and then he got up and did a set no kidding i've not seen any videos of it
15:17i'm like
15:17dying to now i'm gonna have to go search youtube because i want to know like what was jelly up
15:22there like you know yeah yeah i'd love to see because i feel like he could nail it like you
15:27know what i mean probably yeah he's a funny dude yeah for sure yeah that's interesting i uh that's
15:32something if i could pick something to do on the side i would love being able to i don't know
15:39i i love
15:40stand-up comedy and i'm a fan of a ton of those you know the yo's um great nate bar
15:45gotcha we got a
15:46bunch of national guys yeah yeah yeah i love bert and tom yeah they're i'm a huge fan of of
15:53what
15:53those guys do and that would be a fun if i've always wanted to be like a funny guy and
15:58i'm
15:59kind of you're funny funny um but yeah to be able to that's such a like daunting uh prospect you
16:07just
16:08got to stand up there with a microphone and talk and make people laugh it's like i got a lot
16:13of help
16:13around me we got some nice lights and i got a great band and you know it's like we my
16:18i feel
16:18like i have uh uh less of a task to get people right exactly like we're doing i got a
16:23lot of help
16:24didn't like that on to the next one yeah yeah and there you just you're out there naked it is
16:30just
16:30you yeah exactly so that that would be a cool you know speaking of other ventures maybe i'll get
16:35into the stand-up comedy world yeah we'll see probably not i'll leave that to the professionals
16:40right exactly we've got you on the show uh the week like going into father's day and we are doing
16:45a bit this year for father's day called daddy issues oh and it is all about what was the last
16:50issue you called your dad about and he helped you fix that's a good one um he is usually a
16:57first call
16:57um i feel like i have he's uh run his own company for a long time and uh had a
17:06lot of success
17:06doing it and so i i end up calling him for a lot of like if it seems like uh
17:11um he's a great people
17:14person always taking really good care of his people and so i like if i feel like that's the
17:19most recent stuff that i've called him about it's just it's kind of an interesting uh transition period
17:25where for the longest time you just like it's just you and your buddies rolling around in a van
17:32playing songs at whatever bar will let you in there to play songs and then it turns into a big
17:38old you know organization and i don't know everybody really well that works for me anymore
17:44and so it's like i call him a lot just about that stuff as it's just transitioning more of the
17:52business
17:52that i enjoy that that side of uh the career um as well as the you know the creative thing
17:57is obviously
17:57my my favorite part of it that's why i started doing it but i enjoy the business side of it
18:01as well
18:01and um he's always got good advice for you know just how to i don't know keep taking care of
18:07people
18:07yeah well that's not that's hard that's not what you got into this where luke combs talks about
18:10this yeah like suddenly he's like ceo of luke combs enterprises right like i gotta pick health
18:15insurance for these people right what exactly that is not something you saw come in yeah sure
18:20yeah exactly but uh yeah that's he gets plenty of phone calls from me about that and that's probably
18:25the most recent stuff i've hollered at him about oh my god that's funny but that's like the person
18:29that you call right like dad's got all the answers yeah it's funny that you say it's that
18:32stuff because we came up with a bit that we wanted to do with you called wealth and wellness for
18:36zach
18:36top bring it on financial and fitness advice from america's fastest okay i don't know if anybody wants
18:43that but what is either the best piece of advantage financial advice that you give to others or that
18:49someone has given to you i well it would have been i've heard it from a lot more people but
18:55i heard
18:56it first from my dad i think is when just i don't know when you're doing good if there's other
19:03people
19:04helping make it happen make sure that's spread around you know when when money comes in make sure
19:09everybody's participating in it keeps them you know makes them lets them know that you're you care
19:15about them and that their contribution is is valued and and makes them feel like they've got a little
19:21stake in uh what's going on you know keeps everybody on their game uh because they know if it keeps
19:27getting better they keep getting rewarded for it too um so yeah whenever there's there's a little
19:31extra money laying around um put it back towards your people that's really good advice i feel like
19:37watching taylor swift do that with the aires tour was always really fun you'd like see those videos
19:40and she'd like hand out those checks and stuff you're like sure it's like that means so much to
19:44so many people all right and then we're you were talking about how you've got a gym now that you
19:48travel with how is that top maintaining the physique what is the fitness routine this is quite a
19:54physique once you're done smoking your first cigarette for the morning uh no i'm just kidding um
20:01yeah i've got um it's funny i shouldn't give out free ads but this app uh ladder um is a
20:08it's a
20:09little workout app and it's been i've tried i feel like i've gone through 14 different apps in the
20:14past five years as i've told myself i need to start you know working out it used to be it
20:20was so easy
20:20work construction and you know you can't active all day yeah you can't eat enough calories to replace
20:26what you're burning doing that you know sweating out here and um anyway and so then as soon as it
20:32was
20:33you know got on a bus and now there you get driven around and you just got to sit on
20:38your bus and
20:38drink beer until the show and then you get off stage and sit on the bus and drink more beer
20:44packed on a few pounds and uh and so this uh i guess it was this spring that i finally
20:51actually got into a bit of a routine i've you know i've done it a hundred times where it's like
20:56all right i'm getting in the gym and i do one week our diet starts tomorrow yeah yeah i do
21:00one week and
21:01uh go too hard and i'm so sore i can't even work out the next week and then that's the
21:07end of it for
21:07another few months and then it's like i gotta get back to working out so anyway i finally i got
21:12on
21:12this app ladder um and it makes it very uh approachable it's all i i mean you can kind of
21:19cater the workouts to how whatever your setup is you can have a full gym setup uh of exercises or
21:26body weight stuff or i have just these adjustable dumbbells out on the bus so i i haven't graduated to
21:32the full gym trailer uh riley green setup yet um but yeah i just got those adjustable dumbbells and
21:38uh this little coach guy walks me through the whole workout and everything's timed out too
21:43i was always bad when i would just try to go to the gym and have a list of exercises
21:47i needed to do
21:50yeah yeah exactly do some working out and then you know have a rest and the rest probably should
21:57have been 30 seconds and it ends up being three minutes and so then you end up spending an hour
22:01and a half in the gym and the way this app is set up it kind of just runs you
22:04down um i mean it tells
22:06you before the workout you'll be done in 37 minutes and that makes it feel very approachable for me i
22:10don't enjoy working out i enjoy the results the benefits right the benefits i want to hate working
22:18out yeah yeah it's it's terrible but i want to for me i'm just like i'm 28 and uh should
22:26be at the
22:26peak of my powers you know at this point i feel like and uh and feel like i slowed down
22:31a little bit
22:31in the last three years so i'm like i gotta get back to you know feeling like i'm you know
22:36back to my
22:37fight and wait um and uh anyway that 37 minutes it's like well hell i can do anything for 37
22:45exactly that's not that bad yeah just do it and uh so anyway that that thing's been been really
22:50helpful for me check out the ladder app that's awesome ladder give me start i'm paying you for
22:56this subscription at least give me a free one yeah exactly give me a free subscription now
23:02i love that and you mentioned you're going to be 29 this year that's right how are you
23:06feeling about turning 29 last year the 20s um yeah i guess i don't know i haven't thought a ton
23:13about it yet it is funny every now and then my sister just turned 30 um we had a big
23:18dirty 30
23:18party for her um and that was like that made me think it's like i'm closing in fast i think
23:25it used
23:26to be a bigger deal we were talking about this this morning like when our parents turned 30 they
23:30looked 100 and like i'm like now you get to be 25 until you're 60 but yeah exactly um yeah
23:37nothing ozempic and botox can't do literally like tell me about your peptides oh my god that's so
23:45funny i do want to do with you while we've got you on the show this week we're playing like
23:48so much of
23:49your music and i want to do some of the stories behind the songs which i don't know that we've
23:52ever like technically really done um i never lie first number one uh talk about like what the song's
23:58about and what the initial inspo was the song it's it's funny i've gotten asked this question a lot
24:04obviously because it's a big hit and uh and there's just no deep story to it it was it's uh
24:11i'm a
24:11sarcastic person and so i want to i believe it was uh carson chamberlain's idea co-writer and producer
24:18on my records um and we i can't remember how he had it set up but anyway we we somehow
24:28stumbled
24:28through a course like just really really fast um and i just loved it because it's a whole i'm a
24:34sarcastic person and so the whole song is a sarcastic joke um and it sounds like it's some
24:40sad you know lonesome song right and it's all a big joke um so that's kind of tickled me i
24:48was i was
24:49really proud of it second we were done writing it i knew i loved it um never would have nobody
24:55had
24:55it picked to be a radio single or anything or you know might have thought that it was going to
25:00be
25:00the thing that blew up for me um so that's kind of funny too it's so interesting in today's day
25:05and
25:05age where you're just basically crowdsourcing hits yeah it's like back in the day you used to you pick
25:11a single and you send it to radio and you know yeah you depend on some guy and work on
25:15that to
25:15yeah make it a hit and now it's people don't care what's on the radio it's they find that thing
25:21on
25:21tiktok and then it ends up on the radio yeah for me it was the you know that sound that
25:26i sleep like
25:26a baby and that's what people fell in love with and said well i guess that's our hit let's send
25:32that to radio now um so it's it yeah it's so funny it feels backwards a lot of times um
25:37or just from
25:38yeah yeah from what you um used to uh yeah how you used to do it you basically crowdsource what
25:45your radio single is going to be um so funny but yeah but whatever the case um that was yeah
25:52there was no no deep inspiration for that song is another i mean we wrote it uh right there on
25:57music
25:58row another day in the office came in and you know sometimes they're good and sometimes they're great
26:03yeah great one that day that's amazing yeah did you that being your first like big hit i always love
26:09to ask people did you make like a memorable first purchase after that because a lot of times like
26:14people don't realize that you might be things might look like you are so successful a lot of
26:17times like laney talks about this she's like i was borrowing 200 bucks from my sister just to get by
26:21oh yeah for a while it feels like that you get that first big paycheck so it's like do you
26:25go out
26:25and do something i bought a guitar um uh yeah i'm i did not go in looking for a guitar
26:32for myself i was
26:33actually checking out a guitar for a friend of mine and ended up i was sitting in grooms um
26:39um and just ended up wandering around playing a bunch of stuff they had in there and i found this
26:45little martin uh triple lot 18 and it just you know sometimes they just speak to you yeah i called
26:53my business manager it's like i think it's like 6 500 bucks or something i spent on it and i
26:58called
26:58her and i was like hey is it okay i really like this guitar i got my check from you
27:02know the songwriter
27:03check right is it okay if i buy this yes you can buy that guitar yeah she's like but thank
27:08god it's
27:09not a car or something crazy yeah i'm not i'm not too uh i don't spend a ton of money
27:15on anything
27:17you don't strike me as someone who yeah yeah i still drive my old 2012 pickup um
27:24yeah there's that guitar is really the most substantial purchase i've made
27:28that's amazing all right you'll have it forever yeah let's talk current single south of sanity
27:33yeah talk about you know the story behind the song sure yeah this one was really cool um another
27:38carson idea um wrote it with mark nessler um and it was a fun it's it's such a balance in
27:48songwriting
27:49between taking a very personal specific experience and turning that into something universal that
27:58everyone can relate to because that that personal element of it putting a little bit of your soul
28:03into it is part of the magic of what makes people feel something um and that's why you know ai
28:11is never
28:11going to write a song that really makes you feel something um so you have to have that personal
28:18experience which this song obviously is written from the perspective of a touring musician but i love
28:24how and we wrote it in that perspective but it feels really um i mean it's connected with a lot
28:30of people and i think makes sense you know anybody that's got to be away from home for work and
28:36try to
28:36balance that how much you're chasing the gig or the dream or whatever um and maintaining your home life
28:42and uh is anybody can relate to that you know truck drivers traveling nurses military exactly you know
28:49rodeo cowboys you know there's a lot of people there's a lot of gigs where yeah you spend a lot
28:54of time away from home and so i feel like we uh whenever yeah stumbled around and kind of captured
29:00that magic of making that pretty specific type of story that all of us in the room that day you
29:05know
29:06have lived um ourselves but uh but made that feel like something everybody could latch on to a
29:12little bit so i love that song i'm really really proud of that one as well absolutely and then what
29:16brought bad luck oh yeah the um that was way back we wrote that a long time ago um with
29:24mark nestler
29:24again um i have to jog my memory to we wrote it at mark's house um and i'm trying to
29:35remember how that
29:36thing started a lot of times like me and carson we'll get together and we'll get something going
29:42uh you know maybe a chorus or something and then i think we did that um and then we'll go
29:48like
29:49we got something that feels like ah you know who'd be great on this mark nestler let's have him finish
29:54it with us and so then we'll go you know write it with him um and that was the case
29:59with bad luck
30:00i feel like it's just like it to me i love it because it's it's still so like fun
30:04yeah in the vein of like i never lie yeah 100 it's it's a goofy yeah another kind of sarcastic
30:10thing um it's becoming a theme for me i suppose um but yeah that was funny you know we put
30:16that out
30:17just we put out cold beer and country music what was that august of 20 august yeah august of 22
30:25first song cold beer and country music um and then later that fall we put out there's the sun
30:32um you know this is before record deal anything just management was you know doing all of it um
30:41and then we just we decided like a week ahead of time we were like hey it's halloween this weekend
30:48we should put out bad luck that'd be kind of funny and so we put that out and sure enough
30:53that you know
30:54was the first thing that really blew up for me a couple of tiktok videos of me sitting on a
30:59boat in my
31:00jeans um playing that song uh and that was the first thing it really took off that was the first
31:05hit for me when i was playing little clubs you know little three four five hundred cap uh rooms
31:11bad luck was the hit they were all singing along to that um do you get like in the weeds
31:16like when
31:16you are posting stuff on tiktok are you like looking at all the stuff when stuff starts like
31:20popping in numbers and all that or do you i don't look at any of it i just shoot the
31:24videos and
31:25yeah there's people smarter than me that yeah that know how to yeah track all those analytics and
31:31and that kind of stuff so um yeah no i'm not even on socials or anything so i just send
31:37the videos in
31:38and they they do what they do they let me know if something does really good yeah that's great yeah
31:43but that's uh yeah it's kind of fun all the way back in fall of 22 and that was the
31:47wow the first
31:48hit hit kind of that's so wild yeah um last question as we wrap up we're obviously going
31:54into cma fest yeah next week having done it before what are some things that go into like
31:59your cma fest survival kit because it is like you know four days non-stop it's hot there's so much
32:04fun stuff to do no doubt yeah oh this year my um my move is i'm not going to be
32:10here most of the
32:10week because otherwise i'd wear myself out um yeah we're playing in oklahoma um for uh two nights
32:18thursday and friday i guess and then hightailing it back um for uh to play saturday in the stadium
32:23um so i'll get the i played the softball game for the last for the first time last year uh
32:29coming
32:30around doing that again who's on your team for the softball i don't know they don't tell me yeah
32:34i didn't find out till i'm sure i could find out he's playing i'm trying to think who else i
32:39saw
32:39i think parker's playing this year he wasn't there last year um he's gonna be he feels like an
32:44athlete who's gonna like he's definitely an athlete yeah yeah wouldn't he i think it was
32:48a football player or something something he just screamed that parker that whole thing
32:52he obviously built like a greek god um i'm sure he'll be great um but yeah i'll do that and
33:00then
33:00we're kind of i'm just chilling tuesday and wednesday i think and then uh and then we'll hit
33:04the road wednesday night and go play in oklahoma so i'll come back and i'll avoid a little bit of
33:09the
33:09madness yeah yeah exactly that'll be fun well listen thank you for the time to come see us it's so
33:13great
33:13to see you as always just so happy to see like all the good things happening to you thanks very
33:16much appreciate you always taking the time enjoyed talking to you
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