- 2 days ago
Inside the chaos of CMA Fest in Nashville, Chris Young and Katie Neal slowed down long enough to catch up, talking about his new sports bar, the deluxe of his latest album, 'I Didn’t Come Here To Leave,' and how the title track came to be.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Yeah, yeah, yeah. How have you been?
00:02Good.
00:03Yeah? Busy?
00:05Yeah. Getting, you know, rained on during CMA Fest week.
00:08I know. You know what's kind of crazy, though? It was CMA Fest week, and I was like,
00:11it's actually not as hot as it normally is. I was like, this is like a cold fest for us.
00:16Ish.
00:18Yeah, but here's the thing, is it's near 90.
00:23Yeah.
00:25And humid.
00:26It's so humid.
00:28I'm going to have a hat on all week long. It's the only way to get through this.
00:31Yeah. I love the fact that I alternate back and forth now between wearing a cowboy hat and not,
00:39because I was like, I can still do my hair, and if I want to do that, I can do
00:45that.
00:45Yeah.
00:46Or I can just put a cowboy hat on.
00:48I've noticed that you've started wearing the hat a lot more again, because early days, you always had a hat.
00:52Always.
00:52And then you ditched the hat for a while.
00:54I didn't ditch it.
00:56You stopped wearing it for a while.
00:56I think people thought I didn't have hair.
00:59Really?
01:00Yeah.
01:00And then you've got to let them know. You're like, no, no, no, I've got a free hand of hair.
01:02Oh, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
01:04Just a second.
01:05So now I just sort of go back and forth.
01:07Yeah, you've got to let them know.
01:08Also, after CMA Fest, you've got a birthday coming up.
01:11I do.
01:12Have any big plans for your birthday?
01:13So, well, I'll be getting ready to drop the deluxe version of I didn't come here to leave.
01:20So it's like, I had to explain to somebody the other day, I was like, no, it drops on June
01:2615th.
01:26It's like three days after my birthday.
01:28And they're like, why didn't you just do it on your birthday?
01:30I was like, because 615 is the Nashville area code.
01:34Oh, I didn't even think about that.
01:37I love that, though.
01:39I also love that everyone's kind of like, in the last couple weeks, breaking this mold of like, new music
01:43has to come out on a Friday.
01:45Like, why can't it come out on any other day of the week?
01:47It doesn't matter.
01:47But you know, everybody's starting to do that.
01:49Well, like, what?
01:50So 615 was why you did it.
01:51But was there any pushback?
01:52Like, no, new music has to come out on a Friday?
01:54No.
01:55It's, you know, one of the great things that I've had with my team.
02:01And then, obviously, being at Black River, got to give them a little shout out.
02:05But it was like, yeah, this is a great idea.
02:08Go ahead.
02:09That's awesome.
02:10Talk about the new songs that are on the Deluxe.
02:12Yeah.
02:12So there's two duets.
02:15There is a duet with Shailen called One of Us that I love this song.
02:23It is, you know, the quintessential, like, breakup song.
02:28I don't care.
02:29There, if someone tells you that there's not at least one person that's a little bit
02:34more sad than the other one when a breakup happens, they're lying.
02:38It's probably them.
02:39But we got a chance to do this song, and I got a chance to work with her.
02:46And she's just a phenomenal vocalist, a phenomenal person.
02:50You know, when I knew I was going to make a Deluxe and add some songs to the record,
02:54you know, I Didn't Come Here to Leave is the title track, and it's the new single.
02:58But I was like, all right, I want to put stuff that's super meaningful on there if I'm going
03:04to add songs to the record.
03:07So added that one, added a song with Breland that we wrote, like, five years ago.
03:14That's so wild.
03:15It's, like, the proof that, like, sometimes a song just sits around until it's time to be out there.
03:24And put that on there.
03:25And then a song that a friend of mine wrote, he played it for me, and I was like, I
03:29hate you.
03:30I wish I wrote this.
03:32So I had to put that on the record.
03:33Worst feeling of the songwriter, right?
03:34You're like, why wasn't I in the room that day?
03:35I was like, come on now.
03:37You didn't give me a phone call for this one?
03:40But really, really cool song called Wedding Band is going to be on there as well.
03:44What is the twist behind that?
03:45Because this won't be airing until after.
03:46So, like, what is the twist of Wedding Band?
03:47Yeah.
03:48So the twist on that one is basically this guy that never told the girl that he loved her.
03:58And she's getting married.
04:01And he was always, like, you know, the musician.
04:04He was always the guy with the guitar.
04:06And so she asks him to play at the wedding.
04:11And he just has to sit there and basically watch
04:15who he wanted.
04:16That's tough.
04:17And it's like, yeah, the hook is we're both leaving with a wedding band.
04:21Ooh.
04:22Yeah.
04:23I like that.
04:24Dang, that's good.
04:25That's good.
04:26It's a great twist.
04:27It's a great twist.
04:28Oh, my gosh.
04:28That's awesome.
04:29So you got the deluxe coming.
04:30And then talk to me.
04:30New single, I Didn't Come Here to Leave.
04:32Talk about, like, what's happening in this song,
04:34but also then, like, the story behind writing it.
04:36Okay.
04:36So what's happening in this song is a big old party.
04:40Which is, you know, one of those things where it's like,
04:44this song got written,
04:46and it's almost better to explain how we came up with the idea.
04:50The night before we wrote this,
04:52this song sounds like we wrote it at 9 p.m.
04:54We wrote it at 9 in the morning
04:58because Dallas Davidson and I were hanging out.
05:01We hadn't run into each other in a long time.
05:03And he was working with Kyle Fishman a lot at that point,
05:06and they had to write at 11 the next day.
05:09Anyway, I did not know any of this while we were hanging out.
05:13I was just waiting for traffic to die down.
05:15I was like, I Ubered into town.
05:17I had a bunch of meetings today.
05:19He goes, do you want to have, like, one more beer?
05:21And I was like, oh, sure, if you do.
05:24And he goes, I didn't come here to leave.
05:26And I was like, please tell me you haven't already written that.
05:31Right.
05:31As a song.
05:32And he was like, no, man, I haven't.
05:34I was like, can we write that tomorrow?
05:36He's like, well, I've got an 11.
05:38I was like, will you do 9 a.m.?
05:40I bet we can knock this out.
05:42I was like, I bet we can do this in two hours.
05:44And we ended up writing the song in, like, under an hour.
05:48Oh, my God.
05:49That's so fun.
05:50And I sang a scratch vocal on the demo,
05:53and we were out of there before their 11 o'clock write.
05:57That is awesome.
05:58And it was just one of those serendipitous, like,
06:01if I hadn't been hanging out with him,
06:03hadn't been like, hey, dude, let's catch up.
06:07Let's sit here.
06:07I'm going to wait on traffic.
06:09Like, if all those things don't fall into place,
06:11that song never gets written.
06:12Yeah.
06:12Or it gets written by somebody else somewhere on down the road.
06:15Right.
06:16That thanks to that idea.
06:17So it's just a fun song,
06:20talking about hanging with your friends.
06:22And it's perfect for summer.
06:23So obviously the timing kind of worked out better for me.
06:28And just really excited for people to get out there
06:32and start listening to it even more than they already have.
06:34People have already been, you know, streaming it, singing it.
06:39It's been great because I made it the opening song for the set this year.
06:45Oh, that's perfect.
06:45And the very first show that I played it,
06:49there were people already singing it.
06:50And I'm like, oh, that's cute.
06:51Nothing feels better than that, I bet.
06:53Yeah.
06:53It was awesome.
06:54That's amazing.
06:55And then also exciting stuff, you've got a bar coming.
06:58I want to talk about this.
06:59Famous Friends.
07:00Famous Friends.
07:02Very different from what a lot of people were expecting.
07:06It's, you know, only like 90 people cap.
07:09Okay.
07:10So it's a smaller sports bar.
07:14Not even doing a lot of live music in there.
07:17So we have the ability to do it if we need to do like, you know,
07:22maybe a number one party at some point, hopefully.
07:25But, you know, we could do that.
07:29But it's going to be a lot of fun to have that open.
07:33My chefs did a tasting with me and a bunch of my friends the other day.
07:38We went through there.
07:41I feel like rude calling it elevated bar food because it was so good.
07:46No, but that's a real thing.
07:47It is insane.
07:48And they've done just such a great job with it.
07:51We've completely redone the entire thing top to bottom from floors all the way up to what we hung on
07:58the walls.
07:59I got, you know, a mix of sports memorabilia and then stuff like I've hung some of my plaques up
08:06in there.
08:07But then there's also, you know, plaques from friends of mine, even songs I didn't have anything to do with,
08:12which is really, really cool.
08:13So it's definitely got a vibe and hopefully it's a place people are going to enjoy going to.
08:21Besides it being different in the like, it's a sports bar and that you wanted to do really elevated food.
08:25What was something else that you were like, this is really important to me that we have this at the
08:28bar or that we do things this way?
08:32Um, just attention to detail.
08:36That was really important to me.
08:38Like if it works, it doesn't work.
08:40It's there for two years or it's there for 20 years.
08:42I want it to be, you know, what I envisioned and hopefully it's the latter.
08:49Yeah, that's really exciting.
08:50What are you looking at for opening on that?
08:52This part I can't say.
08:53Oh, you can't say.
08:53Okay, got it.
08:55Well, because it may be right at the end of this interview.
08:59I'm waiting on the very last text message.
09:03That's so exciting.
09:04Okay.
09:04All right.
09:04Well, we will cross our fingers that that comes through.
09:07Um, you grew up, uh, Nashville local, like you're from here, which I feel like you don't meet many people.
09:11I feel like it's had to have been wild watching things change.
09:14And I'm curious, like what you love about things that have changed and then what you miss about the way
09:18things used to be.
09:19I love, um, just the way that Nashville has grown.
09:24I know sometimes there are growing pains that come along with that.
09:28You know, a lot of people talk about the traffic and they talk about, uh, I don't like this or
09:33I don't like that.
09:33But there's so many great things that have happened, um, to this city, you know, we're getting a Superbowl.
09:42Right.
09:43You had to be really excited about that.
09:45It was like a long life on that.
09:47So, um, you know, you get excited for that.
09:51One of the things I was actually talking about when we were walking over here, uh, if anyone's watching this
09:56on camera, you'll see that I'm a bit rained on, uh, cause it was raining outside.
10:03It was boring.
10:04And, uh, we were talking about like places that are gone that used to be down through, you know, the
10:12Broadway area and just all over Nashville in general.
10:16And I get it, like things change, but sometimes it's nostalgic and, and in a sort of a sad way
10:21where you're like, man, I remember when this was here and sucks.
10:25Like, cause I, I would love to go sit in there one more time.
10:30I know.
10:31Right.
10:31There's so many places like that, but it's like you said, like we're getting so many other things that there's
10:35so much like cool food and good things.
10:36Yeah.
10:37And it's, it's not, it's not a net negative.
10:39It's just, you know, if you've got memories from a place and it's not there anymore, sometimes it's like, man.
10:46For first timers coming to Nashville, what's something you always tell them to go do?
10:50Um, first timers in Nashville, I would definitely always say you got to go to the hall of fame.
10:56If you love country music, if that's why you're, you're coming down here.
10:58Yeah.
10:59You know, it's, it's not the number one thing that you have run through your mind of like, I have
11:05to go do this.
11:06But you should.
11:07Right.
11:07Like coming naturally, probably like on a bachelor, bachelorette party, you're coming to drink, but like go to the hall.
11:12Well, not, not everybody.
11:13Not everybody.
11:14But there's a lot of them.
11:16There are a lot of them.
11:18I would also say, you know, go take the tour of the Opry.
11:27I saw that you just did that.
11:28Not that long ago, right?
11:29And I didn't tell anybody.
11:32That's incredible.
11:33Had you done it before?
11:35No.
11:35And so it's small groups.
11:37Yeah.
11:38Right.
11:38So I took a couple of my friends that were in town from Key West and they wanted to go
11:44do that.
11:44They wanted to go see like backstage and everything.
11:47And no one had really noticed because, you know, I was just t-shirt, jeans, ball cap.
11:53And as we're going through backstage, I was like, oh, where's the Christmas tree that's in this room?
12:00And the woman immediately looks at me.
12:03It's like, cocks her head a little bit.
12:06She's like, hmm.
12:07Wait a second.
12:08Yeah.
12:09And so then you do a thing at the very end where you take a photo in the circle and
12:12she waited until we got up and we were last in line.
12:16And she goes, it's your big moment.
12:19Here you are stepping into this.
12:21I was like, oh, she knows.
12:24But it was really, really cool.
12:26And that's something that I think, you know, a lot of people may miss if they don't know about it.
12:32But it's easy to just schedule one of those and go check out the Opry.
12:37That's so funny.
12:38But there were some people on that tour that were like, wait a second, what?
12:41There was an older lady that was with us and I was like, her husband and her were so sweet.
12:50And I was like helping her walk because she was like, I need to sit down for a minute.
12:54I was like, well, come here.
12:55I got you.
12:56So I was just like walking around.
12:59I was like, you remind me of my grandma.
13:01I was like, it was cool.
13:04That's really sweet.
13:05Where has probably been like one of the most random places that you've been recognized that you were like, I'm
13:08sure the urinal I feel like is what guys always say.
13:11But like.
13:14I won't use that.
13:18The craziest place I've been recognized.
13:21Or like most random, like you're like, surely no one here.
13:25At a J. Cole concert.
13:27Really?
13:27Yeah.
13:28I was standing out at front of house because one of my friends worked for him.
13:32I wanted to go see that show.
13:34And so I'm just standing there.
13:35I'm like, nobody's going to know me.
13:37And this guy like double takes standing at the front of house.
13:42Yeah.
13:42And he's like, are you?
13:45And I'm like, how do you know that?
13:49This setting really?
13:50I'm not popular enough for you to recognize me at a J. Cole concert.
13:54Stop it.
13:56But probably the only other one was I took everyone in my family I've taken to see at least one
14:04show that they wanted to go see, their favorite artist.
14:06And I took my mom to go see Billy Joel when he was doing the residency where he like broke
14:11the record for a number of shows.
14:13And we were getting up to leave and someone like ran me down and was like, oh my God, you're
14:21my favorite country artist.
14:23I was like, oh, there's zero reason for you to recognize me here.
14:28Like I just, it's just me and my mom watching Billy Joel.
14:31Right.
14:32That's wild.
14:32But it's really fun when it happens in New York.
14:34It was really cool.
14:35New York is a place that you feel like you wouldn't expect it.
14:38And then it's like, oh my God.
14:39Yeah, it's a good feeling.
14:41Yeah.
14:42That's so fun.
14:42Well, listen, thank you so much for coming to see us.
14:44I'm excited to hear the deluxe that's going to be out.
14:46I'm fingers crossed hoping that we're going to be at the bar here in the next few weeks and celebrating
14:50there.
14:51That'll be so much fun.
14:52But it's so good to see you.
14:53Thank you for taking the time to come see us.
14:55Always good to see you too.
Comments