E534 Brooks & Dunn

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 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'll be singing

I love this

yeah thank you guys for coming in man

Thank you. I'm on this.
Yeah, thank you guys for coming in, man. Good to be here.
Good to see you guys. I watch you all the time.
I'm 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.
It's funny stuff. Yeah, he's wild, man.
He can. Yeah, he's really, he's just like an infectious thing, kind of.
Isn't it funny? Yeah. Yes, yeah.
That's funny stuff. Yeah, he's wild, man.
He's a cat. 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, right.
Would I be stopped drinking? It was the worst time of your life. Well, it's when I was drinking.
Have you stopped? No. What's different? Well, I mean, he's, yeah.
Never thought about it. He's an interesting cat.
I mean, he's absolutely a sweetheart, though. Oh, yeah.
You talk to him, it's like Mr. Theo, you know.
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 friend of ours who we both had a lot of respect for tim dubois great songwriter himself and whatever is actually an accountant at vanderbilt as well you know smart guy too but um he just invited us to lunch and thought we might uh 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 um you guys can both write songs he goes you know just go see if you can write a song together okay so i think that was tuesday maybe thursday we wrote brand new man fr, we wrote this song, Next Broken Heart. And Ronnie had already written Neon Moon and Boot Scootin' 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 it.
Just like we weren't brothers growing up. Yeah.
Did it feel like a pressure? Like you had to be like, like I just want, yeah, like, because with comedians, they don't really have that where they 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. So what's the motivation? We had to back up a little bit.
We felt like none of this shit's really working that great. I mean, I'd had some success as a songwriter, written a couple of hits and whatever, and Ronnie just been out in Okie, 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 himself which you know now I can't even tell you who's out there writing songs by themselves they'll probably watching go 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 writers. I saw one with nine writers.
I mean, what the heck? We used to, like, we'd throw a bet you if it was, like, three writers in the room. Did it feel like you guys had to,

because I bet it's like once you get partnered with somebody,

it's like, this is a long ride,

and you don't really know how long the ride is when you start.

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, you know, 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 really, I want to sign you.
He said, I've already got Alan Jackson and

Diamond Rio.

You already had a boy singer and

a band and a girl. Yeah, Pam Tillis.

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 he didn't,

we didn't know that until after the fact.

The judge were breaking up.

So he saw an open slot on the CMAs, I think.

Might have been true.

Yeah, no, it was true.

I think it was that manipulative.

Yeah.

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?

How about that kid? 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 is you know they if you announce ticket sales at all you know it blows up through the room so and i had i had uh did a walk-on with him at bridgestone when he played here a couple years oh yeah i saw that show actually i was at that show yeah yeah that was awesome yeah 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 know you can't 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 uh in nashville uh-huh yeah with deandre hopkins that plays for the tennessee titans uh.
Yeah, sure. But it's still kind of confusing because you're like-

J-Hop.

Yeah, D-Hop.

Oh, that's what I meant.

Oh, what did I call him?

DeAndre.

Yeah.

No, but 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 Kansas City.

Yeah, Kansas City.

Yeah, that's where you guys did 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.

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 starting to get a little know, rub your shoulders. Right.
And it's starting to get weird. People are rubbing on him and people are, yeah.

Right.

It's getting, it's starting to get a little aggressive, I feel like.

Right.

And the only thing you know is it's like, what are you doing?

Stop doing that.

Get off of me.

And they tell us, they said, no, he's going to walk fast.

Okay, you're going to walk fast.

Yeah.

That's it.

And then off you go.

It'll be cool when he just starts wrestling. Yeah.
Towards wrestling. That's it.
It's him and his agent just back there fist fighting. Oh, I think, yeah, it's definitely bizarre because you don't really know what's going on.
And then he's like, all right, let's go. And for him, he's just heading to work.
Yeah. He's bouncing off the walls.
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 when I was like, I could try, you know? I was like, let's do it. Right.
You know? That's how we were. You just wing it.
Give me something to bang on. Oh 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 um what's it what's what's been one of the tougher things that uh that came with like 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,

like,

you know,

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.

You know,

we just called some buddies up in a panic and,

and started playing honky talks and bars.

I,

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. When they do, we get to 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 Animal House. The coolest memory for me because I'm 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 and set up your- And one of them's yours, too. Exactly.
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 and 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 we're parking down the road and uh to get to a place because the parking lot's full now Now, 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 that one or the other.
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 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, though.
I can remember going home after the first, like, say, run, the real, like, tour, when we were opening for Reber or whatever, and my wife and mother-in-law, she said, you've changed. I'm like said you changed he said you're not the same and it's like 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 hey i'm famous yeah yeah just but people's perception of you changes you know don't you think yeah you think? Yeah.
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, you know, come back to, especially at home. And it was just kind of, you're getting pushed, 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.
No, no. It's coming out of the cosmic space right now.
A 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. 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-plus run or something, you know. Well, we didn't think about the 30-plus-year run.
I know. That's what I mean.
Our philosophy was, hey, you got three to five years.

All right, let's maximize it.

Let's take what little money we make.

And I was going to go.

Janine, my wife, and I 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're just here for a little while.
Save your money. 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 were smart asses just, you know, just goofballing 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 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.
Whenever 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 friend's 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. And I mean, I like to think of myself as a good guy, nice guy, and I've always respected our fans and everything else i'm like what just happened but it made me realize that moment that that minute that we spent together totally wraps somebody's impression of you and what kind of human you are yeah and how they'll tell everybody they meet for the rest of their lives that they're just jerks.
You know, and you just, that's the part. Did you ever find out what you said? I have no idea what we said.
You were involved. No, don't give me an answer.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. What did you say? No, I wasn't there.
I wasn't there. Don't pull, don't suck me down that rabbit hole.
It does 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- It's like a job interview. You got to be quick.
Yeah. And the job is you want them to think you're okay or something.
You're the guy for the job in one minute. Yeah, yeah.
You can do it. I can't.
Yeah, that kind of stuff gets a little tricky. Was it tough? What about having a family and stuff and touring so much? What were things that like, yeah, what's that like? Dude.
Is it hectic? Dude. I had just been married.
I mean, we just got married and came up in June Carter Cash, gave us a little cabin on top of the hill, not far from their house to live in. Wow.
And so nice little house, like something out of a magazine. But it was on top of a mountain by itself.
And so was she. Boom.
We get a hit right out of the 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 think I have cameras.
But I started getting these terrorist faxes. I called them.
Like she would fax the hotel because I talked longer than we talked so long on the phone. They go, okay, all right, all right.
All right, I'll be home, you know, I know, I understand. I get it.
I love you. Bye.
You know, ring. I'm not answering the phone.
That ain't gonna 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, then she's- It was night.
I had to go to 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 a long thing. Eric Chenault 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 pressed the button, a helicopter would come behind. $18 a minute.
A long way from. $18 a minute.
It's important. It wasn't cheap, man.
It wasn't. Yeah, but it wasn't with our wives with our wives or anything we were a little no we didn't give our wives a number it's important it was strictly a beer phone you're like we need airdrop now right you know i recently had a subscription that I'd forgot about.
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But my kids were on the bus. the summer.
It was good because we were still playing a lot of fares and stuff back then. And, you know, it was kind of like summer vacation, honestly.
It was, and I never, never mind. 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 for a year with the merchandise, where you get 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 weird guy.
It was Animal House. I got Human Gerbil.
He's back there just burrowing in a bunch of extra large back there. It was absolute Animal House, man.
He just completely covered himself with nine mediums back there, you know. It was a guy named Bird Burton, who was a famous guitar player, for their amazing rhythm aces and a bunch of rock stuff.
And, you know, he'd come up there, bless his heart. We were really trying to keep him around.

So you have the sofa in the back with the merchandise.

He goes, we don't have any blankets, so 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 or six to a side, I think.

And then the back lounge. And there's one guy that we called him, what, nine or six to a side, I think, and then the back lounge.
There's one guy that we called him, Fred Sanford. He was the junk man.
You couldn't stop at a truck stop, and he wouldn't go in and buy a freaking CB. It sounded like a CB radio and a bunch of chips.
You'd hear him at four in the morning. Turn over and be like an Ace Hardware in his bunk.
You hear chip bags crinkling at night and stuff.

They're like, what?

And all of a sudden, there's the wall and then the bunks,

and you see their chip bag would 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 much good 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 Wayne Hayes. All the boys love that.
And y'all struck out with her, I guess. Yeah, man.
We got stranded in Canada in a snowstorm. Yeah.
A lot of stuff. God couldn't have set the table any better for one of you guys.
It was tough, man. It.
So in the first truck stop, I go in and I'm looking at all their cool stuff in the freezer in Canada, and 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 in rough.
But that was a phase when everybody was playing pranks on the road. Faith was like, she was one of the guys.
You had to have to keep up with that. She would throw stuff.
And an eel could come in handy in all kinds of regards. Who'd even had an eel? Canadians.
I think that was the point. It's why you bought it.
It's like, look at this. What the hell? It's kind of 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 fixing 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, dude, you okay? He's like, no, man. He's like, Faith, put salt in my drinking water on stage tonight.
I go, oh. Made him six of a stomach.
Yeah, made him six. I'm like, that's wrong.
I go, I got you, dude. So she was in.
Get back, bro. She's in 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 a run well first i put the eel in 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 had over there breaking childhood it must have had dude you know it and you bring your own food pull back pull back the covers and just laid him out right where those pretty little feats were going to go. 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.
I go through, I die. And I go through and, you know, the 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, yes. She goes, apparently there's been a complaint filed against you about some stolen jewelry by Ms.
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.
I swear to God. She couldn't hold it.
No, 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.

You know?

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,

if you're not on stage doing something creative, you're

doing something destructively creative on the backside.

Oh, yeah.

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.

Yeah, we did, what, Vegas? Vegas a couple times. Yeah.
I went 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.
But he played guitar as well. Well, you know, Gary's like, he does play guitar, and 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's got a Johnny Cash voice, and he'll do Ring of Fire or something like that every now and then. He's hysterical, though.
Just real straight-faced joke teller and can just break you down. I've got to tap in with him.
I've heard of him before. I've seen a lot of like, because committees, 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 gotten to watch him.
Been around forever. But he actually performed a song, and it was, I bet this thing had 20 verses.
And it was, I'm not kidding. 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 to know because i've seen him perform i don't even know how many times at this point and and everybody there was like wow you got that off your chest and he did not tell a single joke really saying that he sang that one song and left the stage.
It was so cool. But it was a humorous song.
No, it wasn't funny. It was a real song.
It was. But 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 together.
And you've heard of people doing these Roger-isms, 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, he's one of the great historians, the keepers of the Roger-isms too.
Great guy, funny comedian. Yeah.
I need to run into him. Yeah.
What do you feel like, like, like being a duo? Was there, were there other du other duos in music that reached out to you guys

over the years to help learn how to navigate that template?

Does that make any sense to you?

Yeah, it does make sense, but no, no.

As friendly as they say the world of country music is,

it's so darn competitive. 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 Parton, in an interview years and years ago, they were talking about somebody.
She just 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 up, like, how many number ones do you have?

Who had our number one this week?

Who has it?

Oh, yeah.

And we can be cool and, like, sit back and go, you know, we don't care.

It's 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 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.

We have.

I mean, you do.

There are people that you're competent.

I mean, David Lee Murphy is a great example.

He wrote with him yesterday.

You know the song Dust on the Bottle?

I'd be a little.

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 um and still he's on tour with us now and uh 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.

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 career is 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 what, you know, 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.
You can write them with other people. But does it ever feel like it's out of your control, kind of you know how well you keep doing or does it feel like it's in your control you know what this it is i mean 60 60 70 percent i don't know how much you can add to the dynamic i can add up to 100 of luck right no i'll go there i mean i guess i don't know we could try to do more i can't even i don't know how it's luck.
A lot of it is luck, you know? But it's that thing, you know, if you're working at it and luck strikes, it's like you're ready for it. You know, you got your ball middle and bang, catch it.
And we're from there. But we work hard at it.
I mean, we're songwriters before we're performers. Right, that's a great 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 give me good songs, too. You can't write them all.
Timing has a lot to do with it, too. It really does.
What do you mean by that? 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.

I mean, 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.

Bring it up, Age.

I'm just saying.

It's 38 years older.

Are you afraid of that?

Don't look 38.

I wish I was.

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 gonna,

is there a graceful way for this to end?

Or does it just end?

or 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 gonna, 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, and I keep telling people I'm going to die in denial about, you know, related to age. It's like, I'm, I'm not going to know how old I am.
I don't want to know. It pisses me off to see every, every article, you know, there's somebody writing stuff, and you go, well, and so and so, you know, 80 years old, whatever.
Leave 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,'re still out. They're still out doing their thing.
Yeah, I was actually, so I'm in a bath in a couple of months ago. I was at, we were in the same bathroom at the same time.
Wow. What'd you do? Huh? What'd you do? Just a number one.
Did you try to shake his hand or anything? Oh no, I didn't do anything like that. I freeze.
Hey, I just let it be. You just let it be.
That was a little. 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, mate.
Right? Yeah. I freeze.
I freeze. I freeze.
Anytime I get around somebody that's really, really famous, I just, I'm balklocking. That's true, dude.

Right, good, Doc?

They don't get together.

No, you're in Ireland.

Good day, mate.

No, they're like prisoners from England or something.

Good grief. He must have been like this guy.

I'm never cool around somebody famous.

Wish I could be.

Uh-uh.

Yeah, were there guys like that coming up that you guys met?

Or what question did I just ask?

Let me make sure I stay on topic.

Sorry.

Were you ever in the bathroom with Paul McCartney? Tell us about the time you and McCartney were in the bathroom. Oh, one time I went to a, one time I was also in the bathroom with, I'll go through them all, Montel Williams, okay? He was a talk show host and Kid Rock one time and I urinated right between them, dude.
Oh, wow. That's a danger zone.
That's a DMZ, man. Yeah, it really is.
Incoming. You make the wrong move there, anything can go happen, right? Either way, yeah.
Either way, it was a big trouble. 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 over the stall yeah Johnny Cash said the strangest thing like that that ever happened to him and he said he was in a stall in the airport or something saying this this paper slips under the wall I was like we're good don't touch it I don't have a pencil 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

just did

and that's

that in and of itself

it's intimidating

oh yeah

and then as you get

to know him

he's a 17 year old

kid

you know that that was it i mean he'd do just crazy you know funny as all get out yeah yeah my wife uh her first husband uh and rented the car one piece at a time uh and johnny's saying about it one piece time. Or built that car.
He built the car. Oh, built that car one piece at a time.
I'm sorry, yeah. The song.
He built the car, so he... Or Johnny really built the car, so I'm confused.
No, her ex-wife built the car about the song that Johnny sang. Got it.
He liked the 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.
And he... Johnny did? Or his friends? No, Janine, my wife.
Okay, got it. Yeah.
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, I don't really want to do that.
I just kind of saw that one coming. And John, of course, John's real quiet.
And what'd you wear over there? Did you get dressed up or what? You know, black, all black. No, I mean, jeans, what I have on now, this kind of stuff.
Were you nervous or not? You remember? Yeah, yeah. I was always, I was super shy and quiet.
And I'm kind of coming out of my show a little bit these days but uh he was obviously glad to see her i mean i'm the new kid on the block you know you don't just screw just like taking your girlfriend yeah your girlfriend bringing you to over to meet her parents who's just pervert or whatever yeah i mean i don't know you but yeah i mean i'm a pervert so i'm sure most, that goes with it. You can't be in a band and not be a pervert.
Anyway, and Johnny knew that. He'd be a pervert himself.
Oh, yeah, who isn't, man? Right? Dude, if you show me 70 people, y'all show you 70 perverts. You in a band, you a comedian, yeah, you're a pervert.
Wow, that's pretty fascinating, though.

And did people look up to him as like a, kind of like, was 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 this cash.

But he's always been that way.

He's been that way forever.

Listen, here's a funny thing.

So the log cabin that they let us live in, June did that for Janine, not for me. Called her and said, look, okay, this guy's going to try to make it in the music business.
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. All right.
So, thank God, we have these hits right off the bat, and suddenly June goes, whew, 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, they'll make it. And if he does, it's not going to last long.
It's just, that's not, that's 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, she called her babies. It was Waylon 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.
The uninsurable. They put us through hell, right? She said, so get ready.
You know, she said, there's no good to it. So no no 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 oh so it's just you and him and me and john in that house alone okay i always go in the bathroom and stay in there for at least a minute to get ready to and yes sir It's like i'm the unwelcome guest or at least i'm feeling that way oh for sure and uh and they're they're john's quiet anyway he does he hasn't 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 far into 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.

He's 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 what I know.
He didn't talk to anybody. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, he goes, you see these newsreels 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 how TV works to me and that stuff through the eyes of being high.
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. And they've been shopping at Steinmart.
And I like Steinmart, actually. Some of the sleeves are a little different.
Well, June took her there in her new blue Rolls Royce that John had just given her for her. So there's a little yin-yang there.

Yeah.

Janine was just pale white. She knows no strangers, so you never see Janine down.
So she kind of walked in. She was like, she'd 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.

They're not going to last, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And I said, can we go now?

She goes, no, we've got one more day.

He goes, that's what he's explained.

One more day.

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 Brandy Mann, the first CD. And I said, he was always into everything.
He goes, what are you going to wear? How are you going to look? I can't 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, left.
He's getting his Mercedes. He's 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, 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 in that suit.

You know?

And 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.
I bet that thing's got something. She was something.
And 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...
She wore the pants in that deal, huh? At that point. Was she pretty much a...
Yeah. Because he probably needed somebody to really care for him.
And spice to that little story is that particular weekend that we were there, he was on furlough from rehab. Okay, and...
How long do you have to be in a real life if you get furloughed. I thought that was a military thing.
I don't know. Johnny Cash, right?

Only Johnny Cash would have went to

only he would have went to

boot camp for rehab.

Right. And so all of a sudden at the end...

How many tours did he do?

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 going 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, can we go home now? Can we go home now? She says, no, no, no, not yet.
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. Yeah.
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, so he just drives like that.
You start nodding off and you nod back on. Right.
You nod 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 them 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, his hospital room at the house.

He's playing it up, man.

He's like, I got pneumonia.

I can't go back.

She goes, you're going back to rehab.

So June goes, well, how did it go, Janine?

And 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. She goes, oh, sweetie, no, no.
He hadn't made furlough yet. Dr.
Nick's in rehab. I said, okay, we can go now, right? She goes, pretty soon.
Wow, that's a great story. That's my first Johnny Cash and June Carter.
Unbelievable carter unbelievable experience we had rick flair oh we spoke with him one time the famous wrestler you know him and he's quite a character and he uh he was in a rehab center and the doctor that got put in there with him and he was in there and one day one day they're giving pills to both of them and he's like why are you giving pills to the doctor like no the doctor's in here now oh yeah i mean so apparently that's part of the deal man well it's just everywhere let's say that oh yeah look so many of my friends i mean i i 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 ever i don't know really tempted with drugs or alcohol huh yeah no not me did you ronnie i'll go with you i want you to explain this we might have we might have took a drink or two along the way i don't know i. I think Ronnie took a lot of pills, but I never did.
Ooh, whoops. Foul.
Foul. Yeah, but I have allergies.
Oh, now you do. A lot of allergies.
I've never seen somebody in, yeah, that dust will give it to you. I'm from Louisiana too, dude.
I started drinking at a very early age. Wow.
Was it hard? Yeah. Were there certain points where you guys had to like tell each, like at what point do you guys have, do you guys ever have to be like each other's like, uh, 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 over-served on stage or whatever like that? Yes.
Has anyone ever told us? Are you slurring your words? Yeah, you're slurring your words yeah you're slurring 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 yeah yeah we've had a few faux positive people don't believe when i tell them this we have have never, I mean, we're both, you know, hard-headed whatever. 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 pout. But that's it.
You know, we've always been able to go to our separate corners and come back later in some of that you think it was just because you because you like started to achieve your like 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 actually it's kind of a blessing and a curse because everyone wants to be, 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. Cause there was,

there was a point for a long time where there was no plan B, you know,

and, and we both felt out and no, so you, you learn, you appreciate it.

It's just, that just, it's just, you know 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 staying so far away from the girl

like as far as I could

but still touching her a little

like this kind of

barely touching her

two fingers

you were down in the trenches man

you were on the floor

see we're up there on the bandstand

going I don't look right

just go on dude

get up against it

go on

what are you doing

I couldn't get up

it was two fingers

in that high dance thing man

I'm too. I couldn't get up against it.
It was too. And the high-dance thing, man.
Whole front of my body sweat. 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 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 road from where my farm is. Yeah? Yeah.
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 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. How'd they get it off? I don't know.
Is it bronze? I think it's bronze. It's concrete or something? Oh, no.
It's special. Oh, there you go.
So, which arm? Huh? Was his right arm or his left arm? I'm not sure. You can Google that, too, how'd they get the arm off.
Yeah. You can Google that.
How'd they get the arm off? How'd they get the arm off Reagan? I don't know. In Covington, Louisiana.
In Covington, a lot of welders down there, right? First of all, they got torches. There are a lot of welders down there.
Exactly. They got torches.
That's pipeline country, man. Damn right.
Oh, we can get an arm off. You want an arm? Yeah.

They tried to recycle it. That's how they caught the guy.
What? And yeah, they took it to

the local aluminum.

Oh, because he's thinking it's maybe copper or something.

He can buy some crack. Hell yeah, I'm going to

give me a couple hundred bucks for this.

Yeah, they cut it off. I guarantee he's a welder.

Yeah.

Look at Ronnie. Ouch.

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 thing.
A copycat arm thief. Wow.
That's dark. No, they did it in Poland.
How far? Okay. How far is Covington from El Dorado, Arkansas? A long way.
Very south Louisiana. Okay.
Yeah, he's close to Baton Rouge. Because we talk a lot about northern Louisiana, where the farm is, and Monroe, and all that.
All my grandparents are from El Dorado, Arkansas. Okay.
It's a beautiful country out there. Yeah.
I mean, it's pretty. Shreveport's kind of gone through it.
It's been through some things, you know? Yeah. It's pretty funky, which is where I went to school.
Oh, yeah. Whatever, yeah.
They just tore down the tallest building in Shreveport. What? Really? Bring it down.
Not the Beck building. They did a beautiful implosion.
I watched it the other day on TikTok. Wow, I wonder if that's where it was.
That's where my father's office was. Was it a drone attack? I don't know.
The tallest building in Shreveport.

There it is. They just brought it down.

Yeah, I think it was the.

That's a bank building.

Yeah, it was a bank building.

You're right.

Yeah, because I think.

The middle of the neck.

The bank building is 20 stories.

It 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 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.

Probably somebody's wife was trying to get in a settlement.

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 Ford's kind of wild.

I've been like, there's a lot of haunted. Everything there seems kind of haunted.
That's Louisiana in general. Yeah.
It's like New Orleans. Yeah, everything's haunted.
Like, you want to buy this haunted biscuit or whatever. It's monkey foot.
It's two extra bucks just because 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.
Go scam. Yeah.
But yeah, everything in New Orleans is haunted. It's like, oh, you haven't been this haunted? This is haunted, you know? It's like a nursery for children, but it's haunted.
Okay, so I read this article the other day. 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. No, you got out.
You got out. Everybody's not into haunted.
Look at you. Rich and famous.
49 states worth of people that aren't into haunted. Yeah, people don't like shit haunted, bro.
Yeah, y'all just stay off there. I forget what it was based on.
Oh, you want to live in the natural realm? That's fine, bitch. We're doing others.
You don't have a monkey foot under your pillow? Hanging from your mirror? Hanging from your mirror. Yeah, you don't have a baby that's chewing on a lucky rabbit's foot.
You wouldn't know a hoodoo man from Colonel Sanders. What? Oh, everything there is haunted or soaking wet, dude.
That's Louisiana. Yeah.
Yeah, it's human. Or mild, dude.
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 and all your buddies from 3, 4. Love it.
We go down there and duck hunt like on the marshes. Oh, been duck hunting yeah it's going next week are you oh yeah is it um is it more enjoyable than turkey hunting or do you feel is it is there some difference i think so i like stuff flying you know i've i've shot my share of turkeys but really don't care about popping them anymore it's like 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.

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 me 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. Turkey's been all the work of calling him in.
This place we go down in Louisiana is called Little Pecan Island, and it's like going to the Four Seasons. I shouldn't rat us out.
Really? It's beautiful? They've got a lot of good turkeys down there? Unbelievable. Not turkeys, ducks.
Oh, 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, it's unbelievable. And do they go in shifts or how do the ducks go? They migrate at different times.
Oh, so they're not like releasing them and then they come back? No, they don't release. No, it's all wild.
Okay. Yeah, they come from the north and they get 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 and mallards, you know. But by the time you get to the marsh, you've got every kind, you know,

deep teal and mallards, and you could go on.

You have a fat stork up there even.

Oh, everything. 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 so natural. It's real cool, yeah.
And are you in a boat, or are you in? You go out in a boat. Okay.
Everybody gets their own guide in their own boat. Can you get to hide underwater, or you're on above water? Scuba water? We have scuba tanks and shotguns.
Is it really your line? No, but the... 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? And is there bugs or anything in there? Yeah, bugs everywhere, man.
Bugs everywhere. Bugs everywhere.
You know, snakes, alligators for real, alligators all over the place. First thing they do when they get to your blind, you know, the guide will get out and make sure there's nutria, no snakes.
Water moxies. Snakes and gators.
You can clean up all the appetizers. Get all that out of there, Exactly.
Then they'll take the boat back. Bad way to start a duck hunt.

Come back, pull in the P-Row.

Sink the P-Row 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 know, 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.

You know, I don't know if we can say it or not, but. 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's at Carvin. Grilled up two owls.
You just said you didn't have owl. I thought we could say it now.
Sorry, Ronnie did it. No.
That's all I'm saying. I eat anything.
You're a freaking owl eater. A baldy owl eater.
I didn't have a lot. I 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 bird kingdom.
Owls are the frogs of the bird. Why don't you pull that skirt up? I've done some things in my day, but even just to look.
We're letting you run with it. Pull up what I'm talking about.
Let's at least see the... Did you Photoshop the eagle out? They were of age, too, the ones I'm talking about.
I was going to know that, man. These were adult owls.
You're not supposed to do that. So much for wisdom.
Whoa, whoa, what is that? Brother, something needs to take care of that. That's disgusting.
Wow. Oh, my God.
They migrated over from Chernobyl. Yep, that's a Russian owl for sure.
I wish I hadn't seen that. Definitely, dude.
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, he's trying to make everybody happy.

He's trying to put an army together.

He's trying to earn an army.

Right, he's like, hurry up.

Nice.

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?

Yeah, 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 bored, that's a bored dictator is what that is.
Literally, brother. Yeah.
He didn't, he'd have to push that through Congress. What are we going to do? What are we having for lunch? Depends on who texts me back.
Right. That's what I'm talking about.
Everybody duck. Right.
I'm proud of him now. No wonder Trump likes him.
What? The only thing about communism is it's 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 say? I saw another call.
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, whoa. So you can send.
I took a leave of absence in 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, we go to Amazon and go, hey, 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 that, I'm amazed they haven't done that. Really? Cause they, 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. I'll tell you this, if I'm having a slice, 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. Like a couple of weeks later, you're like, hey, what happened to that pizza box? Oh, what? Oh, 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 Pepper.
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 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 don't have many more.
He's a great manager. He's a big reason we're here.
He needs an analyst. Is he? Why Baltimore is the day after Sacramento, I still haven't quite figured it out.
He still gets paid. 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 don't need to do this.
I mean, damn, Clarence, you're in. He goes, I know.
So what is 15% of nothing?

He's like, never mind.

We're little children.

And what is his name?

Just so we can.

Clarence Spalding.

He is great.

We're 30-something years without a contract.

Wow.

He's got Aldine.

I mean, he's done great. And he speaks fluent, Brooks and Dunn.

We couldn't do it without him.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I can imagine that you've got to have somebody to handle a lot of stuff for you.

Today's video is brought to you by And he speaks fluent, Brooks and Dunn. We couldn't do it without him.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
I can imagine that.

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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 uh they they pick whatever song they want and that goes on without us they're that's all up to them and then maybe they haggle about it with management or whatever anyway uh everyone showed up with their own version of the song and it was like you have your artistic creative license to do whatever you want to do with this one oh dude i can, 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 stands or whatever, you know. Yeah.
Melanie 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 something. 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 Louis Black and Kathleen Madigan. And Robin just impressed me because he seemed like he's just ad-libbing everything, you know.
And the one thing that I learned from him before, and we would spend all day on Blackhawks going to real remote places everywhere, you know, and then at night we'd do in Canned Harkable or whatever, some larger shows. But he was, before he would go on, he had a little piece of paper, you know, he'd just written a handful of notes and whatever, and he would paste 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 I was just learning a lot. And Lewis was hysterical, as you can imagine, just hanging with him.

He 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.

Really, really is.

Of course, you can't drink over there at all, you know?

Oh, I'd hate it worse, probably.

Well, yeah, when we got there, Lewis has this giant bag like you carry around,

this huge kind of smaller duffel bag.

Look, I made it worse 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 a man bag. You can go around the world.

Completely full of those airport scotch

bottles.

Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

Mine's full of allergy medicine.

They're like, damn, I didn't

know Jim Beam made

allergy medicine. That's insane.
Look at all these different colored allegras. 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. Like comedians, for the most part, you see this this profile and 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 uh it's kind of it's 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 I mean, definitely a lot of them, you lose a lot of them to suicide.

Yeah.

It's a pretty.

Too much downtime, too, you know.

Yeah, that gets kind of scary.

Yeah.

You know.

Everybody out there gets that.

Don't trust me.

No matter what business you're in.

We're on a bus for, you know, sitting in your whatever.

Oh, and being on a bus.

Dude, I used to ride Greyhound.

That'll make anybody want to take their lives. Oh, shit.
I used to shit. I used to go work on a farm up in Natchez, Mississippi in the summer, and I'd take a Greyhound up from Baton Rouge.
Dude. They put all the inmates on there, and it's a lot of missing people on there.
Oh. 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 somebody.
The station, man. Oh, to ask somebody oh god here you know i don't know 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 and i said mr br Mr.
Bruce, she's crying. I go, yes, Mr.
Bruce, it's, it's, it's horrible. I go, what is, what has happened? What is wrong? I'm here.
I'm here. I go, you're where? In the village of Nashville.
I go, you're here in Nashville? Yes, I'm here. I go, where are you? What is wrong, Rose? I'm at the Gray Dog.
I'm at the Gray Dog? You're at the Greyhound bus station? I said, 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 in the opposite of a hospital. I'm going faster than my wife when she's having a baby.
it's like emergency oh my god it's like being in the opposite of a hospital

faster than my wife when she's having a baby it's like i've got to save her like right now this is an emergency dude every row of the ground bus things get easier and easier first it's weed and then four rows later they're doing like abortions and like early term but still like It's like, it gets real dicey, dude.

It gets real dicey, dude. It gets real dicey on Greyhound.
But yeah, to have to rescue a French woman from a Greyhound bus terminal. Was this her first time in? I mean, this is her entrance.
Yeah, because she had been on, up north, they've got real trains, you know, tram and stuff. Oh, yeah.
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 Greyhound bus in the middle of Amtrak.
It's like you go from these beautiful, nice things. Welcome 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.
Now? Making their, yeah. A lot of people drinking their own bath water.
I had a dude selling 40 proof bath water once. I didn't have a lot, but I had a little.
You know what I'm saying? It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad, dude.
I'll say this. It kind of had a peppermint schnapps vibe to it.
I'll say this. There's a routine, man.
Jerry Clower was one of my favorite comedians. Did you guys ever get to meet him? No.
Not the best. No, I didn't get to meet him.
He was a 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, man. Brother Dave Gardner is his name? Oh, yes.
And he was like. Let's bring him up, Nick.
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. Brother Dave Gardner.
Look at him smoking that cigarette. Yeah.
Telling you how it is. Got his suit going.
Check that hair. It's shining, man.
Oh, yeah. That's him, brother Dave.
Another Dave guard. Look at him smoking that cigarette.
Yeah.

Telling you how it is, got his suit going.

Check that hair.

It's shining, man.

Oh, yeah, no.

That cover up on the right, I've got that album.

Wow.

It's all torn up for Doggat chewed the corner off.

My dad loved him, though.

Wow.

I'm going to start listening to him.

Mm-hmm.

He was something else.

Not like your average yeehaw country comedian. Huh.
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? Yeah.
Oh, wow. That must have been really interesting.
It was my first, yeah. In June.
June, same way. We were at the hospital, and she was at her 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. Yeah, he could be.
Yeah, but 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 one of those

instances

where

you meet somebody

famous

and Hag just

shut me down

I could not

carry on a conversation

with him

you know

it's about as bad

as Cash

he didn't like

chatting

well

no he didn't

but he liked you

and he let you know

you know, you know, where John didn't, didn't let you know for a while. He just smoked you out.
Just, just to see what you got. Merle, you can survive it.
Merle's 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 jumped.

It wasn't like Silver Wings or anything.

No, he's throwing his curveballs from way in the back, man.

Like, okay, tonight.

You guys are out there singing Pitbull or something.

Live it in person.

And I hopped up on his bus one afternoon to find out what our song was. 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 goes, what the hell is wrong with y'all? I don't know, Merle, what's wrong with this? She goes, I got that damn window. All them people out there.
What the hell's wrong with y'all? I don't know, Merle, what's wrong with this? He goes, all them damn people out there, and y'all want to quit. Merle.
That's a good point. I said, looking back, it was ingenious.
It is, isn't it? Our last tour we thought, yeah. So Merle, you know, I got to tell you, Poncho and Lefty's probably one of my favorite songs ever.
I said, 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 sing for us.
We've made it 20 years. You and 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, me 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 gonna be it

because it's because it 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 um yeah when you've taken breaks what are other things that you've started

to fill your lives with that became like important to you that meant something to you

I know you have your vineyards Uh huh

Yeah

My friend Chris used to work

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

I was

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I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I friend Chris used to work out at that. 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. 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, Covington.

Don't get me started now.

Talk amongst yourselves.

This is a war you don't want to stop. Hey, look.
Rominal Reagan. Okay, it is.
It is, dude. Rustin versus Covington.
That'd be a great battle. Bring that arm back.
You can keep Terry Bradshaw. That's so good.
Anyway, but I got in, told to call William Marsh, you know, and said, books, I 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 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 I 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.

Is it the Hudson River?

No.

You are?

He was in Ghostbusters.

He doesn't know him.

He was in the original Ghostbusters.

Oh, he was?

Oh, the talk out of the glasses?

The only black guy in the movie.

Are you kidding?

Oh, shoot.

That Ernie Hudson.

Oh, that Ernie.

I know who he is.

Uh-oh, Ernie Hudson.

Ernie Hudson.

I thought you said Bernie. Oh, I love Ernie Hudson.
Yeah, I could tell you did. No, I'm joking, Ernie.
No, that's a right. So that's something you've enjoyed getting to do then? 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. Bing-yay.
Well, Hallmark still makes a lot of movies. You know, a lot of places aren't even making movies, so kudos to him.
At least he's got some work. They have like 60 movies a year or something.
Hallmark does. Literally, yeah.
Some of the studios hardly make any movies anymore, so good for them, man. Wow, that's cool.
What about you? You 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 in Ghostbusters.
Yeah, he was, dude. He was the black guy.
With the glasses? Huh? With the glasses. And one arm.
One arm, right? Yeah. That's what he was.
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.
Being 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, I think what he did was Sling Blade.
Oh, yeah. I bought a little thing.
Right? Like, tell me about him now. But they said and did that.
So ZZ Top was out. That's what I like.
And Biscuits. Billy Top.
I mean, Billy Top. Yeah.
ZZ Top was out with us. That's what I like.
And biscuits. Billy Top.
I mean, Billy Top. Yeah.
ZZ Top was out with us. And Billy Gibbons was telling about the editing process after Billy Bob and all of them, like, finished it up.
And Dwight Yoakam. Oh, yeah.
He was in it. He says, I go to this little apartment building in L.A.
He says, 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 he says, they go, ah, it's me, Billy Kelly.

Oh, let me in.

Come on, what are you doing?

So it's Dwight Yoakam.

And they're all in like,

they're like white wife beater t-shirts

or whatever, sweating all over the place.

In there with old hand,

old school hand editing machines

cutting a sling blade.

Wow.

Doing all that.

Wow.

I bet he's a fascinating guy, Billy Bob Thornton.

Yeah.

And Dwight Yoplin.

He's fun.

I've been working with him on a 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?

Oh, yeah, Billy Bob Thornton has a band, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm going to make a point of that. They're coming before long.
He told me the other night. Yep, next month they got their gigs starting uh opening for zz top bill ham the their manager and you guys opened for zz top at one point right is that right yeah yeah we co-headlined with them that's what i'm saying that's what i meant a long time had a blast yeah um ronnie what about you what's something that that you've enjoyed keeping your time with and when you have free time i i've got a tinker at the farm a little bit still you know i'm always writing songs or something but i grabbed a camera and a buddy of mine who had been a 25 year uh photographer for sports illustrated uh moved back to town and we hit it off i'd just 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.

Cheyenne Rodeo,

Galapagos,

all over the place.

Wow.

Just, yeah.

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

I'll give you all you want.

That'd be cool.

It would be cool. That'd be cool.
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 go. Are you kidding me? Have you been? Dude, yes.
I went just recently and actually played down there. You know about the rodeo.
Yes, I know about it, dude. 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, Brianna Calhoun, who she does prison reentry.
And we stayed at the warden's house. No, I want to meet the warden.
Oh, dude, he's fantastic. Is he? Yeah.
I want him on this show. Yeah, we stayed making gumbo and and drinking beer 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 hell breaks 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 a hula hoop wins the prize.
No, it's fantastic. You got nothing to lose.
You got to go. The prize It's just a little bit of sunlight.
Right? You get two hours in the prize. No, it's fantastic.
You got 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.

Right, right. Big time bragging rights.
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 to watch.

I didn't know you could just go.

Oh, it's like it's a 20,000-seat arena.

See, there it is.

Wow.

Look at them.

That's it.

That's pinball right there.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm not kidding.

What bull?

We got to go on this, man.

That would be fascinating.

This is the place where even the bulls are afraid to come out at you.

They ain't going out there. There it is.
There's 20 the bulls are afraid to come out at you. They're going out there.

There it is.

There's 20 lifers out there.

Last one's the winner.

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, no.

He's going to stay.

Oh, man down.

He's still got one in there. Man down.
He's walking. He's a pinball wizard.
He's like, no, never mind. No, he left the station.
Rodeo is so fun, man. Man, the Cheyenne Rodeo.
You get a press bunker where your ground level. And that's a big one, huh? Yes.
Keep the daddy of them all, they call it. Is it is it yeah and there's another one's real organic we went to mel what's the name of that that in uh montana mile city and that's where they uh they bring the breeders bring all the rodeo stock in they have for for years years i mean 50 60 years whatever to, 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. About the end of the day, these kids are back there and pick up trucks with, like, liters of whiskey just move, man.
It beats them to death. Yeah, a buddy of mine's daddy sells, I guess, horse semen or whatever.
I don't know what they call it if you're a horse. Is it straws? It's semen, and it is straws is how they sell them now.
Yeah, I don't know how much you can get. I guess you can get a – I've never seen the containers they put 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 – I think he's like a madam or whatever.
You can't do that with thoroughbreds, but quarter horses you can. For racing horses? Racing horses have to be actually bred.
The male's got to get on the fence. Oh, you can't art fish and inseminate them.
Yeah, I think, yeah. 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 secretary at semen or 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.
Did you guys ever. What is Asia anyway? That's random.
That's a good question. Asia is, I guess it's.
Come on now. China, Vietnam.
Thailand. Thailand.
Thailand come on give us some Japan Japan Korea North and South there you go Malaysia Malaysia I 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, 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 uh 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, as stupid as we are, we're trying to say yes.

We said yes.

And we're trying.

We said yes.

We said yes.

And we're every language you can think of, you know, from Japanese.

And they had the cards and it sounded out.

Oh, yeah, it sounded out 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 in the break. He goes, and it shut the whole place down.
He goes, everybody's on the edge of their seat. They're looking loud, and at the end of it, they go, so I still have no idea what we said in Italian.
Oh, look. But it was probably some exorcist thing that makes your head turn around.
As long as there's some young Vietnamese kid sitting somewhere going, I'm going to knee on. Yeah, that's what matters, man.
I like it. Okay.
We might cut that part out. Cut, cut.
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.
November the 15th. Yeah.
And we start touring in February. Heavy stuff.
It starts hitting in February. February, yeah.
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 in June. Run over there to Congo.
This guy, yeah. I'll go down to Winsborough and Covington.
Yeah, we'll be over in Murfreesboro if you need us, dude. He's down there.
Well, not Murfreesboro. Smyrna.
I mean, it's really Murfreesboro. Sorry, we'll go to Smyrna.
Gulfstream promised me they'd have it fixed by then, by plane. So we got it.
We're good. Anything else you guys wanted to talk about something you else wanted to get out there no we just said we're selling that record right now reboot too gotta have it gotta get it it'll change your life thanks for the hang man love watching your show and nonsense and everything it's fun and games yeah 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 think.
It really has. You never said that before, right? I've said it probably three times.
That's how he closes every freaking show. He promptly got back up.
It's been like, yeah, you guys made it so easy 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 go and talk, show him not talk, right? He's a freaking musician. There's a reason why they handed him an instrument.
That's the only thing 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.
Bill Vassar told me I was interviewing him doing the countdown show. He said, 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.
And I said, oh, really? I said, I've never heard you play drums. He goes, shit.
When I was a kid, all I wanted was a drum set. Christmas, I'd 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. Yeah, that guy believes in himself too much.
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. Yeah.
Come see us. I will.
All right. We certainly will.
Thank you guys so much. Great time, man.
Fun stuff. No kidding.
Really fun. Enjoy that.
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

But it's gonna take a little bit