EPISODE 5: Songs We Wrote & Answering Fan Questions
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One of my favorite songs, just because the story of it, is a Brad Paisley song. It's called I'm Still a Guy. That I didn't even know you wrote until a couple years ago. There Goes My Life. That's one of my favorites. Anytime, you know, you have straight-up songwriters in the room with an artist and you're high-fiving the songwriters saying, yes, we can stay in our house for one more year. This is amazing. ♪

You know, Chris Jansen drank so much Meliella that he couldn't sweat anymore, and he broke out in all these. Who? Chris Jansen. What happened to him? A few years ago. Yeah, he couldn't sweat anymore. He got these bumps on him, and he went to the doctor, and he said it's because he drank too much Meliella. Are you being personal for real? And he couldn't sweat, you know, because it's pretty dangerous, you know, so he couldn't sweat. And so I went over there the next day, and he goes, I said, what are you drinking? He goes, it's like a 32-ounce cherry limeade. I'm thinking, is that better? Is that better? Yeah.

This fantastic thing. We're back. Yeah, let's do it. We're back. I think that was a fantastic intro. Maybe we'll use it. I don't know if it's an intro. I didn't know we were rolling. I don't know either. Oh, we're rolling. Oh, okay. So what are we, five, six episodes in? We're a few in. Yeah. I can't believe we're still on. I'm curious. I'm curious. Are we good? Are we bad? People like us? I don't know. I like us. We've got some comments. We've got some comments. We've got some questions. Yeah. Some of them are good. Yeah.

Some. Some of them are foul. Yeah, some of them don't like us. That's okay. Yeah. But you know what? We welcome all questions. Absolutely. Whether they're good, bad, if they try to put us in a bad light, I welcome it. In fact, I like answering those more than I do this. Well, we're going to do that this episode, right? We've got a lot of questions. We're going to read some comments and just kind of get everybody involved.

uh seriously though if you guys are on the youtube page obviously you got to like and subscribe but leave comments leave a review we want to hear from you guys on the instagram page all the socials that'd be great for you guys to do i got one question put in front of me you guys want to hear it yeah i do you got such a good voice thank you for a game show i mean he does he talks his ass off well be great i wish i had a game show what would it be oh i just had a thought though

Try that in a small town board game. We're not allowed to say try that in a small town. Well, we hadn't announced that, though. No. But you're on. But we hadn't announced the rules. Try that in a small town board game. It's amazing. It's pretty good, though. You're going to be buzzed again. I thought we were going to try to do an episode without saying the title of the song. It's a board game. But we hadn't laid the rules out yet. So we have to lay the rules out. What are the rules, Kelly? Well, we can't say try that in a small town. What would it look like? Yeah, what would it look like? A board game. Try that in a small town board game. What would that look like? Be a little bit more fun.

It'd be amazing. All the little squares of different towns. Yeah, like a... You lose. You get your ass whipped if you land on New York Boulevard. Yeah. Yeah. It's not bad. You get sucker punched if you land on... You guys are laughing at me while I'm spitting genius over here. It's fantastic. It's pretty good. Actually, it's going to happen.

Caleb, build the prototype. No, it's Trinopoly. That's what it is. We should probably cut this part out because somebody's going to listen to it and they'll have that board game out in six months and we'll be screwed again. All right, back to the question. But we can still do the board game. I don't know where Anastasia is from, but it's from Anastasia. Thanks for the question. I feel like I am hosting a game show. Would you ever have any other country artist on the show, like maybe Cody Johnson?

And it goes on, I would love for you to interview Cody. Brittany Aldean. We'll have something for that. Stay tuned. And maybe Candace Owens. Those are all pretty good. Yeah. What do you guys think about that? Cody, for sure. Cody's, I mean, he's one of us. Yeah. Oh, he's a patriot. Yeah, we love Cody. Yeah. And he came to the defense of Aldean when all that was going on. So, and Cody's...

solid artist. Yeah. He's unique, right? All you ever ask for in an artist is that they be themselves, they be genuine, and he is that in space. 100%. Yeah. Absolutely. He's a true artist, and I know in our camp, everyone has full respect for Cody Johnson, and he's on fire. He was one of the ones that kind of came to Jason's defense, right? Yeah. One of the

few that actually got vocal about it a little bit. Yeah. No, he came out and mentioned it. So, uh, what do you guys think about Candace Owens? That'd be, that'd be pretty good. She's a rock star. She's sharp. She's a rock star. Definitely. Will she come on? Uh, I don't know. Getting back to you. Are we doing good? We're going to have to get her. That's another thing. So we're, we're, uh, gaining followers on our Instagram. We are. Yeah. Um, how long before we get to a million followers?

A million? I want a million followers. Hey, Wade, based on the current map. A million, something would have to go viral. I think six, seven months. Seven months? Yeah. No. Something like that. Quicker. Much longer. We have to be a little more controversial to get that many followers. Are we not already? To pass Oprah on the charts. Yes. It would take something viral like Kalo streaking down Broadway. Hmm.

singing try that i've seen that i've seen that i don't know it's happened i've seen what's your what's your guess on amount of time before we get to a million followers on instagram oh it's a total random guess i don't know i mean go guess based on my personal followers i have i have 13 now and i bet i've only been at it for like three years so i was i was behind

I think you guys are wrong. But you can pass it down. I can pass it down to my daughter, Lucy, and then I think by the time she has grandchildren, then maybe. I think it's going to be quicker. I'm going to say by Christmas...

Christmas miracle? It's a Christmas miracle that we're going to have a million followers on Instagram. We could easily, if we get Candace on the show and she posts about it, if we get Cody Johnson on the show and he posts about it, and he has a good time, we make him feel at home. And Kalo's 10 followers come on. Yes. 13. 13. And they start talking. It'll be perfect. I don't think so. I want to get Ted Nugent on here. I think so. I would love the Nuge, but I don't think it's going to happen.

Gosh. Care to make it interesting? I would love to make it interesting. Tattoos, anyone? I say this. If we go... Wait. Let it be... Everybody listening in podcast world. All of you. How many followers do we have at this point? All 12 of you need to listen. 13. If we get a million followers by... I'm going to say Christmas Eve.

Because that's one of my favorite nights. It'll be a true Christmas miracle. Kurt has to get a tattoo. You have to. Do we have to make that the bet? Why am I the only one that has to pay up? Well, Kalo has to pay up, too. That's a great question. We're the only three that don't have tattoos at this table right here. And you're the one holding everybody back. Or Kalo has to get it on the small of his back. You're the one not being a team player. I'm just saying. I know. I feel like this is an intervention.

It's a pretty good deal, though. If we get what he said, what Tully said, Zully. A million followers by December 24th. Well, we're not getting a million, so I'd say yeah. Oh, yes. Okay. Y'all heard it out there. Everybody heard it? Hold on. Everybody heard it. Cooper, can we edit that out? And we'll video it, and it'll be an episode. We will get our tattoos on an episode. Let's go to the next question. And Kalo has to get on the small of his back just because you have to, like a spring break tattoo. That's not painful enough.

We'll see. I don't know. It's emotionally painful. We've got to pick another spot. I'm not sure. Hey, let me go with this. There was a comment on one of the Instagram posts. It was interesting. It was talking about how I think Tully in the clip is saying how an artist should be able to say and sing what they believe. And this person said, hey, I 1,000% get this sentiment.

But if artists should take the risk to say what they believe and you truly believe that, you can't be upset if an artist puts out a song that might have liberal viewpoints, which you responded to, of course, right? No problem with that. No problem. No problem. That's all we ever wanted, right? Because actually, that's kind of the point is that we feel that there are a lot of people that have a different point of view and

But once a song like ours comes out, you kind of get the heat for it. But we're all open to... It's part of the First Amendment. Free speech, right? Free artistic expression. Of course. 100%. The people will let you know whether they like it or not. Right. They just don't listen to it. And there's a song that comes out that has liberal...

Fine. Go for it. Right. If it's good and people like it, that's fine. It's their right. It was our right. So anyway. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And generally, especially if it's coming out on the radio. What's a liberal view on a song? You'll know pretty soon. I don't know. I actually don't know. I want to know what a liberal view is in a song. Well, okay. I didn't know we'd go here. But for whatever reason, that sparked something with me. Yeah. I...

Say it. No, I'm just saying as an adult, you don't like a song, you don't listen to it. But it gets hard when you're a parent, right? And I have an 11-year-old who gets on whatever and he's listening to songs like, no, we can't listen to that one. This isn't necessarily a liberal point of view, but I remember we were watching the Grammys a couple of years ago and Sam Smith was on. You guys remember that Unholy song? Oh, I love him. He's awesome. You know, and Sam Smith is a good singer.

That's not the point. Right. The point is, is that song came on and it was like, he's dressed up like the devil. He's got his whole thing going on. It's like, okay, we can't watch that. And so as an adult, like you said, just don't listen to it, but it gets into a different thing when you're a parent and you have to try to watch what your kids listen to. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's, that's, that's the tricky part. Everybody does have, uh,

The freedom to do what they want. What's funny on that note, my oldest daughter and her boyfriend, they were listening to this rap stuff and it was just like total filth. But they're bebopping around the ocean, the beach, you know, and listening to this stuff in their car and stuff. And my wife, Lana, one evening broke out the lyric to one of the songs. To this song? Yeah. And handed it to my oldest daughter's boyfriend and wanted him to read it to her.

Oh, snap. And he couldn't do it. He started to read it, and he couldn't. He said, read that lyric to me. I want to see what it says. That's amazing. And he couldn't do it. And I'm like, if you can't read a lyric back to an adult or to your parent. That is awesome. Yeah. Why in the world would you want them listening to it? It's that filthy. Wow.

That's good, but our song is like, we got banned. Our song's horrible. Well, ours is offensive. Yeah, it's very offensive. Well, first off, so we'll have the rules, okay? So since in every podcast so far, we've had a mention of the song that we wrote, Jason Aldean recorded, Try That in Small Town. So we've kind of talked about that a lot. So we're going to give that a break for tonight. And any one of us that says Try That in Small Town...

After that? Okay. Gets the buzzer. Gets the buzzer. Does Neil get the buzzer? Does he get to keep the buzzer? It depends. As the night goes on, he may shift over toward... I'll pay for the buzzer. Because he'll start buzzing. Great answer. You know what's great? I got some questions too about other songs that we may have written, which I love that because it's not just about this song and everything, but...

you know, what we do for a living and how fun it is, you know, I would love to get thoughts on all of our favorite songs. Like, Kalo, your favorite song you've written. Neil, favorite song you've written. Like, I think, I like to know that stuff.

I like that. I like that. It's not fair to ask us what's our favorite song we've written because it's going to be this one. And I'm not saying the title, but it's going to be this one. Right. Every time because of what it did. Well, you can just say one of your favorites. We can talk about other songs, but...

Well, another one that... This one kind of took over. It kind of jumped everything else I had. Can I tell you... It changes all the time with me. Can I tell you a favorite song that I have that I didn't even know you wrote until, well, a couple years ago, There Goes My Life. That's one of my favorites. I mean, that's just an all-time great song.

Do you have a story or anything about that? Yeah, a little bit of a story. I wrote that with Wendell Mobley, a good buddy of mine that I've written a lot of songs with over the years. He's a great singer, too. Probably 90% of my success has come with Wendell. He was involved. You guys were just like a team. Yeah. There Goes My Life was like a title that was written in our notebooks. Wendell had it written down first, and then I wrote it down in mine.

And it kind of sat there for a year. It was like we knew what it was going to be about, but we just didn't, we never sat down and actually worked on it. We just kind of look at it every now and then. We'd get together and look at the title and like, man, let's write something. When we'd go off and write something else. Yeah. And then finally one day we just jumped on it. And when we did, it was like instant. And we went upstairs in his house and did a little work take and

Jimmy Mattingly, who plays fiddle, came over and put a little fiddle part on it, and we sent it to Kenny. He plays for Garth, right? Yeah. And we sent it to Kenny. So he was instant. It was kind of like, try that in a small town. So when you were writing it, were you thinking about Kenny, or were you just letting the song be what it was, and then at the end of it? No, we weren't thinking about Kenny, but he was our first pitch. I don't know. It was just like, that was kind of obvious. He was looking at the time, and it was perfect timing. Yeah.

And did y'all have, sorry to interrupt you. Did you already have stuff with, with Kenny just to send it to him? So you already had a good relationship with him? Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Yeah. What a great feeling too, when you get on a song and I think as songwriters, I think you write a lot of songs and you, and you feel good about a lot of them, but sometimes you're, you write one like that. Like, like you said, like you just kind of knew you were on one. Oh, there was no doubt. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's a great feeling. This is a,

And one of the sad things about today and today's country music is like we couldn't get that song cut today. We could pitch that song to everybody and we would just get pass after pass. It's just not – it's a timing thing. It's an era thing. Yeah. Yeah.

The timing of that song was perfect for him. Yeah, what an amazing song. Is that like one of your favorites? Oh, yeah, it's definitely one of my favorites. It's the biggest song I've ever had as far as number one. It was number one for seven weeks. What? Oh, yeah. Wow. Seven weeks? Wow. Yeah, it stayed up. Wow. It's number one for seven weeks and just stayed there.

Can't hide money. And that's you, especially as a two-way song. You can't hide money. A lot of songs nowadays, we're writing three, four, and five people. So you have a two-way song, you know, just talk about the pie and the money being split. I mean, that's a lick. Yeah, it was a good lick. That's great. Kalo, I mean, you've written your share. Is there one besides Try That in a Small Town? Epic film. That sticks out. Seriously, that sticks out.

Don't be humble. You did right, Laugh Until We Cried. We've talked about that, right? I said hits. Yeah, which is kind of funny. Laugh Until We Cried was a great song. I'm sorry. Thank you, Kurt. We played it one time ever. Hey, it went to number six.

You know, I mean, it was, it was not, you know, I'm kidding, but what's, but what's funny, you know, I'm kidding. Kevin O'Neill, um, uh, Aldine's, uh, we're at his house and, uh, and Neil was there and we were talking about that. And, and, uh, and I didn't know Kevin that well, but, um,

And Neil's just trying to be complimentary and kind of bring the room together. And he said, yeah. Cause I love that song. Okay. Kayla. I always love this. It is a great song. Thank y'all. And, uh, Neil said, yeah, Kayla wrote a laugh, toy, cry. And he goes, he goes, I hate that freaking song. He goes, that's my, that's my least favorite song that Jason's ever recorded. I said, you know what? That's good. Because it wasn't right for Jason at the time. It was actually a great, I'm, you know, it's a great song. Kayla, you're an amazing songwriter. Um,

But yeah, it was the timing of it. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't the song. It was just the timing of it. But yeah. But what's your. Well, one of my favorite songs, just because the story of it is a Brad Paisley song. And it was a good while back, but it's called I'm Still a Guy.

And, and, and I love it just because the way it transpired and because Brad is, he is a very gifted writer and he's, he's hard to impress. And, and me and my co-writer Lee Miller, we'd, we'd been writing for probably six months, just trying to find something that would impress him. He kept, you know, knocking everything down and everything. And,

And well, when I say six months, I mean, technically me and Lee were getting together every other Tuesday between 11 and three, but still felt like six months, you know. But anyway, so so finally I came up with the opening two lines of the song and and Lee said, what's that? I said, I don't know. He'll record that.

And he said, what's the title? I said, I don't know, but he'll record it. And so we got into a framework, you know, outline form enough, you know, to present it to him. And for the sake of the story, Brad and I lived on the same farm for a long time, you know, so I called him, told him about it as he came over. And for all the times we say, oh, this song came out in two hours and it was so easy and everything. I mean, a lot of times, as we know, it takes a long time. So it was about four o'clock in the morning.

and we got done with it and we were laughing and high-fiving and stuff like that. And so, as you all know, anytime you have straight-up songwriters in the room with an artist and you're high-fiving, the songwriter's saying, yes, we can stay in our house for one more year. This is amazing. But in all that jubilation, Brad gets a call and he picks up his phone and he said, your water broke? I looked over at Lee and I thought, this is a terrible time for a miracle child. Right?

So anyway, Brad gets up and he starts going down my office steps and I sheepishly follow behind him. He gets out there in the driveway and he starts to jog and I said, you want me to give you a ride over there? And he goes, no, I'm going to run. And his little white cowboy hat disappeared over the horizon. Ha ha.

I said, he still loved the song. And then you had to think about it. Yeah. What does he think? Yeah. Yeah. Crickets, nothing. Anyway, the next day he calls and he said, he said, he said, hey, it's a false alarm last night. Everything's fine. I said, oh, thank God. I stayed up all night praying and fasting for the child to be. He said, you're an idiot. He goes, but I think we wrote a hit song last night. I said, really? I didn't think much of it. But,

But anyway, it's always been one of my favorite ones. And we play like a songwriter nights or corporate corporate things. And Neil and I play almost every one of them together. And he sings what being played. It's just always a fun, just a fun song just to make people laugh. Because in today's world, a lot of things are so heavy. It's just fun to have that song. Now that when you're talking about a timeless song, that is not timeless.

yours is that one you can't say forever in every room that was kind of his thing though right how many paisley cuts did you have

A lot. I'm not sure how many cuts. You've counted? No, I haven't. You have. It's quite a bit. I've counted. I know I've had 10 number ones, but I don't have any cuts. Can you tell us a story of Ticks? For those of you who don't know about this, it's a song recorded by Brad Paisley called Ticks. I mean, it was a number one song, right? Yes, it's number one. Yes. It's actually pretty brilliant.

Uh, well, anytime, anytime I, you know, I like make fun or diss as long as cause I'm pissed cause I'm not on it. Oh, a hundred percent. Only one hundred percent. Yeah. Even if I don't like something at all, I want to be on it. You know, I want people to make fun of me, but I mean, people don't get this. I mean, we're songwriters and they think, oh, it's artistic integrity. I mean, listen, this is our job.

Our job is to make money and write songs for other people. Brad Paisley has a gift of writing songs that kind of make people laugh and, and you know, that's kind of part of this thing. Yeah. Yeah. That definitely kind of his thing. And, uh,

uh, we're actually, it's kind of, it's kind of odd because the topic of that and the place that we wrote it, uh, is we're in, uh, he had a house in the Pacific Palisades, you know, which is a, you know, real rich part of, uh, California and everything. And definitely there's no ticks there. I wouldn't imagine. Unless they're already on you. Yeah. Unless you brought them with you, you know, which I think it's okay as long as you're in the U S but if you came from somewhere else, that'd be a problem. But,

But anyway, we were having trouble coming up with a good idea. And his career was rocking, and so they were looking for something different, which it gets harder and harder, as you guys know, with Aldean or Chesney. The more hits you have and the more ground they cover, it gets harder because it just –

it just is. So anyway, we were, we were striking out. I was out there with Tim Owens, a great guy and a songwriter and, and Brad just kind of been there for two days and had nothing, you know, and he'd go away for a little bit. I guess he went for a jog or to the coffee shop or maybe to eat as he left us there to,

you know, eat the stale honey nut Cheerios in the back of the pantry. But anyway, he comes back and he said, well, y'all got anything? And we'd throw him some stuff that we thought was okay, but we knew we didn't have it. We didn't have anything good. And he was getting frustrated and

And he just looked down at his phone. And then eventually he said, he just said, he said, he said, what about, what about I want to check you for ticks? That's what he said? That's what he said. And, and, and I just kind of, I just kind of, you know, grinned a little bit and, and, and, and looked up and I said, because he was still looking at me. And I thought, I said, oh, you,

you mean for a song? You know? And he goes, yeah. And I said, oh, I don't, I don't know, Brad. I'm not sure if that, I mean, maybe. Um, and so, cause it didn't hit me right, right off the top, you know, as, as a song. And, um, so we just started talking about it and, and writing it. And, and,

and it was one of those things you know you get around artists in there they love something for a little bit and then you call them the next day and they're like yeah i don't think so and then you call them the next day i said yeah i love it i think it's going to be oh that's great and then three hours later they don't like it well anyway

We went through that cycle, you know, and he was looking for a first single. And so I thought that could be it, but I also thought we were, you know, a little bit crazy. That's not a layup type of song. Let me check you for ticks, right? I mean, that's not the song that we're not going to mention tonight. But anyway. Were y'all drinking when you wrote this song? No, no. We never drank. No.

anything. Oh, he doesn't drink. He doesn't. Yeah, and that would just never... This would be no fun. That would just never a thing. No. You know? A lot of coffee, you know, and cigars sometimes, you know. But anyway...

So he finally, what ended up making him record it and get excited about it is he finally found the sound of the guitar, not even the riff. And that intro, he just found a certain sound on this old amp that he had. And I think it was kind of an old, like a pig sound.

pig nose or something like that, right? So I don't know all that stuff, but anyway, he found that and he got so excited and he called me and he goes, he goes, this is it. He goes, I found it. He goes, it's going to be, it's going to be the first single. And, uh, and I said, well, that's great. And then he plays it sounded really cool to me, but it sounded a little bit, you know, the same, but he was, he was so pumped anyway. He goes, and Joe Galani was running the label at the time. And I love Joe. He had a great song sense because for whatever reason, he

He liked most all the songs that I was on, so I really love Joe Galani. But anyway, he sent it to Joe, and Brad says, well, he's either going to think we're brilliant or we're absolute idiots. Well, I was going to ask that because, right, were you like, oh, yes, I can't wait for this to come out, or were you like, oh?

I was a little, yeah, it was, it was like that because I wouldn't, now, as soon as Joe Galani, cause he gave me, you know, Joe's, you know, response, you know, and he's a, he's a New York guy, you know, and everything is, he's not a, not a country at all, but he loved country music. And he's, he's, you know, one of the few that really love country music.

And Brad called, and he said, hey, because I went in there and played it for him. And he goes, I didn't know what he was going to say. He said he was jumping up and down. And he said, you brilliant bastard. You've done it again. He said he was throwing stuff off his desk and everything. And I was saying, well, of course, Brad. Of course. It's because it was different at the time.

Yeah. I mean, it really was. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and so, so anyway, and I actually played it one time at the Bluebird after it was a hit and it was just the worst crowd for it, I guess, but he got a not so good reception and I've never played it since, you know? Hey, you know, you know, it's awesome though when you get locked in with an artist,

and you just, and that's what you, you have a Brad, right? I mean, just locked in and you know what he wants and what he won't say. And that's a good feeling. What are your number? What can you name off the number ones you've had with bread? Can you name off all 10? Um, you've had 10 with Brad, 10 with Brad. Yeah. Wow. I know that because somebody asked me, I mean, total number ones. Have you had, um, 18, 18. Can you name off the 10 you had with Brad? Um,

Tix online. That's why he bought the sound equipment, by the way. Tix online. I'm still a guy. Online, I'm still a guy. Yeah. There's several. Oh, he didn't have to be. He didn't have to be. American Saturday Night. Five. Water. Six. You wrote Water? I didn't know you wrote Water. The World. That's Brad's idea, too. Yeah.

I mean, that's a lot. How many is that, seven? That's a lot. That's seven. Yeah. So I guess the answer is no. Do you know how many number ones you have? You know what? Remind me. The Carrie Underwood duet. Start a band with Keith Urban. What's the team? I don't know. That's a lot of pressure. It's so funny. New songwriters who are listening to this are like, what a dick. No, it's not that at all. Karen member, his 10 number ones are Brad. He's stuck. He's stuck on nine.

Well, the frustrating ones to that point is the number twos. That's what sucks. Hey, listeners out there, if you can name the tenth one, Caleb will write the lyric out and autograph it and send it to you. Hey, that's a good idea. Well, now, so...

Kurt and Tully. You guys have had several Jason Aldean number ones, but you also had a huge song outside the camp, right? With Dustin Lynch, right? Yeah.

Yeah, we did. Yeah. I didn't know that. What song is it? I've come over and called. No, but that's a big song, you know? And it's very difficult. I mean, and you can allude to that. I did not know this. Yeah. I did not know this. Well, it's difficult, and I'll let y'all speak to it. But like we call like the relationship that I have with Paisley or you guys have with Jason Aldean or Kenny Chesney or

Whatever. Those cuts on the inside, they're not easy to get, but it's easier because you have the relationship. Getting an outside cut is what we refer to to the listeners out there as people that we don't necessarily have a relationship with. So getting those cuts, it's like an act of God almost getting them. So could you tell us about that? I can't remember what year it was. We first because we came to town to be players, right? That's what we were first and foremost.

I forget what year Tully probably remembers better. What year we actually got our first songwriting deal, but it wasn't a month in and Tully already had a Dierks cut and a big hit. Oh, wow. Tip it on back. I mean, that was like a month of our first deal, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was really cool. And we went so far back with Dierks too from,

to doing like seeing him on a radio tours together and sleep on the floor radio stations. And so it was really cool for Dierks to cut that song, tip it on back. It was, it was a blast and, and seeing red was fun. It was just a tempo we wrote that people liked, you know, that, and that Dustin cut. And that's all great. I think, I think me and Kurt both agree that, you know, we've kind of found,

our voice through Jason. Yeah. Which, you know, we really love other people liking our songs, but we, we write for Jason, you know, it's kind of what we enjoy and feel like what we're good at, you know? Um, but yeah, any, any time you get any, any kind of people that like your song, I think you're, you've already won. Well, and two, when you're, when you're focused on writing for Jason,

For Jason Aldean, his bar is so high, y'all's bar is so high, that if for whatever reason he doesn't like it, then you can pitch it to other people because it's going to be a solid song. If you pitch it to him, it's going to be a solid song. Yeah, it's like Neil would attest to this. I think Jason had the reputation in town for quite a while. It was like, if you got an Aldean cut, it was a good song. You had to have a good song, right? And it's like, I mean, a testament to all those ones that you wrote. But that's why I think when we first got...

you know, our first couple who were like, okay, God, we've made it because this must be a good song. Because he's, you know, like we're boys, we're friends, we're go way back. But believe me, we pitched him a lot of songs that he was like, yeah, he's probably harder. It was probably harder on our stuff just because I don't think he ever wanted people to think he was cutting a song because we wrote it, you know? So he was, to his credit, like he wasn't going to cut a song that he didn't

He's always been that way. Yeah. So that's when you, every time I get a Jason cut or single, I feel as grateful today as anything. He's cut some of my songs that I never in a million years would have thought he would cut. Like what? I never thought he would have cut Night Train. Really? Nope. I love Night Train. I told Michael Delaney when we wrote it, because we wrote it in about 45 minutes, and I was like, we didn't work hard enough on that. He'll never cut it.

And they pitched it to him, freaking cut it and put it out. Well, you know what happened to that song? I'll tell you, we were producing. Interesting story. We were producing. I've never heard this. No, it's great. Take a drink. We were producing a girl named Christy Lee Cook, who was a really, really great singer. I got a cut on her and Randy Howser. So Night Train was pitched to her as a song. What? Yeah, it was pitched to her. I'm glad I didn't know that. For Christy to sing it.

And that's when I remember listening to it with Jason because Jason was co-producing Christie with us. And that's when he first heard Night Train, I believe. No, this is 100% right. And he listened to it a little bit more and more. And he's like, maybe I don't want Christie to cut this. Really? That's exactly what happened. Yeah. I did not know that. I have a new story to tell in my writer's room. That's good. Yeah.

Yeah, we need something new to spice the show up. Hey, I never thought he was going to cut that song. We didn't work hard enough on it. Usually songs... Big hit. Well, let me ask you guys this, because it happened to me a lot when you're that close to an artist, or...

Does Jason ever run songs by you guys that you're not a writer on? Oh, all the time. And does it get, like inside, to me, it was always a little bit of that internal struggle of, all right, I've got this song here that Paisley loves and he's going to record, or he likes this other one here. Listen, that's...

Yes, that happens. But I think he plays it for us, and I think Tully would agree with this, because he trusts that we will give him our honest opinion on it. Right. And, I mean...

There's been a number of songs that have come in and we're like, oh, damn it, that's good. I wonder how many cuts I've lost because of you two. Not any, I promise you. But there are times, especially when we have that kind of one friendship and business relationship with, that you know it's for the good of all to have the absolute best song, even if it's not yours. There were several times when I'd look at Brad and I said,

They beat us on that one. Right. And that's why Jason is a very successful artist because he can separate that. It's like, hey, best song wins. Best song always wins because that's for the greater good. You know what I mean? You put out the best song, it's good for the career, it's good for us, it's good for everybody. What album was Dirt Road Anthem on? My Kind of Party. Okay, I remember Knox playing me, taking me out to his truck and playing me Dirt Road Anthem.

and we were at the studio where y'all were tracking. And I don't know, I had a couple or two or three songs on that record, but when he played me Dirt Road Anthem,

It's not my song. I'm not a writer on it. And he played it for me and I go, I want to be on the album that that song's on. Cause I knew, I knew when he played it for him, I was like, that's going to be freaking huge. Yeah. Like, I didn't care if I got a single, I want to be on that freaking album. I mean, you're a songwriter, you know, a good song. Oh yeah. And I heard it. I was like, that's freaking going to be huge. Right. Yep. Yep. And that's a good example of Jason being Jason.

cutting something different like that, people were worried about that song. Oh, gosh. But to your point, though, it made that album huge. And you also had tattoos and fiber states on that album as a writer. You had that. And that was a huge album. Huge album. Huge album. And yeah, like you said, it got us to where we are now. Kurt, what sticks out to you, buddy? Any songs? Oh, songs that we've written? Yeah. Well...

You know, not necessarily for the song, but because of the story would be if I didn't love you. Right. And I don't know if you'd agree with that or not. Yeah. Yeah. It's telling. I had a song already that was going on the album called over you again. And we wrote it with Lydia Vaughn and John Morgan, but Lydia did a background part on the song and actually a lead part on the song and

And Jason loved it. Michael loved it. And they're like, oh, we're going to make this a duet. So that was going to be the original duet? That was going to be the original duet. Until... With Carrie. Songwriting lesson coming in here. Go ahead. No, you had it. No, continue. Well, no, I was just going to say that, you know, it got pitched to a pretty big artist who said that first she was going to do it.

And then late, and we're like, oh my God, this is awesome. We got, there's going to be a single big hit. You guys know the feeling, right? You get a big duet with two big people. It's a hit. You've had it. So anyway, yeah, you know, uh, anyway, then maybe a couple of weeks later, this artist backs out and we're like, oh no. Who was it? I can't tell you. Why not? It's just us. Oh,

I can't say. But anyway, so all of a sudden it goes from we have what could be the first single, big duet, to we don't have anything. And the word gets blasted out on town. Jason Aldean's looking for a duet song. And we're like, oh no.

And this is a week before we're going in the studio to cut the last round. And you guys know this, right? When that goes out, everybody in town for a week is writing a duet for Jason Aldean. It was management. We were at a rehearsal. We were playing a show. We had to rehearse. And management came up to us and goes, hey,

what other songs you got for the duet? And we're like, Oh God. Um, well, uh, we're working on one right now. You'd already put a down payment on it. I remember, I remember thinking, I remember thinking, Oh, don't, don't say that to us, you know? And, uh, it was just a, a kick in the gut. Cause you think you have it and,

And Kurt, you're telling us... Well, no, I was just going to say, so Tully sends out a text to our group that we had written with a lot of then, John Morgan and Lydia Bonham with ambulance sirens and everything saying, emergency write tonight. We never write at night. I don't know if you guys ever do. We never write at night. It's just not when you feel creative. It's not when you do it, right? So we go in at night after we were in the studio all day doing something and we're like, hey, let's just...

Let's give this an hour. You guys know this, right? If you're on something, we're going to know it. So we're like, let's just give it an hour. Let's try to write for this. We get in there and it, by the grace of God, it's a magic moment. We have this idea, Tully's Hook, and we just happen to come up with this thing and it just spills out. So we write the song that night. We do the demo that night. We get it mixed the next day. We send it in the next day. Michael, Jason,

They love it. We're like, oh my God, thank you, sweet Jesus. Thank you. But there's no, we don't know who can do it still, but they love the song. Right. We go in the studio. The studio is, we're going in less than a week. Last round of cuttings. We go in and cut the song, If I Didn't Love You, without knowing if there is a duet partner or who it would be. We're cutting the song. Like what key? I don't know. Just, let's just do it.

Wow. So we go in and cut the song. Later on, they find out that Kerry, you know, was going to jump on the song. And you guys know that's not an easy negotiation with Singles Rise, all that stuff. But it was just, I mean, literally, by the grace of God, that thing worked for us. Which I think some of the magic, I think...

some of that not knowing that carrie or whoever was going to be on it yeah i think we would have knew carrie was going to be on it we might have played it differently sure but because we had no or wrote it differently who knows yeah we had no idea if anybody was going to come usually write better songs when you don't have an artist in right and so you're right when we're tracking it we just played it like an aldine song like we would play we didn't have any thoughts about oh would whoever like this here you know what i mean yeah so it came out

sounding really unique because we didn't write it for Jason and Carrie. Right. We wrote it really just for Jason was singing. But even as we cut it, it could have been on the cutting room floor or it happened to be the first single, big duet, Jason and Carrie. So it was, you know, it was divine. That's awesome. At least I think so. I love it. That's great. I'm just pissed I didn't get the call. You didn't get the emojis? The siren emojis? Hey, Neil, help us finish this song. Nothing. Nothing.

Well, Neil, for you, I know for me, I'll ask you this, but speaking of Maladine, Tattoos on This Town, that's got to be one of your favorite songs, right? Oh, yeah. I don't know if I heard the full story on that. There's not really much of a story for that one. I was sitting at a red light going to the writing appointment with Wendell Mobley and Michael Delaney, and literally I saw skid marks on the opposite lane on the other side of the road.

And it just kind of, I'm serious, it just fell out. Like, it looked like a tattoo, and I was like, hmm, tattoos on this town. That's where the title, on the way to the writing appointment. That's such a money title. Yeah, it is. That title fell out. It's unbelievable. One of my favorites, too, even the play every night, look for it. I mean, it's always pretty high in the set list. Still gets a great response. Yeah, it's really fun. But, yeah, it's always so rewarding. I know we all feel that way whenever...

it works out like that. Yeah. We kind of skipped Tully and maybe your favorite song or one that sticks out to you. Well, honestly, like my, my favorite one so far. I mean, and I love, if I didn't love it, I love all the songs that we've had cut. I really love trouble with a heartbreak. It's true. I just, I, yeah.

I just love the song and I love the way it feels and the track and the way Jason sang it. I love playing it. Yeah. You know, it was a great, a great ride. You guys, you know, thinking about those batch of songs we wrote back then, it was like we had this office called The Shack and I actually miss this place and you guys would...

You guys would laugh. The shack actually makes it sound glamorous. It's actually a garden shack for lawnmowers and stuff. It was a shed.

It smelled like gasoline. No, no. It's kind of like a reverse outhouse because it was a shed outside of a building that, as Tully said, you would keep lawnmowers and stuff, but we had it as a riding room. But if you did want to go to the bathroom, you had to go find a main building and use their bathroom. Yeah, and there was this weird, like,

asbestos-y stuff that would fall down you as a writing, you know? That's nice. And there are fruit flies everywhere, and there's this really... No windows. No windows at all, and it had this old, like, wood paneling on the walls. Why? I mean, why did y'all do that to yourself? Well, to be honest, like, it was...

really all we had yeah we didn't know i mean you guys know i mean it caught downtown nashville it cost money to rent a space right i mean yeah there's park benches downtown outside maybe like the clean air albini would go what are you guys doing today and we're like we're going to the office and he goes the office no

But it had this really old AC unit, and whoever sat next to the AC unit always got really sick. They'd walk in fine, and they'd leave with a terrible cough. Might be some mold in there, possibly. Oh, no, it's terrible. It was really, really bad. In the garbage, we didn't have anybody cleaning it, so the garbage would... I remember one day, a good friend of ours, Dave Lee Murphy. He goes, hey, man, I need some coffee. I said, we got you.

So we had a coffee maker there and we hadn't cleaned it in a little while. And we opened the top of it. Dudes, there was a white, green mold like coming out of that coffee maker. We just dumped the filter out and put a new one in and rocked. You're kidding. No, I'm not kidding. Hey, we had this up until just a couple of years ago.

But... I'm scared. It was a magic... For some reason, though, it was a really magical place. Had, like, really bad wood paneling. The ceiling was falling apart. And like Kurt said, like, it was just, you know, no windows. We had a great time. Bro, it wasn't bigger than this. No. Really? Oh, it was really bad. We wrote If I Didn't Love You in there. Oh, yeah. Trouble with Heartbreak. You know, a lot of big songs, but...

You know what's funny about that little... I had no idea you guys... Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was... We're slumming it like that. We're used to slumming it, though. We're used to that. Actually, it was... I prefer to write in those situations of desperation. See, you know what people think Tilly and I are exactly like? We're not.

He loves it dark. Dark and cold. He loves it dark and cold. I need sunlight, man. It's like a good marriage that we have to compromise. I'm taking notes here since I just signed with you guys. I'm taking notes. It's a distraction, sunlight.

There's something to that. So Trouble with the Heartbreak is... Yeah, I just was really proud of the way that came out. It's our kind of song. It is. It's kind of an Aldine 101. Just enjoyed the way that came out. Once again, I didn't get the call. You were on the golf course. They probably tried you. I don't have a cell phone. I'm sure they tried. Yeah.

You got any more questions? I was about to ask that. Anybody got any more questions? What do we got? Give us a question, Neil. Okay, when you guys wrote, this is from Mark, when you guys wrote Try That in a Small Town, did you ever think it would get as popular as it did?

Popular is an interesting way to put it. I don't know if I would categorize it as popular. Yeah, I mean, I felt like the messaging... I think it means as big as it did. I felt like, you know, like the messaging of the song, to me, it was right down the middle, hitting the fan base right in the face, you know, in a good way, to where I just felt like you checked every box, so I felt like it was kind of a...

you know, a layup hit, if it ever got to radio, I did not have any idea of all the backlash and stuff that would, I could not foresee that. Yeah. Well, I'm sure glad it did. Amen. You know, and like we talked about before, love how it brought everyone together. In my eyes, that's what it did. You know, that's why we're here doing this podcast, you know? It is. You know, it's, what a great ride. We're still on it. I did not think it would get as big as it did.

Really? No. Well, Caleb didn't think it would come out. No. I mean, I want a grand. I knew Jason was going to put it out, but I had no idea of the movement that it was going to do. We talked about this on the first episode, but thank God it did. We wouldn't be sitting here right here with our 18 listeners. Anything else? No. That's a good one. Oh, yeah.

And actually for all the, you know, the kind of kidding about our small listenership and everything, it's actually been pretty crazy. We've only been going for like a week and a half. You know what? And so we were kind of kidding. It's been pretty amazing, the response. Really, really amazing. Yep. But not as amazing as December 24th would be when we hit one million Instagram followers. You know, I'm so confident about that. The tattoo episode is going to be amazing.

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