Ep. 453: Render – Live from iHeartCountry Festival

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, this is Clay Newcombe. Welcome to a special episode of Bear Grease where I am at the iHeartRadio Country Music Festival in Austin, Texas, and we’re gonna be talking with two different guys who have exemplified in their life.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: Hard work, grit, a pioneering spirit.

00:00:19
Speaker 1: These guys started from nothing and have had tremendous careers. We’re gonna get to talk to Dylan Scott and Russell Dickerson country music stars.

00:00:30
Speaker 3: Man.

00:00:30
Speaker 1: These guys, both of them have had multiple number one hits. And we’ve teamed up with Bobcat, the equipment company Bobcat, and we’re at the Bobcat Garage right here at the iHeartRadio Country Music Festival, and we’re gonna get kicked off by talking with Russell Dickerson.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: First, Russell Dickerson.

00:00:53
Speaker 1: Yboddy, hey man, welcome to the Bobcat Garage.

00:00:58
Speaker 2: What do you think of this?

00:00:59
Speaker 3: This is fine? This is you’re doing You’re really doing it.

00:01:02
Speaker 2: We’ve got the we’ve got the heavy equipment over here. If we need it, we sure do.

00:01:06
Speaker 4: So.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: We are at the iHeart Country Festival. We’re here in Austin, Texas. Yeah, but do you play in Austin A lot.

00:01:14
Speaker 3: I wouldn’t say a lot, but I have played this event.

00:01:17
Speaker 5: I’ve played this stage right here that you hear in the background a couple of years ago. Yeah, so it’s cool to be on the main stage this year.

00:01:22
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: So, so what’s it like for you today? Like, what’s your on the day of a big show like this?

00:01:31
Speaker 2: What what’s it like for you?

00:01:32
Speaker 4: Man?

00:01:32
Speaker 3: I gotta be honest. I played the round of my life today in golf.

00:01:38
Speaker 4: Really yeah. Yeah.

00:01:38
Speaker 5: So we were Spot’s play yesterday with a bunch of bunch of people, but uh went out this morning. Me George Burd’s were the only two artists that showed up.

00:01:46
Speaker 3: I do want to note that. And uh I shot. I mean, dude, it was amazing.

00:01:51
Speaker 5: It would so play golf, had a great round, came back, showered, took a little little little rest, little nappy poo, Yeah, and uh got dressed.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: Came straight to you brother, right on? Yeah on, man.

00:02:04
Speaker 1: So i’ve you’re from Union City, Tennessee. Yeah, that’s kind of over in my part of the world, in Arkansas.

00:02:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, right?

00:02:11
Speaker 2: Is that where you still live?

00:02:12
Speaker 4: Bro?

00:02:12
Speaker 3: Noah, No, we live.

00:02:13
Speaker 5: I’ve been in Nashville since I was ten years old. Okay, so we moved when I was ten, But I mean, dude, Union City is the greatest small town.

00:02:21
Speaker 3: It’s so good.

00:02:21
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:02:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, it’s a bunch of cornery yield.

00:02:23
Speaker 2: You grew up in Nashville.

00:02:24
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, really, so like half my childhood was there. Half my childhood was in Nashville.

00:02:30
Speaker 5: And but then you know, raising a family, going to college, everything, everything, since it’s all Nashville.

00:02:36
Speaker 1: You know, when you see somebody that like you, that’s had success, had a lot of number one hits, looks like I want to talk about that where most people like don’t understand the amount of work that goes into doing what you do.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: Where is that? Where is the work at?

00:02:54
Speaker 1: I mean to me, it’s like, oh, well, he’s just like playing guitar and singing all the time.

00:02:58
Speaker 2: That’s the work. Is that the work?

00:03:00
Speaker 3: No, that’s the fun part.

00:03:02
Speaker 2: Where’s the work?

00:03:05
Speaker 3: I mean, jeez, the fun I mean.

00:03:09
Speaker 5: The work is getting Honestly, the work started when the success started, like because you at first, I’m just writing songs, I’m recording, I’m putting it out.

00:03:19
Speaker 3: I’m independent.

00:03:20
Speaker 4: You know.

00:03:21
Speaker 5: We shot the music video for Yours and everything started popping off, so that was when I signed a record deal.

00:03:27
Speaker 3: That’s when I had to go on radio tour. So we travel.

00:03:29
Speaker 5: I was I got asked on tour by Thomas Rhett. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, that’s the you know, that’s the show.

00:03:35
Speaker 3: That’s the fun. We’re just touring and hanging out.

00:03:38
Speaker 5: But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday sometimes and Thursday is flying all over the country, hopping in a Honda Odyssey, you know, driving radio station to radio station. But I mean, you know, we’re making friends along the way. I’m a super relational, outgoing dude, So I’m not saying that this was bad.

00:03:56
Speaker 3: It’s just like that was a ground that was the work, yea.

00:03:59
Speaker 5: And i mean still, you know, there’s always phoners, liners, interviews, travel, you know, just like every gig is not the most amazing gig you’ve ever played.

00:04:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, just good.

00:04:10
Speaker 5: But you know, somebody’s like, you can’t cry on your yacht, you know what I’m saying. So I’m like, I get to play music for a living. So it really in the last couple of years, I’m like, you know what, dude, Yeah it’s a grind. Yeah it’s hard, but like I’m making a living chasing my dreams playing music and that’s cool.

00:04:27
Speaker 3: We little great life.

00:04:28
Speaker 2: So what was it like before you had that kind of life?

00:04:33
Speaker 1: I mean, you were, you were traveling, you were a guitar tech is that right? So when when did that song yours come out that kind of put you on the map.

00:04:42
Speaker 5: That was probably twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen.

00:04:46
Speaker 3: So that was, yeah, a decade ago.

00:04:50
Speaker 5: But before that, I just like, we were in a Nissan Armada two thousand and four with we ended up putting a quarter million more in the car.

00:04:59
Speaker 2: Names, aren’t you? I’ve heard too already?

00:05:01
Speaker 1: One of your songs is called blue Yeah, but yeah, I.

00:05:06
Speaker 3: Mean, dude, it’s that. That’s the grind is all leading up to that too.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: Were you always aiming towards being a performer yourself? Yes, that’s always what you wanted.

00:05:15
Speaker 5: I mean I remember writing songs with my buddies Florida Georgia Line. Don’t before they were like Florida Georgia Line. Yeah, we were writing songs for me because they wanted to write songs, they wanted to be writers, And I was like, no, I’m an artist. I want to tour, I want to perform these songs. I want to record them I want to sing them, you know, And so it’s always been an artist for me. I don’t pitch a lot of my songs because you never know, and so I just like that’s always been like going to concerts.

00:05:42
Speaker 3: I was like, I want to be that guy. Yeah. Yeah.

00:05:45
Speaker 1: Now you grew up. You grew up in the church, singing in the church. Your mom was a pianist, Is that right?

00:05:51
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:05:51
Speaker 2: I mean is that kind of where you got your your musical roots?

00:05:55
Speaker 4: Totally? Yeah.

00:05:55
Speaker 5: My dad My dad was the music minister. My mom played the piano. So it was like always choir rehearsal. There was every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night, I led worship for my youth group.

00:06:08
Speaker 2: Really is that still a part of your life?

00:06:10
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Oh yeah. Man, God is the foundation of my life. And so yeah, just it just that was my first you know, playing in front of people and like just me and the guitar. That prepared me for so much in this life. And just like kind of the spontaneity of like worship as well as like feeling where feeling where the atmosphere is going, like you know, in a spiritual way, but also in like a musical way now of like where’s the crowd going? Like where do we what’s the what’s the vibe? You know, so that that’s always just super fun to me.

00:06:43
Speaker 1: What would you say is the like if you if you had a theme of the kind of music that you write, what would that theme be?

00:06:51
Speaker 2: Is there a theme?

00:06:53
Speaker 3: I think? I think just celebrating life. I guess, like I don’t.

00:06:59
Speaker 5: I don’t really like I don’t have a bunch of heartbreak like knockdown, drag out fight, break up, whiskey drinking songs. You know, like I don’t have those experiences. That’s good, and so I don’t.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: I don’t write those kind of songs either, man, Yeah, and so I just I don’t know.

00:07:13
Speaker 5: Those are like super popular right now, and it’s just like I can’t relate to that.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: And so I like, I mean songs like I mean obviously love.

00:07:21
Speaker 5: Songs about my beautiful wife, and uh, you know, we got a song called what a Life? And it’s just like, dude, look around, like what a dream this is that we get to that this life?

00:07:30
Speaker 3: We get married? Thirteen years thirty.

00:07:35
Speaker 1: Tuesday, okay, yeah, close one. Yeah that’s awesome. So your your roots are in Tennessee. Do you do some hunting? Did you say, are you in the outdoors?

00:07:46
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:07:46
Speaker 2: Man, what do you do over there?

00:07:47
Speaker 5: I always like it wasn’t my like, my dad’s not super into outdoors.

00:07:52
Speaker 3: But my cousin is the one who always took me.

00:07:55
Speaker 1: Everybody’s got a cousin from Tennessee, dude, shout out my cousin.

00:07:59
Speaker 4: L it.

00:08:00
Speaker 5: He’s the one who got me out in the deer stand. And uh, just from just from an early age, man, we would always he would take me on every dove hunt. He’d take me in the deer stand and you know, set me up with the thirty yat six and you know all that stuff, and so it’s just been it’s just, you know, he’s all my early memories of hunting were involving him.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: Okay, So when I first saw that you had like a hit song called Blue Tacoma, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in East Tennessee. Yeah, and I figured the song was about taking the bed off of the truck and mounting a customed dog box on the bed being your bear hunting truck. I was a little surprised when it was not about that.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: That’s a very specific song right there.

00:08:44
Speaker 6: No, the guy.

00:08:45
Speaker 2: The guys in East Tennessee love tacomas.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I literally one of the best bear hunters in the world.

00:08:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, there’s an East Tennessee named Roy Clark.

00:08:53
Speaker 1: He has a blue tacoma big Tacoma guy cut her bed off of it though, brother, Okay.

00:08:58
Speaker 2: Clark, Yeah, I love it well.

00:09:01
Speaker 1: So, uh, what what do you.

00:09:05
Speaker 2: Do every day that keeps you sharp in the music world?

00:09:08
Speaker 4: What?

00:09:08
Speaker 1: What kind of what do you I mean, there’s a level of proficiency that you gain, I know at some point and you’re there, But what do you do?

00:09:18
Speaker 2: Do you still?

00:09:19
Speaker 3: Like me? Songwriting?

00:09:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, musical stuff.

00:09:22
Speaker 3: I don’t have like a set routine every day or anything.

00:09:25
Speaker 5: But I always just try to be just listen to music and just stay you know, like listen to a record that just came out by X y Z, you know, and just see what the like, what is that vibe, what’s that experience?

00:09:38
Speaker 4: Like?

00:09:39
Speaker 3: How how is a songwriting process?

00:09:40
Speaker 5: You know? And just and you know a lot of songwriters send me songs all the time, and so that’s just I like to listen, like, all right, so these guys wrote this, so I maybe I could maybe I could jump.

00:09:50
Speaker 3: In with them.

00:09:51
Speaker 5: Because they’re kind of vibe, you know what I mean, like analyzing how they write and seeing if I, you know, if I fit into that groove, if we could jump in the room together and maybe get a hit.

00:10:00
Speaker 1: When you do, you have like sessions that you write or you just kind of always writing. I mean, are you like on Tuesday at this time, I’m gonna be writing because I know in Nashville they do that.

00:10:10
Speaker 4: They do that.

00:10:11
Speaker 5: I like to I like to do like a camp, like a three day like we just did in February March. We just did like a four day like rented out a whole studio house.

00:10:22
Speaker 3: It’s like I got a studio in it.

00:10:23
Speaker 5: So we just we had three rooms going and I was just popping around and I’m I mean, I’m always writing, you know, I’ve always got songs going in my in my phone of singing melodies or like this is a cool title or blah blah blah. So like when I step into a room, I’m prepared to bring my story, my not just like all right, guys, what you got for me? You know, let’s write me a hit. It’s like I want to bring, I want to bring the idea. I want to bring the story. I want to map out where we’re going and you know, be as involved as I can in writing that.

00:10:51
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:10:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s just come to my attention that you were wearing a Hull Cammania shirt. And I also know that your tour right now it’s called russell Mania.

00:11:03
Speaker 2: Yeah brother, okay, did you think of that one on your own?

00:11:07
Speaker 3: That was that came from it?

00:11:08
Speaker 5: I did an interview one time and like called in. He picked up the phone.

00:11:12
Speaker 3: He was like, what’s up Rustlemania, And I was like, holy crap.

00:11:15
Speaker 5: Like I’ve heard that, Like I’ve heard all the Russell sprouts, Russellmania everything. Wow, you know yeah, but I was like, oh my gosh. So like I immediately got off the phone. I was like, Yo, we need T shirts, Russellmania T shirts, and so we made like a wrestling kind of T shirt vibe and.

00:11:29
Speaker 3: I just swiped out, you know, sold them out.

00:11:33
Speaker 5: So then I was like, all right, we gotta we gotta double down on this, Like I’m naming the entire tour Russellmania, Wrussell Maani WrestleMania, and it’s just been you know, like rest in peace, Hulk Cogan, he sent us. He sponsored his beer sponsored our tour last year. Really yeah, Real American Beer sponsored it, and he sent in videos of him like y’all get ready for Russell Nickers show, and I was like, holy crap, Holdan knows who I am, dude, And so it was just and we just keep doubling down on it and it’s just such a fun atmosphere. And happened to me was the song that just like went hand in hand with that tour at the same time, and it was just so fun.

00:12:12
Speaker 1: So as we’re closing down here in the Bobcat garage, yep, what is People ask me this kind of stuff all the time. They asked me, and it’s a very difficult question. What’s the favorite your favorite song you’ve ever written, ever written. I knew it was gonna stump him.

00:12:33
Speaker 3: I mean yours.

00:12:34
Speaker 2: He’s gonna say, oh, I love them all and they’re all equal.

00:12:37
Speaker 5: I’ve written some terrible songs. I mean yours is always like my first little baby child, you know, that’s like, that’s like my firstborn.

00:12:46
Speaker 1: Now, was it because it was success successful or because.

00:12:50
Speaker 2: No before when you wrote it, You’re like, this is the one.

00:12:52
Speaker 3: I knew, Yeah, I knew that.

00:12:53
Speaker 5: I was like, if this isn’t successful, then I’m probably gonna have to go get a job bagging groceries because this is all I got.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: You know.

00:13:02
Speaker 5: If this isn’t a hit, I don’t know what is and I need to do something different. But thank god it was. Thank God, I’m yours. And yeah, I mean that’s just the one that I go back to and like listen to the verses of like man, that’s a pretty poetic. It’s a pretty poetic song. And yeah, it’s just that. Or maybe Bones Bones.

00:13:22
Speaker 3: Is another favorite of mine, but yeah, I think yours.

00:13:26
Speaker 2: Final answer, Final answer, man, thank you for joining.

00:13:30
Speaker 3: Us to stay in my pleasure Bobcat Garage.

00:13:33
Speaker 2: At the iHeart Country Festival. It’s been a ton of fun. So big night.

00:13:37
Speaker 1: Tonight, Yeah baby, So how many songs you’re doing a full set tonight?

00:13:40
Speaker 5: We got to know everybody’s got like twenty twenty five thirty minutes.

00:13:43
Speaker 3: It’s all It’s all okay, hop in boom boom boom, okay.

00:13:49
Speaker 2: All right, Well, thank you man, Thank you dude. Yeah. WrestleMania whoo.

00:14:00
Speaker 1: Russell Dickerson is like way bigger than I expected him to be. He like towered over me, but he was a ton of fun to talk to Russell Mania, who has a tour called Russell Mania. But I really do appreciate somebody that started from the ground up and has worked as hard as he has and is just as gritty as he is.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: But if we’re talking about grit.

00:14:23
Speaker 1: The man from Louisiana, Dylan Scott Man, I can’t wait to talk.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: To this guy.

00:14:29
Speaker 4: Man.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: We are We’re at the iHeart We’re at the iHeart Country Festival in the Bobcat Garage.

00:14:36
Speaker 4: Good place.

00:14:37
Speaker 1: You check his place out, Man, this is pretty cool. We got the zero turn over there the skit stairs. You could run a skid steers.

00:14:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:14:46
Speaker 1: Well hey man, it’s it’s so good to be here. What what is it like for you today? You’re playing tonight?

00:14:52
Speaker 4: Yep?

00:14:53
Speaker 2: Like, what’s what what the day look like for you to do?

00:14:55
Speaker 4: It’s not too bad.

00:14:56
Speaker 6: I mean, let’s say I got here about one today, not gonna lie. I took a nap, then I took a shower, and now I’m seeing you guys. Okay, but then it’s gonna get busy.

00:15:07
Speaker 3: After this, It’s gonna get busy.

00:15:08
Speaker 4: Did you Busy’s good?

00:15:09
Speaker 2: Did you come in from Louisiana?

00:15:11
Speaker 4: Came in from Nashville.

00:15:12
Speaker 3: Nashville.

00:15:13
Speaker 2: Do you live in Nashville?

00:15:14
Speaker 6: Now, I’ve been there since I was nineteen, so oh really sixteen years.

00:15:18
Speaker 2: But you grew up in Northeast Louisiana.

00:15:20
Speaker 6: Northeast Louisiana, a little town called Bastrip, just of nothing to do town.

00:15:25
Speaker 4: Man.

00:15:25
Speaker 2: Yeah? Was that?

00:15:26
Speaker 1: I mean, is that where you feel like home is or do you feel like Nashville’s home?

00:15:29
Speaker 4: No? At this point in my life.

00:15:30
Speaker 6: I mean I’ve raised I got three kids, They’ve all been born and raised so far in Tennessee. I mean Tennessee’s home. Sixteen years, got my wife, my kids. It’s that’s home.

00:15:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, man, so I know it’s it’s a ton of work doing what you do. People see you stand up on a stage and sing and just think, well, yeah this was just given to this guy.

00:15:53
Speaker 3: Sure, yeap, Where where is the work?

00:15:57
Speaker 2: Like if you were, if you were.

00:15:58
Speaker 1: Evaluating your entire life and all the journey that got you to here.

00:16:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, where did you? Where’s the gravy maid?

00:16:05
Speaker 4: The gravy maid to get to where we are?

00:16:07
Speaker 6: I mean, for me, my daddy put me to work when I was a little boy out there in the yard picking up sticks, you know, and then from there, at fifteen, he says’s time to get a real job. So then it’s the real job it was, you know, I worked at a boat, a marine shop, working on corbureators, were on boats, cleaning the shop, mowing their grass out there, moving boats around. I’ve worked in paper mills, summer jobs. I’ve laid floors, summer jobs.

00:16:32
Speaker 4: All that leads up.

00:16:33
Speaker 6: To going to Nashville, right, and then you get to Nashville and it’s not so much that physical labor anymore. It’s in there, you know, on the road, grinding in a van with a bunch of guys, traveling the country, just.

00:16:46
Speaker 4: Trying and hoping and praying. Somebody listening to your music.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: So were you playing music that whole time as a kid.

00:16:51
Speaker 4: You know what?

00:16:51
Speaker 6: I grew up playing in church? Yep, I grew up playing in church. I didn’t play country music. I always knew I wanted to do country music, but playing in church. And then it was not until honestly I moved to Nashville that I put a band together and started out, you know, play Did.

00:17:04
Speaker 2: You start playing guitar?

00:17:05
Speaker 6: I was like I was twelve years old. Probably my dad told me I learned piano first. It was probably four or five when I learned piano. I’m still not a great piano player by no means, but I get the job done. Not a great guitar player either, but I get the job done. Okay, I’ve got a little brother who plays in my band. He’s the realie.

00:17:22
Speaker 2: Oh really, you travel with your brother?

00:17:23
Speaker 4: I do.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: That’s cool. Yep, that’s cool. So did you write a song when you were in the fourth grade?

00:17:30
Speaker 4: Wrote? I wrote a book?

00:17:32
Speaker 6: I wrote a book, a book in the fourth grade called My Future Life is what it was? And basically, if you look at my life and the way things have transpired, maybe not everything to the tee, but just moved to Nashville, get a record deal, get your songs played on the radio, have a family, have some hits.

00:17:50
Speaker 4: That book has come to life from me.

00:17:52
Speaker 3: Really yeah, in the fourth grade.

00:17:54
Speaker 4: Fourth grade?

00:17:55
Speaker 3: That’s incredible.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:17:57
Speaker 2: So what was uh? I mean, what was it like early in your career before you had some number one hits?

00:18:06
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:18:06
Speaker 1: I mean, like so many people do that and never never have a number one hit, right, I mean, did the whole time that.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: You saw this you could see the end or was there a lot of time when you didn’t think it was going to happen.

00:18:19
Speaker 6: Oh, there was a lot of times I didn’t think it was going to happen, no doubt, But I stayed positive and just kept working and putting one foot forward. I mean, I do believe that anything you work hard at and if you want it bad enough and you see it, then you can achieve that.

00:18:31
Speaker 4: But my dream, my whole life since I was a little boy, was this right here. My dad.

00:18:35
Speaker 6: My dad used to play guitar for Freddie Fender back in the day, so we played with these old school guys. So I grew up not around that, but hearing the stories and playing with my dad.

00:18:43
Speaker 4: So I knew what I wanted to do. But it was tough.

00:18:46
Speaker 6: When I first moved to Nashville, man nineteen year old kid right out of high school. I was a shy kid from a little small town and I didn’t know anybody in the big city in Nashville, you know, And so I had to get out there and grind a little bit, and I was fortunate enough to get a record deal. But hey, that’s not that’s not the work right there. The work starts after that, and it took me a little bit to realize that.

00:19:06
Speaker 4: I thought, Okay, well the record.

00:19:08
Speaker 6: Company will they’ll make me. They’ll make me what I need to be. And it’s like it’s the opposite. You have to put the work in, you have to go on the road and play the shows and build the music and build a fan base and hopefully people want to listen to it.

00:19:18
Speaker 4: And it’s it’s a grind.

00:19:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, what what are you really good at?

00:19:24
Speaker 4: Like?

00:19:25
Speaker 2: Are you a songwriter? A musician?

00:19:27
Speaker 4: Like?

00:19:28
Speaker 3: What what is?

00:19:28
Speaker 2: What would you say?

00:19:29
Speaker 6: The only thing I’m really good at is taking care of my wife and then kids.

00:19:34
Speaker 4: Man, But really.

00:19:38
Speaker 6: I’m not really good at stuff. If you know, I can do a bunch of stuff. I mean you talk about the music, the writing, the singing, the recording, the performing. There’s a saying fake it till you make it. Hey, I’m just out here just faking it.

00:19:48
Speaker 4: Till I make it.

00:19:49
Speaker 6: I’m having a good times what I’m doing. I don’t consider myself.

00:19:52
Speaker 4: Good at anything, but I do love what I do.

00:19:54
Speaker 6: And I think if you can just go have fun with things and it’ll work out.

00:19:58
Speaker 2: That’s cool.

00:19:59
Speaker 4: Man.

00:19:59
Speaker 1: I know that you you have some property yep, and that you do some land management stuff and that you’re a hunter. Yeah, I saw, I saw where you took your boy hunting.

00:20:09
Speaker 4: I took him hunting two days ago. I let him skip school, Is that right?

00:20:13
Speaker 6: Let him skip school that because I mean, I’m not home on most weekends and it’s turkey season right now.

00:20:18
Speaker 2: Oh man, this guy’s said, you’re gonna.

00:20:20
Speaker 6: Take me turkey hunt. So I said, yep, we you’re gonna skip school tomorrow.

00:20:23
Speaker 4: I go.

00:20:23
Speaker 6: But you know what I thought about when I was out there, I said, I bet he got more schooling while he was me that day than he would have in school.

00:20:29
Speaker 4: So the life lessons. You know. We got a turkey too, He got his first turkey to do.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: What day did he kill his turkey?

00:20:36
Speaker 4: What is today? Saturday? Thursday? Thursday?

00:20:39
Speaker 2: Okay, Well I was out in the woods that day too. I didn’t get one though.

00:20:42
Speaker 6: Hunted till five thirty pm. But we finally got it done. Really, Yeah, it was a ground.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: Now you’re you’ve done some land management and stuff though on your place, Is that right?

00:20:52
Speaker 2: I mean I’m pretty interested in that. Yeah, are you trying to manage it for white tails? Turkey? What are you trying to do?

00:20:57
Speaker 4: Well?

00:20:58
Speaker 6: We’ve been blessed enough this journey to have some histor where I could buy a piece of property. And I wanted my kids to grow up the same way I did, which was not in the subdivision.

00:21:06
Speaker 4: You know, nothing against that, but you know.

00:21:09
Speaker 6: Where I grew up, we could hop on a full wheeler or go out in the woods. And when I was a kid, you know, bird hunting or building forests or just doing whatever.

00:21:16
Speaker 4: And I want my kids to experience that too. So we bought some.

00:21:18
Speaker 6: Property right outside of Nashville, and it was a disaster.

00:21:21
Speaker 4: The property was, you know.

00:21:23
Speaker 6: And I have a buddy from Louisiana who him and his dad on a development company, and so when they were slow, he would come up to Nashville. We’d you know, lease out a dozer, some excavators, tracko’s.

00:21:36
Speaker 4: The whole deal.

00:21:37
Speaker 6: And he taught me a lot. I can say that I can. I can run a dozer. I may not be the greatest, now I can run a dozer, I can run track. Oh, I can get it done. But I have learned a lot throughout the process. And it’s just cool to make that property that we have, you know, mine, make it mine and something that.

00:21:55
Speaker 3: We’re proud of its How long have you had it?

00:21:58
Speaker 4: I bought it into twenty twenty.

00:22:00
Speaker 3: Okay, so you’ve had.

00:22:01
Speaker 2: It a couple of years.

00:22:02
Speaker 3: You know.

00:22:02
Speaker 2: They say middle of Tennessee is some of the best turkey hunt in the country.

00:22:05
Speaker 4: It’s pretty good. My form is pretty good.

00:22:07
Speaker 2: Probably better than Louisiana. Nothing against Louisiana.

00:22:09
Speaker 6: It’s way better than louis I didn’t turkey until I moved to Tennessee because it’s just it’s ruffle Louisiana as far as turkey hunt goes.

00:22:15
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I’ve noticed with Russell Dickerson.

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Dickerson, who was up here just a minute ago, and you do a lot of country songs about trucks.

00:22:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, you have a You had.

00:22:25
Speaker 2: A number one hit I believe it was a number one hit called new Truck.

00:22:28
Speaker 1: And when I heard that song was like, I can identify with this guy. I need a new truck too.

00:22:32
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:22:32
Speaker 2: Now you needed the new truck for a different reason than me.

00:22:35
Speaker 4: To get that out of my head, you know what I’m saying.

00:22:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, what so in your in your songwriting? I asked this to Russell a minute ago, what do you have a favorite song that you’ve written?

00:22:48
Speaker 4: That’s a tough one, right there. A favorite song, A.

00:22:51
Speaker 1: Favorite song, you got one. You can take one with you on the road the rest of your life. You got to sing it every night. What’s it going to be?

00:22:57
Speaker 6: I will say, God Lee Man as a hard hitting question, I know it is a hard hitting question because I mean, you got to go back to my very first hit, which was My Girl. You know that’s I’m very proud of that one because I wrote it strictly about my wife and I didn’t think anybody want to listen to it.

00:23:12
Speaker 4: And here we are, got everything jump started, but there’s something along the way.

00:23:15
Speaker 6: I mean, good times go by too fast, and this town’s been too good to us.

00:23:18
Speaker 4: It’s probably one of my favorites.

00:23:19
Speaker 6: It’s just an ode to the town where I grew up and those people, and you know, just those guys who helped carve who I am as a person. But I mean, honestly, probably probably one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written is a song. It’s not a hit, it hasn’t been out long, but it’s just special to me. It’s a song called slow Down. Just released it here a couple of weeks ago. It’s called slow Down, Old son. Actually, and uh, it just it represents how I If you listen to that song, then you can get inside my head and realize what I think about on a daily basis. And it’s it’s that song. Slow down, old son.

00:23:57
Speaker 3: That’s awesome, Man, that’s awesome.

00:24:00
Speaker 2: How many how many days of the year are you on the road?

00:24:04
Speaker 4: That’s it?

00:24:04
Speaker 6: I don’t I don’t even know that question. Not as much as we used to be. But it’s still a lot. It’s still a lot, and it’s that was a tough thing for me for a while, especially after having kids. You know, it was like, man, spending all this time away from my kids and missing missing weekends and and and stuff. I mean, I missed my son’s kindergarten graduation. I said, I will never do that again. My little girls is coming up here in.

00:24:25
Speaker 4: Two weeks, and I promise you I’ll be there for that.

00:24:28
Speaker 6: But there’s a lot of things in this business where you know, early on you’re listening to a lot of people and doing a lot of things. You feel like it’s what you’re supposed to do. But it took me getting a little older to realize, you know, we’re gonna do it. I’m gonna do what I want to do, what my heart says I need to do. And I think any younger artists out there needs to do the same thing. Listen to your heart, listen to your gut. But I’m actually home more than I’m going. And it took it took Thomas Rhet honestly to to show me that right there, because I asked them one day.

00:24:57
Speaker 4: I said, man, how do you do it? How do you how do you.

00:25:00
Speaker 6: Mentally prepare yourself to go on the road and be away from your family and whatnot? And he says, you know, I struggled with it, he said, but if you think about it, we’re really home Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We leave Wednesday midnight usually and we’re only going Thursday, Friday Saturday.

00:25:16
Speaker 4: So we’re actually home more than we’re gone.

00:25:18
Speaker 6: And when we are home, you know, we’re not having to go to work nine to five. We’re home, so we do see our kids, and we probably see our family more than some.

00:25:28
Speaker 4: Who are home every single night.

00:25:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that’s how I.

00:25:33
Speaker 1: Really like that, that’s such a central focus in your family. You hear, it’s kind of the cliche answer that you hear some people say.

00:25:40
Speaker 2: But I can tell you mean it absolutely, and that’s I just.

00:25:43
Speaker 6: Stole my kids to turn eighteen and go where it was down, and I don’t want them to turn eighteen and go where was I You know.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: There’s a song title right there. Yeah, and you could write it together.

00:25:52
Speaker 4: Let’s do it.

00:25:53
Speaker 1: Get Yeah, man, thank you so much. So this Bobcat garage is pretty cool.

00:26:02
Speaker 4: Hun bad.

00:26:02
Speaker 6: I’ll think I’m a tell Bobcat I need this skisty here.

00:26:05
Speaker 1: We’re taking all this home Bobcat. Absolutely yeah, I’ll take the zero turn. I want this SHD in my house.

00:26:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, but absolutely no.

00:26:13
Speaker 1: So man, iHeart Country Festival tonight, big night. You’re gonna play, Like how much will you play tonight? Like thirty minutes?

00:26:21
Speaker 4: I think we get twenty minutes on tack as much as I’m.

00:26:24
Speaker 2: Turn turn it up to one point two?

00:26:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, we didn’t come here. We didn’t come here tonight, so we have a good time.

00:26:30
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for being with us, man, I really appreciate it.

00:26:32
Speaker 4: Appreciate you.

00:26:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, thank you, and huge thanks to Bobcat, yeah, who put all this on for us.

00:26:42
Speaker 6: I’ll give Bobcat an extra things if I take the skis to their home let.

00:26:45
Speaker 2: They’ll let you drive it back to Nashville.

00:26:47
Speaker 6: I’ll drive it all the way. Come on tour bus behind me, just flashers on.

00:26:53
Speaker 1: These interviews were pretty fast paced with these guys. I’d like to really sit down with them and talk to them for a couple of hours. But what is clear is that these guys are super talented, and I think what you usually see is just a guy.

00:27:09
Speaker 2: On the radio.

00:27:10
Speaker 1: You hear him, you see him, and you think, well, he’s just always been famous, and we know that that’s just not truth.

00:27:15
Speaker 2: These guys have worked.

00:27:17
Speaker 1: Incredibly hard, and I identify with that in some way, because media can be kind of deceptive. You see somebody, you hear somebody on a podcast, and you just think, well, you know, they were just born for this. And I know inside of my story there was a lot of years, even decades of work that.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: Went into where I’m at.

00:27:41
Speaker 1: And I just have a lot of respect for people that work hard, that believe in what they’re doing, that take pride in what they do. And I really appreciate both these guys as family men. Dylan Scott, when I asked him, I said, what are you really good at? I was expecting him to say I’m really good at you know, I’m an incredible guitarist, or you know I’m a writer, and he said, man, the only thing I’m really good at is taking care of my wife. And I thought that was a great answer. And I hope you’ve enjoyed our episode. At the iHeart Country Music Festival in Austin, Texas in the Bobcat Garage and keep the Wild Places wild because that’s where the Bears live. And if you need some equipment for habitat management, check out Bobcat Equipment