This artist's new album connects personal stories and heartfelt music

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I mean, there's [music] so many great singers, so many great songwriters. And at this stage in the game, I feel like, say something if you have something to say. And I just went, what have I been doing? Being on Capitol Hill and talking to legislators, [music] I just felt a log jam. It's so funny. Like, for years, anytime I pass somebody redoing a house, this old southern voice comes to my house. You can redo it all you want. We're still going to die. [laughter] Welcome. I want to talk about the new album which um is accurately described as more of a singer songwriter Yep. type album. Um is this a new direction for you or more of a oneoff? Um I guess it's a new direction. You know, when you're making the music, you're not thinking about the overview. You're just kind of in it. And so, but yeah, I mean there's so many great singers, so many great songwriters. And at this stage in the game, I feel like say something if you have something to say. And so, and I think that is kind of the direction of a singer songwriter. Is that scary for you this far in your career to kind of go in a new direction? Not at all. I mean, I've I've toured, you know, I'm 65. I've toured for 40 plus years and crazy people still show up. [laughter] You know, there was a time I played arenas. Now I play theaters. Sometimes they're not full, but like like I'll sit backstage and go, "Oh my gosh." like all those people bought a ticket. You know, my siblings aren't buying tickets. [laughter] You know, a lot of people stopped going to live music and but then I don't know, at some point I thought I'm singing all these songs that I wrote in my 20s, 30s, even 40s. And I thought, why not why not write about how you feel about life right now? Because everybody changes. Everybody's life is full. Things happen to us, in us, through us, and it changes us. And so, yeah. And I just thought, what have I got to lose? and just write some ideas that are current. What do you require backstage nowadays compared to like what it was back in the day? Oh my gosh, nothing. A workable toilet. [laughter] After everything you've seen, the one thing is you just want a a working toilet. Yeah. I mean, it's so Well, because on a [laughter] bus, you know, they can put a man on a moon, but you can't go number two on a bus. So, [laughter] Right. You're right. That's so funny. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah, just just life and and you know, when when I went back in the studio and with Mac Minelli and just that first day of bringing these songs to life, I thought, "Oh my gosh, it was, you know, I I just haven't worked like that in 13 years." Wow. I've recorded oneoffs, but not a whole record. Okay. And I just went, "What have I been doing? I've been making music, but not this." and he was like, "God, if bringing songs to life, if that's not fun, something is wrong with the world, right?" And to me, it just feels like this a rediscovery of something that was so much a part of my younger life. And to me, you know, you make it, you set it free. There's no guarantee anybody will listen, but to but the experience was just the making of it. Well, so how do you you always seem so optimistic. So, h how do you manage to stay optimistic, not just in music, but with everything going on, it's so easy to not be optimistic? How what's your secret? Oh, man. Um I think just kind of having an an attitude of gratefulness because, you know, we're all subject to being led by our preferences. You know, I wouldn't prefer this conversation. I wouldn't prefer this. But that is that's all about kind of I don't know. That's not a lot of openness to the possibility of something that's going to happen that you weren't intending to happen but winds up being this crazy life changer that's that you wouldn't have even known to ask for. And I but I really think yeah like if when somebody comes up to me I'm in a hurry. I'm in a a public place. They start a conversation. I can tell it's going to be long. I really make the practice of just saying the word in my head, thank you for this. I didn't ask for this. Thank you. Because if you don't say that, like everything you kind of braces, you know, and you the clock's ticking in your head. But if you say thank you, like everything relaxes and you kind of go like, well, who was I with my big plan? And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, like that conversation opens up. And whether it's short or long, you know, you're not just grinding your teeth and then suddenly you're like, "Well, hey, have a good one. Bye." Gosh, you should teach that to a lot of celebrities because a lot of celebrities lose that. Well, I think a lot of people lose that, you know, especially the the older we get, we especially here, no matter no matter how much opportunity you have or don't have, a lot of us in America can kind of create this thermostat controlled environment. I have my coffee the way I want it. I This is the temperature I like to sleep in. I mean, you kind of go, come on. Neanderthalss did not have all those. [laughter] Yeah. And it's like, you know, just sometimes you just have to let go of that and see where life will take you. Uh the song, how do we get there from here? Um that addresses are we going to be part of the problem, part of the solution? Yeah. Um how was that one getting through that and singing it and just getting it out there? How did that make you feel, man? Well, just trying to do the video. Yeah. Ruby and I both cried the first time singing through it. But our background with that song was um she and I were both part of a group of artists who went to Capitol Hill several months after the Covenant shooting. So, it was 2023, the shooting happened the last Monday in March, and this was in the fall. All I thought was, "Oh my gosh, at least being a songwriter, you can have an idea, write a three and a half minute song, have something to say." And no kidding, being on Capitol Hill and talking to legislators, it was I felt I just felt the log jam. the log jam like you go, "Oh my gosh, everybody is there because they're smart. Everybody has ideas, but everyone's pushing against each other." And so in November, uh it was toward the end of November, and I I thought, I want to write something about that. I don't feel like we accomplished anything, but and I just sat down. It was cold enough for a fire. I was looking in the fire going, what would you say? What would you say? And I mean, I think I sat there two and a half hours and finally just the first verse in chorus came to me and um and I thought, who was I on Capitol Hill with? And I reached out to Ruby said, "Any chance you want to help me with this song?" Wow. And uh 15 months later, after just trading emails and voicemails, Stevie calling me from the road. What about what about Yeah. 15 months later, she said, "I think I hooked it." And I said, "Well, [laughter] I got a I've got a session two days from now. Let's record it." Oh, wow. See, that timed out perfectly. Yes. Wow. Wow. You got a song called uh let's see, The Other Side of Goodbye. Does that um kind of address your backto-back health scares? No, actually that song is specifically about my mom passing. Okay. And um yeah, and she was in hospice care at our house for the last three weeks of her life. And um but yeah, hey, we're all going to die. You know, it's so funny like for years anytime I pass somebody redoing a house, like some major renovation, this old southern voice comes to my house. You can redo it all you want. We're still going to die. [laughter] You can buy all new furniture. We're still going to die. You [laughter] know, but I think my mom, you know, she was just so much a part of my life. And no kidding, like the last thing she did was [gasps] and she had been nonresponsive for like over 24 hours. And I just I could not I mean I grabbed my phone and just tried to take a picture of her face. I was like, "Oh my gosh, what she what not everybody dies that way, but she did." And and that song is just trying to capture that. Wow. So yeah. Is that one of your most vulnerable songs or no? Um, well, it's funny because I sang that to a couple of friends. We were on a a girls trip last week and I hadn't actually sung it for anybody and I recorded it and once again I kind of got choked up doing it and I was just trying like you got to get over it. You got to be able to sing these songs for people. But it's not a sad song. But um anyway, but when I looked up, both of them were wiping their eyes and I thought, God, what the greatest thing about music. It's like nobody has their guard up. You can just slide in with an idea or a thought and the person singing it feels it, the person hearing it feels it, and you know, I mean, you don't feel it when you've sung it 500 times, but [laughter] but you know, right there at the beginning, it's pretty cool. Yeah. [clears throat] Whatever it is you a song that makes you want to strut, a song that makes you want to Yeah. be in love. What? It could be anything. What about the sixth of January? What did you Were you afraid of how people would take that song? That never occurred to me. I just I thought the song I didn't write it. Sandy Lawrence wrote it and we're good friends and she's a great songwriter and um yeah and she showed up at my house cuz she was going to work in Vince's studio and uh we got a we have a home studio and and I was had my bags packed leaving for the West Coast and she the doorbell opened and she said I am I'm tracking here today and I said what is that crazy little instrument you got to what did you write on that [laughter] and it was a little drumstick. Wow. And then I was like waiting, waiting, waiting on her and I said, "When are you going to put this song out?" It's still not out. She still hasn't put it out. Wow. And I said, "Would you please let me record that? I can't get that song out of my head." And it was um Yeah. And so uh I love how Mac everything Mac sang on that. And um Yeah. And she's kind of shy and she said, "Hey, I think we make a great team. Let me write the songs and you be the mouthpiece." Nice. She's got some other stuff she's written that's killer. Yeah. What is it like uh not let's say not in the studio, but like is are there just endless tunes with you and Vince singing? Do you guys When's the last time y'all sat down with a guitar and play? How's that work at your house? Well, he plays every day. He plays and music is his first language and he plays plays plays. When the other night, you know, I'm a decent rhythm player, but I thought I've got to be able to play this whole record by myself. And so he's practicing mandolin because he was going to do something with I think um Da and Vincent and you know those mandolin chops you got to keep those up. Bluegrass that's high speed. But he's down the hall in another room and I'm just like limping through these songs on the guitar and I thought you know all we can do is bring what we have to the table [laughter] and he's like a maestro. He's a freak of nature down the hall and I'm [laughter] me. Okay. Well, on the contrary, what's your least favorite Vince Gill song then? Oh my god. Get him back one time. And my least favorite? Yeah. The one where you're like, "Babe, oh man, I could I could stand to not hear that one." Well, I'm going to tell you, he's so prolific. I bet in the last two years he's written a hundred songs. Okay. And so, uh, yeah. and recorded a lot of them. And I will say this about him, I feel like his greatest gift to country music is the legacy of songs that he's written and uh and with young songwriters. So I mean some I'll hear songs of his once and that's it because now he's just turnurning him out so fast. Got it. I would love to hear one enough to hate it. [laughter] Um, are there some younger artists uh in country that you like? You know who I just discovered the other day was um Cashes Co Pepper. I've heard that. Yes. Oh my gosh. I um Yeah, I did a podcast, World Cafe, which I'd never listened to, but I thought I should do my homework. And so I just pulled up several of the artists that had been on there. And um I loved his story. you know, he was in the military from Alabama and during CO just picked up a guitar stationed overseas and I loved his story and and I love his voice. So soulful. I think he's opening for Jelly Roll this summer. I mean, you talk about going from singing in the barracks to [laughter] the big Right. Right. What do you think about some of the contemporary Christian and country crossovers? Jelly Rolls involved in a song called Amen. There's a few other uh Christian music, country songs that are meshing together. How do you feel about those two genres kind of marrying each other now? Oh man. Well, I feel like that's been a historic partnership. No different than um the traditional soul gospel and R&B. I mean, so many artists started in church. Artha Franklin, Sam Cook, you know, I think the same thing is true with um, you know, kind of traditional southern hymns and bluegrass and how that kind of became country, you know, and people, it doesn't matter if somebody goes to church or not. Everybody is like mind, body, soul. And so I I feel like there's always the no matter what somebody's singing about, even if it's not your story, you go any like something resonates in me with this. Even if you're a Bible burner, you're like, why is like [laughter] this is doing something to me. Right. Right. Right. And I just think it's cuz we're all the total package, you know, whether we feel it or not. Man, you're awesome. You don't even have to sing and you'd be awesome. Like you just you're awesome in general. you what I am. I'm old. [laughter] So that is the greatest thing about living life is you just got Yeah. [clears throat] It stops. It's Yeah. Everything is interesting. That's great. I This was awesome. I appreciate that you came and hang hung out and I appreciate the album and the new music. Thank you. Thanks for playing it.