Adventures in Country Music, Brother Hijinks, and Songwriting Magic with Dan & Reid Isbell :: Ep 43 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
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Where a lot of people are singing about country music and singing about a lifestyle that sometimes they don't live, you know, and sometimes you can see through that. We had Dustin Lynch on, and dude, this country is cornbread, man. And we were at. If a guy was that good at teeth, that was kind of surprising. I saw stuff in Australia. I never thought I'd ever see you do that.

When they say there's stuff in Australia that would kill you. Oh, we were down there touring. We're at a bar and saw a tree though. She was moving. It's the whole side of a tree. And I asked the bartender. I'm like, and there's something in that tree, man. Big in that tree. Something big. He goes, oh, mate, it's just one of those. Just a little city bat.

and the thing took off it looked like a horse with wings man it was just so i had a fun country band reed felt physics told me at a show he was moving to nashville and i was like great come on i doctor i've time for school is that the question yes yeah he's like a second i felt physics for the second literally i'm like some people call us you below cowboy you know like i'm doing this thing he's like from the front row dude i'm like in the back he's like

I failed chemistry or physics. I was like, okay. I was like, okay. He's like, just broke up with my girlfriend. I was like, all right, man. Like, okay, I got to finish the second verse. And then he's like,

I'm moving to Nashville. I was like, dude, we're literally riding home together. We can talk about all of this after I get through this stuff. He's like, we're going to be songwriters. The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now. Try That in a Small Town.

God's country. Look at them beers. God's country. Yeah, we got them both right here. God's country. Bring us in, Kurt. All right.

Welcome to another episode of the Try That in a Small Town podcast. As Neil told you, we got God's Country. Some people call them the Brother's Hunt.

Boom. Hello? Some people call you Dan and Reed. Is it Dan and Reed or Reed and Dan? Reed and Dan. Who do you think is older? Oh, I ain't playing. No, we don't. Well, you cut your beard. I can't tell anymore. You're identical twins. You don't count. You can't say anything. Who's older between me and Reed? We're identical twins. If you had to guess. I'm going to say you because you're the more dominant. What? What?

You're rocking more ways than one, brother. Okay, so who is older? I'm older. Oh, you're right. Okay, we got this. Let's go. Four years. Sorry, I didn't give you a chance. I was going to say you only because...

Of the distinguished slight more gray in the beard. That's three kids. That's two kids. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, you're a little patchy. Bro, it's because kids pulling on it. It's because of the stress, bro. No, that's his tit. That's what I said earlier. He has like a weird tit where he pulls his beard. Especially when I drive and I'm thinking. Huh.

my wife all the time is like real weird quit pulling your beard really pull it out i'll pull it out it's like a thing taste me is it wow okay i see it you see the i see the green it looks like the rough and then the green around the middle yeah this business do it to you yeah so i got i'll do like this a whole lot trying to really yeah man you know 10 12 years in this town will get you that's right pulling your hair out yeah

What do y'all think of the state of the industry right now? Oh, boy. We're going right to it. We're going in. It's coming in hot. Hey, I'm not holding back. Let me take a drink. Let's throw some people under the bus tonight. You want to? I know I say that on our podcast all the time. You're like, let's go viral, dude. Say something that gets us viral. I really feel bad for you guys. You guys have a...

Awesome podcast. You don't seem to piss anybody off. You guys get any, like PETA. Does PETA hate you guys? Yeah, they hate us. For sure. Yeah, they hate us, and that's fine. I mean, you know, it would be different if I felt like anything that they were founded on made sense. But it's kind of like when a drunk guy thinks you're not cool, you don't really care. Yeah.

It's the same kind of theory. K-Lo, he's talking to you. We all know what PETA really stands for. People eating. Tasty animals. That's right. Oh, nice. So, you know, man, look, I think it's one of those things where

You're trying good intentions, right? Best of intentions. Was it Travis Tritt? Yeah, something like that. It was. And I think if PETA thought they could actually change this, they'd probably come after us, but they think it's too far gone. Like, we're way too far down this rabbit hole to even think about that. It kind of, you know, when I think about guys that I could probably still...

beat the shit out of. I think about guys from PETA. PETA guys got nothing on us. There's not a lot of those guys left. I'm not worried about PETA. You're not going to feel really intimidated by anyone from PETA. I think you're going to be shocked. I would love to see a line of them blocking your gate. It'd be awesome. It feels like Hell's Angels or something. Don't kill deer! Don't kill deer!

Oh, I love it. We got you guys some hot water. All I have to do is give them some of my jerky and they'd be in. Hey, dude. That is good, Neil. Convert them. Instantly. You do your own jerky? Do you cook your own jerky? It's good. You can guess it to some people.

I smoke mine on Traeger. I smoke mine now. I don't dehydrate anymore. You're going to have to show me how to smoke it on Traeger. Easy. Two hours, three hours. I'll try. Max. You got to have a record deal to get some of Neil's jerky. I think so. Got a record coming out? Neil gets me jerky. Get the jerky going. Luke comes back. I'll get into it. It was out there on the counter for everybody to take, and Kurt just missed it. No. I have a different side of the story. That's the early bird gets the jerky right there. Yeah.

So you guys wrote a lot for Luke Combs. You write a lot for Luke Combs. Did you guys write The Kind of Love We Make? We did. Before we even get going, I didn't want to forget this. That's my favorite Luke Combs song. That's got a classic feel to it.

Like it sounds like could be eighties, could be nineties, the groove, the melody. Great job. I bet we can get him to sing it later. Yeah. And that was three. That was your first number one. That's my first. And your third. Yes, sir. Let's go. That's right. Yeah. It was, uh, a pretty, uh,

wild way that that song kind of came to fruition we were supposed to be turkey hunting down in mississippi and and went down there with our other co-writer on the song and dan's dan went to college with him and he's like our other brother uh jamie davis and he's now luke's rhythm guy and his band utility guy kind of but uh but we were down there supposed to be turkey hunting we woke up saturday morning it was raining cats and dogs and and we were drinking coffee and hanging out and

Dan was like, man, maybe we should, since we're not going to go turkey hunting, maybe we should write a song. Me and Jamie were like, yeah, right. What are you talking about? I'm on vacation right now. I'm going to sit here and drink some coffee and watch it rain. He's not very like me, honestly. Usually, I'm the first to be like, we ain't writing nothing today, man.

But that day, it just... I was like, well... And it was early, too. It was like 7.30 in the morning. It was real early. I mean, we had just woken up to see if we were going to go turkey hunting. And the cool part about this is Maria's wife had... Oh, you're missing it all. Jamie's wife, Maria. I'm sorry. Jamie's wife, Maria. There was a guitar on the wall. Yeah, James. And...

I'm still... Is it... Was there dads? You want me to take it? Go for it. Tag. Tag him. Tag. The dominant brother. You better take... That's what we do. You better take this over. That's what we do. I'll throw it back in the middle. Give it to the dominant brother. The dominant brother. I don't care how the story goes. So...

To my right, it was just hanging up. And it was so Jamie's wife, Jamie's wife, Maria, her father played in bands and gig and was kind of an R&B dude, honestly, like a soul guy in Mississippi. And a lot of that R influence is kind of,

We're from West Tennessee, but it's right where Mississippi and Alabama and Tennessee all meet right there. We got Memphis two hours west. We got the Shoals 45 minutes south. Nashville two and a half hours. And then we're rooted in Mississippi, so Blues. Dad's a pastor. And Rockabilly. So we got that. Rockabilly was in Jackson, Tennessee. And so all these... And country, of course. Tons of influences right there. Yeah, all these different influences kind of got in there on us. And so...

daryl warley's from our hometown shout out d-dub man um that's right but he uh arden county yeah that's where we're from so we uh you know all that kind of flows through us and jamie and i had a funk country band for a long time called soul gravy that reed would come to the shows and he would get up there and do songs and we just kind of grew up really really grew up on r&b and 70s rock and so all that kind of influenced our stuff and

His dad, Maria's dad, get back to the story, was in the same kind of band, had died, left her that guitar. It got hung up on the wall. And I just picked it up, and I was like, I don't know, let's just see what this has got in it. And literally, that's the first thing I played was that. Oh, man. God given. Yeah, 100%. Divine, man. Jamie was like, hey, man, what's that, dude? I was like, what?

No idea. I said, I just, you know, I don't know, just a little R&B groove. And so we started talking about it and kind of started writing it out. And we wrote, what, half of it or something? The first chorus there and then went to Montana a couple months later and finished it with L.C. Yeah, Luke had a retreat. And we were like, hey, man, I think this is kind of a...

you know, feel this feels good to us. It's, it's R and B, which he, he, whether he'll admit it or not, is a natural R and B singer. Like he's got, Oh, he's got that. He's got it. And we were just lucky enough to kind of write the thing. Were you saving it for him?

Oh, totally. I mean, after we had the verse and chorus and you thought, hey, let's sit on this and let's get it through. We wrote it for him specifically. You know, him being like our literal best friend, it was like we kind of have a responsibility almost, you know, to just go, hey, man, before we finish this, if you want to. And he was like, oh, man, I'm in. And we wrote the second verse with him. And he even changed some stuff in the first to kind of make it. And the funniest part about this story to me is,

It didn't get cut. Well, I remember him. We wrote it in this house in Montana, and I remember him. We were doing the work tape, and he brought up a microphone, and we were trying to get a good work tape. And he was getting so frustrated because it's a lot of words, right? And you've got to be familiar with it to get it in there, which is kind of how we... I love syncopation, man. I love...

you know like trying to get things in there where where it's normally not and so a lot of that song is there's a lot of stuff in it and i just remember him getting really frustrated trying to sing this work tape and he'd be like god let's do it again i was like oh my god we totally screwed up it was a waste of a song we just wait no we're not gonna write anymore on this trip you know and uh yeah i didn't get cut i'm not getting cut and uh

And we were like, man, it's not even going to make the record. And it was the one we were the most excited about. It's a great song. It really is. To have a song that's got that immediate classic feel makes you feel like it transcends wherever you are decades. And it's a really great job. Yeah, that's going to get played for years. Thank you. The crazy thing is it didn't feel – I mean, it felt special when you're writing that kind of thing, but it's just –

It's another day, right? Like you're just... It's not another song, but it is another song. You're just... You're not doing anything different that you've done. You're just... That's what you fell into that day. You could have played that lick the next day and nobody said a word. Absolutely. And the hook... The timing of it was... If we're being honest, like the hook...

wasn't that super strong you know what i mean we tried to change it a lot it wasn't like this standout twisty kind of it was just a straight down the middle this is what it is there was no tricks involved in the hook which we were like oh no it's kind of regular but i think the feel of it is what really catapulted it to to but i think too those hook though it may feel that way to you but for me i loved it it was like sometimes that's what people want

They don't want to think about this from years of being on the road. Like you start to see what people buy into and why they do it. And sometimes they don't want to have to follow along with some twist. Right. It's like watching an M night Shyamalan movie. You're like, okay, what's the hook going to be? I want to see a good point. When I first heard it on there, it was on the radio. I think it had just come out. Um, me like a morning show is playing it. And I was like,

I was like, it reminded me of a song we cut years and years ago called no. And it was, it was, I think a Wendell song, I think years ago on, I can't remember. Maybe, maybe the second record record. And it had that,

Really cool R&B kind of mixed-race country thing. You guys nailed that one. Thank you, man. That means a lot coming from y'all. Seriously. But seriously, that was a great one. Thank you. Table of Legends, man. That means a lot. Well, I mean, besides K-Lo.

The guy with the most number ones. The guy with the most number ones. A walking contradiction. I'm not saying anything. Caleb's very intimidating. He didn't hear me. He's very intimidating. Did you hear what he said? Because maybe we should get to it. What? I said, as some would say, a walking contradiction. A walking or a walking? It could be either. What do you mean? It's not my words, Caleb. You weren't here, so we were talking about it.

you i don't know what chris is talking about me neither no kayla kayla it's funny you said walking contradiction because kayla's like really i didn't say it just kayla so you know i didn't say that you know i love you no no no no it's like i can talk about kayla's like one of my best friends ever in the world always has been second or third funny you didn't start that's not how you started it when you're talking about you said walking contradictions like he's so militant in some things but

Other things is like... Look at that face. I don't know what it is. We were talking... It's true, I'll agree. If you had to guess one thing that might be... Not militant. What would it be? This is so great. It's not hand sanitizer. Very militant. Very clean. 99. Oh, being on time. Yeah!

Ding! This is like the newlywed game or something. We didn't even have to, your three buds didn't even have to bring it up. I thought it was going to be something where I'm just kind of looking over at Lana like, okay, what are these guys doing? What do they know? My deep, dark secrets. What does my Wikipedia page say about me? It's funny, the guy with the most number ones at the table just sitting over there taking it. I love it. Well, you know, you can make a lot of money playing Costanza. Exactly.

Amen. Jason Alexander's rich, too. He's not as rich as Seinfeld, but he's rich. That's good, Caleb. Hey, I was going to ask you guys, just in being brothers, and I've got brothers, and mentioning that that incredible song was your first and your third. Are you guys...

were you competitive growing up as kids and are you competitive as songwriters? Are you keeping track? Like who's got the most number ones? Yeah. You know, honestly, no. I mean, we were honestly, you're not cause you have more. Yeah. Good one, Kayla. No, I'm just curious. I'm just curious if there's any kind of, uh,

Competition's healthy. It's great. Well, here's the drive over here says anything. Dan said he had something to do with a buddy of ours next week that he had to cancel on me. He got to cancel on me a co-ride because he's got to go do something with a buddy of ours.

So the next 15 minutes, nobody said anything. Well, and the reason I picked up on it is, is on the podcast. Well, on the podcast that y'all, that y'all shot together, uh, you were leaving that podcast to go. And you, and you weren't. And I saw something kind of, it was kind of just, you shifted or something. I thought I had bugs in.

I didn't even know I did. That's amazing. Are you a therapist? People with no

and he knew that. That's a, that's Kilo. I just want to, I'm very observant. Somebody's paying attention. That's actually, it is a great question. It's a great question. We did have, we did have Neil on our podcast and it was the worst performing podcast we had. Just so y'all know. Well, there you go. That's not true. That was a great podcast and y'all singing together. That was, that's the only podcast I watched all the way to the end. Y'all's harmony and everybody in your play and it was, it was really great. I will say this about that podcast. My, my wife, uh,

she listened to all of them. I don't, we don't listen to them because we just don't want to hear ourselves talk. And she was, I can't believe anybody listens to them. She said, she said this to me and she said, you know, you know what my dad said earlier? I was like, no. And she said, he loves Neil Thrasher, was so excited about hearing him sing. And then by the end of it, he was just going, well,

they didn't even let him sing they sang over him I couldn't hear him do one thing you're like daddy what about me what did we say it's like when you go to a concert and everybody's singing at the top of their lungs I'm like bro I want to hear the artist I know that's exactly what it's like

We have a tendency to do that, especially if we get really excited about the songs or about the singer or about getting to harmonize with somebody. We love it. And we grew up in church, so we're always picking different parts, and it's just fun for us to kind of do. That's where we learned our harmony. Did you guys fight when you were young? Yeah. Well, no, not really. I mean, not really.

Not really. Dan was always, I was the size of that Coca-Cola cup for until ninth grade. This is a perfect segue into the actual question of whether or not I was the size of the cup. Yeah, all the third grade. I was this big and shaven in the eighth grade. Dan was touching the backboard in second grade. My dad always likes to say that my older sister came out and she was so cute.

had a little nose and was just so sweet and she said and he says and then Dan came out like looking for a sandwich and needed a shave you know it was just a totally different totally different deal right Reed and I he was he was small and he was four years younger I'm four years older and

I was fast, son. I was fast, son. So honestly, there wasn't much competitive. I mean, we were competitive in like playing Mario and stuff like that. But as far as just wanting him to excel or me to excel, we were always rooting each other on. And this is no different, honestly. We're constantly trying to, you know, I mean, we're definitely autonomous in the sense of like we don't ride together every day. Could you define autonomous? Yeah.

Guys, what does that mean? Whoa, whoa, whoa. This guy will know his month of the year. Everybody slow down. I played bass. Everybody back up and split that into a couple different words. Geez, guys. Stop the other word. Basically, we're able to survive without having to have each other. And I like to think that Reed stands on his own feet just as I stand on mine. But we're constantly rooting for each other. And if there's a way to...

you know, he helps me out sometimes on stuff. I help him out on times at stuff, but listen, there's nobody in the world that I want to be that much more or less successful than me. Yeah.

I'm just kidding. I'm totally fine with him. Game's still going, by the way. It doesn't matter. The game never ends. And I'll tell you what really changed that. If it was just me and him on our own, yeah, I would be wanting to beat him. But the fact that he's got my nieces and nephews and I've got nieces and nephews for him, it just completely has dissipated to the point to where we're just happy to see each other succeed. Yeah, man, it's great. Even trying to tackle the podcast and, you know, I...

We love working together. Tell them about the fight. The fight we got in front of Jordan the other day. Oh, yes. It was good. Oh, yeah. Well, you know the flow of a podcast, right? And it's probably different with you guys because there's four of you, but there's two of us. So anyway, we had a guest on, and I felt like I was – we have sheets. My wife is our manager, and she runs all that. And shout out to her. She's a rock star, right? She does everything. She's the reason why the podcast is doing anything at all. She's the only reason it works at all, yeah.

Yeah. So after the podcast, like I felt like in that podcast, there were a lot of those awkward, like somebody get done, like our guests would get done saying something. And I, and I just asked the question. This is also the morning after we played the duck camp and drove. Right.

Four hours back. So Reed's tired. Running on about four hours of sleep apiece. Shoulders hurting, shot a bunch of ducks. So anyway, the guest would quit talking and usually Dan would boom, he's right there with a, well, so tell me about this or that. So a guy would quit talking and I'd be like, that's awesome, man. I'll be the guest. This is how awkward it was. End a sentence. End with like a story.

Well, ask me a question first. This is pretty much what it was. Ask me where I'm from. Hey, man, where are you from? Lynchburg. Cool. And so there's a lot of that. It's like one of the first times. And so after the podcast was over, I was like, we were sitting there. New Guy Ray is back here. That's our sound guy and my wife, Jordan. Shout out New Guy Ray for loops. And we were sitting there and I was like,

I just had to say it. I was like, hey, man, before we go any further... We had to cut the intro. I was like, Dan, I was like, hey, man, I need some help on...

these things. It's funny because I don't remember it being that calm. No, I know because all you saw was Taylor Swift red, dog. You just went crazy. You got Sam like, oh, you need some help, huh? You need some help. I need some help doing this. I carried this show nine times out of ten, bro. It was... I was like, I love you guys. It's like I just killed his dog, man. I mean, it...

no no but it handled it and then we cut the intro cut the intro and I was like hey bro my bad man at the end of the intro he said hey man I shouldn't have come at you like that I'll

And I said, and immediately I was like, dude, I shouldn't have blown up. He's like, he's like, I'll help you. I'll help. I'll try. I'll, I'll take that in count and try the funniest thing that happened about it was that Jordan, his wife had apparently never seen us like bulldog like that. You know? And so she, she walked up after we had kind of, Hey man, it's all good. And I said, I said, dude,

I know you got a ton of things going on and that's usually your role. And I'm trying to do the creative thing at the same time. And it's a bounce back and forth. And I said, man, I'm, I'm sorry. My part's creative, bro. Don't, don't, I'm not saying it's not good. I said, we'll get into it right here. I said, I'll try, I'll apologize. And I'll try to do a better job of filling those holes. And I said, it's not as awkward as you think, but I, I, I, I hear what you're saying. I hear you, you know? And so his wife gets up and she goes, Hey guys,

really nice thing that just happened. And I was like, what? Hug it out. The way that you guys, you know, the thing that happened and then you guys did the thing to work the thing out. And I was like, oh man, we've been doing that since we were literally first grade. You get mad, you duke it out. And then you go, Hey man, like we're in this together. You're in the top 10 humans in my life. And I apologize for being a dick sometimes. You know what I mean? It's just kind of, you know, you move on, you know?

Around here, we just go down with the ship. Yeah. We just go down with it. You and Tully and Kurt used to fight when they were young. Well, unlike you guys, we are not...

Or autonomous or whatever Hebrew word you use. Still don't know that. I still don't know what that word means. On top of us. O-N? T-O-M? On top of us. On top of us. It's on top of us. Y'all told the story before when y'all got into it. I think the Brothers Hunt need to hear the story. Well, I mean, even though we are not blood brothers, we are brothers. We've been with each other for...

How many years? That's cute. What's that? More of a couple. We're partners. Is there anything wrong with that? I guess. Yeah, there's a lot. But what I was going to say is that because of what I thought that was a great question, they didn't really answer it. But it was fantastic. Tony and I got to a point, you know, we started writing about,

We wrote together some, and then sometimes we didn't until he gets a big Dierks cut. And I'm like, cool, bro. Happy for you. I'm not happy for you. No, you're not happy. We've been together a really long time. We've been together a really long time. And it kind of started our all for one method started with Rich. Back in the day, Rich Redman, Jason Strummer, we lived together, band house, that whole thing.

If somebody called Tully for a session, he'd be like, cool. Yeah. But you got to hire Rich and Kurt. Yeah. It was always that. So anyway, we ended up starting to write together. We write together exclusively now. It's like, oh, somebody calls Tully to write. Well, me and Kurt. So how do you guys navigate that? How do you navigate that and say, well, yeah, we're going to do it together this time or you don't?

If it was up to me, we would write together all the time. Yeah. So you don't want to write together all the time. Well, I mean, my money's worth money, dog. You know what I'm saying? No doubt. I'll admit that. Yeah, absolutely. I think the thing that separates it is I started four years before he started.

So I started earlier and I established some relationships that are different from his. Okay, go back to that because that's great. I think people love to know. So did you move to town first? I did. Okay. So I had a funk country band called Soul Gravy, which was... You have to work up to the boat. Okay. Work up to the boat and you're all living on the boat. Sure.

Hold on, you lived on a boat? For four years, yeah. We did. We dropped Christmas trees under it to catch crappie off. They have to deal with that. Writing songs on a boat. Oh my God, maybe we need to fast forward. I'll fast forward real quick. So I had a fun country band, Reed Feld Physics told me at a show he was moving to Nashville and I was like, great, come on. I doctor, I've talked to schools about the questions. I felt physics for the second time. Literally, I'm like, some people call us the space cowboy. You know, like I'm doing this thing and he's like, I'm here.

from the front row. I was like, what dude? I'm like in the, he's like, I failed chemistry or physics. I was like, okay. I was like, okay. He's like, just broke up with my girlfriend. I was like, all right, man. Like, okay, I got to finish the second verse. You know, and he's like,

I'm moving to Nashville. I was like, dude, we're literally riding home together. We can talk about all of this after I get through this stuff. He's like, we're going to be songwriters. I was like, dude, okay. So all that to say, I came to town, established some relationships, started riding and with my band. Reed comes up.

Uh, we can't afford anything cause we have no money. Yeah. Uh, we move to a boat on Percy priest. The slip rent was $400. We split it $200 a piece. And this isn't like a boats and hose boat. It's a, it's a small boat. I mean, it's a,

Yeah, it's a small boat. It was a 36-foot carver. So, like, I literally lived... You can do the math on that. Dan got the seven-foot bedroom in the back. I got the V-hole. Of course. And he's the dominant brother. He's the dominant. Danimate, you know? Maybe I'm a little danimate. That's amazing. The funny thing about that... We moved furniture to make ends meet on the side. We washed our clothes in the YMCA showers, literally. We joined the YMCA because they had a thing where...

They would base it on your salary. They would base it on your salary. So, dude, we were paying like 50 cents a month. I think I reported I made like $400 that year. Because we weren't making anything. That's amazing, though. That's amazing. We would wear all our clothes or take a bag and just stuff all our dirty clothes in there and go to the YMCA in Donaldson. And we wouldn't even work out. We might play a little basketball or something. We'd go straight to the showers and there would be two showers and we'd just be in there washing our clothes.

With the soap, you know, and we'd wash it. I used half a roll of toilet paper in that thing because you couldn't on the boat. Yeah, we were very selective. I went paying for that one. Oh, yeah. You held it for the YMCA. That reminds me of a, not to interrupt, but it just reminds me of a great, same, similar thing. We were in a very struggling band in 2002 and 2003 called Rushlow. Really, we had one hit, second song's dying, and someone told us,

well if you go to the cracker barrel in uh hermitage then if you show your laminate name an artist if you're an artist you get free breakfast what i forget this is true yeah so we're like no hell yeah we're like well we need free food we had no we had negative money yeah yeah and so remember

We got our laments on and our show clothes. We go down to the Cracker Barrel. Show clothes. Oh, show clothes. Hair. Hair. Guitars on the back. Oh, don't. The laments. Just holding it. So you have a shirt with a buck pearl on it. No, we did. We heard it. We're like, we got to go to Cracker Barrel and eat for free. And this is, how come we didn't know about this? Monumental, yeah. So we get in our show clothes, do our hair.

we pull in a pull that cracker right off right off stewart's ferry oh yeah yeah that's where you know it that's where we were we were at percy priest okay so yeah right there in the hill marina that's right where we live yeah we walk in with our laments we sit down we order a bunch of food and the bill comes and we look at her and we look at that it's like wayne's world wow but have you seen this and i remember her saying

Honey, what is that? I was like, this is our laminate. You know? What do you mean? We're with the beard and Russ low. She's looking at it like, sweat's beating down. Heart's pounding. I mean, we didn't have $15 between us, you know? And we didn't get it for free. Unfortunately. But we got a discount because we had no extra money. But I remember putting that laminate out there like, ugh.

Read it in a week, baby. Look at that. Hello, ladies. Look at that. Hello, girls. But anyway, continue. But that reminded me of that YMCA kind of stuff. Like, whatever you got to do. Whatever you got to do. Yeah, absolutely. We didn't have a choice. And that was honestly kind of fun.

until we got serious girlfriends. You know, like, well, it was just me and him. We were just fine and it made it work. I tell people all the time, you know, when you're 21 and you tell a girl you live on your dad's houseboat at college at MTSU when you're working intramurals,

they're like, oh, that's cool. I was going to say, it seems like it sounds cool. That's pretty cool. But when you're 27 and you move furniture for a living and you're a struggling songwriter and you tell a girl you live in your dad's houseboat, they're gone. That ain't cool no more. I'm telling you, Rich, Tully, and I lived together for so long at a frat house, basically. Tully got married and we...

forced him to still live with us because we needed the rent bro i was married for a whole year before i moved out we were on the road we were on the road then though like you know probably 250 days a year oh my gosh but we all we had a so you weren't living there anyway we had a rental house in hermitage where we each had our own level yeah you know which was a nightmare because it was a cul-de-sac of a family neighborhood in hermitage and then three of the biggest screw-ups you could ever imagine rolling through there

I remember I got married in 06 and we'd been living together for years at that point. And the same thing, like, try telling people, oh yeah, I live with my two best friends. You know, we're not 18. Right. No, I was in my 30s at that point. Dude, Ray lived with our parents for a while and he used to say he had a flat with some roommates in Columbia and it was just our mom and dad. I love that I rented out the upstairs. Oh,

Oh, I appreciate that. He's like, yeah, I got a studio flat down here in Columbia, and it was just the upstairs of our mom and dad's house. He didn't feel any guilt for those lies at all. Hell no. I lied. My place in LA is super nice. I had a place in Malibu for years. Kurt, going back to you say how do y'all navigate that with writing and doing that. Man, I've got two kids of my own now. I've got a little girl. She's two, and then I got a little boy. He's one.

And watching my little boy, even like last night, like if he looks up and sees his sister, his older sister, who's super independent, makes her own decisions and what she wants to do, what toy she wants to play with, whatever, what movie she wants to watch. When he looks, if he's doing something and he looks up and he sees her, he's going to get up and go do that.

And so I was in a position where I thought I wanted to be an optometrist. I thought I wanted to work in Savannah. What's up? Wait, wait, wait. What is that? Can you break that down? Okay. Thank you. Man, songwriting was never, honestly, and I've told this on our podcast, songwriting was never a dream of mine.

honestly. I didn't start writing songs until I was in college. I didn't even know how to play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar in college because I knew I was going to fail physics again. What was option B? It was either stay there and get some bullshit degree or

Move to Nashville and hang out with your brother and figure out what he – and watch what he's doing. And it looks cool and fun. And who else in this world do I want to be around besides him? And it's always been that way. And so even now, like, with him having more hits than I do or whatever, like –

I've always looked up to him, and I've always chased him. And of course I want to catch him, and of course I want to have more songs on the radio than he does. But he's always been something that I'm trying to be, and he's still that, even in life. Where are the Kleenex? Even as a dad, even as a songwriter, even as a landowner, whatever it is. Man, I appreciate the...

he fires me up to go get what I, what, what I want and what he has. And I tell him that all the time. Like I want him to get it and he's, he'll get it. He's getting it. You are getting it. I mean, I think it's just, um, you know, it's a timing thing and, and, and we're going to have each other's back regardless. Well, being pushed though is, um, in this business is a healthy thing. Oh, absolutely. It's, it's,

to try it because you know how it is like when you have success you want to get to the next thing never rest no doubt never stop game's never over man so being pushed is super I think super healthy yeah I agree it's great I agree that's awesome hey guys this is incredible we're here with the brother son Dan and Reet Isbell hang with us we're going to take a little word from our sponsors oh sponsors maybe we'll have hey we got something special for you on the other side hang with us

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We've been burning both ends, keeping the lights on

So I've been thinking we're needing a little time alone. So would you say we cancel our plan? Tonight I'm only gonna be your man. Let's get some candles burning, some records turning, all the lights down low. Take it nice and slow, the way.

♪ Hey, your body's movin', keep doin' what you're doin' to me ♪ ♪ All night long, writin' our love song ♪ ♪ Girl, I want it, gotta have it ♪ ♪ Let the passion take us to a place ♪ ♪ Makin' that kind of love we made ♪ - Let's go! - Yeah! - Bring it in! ♪ That kind of love we made ♪

Making that kind of love we made

We've got Reed and Dan Isbell, God's Country Podcast. Make sure you check those guys out. Seriously, we love these guys. We champion what they do. We champion their message. Thank you guys for being here. Same, brother. Thanks for having us, man. Absolutely. It's an honor. I heard you guys. I got to ask this because you kind of struck a, it isn't a nerve. Don't say cord. Don't say cord. My ears perked up. No, this is it. But you guys said your dad's a preacher, right? Correct. That's right. So I grew up in church big time, Sunday, Wednesday, Friday. Yeah.

All the time, right? You had Fridays? He said Sunday, Wednesday, Friday. I didn't know you had Fridays. Actually, I'll be honest. It was every day of the week because we were just that involved. But all the preacher's kids I knew...

were usually the most wild, slightly rebellious. That only goes for the girls. Especially the girls. But, no, seriously, I mean, that's a high standard to live to. We got two sisters. That one fell flat. Was that hard being the preacher's kids, or were you on the wild side, or... I feel like I've talked too much. You definitely have. Man, honestly, no. We...

We knew we lived in a glass house, you know, and and my dad was was the type of authority figure where my buddies didn't want to come to my house because one, he was their preacher to they were scared of him. And so, like, my dad was very straight laced. You're going to do this. Do it my way. And so, yeah.

Man, we were just taught, you know, young to do the right thing, to be this kind of person and be this kind of Christian. And of course, man, we strayed a little bit and did our own thing. You're human. Still do. Absolutely. Still make mistakes and all that. But man, it really, for me, I can't speak for Dan, you know, but for me, it

It wasn't that hard to be a preacher's kid. I honestly took a little pride in it because, you know, like my dad was well-respected in the community and I was proud to be an Isbell for sure. Yeah.

Ditto. Ditto. That got it. Sorry, I'm not trying to leave you hanging. I just think he kind of answered the question. Which is why you guys turned out the way you did. Well, look, man. You got good rear end. I appreciate it. Yeah, we raised right. You make good decisions. You know when you make a bad decision. Well, you know, I think that's one thing that I want to make sure my kids understand is that your actions matter.

you know, have consequences. And I don't want to, I don't want them to lose that because we, you know, we understood that if we made a wrong choice, I mean that, that affected everything and everyone. And there wasn't no way you were getting away with nothing in Savannah, Tennessee. Yeah. But you really ain't getting away with nothing now. I mean, with everybody having phones and cameras and all that stuff. And so we just kind of got to a place, honestly, where we were like, okay, for the good of ourselves and the good of our family, we're

We're going to try to be stand-up individuals and do it the right way. And I'm going to be honest with you. Even in this business, I feel like doing it the right way has given me a career instead of a flash in the pan. Quick deal. You know, treating people right and being honest about things, even in tough situations, I think has given us a career. Yeah, man, it's standing your ground, right? Like believing in your convictions and working, you know,

not, not changing. This town is constantly changing, right? And there, and there's people like Dan said, there's flash in the pans and, and this is the cool thing today. And this is the cool thing tomorrow, man. But, but we've, we were raised to, to, to believe in what we believe in and stand up for it. And if you do that, you can't go wrong. And,

We've been some desperate sons of a guns. We've chameleoned our way in. Maybe the houseboat years. Exactly. I grew up on a lake. Lake people are different. The houseboat area. Machinos are. You guys should do a houseboat session. Actually, it's not a bad idea. You should do a podcast from the boat. I really love that. Hearing that, though, it reminds me of...

All those years of when we were here years and years ago together and what you go through. And it's true that when you have success, it makes the struggle, you look back on it and you realize why that struggle happened. Absolutely. No doubt. Everything happens for a reason. It deepens the well. I say that all the time. And it's such a positive thing. I think seeing your way through that, through the other side, but being able to look back on the struggle, it makes you just really...

appreciate for sure right now right and and like i also i think about it now that i have kids too like you think about you know where you're at now you think about when you when when we were living on a houseboat or whatever but like success now started when we were young stop tapping the table it didn't drive me sorry that's why my golf game got good because i didn't even hear that

He can hear. I'm undistracted. But I'm a firm believer that your success starts way back and not when you move to town or, you know, those decisions that you make when you're young affect you now, you know. And so, you know, like we were saying, man, we were raised right and, you know,

I think we're where we're at because of that. It wasn't always roses on that houseboat, for the record. Absolutely not. It sounds like roses. There was some public land around the... I know it wasn't. It's okay. There was some public land around the lake, and we killed turkeys. Let me guess. You didn't have a permit either. Top 94. The first time I didn't, actually, he got me. But they can only give you a warning there. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but they can only give you... No, you say it all. Okay, you can... I've been busted. They give you a warning. I was walking out. I had the turkey on my back, and he said...

dan isbel and i was like oh he already knows my name yeah how far is that lake and how far i gotta swim to get back to the boat you know i said yes sir and he said uh man he said i heard you shoot i was over on the bridge checking some licenses and he said uh

He said, man, big turkey. I said, yeah. He said, you got your license? I said, absolutely. Top 94. He was like, ah, I actually had it last year. He knew everything about me, and apparently I hadn't re-upped the top 94 on the sportsman that I've been paying for for the past 20 years.

And so I took the turkey back. We ate turkey that week. And we would just eat deer meat. And we would dock shot crappie. And we'd have a can of Del Monte corn sitting in a pan. The oven didn't work in the boat. So we had to grill everything. And we would eat that. And I remember there was one day. You got married why? We'd go to Cracker Barrel. I'll tell you why. I think about those days a whole lot.

That same Cracker Barrel, you could, for $2.49, you could get six biscuits. And, dude, we'd eat them all week. We'd get bags of biscuits and butter and jelly, and we'd bring them back, and we'd throw crappie, turkey, deer on those biscuits. We haven't talked about the four of us amongst the...

but we've lived the same exact life. Yeah, man. I remember one day I came in. It's exactly the same. My car, my piece of crap car had the roof was leaking. I got canceled on four times that week.

And on the fourth time I came back in and I walked in and Reed was down there cooking crappie and Del Monte corn in this pan. For the 5,000th time. And I walked in, dude, and I just come in. I'm just, you know, I'm four years older than him, right? And I just lay down on my tiny little bed, which was like this wide. And I'm sitting there and I was just like, I was breaking down to an extent. And so I just couldn't get away from anybody. There was nowhere to go to hide. And so I pulled the covers over my head.

And about that time, the back of the boat did this. Whenever the boat did that, you knew somebody was stepping on it.

My dad is the doorbell. And my dad comes down. He's like, what's up, boys? Because this is like his dream. He's back in college with his homies. I was like, damn, we got coffee on the ground. All you got here just in time. Grizzlies come on at 7. Hip hop is fun. He's like, yeah, we had DirecTV. I hooked up a satellite. We were stealing DirecTV. Stealing the internet and DirecTV. So the boat rocked. And my dad stepped down. He was like, hey.

where's dad and i was like under the covers you know like trying not to lose him he's like oh he's he's he's down in his room and my dad's opinion was dad what's going on man i brought pork steaks you know and i was like dad honestly dude like i'm just kind of i just need my space right now like can you just give me a second like he's like what's going on with dad reed what's going on reed he's like listen

And I finally, I just ripped the cover back. And I was like, you want to know what's going on? Here's with some flashy words. And I said, I'm 30 years old. I don't have a thing to stand on. I don't have a dollar to my name. My buddies are buying trucks, houses, getting cuts left and right and bragging about it on Instagram. And I just got canceled on for the fourth time this week. And my sunroof leaks. Like I said,

I don't know what's happening in my life. I don't know why I'm chasing this dream. I don't see anything coming down the pipe. And to be quite frank, I'm exhausted. I live on a boat with my dad and my croppy cooking brother. I'm like, woohoo! You're damn right you do! You're a lucky bastard. And I'll tell you, man, I go back to that moment all the time. What'd he say, though? What'd your dad say? Oh, you're all right. You're

You're going to be fine, man. You've got family. You've got everything. And he was right. Yeah. He was right. And I'll tell you, man, when people... Sorry, man. I'm catching my throat here. Sorry. Might have been Woodford. Do it. When people say...

man, it's crazy how this just all fell in your lap. I think about that. Oh, brother. I think about that night. Yeah. And I think about the sacrifice. And even though I had my brother to do it with, and I'm not saying people didn't have harder roads than I did. They do. But, man, that's why I appreciate –

uh when i when a song gets cut and i appreciate when i a good co-write comes down the pipe and when we have our first number one together you know like that kind of love we make was incredible to go wow we did it together you know and it's special and and and you're right the struggle

And I tell you, I dip into that well all the time when I'm writing. You got to. And if I didn't have that well to reach in and grab from, I don't know what kind of songs I'd be writing to this day. And I know that's long. I'm sorry. No, no, no. That's actually powerful. It's so good. That's absolutely powerful. So give people the light. What was the breakthrough moment for you?

um there were a few there were some cuts that there were some honestly there were some people that really invested us as songwriters casey bether being one of those yeah one of those guys jason jason matthews michael haney yeah john singleton he was from our he's from west Tennessee where we're from so he kind of he would he would throw us a right Travis Hill Frank Liddell man there's tons of that's my first deal was over there and

I feel bad. You never called me and Kalo because y'all didn't call. That's right. Kalo don't even remember that we wrote one time. I just met him. No, you reminded me downstairs. Now I remember. In fairness, we didn't finish the song. Kalo's like, we met on the golf course. No, but we didn't finish it. We didn't finish it. I thought you were going to send it to Brad. You never did, of course. Kalo, are you on time for your tee times?

I would generally get there, yes. That's a fantastic question. He would make tee times. Okay. That's interesting. I would roll up, you know, and I knew I'd be the fourth one, you know, so I'd just roll right up, don't hit a ball. They don't even flip a tee. You're just the fourth guy to take off. Is he as good as you? No. Oh, Neal's a man. Those guys are good. We've played together. Are you like – Reed's a good player. Reed can play. These two guys can play.

Y'all are... Are you scratch or close? I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I'm trying. I'm trying.

Me and Neil, we could do some damage. You could do some damage. I'm about 18. Oh, yeah, yeah. So we can hang. Yeah, we can hang. You can tell Dan what to do, but the brain is a funny muscle. Is that right? So I'm not doing what you're telling me to do? No, it's not that. The brain's a funny muscle. I feel like I learned from you. It all stems with athleticism. I can tell you. People can tell you what to do. Don't do that. It's like K-Lo. I'll tell you this about K-Lo. Plaques over racks, you know what I'm saying? That's right.

Kalo on the range looks like a PGA Tour player. I'm not kidding. Well, it's just the outfit. No, no, no, no. It's the brand new clubs because he's got more hits than anybody. Kalo is so smooth on the range, and he hits shots that I'm going, oh, my God. You know, I'd give him a left arm to hit shots like that every single time. We don't have to talk about it. Go on. But then we get on the course, and it's like everything tenses up. Yeah. I don't know how this conversation went to golf, but I'm glad to oblige you.

But Kalo has got whatever it takes. But on the course, when it matters, when you've got one shot, it's like –

He starts thinking about, you know, how does that make him feel? But he knows I'm right. He knows I'm right. I'm on 18. I'm trying to break 80. I'm sweating right now. Kalo will get on the tee box and like, you know, are they looking at my calves? What are they looking at? Are my shorts too tight? Are they baggy? He's thinking about everything except a shot he's supposed to hit. I stopped taking a practice swing, and I still don't, because I was sitting there thinking,

all right, the three guys behind me are wondering why I'm taking a practice swing. Why are you taking a practice swing? That's where you're going to swing like that. You're a real life songwriter. And so I just stop taking a practice swing. And so I just get up there and go. So if you're going to be bad, don't be slow. That's right. That's right. He used to be a four handicap. That's strong, Kayla. Yeah.

For a minute. He used to be a player. For a minute. I'll get back into it. Yeah. I'll get back into it. All right. I feel that. Until he used to be an artist. I think we all used to be an artist. Okay. There's a sweet knife in the gut. Well, you started it. You just said, you started it. I didn't start it. I didn't say, you sit here. Now we're in mind.

I didn't say anything. Roll back the tape, Jim. He said he used to be. I can see how this goes. You guys are like the actual podcasters and this is just the clowns over here. Thank you. That's the weight. That's the color commentary. Y'all are me. They are him. It's a challenge. Y'all probably drive home and go, God, I need some help, man. I need some help. I just need some help. Can you please?

you're actually playing poker right now seriously give people a little history how did the podcast happen because you did have the brothers hunt was that just kind of like a for fun thing yes it was yeah we tried it and honestly it was so much work we were like we can't do we did we started um we started the brothers hunt

Actually, we were on the front porch of our deer. Oh, I thought you were referring to the podcast. I'll get there. I'll speed it up. But we started the Brothers Hunt on the front porch of our deer camp in West Tennessee, which is when I say deer camp, it's a fifth wheel trailer with a built on two by four front porch that we built on with our dad. Yeah.

Just out of wanting to film and wanting to travel the world and see the country and hunt different animals. We're also preaching ethics as well. Yeah, absolutely. And that industry... As you kill turkeys at Percy Priest without a license. I thought it was legal. Back to you, Reed. I thought it was legal.

He didn't like that you didn't, he's not a podcaster. He most certainly is. That industry at that time was saturated with a lot of, look what I did. You know, like I killed this animal. I did this. It's, you know, and we wanted to preach a,

you know, a more spiritual, a more ethical way of doing it. It's an honor to be able to do that. The way our dad raised us to respect the outdoors. And so we started the Brothers Hunt there and never really had a goal for it. But it just kind of grew into this thing and a Nashville thing where we made some sweatshirts and people started wearing them. We met Luke through it and Luke got involved. Oh, is that how you guys met Luke?

I wrote a couple songs with him and he said, hey man, I really want to learn how to

hunting fish like you guys do it and i was like okay and at this time there wasn't a whole lot had he seen the brother son yes okay and so we were like okay man and we took him turkey hunting we took him deer hunting and uh now it's a full-blown brotherhood we do we kind of have everything together but we we started a podcast back then called the brother's hunt podcast and and and did it ourselves and edited everything ourselves and i screwed the audio

audio up way too many times to ever move forward with it, you know? And so, I mean, not you, but we ended up, so, so yeah, we met Luke through that whole thing and, and, and we turned Luke on to meat eater and Steven Rinella and, and Luke got, which is for the listener. It's a, it's a lifestyle slash hunting, uh,

Show is very popular, but now there's a podcast. Yeah, there's cooking. There's a whole thing. Sponsored by PETA. Yeah. So Luke got super obsessed with it almost and was reading all these books that Stephen Rinella, these cookbooks and outdoor books and watching all the seasons and

And so he came to us one day and he was like, Hey man, he's like, I want to, I want to get on that show, man. And, and meteor was a show at that time. And they were, they were all going into the season 10 and he said, I think I'm gonna have Cappy his mattress. I think I'm gonna have Cappy reach out.

So Cappy reached out and Meat Eater responded and Ranella responded and they wrote him back and they were like, dude, we'd love to have you on. And so he called us, FaceTimed us one day. He's like, boys, you'll never believe what happened today. And we were like, what? He was like, I got invited to be on season 10 of Meat Eater. And we were like, what?

awesome like congrats man it's awesome he goes yeah he said I told him I'd do it with one stipulation and we were like well what is it well and why you know and he goes I told him that if I came the brother's hunt had to come

and we were like what and he was like yeah we're he's like we're hunting antelope in new mexico with meteor in in august or september whatever it was so he literally took us out there with with mediator we filmed a five day you know exclusive hunt on this incredible ranch in new mexico and or wyoming and killed awesome antelope and while we were there we did we we did a podcast with steve as the meteor podcast and

And me, Luke, and Dan sitting there, and Luke's the superstar, but we ended up talking about songwriting the whole time. And the guys like Steven and Giannis were just infatuated with what we did and how our brains worked and how we craft a song and why we craft a song and that kind of stuff. And so that went over so well. I think it put something in Steve's mind where...

He just started up this conversation with himself about having a podcast about that. He's growing the brand, too. Yeah, that intertwines hunting and music and songwriting and country music. And I think a Southern lifestyle as well. You know, they're kind of Western-ish.

And so, you know, to kind of come across country on that. Yeah. And so he called, he called, he ended up calling Luke and telling Luke the idea. And he was like, man, he's like, I'm thinking about, you know, host for this thing. And he was like, and I,

I think Dan and Reed and Luke was like, dude, Dan and Reed are the only ones that I know in this town that could do that. And so we had a meeting and we, we told him, you know, what, what kind of our ideas on it and, and just kind of made this, uh, this thing to, to where it is now a partnership between the brothers hunting and meat eater and I heart and, and,

And, yeah, we're doing, you know, we don't. Season two. I tell people all the time, we don't know what we're doing, but maybe that's the trick. You guys are really good at what you do. I appreciate it. No, 100%. I mean, whether you actually think that or not, it's really, really good. Thanks, man.

Back at you. Yeah, back at you, man. And y'all do play off each other really well. And you can tell you have a love for each other, which we're learning more about tonight. But it's really, really, really, really good. Thank you, man. And you're not trying to one-up and, you know, hey, I want to say this. I'm going to get this amount of time. Y'all just both play off each other. It's super smooth and really good. Appreciate it, man. What's the biggest episode that y'all have had? I don't know. Um...

You know who got a lot, honestly, was...

I can't remember his name. Got a ton. I'm going to let you lie. Kip Moore. Kip Moore. He has this secret. Is that the one where he talked about songwriters and streaming and all that stuff? No. Because I saw him on something. Kip's got a little hidden ground. And he's got an overseas following. That's unbelievable. He goes overseas and does major. No doubt. Yeah, he does. And Kip.

i love kip anyway we go way back with kip just kip's a hard worker yeah um but i mean

His work ethic and what he does is... Yeah, I appreciate that, too. It's a lesson to artists. Look, if something feels like it's stalling somewhere, there's other avenues. What did he say on y'all's that was... I mean, he just... Honestly, he explained... Remember he went on that motorcycle ride that was cross-country? Yeah. It was so bizarre. I was always a hit-kip fan. I never jumped into the records that much, but I liked the hits. And I'll tell you, that's one thing we've learned is that...

Whether someone's at the top of their game or the middle of their game or wherever they're at, if they've developed a giant fan base, dude, they're there for life. I mean, we were getting all these comments from Brazil on these Kip Moore things. Oh, I believe that. They were in Spanish. You know, we're like, what is this shit? But at the same time, it's like, man, they've, I mean, those guys, you're right, whether you're radio hot or whether you're

hot in brazil it's like you know they're those fans are there and they're gonna y'all had y'all had luke on you've had lee bryce on yeah yeah and those are all big those are all big riley green was on yeah for us it was like okay we're calling our bros we're trying to hit up people we know when we're starting this thing it's like oh my god help us out can you come on and we

We were very thankful we had a lot of those people. It's the same thing. Who was one of the first or who was a guest that you had that you hadn't met before, you didn't know, and they came on

and blew your socks off like that? Justin Moore for me. Well, Colby Kaleigh, first of all. Justin Moore hasn't been on our podcast. Thank you, Reed. But if you listen to this show, I'll sing a crown of coke here. No, Dustin Lynch. Colby Kaleigh vocally absolutely wrecked me.

Like she did Sister Act 2. She'll probably cut that. She sang something out of Sister Act 2 that absolutely took me somewhere. It's a Lauryn Hill song. Yeah, Lauryn Hill song. It blew me away. But Dustin Lynch was awesome, man. I'm strumming. Dustin's playing with his fingers. Which is actually a Fuge song. Yeah, right. She vocally is nice. But man, you know, in an industry where

Where a lot of people are singing about country music and singing about a lifestyle that sometimes they don't live, you know, and sometimes you can see through that.

We had Dustin Lynch on, and dude's as country as cornbread, man. And we were at. For a guy with that good of teeth, that was kind of surprising. He's a golfer, too. Yeah, he's a stick. He played college golf. He's a good stick. But we were done with the episode, and he was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's like, we haven't even talked about turkey hunting yet. And so we extended the episode another 25, 30 minutes to talk about turkey hunting. That's awesome. Just a great dude. Y'all just failed because I was expecting to hear my episode best.

I think the ratings are still being evaluated. I'm so new. I will say this. The team came back and said that your episode was one of the most like

episodes we've had in a long time. Who's the team? Yeah, who's the team? Meat Eater and my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife. And my wife.

I was surprised I thought you were gonna I didn't go off on very so these guys let's turn it around just tell us what it is what you're mad at is it gin lost kids might be your boss man or your neighbor's cat just tell us

What you mad at? What are you mad at? What are you mad at? Tell us what you're mad at. Yeah, I'll tell you what I'm mad at. And I've been mad at this for a long time. Here we go. Hey, how long we got? How long we got? This is gonna be good. This is gonna be good. Okay, back.

Back in the day, the left lane was reserved for people that are going fast. Oh, my God. Traffic. Traffic. I'm just telling you, people are not aware. It's been the last few years. Nobody gets over in the right lane. They're going to live in the left no matter how fast they're going. And it really irks me. It just does. Maybe we should write that, live in the left. I just wrote a song that's got that in it about big rigs coming over and blocking the left lane. Dang. I knew you were left. I knew you were left.

left. What about you? What are you mad at? Clockwise. Well, Neil's going to take forever. I pass. Okay, pass. You? What do you mean you pass? They hear what we're mad at all the time. Streaming. I'm so mad at streaming, man. If I didn't pick that up in our earlier conversation. Freaking streaming. Let me ask you guys, what decade of country music is your favorite? 90s.

It's everybody's favorite. Why not? Because it was the best. Because it was the best, man. It's amazing. It's everybody's answer. I mean, for me, man, it was just this like glory moment.

10 12 years of of just solid singing solid melody solid i mean it just it wasn't the same either right like everybody's answer i think it was females too it was patty love you can extend that from like that's 2000s whatever almost 87 through the 90s yeah mid 90s like i love keith whitley

Oh, my God. Love Whitley. Love Desert Rose Band. I love Steve Earle. I love Dwight Yoakam. Yep. Early George Strait. So you're looking at that 80s, late 80s. Mm-hmm.

through the, you know, mid-90s. The 90s was magical for country music. I was born in 87. Oh my God. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Okay. This could be the disconnect. I'm mad at that. I'm mad at you. My knees feel great. I got bass strings older than you, man. I'm like...

You got one older. Bass strings. On a bass now older than you. And I'm 37, dog. Yeah. I mean, we're extended. Yeah. We're in our drop dead years. I feel that. That's what Bill Burr said in his last stand up. He's like,

We're in those drop-dead years, those of us here at this table. Not you guys. You guys are still. I don't know, man. It could happen at any minute. I'm 41. You're in the good years. You're in the good years. Okay, I appreciate that. You know what I'm mad at? I just figured it out. I can't wait. And it's going to be directed at these two. Come on, they're our guests, Kurt. No, I'm coming at them. No, that's all good. We ain't coming back. It's all good.

I see you guys and it's like, you know how you have a, I'm trying to think of a good analogy. There's this really successful business. And then they- Jealousy. Oh, yeah. And then they kind of put together this other business basically to launder money. I see these two. They have a successful business as songwriters, right? They're doing very well.

And now they've got this podcast business, which is basically there just to get them better rights and more cuts. Hey, cut this. Cut this. You guys got, you're brilliant. And I'm pissed we didn't think about it. Oh, I was thinking of doing that right now. Right now.

I want to write both of you. I'm just saying. I'm ready. Tell me when, man. We already have, Kayla. Oh, God. That was a long time ago. And we didn't finish it. Produce the song. Produce it if you didn't finish. He's like, let me hear it. Where is it? What's the title? You don't know. Do you not remember writing with him? Mud on the Tires? Mud on the Tires? I do remember. We dance.

It wasn't that one. He didn't bring either of those. Keep going. I'll pay on that empty hardwood floor. No, he meant keep singing. No, they're songs. Yeah, keep singing. Until you get to Kalo's. Yeah. I don't know. What else you write? You know what I mean? I know you were freaking out. How many number ones you got, Kalo? Flex. 18. Oh,

Oh, yes. I mean, 18. Bro, that's a flex. I can tell by that wrist piece. You move it around. No, it doesn't work. It's my show watch.

that's an absolute flex that's mean dude I'm trying to think I'm trying to remember Brad Paisley a bunch of Brad I mean there's so many there was a link right there in the middle early 2000s where he I mean he was the dude and I'm sure you're right it's a blessing like with Luke you know to have that relationship with an artist with Al Dean you know um

It just helps a bunch as a straight up songwriter because 10 of those are with Brad. We live on the same farm. You know him. You know what he would say and what he wouldn't say. Same with, you know, Aldine and you guys. And so for me, even though that was a huge blessing and you started having hits with Brad, you would hear people say, oh yeah, that's one of Brad's guys.

Yeah. Which irritated me. Yeah. So my biggest drive was to get hits outside of Brad. Yeah, absolutely. And I, and I followed that with a mission and then finally got it. And I, and I felt, and I was glad to get the ones with Brad and very happy with them. But, but you also getting those outside ones that was, you know, validating. Yeah. I mean, I even feel that with cuts, you know, I got a couple on Raleigh green and,

some of those guys that are new and coming up. I feel that, honestly. I don't care. If Luke recorded every song from now on here on out of mine, I wouldn't care a bit. I'd be fine with that. I don't feel like I have anything really to prove anymore. I think now it's just going, you know, how can I help the artist convey what they want to say, you know?

Did I hear where you were Luke's guitar tech for a bit? Oh, yes. Is that a for real thing? Who told you that? No, because it ties in. You should have seen his little stubby legs running out on that stage. No, but is that for real? We'll find the footage. It's out there. We'll find it. So this is how that all went down.

I can't wait. Trying to decide on where to start the story. So he's like a brother to us at this point, honestly. So there are some things I don't feel like I have to do anymore. You know what I mean? And what I mean by that is when he was on, it was the ACM or CMAs or whatever it was. And it was the year he won Entertainer of the Year.

And so I was at the house and mind you, it's a 45 minute drive to town from my house. And so I was like, Cheyenne was like, my wife was like, you going? I was like, he's an after party every year. So now if he listens to this, he'll figure out that I wasn't there the whole time. But I was like, I tell you what, if he wins album, I'll put my boots on. You know what I mean? So they're like album of the year. Luke comes on. Oh shit. I put my boots on and she's like, I think you need to get artists. The year is always at the very end or entertainer. The year is always the end.

So I'm like, man, I probably need to get moving. So I take off. Well, I was pulling on to Mumbrey and when he won entertainer and I was like, thank God I can't, you know, cause you know, anyway, I roll up to this, the, where the after party is and I'm sitting there, he walks in and we all, yeah, doing the thing excited for him. And Reed was there and we were all just kind of hanging out and he was like, Hey man, I need you to need you to follow me for a second. I was like, what? He's like, just follow me for a second. I was like, all right. I slide back to this room with him.

it's like peyton manning's speakeasy or something it was super weird but i get i get in there is that they what's it called the college college bar thing anyway sure so i go back with him and he's like hey man he's like uh i want you to be and and shortening the story i want you to be my guitar i was like hell no hell no there ain't no way i'm going to do that no way he's like dude

We'll shoot a stag. I was like, what? He said, we'll shoot a red stag in Australia. I was like, okay. Okay, keep talking. He's like, we'll play golf. We'll turkey hunt. We'll shoot a stag. We'll write some songs. I was like, no. No, dude, I'm not doing it. He's like, talk to Shine about it. Don't give me an answer. Talk to Shine about it. I was like, all right.

I called her and I was like, can you believe this? Like this dude wants me to go on the road with him. And she was like, well, honestly, Dan, I mean, you might need to do that. And I was like, what? She was like, you know, get you out of that comfort zone. I was like, oh, you mean the one that took 28 years to get in? I was trying to hang out in that comfort zone. She wants you out of the house. Exactly. So I did it and it was tough. How many dates was it?

probably 60, 50, 60 days. It wasn't crazy. Not too bad. Well, I'll tell you where it got rough was Australia and Europe. There were four and five weeks. That's where the bulk of the shows were. And I'm going to tell you, man, there was one day, dude, there was one day I was...

And they had double, you know, guys know this double deckers in Europe where there's like two. And I was it was two thirty in the morning there. And I was in the double decker down there eating a turkey and cheese sandwich. And I was like, I'm never I'm never coming back.

This is it. I don't care about the rest of the world. I don't care about seeing the rest of the world. I want to go home. I want to stay home, and I'm never going anywhere else. And then at the end of the run, Luke, I always tell this, Luke was like, he ain't coming back next year. I was like, hell no, dude. I ain't coming back. He's like, W. Salary. I was like, nope.

Did you for real tune the guitar? I did. Oh, I was for real. I mean, I had the in-ears and I was tuned to the different, you know, because you would have different guitars for different tunings. The worst one, dude, and this is a life lesson. This is a life lesson for people out there, is we were in Nashville at Nissan. He had sold Nissan at $80,000, $70,000, $75,000 or something. Yeah.

And he gets up there and he's playing one of the, I can't remember which song it was, but it starts with him acoustic. He plays the first verse of the song acoustic and he strums and nothing happens.

And I'm like, oh my God. He's like, no. He is so cool. He's like, Dano, got something going on up here, buddy. Got something going on. And I was like, I don't know if you know this or not. You probably do. The inner ears are just like, Dan, what the hell? So I'm running. I run out on the stage with my stubby legs. And I get out there and I open the pack. And I can see the battery has just slipped. And I just bam that thing back in there. And he strums and it's all good. It's raining, I think. Monday morning. That's right. And I come back.

And for the next like four songs, I'm just like tweaking. I'm tweaking. That's amazing, dude. Tweaking. And one of the established guitar techs, shout out Ed Lehane, he comes over and he puts his arm around me and he goes, hey, man, out of the 75,000 people in this arena, you're the only one thinking about that mistake. Nobody else even cares. He's like, let it go.

And do your job, man. And I think that's a great life application that sometimes the deals that we think are so huge and nobody will ever forget and ever get over. Because, dude, we're going to screw up, man. We're humans. We would have fired you. Yeah, yeah. That shit ain't something we're going to do. Honestly, we don't like that. Honestly, I'm kidding. I'm fine with that. I was trying to get fired. You mentioned Australia. Oh, sorry. No. You mentioned Australia real quick. Go ahead.

I saw stuff in Australia. I never thought I'd ever see, dude. I bet you did. I know what's legal over there. Oh, my God. No, just when they say there's stuff in Australia that would kill you. Oh. We were down there touring. We were in Melbourne, Brisbane, one of the cities. Yeah, there's something like eight. Yeah. You only go to a place. It takes two days to get to a city. It's all coastal, right? Two. There's nothing inland. Yeah, you're right. That's crazy. We're at a bar. I know it's not the alcohol because I only had one drink. Mm-hmm.

And I saw this bat. And I saw a tree, though. The tree was moving. This whole side of a tree. And I asked the bartender, I'm like, man, there's something in that tree, man. Big inventory. Right? I said, bro, there's something in that tree. Like, something big. He goes, oh, mate, it's just one of those, just a little city bat. And the thing took off. It looked like a horse with wings, man. It was just off.

and then the huge like fire ant mound like ants the size of this cup the spiders are nuts too man dude they get huge over there i mean it was it was they messing around yeah they didn't have that at the ritz but i know what you're saying yeah i'll never get on a plane that long ever i didn't mind it's a long trip one of the greatest nights of my life speaking of techs guitar techs and whatnot

It's the night we had to play Try That in a Small Town at the Ryman for the NSAI Awards. And these guys didn't have their techs. And it's one of the greatest regrets they've ever had. Seeing Tully having to carry his bass across. Oh. Well, I realize quickly. No, no, but even better than that, I mean, you did fine, but Kurt...

Kurt didn't even have an acoustic guitar at home. He had to call Guitar Center to ask if they had to rent one when he drove on the way to the NSA. It's an hour before we have to be there. We're playing Try That in a Small Town live for all these people. And I'm about to leave and I go, and these guys are so unprepared. Where's my guitar? Or I don't have a tech. He didn't have a tech. The guitar didn't have a back. It was...

It was awesome. But let me take up for Curt and Tully a little bit on this. Thanks, Caleb. Since you brought this up about them being unprepared. Okay, we're coming full circle. Everybody needs to know how pampered these guys are. Several times. It is true. Several times I'd said, hey, Neil, we should probably run over the song. So let's go over it. We know it.

we play it all the time i said yeah but we don't play it with these guys i mean i mean they're probably gonna play it right you know right like i don't play it right exactly right yeah right and she goes no we're gonna be fine and so so finally we did we we went over it you know right before you know up there and it sounded it sounded good and and telly said said hey y'all are just playing that that one part right and we we change it and we're playing it right so i felt

Pretty good about that. You're fixing to throw me under the bus. Well, it's only because you brought it up. And you didn't want to practice or anything, and we get out there. And one thing, Neil said, hey, by the way, when I get out there, I'm going to talk. I'm going to say something. Of course. I said, I don't think we're supposed to. I think that's what the video is for. I think they try to keep the show going. He goes, no, I'm going to say something. I'm going to talk about the song. I'm going to do it. And I said, okay, all right, go ahead.

And so we walk out there. And right before he sat down, he goes, hey, by the way, I'm not going to say anything. Go ahead and start singing the first verse. And I was like, oh, okay, okay, that's changed. And then we started playing, and I'm singing first, you know, the first few lines. And then who comes in on the wrong chord? Was it Curt and Tully? Yeah.

It was the old Neil. Wow. Just because you couldn't hear it doesn't mean it wasn't the wrong chord. Well, and it wasn't the wrong chord because it wasn't on your part. It was on my part. It still worked. It was actually great. But I was thrown off by once I got there and realizing that, oh,

I don't think I have a cable. Oh, wait a minute. Do I have a tuner? Hence the guitar tech. Yeah, you did want to use my tuner. Your lifeline. My lifeline. Oh, sure. These guys were fish out of water without their techs.

I mean, look at his hair. It turned out good. It turned out good. Yeah, we were. It was real fun. I admit it. But I was going to, on the guitar tech thing, you had mentioned, and there's a couple things, and both of them came from the Bobby Bones show that you guys were on. And you were talking about being a tech at the Grammys, and I guess Bobby was on to you because you didn't say hey to him or want to meet him before the show or something like that.

And so, but you mentioned the Grammys, and then last podcast we had, we were talking about the Grammys, and Neil had said something, you know, about Beyonce that kind of got picked up on a little bit of the media and stuff. Do you guys have an opinion on the Beyonce win? Oh, Kayla, way to go. Let's go, Bob. I like it. Let's want to know, just got to respect you guys. You can either answer that, or if you like the Super Bowl halftime, pick your question. Whatever. Did y'all see the Beyonce thing? I didn't see it.

I honestly don't... This is terrible of me, but we talked about it. And I'm not dodging the question. I literally don't know the record. I don't know the record. I was about to say the same thing. Of course, it's a bad song, but not the whole record. I mean, dude, I don't...

We know who's voting that, right? Like, I don't base. That ain't country listeners voting that, or it'd be different. Here's how I feel about it. It's almost like getting mad at Jurassic Park and saying, those dinosaurs don't look real. You know what I mean? Sorry, I feel like what that question is looking for sometimes is like,

an answer to, to like logical reasoning. And you have to throw all that out the window when it comes to those things. So for me, it's like entertainment wise, I see why it won. But when you talk about actual streams, listen,

It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, Cully said that. He goes, are you guys surprised? Why would you be surprised? Yeah, you can't put reasoning. I don't think you can apply reasoning. There's no reason to be surprised because that's what happens to another grain. I'll tell you this. That ain't a true representation of country listeners. I don't feel like that. For me, man, it's kind of like when I was at the Grammys two years ago, and it was when...

I don't even know the guy's name. Something Smith. Dressed up like a damn devil and there were some demons. Oh, Sam Smith. I'll tell you. We talked about that. Yeah, some trans guys. We didn't talk enough about it. Some dark evil stuff is what that was. Well, let me tell you this, man. When I was backstage...

there's a real funny story i'll tell you after the no no no no but i was just kind of like the whole time trying to figure out and some of the crew is even like look at dan trying to figure out what's going on he doesn't rookie you know it was it was odd i was looking at this thing but one of the things i really felt genuinely uh you know as far as reasoning

A lot of that stuff is just straight entertainment, man. They're only doing that stuff. I don't think those people were devil worshippers. It's literally like they just make this thing up that goes, how can we get the most attention? And they're shameless in it, dude. Completely shameless. There wasn't seances and weird Ouija boards and shit going on back there. It was genuinely like...

did we do it? Did we make everybody think we're cool? It's shock value. I feel uncomfortable. I mean, the year that we got to do it one year, play there, and it was amazing. We're very blessed to do it. It was a Kelly Clarkson, Don't You Want to Stay, that year. Giant song. Giant song. Giant song. Great time for us. But like also, now this was probably 2011, 12, right? Yeah.

We're at the Grammys, and it was just soundchecking there was so amazing. I mean, Springsteen was playing it and watching his soundcheck. And Springsteen's soundchecking, it's like his show. That's how it was. Bruno Mars had a breakout year, and it was all about the music. Killer. So where we've come to now in a very short amount of time, if you think about it, is from just really amazing music and performances to,

How to make the most people feel uncomfortable. That's right. Absolutely. That's right. And that's one thing. I don't care how they vote because the Grammys are always going to vote whatever you do. The opposite of what you do. That's right. It's because they're demonic. But go ahead. But the actual music, though, used to be incredible. And it wasn't that long ago.

Agreed. Now we just slid in what you said. How uncomfortable can you feel? What kind of shock value? Clickbait? Yeah, what can we do for the internet? What can we do for the internet? Which is a shame because there's so much talent there. How can we get talked about? There's so much talent there in that room. That's true. They sacrifice their soul for it. They're drinking blood backstage. They sell their soul for it. This has now become thrash talk. They may not believe that completely, but they sell their soul for it for money. Yeah.

And Sam Smith needs to go turkey hunting. Sam Smith. Sam Smith needs to go turkey hunting, and we might save his soul. Hey, we get him one. We might save his soul. You're not getting him in a blind. Can I say my favorite thing? I'm not hunting a blind with him. I'm not getting him in a dress, but not a blind. Wait a minute now. Hold on. That's something I want to see. Thrasher and Sam Smith in a blind together. Oh, God. That's entertainment right there. Now, that's clickbait. Yeah. All right.

is when he gets that somebody's interviewing him and they say

well what do you you know if you didn't do music what would you do and he says i think i'd like to be a fisherman and then he went i mean a fisher them a fisher them oh i saw that oh wow yeah fisher them what does that mean okay exactly catch me up guys that's what that meant hey guys we could go for hours i'm gonna i'm gonna

I'm fitting to preach. I got to start putting a bow on this thing. But listen, before we do this, both of you, give an episode that people should check out. What's your favorite episode you get bad? Neil Thrasher, baby. The Thrash. We need the views. Come on. Man, give us one. No, you go, you go.

We're kind of second season, right? So we're in a new studio. Wait, you guys have seasons? We are. How many episodes are in a season? 52. We're in season one still. Okay.

Man, you know what? I'm going to say, dude, we had our dad on and that was special. Oh, cool. Like we, uh, we got to, we got to bring Grandy. That's what our, his name's Randy, but our kids call him Grandy. So it's like the perfect, yeah, it's the perfect grandfather name. Everything's a hook in our lives. Dude, we were super blessed with our podcast to, to get to talk about a lot of what we want to talk about. And so a lot of that is family, hunting, music, um,

just, just enjoyments of life. And, and, and so we talk about our dad a lot. We talk about Grandy a whole lot and he's become kind of a character on our thing. And a lot of DMS about what's Grandy got going on. What, what, what new Facebook marketplace deal is Grandy got into. And, and, and so do we, we live me and Dan and my dad all live in about a 10 minute triangle from each other. So dude, he's our best friend, man. Like we seem constant. I see him four or five times a week and I talk to him every day.

And we got to have him on and just pick his brain and let him tell stories, hunt stories from way back when. And that was probably – we've had combs on, and we've got some great guests in the works that we're going to have on our podcast. But I think the most special one for me that I feel like everybody should go check out because they'll understand who we are at the core more than anything is the episode with Dad. Yeah. Honestly, when I think back about –

the episodes, I, I, I, the indicator to me, it's like, what stories do I remember that people told? I, I, and I'm not just saying this, but I, I love thinking back and going back and listening to the story of the Turkey across the other side of the road that you called your like cornerstone Turkey. Oh yeah. That was, that was a, that was a special moment, man. Um, the other one I, I think of it, which was just strictly entertaining was we, and I, and to be honest, um,

I didn't know a lot about this guy, but we had co-wets along, and he talks about getting absolutely hammered and walking across the street and getting arrested at a Whataburger, and that was extremely, extremely entertaining. And the whole time, he was like, looking at his publicist, like, can I say this, or is it cool if I'm saying it? But trying to keep that guy in a...

in a, uh, interviewable box. It was, was, was a challenge. When we were talking to, when we, when we had combs on, well, this is the only time this has ever happened. We start, we go off, dude. This is early on where we were, we didn't have a format. We were just like tall. We would just talk. We, there was a clock that, and there still is a clock that we watch. And at 30 minutes, we try to, you know, hunt into music. That's kind of our, that's kind of our thing. All we'll talk about is hunting. There will be no music. Yeah. Uh,

But we had combs on and we were sitting there talking and our producer, you could just see her. She was just like, we're sitting here, cameras are on us. She's in the background and she's like, oh gosh, I was like doing this thing. And she stopped the recording with combs. This is our biggest guest. She stops and she goes, guys, guys, guys. I'm here to watch.

What? She goes, y'all have been talking about turkey sausage and skillet crisp for the last 47 minutes. She was like, we've got to move on. So, I mean, that's a great one, too. If you want to go hear about... Just start at minute 48. That's right. If you want to go hear about how Combs was, you know, we talk about skillet crisp and how he was a manager of a go-kart, you know,

for years before he made it. That's amazing. I do think that's what people want to hear. I know. They do. Y'all know this. I mean, y'all are these people, but it's like we all share a common human thread. We all share struggles. We all share...

you know, trying to reach the goals and trying to get to the place and trying to have good friends and good people and good music. And there's something relatable about just having somebody sit across the table from you and just talk about their lives for a minute. And by the way, perfect segue into saying, thank y'all for allowing us to come and do that.

Absolutely. We appreciate what you all do. You guys are great. Thank you. Please have a fantastic one. One of our favorites. Love you both. Tell people where they can see. Obviously, you're on Instagram. Where else are you? You got that. Yeah, man. TikTok, I think. We don't really do... Yeah, we're on TikTok. We're real bad about it, but we have...

we do have tick tock facebook any social media um and then we're on youtube god's country podcast on youtube um yeah subscribe part of the meat eaters part of the media network that's right that's right hey and don't forget about us you guys go to the youtube and leave us some comments these guys are legit you know what we started doing was five star or roast us in the ratings you guys should do that and what you do is you allow as long as they give you five stars they can roast you

Oh, they already roasted. Can I read one? Do we have time? We got time for whatever. Hey, since we have started this, and this was an idea, this is my wife's idea, but since we have started this, we have so many five-star ratings. Okay, so they give you...

You give them the ability to roast you if they give you five stars. Well, they can roast us if they give us one, but the only way you'll get shouted out on the podcast is if you leave us a five star. That's a great idea. It's a bit now, right? Dang, you guys are smart. So this one's titled Dumpster Dan and Lesser Brother. That's how they started. So we read one of these in episode. I'm already laughing. Episode 63 was the best one so far, even with the whole podcast.

being hard to love. That was Lee Bryce. I can tell the boys are going downhill fast with old material only referencing Luke Combs, gas station chicken, and being mad at traffic. Heck, what am I mad at? I'm mad at this podcast. Good thing Steve Rinella gave these guys a chance. Otherwise, they'd be no one. At this point, Steve is just doing charity work as a write-off for the two of them. Wow.

it's hard to be mad at that oh man yeah we gotta steal that okay so if anybody's still here at an hour and a half there you go give us five stars you have carte blanche roast us just say whatever the hell you want smoke and we'll read it on the next episode for me you're taking your ideas please do we don't know it's a pre-up yours from me

Five star me. I love it. No, hey man, we appreciate y'all for real. This has been a blast. I was really pumped when Neil hollered at me and asked us to come on and we respect you as songwriters, all of you. Artists, musicians, podcasters. What you do for the industry. Absolutely, man. What you stand for, what you believe in. We're fans.

Well, I promise you we felt the same way. Thank you guys, too. Appreciate that. This is Dan and Reed Isbell. We are the Try That in a Small Town podcast brought to you from the Patriot Mobile Studios. Thanks for listening, guys. Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.