From Hicktown to Headliner: Jason Aldean's 20-Year Musical Journey :: Ep 56 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
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15 locations at eSpaces.com. That's eSpaces.com. eSpaces.com. I think college kids should be paid to play, right? Like their days, it's not like a normal college kid. They don't just get to go to class and go home and study. And it's like, dude, whether it's baseball, football, whatever, it's like, it is a thing. It is a job when you're in college. And so do I think those guys should be compensated for that? Yeah, they can't really go work or

do whatever. So I think they should be, should make enough money to like get them through whatever. I think there should be some sort of cap on that. It's awesome. What would you say if, if, if somebody wanted to come to you and go, we want to do a reality show at your house. They have already. Oh, it's happened multiple times. Are you serious? Yeah. And I remember pulling in backstage. We're opening for Tim McGraw. Tim's got all his buses and trucks and,

stuff back there. I just remember going, man, how do we go from our thing to this thing? And I remember Kevin going, three and a half minutes, man. You just need the right three and a half minutes, meaning it takes one song to change the game. The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now. Try That in a Small

And we are back with another episode of the Try That Small Town Podcast coming to you from the Patriot Mobile Studios. It still sounds good. Kalo, Thrash, TK, I'm Kern. Tonight we got the OG, the good one, the great one, the Peach Man. Peach Man.

We're starting with the nicknames. I know there was a couple you guys were talking about nicknames on one of the episodes, and we never got to yours, I don't think. No, no. I think it's Daryl. It's Daryl. It's close. It starts with a D. So, yeah, there is a nickname. Yeah. It's not flattering. That's great. No. There's a nickname that's been around. It starts with a D. You got Tick or TK, we call him. You got...

Kurt, Kurtman. A lot of people say Korn. Korn. Korn. Dew is the other one. Dew. You should give people how that came about. Yeah, tell you. Dew's kind of cool. It's like Loretta Lynn's, you know. That is his nickname.

Do. Do? I think it was do. No, it was do. No, I think it was do. Really? Yeah, it was do. Yeah, I just remember it being like Tommy Lee Jones in the movie. But go ahead. It might have been the way she was saying it. It's the way she said it. It's the way she said it. It's so country. It's like do. Yeah. I don't know. So how did Kurt get the name Kurtman or do? How did do come about? Actually, you remember it. We were in a car with...

A record rep. It's very, very fuzzy. It's pretty fuzzy. We had been on the road. We were delirious. We had been on the road for hours, like during the radio tour type stuff and, you know, early days. And I don't know what it was, but Tully got on this thing about happy Texas. I was, yeah, probably very hungover or drunk, depending on what time of morning. Probably, yeah.

I can't remember exactly, but it was some sort of fake story. I was made up this alter ego. You were just coming up with a bit. From happy Texas, Kurt Mandu. Yeah, yeah, from happy Texas, yeah, Kurt Mandu. And he did this in the car for like two hours. And so next thing we know, everybody's calling Kurt Duu.

Kurt Bandu. Kurt whatever. And it got shortened to J.A. Or Kurtman. Yeah. On the road, everybody's got a name. J.A., Peach, Peach Band. I don't know if Kurt wants a nickname. Thrash. Yeah. I don't think he wants one, though. He didn't want tattoos. None of us want them. He doesn't want them. I didn't pick mine and go, you know, if I'd have picked it, it'd have been some shit. Thrash is better than Peach. Maverick. For sure. Iceman. Wait, wait, wait. I'm Maverick. Goose. You're Goose. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

I've always been Maverick. And this is our life in a nutshell. We'll talk about that off air. Hey, what I think we kind of breezed by this in the last episode, I guess,

But we had our one-year anniversary as a podcast, which is pretty cool. It was pretty amazing. And Jason was obviously our first guest, which aired a year to the day. So we got to ask you, A, two-part question, did you think that we'd last a year? B, because you actually watch, which I think is pretty funny. You watch some of our episodes. Who did you like watching us do? So did you think we'd last a year?

I think in the beginning, it's like you guys are going to do a podcast. And I think in our world, you know, I mean, this is a business of ideas, right? So like everybody's constantly, Hey, I'm going to start this company and I'm going to do this and I'm going to start a podcast and I'm going to, you know, go host a show. And I'm going to, you know, there's a lot of that. Obviously I know you guys, I know you guys. And so I'm like, I think this will be cool, but like anything, it's getting it out there, making people aware that it's out and just, you know, things like that. So,

You know, I think for me, I thought it was cool. You guys were doing it. I don't think I really had an understanding of what that was going to look like until I came in the first time. And it's like, oh, okay, this is going to be fun. And so even now, like I'm, I like podcasts, man. I'll drive around, drive my kids to school and throw on a podcast and listen to it, you know, and,

you know, I enjoyed, I just listened to the one you guys did with Cletus. I've known Cletus forever. We actually came out of the same nightclub, the buck board in Atlanta. Wow. Wow. Cletus kind of, that's where he kind of got his start. That's where Michael Knox discovered me. It was in the buck board. Uh, Darren Norwood came out of there. Um, who else, man? I don't know. It was like, that was kind of like a little hotspot back in the late nineties, mid late nineties. And,

So listen to Cletus was awesome. Obviously Hulk Hogan, one of our idols, you know, as a kid of the eighties, like Hulk Hogan was the man, you know, so, uh, got to be friends with him and to listen to him on the podcast was really cool. You know, I don't know. I mean, there's been a lot cash Patel, man. Cash was really awesome to have on and,

So glad he was an Aldean fan. Oh, yeah. That's how we knew he was a cool guy. Right, right. But, no, you guys have done awesome, man, and it's been really cool to –

to watch it and kind of be on the first one and watch it take off and watch everybody else come on board. And, uh, you know, some, sometimes you got, you guys get people on here that I'm like, how did you guys pull that off? That's pretty, pretty impressive. Well, we, we say that you'll go do something for them. You have a lot of benefits. It's coming. It's different areas. I'll take it for the team boys. It's fun. So cool time. We are gearing up for the new tour, which is,

this one's cool because it's 20 years geez since the hicktown album song single album talking about your hair did you think we were going to last that's the question like we talk about this a lot like making that album i know we all thought god will we get to do this again yeah yeah i think it was well just making the album yeah if you remember like before anything had come out i remember sitting in this in the studio that we still sit in today

thinking, I remember like playing, thinking, wow, this is really cool. Will we get to do this again? And so here we are. Yeah. I mean, I think for me, I mean, you go back 20 years since we, you know, dropped that album and Hicktown came out and all that, you know, I think it came out in April of 05 or something like that. But so 20 years. And I think when we went in to make that album, I mean, we had already been in there cutting demos and kind of doing that thing. And it's like, so for me, cutting the album was like, I was excited to,

to feel like i was working towards something like it was something that was going to be out right because we had always been cut demos that we were trying to get a deal on and so you pitch those things to the label and then you go play them for mom and daddy and everybody at home and then other than that nobody's hearing it right so we were cutting an album that people were gonna hear and you know i just remember thinking i thought in my mind like what we were doing was cool um i think

we probably thought it was better than it was at the time you know I think it was different at the time which was kind of what set us apart but I think we were all still kind of learning and you know even though we had all kind of done our thing individually it's like all of a sudden we were all kind of coming together as a truly as a band and like trying to figure this out and and so I think that took some time and you know cutting the first album I just I didn't know what to expect I just I was like man this has just been you know I'd had record deals and lost them and

Here I got another one. We're cutting it. I'm like, is this thing ever going to see the light of day? I don't know. This could be another thing where it just goes away or they decide, ah, this record sucks and we're not going to do this or whatever. And so for me, until that single hit radio and the album was in the store...

And people could go get it. It was like, I just didn't, I tried not to get like too wrapped up in, Oh, I got a record deal. And like, it's going to be awesome. And whatever it was like, it was still like, we had nothing. We had, we had a record deal on paper, but no hit, no money. Um,

Still starving. The record deal really didn't mean anything to me at the time until we could get out and have a hit and start going and really make it a wheel. Because you'd already been in town and failed for a while. You had a deal previous to that. So I think you kind of understood, hey, there's still stuff to happen here. Yeah, I mean, getting the record deal is like the tip of the iceberg, right? You get that, and that's cool. That's a start.

But then, I mean, you got to have the label behind you. Like they got to be interested in what you're doing and feel like, you know, you're bringing something cool to the table and really get behind you. And we've always had, you know, the staff at Broken Bow that's, you know, been incredible with that. They've always been on board with us and,

You know, they didn't have a choice. Shit, we were the only artists there at the time. You know, it was like us and, you know, Craig Morgan had had a couple hits. Sheree Austin had had a couple hits. But, like, past that, like, they didn't have a flagship artist for the label. And they were just trying to get that label up and running. And, you know, here we come along. And it's like, well, I guess we'll put it behind this guy. And, you know, and it just –

you know, we, we just had a great team around us. And I think, uh, for the, for the parts where we were kind of lacking in the early days, we had a really good team to kind of pick up those pieces. And, and once we got on the road and started doing our thing, it's like, we were always confident in that part of it, like going out and playing live. It's like, if you give us a hit, we're golden. We just didn't have a hit, you know? And so when Hicktown became a hit and,

that thing started to build it was like okay here we go and then we just kind of refined it over the years as as we went did you listen to the michael knox episode i didn't you did how accurate how accurate was it ah this is great same michaels as you know 85 accurate or so there was some there was some uh some details i was like

Did that maybe that? I don't know. In fairness, that's a long time. Dude, it's, but I've known Knox for 20, I mean, 98 to 20. God, I love him. I love that dude. Eight years. So whatever, like, I mean, hell, you know, I've known Knox over half my life. You know, he's the guy that brought me here and he's the reason I know Tully and Kurt and you and you, and you know, it's just like the dude changed my life forever. And, um,

you know, it's just, it was a, I'll say this, you know, I came to town and as a kid from Georgia that was doing pretty good down in the clubs in Georgia and Florida and felt good about what we were doing. I felt good about myself. We were building a little following and,

starting to get some heat and then I come to town and I'm thinking oh this is gonna be you know pick up where I left off down in Georgia and Florida and it's like nah you know it was a whole different thing and you know there was a lot of people on board in the early days that were excited about what I was doing and all that that when I lost my deal and those kind of things those people kind of peeled off and Michael was the the only one that kind of stayed there and

saw it through and it's like hey just lost that record deal we're gonna go get another one we're gonna keep going in and it's just like that relentless attitude man and that was like that was something to me that was i needed at the time and and i don't think like you know we would be sitting here if his mentality wasn't like that so i mean i owe that guy everything but his story is about 85 percent well you know what i love about starting every year we get to

start a new tour and i always think about the same thing and you kind of just talked about a little bit you know the years before we made that first album you know and we talk about doing showcases and basically trying to get a record deal and playing for labels playing a lot of the same songs we were playing amaryllis sky and why and johnny cash and you gotta remember too like we look awful

I mean, listen, this isn't like what you see now. What do you mean looked awful? What are you talking about? We did not look good. Like we, you know, it wasn't a thing where we were getting like our clothes tailored and everything. I'm up there in a baggy ass, you know, button up shirt and like,

It's like, man, this is kind of the vibe, but I don't have the money to go get my stuff tailored. So here it is, you know? And like these guys, I mean, Kurt in the first or second video, uh,

Had a pair of Chuck Taylor Converse that he wore all the time. And they were splitting open. He had duct tape wrapped around them. And you can see it in the video. And that's where we were at at the time. It wasn't to be cool. It was rock and roll, man. So, yeah, it's not like now you go out and see it. It's like, oh, this is a really refined version of what we do. Back then, it was still kind of rough. And it was like it took somebody to see that and go, there's something in there. I don't know.

It's cool. There's something in there. And Knox was... He was kind of that guy for me. And then ultimately, Benny Brown at Broken Bow saw something we were playing one night. And that was that. I love those days, though, because I feel like we were struggling then. But something about looking back on it, beginning of every tour, like, God. It always feels... The struggle is what I think about the most now. And really...

Well, I think it's a, yeah, I think it's just being thankful or like, you know, even though it to sit here and say like, man, it was 20 years ago, we were getting started and we put out this and we were playing all these, you know, crazy shows or whatever.

And I think now it's just thankful. It's like 20 years in and we're still able to go out every year and have this new rig and this new tour and keep creating this stuff every year to go out and play our songs. It's cool, man. I don't know. I mean, I think that's what we always wanted to do, but it's like, hell, everybody wants to do that. But there's like this one...

1% of people, they get to do it. And for whatever reason, we're in that club, you know? And so every year it's pretty cool to, you know, unveil all those things and go, damn. And then look and go, man, the first 10 shows are already sold out. So there's that. And then, you know, it's like, man, 20 years in, we're still, you know, people still care and we can still go do this. I think that's all we ever really wanted to do. So, yeah.

Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, it's always cool to get started for the start of the tour. Yeah. And, you know, it still blows my mind that we have catering. After 20-something years, I remember, you know, I was telling someone the other day, like, I think it was Keller, actually, my son was saying, food's always so good. You know, I'm like, you know, back in the day when we first started catering,

We were doing 200 shows a year. You guys know we were playing bars on a Friday night, maybe a fair somewhere on a Saturday. You're getting chicken fingers from the bar and fries. We ate Subway.

lot it was like 15 days in a row it was which we thought was healthy or barbecue healthier work for jared well other things messed him up they wasn't the subway sandwiches things went dark for jared he's got a netflix special now i started to watch it i had to turn it off it's too much i'm not saying it might not be on netflix but it's on one of them yeah no but seriously like we're eating and that i mean

to now it's like holy crap now you know it's still it's still amazing and so fun and it's such a proud moment to think oh we've been doing this together for so long and we and we got to where we wanted to go but i know that we still have that feeling of like i don't want it to go away well and i think it's the secret sauce yeah and i think that's the thing it's like you know there's this fine line of going hey this is what i always wanted to do and

We did all that stuff. You know, there's most of it we've done, you know, and then there, but there's also that side of like, man, I want to keep create music and keep doing stuff we haven't done and go out and make the content for the shows different. And every year it's like, they're getting a different experience when they come to the shows. And, and I think for us, it's always been focusing on music, making sure like, as we get older in the business, like to try and keep the music still cool and, and, you know, stuff that,

I don't know, that we would say or that we would do. And we're not going to do songs like Hicktown and those kind of things that we did when I was 28. Hell, I'm 48 now, so...

We did a lot of those things, which I probably wouldn't cut now, but I feel like the stuff we do now is some of the best stuff we've done, like some of the coolest songs that we've cut. And so to me, that's a big part of it, and that's always what makes everything else go. So as long as we're cutting great records and cool things and creating these moments, the shows and people being interested and staying...

involved in what we're doing, that kind of stuff will just come as long as we're doing this other thing. And that's kind of what I've always tried to focus on. I remember watching, sorry, Kayla. No, go ahead. I remember when we were opening for Rascal Flatts, we had Gary on here. And I remember very clearly watching their show after we played at seven o'clock and played four or five songs.

And at that point, they were firing. Massive. I mean, they were one of the biggest bands in the world. They were firing. I remember, I think we're all watching this. I remember saying, man, could you imagine coming to an arena that you're headlining? And it's still, just sitting here with you guys, I still get off on that. The grind was so intense.

I wouldn't change a mile of it. No. Not one mile of any bus ride, you know, or anything, or van ride. You know, that's what's great about the business. Yeah. Well, and I think that's where, like, as bandmates, as, like, you know, brothers on the road kind of thing, like, that's where you learn to, like, that's where you gel. You know, when you're staying in the crappy hotel rooms and, you know, you're wheeling your luggage down,

you know, a one a to go to a place to take a shower. Cause there's no place at the venue and we're all lugging our shit down the street. You know, it's like, you know, you learned it like pride becomes a thing of like, you don't have pride in the daytime. You just, you know, there's only like an hour and a half, two hours a night where you're cool, where you're cool. Yeah.

And I think, like, you know, you just live with everybody. I mean, we're on the road 250 days a year or whatever it is. And it's like you just get really tight and learn to, like, I mean, it's family, you know. And so, I don't know, for it to start kind of like it did and us to still be, like you were saying, like with, you know, Rascal Flats, I remember walking out and just going, man, like we're.

even though we were close, like we were playing on the same show and whatever, it was like, this is a different, this is a different thing. And I don't know how to go take us from Hicktown and why to, you know, what hurts the most. I don't, that's a, you know, obviously it was a song. That was their big one that really launched them into the stratosphere. And like, we're sitting there on tour with them watching that. And I'm like, man,

we aren't there yet, you know, and I don't know how to get there. And I remember asking Kevin Neal, who has been my agent forever and just like OG fam guy that's been with us from the beginning. And I remember pulling in backstage, we're opening for Tim McGraw at Tampa at the ask Gary up at the, whatever that thing's called. And so he pulled in, Tim's got all his buses and trucks and stuff back there. And I just remember going, man, like, this is ridiculous. Like,

How do we go from our thing to this thing? And I remember Kevin going, or I said, what does it take to go from that type from our thing to that thing? And he's like, three and a half minutes, man. You just need the right three and a half minutes, meaning it takes one song to change the game. Yeah.

And when she's country came out, man, that was the one that just, it lit the fuse for that. And then we backed, you know, that album had some big ones on it. And then we followed it up with my kind of party record and night train. And it was just like a rocket after that. So, you know, I think we didn't know how to make that happen. And then all of a sudden we were just like strapped to a rocket in the middle of it. You know, it's like, we didn't even see it coming really. But all those showcases, um,

What I love thinking about, though, you know, for like 10 people sometimes. Oh, yeah. 15 people. Two people. Stretching it. Two people. Or maybe it was 20, then it went down to four. Record companies would come in. It'd be like the president of the record company and, like, you know, it'd be like Tony Brown, Larry Willoughby, and then one other A&R person. Go in, you play a couple songs. I'd watch them talk to Knox for a minute, and then, shit, they'd leave. You know? And you're just like, hey.

I'm assuming you're not in. Not having the first song sometimes. But we never stopped performing. And I think what that set us up for was those years of opening and playing clubs. Because even when Hicktown was moving up the charts, we'd still like, we may play a market one night where it's a pack club. But then the next night, there could be 50 people there. So I think it set us up for like, we played every show, which is what I'm most proud of.

We never took a night off. You never took a night off. You never mailed one in. And I think that's... Well, I think it was a different time, too. I mean, I think at the time we came out, you know, we didn't have social media and all that stuff to kind of like help the process. It wasn't like, hey, we're in Owensboro, Kentucky tonight. Come see us play. Like, we didn't have that. So it was like you had to do it grassroots style. You had to go out and play a bar and just...

punch them right in the face. So they would go and tell all their friends, holy shit, you guys missed this. You got to come see these guys. And then the next time we'd come back to town, it was just constantly hitting them over the head going, Hey, if you missed it last time, you better come this time. And we would ramp it up every time. And as we started getting a little bit more of a following, you know, I mean, on stage, we start getting a little bit more swagger and, you know, okay, we got a couple of hits now we can, you know, it's, you start to turn that corner a little bit and, and,

And we just had to do it that way. We didn't have another option. So it was getting your songs played on radio, trying to get a video on CMT, and going out and just playing as many shows as you could and basically just not coming off the road, which is what we did for a few years. Yeah.

I was kind of curious about, because you mentioned making records and stuff like, let's say you're, you know, a couple singles deep and you're thinking about recording a new one and everything in your mind, are you thinking about, because not everybody does records and you're still cutting records and everything and putting a bunch of songs on there. People are just releasing stuff, just putting it out, putting it out.

Do you have a theme? Do you think, Hey, I want to do this. Or do you wait to find a couple songs? It's like, okay, I love this. And you build something around it. Like what, what's your, what's your mindset? Yeah. The way it's always worked for me is like, I've never gone in and went, Oh, I want to go cut this really artsy, you know, blue grassy country record kind of like, I don't, we don't do that. Like for me, it's songs come in and I just have, I don't know, like for me, I just have this thing. When I hear the song, I'm like, Oh,

i love it i want to listen to that song again i feel like i could sing that like i feel like you know it almost feels like a song that i wrote like that's how i feel i love the melody you know i can do that and i i want to hear that again i want to play it over and over and over when i get those songs in they go in a pile and so it's never really about like what the album looks like it's just one day i turn around and there's like 15 songs in that pile and it's like

Okay, and then some of them may fall out. I'd be like, that one's kind of getting old. It'll kind of fall out and whatever. And then at the end of the day, you're left with these songs that I've just kind of accumulated or found or these guys have written or we've written or whatever. And then you'd look over there and go, all right, let's go cut all this stuff. And then we go cut it all, and it just turns out the way it does. It's like it's nothing –

I don't think we ever overthink that stuff or sit there and go, oh, we need this or we need that. It's like, man, I like that. That's what I want to sing. I think that'll be cool for a record or that'll be cool for a live thing or whatever its lane is for that record. And there's things that I love and take in there, Knox hates. There's things I love these guys don't really like sometimes.

But I think for me, those songs, in my mind, if I cut a song, if I go in, spend the time to cut it, sing it, spend time on it, to me it has a place somewhere. I may not always know exactly what that is or we may not get to it at some point, but to me it's like, hey, that thing's good enough to cut and it could have a moment somewhere. And I don't know what that looks like, but let's cut it. It's good enough to cut. I think anything I've ever had cut that you've cut of mine –

You were never in mind, ever. When writing it? Yeah. Yeah, because you guys were writing for people that were bigger. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

It was like, I've had co-writers go, hey, what's Aldine? What's he want to say? And I go, I don't know what he wants to say. To me, it's... Never have. To me, it's... I never have. To me, it's things, you know, that I can relate to or things that like, you know, I'm like, oh, shit. I love that, like, you know, that little trill or that, you know, that melody or whatever, that bridge or whatever it is. And then it's like, you start breaking down the song. It's like, you know...

I feel like that's something I would want to get in the room and write or be a part of. I don't know. And so when I hear those songs, I mean, try it in a small town. I mean, I don't even think I heard the whole song. I just heard a verse chorus, stopped it, called them, like, hey, we're cutting this thing soon. And I immediately started sending it to everybody going, hey, this is our first single off the record.

And we had never even cut it yet, but I'm like, this is a single. We need to get a video going. Because I just knew that was a song that was going to move the needle. It was touching on a subject that I was passionate about that was something that I felt like needed to be touched on. And I felt like, man, somebody's going to come out and say this. Well, no, we did say there's only one dude that will ever cut this song. As good as the song is...

I didn't listen to the whole song. I just, you know, I heard the little, the gun part and I went, Oh, they'll probably, you know, say something about that. And here we go. And that was it. But it's like, when I hear those things like that, it's, you know, I mean, we got things we've cut for the new album and it's just like, I get in my truck and it's like, I mean, they're on repeat and I just don't get tired of them. And to me, it's hard to find those songs because I'll get tired of them quick. I play them. I mean, I have to play them to learn them. And so I'm just like, I want to play them a lot. And it's,

if I still keep liking them, I'm like, all right, I got to trust that. That's a gut instinct thing. I got to trust that. And if it's one that I'm like, you know, this one's in the pile, but I keep skipping over it. I'm like, that's one I need to look at and go, man, I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I don't think that one's going to like, if it does something, it's going to be an album cut. It's not going to. And I know that going in. Right. So we'll give people a little insight because, you know, we were talking about Hicktown. That was 20 years ago.

We have been recording a new album this year. Can you give people any kind of insight what they might expect for the album coming up?

Anything to look forward to? Any kind of secrets? We got some stuff going on. There's going to be some duet stuff on this record. Multiple duet things, I think. Breaking news right here. Exclusive. But we've been working on this. These guys have been writing. We've been writing and recording stuff for the last eight months or so. Something like that. I don't know. But...

You know, we got some duets on it, and I think, you know, we're kind of at a different place. You're not going to name names? Duets? I don't think it's time for that. I got to get some of these people on tape before I start going, oh, so-and-so's doing the song. No, I'm not. So, but we got some cool things like that, you know, and like I said earlier, man, I think like some of the coolest songs, I mean, and I feel like,

You know, I'm at a point in my career and what we do that, you know, certain songs that I probably would have cut back in the day, a little tongue in cheek or like whatever, and put these things out and go, I wonder if that, you know, this is kind of quirky. That might be, I think we're at a different place now where it's like, we want to like put out just things that we think are really cool that we want to go out and play and

that fire us up to get on stage and go, hey, this isn't these kind of songs. It's a different era, I think, for what we're doing. Really cool stuff, man. Some of the stuff we got on the album is throwback 80s stuff, and then there's some really progressive stuff. If anybody's bought one of our albums over the years, I mean...

You got everything from country, rock and roll, R&B, hip hop, blues. I mean, there's a little bit of all of it. And I don't think this record's any different. I mean, I think there's a lot of that. But I think there's some pretty strong ones on this record. You could give a master class and should to young artists about really paying attention to your fan base. Because I've never seen an artist more tapped in,

Which played some of the Try That in a Small Town thing. Tapped into who you know who your fan base is and how to grow it, but also how to keep it. Just be honest. I think young artists get too wrapped up with

what's so-and-so going to think on music row because that's that's the issue like find what you do go out and do it don't chase don't chase the trends experiment when you can yeah you know with success gives you a little bit more rope but also when to dial it in i think it's a it's a it's a really a lost art like i think the new artist well i've never i've never had anybody go in and like pick my songs out and go here's your record like

I just don't do that. You know what I mean? Like A&R people, I don't know. They're great, but except for to me personally, when it comes to picking songs, I don't, I trust one person, Michael Knox kind of gets, you know, I mean, and we're not always on the same, these guys get it because they played with me for so long. And, you know, we kind of come from the same background. So they know like if it's something I would say or not say or,

you know, whatever. But it's like, I just don't trust people to go and find those songs for me. I just don't think it's going to happen. Cause they're in this town. Everybody comes in. Oh, I found that, you know, so-and-so wrote this huge hit and they play it for you. And I'm like, no, that's like, no, that's not even an album cut for me. And, you know, but they're trying to sell you that it's a big hit, you know? And it's like, I've done this long enough to know when one's a bad-ass and one's not, you know? And so, you know, I just, to me, like, that's a really important piece of the puzzle because without that,

touring and all the other stuff that doesn't happen so you know coming down to songs making sure that you know at least the core you got I always like to make sure we got about six or eight things on the record that are like single worthy that I know I'm pretty good with putting any of those six or eight out you know they're pretty solid and

And so, and that's kind of how I've always done it. And, you know, I think as, as we've gotten older, these guys have become better songwriters, which is, you know, they used to write stuff and send it to me and I'd be like, Nope. Is that, is that the biggest surprise of your career that these two guys have gotten better songwriters? Is that the biggest surprise? I'll tell you what, it is a blessing. It's been a blessing because honestly, like when they first kind of started writing and Tully and I started writing together and,

1999 we started you know writing songs and stuff they weren't good but we were writing them and we cut a few of them and and so you know but i think at some point these guys would write stuff and they they started trying to you know get some songs on the album which was great you know i mean anytime you you don't have to go looking for something you got guys coming in going hey man here's a bad you know badass song and check this out sure that's a great thing for me

But in the beginning when they would do some, every now and then there'd be something cool like Kurt had. They don't know. I think it was a single force Kurt had at one point. And then they kind of started writing some things that were coming in and it's like,

That's cool. But in the beginning, it was like, no, that ain't it. That ain't the one. And then every once in a while, they'd get one in and then they'd get two in and then four in. And then now it's like just essentially a collaboration. You know, these guys are writing every day for the record. We're bouncing ideas around all the time. And it's just kind of become a different dynamic now, which is really fun, I think, for all of us to kind of not only record it and get to go play it, but to like, you know,

write it and just kind of have it all in house with our little crew that we started with. Like that's a, that's a cool thing I think for us. Yeah. It's amazing. Hey guys, stick with us. We get on a take a word, get a word from our sponsors. We're with Jason Aldean. This is a try. The peach man. We'll be right back. I should add you bring us out. My name is Glenn story. I'm the founder and CEO of Patriot mobile.

And then we have four principles. First Amendment, Second Amendment, Right to Life, Military and First Responders. If you have a place to go to put your money, you always want to put it with somebody that's like mine. Of course. I think that's the beauty of Patriot Mobile. We're a conservative alternative here.

Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. Go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown to get a free month of service when you use the offer code smalltown or call 972-PATRIOT.

You know what goes great with small town stories? Original Glory, America's beer right here. You know, I've been drinking this every songwriting session today. Man, that clean, crisp taste reminds me of summer nights on the back porch after a fresh mowed lawn. And they're just not making great beer. They're investing in America's small towns. Well, it's just like us. They believe in bringing communities together. Not only do they invest in communities, but a portion of each sale goes to the veterans and the first responders and all the heroes that

protect us for a limited time you can become a member of the og fam and invest in this beer at wefunder.com forward slash original brands join our original glory family and help ignite that original glory spirit all right all right all right all right we're back this is a try that small town podcast we got jason aldean with us um because you guys couldn't find it artist of the decade

Wow. Who'd you bring? Don't be clapping. I'm only here because I couldn't get anybody else to come on board. I'm who they call when nobody else wants me. He's a sympathy guest. Yeah. Thanks, man. Hey, we can't get anybody else on. You mind coming over and hanging out? All right.

So here I am. Well, we're thankful. Thank you. We're also thankful for our sponsors. We got the original Glory Beer and all its glory right there. We got Patriot Mobile. We got East Base. I got to say, I love Patriot Mobile. Yeah, they're doing the tour, right? Yeah, man. What a cool, cool thing, man. So check this out. We got a new sponsor. This is brand new. Breaking news. Breaking news. Really? Yeah. This is good stuff and it applies to us. Have you heard of the Wellness Company? No.

and I know you have. Yep.

No, I do know, but I'm trying to know. So if you want just whatever supplements, you can go to their website and get that. Or maybe metabolism boost, you can get that. But they offer this medical emergency kit. And this is good for us being on the road. And we will have these on the road. Oh, yeah. Because it comes with the Z-Pak, amoxicillin. Oh, that's a game changer. Right? No doubt. Yes. So it's the wellness company. If you go there, put in the code SMALLTOWN.

You get a double Z pack. We get complimentary packs. Kalo's already bought his. We've got one in each car and at home. We're laughing, but seriously, as entertainers on the road, I can't tell you how many times we're on the road and my kids come home from school. They're sick with something and I get a cold. We've got stuff to do. I've got to play shows. I can't tell you how many times...

you know, I've had doctors come out and be like, here's a shot. I need a rock doc. I need a rock doc. Actually a route 91. I had one that day. Doc Johnson came out in Vegas and, you know, hit me with an antibiotic and that kind of thing. And a lot of times it's like, Hey, here's a Z-Pak. Get started on that. And it's to the point now where we're like, we almost keep them on hand just going, Hey, I know what the, like, I know if I get like a,

head cold or sinus infection or something or like a bronchitis, whatever. I'm like Z-Pack.

And you don't use them like all the time, but it's nice to have them so you don't have to go to the doctor, sit in the waiting room, wait for two hours to get in there and go, I just need a Z-Pack, man. And then, you know, so that's awesome. And people don't realize, I mean, we have to work every night. There's no taking a night off. Hey, I don't feel good. My stomach hurts. I can't play kind of thing. No, you're playing. So this is a great thing. Go to the wellness company. Put in the code smalltown. Call the wellness company with Patriot Mobile. Oh, yeah.

See? While you're drinking that OG. Dang. He's got to tie them all in, boys. I'm here. I love it. That's why you're here. Wow. That's amazing. That was impressive. Drink beer. Call the wellness company. I love it. That was impressive. Where do we want to go? Who's got something? Where do we want to go?

Well, we're going to talk football. You guys are so unprepared for me. No, no, no, no, no. We're not either. We're just trying to decide what we want to bring up next. Well, I got this. We've been talking a little bit about the Titans, you know, the draft. They just got Cam Ward. Screw the NFL. Let's talk college. Oh, come on. Real quick. Well, the Titans just happened, so I get it. It just happened. First of all, Cam Ward, wait and see, or do you like it? I think it's a good one.

I think it's a wait and see. I mean, I think all these guys coming out of college, you know, they all have a lot of hype around them and,

I mean, no question, they're great athletes and whatever. But, I mean, you guys are sports fans too. Until they get in whatever that team system is, and it either clicks or it doesn't. It wasn't the best quarterback stable coming out of college. No, so let's get to the other one. I feel like we got the best available. I do too. I agree with that. They tried to get some weapons for him too. That's the other thing. I think Jackson Dart's going to be something special. I really do.

Really? No, I do. I think he's cut out for the NFL. Milrow is not from Bama, and I'm a Bama guy. He went to Seattle. I mean, he's not going to make it in the NFL. He's not going to make it. Hey, let's get to the big news. The big quarterback is Shadur Sanders. That was the big news of the week. That's the big story. So what do you guys think the thing is? Because here's the thing. I love –

I'm a Georgia guy, right? I remember when Deion got drafted by the Falcons. He played for the Braves. Like, I'm a Deion fan. He brought a little swagger to Atlanta that they had not had. I mean, up until then, like, our big guy was Dale Murphy. You know what I mean? Our quarterback was Steve Barkowski, I think, back in the day. And, like, Deion comes to Atlanta. He's got a little flash. He's got a little swagger. And it brought that whole thing kind of to Atlanta. Should do or ain't no Deion. Well, no. No.

However, I know that Deion was representing his Shadur as his agent, right? That was the thing. So that's the problem. It isn't that the player has swag. You now are dealing with the dad and the agent. For sure. And I think that's a situation where I think it gets a little weird when it's like, well, I don't want to play for that team. I only want to play for the team.

New York team or a LA team or this, it's like, I mean, I grew up playing sports too. And that was, I mean, music was a hobby. Sports was like my passion growing up. And, and,

Had I gotten drafted to play baseball out of high school, I could have been drafted by the worst team in the league. They could have given me a damn snicker bar and a bus ticket and said, hey, you know. Sounds good. Go to wherever Texas, and you're going to start playing rookie ball there. And I'd have been stoked, right? And I think that's the difference. I think it's just, you know, being –

honored that an NFL franchise would want to draft you and make you part of their team and give you that opportunity, I think is a huge deal. And to go into that stuff going, I don't know if I want to play for that team. I don't know if I want to play for that team. It's like, I don't know that that was the case with him or whatever. Do you think it was retaliation by the NFL or collusion to say, hey, don't draft this kid. He's trying to...

I don't know. I mean, I will say this. Everything that I heard going up to it was he was a first-rounder. You know, at worst, a second-round pick. And for him to slip as far as he did, it just tells me, like, there was other things. I mean – Go ahead and say it. It's fine. I mean, it just says, like, there's teams that are going, man, I don't know. It's an attitude thing or it's dealing with his dad or we don't think he's –

our guy or like whatever, or we just don't need a quarterback. And, you know, that's the other thing. There's a lot of teams, you know, that really don't need a quarterback that don't want to spend that money. So, I mean, you got a handful of teams that are going, you know, we're kind of trying to figure it out. We could use him. Maybe he's our guy and whatever. And you're trying to land on one of those teams. Look at the Patriots back in the day. Look at them. That's a different deal. Brady was like, I'm just talking about locker room. I'm not talking about on the field. I'm talking about before they even run out on the field. It's the locker room.

And I think Shador Sanders was going to be bad for the locker room. Brady was the best thing for any locker room in the history of football. But I think he probably grew into that too. I mean, you've got to grow into that. You're not going to come out of college and go in and take over a locker room. You're going to go in and want to fit in. I'm not talking about – yeah, I'm talking – And as you prove yourself, you kind of take over the locker room. I'm talking about being a teammate. Yeah.

I don't know. The guys that think about themselves only and then the guys that think about the team. You have that or that, and the results speak for themselves. I don't know. I feel like it was weird. I don't know. I feel like it was weird because he was projected to be a first-rounder at latest, a second-rounder. Some people had him at number one. It was almost like,

We're going to show you, you know. And so I don't know. Like, I don't know what it was. And then of all teams, the Browns, who have, like, the worst record in picking quarterbacks ever. They're quarterback. They're like.

Okay, we'll take a quarterback because, shit, one of them's got to hit at some point. They took the kid from Oregon like the round or two before, the Dylan Gabriel. I don't know if you guys know who he is. I mean, Manziel, Couch. I mean, they've – Deshaun Watson. Well, they didn't draft him, but he's there. He was great in Houston. I mean, he's also had a lot of off-the-field issues. Well, he had a massager too go wrong. He's got stuff going on. Yeah.

I don't know. I'm a Bama guy, and I would have taken Shadur over Milrow. Same. I would have taken Shadur over Milrow. I would have. I think Shadur was probably the second best quarterback in the draft. I think he's better than Dart. I give him third or fourth. Again, I think it's like you've got to – what system is he in? Does it click with him? Yeah.

Does he have the weapons around him, offensive line and all the stuff to protect him? It's just a lot of those. You have the best quarterback in the world. You put him on a shitty team and they can't get it done. NFL too, especially. He doesn't look like an NFL QB to me. He's like a new age, though. He's like a Lamar Jackson. He doesn't have the mental side of it, though, because that's the other thing, too. Brady, I love this part about Brady because he knew –

What was going to go on? He's a freak, though. He's just a freak. He put the time in. He knew how to read the defense. He knew what he was going to do. What's made up for his slow, never ran, never ran. Lack of mobility. He knew he would step up into the pocket under trouble and just figure it out. I don't know if Chador is going to have that side of the game. I'm just sitting over here. Kalo's kind of silent.

Are you not a sports guy? No, he's a UT guy. And he hasn't brought up Nico. He doesn't have anything to cheer about. He hasn't brought up Nico yet. Nico's gone. Well, yeah, but I mean, that's... No, that wasn't the conversation. You should be doing for that clapping. You should be thankful. I agree. I agree. Be glad you got rid of him. I wanted to hear what your take was on, as a UT fan...

My takeaway would be – Bleeding orange fan. Would bleed into everything you guys are saying. It's a locker room thing. If Nico would have stayed, bad for the locker room. Yeah. And same with what you're saying with Shador, like the locker room thing. I think sometimes people don't want to deal with that, and they don't want to mess with all the other players. And all the other players, especially QB –

You know, if they don't like that person as a personality, I mean, in any business, and NFL is, I know sports, but it is a business. And if you're not, if you are not likable, it is very difficult to be successful. That's a fact. Yeah, and I think, like, you know, NC, I mean, college football anymore has gotten to the point where, like, when you're bringing these kids in, you know, you almost have to make sure they check all the boxes. Like, yes, they're a great player, you know, but they're also, like,

They're good for the team. They're, you know, a locker room presence that comes in and, you know, because that's the thing. You can have a stud on the team that does all the – I mean, Georgia had one, Carson Beck. You know, he's supposed to be the greatest guy. The locker room, from what I hear, was like they just weren't behind the guy. You know, I mean, Gunnar Stockton comes in and all of a sudden they're like, that's our guy. We want to get behind the – you know, and that's – There you go. And that's the thing. You've got to have a guy in a locker room that's sort of the –

no bullshit guy that's like, hey, you know, I'll see you prancing around over there when you score a touchdown. Don't do that shit. You know, like that's not, that's not what we're about, you know, whether he's the quarterback or the damn whatever, you know? And so I think every team has to have those guys because the coaches aren't around. They can't handle it all. Like sometimes it has to come within from the team, from the players and like,

You know, you just – you got to have those guys on every team. Is Shador that guy? I don't know. I don't think so. But, you know, it's – I think it's also being in the NFL, getting around guys that are like – he's different too. Like he's had a pedigree, an NFL pedigree. I mean, he's grown up around that. So it's like – it's not like most kids where they're like, holy shit, this is the NFL. He's like, I've been doing this – I've been around this my whole life. But you know these teams like –

These owners, these teams, they want to win at all costs. If they thought he had it, he would have not slid to the fifth round. But it's also like... They want to win. If they thought he had some hidden, just is going to blow up and be the best thing ever, they would have taken him. There's something that's not...

Whether it's his attitude or however he handled interviews and things. Not his athletic ability at all. Dealing with – I mean, the guy on the field, no question. He's got skills and he's great. But, like, aside from that, like, what are you going to bring to the table? So was Nico. Nico was, like, a stupid, talented kid. But UT handled that situation exactly how they should have. I love how they did. They did. And number-wise, like, he's very talented. But, like, he was ranked, like –

you know, in SEC, you know, not even halfway through as far as his numbers go. Very talented. It's like the rest of Tennessee. We know. Listen. Hey. No respect at all. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Message from Patriot Mobile. But, you know, it's like any more, like college kids, I mean, and granted, like I'm on the –

I think college kids should be paid to play. Like, right? Like their, their days, it's not like a normal college kid. They don't just get to go to class and go home and study. And it's like, dude, they're, whether it's baseball, football, whatever, it's like, it is a thing. It is a job when you're in college. And so do I think those guys should be compensated for that? Yeah. They, they can't really go work or do whatever. So,

I think they should make enough money to get them through whatever. I think there should be some sort of cap on that, you know, so you don't have one guy making $6 million a year and then his offensive line, the guy that's protecting is making $50 grand. There's no cap, no.

Not currently. I was going to say this. The fact that they let this happen and didn't see this coming and knew that it was going to get out of hand and knew that it was going to be all the switching. Like, you got to be smarter. What if you have something? I mean, I know that Trump and Saban had a little meeting.

Oh, I saw that. Yeah, they had like one of those guys. We don't know. I know. Let's play a game. You love both of them. You just know. I do not. You just wish you had a chance to meet Nick Saban in Augusta playing Augusta National. And my caddy goes, you know who that is in front of us? That's Nick Saban. You want to meet him when we make the turn? And I said, no. Why? Why would you?

What's the problem? Listen, I think he's a great coach. Seriously, I know. What's the problem? He does nothing for me. He did a lot of great things for Alabama, which means nothing to me. Why is it all about you? But he's a great leader. He's a great businessman. It's about me when he goes, do you want to meet him? And I said, no, I do not. That's how I got brought in. What if he wanted to meet you?

He loves music. He probably loves your music. Listen, I hate Steve Spurrier, too. Well, I did, and then I met him, and I actually thought the guy was great. So you haven't met Saban yet. You'd probably love him as a person. Probably hit it off with him. But do I have a desire to go tell him what a great coach he is? Your red and black has darkened your heart so bad. Your red and black has darkened your heart.

Unbelievable. Oh, my gosh. Good God almighty. I love the sports Aldine better than the music Aldine. I love this. Let's go to another. I would rather talk sports with him. We could talk sports with Aldine all day long. Let's just don't talk about Braves. They started 0-7. Yeah. Let's go to another coaching legend. I'll guide this to Tully.

what's going on with Bill Belichick? He's having a great time. What are you talking about? What the hell are you talking about? Six rings, 25-year-old girlfriend. What's not right with him? I mean, crazy? Coming from a Tully Kennedy. I don't understand why everybody's giving him a hard time. I don't either.

I don't either. I don't get it. He's put his time in. It's a little weird. It's a little weird. Maybe she's a little bossy, but... I saw a picture. A lot of them are. Somebody posted a picture in 1999, and Bill Belichick was a full-grown adult. Somebody's holding this little infant, and that's his girlfriend. I think it was 99. That's pretty wrong. I saw it, and I'm like, that's wrong. I can't look at that. She's 25 or 26, right? Yeah.

He deserves to do whatever he wants to do. Here we go. Listen, I say if you, I say if Bill, if he's got something in common with that 25 year old girl, Hey, explore it.

You know? Explore the studio space. You never know. Oh, my God. Hey, but in the meantime. They both dye their hair. That's all they have in common. That's it. Listen, I don't know. I just know he's awesome. He's a great coach. I don't even like the Patriots, but he was a great coach. Great coach. Well, you said it. He ain't hurt nobody. He ain't. Don't change the subject. I'm not. I'm just going to. No, I want to stay on this subject. He is the greatest. You're saying that because you're a Patriots fan.

Saban's the greatest, not Belichick. Cowboys fans would say Tom Landry's the greatest. I think it's hard not to look at... Kenny Rogers is the greatest. Kenny Rogers! First concert ever. Right? Belichick is the greatest because...

The way he won those Super Bowls. He really, I mean, it was a system like great defense all the time. I would say Don Shula's the greatest. See? Well, you would. He won with different quarterbacks. I cannot say that Dan Reeves that closed the Falcons was the greatest. Are we talking about like all sports? Are we talking about like college, NFL? As a collaborative. So you're going to put somebody above Bear Bryant? Seriously? Yeah.

Who's Bear Brown? Oh, my gosh. I mean, lightning just struck. I'm joking. Your house. Wow. Alabama's got a great history. Bear Brown's. I mean, I think you have those iconic guys. Vince Lombardi. I wasn't around, so I don't know. I love football. I love talking football.

Draft Kings can't get here fast enough. Can we start playing Draft Kings on golf or baseball or soccer? We did it. We actually tried it. But I do love the greats, the Shulas, the Belichicks. I mean, how can you not? Does Aldine know about our match, our golf match? I've heard you guys talk about this. Well, maybe we should amend our match. You've got to include me in this. Oh, you want some? You want in? Yeah. Yeah.

You know, Neil, maybe we should do this. But I mean, who's the teams? I feel like... Because I think this is the way to do it. Because Cletus was on here. Neil? Yeah. You're basically scratch. Cletus is basically scratch. You guys are on separate teams. You divide all of us. Then you... We're the kids on the playground. We're like, don't want to get picked last. Especially me. We'll all be last. You're going to get picked last. I know. But I mean, those should be the teams. Yeah.

Then we'll do whatever. Yeah. Just split you and Cleetus up. Or we could all be against you still. We talked about just having you guys and whatever your handicaps was. I give you strokes. It's a lot. On each side. And that's fine. I don't know if I even have it. I mean, I have a handicap. I'll give you a stroke every hole. What is it? You three and Cleetus? Yeah.

Against Neal. It's not fair with Cletus. Well, if Cletus were on that team. Because he's a stick. Cletus is a stick. And I'm like, okay, now we're not. It defeats everything we're trying to do here. It should be like you and somebody against Cletus and the rest. Right? I don't know how, Caleb. I don't know what you play. I hadn't practiced in four years. I'm bogey golf. Why don't me and you play them three and Cletus?

Hold on. What was that? Well, he still needs strokes. He gets strokes too. Me and Neil against you guys and Cletus. Okay. I mean, what? I mean, really it's you against Cletus. Yeah, we're just there. You may use a putt. I'll let you read my putts. I can't see the five of y'all riding in one golf cart together. I just can't see. Well, you're about to. Surely we get two golf carts. Listen, that's minor detail stuff. No, you have to handicap it right.

That's what the candidate – So if you're involved, can you set it up at Troubadour or do you want to play here? Let's play here. I feel like I play at Troubadour unless you want to play at Troubadour. I don't care where we play. I can do either one. It's a ball and a hole. I haven't played here in years. I don't care. So I play here. Is there drinking involved? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, if that's what you want to do. I really do want to do. Yes. Yes.

Tully. You don't have that here, though. What? We create that here. We just bring a cooler. We don't have the amenities that they have at Troubadour. Yeah, this is a private course. So is Troubadour. This one's like, you know, shirt buttoned up and all that. You can wear flip flops. This is McCabe's. Speaking of flip flops, has anybody ever seen Michael Knox in flip flops? No. Only New Balance white tennis shoes. Dude, bathing suit.

White New Balance and a tank top walking on the beach. I don't know that I've ever seen his damn feet. Which is a good thing. Yeah. Probably. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how we got here. Hey, if anybody from New Balance Tennis Shoes is listening, my producer, Michael Knox.

Has paid your bills for a long time. Send that man a fresh set of solid white leather ones. And Motorola because he still has the flip phone. Oh, he still has the flip phone. He still does. I admire that. He still does like the T9 texting. I admire it.

So I saw this on Facebook the other day, so it has to be true. Facebook? Uh-oh. Are you still in that massive lawsuit with Whoopi Goldberg? I think it's up to $10 billion. What are you suing her for? No, but I mean, obviously I saw that stuff too. I didn't sue those people. But there was some stuff said, I think, during that whole thing when the song came out. Like just, you know, they're –

interpretation of what they thought I was and all that thing. Sonny, Sonny Hosen for the most part. And, uh, I feel like I could have, you know, I've definitely could have. And, um, I just feel like if you're watching that show, man, you know, whatever. But I mean, I can't even have that argument with you. If you're watching the show, we have nothing in common. So, um, that's a fact, but yeah, I mean, it was one of those things where,

I don't know. What did it say I got? How much? No, it's a loss that you sued for like $10 billion. If she had $10 billion, I'd definitely sue her ass for that. I wouldn't think she'd have it. But I don't think I'd get it, so it's kind of a waste of both our time. She called the four of us racist. So, I mean, it's like we want some of that. Oh, okay.

How do we get in on that? Poor you, thrash. And if there were a fallout like that that was unexpected, could it somehow benefit our podcast? I mean, I didn't know because it's pending and there's lawyers and there's a lot of expenses. I get that, and I'm not asking personally. If I thought I could get $10 billion out of her, like, hell, we'd shoot our shot, but I don't think... Life would be a lot easier for all of us. I just...

I really would enjoy... Yeah, hey, we'll keep you updated on that. I will. I look at it every morning, and I'll keep you posted. Let's pivot. Let's try to get in a couple questions. We had a lot of people. Did some of our listeners send in questions? Yeah.

Yes, your listeners sent in a question. Now, we don't know how it's going to be, so bear with me. It's grown quite a bit since you were here last. Hey, Elena, do we have any of that tequila up here? I don't know how much longer this podcast is going to go. What's up, guys? Smitty with Country Chord. I got a question for Mr. Aldean. So what I want to know is, are there any plans to take the older records that are not currently on vinyl and put them on vinyl?

And if that answer is no, how do we turn it into yes? All right, guys. Love the pod. Appreciate it. So Country Chord, give them a follow. They're great on Instagram. They actually are really, really good. They're really good. No, they've always been really cool to us. Country Chord over there. To answer the question, you know, the vinyl thing with our albums, you know, it's weird. I feel like we first started making records, those albums would come out and...

I almost feel like they were still on cassette back in the day, but they weren't. But it was like all CDs and stuff back then, and then it kind of went to streaming, and then all of a sudden it was like, you know, I don't know, a few albums in or whatever. All of a sudden they started printing vinyl albums again, like going back on that, you know. So like all of the – it's like half of my catalog kind of has the vinyl records now. But to go back and do like, you know –

Like my kind of party. We never did a vinyl for that. It would be cool. It would. It would be really cool. But I feel like when we were doing it at the time, there wasn't a market for that. Nobody was really buying. No, it was very niche. Yeah. And I feel like it's kind of become a thing over the last, I don't know, eight to ten years maybe. Yeah.

I feel like I've got a big green tractor 45. 45. Yeah. And that was the first time because I remember thinking, man, I used to listen to little 45s in my room all the time. Oh, there you go. That old boots, new dirt might have been the first vinyl that we did. Okay. I think it was. And I always wanted to...

Well, I was going to say I always wanted to make the albums look cool, but this one's like super basic. This one has not been opened. That one is like clear with some brown on it. Try that in a small town sticker here. I think vinyl is so cool. It's like artwork now. Well, this is how I grew up listening to music, too. My dad had a record collection, and I would go...

you know plug the quarter inch cable in with the head big ass headphones and i would sit there and you know play and then you could see the little grooves in the record where you could skip to the next song and it was like i don't want to hear those two songs you know you learn how to it was our version of a cd player we were growing up i just love to open everything up and sing you know the writers and you played on everything and a lot of people don't you know that's the thing it's like

we're such nerds about that stuff you know we you know we take an album like this and we open it up and we want to look at everything it's awesome and see who wrote it and you know you know the thank you i mean i spend time like you know thanking all the people for stuff and who played on everything and nowadays it's like people don't care about that shit they're just like i want to hear that song and you know they don't care who played on it or any of that that's kind of

And that's sad. Our thing, I think. And I think there's still those people out there, but massive, mass majority of people are like... Dude, I used to read the credits on old rock records when I was a kid. I read everything. Oh, yeah. Everything. And I think people are really still interested in that. I don't know. We just don't give it to them. I think they are. I really do. I'm serious. Well, we talked about this with John Rich. Music is such a... To me, you know, I always say like if...

If somebody goes and spends $20 million making a movie, right? And then they're not just going to go, hey, I spent $20 million making this movie. I'm going to put it out on Netflix so everybody can watch it for free, right? Like at some point, you've got to try and get what you got in the movie out of it. So you put it in theaters and people pay to buy a ticket to come watch that. And then maybe you put on pay-per-view and people buy it. You know, you try and get somewhat of your money back. And it's kind of the same thing with record companies.

And so you make these records, and then it's just like music, I think, has been over the last probably 15 years has kind of been made to be like such a – music should be free, whether it's writers or artists or whatever. And it's like, dude, it takes a lot of money and a lot of stuff to create these records, and we're just going –

Here, go listen to this as much as you want for a penny. I remember going to buy a record that cost $18. And when you bought, this feeling when you bought it, okay, you own that now. And I would play that thing a million times. And it was yours. And I feel bad that people today, you're right, they don't. It's so disposable now. No, it's just music. Well, it's so easy. You get it on Spotify. It's like, oh, I want to hear the new album.

Morgan Wallen song. Morgan Wallen, new song, boom. Pull it up, you're playing it. You don't care who wrote it or what the story is behind it or who played on it, who's playing the guitar. We were kids and we couldn't wait to take this out of the jacket. Put it on and listen to it and actually soak it in.

You'd soak it in. And you can tell nowadays you don't do that. Well, and our thing was like, I remember for me, like pulling out stuff and you'd have like Britt Mason playing guitar or something. And then you'd have like,

You know, somebody else playing on this, and you could tell the difference. And, like, that's how that guy plays, and that's how that guy plays. And, you know, it's like you're studying it all, where I think nowadays it's just like, hey, throw that on. It's cool. And then nobody really gives a shit who played on it or, like, you know, whatever. It's just it's cool because it's hot right now kind of thing. Yeah, when I was a kid, I'm a writer now, so now I pay attention to it. But when I was a kid, I didn't look at that stuff. I didn't think about it. If it was George Strait –

I assume George Strait wrote it. I didn't think anything about it. Then he moved to Nashville and I think, oh, wow, you can make a living doing that? Just didn't process it. I just didn't properly process it. You know, back in the day, I mean, James Stroud was producing everything. Clint Black, Tracy Lawrence, Clay Walker. I mean...

All the stuff that I was digging, it's like every time I looked at something, it was like James Stroud, Byron Gallimore. They were producing all that stuff. And so then you deep dive in and like who's playing on the records and like shit, it was like always the same guys. And you're like, these guys are the ones creating this stuff.

sound that I think is so cool, you know, and, and those producers knew how to get that and kind of built that team around them. And I think that's kind of a thing for us growing up with CDs, jackets and stuff. It's like, you're sitting there to listen to the record and you're also reading like who wrote it. And you'd see like, you know, Ashley Gourley wrote,

10 of the songs or whatever you're like damn that guy's killed like i always see that guy's name or whatever and um i don't know i feel like a little bit of that's lost now for sure i remember this feeling like a book when i would open it especially these double albums and stuff i would it was like a book and you would i would just like i would and i would read it all i would

I would come over here and look at who the players are. I think you're just staring at my picture. Yeah. It's starting to be a little uncomfortable. I would look at this picture and I'd go, why didn't he shave that part of the hair off his chest right there? Probably. So it wasn't in the picture. Yeah. You got some creepers. And I hate shaving. That's why I never look clean in shaving. Hey, you guys want to do another question? Yes. I'd love to. He's going to love that answer. Yeah.

Hi, my name is Mark. I have a question for Jason, Tully, and Kurt. How was Trump's inauguration? You guys looked and sounded great, but I want to hear your side of the story. Yes, we did, Mark. We did look and sound great. I'll have to agree with you on that. But I'll say this. About playing the inauguration, man, I thought it was cool, obviously, but

I don't think it's a big secret that, you know, I'm a Trump fan. I love what he, you know, what he does. I think he's my kind of president, you know what I mean? And, and so, um, he's a friend and, and it was an honor for us to get to play that, you know, it was something that I actually made the call and said, Hey, you know, this is something that I want to be a part of. I want us to be a part of. And if there's any way for you guys to include us, let me know. And they called one of us to play. And, um,

I think for us, 20 years on the road, we've done a lot of stuff. We've played Grammys. We've played all of it. Every award show, we've played stadiums. We've done duets. We've done it all. One thing we had never done was play for a president. To do that, I think for us as entertainers, it's another box to be like, man,

you know, this crazy life and career we've had, like we did all these things and there's another box we checked that we, I mean, this is a bunch of reject kids that played, you know, learn to play instruments and we're like, this was not supposed to happen for us. And here we are doing it. And it's, it's cool, you know? So to me, it was a, it was an honor. And, um,

It was cold. It was better than Billy Ray Cyrus' performance. I will say this, man. It was electric around that place when we played that, man. It was so cool, just the atmosphere that night and being there and being part of it was awesome. It was amazing. I mean, it's the guy with the highest power. It's the president of the United States. You could feel nothing but be honored. It was awesome. Yeah. It was absolutely awesome. That was really cool, too. I remember –

during when we're playing because we were only supposed to play like 30 minutes 30 minutes and we ended up playing an hour because because president was running behind yeah and i remember other things i remember looking around the stage thinking this is really you know like aldine said like another thing that i mean when you think you've done everything you're like we've never done this before yeah it was really fun

Let's get one last one in. Yeah, let's go. Get a juicy one, Kurt, man. Hi, guys. My name is Kimberly from Palm Bay, Florida. And I am wondering, in the song A Little More Summertime, is Jason saying a little BS?

Because every time my mom hears this song, she's insisting that's what she hears, and we have this argument all the time. Please settle it for us. I'm confused, actually. A little BS? A little BS. That's Wendell's song. Wendell Mobley's co-writer and Tony Martin wrote that song. You could Google the lyrics. A little more song. Well, I can tell you that he's not saying that. I'm trying to think what line it is.

I don't know. I'm trying to sing it in my head. Because I sing it with Wendell when we do rounds. I don't know. Just a little bit longer. I don't know. I'm going to answer this quick. The song does not say BS. So whenever in doubt, just Google. Just a little bit longer.

A little more summertime lyric and follow-up. Not that they're always right either, but... But it's funny how people...

She had to be more specific. Is it a verse thing or a chorus thing? Well, she wasn't more specific. I know it. But it's funny how people hear different things. There's one song. Remember Witchy Woman? Yeah. Like an old song. Ooh, witchy woman. Okay, so there was a kid in our neighborhood. His name was Richie Womack. And we convinced this kid for years that they were singing ooh.

Richie Womack. See how... And it was great. And he believed it for years. It's amazing. He did. So, Tombo Martin. Tombo, shout out, Bug Commander. So, Tombo, take a little ride. He always thought it said...

slides your pretty little cell phone over. Cell phone. Your pretty little cell phone? Slides your pretty little cell phone over. And Tombo's like, slides your pretty little cell phone over. That actually would be a great bit. We should have listeners. And if you've ever met Tombo, you'll completely understand that. Pretty little cell phone. Pretty little cell phone over. Yeah.

You can see how that would happen. You know, it also depends on like drugs people have done over the years and different things. I looked up the lyrics a little more summertime. What you got? You got the next one? I got something. I don't know what they are. I got to get the BS thing out of my head. I should have previewed these. Hey guys, my name's Addison and I'm from Minnesota. I was actually a stagehand when you guys were here two years ago at Treasure Island Casino.

I was curious if you guys have ever had a song that you wish that you had wrote or if Jason's ever had a song that he wished that he would have cut.

And Fly Over States is my favorite country song of all time. So thanks for that, Thrash. Ooh, and he called you by Thrash. Thrash. He's in the circle. You probably get that question a lot, actually. A song that you wish you would have cut. First of all, do you remember giving this guy a note? Probably not. I mean, I'm not going to lie. No, I mean... But... Honestly, like... And I don't mean that to be, like, badass. No, of course not. But it's like, you meet so many people, and it's like...

I am horrible with names. I'm great with faces. So if I see somebody, I'm like, I'll be like, I met you at so-and-so and so-and-so. I don't know your name or any of that stuff. But in those kind of situations, I mean, you know, I don't know. We're getting ready to go play a show and people are trying to talk to you. And I'm like, man, you're in the zone a little bit. So you just never know. But I would say, you know, songs that I wish I'd cut. I mean, man, I hear songs all the time that I'm like, dude, that's killer. You know, it's really good. I mean,

I remember hearing like Hillbilly Deluxe, Brooks and Dunn. I don't know, you know, kind of like swampy, cool-ass thing. And we had that as our intro music for a year or two on the road. You know, it's like you hear things like that, and you're like, God, man, that's cool. But you just never got a chance at it. Now, there's been a couple that have been pitched to me that I turned down that went on to be hits. The one that really sticks out was –

a song called drunk on you that Luke had girl, you make my speakers go boom, boom. They pitched me that. And I remember being on a plane just, but like we were trying to narrow it down. We had a couple more songs. I'm like, I don't know. It just kind of didn't go what we were doing at the time. Luke cuts. It has big hit with it, you know? So, I mean, there's always those kinds of things. Um,

Yeah, we talked about this too, like Jake Owen had a chance to cut Big Green Tractor. And it's just, I've heard you say this, and I think it's true, they usually land where they're supposed to. And I do believe that, man. I think songs, I think as singers, as artists, if you really are honest with yourself when listening to something...

I can listen to a song and go, that's my thing. That's what I do. That's what I do well, and I'm going to kill that. And then there's other things where you're like, that's a little bit of a stretch, and I don't like what it says there, but I don't like that melody, but it's kind of like whatever. And so I think as singers, it's like we know that. Like deep down where it's like, damn, it's close, but it's not quite that. And so Jake Owen had Big Green Tractor and

We kind of had the backup hold on it, and I think they were kind of pressing him like, hey, Aldean wants to cut this, and are you going to cut it or not? And I think he kind of pulled off of it and was like, I'm a Florida kid. Like, this ain't really my thing.

And as soon as he did, I was all over that thing. And to this day, it's been our four weeks at number one. It's our longest number one. And even that song is like a little tongue-in-cheeky. Like for what we do now, like I don't know that I would cut that song. And I even fought Knox on that song back in the day. Yeah, we talked about that. I just wanted, you know, I was in a spot of like I want to just cut. I just knew like we were going to get one crack at this thing, man. So like I wanted to go in and cut.

things that I thought were cool that I wanted to go out and sing and things that just, you know, and it wasn't, you were still cool after big green tractor. It made you even cooler. I know, but it was really hard to sing like, you know, some of those lyrics and stuff. Cause it just not typically what we do in Hicktown had a little bit of that too, you know? So, um, but yeah, big record, man. That was a game changer for sure. Hmm.

uh let's let's maybe dial it in or end with this what you watching these days what you got on the netflix queue i know oh we need to talk more about this kind of stuff i know i love it i mean it's usually what our conversation is anyway oh my gosh have you seen such so here here's where i'm at now in life just in general right so my wife watches well she watches you know

We have some things that we like to watch together, and then there's certain things that it's like she watches, and I've kind of just been in the room, and now I've gotten sucked into that shit. You don't do the chick flick thing, right? No, but it's like shows like... Reality shows probably. I'm a sucker for like a reality show when there's a bunch of drama going on. So like... Like Jersey Shore.

And when everything's cool and they're having fun, I'm like, whatever. But as soon as they start fighting and throwing, like, wine bottles and shit, I'm like, what's that all about? And then I'm in. And so she suckers me in on this stuff, Vanderpump rules and stuff like that. So I sit there and watch that, and then I have, like, my iPad right here with the Braves game on. And so I kind of keep up with that while I'm checking the score. And then when she goes to bed, she goes to bed kind of early. And then, you know, I sit in there and watch, like,

1923 or land man or like those kind of things and i haven't seen the new uh season of 1923 is it good that's good it's the last season get ready it's over after this really yeah man i was so pissed i love the first season right first season great this season's great but then it's just like it ends and then you're going oh awesome find a new show yeah so land man lost me

Really? Yeah. I just love Billy Bob Thornton. That's the only reason I was watching it. Because of him, I'm watching Billy Bob Thornton because I love him. He's awesome. But it started getting so weird between him and his daughter, and it got so freaking perverted. And I'm like, I can't watch this. No kid talks to their dad that way and says those words. It's not going to happen. Well, they're probably watching Hollywood. I know, but they lost me. I'm gone.

I'm in the mob land now. They're bringing back Ted Lasso. I've watched like an episode. I haven't gotten into that. Really liking mob land. Mob land is good. But I love Tom Hardy. You know what my favorite show is? I might have said this last time. My favorite show on TV is Dark Side of the Ring. You know this show. 80s kid, grew up a wrestling fan. It's like the behind the music of the wrestling world. Yeah.

And it comes on Vice. It's awesome. It's like wrestlers that I grew up with. Yeah, it's great. It's awesome that they... What would you say if somebody wanted to come to you and go, we want to do a reality show at your house? They have already. Oh, it's happened. Multiple times. Are you serious? Yeah. That's why we don't have a reality show. I'll be damned.

That's amazing. My life's good. I'm not going to let you guys fuck it up and come in and bring a lot of drama. I don't want that. The fans want it, man. The only way I would ever do it is if it was centered around our family. We had control of it to where you're not creating these storylines to stir up drama and bullshit. If you want to see us in our element doing what we're doing,

But I'm not going to let you come in and just wreck my family to make a TV show. That's not going to happen. So that's kind of why it hasn't happened, but they've approached us multiple times. You could do it naked and afraid. I don't understand why you've got to be naked. Why can't I just have a bathing suit on and be afraid? I'd be so afraid. Why can't I wear flip-flops and a, I don't know, Speedo and be afraid? I mean, you wouldn't want to see that on TV either, but...

I don't understand why you gotta be naked just you know peace hanging what are you into K-Lo what are you watching these days we're catching up on Better Call Saul we went back so that's a good one oh yeah so got one maybe like nine more episodes it's like the other day I went back and started watching but I'm watching it with Rachel old episodes of Family Ties like you're going way back way back

Nothing will ever beat Breaking Bad. Rachel hadn't seen Breaking Bad until we started there. The writing is brilliant. What was the show we watched that we loved so much? Kingdom? No, the UFC thing. Kingdom? Kingdom. Really good. What did y'all deal with wrestling? We grew up in the 80s, man. I did too. You grew up in the 60s. laughter

It was huge. Really? Seriously? I was born in the 60s. And cut. Cut, cut, cut. Whose idea was it to have him on today? That's amazing. Oh, my gosh. We probably haven't got anything else. We should probably wrap this thing up. Let's wrap it up. Let's do it. Hey, thanks for having me. Congrats on...

50 episodes, all right? We're a little past 50. We've gone the one-year mark. Well, one year. Yeah. Hey, listen, I never thought you guys would make it past two months, so this is awesome. Can we have you on more and talk about sports more? For sure. Please. Dude, if I'm in town... We need some ratings bumps. Yeah, I definitely think you guys need me for... Spike those numbers. He speaks the truth. Oh, my gosh. The

It depends on who you poll on Instagram. You know, it could go either way. But, you know, I'm down to come kick it. I love doing this with you guys, man. Thank you so much for coming. We've said this a million times. This is kind of just like our talk in the Whiskey River anyway. Yeah. We're just putting it on film.

If you're watching on YouTube, leave us some comments. We know Ed will. Keep the comments coming. Who's Ed? Ed's one of our super fans. He's fantastic. Cool guy? He's awesome. We'll probably have him on at some point if he'll come here and do it. You should suss that guy out. Make sure.

you start sending out flyers man you never love you buddy i'm sure you're awesome we're gonna do a background check before you bring the other give us the uh the five stars download spotify do all that stuff we're thankful for our sponsors we got original glory we've got patriot mobile don't forget the

wellness company yes this is a big one go to their website are they our sponsor we're gonna just have like a grab bag of like medicine we are now it's gonna be like elvis put the coats absolutely give us a bunch of stuff and we just show up at the water cooler and go i need a z-pack don't take it all at one time yeah yeah

I guarantee we will. For what we do, honestly, all joking aside, that's really cool. 100%. Jason, we're thankful for having you. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate you guys, man. Always fun. This is the Try That in a Small Town podcast. Thanks, guys. Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.