Interview with Drew Green

What is going on?! It is Adam. Welcome back to bringing it backwards. A podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to hang out with drew green over zoom video. Drew was born and raised in McMinnville, Tennessee, which is about a hour and a half from, from Nashville. And he talks about how he got into music. He grew up on a farm, listening to country music on the radio, worked at his parents' nursery, got a guitar around ninth grade, wrote his first song in ninth grade, and then didn't do it again until he was, he was in college. He went to college for business and finance. 0 (2m 38s): And one night at a bar, he got up on stage and played a song or just a handful of songs. Somebody was like, oh, he needs some live music. So he just jumped up there and played. And when he did that, the owner of Tutsis in downtown Nashville happened to just be at the bar that night and said, Hey, I'm going to call you tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. And I want you to at my bar, Drew's thinking, yeah, right. This is no way he gets a call. 9:00 AM, come on down, try out complete Tutsis. And, and he did ended up getting the gig, did that for a little bit and then decided, you know, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna move back home. I'm gonna try something else. And he went into banking, did that for a year and a half and realized he needed to be writing songs needed to be playing music. 0 (3m 25s): So he called Tutsis up. They let him back in while performing at Tootsies, he met some songwriters in Nashville, hunter Phelps, and a Hardy with them. He ended up writing Colorado, which was his first cut with Florida Georgia line. And he talked about signing his first publishing deal, getting his first record deal as an artist, as drew green, he talks about the difference between having a publishing deal versus now you you're the artist. And he also talks to us about the success of his song. Good old man, which absolutely blew up on Tik TOK. And he put together a really amazing music video using footage that fans submitted. 0 (4m 5s): So he talks about that video and he's releasing that video on father's day, which is super special. You can watch our interview with drew green on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It it'd be awesome if you subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TechTalk at bringing back pod. And if you are listening to this on Spotify, apple music, Google podcasts, it would be awesome if you follow us there as well, and hook us up with a five star review, 4 (4m 33s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 0 (4m 39s): We're bringing it backwards with drew green 5 (4m 43s): Agers. 0 (4m 45s): Hey, what's up, man? How are you? 5 (4m 47s): Good, good. Y'all 0 (4m 48s): I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I appreciate you doing this today. Thank you so much. 5 (4m 51s): I was a little late. I was kind of cleaning up my area. I didn't get home to like late last night was shallow music video. I was like, yeah, 0 (5m 0s): No worries at all. I love your sign behind you. That's cool. 5 (5m 4s): Oh yeah. Do you, do you want, does the lining? All right. We're good. 0 (5m 8s): Yeah, you look good. It looks great. 6 (5m 10s): Perfect. I'm going to put my stuff on you and y'all let, y'all take it away. 0 (5m 16s): Thank you so much, Kaitlin. I'm doing well, man. I'm doing real. I love your, I was, I'm just mesmerized by your, your flooring is purple and you got, you know, the keyboard X to, I love what you got going on in that room. It's awesome. 5 (5m 32s): It's kind of my guest's kind of my game and room and Sora is where I'm a big gamer. So I gave, I gave him a lot, but it's my studio. I got my right in here some times, but it's just about, you know, I, I can change the colors. Do you know? 0 (5m 45s): Oh, that's dope. That's awesome. 5 (5m 49s): Depends a lot mood I'm in, you know, 0 (5m 51s): You were in a purple mood earlier now, blue a rat dude. Well, thank you. My name is Adam and this podcast is about you, your journey in music. And we'll talk about the new music you have coming out. And I'm curious about this music video that you shot as well. If you want to tell us about that a little later as well. 5 (6m 10s): Yeah, absolutely 0 (6m 12s): Cool, man. Born and raised in tech and Tennessee here, right? 5 (6m 16s): Yes, sir. McMinnville Tennessee, about an hour and a half Southeast Nashville. 0 (6m 20s): What was it like growing up there? 5 (6m 24s): It was all, it's nothing but trees, man. I said it's the nursery kids, the nursery capital of the world. So it's just a lot of farms and trees and, 0 (6m 31s): And you grew up in a nursery, right? And you grew up doing that. Yeah. 5 (6m 34s): Yeah. I grew up on a farm on tractor tractor work when I was a kid. And it was, was kind of where I fell in love with country music. Just listening to the radio 0 (6m 47s): While working. 5 (6m 48s): Yeah. 0 (6m 49s): Wow. 5 (6m 51s): I kinda got the dream. Wanted to sing for a living. Yeah. 0 (6m 54s): Okay. What about like anyone else musical in your household? 5 (6m 58s): My dad can sing a little bit. My mom is not, she can't sing at all, but my dad can a little bit, he can play guitar. And I think he played like in a little rock band when he was, when he was younger, but definitely my dad. 0 (7m 13s): Okay. Did he show you anything at all? Like when you were learning? 5 (7m 19s): No, not really. I kinda, I took, I took lessons one time, one day and the guy that gave me lessons was like narcoleptic and he fell asleep. He fell asleep while he was giving me, giving me lessons. I was like 14. I called my mom was like, mommy, come get me. I just fell asleep. And then yeah, I mean, he was like just weird. And so I took one lesson. It did not go well. And so I just taught myself. 0 (7m 48s): Oh man. That's amazing. So was guitar your first instrument? 5 (7m 51s): Yeah, that's about my only is I can play a little bit of piano, but other than that, I'm just guitar. 0 (7m 57s): And how old are you when you learn guitar or like pre this, this lesson? 5 (8m 1s): 14, 15 assert really? You know, like ninth grade. 0 (8m 5s): Okay. And were you writing songs quickly after that? Or was that 5 (8m 10s): My first song in ninth grade, but I don't think I wrote another one till college. 0 (8m 14s): Oh, is that right? 5 (8m 16s): Yeah. 0 (8m 16s): Okay. So nine 30 wrote one song and then from there on where you just playing and learning other people's music? 5 (8m 23s): Yeah, I was, I was, I was in a rock band, like a grind, kind of like breaking Benjamin Nirvana, pull a mud incubus top band. I was actually not even a singer. I was the original guitar player. Yeah, it was. And we were good too, man. We played like Tennessee, but all the bands we w we, we played with Taylor swift one time, she was 12, you know, it's just like 12 and 14, but we were, I was probably 18 at this time. Last year of high school. Yeah. 0 (8m 60s): Did she have records out or anything or is it this, like, this sounds like she was like very young, very early on. 5 (9m 6s): She was very, very, yeah, very new. And we played, we played somewhere. It might've been, I'm not sure where it was the grand Ole Opry or somewhere like this. We were in the top three and it was all rock mans, but I'm not sure where it was. I don't know. I can't remember where it was somewhere in Nashville. And they had this awesome green room though. I remember sitting in there listening to, she was before us. Cause she got fourth and we got third and 0 (9m 31s): Now you can hold that. You can hold that up forever. Right? Where this battle of the bands, Taylor swift. 5 (9m 37s): Yeah. And we're listening to her on the thing. And I was like, man, it is packed out there. Like there was just people there, there was people singing her songs and she had, it was Tim McGraw and it was like, it was the, that was like, there was this like literally a month before. Like she really, really blew up. Yeah. 0 (9m 56s): Oh, oh. So she was playing the song, Tim McGraw and people knew it. Oh my gosh. That's so crazy. 5 (10m 2s): I, I don't know that. I think she's got some fans frequently here to see her and then she got done and we, it was our turn to go on stage and it just like cleared out. Like there was no way because we didn't have any fans. You know, we were just a band from McMinnville and a 0 (10m 22s): Hometown show for the most part, 5 (10m 24s): Everyone was there to see her and it was awesome. It was cool to see how big, you know, she walked backstage. She had all these cameras on her and I was like, I don't, I don't. I was like, Louis, you'd be crazy when we get done. I like the big cameras. There's going to be stuff everywhere. I didn't know any better. I just thought like, it was like, wow, I'll be the guy who wins first gets like all kinds of people. 0 (10m 44s): Wow. That's it. She didn't even, she didn't even win, but with the crowd and the, the camera ops and everything else. 5 (10m 52s): Yeah. It was a, it was sponsored by Ernie ball strings and they, it was, I was, it was a rock show, you know? 0 (10m 57s): Sure. That's so crazy though. That's awesome. So that band, you weren't writing, you were just playing guitar. 5 (11m 3s): Yeah. 0 (11m 3s): Okay. 5 (11m 4s): And I did, I did write a little bit with, with the singer, but I just love music. I love all, all kinds of music. 0 (11m 12s): So did you go to college to pursue music or something? Completely different. Okay. 5 (11m 19s): I met my wife and my wife was a nurse and she had one, she had a year left and I was done. So I was like, I changed my major to finance. So I graduated with a finance degree, a finance degree. And I'm like one class short of a business degree. 0 (11m 35s): Everything about going back or no, 5 (11m 37s): Absolutely not. 0 (11m 40s): Great answer. Where are you going to college? In Nashville or 5 (11m 45s): Cookeville. 0 (11m 46s): Okay. 5 (11m 47s): Yeah. I was in a fraternity to learn more. The fraternity didn't started singing downtown Nashville. 0 (11m 59s): Yeah. You got that? Yeah. Tell me about how you got that. Cause that's like, I mean that place is obviously legendary to get a gig there. A, you know, a frequent gig playing there. That's so crazy. 5 (12m 12s): I'm a pretty lucky dude. I feel like sometimes, but like, this was like the most lucky. This is really how I got my start. I guess I was in Coatesville, those bags of school. Like I had my stuff's still in my truck, like loaded up to go to my, to my room. And it was like trivia night at this bar that we all used to go to. Trinity brothers would go to and we drank and ate wings today. Real good wings had been drinking a whole lot. And this guy came in and he wanted to hear loud music. And the owner knew me a little bit because we would go in there a lot. I don't think I was 21 yet. I think I had a fake ID. So I think my bank ID, his name was David dollar because it was a, Hey Dave, you know, you know, any songs, you know, I'm like, yeah. 5 (12m 60s): And so I got up there and I played with the songs and I mean, I was, I was pretty drunk I think. But I, I played a few songs. The guy walks up there and he's like, Hey man, I own Tootsies downtown. It was Steve who, the guy that owns it all, you know? And he was real drunk, 0 (13m 23s): Amazing hammer 5 (13m 26s): Because algae play them up or is a, you're going to get a call at nine in the morning if you want to. And I thought he was just, you know, it's midnight. I thought he was crazy, you know, but I got to call it nine oh one and it was a son it's not uncommon. It was like, yeah, can you come in today at 11? And I was in Cookeville, which is like, right about an hour, 45 minutes away restaurant. I was like, yeah, I'll be there. So I'm literally just put on my boots and got on the drug labs, instinct, go to school that day. And I walked in thinking, it'd be like an interview. You know, I was pretty excited. I've never been downtown Nashville really. And I walked in and this old guy was all male walks up to me. He was like, you ready? Cowboy? 5 (14m 6s): And I was like, I was like, I guess, and he just threw me up on a stage right there. Like literally like just like tossed me up on the stage. And it was like 11, 15, 11, 20. And there was, you know, people eat lunch and stuff and maybe 20 people in there they're like, all right, what do you wanna play? And they just like the lead singer walked off and I just started playing with his house band and I do like sweet home, Alabama, crazy town at Al Dane and save a horse, ride a cowboy, I think. But then I played one more and I messed up on one of them. And I remember being like, oh, I've done. They're never, this is never going to happen in these. 5 (14m 47s): I played one more and somebody came up requested some Billy Currington, I think, and applied, you know, good directions or turnip greens, whatever you wanna call it. But by Billy Currington and went over gray, like everybody sort of stood up clapping and it sounded real good. And I knew I'd kinda like that's right there. That's when I got like the bug, but I gotta do this for 11, you know, like, and they asked me I got off the stage and they asked if I could come back that night at six. And I was like, okay, I guess I got the gate. And I was like, yeah, but y'all have like a set list. Cause I know like five songs, you know, I was on my last song right there. 0 (15m 25s): I was going to ask you that like, because the people that play in there are playing for hours, right? Like you have to go in there with like a, 5 (15m 31s): I knew I could get through five songs, country songs. Like I couldn't get through. I can get through vile songs period. Like, well, you know, verbatim. But luckily I remember songs really fast. So I just went to my truck and I sat there until six o'clock and learning songs. And, and I got through the night I had, there was another singer with me that night. So a girl singer and she took, and she was really sweet and helped me, you know, I didn't have to sing as much, but I did that for about six months was failing, you know, college. Cause I was going, I was singing every day, like 11 o'clock or two o'clock in the morning shifts learning. 5 (16m 14s): And then eventually I was, you know, I was just like, you know, I'm not, this is not worth it because I'm driving four hours a day 0 (16m 24s): Back. 5 (16m 25s): I'm not making any enough money. Cause I was playing the early shift. So I was paying for my gas, you know, really. And so I quit and just kept playing D and Cookeville I'll play it. I still played all the bars. They, I really gained a huge following at this bar called Spanky's, which was on campus. And I became the country singer of my college really helped me. I gained a really big following and I fell in love with it. And so I quit music altogether. When I graduated and got a banking job, I was a banker for two years and I knew we I'd been talking about it with my wife about playing, you know, continue. I still played at Spanky's even after college, like once a month, I'd go down there and play. 0 (17m 9s): So when you're doing those shows at Spanky's where you also playing original songs or was it just covers at that point? 5 (17m 16s): I had maybe three songs that, that I had wrote. I really wasn't into the rat and the rat and took a really long time for me to really, I guess I'm still very picky. So it took me a long time to write a song about myself that I really like, but now I was playing mostly covers and I recorded a little EAP of the four songs that I had ever written. And, and I sold like 2000 of them, like in college I had a really big following and I thought that was a lot, you know, so I'm not I to do this for a living. If, if I've got this big of a following it at this little tech campus like this, and my wife is a hundred percent on board with it and I'd been working at the bank for a year and a half and I just got promoted to like manage her and train her. 5 (18m 6s): I was going to have my own branch and everything like at a post 24. So like at a really young age, you know, and, And I enjoyed the bank. I was good at it and I liked it, the social aspect of it, but I quit. I just walk, I'll walk up there to the boss's office and told them straight up, you know, I was, that was what I was doing. They supported it. And I'm still friends with the bank and I started, I call it, I call it back up. So that season he remembered it had been, it'd been two years since the toasties thing. And he remembered me and he said, Hey girl, boy. And I don't know how he remembered me. I guess he still had my number saved. And I got, I walked in to like the best gig down there. 5 (18m 49s): Like there was somebody that just called out that day or something. And I walked into the six o'clock gig on the second floor of ptosis. And I stayed there for four years. Man. The bay kept me the drummer, the drummer was counting the band leader at the time. He was an older guy and he played, he played there like 12 times a week or something, you know, just making, when you make six figures down there, if you play that much 0 (19m 14s): Really. I mean, yeah. That place is always rocking and yeah. Wow. 5 (19m 19s): And so I'll, I'll just, I fell in love with it and fell in love with entertaining. And this, I met a guy named hunter Phillips. Who's a huge songwriter. And now probably the biggest songwriter. And as of today, I think today and he, he heard a song that I wrote for my wife and my wedding. And he came to my house. He asked me if I wanted a ride and I said, sure, I never have, but it's your, Hey, he came to my house the next day. And I was upset. Ever since that day, I was obsessed. We wrote a good song that day. I think, I think we wrote a bunch of good songs ever since then. We wrote, while we wrote every day for a year, a little different thing we did together. 5 (19m 59s): I'm actually fixing to cut a song that he wrote and sent it to me recently. So I'm excited. 0 (20m 6s): Wow. Wow. So you played a song that you had written, so you wrote a song for your wife, for your wedding. Is that what you said? 5 (20m 13s): For sure? Yeah. 0 (20m 13s): That's awesome. 5 (20m 15s): Actually, it was like two days before my wedding and one of, one of my groceries and I was like, man, what'd you write for? You know, what'd you after the reception, you were at like a, you know what exactly? I was like, no. And he's like, dude, you're a singer. You got, you gotta write, you gotta run a song. And I was like, dude, you're right. And so I sat down and I wrote it like 30 minutes and it's like, it's still one of my favorite songs. See, like it's just real as it gets it's it's called try. I haven't put it out yet. Maybe, maybe one day. Some people think I should still put it out, but 0 (20m 46s): That's what a powerful that's so cool. And so did you play it, you went up there on the reception and played it for, 5 (20m 53s): I play a surprise for you and everybody in the freaking rooms cries. She's just sitting there like, nah, she's just completely stone to the smell lives that way. She's heard so many songs I've wrote, she's heard so many, you know, she's, she's been here since day one. So she's heard all every song, which is, you know, over the thousands on over a thousand now for sure. And she's just, you know, not dull to it, but it's like, she knows that I'm a songwriter for living that I can manipulate a song until, you know, somebody else might be crying, but she's like, I see what he did there. You know? 0 (21m 26s): <inaudible> wow. That's cool though. I mean, how, how cool and how special especially, I mean, if you have everyone crying in the audience that must've been a real powerful. Wow. And you got like, what would you say, like after riding with this person for a year, you said you guys wrote songs for your straight. Was there like a, a cut that you got or a moment that kind of continued on or did you get picked up by a publisher or something? It was like, 5 (21m 56s): Actually like perfect right into the next segue of look like we real for a year. He sided with Ashley Gorley who's on paper has the most number, one written songs and country ever. So they sounded with Ashley and Ashley. It's awesome. And I was like, wow, that's like the biggest closing deal. You can sound brother. And I was, I was a year behind hunter already, you know? And he, and he had a bunch of friends and I had, I was making a lot of friends through writing songs and me and hunter met with him. One of his good buddies was Hardy Michael Hardy. And we were at a bar after we'd all wrote one day. 5 (22m 36s): And I had this idea that I, that I'd had for a year. I pitched around. Nobody liked it. And I was like the last idea I had my phone at the time. So I thought it was worth writing. And I pitched this idea out, but we were all drinking at a brew house west and party loved it. And we went boom, at a Hunter's house. He lived right next door. So we went to Hunter's house and we fin we wrote it. And it was a song called Colorado, which happened to be my first cut with FGL. 0 (23m 5s): That's huge. 5 (23m 7s): And so it was, that's what kinda got me into the publishing world. Like I signed a publishing deal, which was great because I'd always wanted to sound Brett James at corpsman. I'd met with him two years before this, before that moment. And I remember coming home two years before that said, I told my wife, I was like, if I ever get the opportunity to, to anybody, oh, I want to sound Brett. He's just, I feel like something, my gut tells me to sound bread. I don't know why, because not saying they're all the same, but you kind of get the same. You don't really know when you're meeting and when you have a 15 minute meeting with the publisher, they're all saying, you know, 0 (23m 41s): Right, right. Everyone's telling you what you want to hear. I'm sure 5 (23m 46s): I was my gut telling me to go with him. And I met back up with him and assigned of my publishing deal with them. And then a year later I just asked him if he wanted to get breakfast. Cause I hadn't met with him in a while and wanted to show him some songs that I planned on pitch to like, you know, Kenny Chesney or some, some of the ends that we had at our company. And he, he was like, man, I think he listened to all of them and my truck and was like, I think you're ready for a record deal if you don't want. And we never talked about it. I signed a week later. It was sounding, it was pretty and below 40. So it was pretty crazy how fast that out from the publishing deal guy who was going home and being like, I gotta get, I gotta get more cuts. 5 (24m 29s): I gotta figure something out because it's the same work. And like, I mean, I making I'm broke and I have to go back to the farm probably like in my head, well go back to the bank and go back to the farm. And 0 (24m 45s): So when you, when you signed the record deal, I mean, how does that differ just for people listening, from having the publishing deal. Because if you're a pub, if you have a publishing deal, you're helping write songs for and pitching it from other, for other people. Correct. And then with your assigned to a label, you're putting out music as an artist, 5 (25m 3s): You become the artists. Yeah. And so, and that's all that they care about is that is used as the artists. You're not, I'm still a songwriter. And I still have my, my, like your, my, my deal because I'm signed my publishing with Forman and Warner chapel. So my deal is tied to my artist's deal. Now, in a way of like, I gotta put out this many songs and share this to get paid, you know, which makes sense. But you know, 10, technically when you signed the deal, you actually just get more broke because 0 (25m 32s): They're like, here's the money that you have to pay us back. 5 (25m 39s): It's a dream. That's why they call it a dream because it's, it's a crazy investment that most people, that logistics and paper, and somebody would say, you're dumb if you do this and you are, I am dumb. You know, I'm crazy as hell. And I'm obsessed with country music. And that's why I said, it's, that's why they call it the drain because not many people get that chance, you know? 0 (26m 1s): Well, yeah. I mean to gather not, yeah, not many people get that chance, but then not many people that get that chance that like, I've heard that as somebody told me that that's the seat at the table, right. You went from the children's table. Now you're at the table with everybody else. But now it's what are you going to do 5 (26m 16s): The table with everyone else? There's still everybody at the tables bigger than you are. And everybody just now got to the table, 0 (26m 22s): You're at the table and now you have to provide, right. Yeah. So, I mean, tell me about, so you're there and like you must've been kind of nervous or, or like, you know, you had written a song that became a hit with, with Florida Georgia line, but now you have to present a song, put it out as drew green and then make that a hit. Like, was that something that was in the back of your mind or, and tell me, when did that, when did that happen for you? 5 (26m 48s): Well, hooky, I was nervous. I was, I mean, I was meeting with the biggest label guys in Nashville that I had heard that I heard, you know, I heard stories about six years before this happened. You know, I'm like, dang, you know, they'd been, there'd be a drain mate with them. Or like, you know, you dream about even when you're 12 years old sitting on a tractor, like whenever that day comes, I'm going to do this. Whenever that day comes, it's going to be like, you know, and nothing happens the way you wanted to, you know? I mean, I was, like I said, my, my record deal kind of happened in a week. So I met with Sony on Wednesday and had, you know, had some, but I say, I met with Sony. I met with like the NINR at the time was Jim Catino. And I met with a couple of beers at a bar with him. 5 (27m 29s): And he, he was into it. He was like, well, I just signed a lot of people and I'm not, we're not going to be able to get to drew green for a long time, but we want to sign you. And I was like, well, I'm out. I don't care. Let's go visit, but let's go see somebody else. He said, well, we just signed a merger deal with Justin Timberlake who owns, who owns Villa 40? I'm like, wait, what does Timberlake like Justin Timberlake? And he's like, yeah. And which obviously I'm a huge fan of, and it's like, if you can get Justin on board, then we can push you straight to the top of this list and you know, really focused on you. And I was like, well, that ain't going to happen, Justin Timberlake, ain't going to lie. 5 (28m 8s): My country asked us for sir, you know? And so it, the way we met with Joe Fisher, who's the head of his company here in Nashville. And they loved it. And they sent the stuff to Justin and Justin approved. And this was on Thursday and we drank beer. We drank, but we drank a bunch that night. It was probably 11 o'clock hit at home and breasts. Like it's going to be three months probably before we hear anything about this. And then he called me back 30 minutes later and was like, Hey, we want you to play a sound. They want you to play at 8:00 AM in the morning for Sony. And I was like, what? No, no, I there's no way we'd been drinking for two days. 5 (28m 50s): I haven't had any practice at what I'm going to sing is my, as being an artist, I'm a songwriter. So I don't even know half the songs that I've wrote I'm with the track. I don't even have, I don't even know how to play. And I was like, I don't even know what, what I'm going to play. You know? And so he's like meet me at korma at 7:00 AM. And I was like, that's an hour before bread. That is not, that is not long enough. But we met a seven and I had wrote a song that week called dirt boy, that just, I don't know what once again, my gut told me to play it. I'll play it for somebody that day. And, and for bread that day, nobody had heard it. Nobody. I mean, nobody gave me the, okay, I just did it. And they stopped me halfway through it and gave me like a verbal verbal deal. 5 (29m 32s): He would kind of like, you know, offer that's crazy. It was cool. It was emotional. It was awesome. It was like the dream. And I think that answers your question. 0 (29m 41s): I'm not sure. No, no, no, definitely. That's crazy. That's so awesome. So yeah, so you get a deal and then obviously you got, you went from the table to now, they're there, you're invited outside, you know, after the tea you're you were at the table and then you proved yourself. 5 (29m 57s): Luckily being a songwriter. I have so many, we had so many songs on the, in the pile of songs that we need to record songs that we want to get out there. Songs that sound elaborate. I was like, yes, this is, this is a great song. They've basically just gave me the range of Sandra. Go do whatever you want when it comes to recording, just because we've recorded and wrote so many songs already. So many demos, whereas most not like, and not in a bad way, but a lot of guys who were getting record deals have one song. And some ways that comes, that goes to hurt me a little bit. Cause I said, well, which song do we go with drew? I don't know. They're all like, they're all like this, you know? So in some days, some days I feel like that might hurt me. But then at the end of the day, it's like, no, it's all about my, my, my saying is it's all about the song and the song will take you as far as it wants to. 5 (30m 42s): So I'm just continuing to believe in that and letting my songs do the work for me in a way of, I put all my work in a room in a box writing for six years and that paid off to get to get me here. And I'm just going to keep letting that, that song do its job. You know, that's my, that's my word. You know, I don't, I don't know if that, I don't know how far that will take me, but that's, that's what I'm gonna try to do. 0 (31m 2s): Well, no, I think that's a great point that you were something interesting that you just said, because I was going to ask you about that because you'll have, you know, good old man and the newest one that you've released, right. It had that Tik TOK success, right? Didn't it blew up. It blew up on tech talk, but there's a lot of people that are doing that are not a lot, not a lot of people at doing that, but there's artists that that's happening for. And then the ANRs and the, the labels are like, Hey, you know, you did this thing, but then it's there the person that you just described as, okay, you have this one song. Well now, 5 (31m 37s): Right? Crazy. 0 (31m 38s): You've been grinding it out. You have all like a catalog of songs and songs that have millions of streams on them prior to that. And then that happens. And so you, you kind of were already, you had the back catalog and the songs in the, in the experience, in, in this industry to when that landed, when that happened for you, it was just like, oh, cool. Like that's the song, that's a song. It did it. But you already, you know, you, you didn't land in that position with nothing. Like, you're not like, oh, now what am I going to do? Like, I don't know how to, like, I had that one thing that worked, do I just keep doing that? Or what do I try? 5 (32m 16s): Yeah. 0 (32m 17s): Which is incredible. But seeing that, like, tell me, I'm just curious, tell me about the success of having that happen. And, and with that Tik TOK song or the video. 5 (32m 27s): Right, right. It's funny because with tick tock, it's about a moment which is awesome. It creates a moment. And as a song writer and artist and someone who put all that work into the song that made that moment, you want everybody to hear it from a to Z. You want everybody to, you know, get the goosebumps and their hair stand up. And that feeling that's like, that's the dream. You know, that, that's what we do it for. And whenever Tik TOK blows up a song with one line, which we plan, this was our idea. It wasn't like it was tick talks fault or anybody's fault. Like it was, you know, I got a gift from guys sitting in the backseat and I'm a need to be a little better if he's going to, I don't want to be like me. And that's the only line that we had, that, that we, the first one that blew up, like the millions of the things that get 600 million and which is crazy and 0 (33m 15s): What a beautiful line. 5 (33m 17s): And at the time, you know, we didn't, it was all accidental. You know, it was all accidental. Like we thought that was a cool way to start the league. We didn't know that it was going to do what it did. And like, my point is that, you know, people hadn't even heard the course yet, you know, like a drop it, drop it, drop it, you know, it, it sounds called good old man. I was like job gifts from God different. God's the best song ever, you know? And it's like, man, y'all, ain't even heard it yet. Like, we're really going to put all of our faith in. And a lot of the solid, like praying that the rest of the song is good enough to do it, you know, as it's challenging for not just me as every artist right now, until you talk of seeing the, the artist, like still being an artist on it, you know, not a content creator, there's a difference, you know, and, and everybody does a different, everyone does a different, and there's a lot of ways to do it because it's so new and fresh. 5 (34m 8s): And it's definitely the stage right now to take talk is definitely the stage for a strut now. And it's it's, and I'm just happy about it. Even have a tape talk. When I signed my record deal, I think I was probably the last artists they signed that didn't have that a big portion of them signing them was because of tech talk now. And I had zero. And so that immediately, because COVID hit a month after I got assigned my record deal, so I didn't have a takeout. And so it was No, I'm not dancing. Nobody wants to see me dance that's for sure. 5 (34m 49s): So what are we going to do? So I just posted the easiest thing possible and it worked. Thank God. I was, I became, I think the first, the first, the first guy was saying his truck on set, you know, just like the singing in his truck and it works and that's part of my algorithm or whatnot now. So thank God. It was easy. 0 (35m 8s): Wow. Yeah. It's interesting that you just had the one line on Tik TOK. I've talked to, I can think of two other artists off the top of my head that had huge hits from there where they just put out, they were just testing out a piece of a song or like, and then it was like, it did really well. And then now they're like, oh, well I better get to the studio to like re write like a 5 (35m 27s): Second 0 (35m 27s): Burst, 5 (35m 31s): But it wasn't, it reported reported. Yeah. Like, you know, 0 (35m 34s): Oh, wow. Oh, that's so cool. And then with the video for the song you were having fans and stuff, submit photos with their, with their kids, right? 5 (35m 43s): Yeah. It's awesome. I just got it. I just got it back two days ago to a little father's day video for it. You know, 0 (35m 49s): That's 5 (35m 49s): The first time I got really emotional with it. I used to actually, I mean, it's about my son. I wrote it for it, you know, but at the same time, it's, it's, it's a happy song. I just, I like kinda, like Mike said about my wife, I'm a songwriter. I've been doing this for a long time. So it's kinda, you get jaded from the emotional side of it. Sometimes, you know, you start thinking about the money side of it or whatnot. But after seeing all of these people that turned in videos and pictures, we didn't even get to use them all. So it's like, it's three, it's a three minute long song and every two seconds it switches, you know? And it's like that many people turned in pictures and videos and it's just really, I guess the first humbling, like surreal feeling I've had as an artist and say, wow, like I'm growing as an artist. 5 (36m 34s): I've got a lot of people that love my music. And it's, it's a cool feeling. 0 (36m 39s): Yeah. So, I mean, it's such a beautiful song. And it like, for me as a father also, like I heard it and I'm like, oh man, like, this is so did the lyrics or the line that you just saying that was the chick talk, you know, the piece that did well on Tik TOK. I mean, like, that's like, it's so relatable to so many people and it, the way you presented it was just like so brilliant. And, and I, I saw that you were accepting the photos and I was like way too late. I'm like, oh man, I would've told my kid, well, that's cool that it's coming out and fathers, they want a special thing to, to, to, to, 5 (37m 16s): I think it is. So that way they can, you know, somebody can show their kid that when they get old enough to probably all enough to say they probably wouldn't even understand it right now. It's like leave on my son's four. And he knows he was in the video for it. He loved it too. He's always like, dad, when can we shoot another video? You don't know what that means, but he, he doesn't know what it is yet. You know, he just knows that's his song. And so one day he will, you know? 0 (37m 39s): Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that. And you said you were shooting another video last night. 5 (37m 44s): Last night we had the band down there. I saw, I grew up on a lake next to a leg. So was we grew up, I grew up on a farm. So in order for us, not from a parents, not to work on the weekends or work all the time, we would go down to a center hill lake where we had a houseboat down there and we brought a video crew down there to the houseboat and my band. We just shot on top of the hospital by going down the lake, you know? 0 (38m 6s): Oh, it was actually the house posts that you grow up with. 5 (38m 10s): Yeah. And so we're on top of it and we're just going on. My dad, my dad and mom came and they drove, my dad drove, we just shot a video. We shot like five songs. Like just some content. It's going to be cool, man. It looks, it looks incredible. Yeah. It almost looks like a green screen. Cause it's so bright. It was. So it was like sunset, the map, like the mountains and the water. And it was, it was, it doesn't look real. It's pretty, pretty cool. 0 (38m 32s): That's amazing. I can't wait to see that. And I'm excited for Sunday with this, this video coming out for father's day. Oh yeah. Isn't that wild. I know it's just, it's flying by, but thank you so much for doing this drew. I really appreciate your time today. 5 (38m 49s): Yeah. Sorry. I rambled a little bit. I'll ramble. I'll tell you. 0 (38m 51s): Oh no. That's the whole point of this podcast. I that's what I love about it. I did radio for 17 years and cut everybody off three minutes up to, I can talk into the logs, shut them up, but no 5 (39m 3s): Platform 0 (39m 4s): For, for, for artists to, to, to tell their story in the, and I love hearing it and you have such a cool journey and I appreciate your time. 5 (39m 12s): Absolutely. Thank you so much. Yeah, 0 (39m 13s): I do have one more quick question for you. Cool. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists? 5 (39m 22s): In my, in my world is a little bit different. I would just say, if you want to be an artist, it's a long road, no matter what, and it's going to be a long. If you, if you want to be an artist, you want to be an artist for a long time too. You want to be in the game for a long time. And the only way I would say to do that now is to, is to write some of your own songs or at least figure out what your sound is. You can be the best singer. I'm not that I'm not even close to the best singer at all. But I found something that I was good at at writing songs and making my own sound out of my songs. And it's a lot of trial and error. So thinking, you know, when you think just when you think you gotta you'll, you'll do something way cooler and you'll say, this is, oh, this is it. 5 (40m 2s): This is it. This is me. And I think there's just a lot of people who are the best singers I've ever heard. And they don't have a clue what their sound is because they're just a good singer that think just going to happen. Or they're just waiting on someone to come up to him and tap on the shoulder and say, Hey, I want to sign you to a record deal. And that's just not how it works anymore. You hear stories about that? Not saying that it won't happen to you and I pray to God. It does. I'll bet my, I wish everybody the most say in the world, but I think writing your own songs and being true to yourself and finding yourself as the most important thing to do, especially if you're just inspiring to be an artist and you're not, Hey, you haven't. If you want a big country, where is singing? Nashville.