Ernest

[00:00:00] All right, we got Ernest here. You mentioned Morgan. The line we're seeing him turning on Twitter right now, the line for that fucking free show. Were you waiting in that line? Is that why you relate to this podcast? That's what it was.

[00:00:26] I was trying to get damn tickets. The big lab wouldn't give me any. Did you see the pictures? Yes, I was seeing videos all day and people were asking me if I had tickets. Like, no, I ain't got tickets. I didn't say no.

[00:00:40] I assume you're going to be there probably right or no. This podcast won't air. No, I'll be I'll be in attendance. I'm not going to perform. I don't think I'm just going to be chilling in a suite. Enjoying it. Nice. Nice.

[00:00:54] It's so crazy kind of what the whole big loud team is really doing right now. We were kind of talking about this a little bit. Before we hopped on about like you, Morgan Hardy, even guys like Larry Fleet kind of all just rising.

[00:01:07] Obviously, Morgan Astronomical, you and Hardy right there kind of in tow. Like what's it kind of like been like to kind of work with that kind of family of creators and especially with you, you, Morgan and Hardy kind of just being like really close friends?

[00:01:20] Yeah, I mean, it's honestly the perfect fire under all of our asses because we're all friends in real life. We want each other to win. But it's like it's this community of. I wouldn't even say it's healthy competition, but it's not competition.

[00:01:37] It's just like, I guess, a standard that's set at Big Loud for our team and our crew where it's like we have an opportunity here to really go out and do this. So we show up, we write the best songs we can

[00:01:50] and we go out and do the best we can singing them. And at the end of the day, we're hanging out and playing golf and catching up in the studio whenever we're around. So the camaraderie is leading the charge on all of it.

[00:02:04] Yeah, it's almost like a like sports like a weight room, right? Like you're on the same team, but you want to see who can squat the most. Who can do that? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Did you watch the Netflix thing?

[00:02:16] The golf Netflix documentary with JT and then I didn't get to see that yet. No, it's just like, yeah, we're friends, but I don't ever want to lose it. You know, a tournament to him ever.

[00:02:27] So but I will say this coming in second to Morgan on anything is like coming in first is yeah, like we can't can't believe that. Tiger didn't Tiger was have to apologize for giving a time. Yeah, I can't you know what to answer your question?

[00:02:46] Yes, I can't believe that. Yeah, it's true. It's a it's a weird world like you're you're really good on social media. Like you're you're like a funny guy. But do you kind of like look at the whole thing and go, man, this fucking sucks the way this is?

[00:03:06] You say one wrong thing and it's like, here, here come the fucking, you know, the vultures or. Yeah, I think I mean, dude. Yeah, I look at the whole picture. I also like I would prefer to just stay in my like,

[00:03:22] there's no need for me to go out of my way to make any big political statement. And that's just not going to be my branding. I would just rather go out and make music and like and not get into drama. And Tracy, I was just doing Tracy Lawrence.

[00:03:39] He asked me, saying, like, are you socially conscious? I'm like, yeah, socially conscious enough to know to not get into this. Yeah, I was going to say, what does that even mean? What does that even mean these days? Right. Socially conscious is like.

[00:03:51] So that strikes me as an interesting question coming from Tracy Lawrence. Yeah, yeah, right. That's what I'm saying is like you got to know who your audience is when you're answering these questions. But yeah, I'm chilling, bro. I'd rather just make music.

[00:04:04] My statements are fashion statements, dog, kitten. Look at the drip. My fucking statements are fashion oriented. Are you are you in the next season of Yellowstone? How about that Yellowstone called out their cowboy act? You own a like a fried chicken.

[00:04:20] Dude, you know who is Ralph Lauren was the original John Dutton. I'm just saying, damn, he really was nice. George Strait was actually the original John Dutton. Well, speaking of speaking of George Dean Dillon. Yeah. How does like how did that like I feel like that

[00:04:42] is that like a little like notching or like boom. Fuck you, everybody. Like I got Dean Dillon on a walk in your room, your chest out a little more. You got a Dean Dillon on the track. Like to me, that's the equivalent.

[00:04:53] Like if I was a rapper, that'd be like having Dr. Dre on a, you know, it's like, yeah, that's an OG legend with nothing but respect from everybody in the industry. And BK had a right session with him and was like,

[00:05:06] yo, you want to come right with me and Dean Dillon? And I was like, yeah, hell yeah. So, you know, that song came out of that day and I listened to that voice note of Dean singing. It was a Dean work tape just on the cell phone.

[00:05:19] And I bet I listened to that 300 times. And so when it came time to cut it, I'd already like I just wanted you can hear if you listen to Dean Records and then you hear George Strait sing the same song or Keith Whitley singing Miami, Miami.

[00:05:32] Yeah, they want they do it justice the way Dean sung it. They try to sing it the way Dean intended. And so I lived with that song for so long. I wanted to sing it as close to how Dean wanted it sung.

[00:05:46] And then I was like, well, I'm just going to take a shot in the dark here and see if Dean would feature on it with me. And he was pumped to do it. And we've like we we've become good friends and text and cut shit up.

[00:05:57] And that's awesome. Yeah. Well, you don't really like having Dean Dillon for sure. You don't really hear him sing too much, like he's really not on a lot of stuff. So it's almost like he's the really hot girl that you're afraid to ask to prom

[00:06:10] and then everyone's afraid to ask her. So she just she goes solo. Yes, dude. I think if I tried looking that up, I know he's he's featured on a George Strait song and like maybe a Don. He's like he's like featured on three different artists,

[00:06:24] but he's put his own records out, which are great. But yeah. And dude playing the Opry with them. I was like, yo, we got to sing our song at the Opry. And he was like, yeah, they've been calling me forever. I'll call him back.

[00:06:38] And I assumed forever was like seven or eight years. And so we're standing side stage. We sound checked. He's playing three songs. He's playing the chair. He's playing. I've done it. I've done a lot of things different and Bill Anderson saying it with him.

[00:06:54] And then we saying, what have I got to lose? And I'm standing side stage. I'm like, when's the last time you did the Opry? He goes 1979. I was singing. I was singing Hank Williams cover songs. And I was like. Wait, he was like, this is my debut.

[00:07:10] I wanted you to be here for it. I'm like, Jesus, what? Why is George Strait not here? Right. Yeah. So he's such he's a legend for that. But getting me on board to go do the Opry with him like that was insane.

[00:07:25] You mentioned rappers, though, and you kind of were trying. I'm sorry if I don't phrase it. No, I rap it. I cut my teeth on rapping and freestyle rap and lunch table backseat freestyle. But yeah. Yeah. So you did. And like the bio we got sent from here,

[00:07:43] somebody was like they was like rapper. And I was like, oh, I didn't even know he rapped. Where did you get the bio from? I was a producer. Like we were like, wait a minute. I think Tom wrote a bio on me that's like on Wikipedia.

[00:08:01] But it's like, was that just kind of like a natural like you were like, oh, I'm pretty good at this and you were kind of fucking around with it. And then it's like something else. Yeah. Since like third grade, I got the Space Jam soundtrack for Christmas

[00:08:12] in the third grade classic and it sent me down. It sent me down like a crazy rap rabbit hole, a rabbit hole, if you will. And sorry. That was good. Dude, so rap was like as much as I was listening to country on the radio

[00:08:31] and whatever, and George Strait, 50 greatest 50 number ones that to a double CD. I was digging into rap and like that was like my party trick. Anytime we were at high school, I was like, I know there's always that one kid that like gets down to the freestyle.

[00:08:45] It's like, no, I can really rap. But no, I'm good at it. You're like, I actually got it. Yeah. But like 2015 or 16 or so, I had like a quasi record deal with Big Loud as a rapper. That was back in.

[00:08:58] That's what that was about in the Ernest K. days. That's how I met Florida Georgia Line. That got me in the room with them because I wasn't just like another country songwriter. They were like getting me for my flows and shit

[00:09:10] like that. And I've been able to integrate and adapt. But once I committed fully to, I mean, dedicate my every bit of my craft to country, I can't help but use what I learned and acquired from rapping so much, which is just like

[00:09:29] my ability to freestyle and how flow comes to me. And, you know, you can hear it in like the second verse of Heartless was a one take freestyle on the microphone that ended up being the verse.

[00:09:40] So that was a freestyle rap that you just add melody to it and then you got the verse, you know? I don't know. We've we've had some viral posts in the past where it was like the like when you first got your car and you had burnt CD,

[00:09:57] like for us, like I grew up, it was like M&M, Brooks and Dunn, you know, Nelly and then a little Garth. And then a little car. Yeah, it is weird. Underrated. Did you grow up the same way where you kind of have that like weird mix of,

[00:10:16] all right, this is like country music, but then this is like, you know, I mean, I'm singing like you want to run through the wall because he's singing a twilight collapse. Yeah. Yeah, I would go from Chattahoochee to like three a.m.

[00:10:31] by M&M three in the morning. But my key in the door is body slaying on the floor. I don't remember how they got there, but I guess I must have killed them. Kill them all. You're walking down a hard record door.

[00:10:45] It's almost four in the morning and you're in a nightmare. He's on the other way down under on the Chattahoochee. I was 80 years. Fuck like. I feel like I was going to say, I feel like that was the kind of stuff, too, where it was like.

[00:11:01] I would like have certain modes where it's like, OK, if I'm driving, probably more country, if I'm working out, maybe more rap in high school or like rock, hard rock or metal or punk or something like that. And then it's like, was you like weird punk shit, right?

[00:11:15] I love it. I never had the punk face. You've never had. I was never punk. It was all like emo and screamo for me. I did a little of that. My brother was more into the emo. So what you mean? What's punk?

[00:11:27] What's punk? Punk is like Green Day. Yeah, I was never like the biggest Green Day fan. But like, you know, like I love May Day Parade, Story of the Year and Thrice Under All that. Tighter Jeans. Yes. Tight jeans. The small flies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:47] Well, all that to be said, though, it's amazing how country, though, this record is. Yeah. And even the deluxe to like so many great tracks on the deluxe to so much steel, so much steel.

[00:11:59] Like, you know, I just feel like you don't get that much in the mainstream anymore, which sucks. It seems to be coming back, which is great. It is coming back. But like, were you just like, all right, we got to like soak this album in steel?

[00:12:11] Is that was that like a plan or did that kind of come together after the fact, you know, producer choices and stuff? Yeah, I mean, I think so to the first 11 songs. A handful of those songs lended themselves to heavy steel, obviously, flower shop.

[00:12:30] So like, yeah, of course, once once flower shops existed in the recording studio and we we you know, you got to think of songs like that, like using a time capsule and dressing a room accordingly. So it's like, yo, talk about the Opry again.

[00:12:47] We literally put it through an Opry filter. Everything we cut at that point is like, all right, let's track this as if it were the Opry band and drench this bitch in steel. So by the time we put when we I love that line, it's

[00:13:01] so when we when we put the first 11 out, when flower shops, the album came out. I just kept writing songs as if it hadn't. And the songs, you know, there's there's maybe the next 13 or more country than the first 11 to some extent

[00:13:19] because I just couldn't wait to hear more steel guitar. I was writing I was writing with that in mind, knowing that those blank spaces are going to be dripped. Yeah, no, I feel like you can hear that kind of come across.

[00:13:32] It was like, oh, shit, this was gold. Let's do more of that on the deluxe. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I don't know what the next album is going to be titled or anything like that.

[00:13:41] But I know I know a few songs that are going to be on it and we're going to have steel guitar again. So I hope I hope I hope people like steel guitar because I love it. That's great. I'll probably push sonically.

[00:13:54] I mean, you didn't ask this question, but this next project, I'm not necessarily trying to write a storyline concept album. I'm just going to write a bunch of country songs and some of them will have old school sounds. Some of them might be a little more new school.

[00:14:11] I don't know that any of them are going to have 808, but I'm going to I'm going to venture into kind of a hybrid mode while still being on Opry band, if that makes sense. And yeah, I love that. And we were also talking before we jumped on like

[00:14:28] you did some writing with Coe Wetzel, right? Yeah. Not too long ago. And we love him and he's the sweetest guy ever. And yes, he's been on a few times and but he's kind of he kind of teased us and he's prepping that his first true country album.

[00:14:44] Do you guys kind of find like similarities in that sense where or maybe your past wasn't like traditional country and then you got you guys kind of got together? You want to write stuff that's a little more to the book, so to speak, country?

[00:15:01] Yeah, I think that's that's one one. One of the many reasons we get along so well is because we come from such dive, not diverse, but like eclectic backgrounds musically. But you tell me you want to write a country song.

[00:15:20] By God, we're going to write a country song. So the whole time, like I was in there, me and Chandler were picking up guitars and we were like we were trying to we wrote a swing record like Texas country. I was I was Coe Wetzel.

[00:15:31] I want Coe Wetzel to have a like a George Strait, West Texas town type song. And I think he's going to I think he's going to have a handful of them. And I think I think he's going to fucking crush that. Like, yeah, look, think about it, man.

[00:15:43] If Coe came out singing like some George Strait songs, people will lose their shit. He doesn't get enough credit for his voice. His show is still going to have rock and pyro and all this fuck you

[00:15:56] spitting shit, but then he's going to get up there and, you know, yeah. And then he'll go to go there and sing it. You look so good in love and people will lose their mind.

[00:16:04] Yeah. So were you down there working on his record with him or was yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At a Sonic Ranch in El Paso. And I saw Ben was down there and even Randy and Wade, maybe not at the same time as you. But.

[00:16:16] Yeah, we all were kind of there consecutively. Bones and Ben were there. Bones were there. I was there. And then Randy and Wade came after me. Got some headers. Yeah, I think so. That's awesome. That's awesome. And you also co-wrote his Oklahoma, right?

[00:16:33] Yeah. Oklahoma Sun, which was like a half stoned, we'll say full stoned idea that happened months before Fullstone, before Coe ever came to town. Me and Dorette were messing with. I was playing a guitar part and I was his Oklahoma Sun.

[00:16:52] It keeps on setting in my baby ain't coming around. And in my head, I was like, this would be crazy to get Willie Nelson on the chorus and then like have Snoop Dogg on the you know, like I was just like, I wasn't even thinking about Coe.

[00:17:05] But then me and Coe were leaving the bar when he was in town and going to go to the studio. And I was like, yo, this could be crazy with your voice on it. And I played it for him. I was like, yeah, let's fucking write this.

[00:17:16] How we've had a that's awesome, by the way, like how? It sounds like you probably had like a drinking night with Coe, right? Like it's not even not even a no, it wasn't even a drinking night. It was we it was some.

[00:17:34] Are you talking about a Sonic Ranch? No, no, no. Just in general, like we are the drunkest we've ever been in our lives as running this business in the last eight plus years is Coe Wetzel. Like we didn't even make it to the I can't even remember him

[00:17:49] walking on stage kind of thing. I think so. I think I had I had too many nights between 2014 and 17 going on the tree bus bus with Florida Georgia Line and Morgan and Hardy were opening. So I think I probably had my drunkest night then. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:07] Coe's impressive, though. What do you think? Yeah, Coe can drink. You don't know how long Coe's been drinking because he's just he's here. Like a Post Malone, Post Malone type. Yeah, we were talking before we I would say you got a farm now moved out to the farm.

[00:18:25] Yeah. In the country. Are you outside of Nashville, I imagine? Yeah. Yeah. About how far out are you? You don't have to say which direction or where. No. Yeah. No, it's like 35 minutes out of town. But it's it's not bad at all.

[00:18:38] And we're close enough to a grocery store and all that. So good Mexican restaurant. Good. All right. So you tell me I believe animals getting chickens, getting horses. We have we have eight chickens that we brought with us from the old house.

[00:18:54] The coop is getting the coop is built. But we had to do all kinds of drainage and shit around it. Just turned into a fucking fiasco. Delaney, what do you guys have to work? We're going to get many donkeys probably. I said one of those are crazy.

[00:19:08] Do you have to worry about in it in Tennessee? Do you have to worry about Cougar? I guess I should know this more. Was we just Broadway? Just Broadway when Morgan Wallen announces free shows. Oh, shit. That's good. I don't know. Mountain lions probably not.

[00:19:32] Not crazy. Not really. There's there's some development going around. I saw I saw a video out here in Colorado where I live. It's a Doberman full grown. And the cat comes into the yard and just takes it by the back and just carries it off

[00:19:51] over the fucking fence, I go, oh, fuck, I got it. I got to get a bigger fence. Yeah. Yeah. No, no chance. No, it's like usually what they do is like they grab the small dogs. I've heard like they like the little ones, like like little rabbits.

[00:20:08] Dogs. Yeah. Yeah. That's me. That's not a dog. To me, with all the with all the respect from people like small dogs. What do you expect when a mountain lion shows up? You know, I like you see my guy right here. He looks like a wolf.

[00:20:26] You see that German Shepherd? Yeah. Yeah. Mix German Shepherd and Belgian male and a husky. Sweet. Black is really I don't give a fuck. I'll tell I'll take my chances. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We got a couple of questions from the fans, if you don't mind.

[00:20:45] Let them let them let them lie. I don't understand this mom one was like you can ask that one. I have no idea what that's about. But but the I have you been paying attention to AI in these all these like weird chat GPT, whatever, like.

[00:21:06] I worry you as a songwriter like that, you know, maybe if it should, it doesn't if it should, it doesn't. I like I haven't done any rabbit hole digging. I've seen whatever comes across my Instagram and Danny Kang

[00:21:21] will hit me up every now and then and be like, you know, this should be. Love, Danny. Yeah. No, Danny's days. There is a man of mystery. If I'm ever worried about it, because Danny made me worry about it. Now, Danny's Instagram is always just like AI.

[00:21:37] And then I'm finding myself clicking like three Instagram stories deep into like the he's my Danny is Danny's my news for the chat. GTP deal fiasco deal. When we had a call with him, we were like, you're real. Right. He's a real kind of person.

[00:21:54] We're like, what do you act? What's your actual title? He's like, I do things, you know, don't worry about it. I work for them. I work for them. I love this. The mom, the question was, who's the mom of the group between you and Morgan and Hardy?

[00:22:08] I think mom is in like most responsible. Who's babysitting the other two? If if there is one party already. Hardy Hardy's the mom, but like like the edgy, like tattooed stepmom that smokes call malls and buys you beer. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:26] Like the mom that like lets the kids drink on Friday night. So a question I always ask that people never answer. Who's your I'm blanking out was how to who's your favorite? Who's your best friend? Whose music you like the least?

[00:22:47] Is that is that the way or songs you didn't particularly like where you were like, man, I love you, but yeah, that's not for me. Do you ever text Chris Young and go, why, why, why all the selfies? No, I'm trying to I'm trying to think of this.

[00:23:04] Yeah, that's a tough question. Yeah, nobody answers it one day. Bambergis did. What would Ben say? Oh, Ben said somebody. I think he said Thomas Rhett song. I forget. Oh, he did say Thomas Rhett. Yeah. Which was awesome that he said that. And Thomas Rhett DM.

[00:23:27] How does that feel, Ben? Thomas Rhett, Thomas Rhett, one's DM does. This is fine to say, like, right, was this is fine to say before I say that his wife likes our articles when we shit on his music, because she likes them like the more traditional stuff.

[00:23:52] That's an interesting kink. Yeah, there you go. So he's like he goes, I got some for you. I'm like, oh, come on the podcast. We'll have a good time. Well, should the shit and you just like disappeared? He was great. I don't think they wanted him to

[00:24:07] over at Big Machine there, but a lot of these labels, not your label, but a lot of these labels want to control the narrative. Yeah. Yeah. So fucking narrow. You can get you can understand why just because how fast things can get out of hand.

[00:24:22] If the narrative gets in the wrong hands of the wrong artists, that can be dangerous for label. But I do admire and appreciative of Big Loud specifically kind of letting us all not control our own narrative,

[00:24:37] but definitely fly by, you know, march to the beat of our own drum. And and they kind of they cater to that and make that the story versus here's your story. Here's your script. You know, we don't have a script. Is it like the NFL?

[00:24:54] Like you guys have a I don't know if it's real or not. A little Charles Wesley Godwin news or something. Is he around? I've heard whispers of him being around. Yeah. We played the opera. He's our he's one of our favorites.

[00:25:13] I love Charles Wesley Godwin, and I want to work with him and tour with them, do whatever. If he if it's true, then I'm pumped. Yeah, I swear I saw a picture of him and Seth together, but I could be wrong.

[00:25:24] But if not, they have been in the same room. They have been. That's good. Has he been in the room with Scott Borschetta or whoever else is running things in town? I don't I don't think so. We'll write this tomorrow. We got to set us.

[00:25:44] But as a fan of music, country music, whatever, like isn't that awesome to see like a guy like that is has that buzz? Zach Brian to like their best, but you know, like it's just oh, it's back.

[00:25:59] Like for me, like I got jaded a little bit doing this job. And I was like, fuck, like you get annoyed with some of the shit that's going on, you know, on the radio or whatever.

[00:26:11] But when you start to see these kind of artists kind of like bring it back to the stuff that you kind of want to hear and it's got to be fun for you to write. Totally. And country music has always been even flows. There's been pendulum.

[00:26:28] And I think I think that it's healthy to have one go so far, one way that people are unhappy and then and then it's going to come back the other way that where those people are unhappy, that it's gone back the other way.

[00:26:40] And we need as much variety as possible so that when it's set next to the real thing, you can recognize it. So and I'm so stoked, like for guys like Zach and Charles, like songwriting is first, the song is first. It's not like it's not pretty boy country.

[00:26:58] It's just writing songs and then people buying it because it's authentic. Who else are you really digging right now that people might be kind of surprised to hear or somebody that might be a little under the radar that you think is like next in a sense?

[00:27:11] Oh, Sierra Farrell. I mean, she's already had a great fire. I've kind of been on like I've been a weird, a weird kick of listening to like 2004, like Keith Urban stuff right now lately. Like I haven't I haven't been around.

[00:27:28] Why do K Country on the truck from serious? Why do K Country? You get some of those summer comes around as I've been one of my daily plays. I just but I'm also like still in a haggard phase. I haven't been in a huge music discovery phase.

[00:27:44] Right. Like I don't I don't know if I listen to like any what's new playlist right now, kind of like I seek out. What I listen to in a almost therapeutic manner, like, you know, garbage in garbage out type thing, like I'm trying to soak in

[00:27:59] what I want to put out. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Not that news gets garbage. I'm just saying I'm trying to hand select my my energy that I'm choosing. Yeah, I'll say you get the influences stirring around in there.

[00:28:12] And I'll say some Eastern European drinking music. My family's from. I see what you think, dude. Sounds good. I just fuck it. Shit's fired. I'm not kidding. These guys can sing in Croatia. Yeah. Send it. Oh, man. Do we have any more questions here? Was we're all set?

[00:28:34] I think we're all right, buddy. What do you got going on the rest of this year? I know you're doing with Morgan. We kind of read on that. Like, what's 2023 look like? A lot of shows. I'm going to be cutting a handful more songs.

[00:28:45] I don't see this deluxe project being the only batch of music I put out this year at all. So, yeah, the landscape is wide open to be able to drop as much music as you want. So I'm going to do that. Yeah, right on.

[00:29:00] I also feel like going back to Big Loud again, they like really kind of let you guys do that where it's not like, hey, let's do five on an EP. Let's wait nine months and then we'll maybe see about an album. And all day. So another five.

[00:29:12] And then, yeah, they have they've been at the forefront of letting it rip. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Anybody look, the bigger labels that have their system so deep is going to still do what they do. But Big Loud is always able to pivot

[00:29:29] and be able to keep up with the times, which is why Big Loud is Big Loud. So, yeah, well, they got a big, loud bank account. So do you now. Yeah.