The Tucker Carlson Show - Jason Aldean： The Las Vegas Shooting, Transgenderism in Schools, and Politics in the Music Industry

00:00:00.000 We're kicking off our live coast-to-coast speaking tour and we are thrilled to announce a special

00:00:04.620 guest at our Milwaukee show on September 16th. Larry Elder and I are going to be on stage that

00:00:09.640 night and we're going to be joined last minute by Bobby Kennedy Jr. Bobby Kennedy Jr. live on stage

00:00:17.720 September 16th, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Get your tickets at tuckercarlson.com.

00:00:22.080 See you there. Here's our latest episode with Jason Aldean.

00:00:30.000 Welcome to the Tucker Carlson show. We bring you stories that have not been showcased anywhere else

00:00:42.620 and they're not censored of course because we're not gatekeepers. We are honest brokers

00:00:47.120 here to tell you what we think you need to know and do it honestly. Check out all of our content

00:00:52.560 at tuckercarlson.com. Here's the episode. So you've been famous a long time and then you got way more

00:00:59.640 famous with a single song not too long ago. Yeah, it kind of seems that way. Yeah, it does kind of

00:01:05.040 seem that way. And how did you, where'd that song come from? So two of my bandmates, two of the guys

00:01:11.880 that are in my band who I've, you know, been playing music with for 25 years, we started a publishing

00:01:16.580 company, I don't know, a few years ago, kind of started our own publishing company, writing songs

00:01:21.420 and kind of keeping all of our stuff mostly in-house. And I don't know, we were just... That's not the way

00:01:27.880 it's normally done in Nashville. I feel like it's more the way it's starting to be done now,

00:01:31.520 but it wasn't always that way. And, uh, you know, just, I mean, we're all on the road talking about

00:01:37.620 the same stuff that everybody's talking about. Uh, you know, state of the country, those kinds of

00:01:41.940 things, what we agree with, don't agree with what we're seeing. And, and, uh, you know, those guys

00:01:47.920 wanted to basically, you know, write a song about it. And it was, you know, meant to be kind of our

00:01:52.660 version of a country boy can survive the old Hank Jr. thing, you know, and, but, you know, make it

00:01:58.100 relevant to what was going on now because we felt like it was, you know, there was a lot of stuff

00:02:02.140 out there that nobody was talking about or calling people out for things. And, and so, um, it kind of

00:02:09.120 came from those guys and they played it for me. And I mean, it was, to me, it was a no brainer. I mean,

00:02:13.760 it was just like, man, this is everything that I feel it's everything I want to say. And it's something

00:02:19.220 that nobody else is talking about. So, um, or at least in our world and the music business. And,

00:02:24.460 and, uh, so we put it out, man, I was excited to put it out, excited to, to put it out as a single.

00:02:29.320 And, um, you know, obviously when, when that happens, you see, you know, a lot of the people

00:02:34.760 with the label or whatever it is, you know, they're like, I don't know, you know, we'll see.

00:02:38.880 A lot of times people in the business, they're just scared of how it's going to affect

00:02:42.180 my career or their career or whatever it is. And, you know, at some point I just feel like you

00:02:47.200 got to plant your flag somewhere and stand for something. And, uh, we put it out, we put a video

00:02:52.200 out that, that I felt like represented the song the way I saw it. And, um, and once we did that,

00:02:58.960 it just kind of snowballed from there. We put the video out and, uh, you know, that started getting

00:03:04.200 a lot of traction when it got, you know, people trying to cancel the video or whatever. And, and so,

00:03:09.240 uh, it just kind of snowballed. And next thing you know, everybody was checking it out,

00:03:12.320 trying to figure out what all the, you know, what all the hoopla was about and, and, uh,

00:03:17.520 you know, ended up being a huge song for us. Yeah. I'd say 64 million views on YouTube.

00:03:23.380 Try that in a small town, uh, as of today. So the reaction to it was so intense, positive,

00:03:31.320 but also negative. Right. All these different news outlets went out of their way, you know,

00:03:35.980 found like the one guy on staff who'd grown up in a small town and been like, no, that's,

00:03:39.620 this isn't real. Yeah. Well, I think that's the one thing for me I noticed, man, was, uh, you know,

00:03:45.320 being in this business and just that situation for me, especially, you know, I saw firsthand how

00:03:51.640 the media can take something and really switch that narrative and, and lead you down a path that

00:03:58.260 maybe it's just not true. You know, it's like somebody writes a story and they say the headline

00:04:03.840 is Jason Aldean releases pro lynching racist song or whatever it is. And it's like, man,

00:04:09.680 that's not, that's not fact. Like you're, that is race being addressed in the song. Right. But you

00:04:15.380 know, it's, it's wild to me that they can go out and, and media can go out and put that narrative

00:04:21.460 out there. And then you got all the other media outlets and you know how it works. Somebody says

00:04:26.600 that you do one interview or one person writes an article, then all the rest of them grab that one

00:04:30.940 article and it's blasted out to everywhere. And that becomes the story that, that becomes fact

00:04:36.520 or true or whatever. And, uh, it was just wild for me to see like how, how the media could do that

00:04:43.220 and sort of create something out of what shouldn't have been that big a deal. You know what I mean?

00:04:48.800 And so it was, uh, it was first time I'd, not the first time I'd been involved in something like

00:04:53.080 that, but I think the first time on, uh, on that level really, did it bother you at all?

00:04:58.520 Um, I mean, it bothered me to a sense of like, man, that's not really, you know, you're, you're

00:05:06.080 taking it and turning it into something else, which I knew it wasn't, but I've also been in the

00:05:10.600 business long enough to know that I'm not going to go out there and start trying to defend myself

00:05:14.080 to everything. I mean, if anybody thinks that I walked down the street, you know, was looking at

00:05:17.940 places to shoot a video and went, man, let's pick a place where they hung a guy in front of the

00:05:22.320 building. That'd be great for, you know, my career. Great for the video. Great for the story

00:05:27.240 we're trying to tell. Like, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You know, 0.98

00:05:31.100 that courthouse is 10 minutes from my house. It was close. You know what I mean? And so

00:05:36.260 when you start having people take you down a path of that, well, he picked it because of this. I'm

00:05:40.880 like, that's so stupid, but I'm not going to go out there. Courthouse, right? Yeah. It's a 1.00

00:05:44.120 courthouse where I go get my car tags from my car. So do you think that everyone who gets car

00:05:50.400 tags there is endorsing lynching? It depends on who's writing the story. You know, it depends on what

00:05:55.880 the story is. Where'd that come from? I think it just online people that go and start trying to

00:06:01.480 find anything that has to do with anything. I mean, it just, whatever, if they don't like the

00:06:05.840 song, they want to figure out a way to prove their point. Right. So this is a pro lynch. That's where 0.88

00:06:12.100 the pro lynching stuff came from. That's where all that stuff came from was that. And it happened

00:06:16.860 a hundred years ago. Like I would have never thought to go back and go through the history of that

00:06:23.660 courthouse to make sure. I mean, and in the South, I mean, if I'm being honest, if you go to the South

00:06:27.700 and find any sort of courthouse, uh, you'd probably be hard pressed to find one that didn't have some

00:06:32.560 sort of racial issues at some point over the years. I mean, that's just is what it is. And, uh, but

00:06:37.760 anybody that thinks that we went out of our way to, to shoot a video there to, you know, have some 0.73

00:06:42.680 underlying meaning for the video is just, it's just ridiculous to me. What were you trying to say

00:06:48.260 with the song? What was the message? I mean, I think for me, it's just, you know, during COVID

00:06:53.800 and, and, uh, the election that followed that and all the stuff. I mean, it was just, I think for us

00:06:58.860 just looking at what was happening with the country and just, you know, it was just kind of in a, in a

00:07:06.220 mess we're dealing with. I mean, I remember having our friends come over and sit across the driveway

00:07:10.700 from us in lawn chairs. Cause we didn't want to get, you know, closer than six feet from each other.

00:07:15.960 And it's just like that kind of stuff was going on. I'm watching TV. People are burning our cities

00:07:20.220 down. There's just tons of disrespect for our country, our, uh, police for all that stuff,

00:07:27.120 you know? And it just, to me, it was like crazy. It's like, I'm living in this country. That's just

00:07:30.880 not what it's supposed to be. And, um, I don't know. It was just like, I know that people saw it.

00:07:38.180 I mean, it was obviously been a big conversation. You've talked about it a lot, just like the state of

00:07:41.920 the country and those kinds of things. But, um, I don't know. I just think it was really,

00:07:45.960 eyeopening for me during that time to be like, what are we doing right now? Like, this is so

00:07:50.480 crazy and things that, I don't know. You can just have things that, that come up that are like,

00:07:57.080 they're trying to normalize things to me that just aren't normal. And then that I don't see as

00:08:02.940 normal that have never been normal. And to just try and force feed me that and go, no, but it is,

00:08:07.240 it's normal that you have to accept this. It's like, no, I don't like, I don't agree with that.

00:08:11.220 I don't agree with, you know, men playing women's sports and those kinds of, I will never agree 1.00

00:08:16.460 with those kinds of things. And if you're trying to make that normal, normal to me, it's just never

00:08:20.200 going to be that. So, uh, you know, when I start seeing stuff like that, it's just me going like,

00:08:24.320 what are, what is going on right now? And I think that to me was kind of the, what, what lit the

00:08:30.500 fuse for the song too. And just the whole thing. So, um, just trying to say like, Hey, this is what I

00:08:36.440 see. And I don't know where I'm from. Like this just wouldn't be a thing. Like it just wouldn't

00:08:41.780 go down like this. Well, because there is a deeper truth. It's not just you're from the South,

00:08:45.660 obviously, but it's not just a regional thing. It's a matter of scale, like certain kinds of

00:08:51.920 behavior, anti-human, anti-social lunatic behaviors only possible in a big city actually.

00:08:58.700 Yeah. Cause if you do behave like that in a small town, people know you, you know them.

00:09:02.400 Yeah. You get sniffed out pretty quick. Exactly. Yeah. And why is that so offensive to say?

00:09:08.120 I don't know. I think it's, you know, a lot of people took it as a thread. Oh, well, that's a,

00:09:11.740 you know, I heard all that stuff too. Oh, well, it's a reference to sundown towns and all that

00:09:16.300 kind of stuff. You know, it's like, you know, you're taking it as a thread or this or that.

00:09:19.940 It's like, no, it's just like, you know, when you have stuff like that, that goes on small towns,

00:09:24.540 everybody knows everybody, they look out for each other. They, uh, you know, I mean, it just,

00:09:29.200 that kind of stuff just doesn't fly. And, and if it does, it gets called out pretty quick and,

00:09:34.220 you know, it's not going to be a, it may be a problem once, maybe twice, but that's going to

00:09:38.300 be about it. Like something's, you know, somebody is going to get talked to, or somebody is going to

00:09:42.320 get, you know, dealt with on that stuff. And it may be somebody meeting somebody in a back alley and

00:09:47.800 just, you know, talking it out real well. Whatever the case may be. Well, you didn't see, I mean,

00:09:51.780 the truth is you didn't see a lot of BLM riots in rural Wisconsin. No. You know,

00:09:56.240 or South Jordan. No, it was all big cities. Exactly. All big cities, you know, and that's,

00:10:00.800 you know, and I don't think it's any big secret. I mean, a lot of the bigger cities are more,

00:10:05.600 especially if they're democratic run cities or whatever. I mean, they welcome that stuff almost,

00:10:10.340 it seemed like, and, and it was just weird, man. The whole thing was weird. And, um, you know,

00:10:16.360 and I still don't think that we're out of the woods by far, but it's, it seems like it's somewhat

00:10:21.300 kind of settled down a little bit from what it was in 2020, at least for sure.

00:10:25.700 Well, cause the Democrats are in control. So they, they call their dogs back. Their

00:10:29.260 militias are at home right now waiting for someone else to take charge so they can wreck

00:10:33.200 the country again. But, um, I mean, obviously the idea that they couldn't control that.

00:10:38.040 Well, they, Kamala Harris was sending the money. So yeah, they were controlling it.

00:10:41.480 For sure.

00:10:42.680 So what kind of response did you get from your fans to that song?

00:10:45.420 Um, you know, I think when you do something like that, I mean, I think there's going to be a lot

00:10:49.820 of, uh, you know, it's probably gonna be a lot of people that were fans that don't like the fact

00:10:55.100 that I stand for this, or I say this and, you know, and they kind of peel off and that's fine.

00:11:00.400 Um, you know,

00:11:01.440 Did that happen?

00:11:02.420 I'm sure it did. I mean, I, I don't know for sure, but I mean, I would assume law of averages

00:11:07.360 means it probably did some, but I think also with that, you also have a lot of people that maybe

00:11:13.780 were borderline fans or maybe weren't fans at all sudden go, man, I like that guy. And

00:11:18.160 you know, I, I stand by what he's saying too. And, and so what you lose, you kind of gain

00:11:23.660 back. And, and, you know, to me, it's more, it's not, it's less about the fans and stuff like that

00:11:28.620 and more about me being true to who I am and, you know, being able to lay my head at that down at

00:11:33.740 night, go to sleep, feeling like I did the right thing that day. And that I did my part to,

00:11:38.240 you know, raise my kids right and do everything I'm supposed to be doing that day. And

00:11:43.520 as a public figure, not go out and be fake and tell people what they want to hear. It's like,

00:11:48.580 you may not like what I have to say, but at least you're going to know where I stand.

00:11:51.740 And so I heard that song and the first person I thought it was Charlie Daniels,

00:11:54.560 who I think had already died. And I love Charlie. I could tell you, dude,

00:11:57.600 I love Charlie. He's passed away now. Um, but you know, he was definitely one of those guys that

00:12:02.740 was like, you know, the spirit was the same. Yeah. It's like, you didn't have to like the guy you

00:12:06.720 were going to respect him, you know, whether you liked him or not, you respected him and

00:12:10.280 respected his opinion. And he tried to, you know, talk to you in a way that, you know,

00:12:15.540 it wasn't talking down to you if you didn't think the way he did, it was a conversation. And, and,

00:12:19.440 uh, I had a ton of respect for him and, uh, got a chance to, to know him really before he passed

00:12:24.920 away. And, uh, and yeah, absolutely. And I think, uh, there's a lot of, a lot of similarities in,

00:12:30.640 in his music and that song for us. And, well, that was the first, I thought long hair country,

00:12:34.820 but it was the first thing I thought of when I heard that tune. So,

00:12:37.060 but Charlie Daniels, I mean, you know, and Charlie Daniels politics kind of changed,

00:12:41.420 but the spirit never changed. He was always anti-authority. He was always suspicious of

00:12:45.120 the man, you know, going back even 50 years ago, but he was always celebrated. Like no one ever

00:12:51.640 called him names. No. Right. And he's a guy that I think he just called it out. He called it the way

00:12:57.660 he saw it. And, uh, you know, he just, you know, if he saw stuff going on in the world, he didn't like

00:13:04.420 or in our country or whatever, he'd write a song about it, put it out there and, you know,

00:13:08.180 you like it or not, but here you go. It's, you know, you're getting Charlie Daniels and,

00:13:11.880 uh, but there aren't too many more people like that. Well, because I think a lot of times in

00:13:16.200 the business, you're, you know, it's almost like you're, I don't know. They want you to not

00:13:22.400 step out and do those things. They don't want you to ruffle the waters a little bit. And,

00:13:26.760 you know, they don't want the waters to be rippled a little bit because it's,

00:13:30.460 they don't know how it's going to affect your career, your fan base or whatever the case may

00:13:35.660 be. And so I think it detours a lot of artists from going out and really being able to say what

00:13:40.580 they want to say. And a lot of times it's artists too. Artists are scared that if they go out and

00:13:44.240 stick their neck out too far, that, you know, they're going to lose some fans or maybe not win

00:13:48.200 some awards at an award show or something. And, you know, and if that's the case, listen,

00:13:52.460 everybody's got their own right to do, do things how they want to. And I just,

00:13:56.500 it's just not how I operate. I mean, not to be mean, I know, you know, all these,

00:14:01.020 you live in Nashville, you know, everybody, of course, cause they all live there, but

00:14:04.440 kind of hard to call yourself an artist if you're afraid to express yourself, right?

00:14:08.560 Isn't, doesn't art require bravery to... I feel like it does, you know? And that was kind of one

00:14:13.100 of my arguments with the song. It's like, I'm an artist, like, you know, I'm not, you know,

00:14:18.760 a political figure or whatever. It's like, I'm an artist, I sing. So if I have, you know,

00:14:24.020 I do my stuff through song and through shows and things like that versus getting on and,

00:14:31.100 you know, you have a platform to do your thing and it's, it's killer and you're one of the best

00:14:35.360 at it. And for me, that's music. That's how I do my thing. And if there's something I want to say,

00:14:40.540 that's how, that's how you get it out there. And so, but I think, you know, there's a lot of artists

00:14:44.020 that are, like I said, just, you know, whether it's from record companies or management giving them,

00:14:50.060 you know, what they think they should do or whatever the case may be. But I think a lot

00:14:54.420 of people are, you know, just scared to step out because they're scared of losing fans. It's

00:14:58.600 scared that it's going to affect their live shows. They're not going to make as much money or win

00:15:02.760 an award here and there. I think it's starting to loosen up a little bit. You're starting to see,

00:15:06.340 you know, guys not, not scared to step out and speak as much. I mean, there's been some in the

00:15:12.020 country music world, you know, lately, some of the younger guys that are coming up that have

00:15:15.620 been more that way, which is, which is good to see. I've noticed that. Yeah. And it,

00:15:21.060 it's been, uh, you know, I would say probably over the last two years, probably for sure. You

00:15:27.840 I've kind of noticed like, wow, it's all right. That guy, I see you over there. You know,

00:15:32.060 guys like a Cody Johnson or, um, even Parker McCollum, who's a young guy coming up. I mean,

00:15:37.200 those guys are out there and they're newer artists and, you know, it could affect them and they're out

00:15:41.120 there saying their piece. And I'm like, all right, cool. We got some, some,

00:15:45.260 some like-minded people now that aren't scared to go out and talk about it, which is cool since

00:15:49.700 without using names, but since you do obviously live there and know everybody, it's your business.

00:15:53.680 You've been in it your whole life. Do people ever talk about this off camera? You know,

00:15:58.840 the artists ever talk about just the political. Yeah. Like I want to say what I think, but I'm

00:16:04.280 kind of afraid because the label, my manager for sure they do for sure. Yeah. And you know,

00:16:10.000 it's just when you're running a business like that, I mean, it's just, there's a lot of money

00:16:14.760 involved. There's a lot of people, you know, when you have an artist, there's a lot of people

00:16:18.420 that underneath that artist that work for them a lot. So if they get hit, you know, something

00:16:23.760 happens, you know, and I think a lot of people look at like the Dixie chicks, that situation

00:16:27.800 where, you know, the, the whole deal with Bush and they went over and talked about Bush came back

00:16:32.840 and country was like, you know, country radio and all that. I mean, they just, it was done for

00:16:37.140 them after that. And I think that is what a lot of artists look at. It's like, man, well,

00:16:41.320 if I say something, I could be, that could happen to me too, sort of thing. And, um, and

00:16:46.100 I think that's one of the things that probably has deterred people over the years, especially

00:16:49.860 in the country music world from speaking on things. But, uh, I just think it's a different

00:16:54.820 time now.

00:16:57.180 Yeah. I mean, yeah, the Dixie chicks, that was, that was an interesting thing. I mean, 1.00

00:17:01.840 they weren't entirely wrong about the Iraq war, in my opinion, though they were kind of annoying, 1.00

00:17:05.320 I thought, but, but whatever, but a country artist should always be able to speak for America

00:17:11.820 and normal people. That's the genre, right?

00:17:14.140 Exactly. I mean, that's our thing. I mean, the country music fan base is blue collar,

00:17:18.180 you know, it's the everyday American. It's not, you know, the everyday farmer, like those kinds

00:17:23.640 of people. It's like, you know, it's, it's not, uh, and I, and I mean, there are exceptions

00:17:28.420 to the rule. I just mean like overall and, you know, I mean, country music is, is, you know,

00:17:35.140 it's as tapped into the heartland as any, any type of music there is. And so, you know, I don't

00:17:41.180 know what I've noticed is I think sometimes you can watch the news or listen to the media or

00:17:47.420 whatever. And, you know, there's times where it makes you feel like they make you feel like you're

00:17:50.800 crazy. And then you look and go, man, is it me? Like, am I crazy here? And, you know, I think

00:17:57.460 it's, uh, you know, when you go out for me, what I've seen is when I talk about things or,

00:18:02.700 or say something or whatever, it's the amount of people that are like, thank you, you know,

00:18:07.360 and they come to, to the defense of whatever's going on or, or just agree and say, thank you,

00:18:12.200 man. Somebody's finally saying this. And, you know, and it's the blue collar people and,

00:18:17.140 and they are the biggest country music fans. And it's not why, you know, it's not like I

00:18:21.500 chose that because, Oh, well we can get more fans because country music fans are like this.

00:18:26.260 It's like, man, that's just how I feel. And I just feel like I'm a pretty average everyday guy

00:18:31.420 that, you know, same thing as everybody else, man. I'm trying to raise my kids, raise good kids and

00:18:35.600 provide for my family. And, you know, I have a lot of people that work for me. I try to take

00:18:40.400 care of those guys. And I know that everything I say is under a microscope. Everything I do is under

00:18:45.000 a microscope and everything I do affect could affect everybody underneath me that works for me and my

00:18:50.340 family and everything. But like I said, man, at the end of the day, I got to be able to like

00:18:54.320 lay down at night knowing that I'm doing my part and being true to who I am. And, and that's,

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00:21:58.400 I asked your tour manager, how many people go on tour with you? 72. Was this number? Wow. Yeah,

00:22:05.040 it's a lot, man. It's like an invading army. Yeah, it's grown over the years though. You know,

00:22:09.400 it's like you start and, uh, you know, you're on, we first started, we were on one bus. I think there

00:22:14.960 was eight or nine of us on a bus. And that was my first, you know, time going out on a bus. It was

00:22:20.500 me, my band. I had a tour manager and maybe two crew guys that, that ran with us. And, you know,

00:22:26.580 then it's like, you go to two buses and all of a sudden you got 15 people out there and then you

00:22:30.400 go to three buses and there's, you know, 20 and then, you know, it just kind of keeps growing.

00:22:34.460 Next thing you know, I mean, we're 19 years into this thing now too. So. How many buses now?

00:22:38.500 Uh, six or eight, something like that. Um, and then there's eight trucks or something. So it's,

00:22:45.780 it's still, uh, it's still a pretty big operation, but we've, we've even dialed it down to what it,

00:22:50.600 what it once was. I think on the night train tour, we had like 12 trucks and I don't know,

00:22:55.700 10 buses or something. So it was, it was wild, but, uh, but yeah, it's, we're in a good place now. And,

00:23:01.400 you know, we've got a lot of people that work for us and it's been, uh, it's grown,

00:23:04.700 you know, over the years and kind of become a family out there. It's my extended family on the

00:23:09.320 road. And, and it's, you spend a lot of time with those guys, hell more time with them sometimes

00:23:13.220 than I do my own family. So you get tight. Parked right outside overnight, outside our barn. I pulled

00:23:18.380 up this morning. There it was, what's that doing here? Um, so your wife who was just here with us 0.56

00:23:24.160 for lunch. What a sweet person. Um, she's not a public figure really, but she came out and made a 1.00

00:23:32.540 public statement about the lunatic gender mania stuff and really got hammered for it.

00:23:40.220 Yeah. Well, you know, and I think, you know, my wife is very outspoken, um, you know, and she's very,

00:23:48.300 I don't know, very firm in her beliefs and, and it's, it's tough, man. It's like, you know,

00:23:53.960 you're trying to raise kids. Like we have a five and six year old. I have a 21 year old and a 17

00:23:59.740 year old as well, you know? And it's like, but you're trying to raise kids in an era. And we were

00:24:04.260 talking about it earlier where, you know, you're trying to make things normal to me that aren't

00:24:07.960 normal. And, you know, and I think when she said that, you know, it was just like, you know,

00:24:14.660 there's a certain group of people that are going to, I feel like there's people that are going to

00:24:18.320 take offense to everything these days, no matter what you say. And obviously she said that, you

00:24:22.440 know, people jumped all over that, but I mean, you know, I agree with her. I mean, I feel like,

00:24:29.020 listen, you know, if you want to be trans or do those kinds of things, like whatever, it's like,

00:24:34.840 if you're an adult and can make those decisions and you're old enough to have the mentality to know

00:24:40.100 what you're doing and know what that looks like for the rest of your life, that's one thing.

00:24:43.620 If you're, as a kid, your parents are already instilling that in you and like all this stuff

00:24:50.040 and letting, allowing you to do those things before you're of age to do, like, you can't even vote

00:24:54.280 until you're 18. Like, why should you be able to do that? You know, or drink a beer until you're 21,

00:24:58.820 but you can change your, like, it's just weird to me. And I think if somebody wants to do that and

00:25:04.140 they're old enough to make that decision, Hey, that doesn't affect my life, whatever. But you can't

00:25:09.320 try to make that normal to everybody. Like, it's just a, now it's just like, you know,

00:25:15.380 a puppy. Like, it's just, it just is what it is. You know, it's just not like that.

00:25:19.760 So your wife's point was, if you're promoting castration and gender confusion to children, 0.99

00:25:24.360 that's evil.

00:25:25.320 Yeah.

00:25:26.080 I mean, I don't really see that there's much debate about that,

00:25:28.900 but like I said, these days, it doesn't matter what you say. I mean, you know, that's the thing.

00:25:34.080 Like everybody's going to have different views on things and I'm very aware of that. Um, and that's

00:25:39.300 fun. I mean, I feel like people can have their views. It's, it's, it's whatever. And I feel like

00:25:45.340 you're free to talk about it, but don't be mad when I give you my, my opinion on it too. You know

00:25:49.580 what I mean? And I think that's where, um, you can think that's okay all day long. I'm never going

00:25:54.760 to, you can talk to me too. You're blue in the face. It's never going to change my opinion as far as

00:25:59.400 that goes on certain things. And I mean, I, you know, there are certain things I agree with certain

00:26:03.660 things. I don't own both sides of, of all that stuff. And so, uh, but if it's something that

00:26:08.540 to me, that's a, that's kind of a common sense. It's a little asymmetrical though, because you're

00:26:12.800 saying, as I often say, I, you know, you do, you do your thing and that's fine. I'll leave you

00:26:18.340 alone. If it doesn't affect me, it doesn't affect me. Do what you want. That's the kind of

00:26:22.900 traditional American attitude. That's not their attitude. But don't shove it down my throat and try

00:26:26.560 to make it normal. Like that, like normalize things to me that just aren't like, it's like you're

00:26:32.260 trying too hard to, to get me to like, I don't know. It's just, it's weird to me.

00:26:35.820 But they are working to shove it down your throat.

00:26:37.640 For sure. 0.97

00:26:38.440 You have no interest in shoving it down their throat or even seeing their throat.

00:26:41.200 I don't care. Like, you know, I like, I do what you'd want to do. I don't.

00:26:44.600 Did that cause you any problems like internally in Nashville? Were you at, you know, dinners

00:26:48.900 or award shows or at the Ryman and other artists come up and say, I just disagree with you.

00:26:53.820 Never to my face ever. Never. Now they may bark in the media or do whatever and,

00:26:58.920 you know, throw a tweet up or whatever, but never once has anybody come to me and had a

00:27:05.860 conversation like that.

00:27:06.420 What would you say the breakdown is among artists, you know, in Nashville? Like what

00:27:09.100 percentage would agree with you and what percentage wouldn't?

00:27:12.640 I don't know. I mean, that's kind of hard. I mean, there's a, you know, I definitely think

00:27:16.500 there's a couple of different groups of artists types in Nashville, you know, certain people

00:27:21.140 kind of stick together and run together and certain people stick together and run together

00:27:25.340 over here. And, um, you know, so I don't know. I mean, I know, I know the people that I hang

00:27:30.100 with and the people that, uh, you know, I'm close to and kind of where they stand on things.

00:27:34.540 And I also know the ones that probably feel the other way. And is that a big group?

00:27:40.460 Uh, I don't know. I mean, it's hard to put a number on it just because I feel like it's

00:27:44.680 camps. It's like, you know, this per, this artist and that manager and their whole camp and

00:27:49.500 whatever, and then these guys and that camp. And so you just kind of know, I mean, it's,

00:27:53.720 um, it's hard to put a number on it, but like I said, I mean, I know, you know, I hang out

00:27:59.440 with my guys who are, you know, it never comes up. It's never really a thing. And if it is,

00:28:04.280 you know, we're usually on the same page, but, um, you find the ones that maybe don't agree

00:28:08.880 with you as much. They sort of keep their distance, which is fine. I'd actually probably prefer

00:28:13.640 that actually. Sounds like a really good plan. Yeah. What do you think of Trump?

00:28:19.540 I love Trump, man. I do, you know, and, and how did you end up knowing Trump?

00:28:23.720 So we ended up getting invited to, uh, new year's at Mar-a-Lago one year. And I think

00:28:29.740 it was, you know, we had kind of started to become vocal about it. And honestly, when he

00:28:34.280 got, when he ran in 2016, I mean, I was not political at all. I wasn't, didn't really get

00:28:40.860 into it. Didn't really understand it a whole lot. Didn't pay much attention to it. And, uh,

00:28:46.240 but I did think it was cool that here's this guy that is really not a politician. And at the

00:28:51.700 time you had, you know, all the A-list stars were going, Oh, Trump's running for president.

00:28:56.300 They were all excited and almost kind of like it was a joke a little bit. And, uh, and then

00:29:01.920 he won and I don't think anybody thought he would win. And for the next eight years, it's

00:29:05.680 been nothing but trying to just like slander this guy, get him out, you know, and, and just

00:29:12.240 all the stuff you watch him deal with in the media. And, and to me, it was just, I don't

00:29:16.960 know, we just kind of started speaking out about that stuff and how we felt about it.

00:29:20.600 And, uh, we got invited to Mar-a-Lago for new years.

00:29:25.240 Had you met him before?

00:29:25.980 I'd never met him, never talked to him, never met him, uh, went up there. He invited me

00:29:31.100 to play golf with him that morning. And so I went and had breakfast with him and played

00:29:35.700 golf, came back, had lunch and then saw him at the thing and just kind of hit it off.

00:29:40.260 I mean, you've been around him, you know, he's, he's a, you know, he's a guy's guy, man.

00:29:43.800 You talk to him about sports or like whatever the case is. And he's just, uh, he's a cool

00:29:48.360 guy. And so I just kind of hit it off with him and kept in touch with him over the last

00:29:52.740 few years and, um, try to see him when I can, you know, down in Florida, we lived down there

00:29:57.980 part of the time, which is only, you know, I don't know, probably 45 minutes from Mar-a-Lago

00:30:02.460 over there. So, um, you know, it kind of started like that. It was like, we had no intentions

00:30:07.860 of, of getting political or any of those things. It just kind of happened. And then, um,

00:30:13.800 you know, with all the elections, like I said, the last eight years, just watching what happened

00:30:17.160 and going through 2020, the election stuff and the BLM stuff and the COVID vaccine and

00:30:24.580 the, all those things, just like, man, you're just watching all this stuff go down. Like

00:30:27.540 what is going on right now? It's crazy. And so I think obviously having little kids made

00:30:32.760 us get a little more involved and started paying attention to what was happening. And

00:30:35.980 it's like, man, I just, you know, my thing is I don't, I don't vote for, and this is true.

00:30:41.300 I don't vote for the person, like as much as people may say, that's a lie or whatever.

00:30:46.260 You know, for me, it's like, which one of these groups is going to take the country in

00:30:50.940 the direction that I feel like it should be taken for my family and my kids and like their

00:30:54.540 future and those kinds of things. And to me, that's what I base it on. And I feel like

00:30:59.900 personally for me, that's him. And so, um, you know, it just, it just kind of became a

00:31:05.800 thing, but it was never, you know, I mean, 10 years ago, man, I couldn't have talked to

00:31:09.820 you about any politics at all. I'd be like, I don't know. You know, it just was never really

00:31:14.200 didn't seem like it mattered. Well, it just felt like, you know, the country was doing

00:31:18.700 what it does. I mean, it, it kind of go through its periods of whatever, but it was never crazy.

00:31:22.540 It was still, you know, economy will go up and down and those kinds of things, but it 0.98

00:31:27.120 wasn't just like a complete shit show, you know what I'm saying? And then all of a sudden 0.99

00:31:32.240 when that happened, it was like, wow, we got little kids. And I'm like, man, I got to send

00:31:36.080 my kid to school and you know, it's like, we're talking about like the transgender stuff.

00:31:41.580 And it's like, what do I do if he comes home? It's like, man, there's a girl in my class.

00:31:46.460 That's a boy or, but you know, it's like, that's hard to explain to a five or six year

00:31:49.860 old and people get out there can say it doesn't happen. That's a lot. It's happening in elementary

00:31:54.060 schools. I know for a fact, cause it's happened around places where we live and in Tennessee.

00:32:00.100 Yeah, man. And it's just like, you know, I don't know to me, that's just one of those

00:32:03.900 things where it's like, I don't want to have to explain those kinds of things to a five

00:32:07.020 year old who doesn't get it and shouldn't have to do. No, and shouldn't have to. I shouldn't

00:32:11.120 have to explain that to him. So that's kind of where I'm at on it. And, uh, but it's those

00:32:15.900 kinds of things that made me kind of step up a little bit more than, than I had in the

00:32:20.100 past. Was there any downside to being, you know, seen with Trump saying nice things about

00:32:26.360 Trump? Again, you're always going to have people that, you know, there's somebody's going

00:32:32.020 to bitch about something. I mean, that's just the way it is. And, but I think until, you know, 1.00

00:32:38.040 I finally just came to conclusion of like, man, you know, I think I'm right. I just think I'm on

00:32:43.340 the right side of this. And like, you know, I have a platform to be able to go out and say stuff.

00:32:49.400 I mean, there's other artists and actors and actresses and, you know, all these other celebrities

00:32:54.240 that'll get on talk shows and all this stuff. And they'll run Trump down, you know, right there

00:32:59.460 on live TV or Kathy Griffin, holding up a Trump head that looks like they cut his head off, you

00:33:05.300 know, all that stuff's okay. You know, they don't, nobody says shit about that, but you know, we start 0.99

00:33:10.060 talking out about things and, and all of a sudden they're appalled. Right. So, but you know, to me, 0.98

00:33:15.480 I just feel like I'm on the right side of it. And it's like, man, if you agree with me, cool. And if

00:33:18.700 you don't, that's cool too. I mean, it's not gonna, it's not gonna affect the way I, you know, view

00:33:24.700 things or what I say or how I feel, or I mean, I don't know. It's just, it's a wild time. Were you

00:33:30.960 surprised to see country stars at the Democratic convention? No, I mean, I don't think so. I didn't

00:33:38.820 watch it really. So I don't really know who was there, but, um, I'm not surprised. I mean, there's

00:33:43.480 definitely that group that, you know, is more, more lines that way and, you know, more power to them.

00:33:50.140 Like if, if you want to do that and you think that's a good look for you and that's what you

00:33:53.600 support by all means, go do it. I mean, it's like anything, it's like with me doing it. It's like,

00:33:58.960 you know, get ready for the consequences, whatever that is, good or bad. Just know that,

00:34:03.580 you know, there's, there may be some, and if you're good with that, then go do what you want to do.

00:34:06.880 Yeah. Live out your conscience. I agree with that completely. So when, when you came out with

00:34:14.580 try that in a small town, it got pulled right from country music, television, CMT. Yeah. What

00:34:21.820 happened? I mean, we basically sent them. So they get a heads up on a video. We send that to them

00:34:27.940 before it ever airs on TV. You know, it's like anything. They look at all the videos coming in.

00:34:32.400 Oh, we're going to add this one. We're going to add that one. And then they put it in the rotation.

00:34:37.140 So they put in the rotation, the song starts doing its thing. Then the song starts getting a lot of,

00:34:42.040 a lot of heat and a lot of the, you know, the racist, the racial stuff started coming up into

00:34:47.620 play. Well, CMT immediately pulled it. Just to be clear, the song had nothing to do with race.

00:34:52.640 No, but the narrative that was getting put out at the time by everybody when the song came out and

00:34:57.780 it wasn't really the song as much as the video. So when the video came out. Because the video had

00:35:02.780 a portion shot in front of a courthouse in front of which a hundred years ago, there was some racial

00:35:07.620 murder. Yes. Among other things. I mean, there was other stuff in there, you know, they,

00:35:11.300 people didn't like that the BLM clips were in there or like those kinds of things. Oh,

00:35:15.720 you know, there was a lot of, well, the BLM stuff was in there, but you didn't put the

00:35:18.680 January 6th stuff in there. And I'm like, I mean, it's just like your own video. Right. I was like,

00:35:24.880 it's my video. So shut up. So anyway, um, but no, I mean, they, they pulled the video and, uh, 1.00

00:35:32.500 do they give you warning? No, they just, they pulled it. And then the thing was they pulled it and

00:35:38.700 they could have just pulled it and been quiet about it. And it would have, you know, just kind

00:35:42.160 of flew under the radar. But when they pulled it, they put out a press release, letting everybody

00:35:45.840 know that they pulled it and kind of disassociated with the video or whatever the case may be.

00:35:51.340 And that was what everybody was like, Whoa, what's going on? And went and checked it out. And then

00:35:55.820 some people were like, I don't get it. You know, I don't, I don't understand what the drama is

00:36:00.180 about. And then other people are like, you know, Oh, I see it. I see what he's talking. So, I mean,

00:36:04.180 you know, at that point, you're going to see what you want to. Who made that decision? Do you know

00:36:07.980 to pull it? Yeah. Uh, I don't know. That would have been the, somebody it seemed the powers of

00:36:13.700 be at CMT, probably somebody out of the main office, probably not somebody in Nashville,

00:36:20.120 but more somebody that, that really is the string puller and oversees all that stuff.

00:36:25.720 But it made the song even bigger by far. And it was something that we didn't know that was going

00:36:31.240 to happen. You know, it's like, Hey, here's our new single. Here's a video. I thought it was really

00:36:35.700 cool. You, I don't know. You probably remember this. Do you remember the Billy Joel video or the

00:36:40.180 song? We didn't start the fire. Of course. Yeah. So the video was all that stuff, the Berlin wall

00:36:44.600 coming down and all this, you know, and really it was kind of that. It was like, that was sort of

00:36:48.800 the video that I wanted to make was like a, you know, that kind of thing. A montage that evokes that

00:36:54.320 period. Like 2020 was an amazing. Current events. Horrifying year. Yeah. Like the state of the

00:37:00.180 country would happen. Yes. This is it. This is it in a three minute nutshell. And so that was the

00:37:05.700 idea. And, um, and so I was actually proud of it, man. I was super proud of the video to this day.

00:37:10.620 I think it's one of the, probably the best video we've ever done. And, and so I was really excited

00:37:16.540 for it. And so when they pulled it, it was kind of a deflating. I'm like, man, really? Like

00:37:19.960 people are accusing us of this and you guys are just pulling and we've had a long relationship with

00:37:24.460 CMT over the years. I mean, I've had some big moments in my career with them. They've been a big part

00:37:28.340 of helping launch my career early on with videos and those kinds of things. And so,

00:37:33.080 you know, it was a little bit of a slap in the face for me. And nobody called you.

00:37:36.520 I mean, somebody in the camp, you know, they would call like my publicist or somebody in the camp,

00:37:40.300 but you know, not me directly. And I got a call from management going, all right, CMT is pulling

00:37:44.920 it. And then they put the press release out and that's what made everybody want to go and look at

00:37:49.100 it and figure out what the big deal was. And it just, from then on, man, it was just, it was on fire.

00:37:54.580 I haven't always been proud of the companies that have advertised on shows I've had over

00:37:58.500 the years, but now that we have our own company, we decided, well, we're only going to take ads

00:38:02.660 from people we like and agree with and admire. So it is with actual pride that we announce

00:38:08.040 partnership with Bass Pro Shops. You know, Bass Pro Shops, you can get everything you need for

00:38:13.700 hunting, fishing, enjoying the outdoors at Bass Pro. And we do. What you might not know is that for

00:38:19.600 over 50 years, Bass Pro has been a leader in conservation efforts throughout the continent.

00:38:25.620 Bass Pro is led by our friend, Johnny Morris. He's the visionary founder, visionary is not too

00:38:30.020 strong, by the way, of that company. And he's put conservation at the core of their mission from

00:38:34.400 the very first day. And by conservation, we're not talking about some weird theoretical climate scheme.

00:38:39.700 We're talking about preserving the natural landscape, preserving the land, the natural resources

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00:38:51.860 than 10% of their earnings to conservation and advancing their mission, a critical mission of

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00:39:55.940 So something that I hesitate even to ask you about, but I feel like I have to,

00:39:59.900 you were performing in Las Vegas during the biggest mass shooting in American history. And I didn't know

00:40:05.580 until today when we were talking off air, first of all, like how, I mean, your bus got shot up.

00:40:11.920 Yeah.

00:40:12.180 I didn't know that. I don't know, somehow.

00:40:14.440 Yeah. You know, there was a lot of details about that stuff that, there was probably details about

00:40:20.220 that a lot of people don't know. But yeah, it was a wild night, man. My wife was eight months

00:40:24.640 pregnant with our son who was in here earlier than you met.

00:40:27.280 Yeah, good boy.

00:40:27.800 Yeah. And, uh, you know, it was a scary time, man. It's like went out to play a show like I always do.

00:40:33.800 And, you know, you expect to go out there for an hour and a half, two hours, get done, come back,

00:40:38.280 hang out with your guys and get on the plane or bus or whatever it is and go home. And, uh,

00:40:43.560 you know, that night was just a different story and it was just a weird deal. Um, you know,

00:40:49.320 something that a lot of the guys in my camp, my crew and stuff, it kind of messed a lot of people

00:40:54.540 up for a while, just kind of going through that stuff. And, um, and, you know, a lot of the guys

00:40:59.740 that are with me, been with me for 15 years, plus some of them have been with me for 19 years.

00:41:04.720 And so, you know, it was tough, man. It was tough thing to go through. And I was telling you like

00:41:09.080 before, you know, the toughest part was going through all that. And then you get home and

00:41:13.380 you're watching the news trying to figure out, all right, well, why did this guy do this? Like,

00:41:16.400 what was the, what was his reasoning and why this show? And, uh, you know, you never really got

00:41:21.940 any answers on any of that stuff. And, and still to this day, like we don't really know

00:41:26.180 much about it. I just, you know, you go and see the aftermath after it happened, you know,

00:41:30.400 there's bullet holes in the front of my bus and in the side, my band bus, the windows got shot out

00:41:35.620 of the band bus. Um, my bass player who was on stage to me, one of my best friends in the world

00:41:42.180 for the last 25 years was standing next to me, you know, had a bullet lodged in the base. He was playing

00:41:49.160 at the time. So bullet hits the base he's got on at the time playing. And so, yeah, I mean,

00:41:54.800 there was some close calls for that stuff and a lot of stuff that, you know, I hadn't, I've never

00:42:00.040 really gone way into detail about a lot of it, but it's, uh, it was, it was, I just don't, I attempted

00:42:06.300 to get to the bottom of that over a couple of months period. I got pretty fixated on it. I'd made no

00:42:11.020 headway at all, but I wasn't there. I mean, it wasn't my show that got shot up in the biggest mass

00:42:16.820 shooting in American history, hundreds and hundreds of people shot. Yeah. It was, it was

00:42:21.600 wild, man. You know, and I went, uh, you know, I remember after that, it was like a couple of days

00:42:26.760 later, you know, we, we got home and we were still kind of shell shocked from all of it.

00:42:32.640 And Lauren Michaels had called me and wanted us to come do Saturday night live. And I was like,

00:42:36.260 man, I don't know. Like, it's like we had shows scheduled that weekend that we went ahead and

00:42:41.980 canceled. It was like, man, none of us wanted to play. So let's just take a weekend. Let's try and

00:42:46.120 get it together. All of our gear was still sitting on the stage in Vegas. So we couldn't even play a

00:42:50.920 show if we wanted to. What do you mean on like literally on the stage? I mean, I took my guitar

00:42:54.360 off, laid it on stage that night of the shooting and it stayed right there in that spot for two

00:42:59.600 weeks while the FBI went out and, you know, did the crime scene and all the stuff. So we didn't have

00:43:06.260 guitars to play. And, uh, Lauren Michaels called us and wanted us to come do Saturday night live,

00:43:12.540 do a cold opening and all the stuff. And I said, man, listen, I'll, you know, I got some stuff to

00:43:18.360 say. And if you'll let me do, you know, don't, I don't want you guys writing stuff for me to,

00:43:22.020 to talk about or say, or whatever, let me write it and say what I want to say. And Tom Petty had

00:43:26.940 died when we were flying home, uh, the next day, Tom Petty, we got the news. He had died on the flight

00:43:33.120 home. And so I was like, man, just a crappy week. I was a big Tom Petty fan. And so I was like,

00:43:39.320 man, if you'll just let me say what we want to say and, and kind of play a song for Petty and just

00:43:44.440 like tie all the stuff in. Like, it's just been a, been a rough week, you know? And so, um, Lauren

00:43:50.380 told me that was fine. I could do what I wanted. And so we went up there and called all the guys,

00:43:55.240 got everybody rallied up and went up there and played a show. And I'll say this, I mean,

00:44:00.140 that, that crew and everybody that was on that show was really, really cool to us that day. And like

00:44:05.540 very welcoming and stuff, which was, which was really needed, I think for us at the time. So

00:44:10.340 they, they helped us a lot to kind of get over that hurdle a little bit, uh, to get back and

00:44:15.140 start playing and know that, you know, we had to pick up and keep, keep moving. We had a tour to

00:44:20.580 finish. We had another like four to six weeks left of the tour to go out and finish after that happened,

00:44:25.000 which was, which was tough. So we did that and then came home and just kind of shut everything down

00:44:29.120 for about six, seven months and went underground pretty, pretty good for a while. And let her, 0.95

00:44:35.160 my son was born during that time. So, you know, I got to come home. He was born, which kind of

00:44:39.020 helped take my mind off of it and stuff. So it was a, it was a wild time.

00:44:43.800 How many conversations, interviews did you have with the FBI?

00:44:47.880 Uh, I didn't have any.

00:44:50.400 You didn't have any?

00:44:51.420 I didn't have, that I remember. I don't think I had any.

00:44:54.100 But you were, I didn't, but they, I didn't, I mean, I didn't know much. I might

00:44:58.920 have talked to him one time. I mean, I was on stage. I thought we had a blown speaker,

00:45:02.480 no clue what was going on. And so it wasn't until I got off stage and, and took my, you know,

00:45:07.520 we wear ear monitors. And so I can't really hear anything except my band. And so I just heard

00:45:12.880 something sound like it was cracking, but it was the gun going off. It just didn't, it was coming

00:45:17.540 through the microphones and it just sounded weird, but I didn't know what it was. And so we got off stage

00:45:22.520 and I took those out and I heard him shoot again. And that's when I knew what was going on. I had no

00:45:26.860 idea until I got off stage. So he shot for almost 25 minutes, as I remember correctly.

00:45:32.260 It was a long time. It felt like an hour. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how long

00:45:37.480 it actually was, but it felt like a long time. Where were you during that? So I came off side

00:45:42.340 stage and like I said, my wife was eight months pregnant. So the first thing I get over there.

00:45:46.140 She was there? Yeah. She was talking to some friends like up, you know, kind of actually closer

00:45:51.040 to Mandalay where he was at. And, um, and I just came off. And when I took my ear,

00:45:56.440 my headphones out, I was like, first thing I said was where was, where's Brit? And one

00:46:01.740 of my guys goes, I'm going to get her. And he went down the thing. And as he was going

00:46:05.600 down the steps to go get her, she was coming up. So he got her, brought her over there to

00:46:10.120 where I was at. And we just kind of hunkered down for a while. And I kept noticing the guy

00:46:13.920 would shoot. And then he, you know, there'd be like a little break where I guess he was going

00:46:18.100 to a different window or whatever he was doing. And, and so I just told her, I said, the next

00:46:23.280 time he stops like that, get up and start moving. We're going to the bus. And so she got

00:46:27.020 up and started heading to the bus and, uh, we got about halfway there and he started shooting

00:46:32.160 again. And I just, she kind of froze up and I grabbed her, took her to the bus, got in

00:46:37.020 the back of the bus and just kind of hunkered down back there. And, um, so, but even while

00:46:42.200 we were on there, I mean, the front of my bus took, I don't know, three or four rounds

00:46:45.200 aside, took three or four rounds or whatever it was. So, I mean, it was, it was, it was

00:46:50.340 crazy.

00:46:51.380 Well, the reason I asked about the FBI is that you may not have special knowledge, but it 0.84

00:46:57.540 was your show. I mean, you opened fire on your show, the Jason Dean show. So you're kind

00:47:02.140 of by definition, a central part of the story.

00:47:05.260 Yeah. I mean, but I don't, and I could have it wrong. I mean, it was, I was a little bit

00:47:09.520 of in a daze back then when all that stuff was going on. I don't recall them talking to

00:47:13.640 me, um, that I remember, but I also remembered going like, I don't really have anything to

00:47:19.560 tell you. It just sounded weird. And then there were shooting and I was just trying to

00:47:24.020 get my pregnant wife somewhere and get her safe. Like I had no idea where the guy was

00:47:27.860 at. We thought he was on the ground backstage. So we thought he was, you know, just backstage

00:47:33.120 walking around mowing people down. That's what I thought. That's why I was like, get up,

00:47:36.800 let's get on the bus and at least, you know, get locked in there and to, you know, I got

00:47:41.420 some stuff on the bus that will like at least, you know, even somewhat of an even playing

00:47:45.460 field, you know, cause I mean, we just didn't know what was happening. I didn't know the

00:47:48.000 guy was having 60 stories up or whatever in a hotel. We had no idea. So, um, you know,

00:47:56.060 it was just, it was just trying to piece all that stuff together. And I really didn't have

00:47:59.700 any information for him. Honestly, I'm like, man, I was playing. This happened. I came off

00:48:03.800 stage. Next thing I saw was, you know, trying to get off the bus and get everybody out of

00:48:09.680 there to, to get them somewhere safe. We didn't know what was happening. I was watching the news

00:48:13.000 on my bus, trying to figure out what was going on. So even though I was living it in real time,

00:48:17.960 I was waiting on the news to tell me what was happening. Cause I had no idea.

00:48:21.480 But did the FBI ever have information for you?

00:48:25.540 Uh, maybe, but I mean, they never called me about it. I mean, they may have talked to somebody

00:48:31.720 like in my crew, like, um, you know, one of my guys or something, but I never got any

00:48:36.480 information as to like the why or, you know, what the motive was or any of those kinds of things

00:48:42.000 from anyone, from anywhere, from anybody. So that just seems like one of these moments

00:48:46.820 in American history that was a big deal. Hundreds of people shot, you know, if we're going to be

00:48:52.420 honest, most of them Trump voters and, um, maybe all of them really. And we just sort of blew past it.

00:48:59.100 If you think about all the time the media spend, you know, in this very lurid way,

00:49:05.580 reliving school shootings, and here's the biggest shooting in American history. And it's

00:49:10.380 sort of never talked about again. And there's no even plausible motive. No one offers any motive

00:49:16.140 at all or any information about Steven Paddock, who supposedly, or apparently did this. What is that?

00:49:23.300 I don't know. It was weird. And, you know, when you go through something like that, it's,

00:49:26.300 you know, you're kind of trying to figure out like, man, was, was I supposed to be the target

00:49:31.120 of this thing? Was it just an act of some guy that's being evil and just wanting to do damage

00:49:36.480 to just whoever, like, you don't really know what it is. And so you get home and you're watching

00:49:41.920 going, all right, well, FBI is on this and these guys will figure it out and you'll get some answers.

00:49:45.900 And it's like, it just never happened. And so for a lot of people that went through it, it was the

00:49:49.920 like, wow, that's like, why, why did that happen to, why did he pick our show to do that?

00:49:55.180 You know, but, and you still have no idea, still have no answers for that. But, um, but I will say,

00:49:59.700 man, I'm really proud of my guys, you know, everybody that, that went through that, you know,

00:50:03.960 to, to kind of saddle back up and have to go out and continue a tour. And, you know, it wasn't easy,

00:50:10.320 you know, it wasn't easy to go out and you're playing and you're playing amphitheaters and it's

00:50:13.860 wide open. And it's just like, man, it's just, it can be a little unnerving sometimes.

00:50:19.200 Do you think the government was totally straightforward about what happened and why?

00:50:24.180 I don't know. I just find it odd that they, you know, can solve all these crazy crimes and all

00:50:29.480 this stuff. And here's a guy that committed one of the biggest crimes in our country. And it's like,

00:50:34.220 we just thought we got nothing, you know, there's no computer, no, you know, he had a girlfriend

00:50:38.460 or something or whatever it was. And, uh, he had sent her to wherever he sent her with some money

00:50:44.840 and, you know, it was just a weird thing. And I'm like, we never got any, any sort of

00:50:50.380 anything. I mean, it was just never anything that made you go, Oh, okay. I see that.

00:50:56.560 And how do you get thousands of rounds of rifling ammunition up to a top floor in a casino hotel?

00:51:02.900 A bunch of suitcases, apparently. I don't know. I mean, I remember that they had video of them coming

00:51:07.760 in with, you know, big suitcases full of good. Well, obviously full of guns now, but making multiple

00:51:14.640 trips up the elevator and through the lobby with these big suitcases and getting up to his room.

00:51:20.340 And so, you know, I don't know. I know, I know what everybody else knows, which is,

00:51:25.540 I just think it's weird what we got from, from the news. Yeah. NBC news. Yeah. And they have nothing.

00:51:31.560 Yeah. You visited victims in the hospital. I did. So we played, uh, we did Saturday night live. That

00:51:38.160 was on Saturday, obviously. And then, uh, as soon as that was over, left and flew back to Vegas,

00:51:44.260 which was, Oh, I think a week to the day of the shooting. And, um, just went in there and went to

00:51:51.180 the hospital and started making the rounds, man. Just going in, seeing, you know, all the people

00:51:55.220 that were in there, you know, some of them had like, you know, a leg wound or whatever. And then

00:52:00.960 some of them had been shot in the head and like their families are in there and like not knowing 0.99

00:52:04.900 it just sucks, man. It was like, you guys were at my show. Like you guys came to hear our show and 0.75

00:52:09.400 that's why you're here, you know, like this. And it just, it was, it was a lot for me to process,

00:52:15.860 you know? And I think that was one of the first things I think for me where it, it, it took me

00:52:22.520 out of being this, you know, this guy that was just having fun on the road, playing, living this

00:52:27.940 great life and doing my thing or whatever. It's like, you know what, man, this is bigger than all

00:52:32.540 this stuff. Like this is a big, big deal. And, you know, I had a lot of people that worked for me

00:52:37.780 that were sort of looking to me going, what do we do now? You know, where do we go from here? And,

00:52:44.340 you know, it's kind of like a lead by example sort of thing. And I'm like, you know, so that was the

00:52:48.660 first time for me that I really had to kind of step up and be the boss, so to speak. And, um,

00:52:54.620 and I think it was good. It was a good thing. As far as that goes, it was good for me.

00:52:58.620 Uh, I think it, it kind of made me grow up a little bit, you know, even though I was already

00:53:03.800 fully grown at the time, it still helped me to, I think maturity level wise, it was like really

00:53:08.440 good for me as sad as it was. And it was, you know, it was just like, man, this is, this is a big

00:53:13.840 deal. And, uh, going to the hospital, seeing those guys and, and just, you know, you start hearing

00:53:19.000 the stories from everybody and it was heartbreaking, man. I hated it. I hated that happened. And like you

00:53:24.760 said, just to never have any reason for it or get any closure on what that was all about has,

00:53:30.900 you know, it's just kind of been annoying. And, you know, it's just wild that we can do all,

00:53:35.700 we can put a guy on the moon. We can't figure that out. Like I assume we put a suit. I knew

00:53:40.420 you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say that. I don't know. I'm reassessing

00:53:44.260 everything. What do you think? If in fact we did, who knows? What do you think of Gavin

00:53:47.780 Newsom? Not a fan. You're not a fan. No, no. You didn't even hesitate before rendering

00:53:54.580 that judgment. Well, I mean, I just think you, you know, that's the thing where you

00:53:57.440 just look at the state of California. I think it just speaks for itself. Yeah. You

00:54:00.900 know, I've, I've been to California a lot. There's some great people out there, man, big

00:54:06.240 country music fans. A lot of people that are out there that don't agree with his policies

00:54:10.980 and everything, but it's like their families are out there and, you know, they've built lives

00:54:15.280 out there and they don't want to leave the state just because of this guy, you know? So

00:54:18.900 I just think, you know, I think what he's done to California is not good. And I would

00:54:23.880 hate to see that the rest of the country look like that. Well, I mean, his friend is running

00:54:29.420 for president on the democratic side. Yeah. Well, there you go. The big tech companies

00:54:34.500 censor our content. I hate to tell you that it's still going on in 2024, but you know what

00:54:39.120 they can't censor? Live events. And that's why we are hitting the road on a fall tour for

00:54:45.100 the entire month of September, coast to coast. We'll be in cities across the United States.

00:54:50.720 We'll be in Phoenix with Russell Brand, Anaheim, California with Vivek Ramaswamy, Colorado Springs

00:54:55.980 with Tulsi Gabbard, Salt Lake City with Glenn Beck, Tulsa, Oklahoma with Dan Bongino, Kansas

00:55:02.100 City with Megan Kelly, Wichita with Charlie Kirk, Milwaukee with Larry Elder, Rosenberg, Texas

00:55:08.100 with Jesse Kelly, Grand Rapids with Kid Rock, Hershey, Pennsylvania with J.D. Vance, Redding,

00:55:13.860 Pennsylvania with Alex Jones, Fort Worth, Texas with Roseanne Barr, Greenville, South Carolina

00:55:19.280 with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sunrise, Florida with John Rich, Jacksonville, Florida with Donald

00:55:24.600 Trump Jr. You can get tickets at TuckerCarlson.com. Hope to see you there.

00:55:43.860 So you, you, uh, publicly went after Gavin Newsom. Yeah, I don't think I went after him. I just,

00:55:54.020 you know, I just highly disagree with the guy. You know what I mean? I just, you know, I got

00:55:59.780 a lot of friends that have come from California and that's why they left, you know? And you

00:56:03.740 know this, man. I mean, when all that stuff was happening in 2020, I mean, that drove people

00:56:09.400 are leaving by, in droves coming to Florida and tennis Nashville and all that stuff. And,

00:56:14.760 you know, and they're getting out of that cause they don't, they don't want to be there and

00:56:18.280 live under that man. And so I'm just, just not a fan.

00:56:22.820 Do you think in the end that he's winning Gavin Newsom and people like Gavin Newsom or

00:56:28.340 you and people like you are winning? Like, are we becoming, is the country going to be more

00:56:34.380 like California or more like where you grew up? I hope it's more like I grew up. Um, you

00:56:40.900 know, like I said, I mean, there's parts of California that are great, man. I mean, for

00:56:44.080 sure. You know, there's really cool parts of California, but I think, you know, people

00:56:47.840 think of California, they go to LA, you know, they think of LA, San Diego, those kinds of

00:56:52.520 places. And I don't know who's been to LA lately, but it's not a sexy town anymore. You

00:56:57.920 know what I mean? It's not good at all. It's like chlamydia town. Yeah. It's, it's rough, 1.00

00:57:03.640 man. And it's just like, that's such, that could be such a great city and it is a great

00:57:07.300 city. It was a great city, the greatest. And it's just like to watch like what they've

00:57:12.060 done to it out there. And it's just lack of, I mean, they just, I don't know. I don't know

00:57:17.000 what it is, but it's just, it's not what it should be. And, and I just look at like,

00:57:21.520 dude, you got, you got one state to handle and clearly that's not working out for you.

00:57:28.100 So like the last thing I want you to have to do is handle all the states. You know what I'm

00:57:32.240 saying? I mean, like one, I feel like you got your hands full with one.

00:57:38.580 It's been such a disaster that you'd think people would say, look, it's not even a political

00:57:42.680 question. It's not Republican or Democrat or Gavin Newsom versus anyone else. It's like,

00:57:47.360 we don't want to live in squalor where people are getting murdered and shoplifting is legal

00:57:52.140 and all that stuff. But, um, which that's the craziest one to me, the shoplifting thing,

00:57:57.280 legalizing theft. Oh, just, well, if, if he's got under however much, you know, 500 bucks,

00:58:03.100 you can't stop him. I'm like, says who? Like, what do you mean? Well, you get arrested if you

00:58:07.320 try and stop him. Oh, well, I mean, like, that's crazy to me that that's even a thing. It's like,

00:58:13.700 I mean, what do you do? Like tally up his items before he leaves to, to figure out if you can stop

00:58:18.100 him or not. Like, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life. But that's a prime example of 1.00

00:58:22.320 just like, what are we doing? Like now anymore, it's okay to steal as long as you're not stealing

00:58:27.800 too much. It's never okay to steal. It's disgusting. Well, it used to be that way,

00:58:32.440 but now it's fine as long as you're not stealing over $500. So, but like, do you think that people

00:58:36.420 are going to, the country will go back to sanity or will it get increasingly insane? I don't know,

00:58:43.500 man. I feel like, you know, time always has a way of, uh, I don't know. It's like that old thing of

00:58:51.120 like, things always kind of come back in style. You know what I mean? It's like, if you wear a

00:58:55.280 certain pair of pants long enough, they're going to come back in style. And I hope that that's kind

00:58:58.800 of, yeah, same. But I, you know, I hope that's it. You know, I hope at some point, like,

00:59:04.660 you know, clear heads prevail and people are like, man, listen, all across the board, it's like,

00:59:09.320 whatever we're doing here is, is not working. And it's just, it's a mess. And so until,

00:59:14.520 you know, everybody kind of gets on the same page, stops pushing their own agendas for their own

00:59:19.520 parties and their own stuff. Like it's, I don't see it getting better. So I hope it does because

00:59:25.400 I feel like how I grew up, you know, I mean, I was born in 77, kind of a kid of the eighties,

00:59:31.280 you know, the eighties were awesome, man. Got to ride your bikes all over the place and you played

00:59:35.300 outside and, you know, you didn't worry about, and then there was stuff going on. I mean, there

00:59:39.800 was, you know, cold war and all that stuff kind of stuff going on or whatever, but, uh, was that

00:59:45.100 what it was in the eighties with the, I think that's what I called it. Yeah. And so, you know,

00:59:49.280 you always had that stuff going on. And I remember laying in bed as a kid going, man, is there going

00:59:52.760 to be a Russian rocket come through my window tonight? You know? So, you know, there's always been

00:59:57.860 those kinds of things, but, uh, you know, I just think our country, man, like what it was founded

01:00:02.320 on the beliefs and everything else and what we stand for as a country has just been kind

01:00:08.340 of lost. I don't know. I just feel like we're off track somehow. Is Trump going to win?

01:00:17.200 Yeah. I mean, I hope so. You know, hell, I thought he was going to win in 22, but what

01:00:21.720 happened there in 20? Yeah. I don't know. I think from my standpoint, there was a lot of,

01:00:27.540 uh, you know, it's never taken us that long to figure out who our president was. Yeah. So

01:00:33.480 there was a lot of stuff going on, you know, in Georgia, you had a water main break. Yeah.

01:00:39.600 And then it was just, yeah, it was just, it was just those kinds of things over and over. And then,

01:00:45.380 you know, so, you know, whether there was ballot dumping or whatever you want to call it going on

01:00:52.400 during that time or not, I think to the average person out there, it looked shady. It looked like,

01:00:59.160 you know, wait, Trump's in the lead. And then all of a sudden water mains break. Well, let us count

01:01:04.760 all these votes. And then all of a sudden Trump stays here and Biden, you know, overtakes him.

01:01:09.640 It's like, how is that possible? You know, I think there was a lot of that kind of stuff going on,

01:01:13.860 which is why a lot of people questioned it. And, um, you know, so I don't know. I think,

01:01:20.140 like I said, I mean, I'm obviously a supporter of Trump. I like, you know, do I think he can be

01:01:24.920 brash sometimes and, and say some things that, you know, he probably could have a little bit

01:01:30.760 better of a bedside manner. Sure. I'll give you that. That's fair. At the end of the day,

01:01:36.040 I don't really care if he hurts your feelings or not. As long as like, as a country, we're moving

01:01:41.100 in the right direction. The economy's great. You know, there's jobs for people and people are

01:01:45.360 working and making money and there's jobs created. I mean, it's just a fact there's less

01:01:49.680 crime. There's less, all those things. People aren't having to steal for money and, and,

01:01:53.700 you know, feed their families or do whatever. There's less of that because they're working,

01:01:57.400 they're making money, they're doing well. And I just, you know, I saw that when he was in office

01:02:02.800 and, you know, that's what I, one of the reasons I'm a supporter of his, I just liked the direction

01:02:08.840 that I feel like he would take us. Yeah. So you're confident he could win again?

01:02:13.860 Well, yeah. I mean, I think you go and look, I mean, there's no, have you ever seen support

01:02:20.340 for president? I mean, have you ever seen an army of support for president? Like with

01:02:24.360 him? I've never seen that. I mean, not, not in my life. I don't think I saw any Joe Biden

01:02:30.620 signs in 2020. And then in the end, he wound up with more votes as a senile man who could

01:02:35.320 barely speak in any president in history, more than Barack Obama himself. And I think that's

01:02:41.020 that seemed like a lot. 81 million seemed like a lot again. And I think that's where

01:02:44.820 people are like, Oh, I don't know, man, like, hold on a minute. And so that's where a lot

01:02:49.580 of the questions came up. I hope that they figure out a way to do this election where

01:02:56.020 it's fair. You know, I think you should have, you know, everybody should have to show ID.

01:03:00.580 You should be a registered voter that has to show ID. You should be a legal citizen from

01:03:04.680 here. You know, I mean, this border, everybody we're letting in the, through the border, you 0.97

01:03:09.600 know, I mean, are we going to let them vote? Like, how does that work? I mean, I feel

01:03:13.140 like, I mean, to me, it seems like that's the whole reason we're letting them in right

01:03:16.160 now. Right. So not to help the economy. That's right. No. And so do I think he will win?

01:03:22.480 I think if it's done legally and I think everything's on the up and up, I don't see how he loses,

01:03:27.840 but we'll see.

01:03:29.660 So I got to ask you, since you're sitting here, how do you write a country music song?

01:03:37.760 Well, what's the, I've always wondered, I like country music and I've always wondered

01:03:41.300 like, how do you, what's the process like specifically?

01:03:44.740 Well, so, I mean, I think for me, it's always, you know, finding a really cool title, uh, and,

01:03:52.460 and kind of wrapping a really cool idea around that title, you know? So, um, whatever that is.

01:03:59.120 So the way I do it a lot of times is I'll, I'll come up with an idea or a song title or

01:04:03.540 whatever it is. And so I'll send it to the guys I write with. And I'm like, Hey, this

01:04:08.860 is what I got. This is what I'm thinking. Like, here's the idea for the first verse.

01:04:12.060 But even to before that, like, where does the idea come to you?

01:04:15.600 I don't, I just think it's some of its life experience, you know, some of it.

01:04:19.560 But are you like in the shower, mowing the lawn?

01:04:22.540 Usually it's late at night. So I'm a night owl. My wife likes to go to bed about 10 o'clock.

01:04:26.880 My kids are in bed like nine o'clock, eight o'clock. And so for the first time all day,

01:04:32.500 my house gets quiet about 10 o'clock at night. And so that's when I kind of start sitting there and

01:04:38.060 that's when I get creative. Yeah. I get really creative at night. And so I'll just sit there

01:04:42.600 and start going through stuff, texting my guys and, you know, start trying to map out a song

01:04:47.100 or something. And, um, you know, and then we'll get on tour or whatever and we'll kind of finish

01:04:51.980 stuff up, but it's, uh, it's a process. So you're like sitting in your living room.

01:04:56.360 Well, used to, I would go in when I first moved to Nashville, I moved there as a songwriter.

01:05:00.560 I was signed to Warner chapel, which is Warner brothers publishing company. And so, you know,

01:05:06.880 I would go into the office every day and I would write from 10 o'clock to four o'clock every day in

01:05:11.180 a room, no windows, just sitting there trying to hammer songs out. And now wait, that's how it works.

01:05:16.200 You sit in a room. That's how it used to work all the time. And now, you know, when COVID happened,

01:05:24.260 everybody could do rights on zoom calls. It's like you would do meetings on zoom calls while all of

01:05:29.000 a sudden you could write, you know, you could be here in Maine. I could be in Tennessee. We get on

01:05:32.860 a zoom call and just write a song. How does that work though? You write the lyrics, someone writes

01:05:36.860 the music, you get a track like you'll, uh, anymore, it's like a pro tools rig or something just

01:05:41.660 where you can, I mean, you got a, like an iPad or something. You can pull up a, you know,

01:05:46.800 get something going just to like a beat drum beat, a little loop or something and, uh, put

01:05:52.280 a guitar over it and start messing around and lyrics. And, you know, it's just, it's kind

01:05:56.280 of in sections almost, but I mean, the idea, the title and the idea are the main thing.

01:06:00.040 And then you kind of start building around that title, the song title.

01:06:02.900 Yeah. So like we had a, so my mom, her brother, my uncle passed away like earlier this year,

01:06:12.040 last year from dementia. And so my cousin had been helping, you know, really take care of my

01:06:17.640 uncle for the last few years and kind of just been there for him for everything. And so I had

01:06:22.600 a title the day he passed away. I was like, man, the title was a song called, um, help you remember

01:06:28.700 was the name of the song. And it was just basically like, you know, her trying to, you know, he

01:06:33.540 didn't know her every day. So she would have to go remind him of who she was and all the

01:06:37.700 things. And so basically I had this idea, the title and the idea around the song, send

01:06:43.440 it to those guys. We start writing it and, you know, it's going to be a song that's on

01:06:46.620 the next record, but it is, it's really cool. And one of those songs, it's just not, you

01:06:51.940 know, it's, it's not your typical radio song. It's like bigger than that. And I think

01:06:57.240 it's, I think there's a lot of people dealing with that kind of thing right now. And I think

01:07:01.120 it's going to, it's going to hit people really hard, but that's kind of the way I write songs.

01:07:04.660 So, but it's collaborative. Like I, it sounds like there are always multiple people involved

01:07:09.700 in the song.

01:07:10.240 So there's usually probably four of us involved in it. You know, it's, um,

01:07:14.880 Same people?

01:07:15.640 Yeah. One guy will build the tracks and he plays guitar on it. And then, you know, one guy

01:07:19.900 puts my bass player, he plays bass on it. And then all of us kind of do the lyrics

01:07:24.580 and things like that, but they sort of map out like a cool, uh, sonically just make it

01:07:30.240 cool, like chord progressions and melodies and those kinds of things. And then we get

01:07:33.760 in and start really tackling lyrics. And, um, how do you know when you're done?

01:07:39.900 When we don't feel like we, when we feel like all of our good ideas are gone, like, you know,

01:07:44.020 it's like, I don't know how I can write that line any better. That's, that's cool. And if

01:07:48.120 it's a line or something that bugs us that we never, I mean, we just keep working on it

01:07:51.220 until we figure out, we get it right. And it's like, man, I mean, that's, that's pretty

01:07:55.360 good. I don't know how it's going to get better.

01:07:56.760 What's the longest you've worked on a song?

01:07:59.980 Um, well, hell we got one right now we've been working on for a while. It's been written

01:08:05.540 for a while, but there's some stuff I wanted to change in it. And, uh,

01:08:09.560 Words or music?

01:08:10.960 Words. So it's kind of like a song that name checks some other artists and stuff. And so

01:08:15.340 I got a really cool idea for it. And I just haven't been able to piece it all together

01:08:19.960 like I want to yet. And I've been working on that one for a few months now. So, uh, you

01:08:23.900 just never know. Sometimes it happens fast. Sometimes it's a couple hours and sometimes

01:08:27.120 it's a couple of weeks. And if it's one that's really worth spending some time on, you'll,

01:08:31.900 you'll put some time in on it to make sure it's good. If you know, it's close, like this

01:08:35.720 is close to being a really big song. You want to make sure it's good. You don't want to go,

01:08:39.460 ah, it's good. We wrote it in two hours. It's like, get the gist of it in two hours and

01:08:43.560 then go back and just chip away at it. Have you ever written a song in two hours?

01:08:46.220 Oh yeah. Wasn't very good, but you know, I can write one in 10 minutes with you, but

01:08:51.240 it's not going to be very good. Chances are, it's not going to be very good.

01:08:54.580 I know Greg Allman wrote Midnight Rider while high. Oh yeah. In like 15 minutes.

01:09:00.300 Yeah. Well, Greg's awesome. I got to play with him once. Really? Yeah. I mean, the Allman

01:09:04.840 brothers kind of formed in my hometown, Macon, Georgia, where I'm from. So I grew up a huge

01:09:10.120 fan of the Allman brothers and, you know, they were just so ingrained into that town

01:09:15.060 that I'm from. And so as I got older and started getting on the road and playing shows, those

01:09:20.280 kind of things, I got to do a show. We were doing like an acoustic thing and he started

01:09:25.020 playing Midnight Rider. It was him and Warren Haynes. And so I was just, I like looked over

01:09:30.060 and looked at my guitar player. I'm like, no way I'm missing out on this. So I just jumped

01:09:33.660 right in on Midnight Rider, started singing with him, singing harmonies and stuff. And it was,

01:09:38.200 it was cool. It was the only time I ever got to play with him.

01:09:41.520 Who are the people in Nashville that the other artists revere, who are like universally admired?

01:09:48.740 George Strait, I think is that guy.

01:09:51.080 Really?

01:09:51.440 Oh yeah. He's, he's, he's our, he's our guy in country music. I mean, he's, you know,

01:09:58.440 he's, he's our Hank Williams senior, our, you know, living legend guy that is the king of,

01:10:04.340 of what we do. And I think he will have that title forever. So he's a guy that everybody,

01:10:09.720 you know, really looks up to. I think Toby Keith was one of those guys, um, or at least was for me.

01:10:15.960 Um, Reba, I think Reba is one that, you know, everybody, Dolly Parton, everybody loves Dolly too.

01:10:22.200 You know, so there's some of those kinds of acts, some of the legendary ones like that, that, um,

01:10:27.360 you know, everybody loves him obviously. So the rest of us, eh, not so much.

01:10:34.220 Will you be doing this till you're George Strait's age?

01:10:36.800 I hope so, man. I mean, you know, I started playing bars when I was 14, 15 years old.

01:10:42.260 And, you know, I tell people this all the time. It sounds so cliche, but it's like, man, this is

01:10:47.620 really all I know to do. I mean, it was, I did this and I played baseball. That was the two things I was

01:10:53.600 pretty good at. And playing baseball, man, I had to go to school for four years, which was not,

01:11:00.020 that didn't sound very appealing to me at the time. And so, you know, I was already playing bars

01:11:04.460 and stuff. So I was like, man, let me just go do this for a year and see how it goes and started

01:11:08.420 playing college towns, college bars. And it was over. Like I knew like, this is what I wanted to do.

01:11:13.700 That was as close as you got to college?

01:11:15.500 Oh yeah. And I was like, I knew immediately. I'm like, man, this is what I want to do. And it's all I've

01:11:20.400 done since I was, you know, 14, 15 years old for the most part. And so I want to do this as long

01:11:25.640 as I can. And as long as I always said, the fans will tell you when it's time to, to quit or cut

01:11:30.380 back. You know, if you're playing a 20,000 seat place and there's only 5,000 people there, it's

01:11:37.000 probably time to pack it up and maybe go home and, and do something else for a minute. But, uh, you

01:11:42.720 know, I hope that never happens. And as long as people come out, man, I'll be out there playing for

01:11:46.480 sure. Last question. How do you not get worn out after spending a life on the road, addicted

01:11:53.460 to something massive, a personal life, super unhealthy? Uh, you know, I think that's, I

01:12:01.540 think a lot of times that kind of comes with the territory. I mean, you know, as 15 years

01:12:06.860 old, I'm playing in bars with guys that are in their forties and, you know, I was, I saw

01:12:12.720 a lot of stuff as a kid, you know, go in the band dressing room and there's Coke or

01:12:17.320 whatever on the table or whatever these guys were doing. And I just remember thinking to

01:12:21.480 myself, like, I don't want to be playing a bar when I'm 40. You know, I don't want to

01:12:27.060 have like a day job and then come do this at night when I'm 40 to make 50 bucks a night.

01:12:32.700 Like I just, it just wasn't like, I knew then that that was a stepping stone to do something

01:12:38.660 else that I wanted to do. And so I think I was always like pretty aware of that and always

01:12:43.860 wanted to make sure that like, I try to take care of myself and it's hard, man. I mean,

01:12:47.040 I went through periods on the road where, you know, I wouldn't live in the healthiest lifestyle

01:12:50.720 either. And, you know, never was like a hard drug guy, but like, I mean, I like to drink

01:12:56.300 and have fun as much as anybody, you know, and there's times where you probably do that

01:12:59.920 a little too much. Yeah. Um, you know, and I think, you know, even that stuff, like it's

01:13:05.340 taken me, you know, it took me years to kind of get a grasp on all of it, you know, because

01:13:10.520 you become such a creature, a habit, you go out and it's groundhog day, man. You get

01:13:14.720 on the bus, you show up at a place, hang out, you do your show, you hang out with the band

01:13:18.700 after you drink a little bit, get on the bus, go to the next town, do it. Well, when you

01:13:22.120 start doing that and you're playing 200 days a year, you're drinking 200 days a year and

01:13:27.560 doing that stuff. And so I think it reaches a point where I think most everybody, you know,

01:13:33.520 when it's starting out, you hit it hard. You're so excited to be out there and you're

01:13:36.760 just, you know, running and sort of living life on the edge a little bit. And then, you

01:13:41.820 know, I met my wife and had our kids and, you know, she came out on the road and started

01:13:47.060 giving me a little bit more of like a, okay, this is more like home out here now. You know,

01:13:51.660 it's like, it was just different. It was a different mindset for me going in.

01:13:55.160 So you travel with your small children a lot?

01:13:57.300 A lot. Yeah. Well, at least we did until they started school. Um, Memphis is in first grade,

01:14:02.520 Navy started kindergarten this year. So they're both in school now. And so one of the things

01:14:07.360 is wanting to make sure like our life is so not normal anyway, that, you know, it's hard,

01:14:14.300 man. And when you're raising kids and you want them to have a normal childhood, normal

01:14:18.080 life and all that, but then they come out and experience the things they do. And that's

01:14:22.560 so not normal that I think, you know, a thing for us this year is making sure she stays at

01:14:27.400 home with them more to, to make sure they're in school and playing, you know, little league

01:14:31.100 baseball and softball and doing all those kinds of things too. That's really important to both of

01:14:35.440 us. And, um, but yeah, I mean, for the last, what has Memphis, he's six. So for the last six

01:14:40.760 years, I mean, they've been out, I mean, I would say probably 75 to 80% of the time I was out,

01:14:47.180 they've been out with me for the last six years. So, and I love it, man. I love having them out.

01:14:51.300 And that's one of the things about this job is you tour, you're on the road constantly and,

01:14:55.480 you know, and you miss your family, you miss your people and it's tough. It's, it's a tough

01:15:01.060 part of a business of this business. And, uh, to be in a position now to be able to carry them out

01:15:05.760 and travel with them and stuff, it's, it's nice. Cause when my older girls were little, you know,

01:15:10.740 I hadn't hit that point in my career yet where I could, you know, have multiple buses and bring

01:15:15.020 them out and kind of have a family bus. And, you know, I was, I was doing good to pay for the one

01:15:19.380 bus I had. And so, uh, you know, and then they started school and same thing with them. I wanted them to

01:15:24.260 kind of have a normal childhood and upbringing, even though our life was kind of crazy. And so

01:15:29.120 it's been a little bit of a juggling act over the years trying to figure it out. But I feel like for

01:15:33.360 me, you know, I finally in a place that, uh, feel comfortable, like, you know, I'm happy to go out

01:15:39.620 on the road. I love being out there and playing. I love coming home, you know, after a few days and

01:15:44.560 seeing the family, if they're not out there and it just, it works for me and it works for us. And it's

01:15:49.660 been really good. Well, I can tell it has been, which is what puts you in the top 1%

01:15:55.440 for happiness. Lucky man. Jason Aldean. Thank you very much, buddy. Thank you so much for having

01:16:00.420 me. I appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Tucker Carlson show. If you enjoyed

01:16:06.380 it, you can go to tuckercarlson.com to see everything that we have made the complete library,

01:16:11.640 tuckercarlson.com.

The Tucker Carlson Show - September 04, 2024

Jason Aldean： The Las Vegas Shooting, Transgenderism in Schools, and Politics in the Music Industry

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