"Drew Baldridge Replay: Country Music Songwriting and Nashville Stories :Takin A Walk Nashville"

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed human. No gloss, no filter. Just stories. Spoken without fear. A person who is not generous cannot be an artist. The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhachon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay for the fire. Taking a walk. I lost my record deal in 2019. And coming with that loss of record deal, I lost my booking agent and I also lost my manager. I didn't think, I didn't know what to do. I was living on my credit cards. So I had this idea, I was like, man, am I still supposed to do music? I'll post on social media. I'll play in anybody's backyard that wants to have me. And I thought I'd get like 10 people. Man, I got over 20-some thousand requests and I ended up going around the country for two years and turning over 300 people's backyards. Hi, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taken a Walk Nashville. Join Buzz Knight on Taken a Walk as he has a conversation with country singer-songwriter Drew Baldridge as he speaks about his journey from being a signed artist to an independent artist with the support of his organic fan base. His viral song She's Somebody's Daughter was released in 2019. And now he continues to tour the world and release new music with the support of his audience. Drew Baldridge, thanks for being on Taken a Walk. We're here in Nashville. I'm so grateful to be in person with you. Man, I'm so glad this worked out. I'm excited to be a part of it. So what to moving cows around there in the Pocota, Illinois have in common with the music business? Man, so I grew up on a farm and like you said, little town called Potocca, Illinois. And I grew up on a farm, my grandpa was like my hero. And I always put farming and tying a tie it to the music business in an interesting way of like, we write these songs and we don't really know what they're gonna do. It's kind of like putting seed in the ground and you don't know how it's gonna yield. You don't know what's gonna turn out. It's gonna have a big yield if you're gonna get rain, if you're gonna have a good crop, a bad crop, if your tractor's gonna break down. And I grew up a lot of, with a lot of old tractors that broke down a lot of times. And so, that's kind of, I feel like a lot of my journey of music has been that. And it took a couple of years ago, my grandpa passed away and me going back home and kind of reliving that country lifestyle, helping with the cows for a while. And just getting back to me and not so much of chasing a sound in Nashville, but more of like, you know what, I'm making music for people and my people are country people. And so, it's been, like I said, I've always tied farming kind of the music industry my whole life since I moved here at 19. But was there a period you felt like you were chasing something that when you looked in retrospect, it wasn't authentic to you? Yeah, you know, I think I chased, when I signed my record deal, I was chasing everything. I was just wanting to be heard in any way possible, any kind of sound, any kind of song. And I lost my record deal in 2019. And coming with that loss of record deal, I lost my booking agent and I also lost my manager in the same aspect. And I did this tour over 2020, you know, COVID hit, I didn't think, I didn't know what to do. I was living on my credit cards and I was kind of like, man, first off, I got a girl that I want to marry. I can't even afford a ring, you know? So I had this idea, I was like, man, am I still supposed to do music? I'll post on social media and I'll just say, hey, whoever, I'll play in anybody's backyard that wants to have me. And you know, this is, if as long as I can do it, and you know, we can't do it for free, we need help getting there and travel expenses and stuff. And I thought I'd get like 10 people, you know? I thought people would be like, hey, yeah, we'll do it. Man, I got over 20-some thousand requests and I ended up going around the country for two years and turning over 300 people's backyards. And just bring, and that really changed my creative process to be like, you know what? I'm making music for people and not for record labels. I'm not making music for radio. I'm making it to have a connection with real life people. When I was in their yard, I was playing cornhole, eating dinner with them. They were telling me what their song, what the song's meant to them and why, thank you so much. You know, thank you so much for creating music that we can put into our lives. And that's when it really changed for me also too. I'm just like, you know, I'm making music for these, for people, for real authentic people. And that really helped me strive with the music that I'm creating today. That's what I first heard about you. Now, many of those were, they were backyard barbecues. They were graduation parties, right? Yeah, there's a lot of, I even did a, like you said, I did a, I had a song called Senior Year that kind of had this moment during 2020. Cause the hook of the song said, never thought it would disappear senior year. Well, all these kids' senior year disappeared. And the song was already out. I wrote it when I wrote that hook. I just meant live it up kids. It's going to go by fast. But their year really did disappear. So I posted, before I did the backyard thing, first I did the senior year thing. And I posted, I said, hey, I'll do a Zoom concert for any class of 2020 that wants a Zoom concert. So I was doing seven or eight Zoom concerts a day from my living room couch. And they'd be like 30 minutes apiece. And I would jump right into the next class, play for another 150 kids. And then that turned into, hey, we have a drive-in graduation. Would you come, would you fly down here and drive down here and play this drive-in graduation? Cause it's all social distancing. And I said, sure. So I went around the country, I did about 20 schools where I just played drive-in graduations, parades, and gave commencement speeches to kids all around senior year. And then that really sparked the idea of why am I only doing this for senior year kids when I should be doing it for people. And that's what turned into the backyard shows. And the way it struck me when I heard about this was as the business and musicians were incredibly confused and frustrated during the pandemic, you did something that was reaching out and touching them. But it was also incredibly unique compared to what anybody else was doing. Yeah, it was real different. And it was also the real rewarding for a lot of people that need music in their lives. And some of these shows were, we did social distancing shows. We had shows that were after COVID and they were just, all of them were outside. And it brought music to people and they needed it. There were so many people that said, oh my goodness, we normally go to concerts 10 times in a year and we haven't been able to go to any. This is our release, this is our life. We love country music. Now you get to be here in our yard. And it just really, it took down all the walls between artist and fan, artist and listener. And it was just really, I became friends with a lot of these people. And I still today, when I play shows and there's hundreds of people in the crowd or whatever, I can look down and see that they got the Baldrige and Bonfire shirt on. I know I was in their yard. They have the shirt and it's really cool to know that they were with me at my hardest time in music for me personally of just losing everything, but still having my people that connect to my music to support me and believe in me and keep me going. And so every show that I play, and it's almost every show now, every tour that I go out and play now that we're back to playing clubs, there's at least one person in there I played in their backyard. And so that's pretty cool. So the cool thing about podcasts are they are, you know, domestically everywhere here in terms of where people consume them and they're also international. But let's deal with the domestic part first. Talk about some of those small towns and name them where you played some of those shows. Man, yeah, we played a lot in upstate New York and we played some, you know, from New York all the way to California to Oakdale, California that I've never heard of before. They call Almond's Ammons. And I was like, what are you talking about? You know, and I just got to do a lot of fun stuff on this and see a lot of people and towns differently. Because most of the time people are like, oh my gosh, you're a musician. You travel all around the world. It's like, yeah, most of the time all I see are pilot gas stations, the club, and where we're eating dinner that night. It's never, I never hardly have enough time to do anything. But this way of touring is I got to see the back roads of the town. You know, I got to go to these little towns and all these little towns are on the back. I make their own tour shirt. I put their own little town name on it where they feel like, hey, we're not Chicago, but we're a little town in Illinois outside of it, but our name's on the tour shirt. And so that is what I love. Cause I grew up in a town of 500 people, you know? So like our little towns never got anything. So being able to go and tour this way was really, really special for me, but also for them because they got to do what they thought was fun with me. Like, hey man, we take our four wheelers down to this lake and we sit here and we catch, you know, Channel Cat and like, okay, well let's go do that. Let's go take the four wheeler down the lake, you know? And so I got to do a lot of this stuff with people on a human level that I would have never got to do before if I was just playing in clubs or fairs. I'm just so fascinated by it. So I'm hung up on it in a good way. There was a man that I did some work with as a former radio programmer who's since passed away. His name was John McGahn. He worked at MTV for a while in VH1 and he was a real trailblazer. And he had a statement that sort of applies to what you succeeded at doing with those tours that you made. Think like a fan, make everyone a star. What's your reflection on that? No, I think that's awesome. I think, you know, we can get caught up artists sometimes in egos. And, you know, and I've been there before where I'm like, well, I'm a country singer and I'm rolling in and I'm, you know, nobody can see me before I take stage. I'm backstage. It's this cool moment. And, you know, when you do it, like how we did it in those backyards, there ain't nothing glamorous about that. Just being honest, you know, it was like, we're playing on the freaking hay wagon. They just took the bales off of, you know, the morning before. It's not you're rolling in and you're fancy dan in your bus and stuff. You know, it's really just knocking those walls down and treating people like humans. And it makes me go in and being, you know, we're all humans. We're all put our pants on this morning. And it really gave a whole new connection to me for the people that listen to my music. And, you know, because I even hate the word fan. I just, that's a weird word to me. I think just people that listen to your music is better, is what I like to say more of. And it's just the people that listen to my music, it really allowed me to have a connection with them. I could have put out of all those 300 yards, this was the coolest thing for me on this whole thing, Buzz, was, you know, on my social media, I post about my family. I post about God. I post about the music that I make. And it's really interesting what you post and put out in the world. Those are your people that follow your social media pages. And so out of all those 300 backyards, I could have put all those people in one big shed and it would have been the all good time. They were all solid, salt of the earth humans. And it was really cool to see like, hey, whoever listens to your music is an extension of who you are. And these were all people that I would genuinely hang out with in my little town back home on a Saturday night. It was just really, it was really cool. Do you believe it really was the beginning that fueled your organic growth as an artist with your fans? Yeah, you know, I was very lucky. I've been in Nashville for 13 years. You know, I had a record deal before that where I created fans. I've created listeners. I've been on Sirius XM radio. I've created listeners that way. I had a lot of things that built up to that, but this was I think the most genuine way I've created, you know, people following my music and what I'm doing because it was a real connection. You know, it was like, they see me on their social media and talking about my music, but I actually got to stand there next to them and talk about their grandma passing away or their daughter going through high school. And I think that was what was really different for this tour and really catapulted us to allow what we're doing today is to know that we have those people out there that shared that story with the surrounding towns that they were, hey, you know, Drew Baldrige came to our house, you know, that guy right there that's playing on the radio now, he was in our backyard. And that really, I think, does have some sort of, you know, you kind of start seeing the branches kind of go out when you come to these, when I come like last week, I was in Omaha, Nebraska and you know, I did, I played for a school up there, not that far away in the principal's text to me and saying, hey, I'm so glad you come back. We're gonna come watch you. You know, and it's like all these little, you know, finger legs kind of come out and start touching people. It's like a textbook in marketing. You didn't know you were coming up with that. No, I had no idea, man. I just wanted to play music and I knew that this was a way that I could continue to do that. And I really believe God built me to write songs and play them and entertain people when I can. And it was a special way for me to do that. And I don't know, I always tell my band too, it's like, this might be something I do every year. I'm even talking about maybe going out and doing another 20 yards again, because I just enjoyed it so much of meeting people on an everyday life level. And you know, maybe for the rest of my career on out, I don't know, I might do this again, who knows. We'll be right back with more of the Take and Walk podcast. No gloss, no filter, just stories, spoken without fear. Addiction is a disease and it should be looked upon as any other disease. How did you cope with a reckless father like me? Join me, Pooja Bhatt, as I sit down every week with directors, actors, musicians, technicians, and beyond. You don't need to work with the biggest people and the biggest sound to have great music. I have gone through the Saab Siddhi Khachakar, reached the pinnacle, stung by the sneer, I've fallen down again. I am not writing actively anymore. And when I see my old work, it kind of saddens me. I'm only as good as the last shot that I gave. Mom's gone, but don't shut the theater. The show must go on. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhatt show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay for the fire. Welcome back to the Take and Walk podcast. So when was the first moment that you remember that music touched you? How old were you? What do you remember most about being first touched by music? I grew up singing in church. My dad sang in church. And I think there was this old song. My dad always used to sing in church and sit in the pews and watching my dad sing. He's still my hero. And that's, I go back to those early moments of there was a song called, when the anchor holds, and my dad used to sing that at church on Easter Sundays. And that is a moment that really moved me of watching my dad go up and sing. And I was like, wow, that's something that, my dad does it, I wanna do that. And then I started singing. My first time performing in front of people was my first grade Christmas program. I sang all the different languages of goodbye. It was like the finale of the thing. And it was like, ciao, audio. I mean, I can remember, it's so goofy, but yeah, that was the first time I sang in public and then got the bug. And I was like, man, I loved doing that. I loved being in front of people. I loved entertaining. And that then turned into doing multiple talent shows every year in our little area. And it wasn't much singing, then it was more dancing and lip-sing into like, you know, there's some really embarrassing videos out there but as of me doing thriller and trying to act like I know how to moonwalk. Thrill or? Oh yeah, man. And then the Blues Brothers and... Sing me a chorus of thriller. Oh, I can't sing you a chorus of thriller. You don't wanna hear that. But just like, that's why I lip-singed at all. But like the Blues Brothers, we did some of that and some dancing to that and grease lightning. And it was fun, man. And then looking back, my mom and dad really always pushed me along through that. I started taking piano lessons in kindergarten and that was something that really started driving me to music too, was learning piano. And then about third grade, I said, that was a girl instrument. I was like, I ain't playing piano. And I was like, looking back, I was like, well, that was dumb. Why did I do that? So I picked up guitar at 16 and been writing songs ever since. But it's always, music's kinda always had a hold on my soul. And since I was, you know, like I said, kindergarten, first grade is when I started, you know, really performing in public in front of people. And talk to me about the musical influences that you had as you, you know, would hear music on the radio or just see it in person. What were those influences? Yeah, so they were kinda all over the board. You know, you just heard my talent show influences. I mean, we're talking, you know, Michael Jackson, who I love, the energy and the performer that he was. At that age, that was like, wow, this guy is larger than life, you know, with his performances and how he does it on stage. And then, you know, when I got old enough and was 13, 14 and got into, you know, what we all did in that small town, farming and helping my grandpa out and watching my older cousins on the tractor and driving the tractor, country music became life because that was what we did. You know, we were on the tractor from sun up to sun down. And so like, people like Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson and, you know, Randy Travis and those people that could really have those voices that could bring my lifestyle to life. That was what, you know, I think a song was like Red Dirt Road by Brooks and Dunn. That was literally my life, you know, and Alabama, the very first country, my dad had this old mixtape that he bought this car and the mixtape was stuck in it. And it was a mixtape of Alabama singing Born Country. And we would listen to that song over and over and over again. It says, you know, I got a hundred years of down home running through my blood and we had a, my grandpa had this plot of land on the outskirts of town. He called it down home because that's where he grew up. And his great grandpa was first there. And so it's been in my family for over a hundred years. And so when that line came across and was like, got a hundred years of down home in my blood, that's when I realized like, man, country music is life. It's my life, you know? And so that's what I always try to strive to do in my music now is write those real things to me because Alabama back then could do it, you know? And it really struck a chord in my soul that this is really authentic to me and who I am. And so Alabama was a big, was a big, big. John Anderson was also on that mixtape. You look better than money in a buying. I always just thought that was, his voice was so different, you know, and stood out in such a cool way. And so John Anderson was also a big influence. And it's the simplicity of the life and how these songs come to life in a very clear way, right? Yeah, the simplicity of it, but also just the authenticity of it, of, you know, when you hear Brooks and Dunn, you know, sing, I believe. Oh my goodness, like, that is so, the emotion in that is so real, but it's also so real for the town that I was in, right? Of like, old man regularly living in that White House. I can picture my neighbor running down the street seeing him, you know, we were a quarter mile away, so we'd have to drop in full or so. There's no really running down the street, but it was just those kind of things that country music was my life growing up. And I hope that whatever I put out into the world, music-wise, that there's some kid out there that can say, wow, that's my life too. One of your fans, Deborah Kay, is how she listed herself. She says, Drew's the man. Drew draws pictures with his music. How does that make you feel when you hear one of your fans talk like that about your work? That's, I mean, that's exactly what I hope for. You know, I hope that when people hear my music, that's, I always try to sit in the right room when we write, and I always say, hey, no, we gotta draw a better picture of what's going on. And so here in her state, that's super amazing. I mean, it puts a smile on my face, knowing that, you know, what I'm trying to do is being portrayed in the right light. And I really, you know, I really do strive hard to make sure that all the images are there, because I always tell everybody, I wanna close my eyes and see what's going on, you know? And if I can close my eyes when the song's playing, and it takes me somewhere, that means we did our job. How about, tell me about the creation of the song Before You? Oh man, so I was actually out on tour with Lowcash at that time, we were playing on, we were in Long Island. We're not in Long, you can't say in Long Island, you gotta say on Long Island. Long Island? Yeah, on Long Island. So we were on Long Island playing at a place called Mokehiz, which we're actually playing March 7th, and we were up above and we were writing songs, and I was about to get married, and we were talking about just all of our wives, and we were talking about Lowcash boys, you know, they like to have fun, just like, you know, I did too, and we talked about all our wives about how we were just saying, man, before them, we were crazy. We were wild, and so coming across writing that song was talking about all the crazy things that I did before finding my wife and how she made me, you know, a better person, and so that was actually the song that I kind of wrote for her for our engagement, and funny story, it was right at COVID, and we were supposed to get engaged in France, and so we were gonna get engaged right in front of the Eiffel Tower, I had it all planned out, there's a line in the song that said, I never thought I'd fly to Paris to get down on one knee, and what happened was, three days before we left, they had the travel ban, we couldn't go to Paris, and so I'm like, I got this song, I got this, it says Paris, I'm gonna play it for her, so I had to go in, literally, call my producer and say, we have to change it, we have to change it, we're gonna fly, we flew to Aruba, and I was like, we gotta change it too, I never thought I'd fly to an island to get down on one knee, and so we changed it to this, and then we ended up going to Aruba, and it all worked out, but that was the song that I used to propose my wife with, yeah. Wow, and then the song Lost in Love, talk about that, and talk about collaborating with Harper Grace. Yeah, so Harper Grace, she sent me a message years ago, she was probably 16, 17 years old on Instagram, and was like, hey, I had a song out that time called Rebound, and she was like, I'm a big fan of Rebound, you know, your music is awesome, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm a songwriter too, I make trips to Nashville, and most of the time when I get those, I'm just like, you know, I don't know, I try not to dive too much into that, that side of discovering artists or anything like that, and I went to her page and I just listened to her sing, and she was so good, and I hit her back, I was like, hey, you're amazing, I get when you come to Nashville, let's write. So she started coming to Nashville, and then now she has a record deal on Curb, and she's really doing some amazing things, and so we wrote this song together called Lost in Love, and I put a record out a year and a half ago called Country Born, and I always thought she was an incredible singer, and I wanted to, you know, my listeners to hear her, you know, to see what she has to offer, and so I think the track turned out really, really awesome, and we wrote it together, which is really special, it was kind of like her first cut outside of her own project, and it was, we do a festival in my hometown called the Big Baldrige and Bonfire, and because I did the backyard tour, it was called the Baldrige and Bonfire, so I decided to, hey, I'm gonna put a festival on, call it the big one, and so we put a festival on in my hometown last couple years, and I brought her up the first year we did it, and she got to sing in front of a couple thousand people and sing that song with me, and that was really special. So take us inside the collaborative process of a writing session. How do you like to work, and how are you most productive in that session? Yeah, you know, I think most of the time now, like when I first came here, there was a lot of new people you've written, you've never written with before, now I kind of have my group of friends that I've written a lot with, and it's all a give and take, and most of the time there's three of y'all, and I can even go in and have, hey, this is what I wanna write today. I've been thinking about this, I have it written down, I have some lines, but there's sometimes you go in and you don't have anything, you know, you're kicking around ideas, and you're like, hey, I wrote the, I was at, you start talking about life, and you're like, hey, you know, a couple weeks ago I was at the beach and I saw this, and it led me into this, led me into this title. Most of the songs that I write always start with a title or an idea, like She's Somebody's Daughter, like our single that we're working on radio now. I started off with She's Somebody's Daughter, you know, and I knew coming into that right, this is what I wanted to write about after meeting my wife's dad for the first time, this was a message to myself to not screw it up, but treat her right, you know, if I break her heart, I'm breaking her mama's heart and her daddy's heart too, and so going into that right, I knew I'm gonna write She's Somebody's Daughter, and yes, I'm gonna take outside ideas, being the artist in the room, you kinda gotta drive it to what you would say, but having writers in the room, they really bring it to the next level of ideas, of experiences that they've been through, and you gotta listen to those in a big way, but the artist, you know, you gotta really be honest of what you will say and what you won't say, and I think that's key for an artist in a songwriter's room that's coming to Nashville, if you're writing with a hit writer, and they say this line, and you're like, man, I would never say that line, but they really like it, I'm just gonna go with it, and then you get to the point, you get down with the song, and you're like, wow, there's no me left, you know, it's a cool song, but it's not how I would've said it, and so that's what I always try to remember when I'm in the writing room now, is like, if I'm gonna record this, I need to make sure that I really love it, and say what I would say, and take other people's opinion, because it's such a give and take in a writer's room, and if you're on the other side, if you're a writer, you know, obviously give and take, but also lean on your artist that you're in the room with that's gonna record that song, that you want to make sure that they are loving where this is headed, and so that's been a, you know, obviously a big couple ways you can go in, not have an idea at all, kick around ideas, somebody says something, you're like, wow, I've never thought of it that way, yeah, let's write that title that you have, and let's point everything to that title, or you're going in, you have something really convicted on your soul that day, and you're saying, hey, I think we should write this, and if we write this and it comes out correctly, I think it's something that could be really special and powerful. We produced this other podcast, it's called Music Saved Me, it's about the healing power of music. Do you believe music has healing powers? Yeah, I really do, you know, I really saw it a lot over this tour where I played in people's backyards, and people wasn't getting music, they weren't gathering around music, they were, you know, COVID had kind of had them stopped up and not seen music alive, and when I was in these people's yards and playing songs, I could see them come to life, you know, I could see their soul open up, I could see the smiles on their face, or the tears in their eyes that, you know, it really does affect them, even for me, I mean, when I listen to the right song, I get goosebumps over my entire body, you know, it puts me in, it can transport me to a whole other place, and they can, you know, I've seen so many videos too, of people going through dementia or Alzheimer's, but when the right song comes on, they know the words, you know, or they, it takes them back and you see them dancing, it brings cheerful, it brings happiness, and as a writer, I don't take that lightly, that's something I want to go in the right room, I want to make sure that I'm making music that people can do their life to, and make memories to, and make, you know, long lasting connections with, and so yeah, I totally believe that music can heal, music can bring so many great things that, you can't get a point across just talking sometimes, you know, like, if I would just sit here and talk to you, she's somebody's daughter, she's somebody's baby, she's somebody's everything, it's not gonna connect as much as you have a melody to it, and so I really believe that music can heal, but also I believe that music can change lives, and you hear a song that says, you know, I'm really close friends with Tim Nichols, and he wrote Live Like You Were Dying, and there's a line in there that says, you know, called somebody and forgave them, you know, for a long lost thing they did to me in the past, and he has people, he said, people messaged me and said, hey, I forgave my dad after hearing your song, because I realized life was too short, and that is amazing, that's what music is all about, I have people call me about, she's somebody's daughter, it says, hey, you know, I haven't talked to my daughter in a long time, but I heard your song, they didn't wanna pick up the phone, call her, you know, and it's like, it changes lives. It must strike you as you're crisscrossing all over the country at a very divided time, how music unites everybody. Yeah, it really does, and you know, it's interesting, we were talking about this today, there's just, there's no rules in music, and I think that's cool, like, you know, you can be creatively different, and you can be creatively authentic, and it can, there is a lot of opinions in music, you know, in country music too, like on social media, you can let it get to you a little bit of people saying, well, it's not country enough, you know, or it's too country, I don't listen to that, so there is still some divisiveness even in music, but like, songs that have powerful messages, they can get behind, they can get behind what that song is saying, for sure. We're kind of looking out over downtown Nashville, and as you do that, and you imagine, you know, maybe a year from now, what do you hope is happening in your career next year at this time after all your hard work? Man, I hope I have a number one song, baby, that's the goal, you know, we, I did something really unconventional the last year I created my own label, and I sent, a song of mine that we've been talking about, she's somebody's daughter, I sent it to Radio myself, because I didn't have a record label that believed in me, and I've had people that believed in me and then gave up, and you know, you kind of get one shot here in Nashville sometimes, and I think taking this song to Radio and showing that it's a hit, and we already know it's a hit, but like, at Radio, it's a number one song, it's a top 10 song, I would love for that to happen, I've been here for 13 years and never had a number one hit, and I've had friends that've been here for three, and they do, and I'm not saying that number one is everything, but I want as many people to hear she's somebody's daughter as possible, and the message that that song brings about, and you know, sitting here looking over in Nashville, I moved here at 19 with nothing, you know, and now I have a wife and a little boy that's 14 months old, and we have a house, and it's all paid for by music, and it's like, that's a pretty big blessing in itself, and I'm just, I'm happy to still be here, I'm happy to create music every day, and yes, I hope we have a number one, but in a year's time, if that's not the case, we'll have another song that's out there that's touching other people's lives in a different way, and my goal is I'm gonna put another record out within that time also, we've been recording new music, and maybe even some outside songs like that I've recorded, that other artists record, hopefully have a hit, hit or two on some other artists besides myself as a songwriter. So in closing, I ask this question frequently, but I think you're more supremely equipped to answer this than most. What advice to someone listening who's a musician who's trying to work it, break in, make a difference with their music, what's the advice you would give them? Yeah, I think first off, we need to figure out how serious you are, you know? Music is an amazing path, like to be able to wake up and play music every day is awesome, but it's also you're so tied to your dream, you're so tied to your opinion of what you're doing, you can let those people tear you down with one word of a no, you know, when I remember I moved here and the first time I heard no, I thought I was destroyed, but it's like let the no's drive you, and I think that's a really big powerful thing for me now is all the notes. And even when you're, you know, the biggest artists in country music are still hearing no, country radio programmers are still telling them they don't like that song, we're not gonna play it, but guess what, they end up playing it whenever they're, when other people do. And so it's like, let the no's fuel you, but also if you have a plan B, this plan's never gonna work. That's I think the big thing. If you come here to Nashville and you say, I give myself two years, and I'm gonna move home if it don't work out, I'll write you off right at the beginning. It's not gonna work because you have a plan B and you wanna get up, you wanna put those other eggs in other baskets, and that's not gonna, that doesn't fly in music. And it's like, you know, if you're gonna come here and people say it's a 10 year town, sometimes it's a 15 year town. You know, Ashley Gourley, who's written 70 number ones in Nashville, 70 the biggest songwriter that has ever been in Nashville, he didn't have his first hit for 11 years. And it's like, if you move to town and you think, hey, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go back to the farm, or I'm gonna go back and work my daddy's business, you're gonna fail. There's no, I believe there's no failure in country, in music in general, there's just quitters. And I think that if you really wanna do this, and you're in some small town now, it's the best time because you have the power of social media that a lot of us didn't have when we moved here. We had to be here, we had to be on the radio to be heard, we had to be playing shows. Now you can post a video and reach millions of people from your doorstep. Right now, on your phone, wherever you're at, if you jump on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, you have the chance to reach multiple stadiums full of people from your device. And I think if you're in some little town, you're a songwriter right now, or if you're an artist, there's no reason why you shouldn't be posting every other day about your music, or writing songs, write, write, write, write, write. You could write a hundred songs, maybe only two of them are good. Or maybe they're all good and you're phenomenal, I don't know. But I'm just saying, I think right now is a great time, you should be posting to get your music out. Don't be too gun shy and too protective. I think there's sometimes there's people that's so protective of their music that they're never gonna build a listenership, they're never gonna build a following if they don't throw it out there and see if people like it. And if they like it, build on that. Put out another one, put out another one. That's the business that we're in now. And it's very lucky that there's a lot of people that you can do that from your, you can live in Michigan right now and have a great artist career and put out songs and own your masters and do all that. You couldn't do that 10 years ago when I moved here. You had to be on the radio to be heard. Now you can be discovered every night. Somebody's millions of people are swiping on their phone in their bed and you can be discovered and that song could change their life in a day's time. So it's pretty wild where we're at in the industry. So that's just a little bit of advice. Obviously, don't get, kind of put your blinders on and don't compare yourself. I think that's another big thing for me and that I've had to learn over the years. I've moved here and had some of my friends when I first moved to town at the biggest artist in country music and I haven't got that shot yet. And maybe that's not in my cards, but maybe it is. And so I think putting your blinders on and just saying, this is my path, nobody's gonna run my path except me. I just need to do what I'm here to do. And don't look at your buddy down the street that's maybe further along than you or maybe a better guitar player than you or maybe he's more talented than you, but you outworking. I think that's a couple little tips along the way, I guess. I don't know. Drew Baldwin, Rich, keep kicking ass. Thanks, man. Appreciate you, thanks for having me. Outstanding. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Take In A Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Take In A Walk is available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts. No gloss, no filter, just stories, spoken without fear. A person who is not generous cannot be an artist. The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhachio on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay for the fire.