Kylie's Husband at the Olympics & Chris Stapleton on Anthem Tears, Drinkin' Whiskey, & More | Ep 180

twinsies same jersey yeah baby usa usa usa where'd you watch the game what'd you what'd you do for the game yeah dude i was up in new york watching it man just uh nice yeah catching it me and tay watched the entire game man and it's just so epic man when from the first drop of the puck man that game was non-stop action and just had me at the edge of my seat at 8 0 5 in the morning or 8 10 in the morning, whenever it was, man. Loved every bit of it, man. It was Big Ed Kelsey's birthday. Shout out to Big Ed. That's right. Making another. Winning gold on Big Ed's birthday. Hell yeah, man. What more fitting for the big guy on his birthday. And so we gave him a shout and talked to him a little bit during the game. It just exploded when I saw old Jack Hughes fucking put it right between the legs, man. How about a nice five hole? Nice little Lloyd Christmas lookalike rendition with the teeth. Oh, dude, he did. Yeah. Yeah, you had the chipped tooth, man. Highstick earlier. Golly. It looked like he had lost that tooth once or twice before. They crushed it. USA was so much fun to watch throughout the entire tournament, man. That semi-final game that you went to, I'm sure we'll get it to in the rundown, but absolutely epic. Slovakia. Yeah. Yeah. Feed our Slovakian heritage. We're not Slovakian. We are... Slovenian. What, Croatian? We're Croatian. I think there's some Slovenian on my own side, too. Is there? Yeah. Slob. Oh, I didn't know that. You got a little Slav in this. I mean, it's all like Balkan territory, I believe. Yeah, I think there's a little Czechy as well. Czechy? I think we're a little Czechoslovakian. We definitely got some Eastern European Bank fucking heritage. I've seen some Slavic area people that I'm like, yeah, they kind of look like Dismarinses. Dude, you put a babushka on or those fucking furry things on, man, you would fucking fit right in Russia. You got the eyebrows. I got the eyebrows? Are Russians known for thick eyebrows? I think Russians are known. Which Russians are you thinking of? It is a very big country. No, dude, it's an epic game. Shout out to Canada too, man. Obviously, that team is so fucking stacked. I've never seen that many close calls not go in for a team. Helly Beers, man. It's wild. Helly Beers, my fucking guy. Yeah, I mean, he played a hell of a game. The defenseman, I forget who it was, was in the net freaking, he was stopping shots. It was crazy. Sometimes the force is just with you, man. There is just something about hockey, whether it's playoff hockey or national hockey, when guys are like going all out it's just the most fun sport to watch on the planet bro that wasn't a fucking intense game from the start how much the fucking puck was moving it was like i would there were a few passes i was just like how the fuck did he even know the guy was over there you know i mean it was like the puck was moving so goddamn quick those guys are both on both teams those guys are like so in sync man well usa yeah we should probably start this thing huh hockey capital of world. I mean, dude, we're men's and women's gold medal, best country on the planet in hockey. I don't want to hear any I don't want to hear any arguments. I know you guys had a lot of shots on goals and put up a hell of a performance and got to get back on defense, man. Most important person. Goaltender. Most important person. Ellie beers. If the Chiefs didn't have Patrick Mahomes, I don't know how many shootables they win, but they have Patrick Mahomes. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I'm playing hypotheticals here. welcome back to new heights ladies and gentlemen boys and girls of wondery show brought to you by expedia the one place you go to go places that's right the place you go to places we are your hosts i'm travis kelsey my big brother jason kelsey out of the u.s of a cleveland heights ohio and uh university of cincinnati love set up to the bearcats taking down the fucking jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. I've been there a few times. Not an easy place to play. But shout out to the Cats, man. Keep making a fucking run, boys. Keep making a fucking run, boys. Got about four or five games left in the Big East, and I'm dialed in. I'm watching every one of them, especially got my eye on those BYU Cougars. We got a play coming out to all you Cougars that are in the Kansas City Chiefs building. I'm talking you, Big Red. We're coming for you. Subscribe on YouTube, 100+, wherever you get your podcasts, and follow the show at New Heights with one S for fun clips throughout the week on all social media channels. Jason, why don't you tell the people what we have coming up, knowing we've had a lot going on these past two weeks? Yeah, I mean, we've been off from podcasting, but we haven't been off from getting out of the house. 90% is we're going to get into everything these last couple weeks, including from our time after the Super Bowl where Kyla and I went to the Olympics and Travis had an absolute awesome moment at Pebble Beach with his absolute unit of a caddy. And we're also going to get into a great conversation with country music superstar Chris Stapleton! Oh yeah! Let's go, Chris! Before we get into all that, we're obviously going to get into some of that new news. News! News is brought to you by American Express! Yes, it is. Yes, it is. All righty. We are in a full-blown blizzard. That's the new news I got here. I'll send a little text to the group chat. This is my front yard this morning. Yeah, I'm looking at the snow coming down right about now. Yeah, they weren't lying. I'm up on the East Coast right now, and it is coming down. It is coming down right now, and I fucking love it, man. When you haven't seen snowfall in a while, and it get heavy and just turn the entire place white and bright, it is just so magical. It looks gorgeous. Hard to get around if the city isn't taking care of it. But it is beautiful. That's my problem is that we have seen snow for a while now. It hasn't been missing for those of us in Philadelphia. So I'm kind of over the snow. I'm not going to lie. It looks gorgeous. Love looking at it. But shoveling it, doing all that stuff, and then trying to freaking get around, it is a pain in the fucking ass. I'm not going to lie. Dude, you don't have the old snowblower? Snowblower? No, I don't. No snowblower. Dude. That is an investment I need to make. You got to start working smarter. For sure. smarter not harder yeah all longer with some yeah dude do you remember fucking shoveling snow our entire childhood and then when we went off to the university of cincinnati we come back and dad has a snowblower yeah i mean why would he invest in a snowblower he's got two kids i can shovel it's such a hey calce move he ain't shoveling snow with that back no chance but then it's also like yeah dad do you want me to go like use the snowblower to shovel to get the snow like no i got it it's like it's like he like dude it's one of the funnest things you could have i'm pro manual labor for kids yeah no 100 you appreciate it when you when you're the one doing and then you get to tell another fucking kid to do it i can't wait we also dropped some film breakdown for eagles fans wondering what to expect from new offensive coordinator sean manion that's right yeah i saw that jason that was a pretty good breakdown it wasn't bad hitches left and right hitches all over the field. It wasn't as organized as I would have liked it to be, but I think it turned out great. Aaron did a fantastic job. Shout out to our producer, Aaron. I think we can do a lot more stuff like that. That can be really insightful. I'd love to do it with you, Trav, because I know you know a lot more about route concepts and the passing game. And I think there's a thirst for me learning a lot of that aspect of the game that I've never really known. So anyways, we had a lot of fun with this one. I'm excited about some of the things that come with Sean Mannion. We had some comments we were going to go through. I love this. We need more of this from Jason. It brings in his knowledge and genuinely I really love watching film. Oh, okay. It is fun to watch film. It is fun to watch film. You know what film also is? It's expensive as fuck. The NFL is they're not fucking around. They have the licensing rights to that shit and they're making you pay for every fucking minute of it. Well, not every minute, but they're going to, you do a lot, they're going to start charging you. And that's the one reason it's really difficult. Ah, we had another comment left my ass off. Good one stating starting out the breakdown of a hitch point. That was all intern Brandon's idea. Shout out to intern Brandon. Thought it was a awesome way to start it off. Who doesn't love a good hitch route? By everyone. You know, when everybody, when, you know, when everybody runs a hitch, what it's called? Yeah. So it's called spacing. You ever heard that? You ever heard that one being called in the huddle? Spacing concept. Yeah. Spacing concepts. Yeah. Soft and off outside. you're ripping those guys all day and then if it's press outside then you go inside and the inside guys kind of have have to have like a nice little feel on where to find those zones where to find those voids you don't want to run to get covered and uh that was a great job by uh what was it messenberg or um the tight end out of green bay of finding that void on that arc release yeah yeah there we go love it love it it was a good solid though solid stuff though and i thought it It was great timing on the pitches. Jason sounded like a man who would be a great addition to the coaching staff in the offensive line room. Yeah, he would. Jason is 100% a coach in the offensive line room. The Eagles just don't pay him. I wish I had time to do more stuff like that. I really think it would be fun. But those coaches, as we saw with Mike McDonald, they spent a lot of time in the offices. Oh, yeah. A whole lot of time. something that i don't have that much of a desire to do well it was awesome to see you uh break down some film i know i had some fun with it but uh i'm sure the 92 percenters would love to have an input on uh what we should break down next like whose film we should break down next uh we want your guys's suggestions so please uh throw some suggestions out there and um do we do we have a segment name have we named this segment yet we got some uh we don't we got some segment name we got some comments uh underneath the uh the post that we already put out there if you break it down the film from allison rose barnum um all 22 with the 92 not a bad one not a bad one not bad at all not bad at all i like this one a little bit more though uh joe courtney 13 uh exes and bros exes and bros it's not a bad one at all that was pretty good we got one more from uh wiki wall or the obvious kel see what i did there or kel see what they did there sorry about that i can't read but um that was a solid one and i just like his profile pic of ai with the fro um i think maybe you would just uh throw that out to the suggestions as well how about it 92 percenters um oh that's mike wallace yeah apparently like the mike wallace like wide receiver mike wallace no mike wallace and the main producer I have on my individual stuff. Oh, that Mike Wallace. Yeah. That'll be very nice of humbling Mike. Anyway, shout out to Mike. Mike did a great job with the bobsled video that came out this past week. Shout out to Mike and Joey. I can't wait to get into that. We're going to get into that in a second. That was fantastic. Also, this Friday, dropping some bonus content. The Heights Hotline. Off-topic, off-season. How about it? Got some great voicemails from the 92%ers that you guys are going to hear us. answer and um available on youtube one tree plus or wherever you get your podcast this friday so make sure you check that one out once again new news is brought to you by american express let's keep it moving to out of the house brought to you by pipsy oh man i should know what my messy hat rocking all the fucking usa gear because we're champions did you know that norway was that fucking far ahead of everyone nor why are you saying norway what is what do you mean is it not norway what do you mean don't they have like the fucking most golds of everyone oh you're talking about in the i did not know that but i mean norway is always up there because they're dude they came into it with 70 more medals than us they came into it yeah like all-time medals yeah i was like listen there's nothing there's not a lot to do up there in norway other than cross-country skiing is just how you try that's just going to work yeah exactly i was watching the olympics non-stop and uh you were at them so you didn't see a lot of the broadcast but in between they were talking they were showing why norway is like always like one of the best in the winter games and they said they call it the norway it's the way of and um and they said they get them on skis and skates and get them down the slopes and into the games when they're real real young it's like their way of like competing in a in a lot of ways so yeah either way let's keep this thing moving on usa won golden hockey and men's and women's that's all i care about uh out of the house is brought to you by pimps before we get to the jason in italy jason and kylie in italy uh tell us about your time with the bobsled team jason out in utah dude it was awesome i got to uh i got the for those of you that didn't see the youtube video that dropped uh last week um i got the very fortunate experience to go up to uh team usa bobsleds headquarters out there in park city Utah and got to see what it feels like to go down a track in a bobsled with Team USA, Frank Del Duca, the driver and captain of the Team USA unit that I was with, as well as some awesome Olympians, Kaylee Humphreys, who won bronze, I believe, in the mono bobsled, which is just one man bobsled. Yep. They were kind of all up there. And the whole crux of the video is like, hey, what does it take to make this team or to like kind of be considered? So we started off by putting me through the ringer testing to see if I would even go qualify for that. And to which that I was borderline at best. I don't think they would have given me another shot, but they, uh, they definitely, they appeased me. I don't know. Every time, every time they said you got to hit a number, you hit the number. Yeah. But I was also way below what they would like to hit those numbers. Oh, okay. All right. Well, they said between on the, on the, would you run a 20 or a 40? It was a 30 meter sprint. So it's like a little bit less than a 40. It was like 30, whatever yards. And you ran that at 3.9, and it looked like you were jogging. It didn't look like you were sprinting. I definitely can do better than that. Why didn't you? It was the vertical jump test that was really the telltale sign. The 30? The 30 didn't count at your weight and your power? I don't know. Here's the thing. They did say, so after we got done with this, we did what I really wanted to do, which was to see how these guys train. So we got on the dry land sled up top and we started working on pushing, getting into the sled, how they get out of the brake, the cadence. They use the cadence to know when to time it up so they all hit the sled in unison. It was awesome. It was a blast learning all the different techniques and whatnot. I would love to do this more. I mean, it was humbling experience, but they did say you're coming off of some power. Definitely coming off of some power. We know if there's anything Jason Kels has got, it's the power. I think it would be a lot of fun to do it more. And actually, they wouldn't let me push and do it on the ice for liability concerns. You have to be better. I think on dry land and really go at it, jumping into the thing first before they didn't have a fucking waiver. They had some waivers, but there were also three people. I mean, one of the sleds in the video, the driver didn't make it in there. So like, yeah, we're not doing that with you, but they did say, if you want to come up to the track and like Placid, the indoor, we'll let you potentially try and push it and jump in. So, Maybe that's a future video in the making because I would like to see that full experience. But it is the timing required, the athleticism that these guys have. All of these guys are former athletes and usually big skills. Some of them are former lacrosse players. Most of them are former track runners. Most of them weigh anywhere from 225 to 250, somewhere in that ballpark range. I'd be really curious to see what it feels like. The problem is I'm really built to be a third or second guy, but you have to be running at full speed. That thing is moving already 21 miles an hour down the track. You got to be keeping up with it. Off the jump? Well, not by the time you're jumping in. That thing is moving 19, 21 miles an hour with all four of you pushing it. So that was a big thing that was hard. I didn't know that. That's moving. They weren't even really getting after it. it is hard to keep up with the back. Especially if you're the last person to jump in, you can't slow that thing down. So you have to be running to keep up with it. So shout out to all those Olympic athletes that are doing that. They are world-class, explosive, top-end speed runners. I would be curious to see how a lot of linebackers and running backs would do. That feels like the best. Or tight ends? Little Travis Kelsey moving on that thing? Come on. It sounds like I'm like a 19 to 20 mile an hour, like top end speed right now. And I don't know about. Once you start striding, you can get that thing going. You got them long legs. You got those bird legs, right? I hear it. Yeah. I've actually recorded myself. I'm only going 19, 20 miles an hour. I know these numbers actually pretty well. Well, either way, it was an awesome experience. It was great to meet all them, to learn how it all happens in a very intro novice way. And then also just the ride itself, way more intense than I imagined. I thought it would be like a roller coaster. I really did. I thought it'd be, oh, we'll go around the beds and you know, the energy that you are moving down this thing at over 80 miles an hour. And when you go into these bank turns, it pushes you into the bottom of this thing. And on the bottom of the sled, there's like these metal rails in my ass. is so fucking wide. They're sitting on those metal rails. I'm being pitched down onto these metal beams. I'm trying to keep my head up so I can see. Are you not allowed to put a seat in this thing? Huh? I have no idea how Frank was... Frank Del Duca, the driver, I have no fucking idea how he was even knowing when to do the turns and everything Well you got to know the course You have to memorize it Yeah you got to know the course That makes sense It is going by so fast Like just so anyways it was a humbling experience to see the level which those athletes perform that Did they teach you how to drive it at least? No, I mean, I saw in there and they showed me how. So there's a pretty cool video that Kaylee Humphries showed me how they train the turns before you get into it. So obviously, they weren't going to let me steer in it. Yeah. But she basically was kind of showing you how you push and pull and lean and how it feels. But it's a cable steering system. There's two things in here. And when you pull this one, it turns the front skis this way or that way. And that's basically how you're steering it. The skis, I thought, would be like ice skates. I saw you talking about them on there. That's insane that they're – So they're not really getting into – They're just kind of gliding on the curve a little bit smoother. Yes. They're not really like turning it. Yeah, I mean, they are, but it's not like – It's not cutting into it the way I thought it would. It's like driving on snow, it feels like. I guess, yeah. But either way, awesome, awesome, awesome experience. The floor in the old two-wheel drive. All right, let's keep this moving. I've never done that. here's the real question. Next year Olympics, are we doing the double luge? Double luge? I'm not a luger. I got no interest in luge. I would do skeleton before luge. Which one's luge versus skeleton? Luge is like you're on your back and you're looking. My belly's too big. I wouldn't even see where I'm going. Oh, the double luge is the weird one everyone's talking about. Yeah, where there's like... They're like laying on each other. Oh, yeah, there's a picture of it right here. Yeah, that's pretty good. Even the single luge. I'm not a loser. You a top or bottom guy? I'm a zero, zero guy. I'm not a loser. All right, deal. I'm not a one-man loser, though. I'm not against being that close to another man. I'm perfectly comfortable with my sexuality. I'm just not a loser. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Expedia. When it comes to travel, we're all about keeping it simple. No bouncing between a million different apps trying to piece together a trip. That's why Expedia just makes sense. flights, hotels, vacation rentals, cars, activities. It's literally all in one place. Everything you need to plan a trip without losing your mind. Whether you're planning a big family vacation or a guy's trip or girl's trip, it can get complicated fast. That's right. Everyone's got different schedules, opinions. Everyone wants something different. But with Expedia, you can book however works for you. Lock everything in at once if you want or do it piece by piece. That's right. It just works. 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And get this, Claude has a new live sports functionality that shows real-time scores, standings, and player stats across all major leagues. Check it out at Claude.ai for problem solvers who keep thinking. Well, we know someone you're really, really comfortable with, and that's your wife. And CBS Olympics threw out there that Kylie Kelsey and her husband are supporting the USA women's hockey team. That's right. They made sure to call you the plus one is essentially it. You're the plus one, Jason. And sometimes being a plus one is the best feeling in the world. Kylie was there on behalf of NBC and YouTube. I really was just there to have fun and enjoy the Olympics. So I was 100%. This is the correct way to say it. And I thought it was hilarious. Hell yeah. I wanted to tell him I prefer ball and chain. but yeah that was the first uh usa women's game for the first day that we were there that was awesome hell yeah dude and you finally met yoko apollo ono the speed skater minus the yoko that's will forever be one of the funniest things dude apollo i mean we watched him all growing up hell yeah unbelievable speed skater dude he's been he's been to the heights dude did you talk about him coming to the heights i didn't actually ask him that dude i'm pretty sure he did at least that was word around town and you already know how word gets around cleveland heights i believe you're right because i think that's when that the first uh like year that the new ice rink was built it was an olympic rink and they could do all the speed skating and stuff yeah speed skating was electric as shit let me tell you so we went to the things that we did there we we saw four olympic hockey games two female and two male games we saw figure skating and we saw um we saw speed skating short track speed skating which is the best the long the long tracks are fun and it's cool to see everybody get pick up speed i want to see short track i want to see short track too but i sometimes it pisses me off when they start off real slow when they're doing the uh like longer races we weren't doing we saw the 1500 meters was i guess it was longer sometimes that pisses me off but These things were fast-paced. They were moving. They were doing tush pushes because we saw the relay version of it where they get in there and they push the ass of the guy in front of them. The thing that was nice, so I felt like this watching WrestleMania and then going to WrestleMania was in Philadelphia. When you're at WrestleMania, they don't have the announcing. And you realize when you're in the venue, when you're just watching two guys wrestle, how much you need the shit-talking and you need Pat McAbee saying, like, oh, off the top rope. Like, unless you have that, like, it's just not that fun to be at, in my opinion, in the venue, which I think wrestling needs to incorporate the announcing in the venue. I don't know how you got to figure that out, but it would make it so much more exciting. I kind of felt the same way watching figure skating, if I'm not going to lie. Like, I would have liked to have heard Terrell Lipinski and Johnny Weir announcing it live. You know what I mean? Like, you kind of, when you don't have that, especially someone that doesn't, is kind of newer to the sport, you like hearing the excitement in the announcer's voice that they just did something difficult they just nailed a routine or like they just missed something so i in speed skating bro it is a goddamn party in that speed skating arena that's awesome it is like you're you're there for there's djs playing music it's fast pace there's bells ringing it is it is high stakes action in I love it. That shit was fun as hell to be at. You got to see some women's hockey, like we said, and you got to meet the great Cleveland Heights native Layla Edwards. Best athlete out of Cleveland Heights. That's what she said on the other podcast, as I should say. Not going to lie with Kylie Kelsey. And I'm just going to say, Layla, I've got two banners up in the Cleveland Heights hockey rink. I'm not sure how many banners you have. That's a young Travis Kelsey looking like as tall as all the adults on there. That's a hefty boy right there. There he is. Looks like I might have fucking got some teeth knocked out or they just fell out at that age. Little squirt double-A division champion. Don't forget to ban him double-A as well. Cleveland Suburban Hockey League champs right there. Two-time. Two-time champs. I don't know. I haven't been back. I saw you were Mighty Might. You probably moved on to AAA before. She went to Barron's real quick. Yeah, she went to the Barron team or maybe Phantom. Who knows which AAA team she played on. I think she went Barron's. I think I looked it up before. Well, that was the closest AAA to Cleveland Heights, but I'll let you have it because you're the only one that have gold. So a little tip of the cap to you, Layla. That was awesome to see you go and get it. And I'll tell you what, man, she has a fucking shot. She was sniping multiple. She's ripping the wrist shot, dude. And she's setting up people in front for the tips. Hell yeah. She was very, very good throughout the Olympics and through the games. One of the things after talking to her, like you realize she is from the heights, man. There's just like this humbleness, but also like she's a great person and it comes across very apparent when you speak to her. We got a chance to meet that whole team. Kylie had four of the girls on after the game. They seemed like they were all just so close, man. That's what I was about to say. We hung out with them too after the men won gold in the little back room. They're a great team, man. And they're tight-knit. They're playing jokes on one another. Just so proud for all of them. And, you know, it's an incredible moment to win a gold medal. I can only imagine what that feels like, man. Especially in a team sport like that. You know you got everybody in the United States watching. Yeah. Shout out to Layla one more time for bringing home some gold to not only the USA, but the old Heights, baby, because you know how proud we all are once you grow up in Heights. No doubt. Well, how much do you credit the women's hockey team of winning gold to Kylie turning around? She's going to do everything she can. She puts her superstitions first, yeah. And she's making me participate. What were you wearing in this? That is a hat that was sold exclusively for the Olympics, I believe. It was actually a children's hat, but I was starting to put my pins around it, and it was like a flower. We were having a lot of fun, man. It was... Canada got out to the quick lead, and it made it very stressful. Man, once you get into that elimination round. Dude, the refs in that game, I don't know what the fuck they were doing. And that was after Megan Keller's goal. A little dangle to the backhand underneath the blocker. So epic. So epic. Yeah, it was a sick goal. But anyways, yeah, it was an electric game. And then obviously we got to see USA men dismantle Slovakia. It got, yeah, 6-1, I believe. It got ugly. It was 5-0 real quick. And I was sitting with the Kachuk family. Keith Kachuk was over there on the end of it. Got to shake the hand of a fucking legend. That was awesome. That's so fucking cool, man. I was sitting next to Anthony Rizzo. Shout out to Riz. He let me know he was over by you, man. That was so fucking cool. You got to see all these guys up there, man. We were right by the Hughes family, too. Jack Hughes, who had the golden goal for the U.S. gold medal game. Did you get a chance to meet the Hughes brothers? I don't think so. I saw Jack's dad and his mom, I think. I don't think I saw the brothers. Maybe I did. Absolutely. Do the Olympics need to sell larger beers, Jason? Do they need larger beers? Because this beer looks like it's like a beer shot. We can't talk too much shit. These are the exact bottles, garage beers coming out with, coming down the line, which are one of the reasons I've wanted to not do those bottles because I like the long neck. Oh, there's a little long neck in there. It's a little baby long neck. Well, that's what we're going with. that same exact shape, but it's going to look really stupid in our gigantic hands. Whenever I like hold a beer can, I was like, man, that can is so small. It's like, no, it's actually a normal size can. You wanted me to say, I do think the beers might've been a little bit smaller though. I couldn't tell. Either way. It's just like, it looked hilarious. Are there any other highlights from the old Milan Olympics that we're missing? Jason? Best Fuji eight, man. I can't pronounce any of the restaurants we went to, But we took the Metro down into near the Duomo area, ate at a couple of restaurants that Susie Schuster, Rich Eisen's wife, recommended some of these spots. We had some unbelievable food. But I did have a cheeseburger promptly once I got back to the United States. Man, there's just something. Like, don't get me wrong, I love traveling. But I just like, I was like, man, all this pasta and everything is great. But I'm missing a cheeseburger. Just a burger and fries or some fucking American-style fucking pizza. You know, there's nothing like an American-style pizza. I didn't mind the Italian pizza. It was very good. Had a pizza with anchovies on it. Oh, big anchovy guy now. I'm not. I usually hate anchovies, but this pizza was good. Nice. What else did we do? Salt of Duomo, which, my God. Have you ever seen that? Nope. I have no idea what you're talking about. Insane. It's a big church that, I mean, it's just like breathtakingly. ornate i don't know if it's a gothic i don't know what i guess the the architecture style that it would be but it's just it's it's incredible i don't even know how to describe it pictures do not do it justice you see that thing in person it's just all stone carved out fucking points and shit carved into it it is fucking insane but yeah it was uh milan was gorgeous i've seen that on patience you're hilarious dog ran onto a track which dogs are always the star of the shows canada catching a bunch of heat for cheating which listen you know my rule if you ain't cheating you ain't trying shout out to canada no problem they didn't even get deduction they got a they got a slap on the wrist after the deal i don't give a shit i i respect it i like i like his reaction too he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing it they call him out he's like no fuck you what are you talking about he's like he's got to be fire with fire hell yeah fuck you I didn't cheat no one damn well he just cheated you got to fucking be forced with force man deny deny deny fuck you the ref comes up the ref comes up to me you say hey hey just make sure you let him go oh was I doing that was I holding him I didn't think I was I didn't know I was holding him knowing damn well I just held the fuck out of that guy I just go the other way I'm like he's holding me He's holding me. You saw him holding me first. Exactly. Exactly. Ref, I was trying not to hold him, but he just couldn't disengage. He was grabbing onto me. Oh, man, that's fucking hilarious. Goddamn, that was an epic Olympics. Shout out to all the Olympians. That was a fucking, I enjoyed every single bit of it, from all the skiing and snowboarding to the speed skating. Even saw a bunch of the figure skating. And, man, it was a fucking show. Shout out to Alyssa Lou for bringing home the gold. Alyssa Lou. Yeah. And yeah, shout out to both hockey teams bringing it home for the red, white, and blue. When I was watching the figure skating, we were at the short program night. Nice. I was standing and I was sitting in front of Nathan Shen and he was describing to me like all the things that they needed to hit. So by the end of it. You knew what to look for and everything. Like if somebody missed it, you knew what the review color was. If it was green, it was good. Well, they were showing that on the TV, too. I was looking at it like, ooh, we're going to have to review that one. That's not good. It's a yellow. Is the heel at 6 o'clock or is it at 9 o'clock? The great Scott Hamilton, I'm sure. Dude, how cool was it meeting that guy? Unreal. That was mom's favorite. We always used to watch Scott Hamilton. Yeah, well, touche. But she was the one that was like, he's the best when we were coming up. And I just remember, I don't know what it was. Was it the gala that we always watched Scott Hamilton do the flips in? Because you can't flip during the Olympic Games. I asked him this too. I thought that he was the reason that flips were banned. Apparently, they were banned before him, but he would do it. He just never did it in competition, which now they let him do it. This is the first year, I think, that they changed the rule. You can do flips now. I didn't see anybody doing flips. Yeah, he would do it. Yeah, I mean, he was the star of figure skating. And he brought up a point too. like now there's not really a lot of opportunity for figure skating outside of the Olympics. So a lot of these Olympians, they do like five or six years. They start so young, but then they retire like 26. Scott had like a professional career touring figure skating for like 20 years. And he's like, this is like, it's, it just changed a lot since he was around. You know, I think that all the figure skating would like it to get back to that, right. They're, they're really trying to push to make it something that is, is a touring professional circuit that it used to be on a large scale. And that was one of the reasons I think that we remember him so much is like he was doing it for so long. Nice. Well now that the Olympics are over what are you doing next Jason What are you doing to do Well we are doing a little I doing TGL What That right Dude I always wanted to go to TGL Same. And thankfully it's a part of ESPN, so I get to go down there and work. Nice, man. Do you get a plus one? Yes, I would love to have you if you're willing to come down. Yeah. I've heard from everybody how state-of-the-art and incredible this technology is, so I can't wait to check it out firsthand, you know, with Tiger and all those guys that done a TGL is just remarkable. So epic, man. Going to be really cool heading down there. And then after that, I'm taking some much needed relaxation time. Yeah. I mean, you're the king of getting out of the house, Jason. I love how this all started where I was like, you couldn't keep me in my seat. I didn't have the opportunities I had back then. Now I'm over here going to the Olympics and the Super Bowl and all this stuff. Touche. Touche. Sure. A lot of it is contractually obligated verbiage and strict negotiations. Oh, no, I got to go to TGL. I mean, I live a very silly life where doing all this really fun, awesome stuff is also part of my job, right? And, you know, it's a joy. I get to reconnect with hockey, which obviously we all love growing up. You know, do things with golf, which, you know, we've been fans of that sport for a long time. I mean, it's just, it's wild. It really is. Trav, let's talk about you. Oh, fuck. Little Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Yeah, dude. How was that? Pebble Beach is one of the most epic tournaments I've ever been to. I can't tell you how amazing it was, you know, seeing that course, Pebble on the water. The first two days, they split courses as the Pro-Am is going on as well. You play Spyglass one day and then play Pebble the other day. It's just so well done, man. AT&T does a great job of bringing in, you know, the best golfers in the world, playing at on some of the most beautiful golf courses um i didn't get to play cyprus which is right around the corner that everybody was raving about i'm fucking pumped to go back and and play that one man but that that little area over there by uh by carmel and uh monterey bay man it is absolutely unbelievable breathtaking views and then you just get to see some of the most epic golf holes of all time and some of the best players around hitting some of the best shots man i got to play with my guy cash beer keith uh he's unbelievable unbelievable golfer man got to see him get dialed in and make a run it was just an all-around fun opportunity and i also got to play against my guy alex smith for uh for two days man i was about to say you have to get back into smitty yeah he was the one that kind of threw the invite out there it was just cool to kind of always reconnect with uh with old teammates especially one that i admired and loved as much as alex man he got me he beat me uh in the in the games we were playing but But I couldn't fucking putt, man. I got to figure out how to fucking get on the green. But these three putts are absolutely ruining my day. That was one thing. I didn't know it was a northern, I guess it's not northern California, but it's up there by San Francisco, right? It's up there. It's up there, yeah. I think it's in between San Fran and L.A. So is it like north or south of like Sonoma and Napa and all that stuff? I think it's like southwest. South of that stuff? Okay. Yeah. Dude, I'm telling you, you would fucking love this area. You would absolutely love it. No doubt. It's like this calm, hidden world over there. There's not a lot of movement going around. It just seems like it's one of the best places in the world. Also, got to run into my guy, Jim Nance, who is one of my favorite. You run into Jim Nance? He's one of my favorite guys. One of my favorite play callers of all time, announcer, you know it, man. And then on top of that, man, just the all-around professional. So obviously listening to his calls on the PGA Tour as well as the NFL, it's been such an honor to be able to be a part of the games and him handing me the mic in the AFC Championship games. It's absolutely epic every time I run into him. I got to meet him and his kids and his wife. So it was pretty cool walking off 18 and getting to say hi to everyone. Well, I was very jealous watching it. I've always wanted to go out. It was the one off week I had before the Olympics. So I'm like, you know what, I'm going to take this time to go back with the fam before we head out again. but I'm glad you enjoyed it. What happened on the first tee? Can we talk about that? Yeah, you know, I was told by somebody, I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus, but... So let's play this video first. First on the tee from Sweet Islands, Georgia, is Keith Mitchell. I wear cashmere too. I then found out the more I the more I saw Kashmir Keith rip it that it's his game is as smooth as Kashmir as his as his his swagger so your swing's looking good right now Trav I appreciate that but I'm starting to really play too much golf. What do I got to do to get a smooth swing like that? I mean, you and I have always been opposites. You've always been the smooth athlete. I've always been the like fucking tight wound, run through a brick wall with zero finesse. How do I get this? I think you got to loosen up. And that's obviously the clear thing to say, but it seems like you're pretty wound up. Like you want your muscles like firing at all times. Yes. And I like my muscles firing at certain times. When you loosen up, you get more on the backswing in terms of rotation. And then you can really start the strength in the transition up top. I also get way too quick at the top because I do that. That's what happened for me. And I fucking yank the ball into the ocean. But I will say losing a lot of weight will help you loosen up as well. Go on the opposite. I was just in it. dude i got down to 250 the 260 i got down to 260 last off season felt really good about it i am already back up to 285 dude i am dude you're 85 already between the season and holidays going on all these vacations and pasta and my quad getting torn so i can't run it's been a bad stretch for your boy but i'm gonna get it down quick go right back down three months dedication I can be back down to 260 lickety split. Well, I believe it. And I think the more you watch yourself and start to figure out this golf world, the more you'll start to dial in those fundamentals that you need. When I try to swing the club and I'm not really trying to step on it, I'm just kind of like letting it go up and then just kind of like bringing it down almost by my hip. I just feel like I really get in the pocket and it's consistent and it's replicable. Yeah. I just, for some reason, I stray. I stray. You do what I like to do. You like to hit the fucking levy piss out of the ball. And that's just how we were taught playing baseball and playing hockey is fucking, they can't catch it if you hit it as hard as you can. And we like that feeling of connecting with the ball as hard as we can and seeing it fly as far as it can go. I mean, that's the fun in golf. And I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I like, don't do that at least half of the holes when I play golf. Like if I got a straight fairway and I got the driver out and I get a driver, I'm going to at least on 90% of the holes do just that. And it's the one or two times that I actually connect and see that thing fucking go 340 that I'm just loving life and I love playing the game. And that's what keeps me coming back. Amen to that, brother. And that wraps up Out of the House, brought to you by Pepsi. Thank you to our partner, Pepsi. Pepsi. Ah, Jason, would you consider yourself a creature of habit? Yes. Yes, I would. How many times do we stick with something just because it's what we've always done? That's pretty much my whole life. Yeah. You know, you're so used to one thing, but when you actually think about it, you realize you've been missing out on something better. That's what Pepsi calls the Pepsi paradox. Oh. Yeah, when you take away the labels and just go off the taste, people across the country prefer the taste of Pepsi. It's been proven over and over again in blind taste tests. They just proved it again. 50 years ago, the Pepsi Challenge revealed people preferred the taste of Pepsi. And last year, in a revival of the challenge, 66% of people preferred the taste of Pepsi Zero Sugar. Here's what they're saying. Maybe it's time to question what you think you know about soda. Is your preference really about taste? Go out and try Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Let your taste decide. Thank you to our sponsor, Hills Pet Nutrition. Ever wish you could trade places with your pet? Yeah, they don't work. They don't have to worry about deadlines and don't overthink things. They just do them. That's right. They're just living their life because they're dogs. But pet parents have to balance work, family, their health, and a million other things. This is all true, but going through life is even better with your pet. Especially when you're doing right by them and all their nutrition needs to give them a long, healthy life. That's where Hills comes in. Hills Science-Led Nutrition helps you give more love than humanly possible. Their formulas are designed to support your pet's health, so you can focus on all the other things and moments like playtime, couch cuddles, and celebrating milestones together. Because you're only human, there's Hills. Find the right food at hillspet.com slash science knows more. Thank you to our sponsor, Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. That's smart. Not checking. We're recording before starting the episode. Brandon, not smart. Happens a little more often than you think. Sometimes I'm so out of breath from screaming our guest intros and then I have to do it again. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary. Subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate, North American Insurance Company, and affiliates in Northbrook, Illinois. Let's get to our conversation with the old Chris Stapleton. This incredible conversation is brought to you by Claude. Also, fun game to play during this interview. See if you can tell when Chris's 121 proof whiskey hits us. All righty, our guest today is six-foot songwriter, singer, and country music superstar from Staffordville, Kentucky. That's right. 19-time country music award winner, 12-time Grammy award winner, including his most recent win for best solo country performance for Bad As I Used To Be. You know him from his hits like Tennessee Whiskey, White Horse, Parachute, Nobody in Blank, Broken Halos, and It Takes a Woman. 92% is please welcome the man that performed a national anthem so good it brought me to tears. Not right now. The one and only Chris Stapleton! Yes, sir! How many people do you venture you've made cry just from singing the national anthem? At least two. Well, I know two. That's it. You know, I haven't seen much statistics on that beyond that. Yeah, it was an incredible performance, as only you could have done. Seriously. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. We were just talking to Julian Edelman about how much the national anthem, for some reason, especially in the Super Bowl, but it's like that moment that just, like, Even now, going to a regular game, I still get goosebumps. Oh, man, goosebumps just thinking about it, yeah. But it's like, you know, this whole thing. Everybody's together. They got the jets going over. Yeah, it's a production, and, you know, it's heavy. Yeah, it's a unifying thing, yeah. But you made it your own in, like, the most perfect way. Dude, it was so fucking magical, man. It got me fucking fired up. I came out hot in that game. Got the photos from that one? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Fucking epic, man. And it was some great TV editing, too, I have to say. Of course. I know that caught you guys. Those were the right moments, man. You know, all the aircraft carrier and all this stuff. It was really great. She was awesome, man. Well, you're on basically a football podcast. You played some ball back in the day. Yeah, like 30 years ago. Time out, though. In high school. Listen, I know a ball player when I see one. Look at that haircut right there. Dude, you already know. I did have a haircut, too, yeah. You played Tim Couch in high school? I did. That was the first football jersey I owned. Actually, I had a Jerome Bettis jersey first and then Tim Couch was the second. When they brought the Browns back, that was the number one pick. We played Couch several times. How'd it go? We lost. What positions you were playing? I was linebacker. Let's go. Middle, outside, where were you at? Inside. Inside back. That's awesome, man. Taking on fullbacks. It looked like you had a little neck roll in there. You had that little cowboy. Those are those big shoulder pads. Those fucking shoulder pads were back in the day. That's right. I love it. Who'd you grow up watching? Oh, I mean, I grew up in like Joe Montana. of Jerry Rice era. That was kind of Dan Marino, those guys. Very fitting that we're out in San Fran. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, my uncle has a crazy story about how he played Notre Dame. He went to Purdue and he played Notre Dame and he got to see the first glimpse of Joe Montana's like two minute at the end of a game, winning it as a freshman at Notre Dame. And I asked Joe Montana about that game. And he said that my uncle didn't even mention this. He threw like three picks and got taken out of the game and then a quarterback got injured and he gets put back in to go save the day afterwards and it was like all right now i got those three picks out the way i'm good to go baby nobody remembers the picks if you win the game you ain't lying before we continue we've been told you have some gifts i do i brought some wifty for you guys oh hell yeah baby there's that pass it on down is it okay if we open this right now wait we've got them swapped swap okay yeah they're You go there. You're specific to you. Okay, got it. Man, how do we get lucky, dude? We got gifts for Chris, right? Yeah. God damn it. I'm like, you're the first one that has ever came on the show with gifts, dude. Fuck yeah. Yeah, baby. Christmas in February. 62, personalized bottle. This is awesome. Woo-hoo! Travelers. This happens every Christmas. He always opens them faster than me. Then we got some glasses. Dude. Coaster. This is nice. You guys are the first people we've ever done that for, but we got it in the gravy machine. We just broke it. Oh, fuck yeah. I don't even want to open it. You open yours and I'll drink it. That's the 90 proof. That's what we have been selling. But this is new coming out. This is 121 proof. 121. Right here. Those were the 90s. This is not out yet. But I brought this today. If you guys were up for it, we could open it together. This is the first bottle that I will ever have opened of this and had with anybody. I am not turning that down for a second. Please. I'd be honored for you to. No, no, no. No, this has to be. You got to open that thing. Dude, this is so badass. This is awesome. There's some glasses in there too, I think. How long you been in the whiskey game? Oh, I guess it's a couple of years now. We've been doing that, but it depends on what you call in the games. Making it and selling it a couple of years. Just, there we go. I'll just do like a tasting pour first of you guys. That's bad. I might not have should have wrapped things. Dude, this is awesome, man. Are you kidding me? What do we call in the 121 proof? It's full proof. Full proof. Full proof. It's just Traveler full proof. Love it. Very soon in limited quantities, but- Oh yeah. That smells good. You guys ready to go? Cheers for the first one. Hell yeah, baby. Get this thing going. Hell yeah. It's a simpler for me, but you guys do what you want with it. Well, if I didn't already have enough hair on my chest. That is fantastic. Dude, that is smooth as shit. Very good. Foolproof. 121, and it is smooth. Dude, thank you for this bottle. This thing's definitely going up on the bar, man. Thanks for having me on. Oh, that is so good. Loosest I've ever been in a box. I was about to say. as I've ever been in a podcast. Here we go. I got to ask you more about it. So being from Kentucky, it's always just been in like your backyard, right? Like a lot of the distilleries or what? Yeah, but you know, as I became an adult and played music, it's been a big part of what we do. I've always enjoyed Buffalo Trace product, which is what we do. That's who makes this travel whiskey. That's awesome, man. We always had a bottle of something that they were making in the room for every record we've ever made. And so when I had the opportunity to work with Harlan, who's the master distiller on Happy and Wilder and all these, you know, things that you can't get. Right. To do this, it was something to jump at. And it's been really good to us, and I think this is going to do well, too. Yeah. Oh, this is amazing. And I love it. Having fun with it. That's right. We jumped in the beer world, but the whiskey world's a whole new world for me. If every one of them tasted as good as this, that bottle's going to be going real quick. Well, that's going to sneak up on you. It's 121, but the 90 would be. I can feel it, you know. Already? It's good in a great way. It warmed me up. No doubt. That's the best part. All right. So last time I ran into you, I was at the George Strait concert. I've been to a bunch of your shows. No, the last time you came to a show, you had a tiny baby. That's what I was about to say. So you don't know this. Come again? Chris met Finley before you met Finn. At his show, she was so new and so young, we couldn't leave her at home. We wanted to go to the show. Can't miss the show. It's at the link. And Chris gave me one of my favorite things, and I've stolen it since you've said it, because I love it so much, that you miss the smell of newborn babies. New baby smells is a great thing. I'm going to sound like a weird, creepy dude talking about it. No, it's not creepy at all. Because anybody that's held a kid, an infant like that, you know what you're talking about. Yeah, when you're a new parent and you hold the baby, it's the smell of your own child there in your hands. It's a great thing. Absolutely. Beautiful thing, man. I also like to smell other people's babies. That's where it's going to sound creepy. Pardon me, sir. Can I smell your baby? Please hand this over. So you're going back on a tour though. Oh yeah. Yeah we got some tour dates coming up Nashville Nissan Stadium Charlotte Bank of America Stadium Hershey Park Stadium in Pennsylvania Pacor Stadium Cincinnati We been there a few times Fenway Park two nights Have you ever played Fenway No. Well, I've played. They have a smaller venue in Fenway that we play. Okay. We've never played the park proper. In the big, okay. Oh, man. And then Casey's Morton Amphitheater. Do you like the big, giant arenas or do you like more? Like, what do you like more performing in? They all have their strong points. I mean, I like that we can get more people in the bigger places. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. But I also, you know, some places that like Fenway are magic in ways that they have historical significance and, you know, just playing Wrigley Field or when you go to these places that have been around a while, those places have ghosts in them or even, you know, playing the Fillmore here. We're in San Francisco right now. Like playing the Fillmore here has a lot of music history and you do those things and and you feel like you're, you know, part of the ethos of music. Yeah, absolutely. I've talked to Taylor, my Taylor, about this a few times, but she grew up in the country world in Nashville and in high school and coming up, and she was underneath a lot of these big country singers, and she raves about how together they are, how they maneuver on tour and stuff like that. But how was it rocking with George Strait around the country? George is the best, man. George doesn't play a lot of shows, but we played as many as we could with him. And I think I almost talked him into pseudo coming out of retirement. He was playing less and less shows. And we had a lot of fun playing a few shows with him. I was like, hey, man, many of these you want to do. Let's do them. So we picked up and played more. And I think he had fun doing it, too. And I don't know. We just had a good time. That's awesome, man. Favorite city? I mean, I like a lot of cities for different reasons. My favorite venue to play in is probably the Forum in Los Angeles. Yeah. Just because it sounds so good. And it also has, you know, you walk down the hallway and it's like they have all the people that have played there on the walls. Like, let's up. It's cool as hell. Just crazy shit. They're just like, yeah, I'm going to go play the Forum. You can feel history in some of these arenas and stadiums. The Forum feels like it was made for that. You know, obviously the Lakers and everybody. It has the wood and all the, it just, yeah, it has the sports history too, but the music history of it is incredible. That's awesome, man. Wonderful. I haven't heard that one yet at the Forum. Do you remember your first concert? Ooh. My first concert was probably Bon Jovi at Rupp Arena with Skid Row opening. Oh, wow. And Skid Row was so loud, I had to go out in the hallway. I was like, I was maybe, maybe I was eight, eight or nine. Okay. They were hammering it. Yeah, that's amazing. I love it. But it was fun, yeah. So big Bon Jovi fan. Yeah, I like Bon Jovi. I mean, I grew up in the 80s, man, so all that stuff is good. I had that. So growing up, Bon Jovi, you were in the rock world, the country world, all the above. Yeah, I mean, I grew up in a rural part of the country too. So we have, yeah, my dad listened to all the outlaw music, you know, like Waylon and Willie. Willie and Willie and Willie. I'm real high on the cash, you know, but also, you know, old R&B and stuff like that. So I had it from all directions. And I don't, you know, if it's good, it's good. There's two kinds of music, good and bad. That's, that's it. So we always talk about this in sports, actually. Like we don't, to be a great athlete, it's best to play a bunch of different sports. And before you narrow down into one sport, do you think it's similar? Like, do you think playing and listening to all these forms of music and then narrowing down into like a specific genre makes you a better musician? Or do you think it's best to stay in like one thing? I have to share this just because it pops in my head as you were saying that. Okay. When I was a kid, I went to Rick Pitino basketball camp. Are you kidding me? Oh, let's go. Louisville action. Hell yeah. And Rick Pitino, you know, he spoke to us before we had the camp. I'm sure you guys went through camps. Yeah. Oh, you know how it goes. Yeah. And he's like, now in order to be a good basketball player, you have to play three sports. one-on-one basketball, three-on-three basketball, and five-on-five basketball. That's a banger. That pops in my head as you were saying that. But I do think there's something that can strengthen you as a musician if you can kind of at least have a working knowledge of a lot of different kinds of music. Absolutely. But at some point, all these influences kind of converge into whatever it is that you are, and that's what that is. I love it. That's awesome, man. Do you remember your first concert you played? I don't. No. I don't. Probably in church. That's not a concert. Like, are you just singing church? Yeah, no, I don't. Yeah. A couple times in high school, I owned a PA, so we'd randomly get hired by somebody that needed a PA to open for them sometimes. Okay. Hell yeah. In high school, it's hard to get people to take things seriously and try to work as a band. And then you think you're going to go to college for a minute like me, and then you do that, and that doesn't work out for you. And you're like, well, what am I going to do? and you get random jobs driving trucks or delivering pizzas or whatever it is. And then until you find out what it is that you do. Yeah. So now I got to ask you, you got me going down a rabbit hole. Dude, you were a pizza driver? I was not that high up in the totem pole. Still, though. I was the guy. Have you ever had been in a parking lot? I don't know if they did that. This is where you guys were from. And you go into a store or something, you come back and there are coupons on your windshield. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was the guy that put the coupons on the leash. Nice, man. Running around in the parking lot, that's fucking gold, man. Basically, I mean, giving people money, essentially. That's right. Like Santa Claus. Like Robin Hood, man. This is sweet. What process of music making do you enjoy the most? Oh, yeah. Writing, working out the sound and melody. I mean, I guess that all kind of goes the same thing. I was going to say, do you even just- Performing, like what's the best part? It's all part of One Wheel for me. I like it all when it's working. I'm frustrated by it all when it's not. You know, I do enjoy writing. But I don't do a lot of that anymore. I do enjoy going in the studio. The studio is probably my favorite part, really. Although I don't have any plans to go do much of that these days, really, either. But they all feed into each other, and it's not really a separate thing. And you have to do all of them in order to, once again, be whatever it is that you are. Oh, yeah. I just have to say this. The tiny desk of you and your wife was one of the most magical tiny desks that I've seen. That's the closest thing I get during the season to seeing live music is like doing like just surfing on the web and watching everything like that. Like when you're you're in an intimate setting like that, like does it change how you're performing or is it or is it just kind of like take you back to like just I don't know what I would assume is like the beginning stages of you and a guitar and just making. Well, we try to maintain that even, you know, as we play larger venues like we still set up the same. Oh, yeah. On a big stage that we would set up in a club or we don't change our setup. You know, I'm kind of tethered to a chord. I don't do a lot of moving around or anything. That's not my deal. It doesn't change my mentality. We're still just playing songs. Somehow it feels like a little more pressure sometimes to play very intimate things, more than a mass of things, you know, because you can see the reactions of the five people in the room or, you know, there's a little more pressure there in an odd way. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I know you say you're not doing much songwriting anymore, but how many songs do you venture you've probably written? Oh, thousands. Can you be counting? Yeah, I was going to say Can you be counting? More than a thousand for sure, yeah. That is incredible. What is the process for you? Is it always the same? No. Is it strikes in different ways? Well, I mean, I grew up as a salary songwriter. I grew up. I came up in the business as that's- The songs you've written are insane. Yeah. Songwriting. Yes. And to the point that I was a salary songwriter in a publishing house. And so we would show up at the crack of noon or something, and we'd make appointments. And it feels very not sexy when I describe it that way. But that's what we did. We worked it like a job. And you come in, it's a very workman mentality. And early on, I would do that three or four times a day. I would have different appointments with people, and I would come out with songs and crank and crank and crank, trying to figure out how to do it. and how to be good at it. Oh, yeah. And eventually you figure something out or you get lucky enough to make people think that you did. Yeah. And that's kind of what that is. But the process can be different. For me, if I'm sitting by myself, I'll probably just have a guitar and hum and strum. Does the melody come first and then the lyrics? For me, a lot. If I'm by myself, that would. Or something, you know, I've dreamt choruses before or wake up with, you know, just, I'm writing a song right now. Not necessarily, but I would be if something, if you said something or you said something or something, you know, something struck me a light on the wall that would, you know, start the wheels turning. Hell yeah. So you can't avoid it if you are a songwriter. You're always writing a song. Yeah. Even if you're not writing a song. Materials all around you, yeah. Yeah. That's cool as I heard. I wish I had the fucking brains to be able to just put words to music like that. It's insane stuff, man. It is. I can't even write a full sentence out. Finish this and you won't be able to do it. All right. Does every country Western song need to mention the following? Mamas, trains, prison, getting drunk. You're talking about the perfect country Western song. It is one of my favorite songs. Written by Steve Goodman. That's right. Is there some truth to that? I feel like that's a caricature almost now in a lot of country music where it's like... I don't think you have to do that, but certainly when you do, those of us who know that, as the list of things that are supposed to be in there would go, all right, cool. Good job. Cover the bases. Nice. At this point in your career, do you go to places for like honest feedback from like where you're at? Or do you feel like you're the biggest honest person? Who's the most honest person. She'll tell me if something sucks immediately and she doesn't pull punches. That's the best, man. I don't need to go anywhere else for honest feedback. There you go. Coach is right there letting you know. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, places you want to play that you haven't played yet. Ooh. Huh. I'm sure there are, but I don't know what they are. Have you ventured much out of the States in terms of... We've played in Europe a little bit and Australia, but we've never been to South America to play. In terms of outside of the U.S., what was your most accepting crowd, the ones that got the craziest? Oh, they've all been wonderful. Everybody in Europe's great and Australians are great. Everybody's really nice to us. Hell yeah. We don't do it that much. We don't, you know, it might be three or four years before we do those kinds of things. And so people really show up. That's awesome. It's a really nice feeling to think that whatever you've done has crossed an ocean and gone to the other side of the world, you know. Do you feel like for country music in general, too, like those opportunities overseas are becoming more like the genre is growing. Like it feels like way bigger than it was when I was growing up. I do think that that's true. I mean, there's always been some element, particularly Europe and Australia, has a very, you know, kind of Australian country music scene on its own. Yeah. But yes, I think as a whole, there's probably more of a market for it than there ever has been. Like I was over in Ireland and this young kid was like caddying for us. He got in his car when he was leaving and he was blaring. I forget what the country song was, but it was. One of mine, right? Exactly. It was. Yeah. So this is fantastic. Thank you. And you guys also have a car this year in NASCAR? Yeah, we have a car, the Daytona 500. This is the second year for it. Okay. It's a partnership with Junior Motorsports, which is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Fuck yeah. And yeah, we're going to Daytona 500 again. Oh, man. Is there a cooler pastime in any sport than what NASCAR was like originated from? Like running from the cops is the pastime of the sole sport. there's no nothing tops that bootlegging but so i think there's a there's a good history between whiskey and what nascar has has come from and so i think it made sense it was kind of a crazy idea i'm friends with uh rick hendrick of hendrick racing and and yeah i think we kind of floated his way he's like well you know jr was looking to get into maybe running a running a car in the 500 and he kind of put us together and I think that's how that happened. It all just kind of came to this head of we wanted to do it and they wanted to do it. And, you know, last year I sat, you know, in the pit with the headphones on and listened to all the stuff that nobody gets to hear and watched the race in that inside kind of way and it was intense. That is cool. That is really cool. Super intense. Yeah. Have you always, like, been into NASCAR, like, growing up and everything? Not necessarily. I think the race cars are cool. I like going fast. Fuck yeah. Not as fast as those guys. I was going to say. Those guys are different animals. Have you gotten in one of them cars? No. No? Is there a desire to? No. You said you like going fast. No, I don't have that gene. I appreciate the stamina and the will and the lack of fear that it takes to get in one of those things. We went to a bowl game. Was that? You weren't there. You were in the league. No, sorry. So we went to a bowl game in Charlotte, and obviously the NASCAR Hall of Fame's out there. So part of the bowl game in college was that we got to go experience going around the track in one of those cars. And you're basically sideways going around those turns. Yeah. Like that is a steep, steep turn. Steep trade. and you're hugging the outside of the car and somebody else is behind the wheel and it's a fucking wild ride, man. I mean, I took a hot lap with a race car driver in a track car that wasn't like a race car. And he was telling me how much more it could do if it was like outfitted for the race. And I was about to puke. I was just like, okay, I'm good, man. Let me out. Well, I've been a major fan of yours for a long time. Really started when you were still with the steel drivers playing with that group like that was the first time i heard your voice i'm like man this guy just has a something about him that i just love listening to and then it went from there when you started doing your solo thing and really took off and you've gone so far do you have a welcome do you have a moment when it all initiated where you're like man i'm really i'm really doing this like i'm in the music industry yeah i mean i was in the music industry as a writer that was my goal when i moved to town i met a guy that was a songwriter named steve leslie and who was kind enough to introduce me to some people and the instant um you know i was a salaried songwriter working in the music business sitting in a room making up songs for a living that was making it to me oh yeah you know i'm playing a guitar for a living what what more could you want that's right was there anybody walked in those rooms or you took those meetings with that you were like oh shit i'm i gotta create something with this i gotta rise to the occasion and you're like i just wrote a song that somebody like i don't know i did early on i went into the room with uh uh A veteran songwriter guy, because I was real lucky to get in a room with some of those guys, you know. And I sat down in the room with him. Never met the guy. And he goes, hey, man, you must have a pretty big ego. I'm just like, what do you mean? He's like, well, you're 23. You're walking in here thinking you can do this with us and, you know, make a living doing it. You must have a pretty big ego. And I'm just like, well, if that's how you want to look at it, I guess so. I'm not going to say no. I'm not going to say no. Let's see what we can do. Well, that is awesome. Doc, thank you for the stories. Appreciate the wisdom. I appreciate you taking the time and even coming over here. Yeah, man. Appreciate the gifts. Appreciate the whiskey. Appreciate you giving me all a nice warm-up. I hope you guys don't have much more to do today, but you probably do. We don't have much more. We only got, I think, a little bit longer. Yeah, but this is just sitting down and talking. This doesn't work. You already know. Yeah, exactly. Especially when we get to hang out with guys like you. When the talking becomes easier when you're- It just flows. That's right. Oh, man. Appreciate you coming on, and cheers one last time, brother. Thank you, man. Thank you to Chris Stapleton. Yes, sir. And that conversation is brought to you by Claude. Just the best dude, man. He's so down to earth. So just himself, man. I got to see him two days later at an NFL event. Absolutely tearing it up, man. Something about him that just makes you want to know more about him. Like the more conversations you have with him because he's such an interesting guy, man. For sure. Appreciate him coming on and sharing some stories with us. That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you to Chris Stapleton for being here. and check out his tour, the All-American Roadshow. Yeah, baby. Go get you some traveler whiskey today. Whatever proof you want, it's all going to be good. All right, now. And make sure you subscribe to the New Heights channel on YouTube and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show brought to you by Expedia, the one place you go to go places. How about that? And follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S. Thank you to the New Heights production team for always keeping us organized and making us way more professional than what we really are and thank you again to all those 92 percenters we wouldn't do this without you we can't do this without you we love you guys and we'll see you guys next week or this friday peace we've been over here crushing beers for the past three hours and we had one of those i'm just sitting here like, dude, I gotta tell you about this tiny desk you did, man. I don't know if you remember, but...