EPISODE 10: A Life-Changing Call, Helicopter Crash Survival, and Impact on Country Music: The Shaun Silva Story 01:03:47

"Take Me There" was the first video that I did with a helicopter after my helicopter crash. Because it was a number one video on CMT, it was being requested at radio. I remember he turned to the AD and he goes, "He's looking at me. He's looking at me. What?"

All right, y'all. It's going to be a fun night on the Try That podcast. We've got award-winning director. He's a producer, and he's the pride of Chowchilla, California. What? I don't know that. Where is that? We did research. You're going way back. Oh, yeah. Where is Chowchilla? Where is that? Chowchilla is central California, so it's in the San Joaquin Valley. So it's basically...

farm community. Although I will say this, it's interesting, we just had this conversation recently because of our movie Ride that we just made about a bull riding family. Chachilla was really

in the San Joaquin Valley, Chachula was really like a cowboy town. It was, you know, it was farmers, of course, but we had what was called the Chachula Stampede. And that was our big rodeo. So growing up,

I wanted to be a cowboy, you know, and because I would watch them stampede all these cattle down our main street, which was a really kind of a big wide main street lined in palm trees in central California. And they would they would awesome. They would.

Herd these cattle all the way through town and then over to the fairgrounds. And then that would basically kick off the rodeo for, you know, four or five days straight of...

you know, legitimate rodeo. I mean, we had all the best, some of the best ropers and riders and, you know, in, in the, in the world there, we had world championship team ropers and. Yeah. People here's California. Oh, you're from California. They think LA, they think that kind of stuff, but they don't realize the most part of California is a lot of that rural agricultural. We all got to know you as a video director and,

And so when did you move to Nashville? Well, okay. So I was, I lived in LA for 10, 11 years learning the business. And then late nineties started kind of

taking the faith of, all right, this is really what I want to do. I want to direct. If I had worked as a production assistant, a producer, an assistant director to some really very talented directors, both in commercials and in films. So I learned a lot.

I didn't go to film school. That was my film school. But I learned a lot, but I moved. I did a video for Kenny Rogers. Which one? I did The Greatest.

So about a little boy trying to hit a baseball. Yeah. Same guy that wrote The Gambler. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so anyway, they had they had a company in Los Angeles, Dreamcatcher Entertainment, and it was Kenny's TV division.

for all of his movies and all the different things that he would do in that aspect of the entertainment business. So I dropped my reel off over there. My brother had a country band, so I had a country music video on there. My dad sold Ford trucks, so I had a Ford commercial on there. Oh, that's amazing. But it was like legit stuff. It was like national...

campaign kind of stuff it wasn't like local car dealer stuff you know uh but um yeah and that got his attention that got uh kenny rogers attention and he got a phone call literally at home got a phone call one day when you were in california when i was in california and he and he his assistant called and said i've got

Mr. Rogers would like to talk to you. And I thought it was my brother. Mr. Rogers. Yeah. Mr. Rogers. Is this going to be like the neighborhood guy? Yeah. Not the sweater guy. Which one? Which one? This is an important moment. The sweater one? Yeah. Sneakers? No, but I knew that there was an outside chance that maybe, you know, because I had taken it to his company. Yeah.

and where I knew somebody that knew somebody there. So anyway, it, uh, yeah, it was him. He gets on the phone and he's like, man, I love your work and, uh, like you to, you know, take a listen to this song and give us a concept. And, uh, anyway, so yeah, we ended up making a video for him and, and it came out on CMT and in a few weeks it was a number one video and that it was a really great moment. And there's a Chris Parr connection here. Uh,

So he so it comes out. It's number one video. And this was a song that radio would not play. Why is that? It just wasn't a radio song. It just wasn't. It wasn't radio. You know, it wasn't like I think at that time, you know, late 90s is pretty poppy kind of country poppy stuff, you know, and Shania Twain and, you know, all that stuff. And and it just wasn't what they were used to playing at radio. Yeah.

But because it was a number one video on CMT, it was being requested at radio. Boom. There you go. So they started playing it because of the video. And, you know, so it was really the first real, uh, direct connection and opportunity for, uh,

a guy like Chris Parr, who at the time was the program director at CMT. He literally wrote me a letter and I told him I had this letter and I think he's forgotten that he wrote it, but I have it. And it was from him and it just said, hey, this is a great example and legitimizes basically what we do with music videos because this song is now being played at radio. And that's greatly due to the fact that this video has had so much success and that we've been playing it here.

So it was huge. It was a huge opportunity. And, and actually the first like gold gold,

and DVD plaque that I ever got was from Kenny Rogers. It's amazing. I thought that was the greatest thing in the world. It is. That's amazing. Yeah, I just came to town. I was like, hey, I'll raise my hand and, well, literally went to the Yellow Pages at the Lowe's Hotel. And I was like, let's see, production companies. And for those of you who don't know, like...

As a country music fan, if you're watching an Aldine video or a Chesney video, Luke Bryan and countless more. I'm just going down the list. But Sean is the eyes and the concept and everything behind that, which from us working with you and working with other directors before you, nothing against them, but I think you captured us the best.

Well, thank you. I mean, I really do. I mean, well, and I think, you know, you kind of touched on it is that I think Sean gets it and he gets the artist perspective. And I'm going to get to this too. It's like, you tend to understand what they want to say. And like with Kenny, for instance, you've done, well, how many Kenny videos have you done? Oh God. Well, too many to count, right? Over 40. So to say you are a part of the branding would be an understatement. Yeah. Yeah.

So maybe say how you met Kenny and how that relationship got cultivated. Well, I met. So what happened was I had met Kenny. I had started dating Shannon Brown, my wife, and we were at an award show or something together and they were label mates. They were both on BNA at that time. Yeah.

So, yeah, I did a treatment for him and he's like, Kenny loves it, but he wants to talk to you. So he called me and he and he he just said, I love everything in here, but I want my band in it.

He said, my band and the energy of my band is really important to me. And I have heard those same comments from Jason, of course, right? And we were talking about that earlier, but I think that Jason and Kenny both

the power that comes from the right chemistry of the people, the band, the energy that comes from that band. I mean, it just drives you, you know, as an artist. Those guys are fueled by it and they do not take it lightly. And so that was the only change, but it was for Young. And that was a, it was, that was lightning in a bottle. Yeah.

Absolute lightning in a bottle. When that song came out and Kenny had kind of transformed himself from, you know, physically he had started working out and he was really paying attention to, you know, that aspect of his career. And he's such a driven guy. It was just, and that song was just, man, it just worked really well. And that video, I remember getting phone calls from

lots of artists. I want young. I want to do video with you, man. I love this video. I want young. And I just didn't want to make the exact same thing that I had made. So I saw a lot of people copying us. And I think Kenny's like, dude, just when I find something that I like, I stick with it. My guy's been with me for a long time. He goes, just let's just keep

you know, pushing the envelope. He didn't want to just stay with young either. He, that's the thing. He just wanted to evolve, constantly be evolving. So, but yeah, it is a, it's a, it's a long, uh, I've been working with Kenny longer than anybody. Yeah. You know, so you got to, I mean, you got a couple of Kenny with Sean, you got a connection, right? Man, I was looking it up.

Let's see. Talking about the good songs, as Tully would say. Only the good songs, y'all. Earlier I go, hey, man, I think you did like videos to six of my songs that were out, and Tully interrupted. He goes, no, no, we're talking about the good ones. I don't think I said that. Did you just hear that? No, you did. I don't think I said that. You said that. You said that.

Yes, you did. So what? I'll name it. You did video on banjo, Rascal Flatts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a lot of stuff for Rascal Flatts. Bobbed that head for Rascal Flatts. Again, tell me something. Good songs, Neil. You looked at me weird. This is my segment. Get to my all-time favorite. We had Changed. You did Changed. Yeah. Which is one of my favorite Rascal Flatts cuts.

Take Me There. Yes. Which we wrote with Kenny Chesney, me and Wendell Mobley. Okay. Oh, really? Yep. That was actually Kenny's idea. I'll tell you the story behind that. I was in bed one night. It was like 7.30, 7.45. Hold on. You were in bed at 3? Pretty late. Yeah, it was. I was tired. And I hear my phone. I tell a story at writer's rounds, and I hear my phone buzzing on the nightstand. Yeah. And it says blocked call.

And there's only like three numbers, three or four numbers in my phone that come up blocked. And I'm like, you got to answer it. So I answered it. And it was Kenny. And he goes, hey, man, I got an idea for a song. Wouldn't you write? And he told me the first line. Yeah. Take me there. There's a place in your heart nobody's been. Take me. And I said, we'll see you in the morning. I was writing with Wendell the next day. So me and Wendell and Kenny wrote that. And Flats wound up cutting it. There goes my life.

Oh, yeah. All time. Yeah. There's a big story behind that one. Well, get to it. Oh, there is. Really? Yeah. I've told it before, but I'll tell it again. Yeah, let's hear it. No, I've never heard this. So, well, there is kind of a, there goes my life and take me there. There's a little bit of a connection there. So, Take Me There was the first video that I did with a helicopter in

after my helicopter crash for There Goes My Life. What? Yeah. I didn't know this. What? Tell. Please tell. Yeah. There Goes My Life, we crashed in a helicopter crash. That last shot. By the way, that's Amber Heard in that video.

Is it really? Yeah. Johnny Depp's ex-wife. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What? Interesting. I totally forgot about that. It's her first gig ever. First acting gig ever. That was? No. Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah. Did you know that? I didn't know that. I had no idea. She's just a kid. Just a kid. So I forgot about the helicopter thing. She wasn't there for this particular shot because we had a stunt driver.

So driving the car, because we're basically coming in the helicopter, we're supposed to drop in right behind the car. And then 75 miles an hour, we're following the car, two lane road and headed off to the West Coast. You see the sun is setting in the distance, like this beautiful two lane shot, you know, rolling hills outside of Texas and beautiful. So when we had rehearsed it,

We because we went up and we did do it like a rehearsal and a thing. But there was a section of power lines and the pilot was supposed to go past the power lines and then drop in behind the car. So, again, we had rehearsed it. Boom, boom, boom. Come now. Right. Land.

We're getting ready to go. Now the sun is right where we want it to be, so we're ready to go. We just sat there and waited for the sun. We're ready, sun's ready. Okay, here we go. Get in. I'm walking to the helicopter. This is not make-believe, this is all true. My wife and my producer are sitting there, and we're walking to the helicopter, and my wife says, there goes my life, there goes my everything. Oh my gosh. Oh God. Jeez. What?

That's what she said. Because I'm walking the helicopter and I was just like, ah, I just like wave her off. I'm like, ah, don't worry like that, you know. But she had a bad feeling the whole time. Like the whole, like the 24 hours leading up to it, she just didn't feel good about it. She always says that now.

But anyway, but I had done so much helicopter work at that point. I mean, it was like nothing for me. So, and I always felt like I'm, you know, if I'm going to send my crew up, I'm going to go up, you know? So anyway, so we go up and circling around, car lines up, takes off down the two lane road. We come in behind the, behind the car following, and then he drops in behind the car.

And I go, I'm looking, I've got the big monitor and we didn't have flat screens back then. You know, it was a big tube monitor, you know, things like big, right. You know, it's in my lap. I'm sitting there. I'm all buckled in. I got my, my headset on my comms on. I'm looking at a thing and I go, huh? Where's those power lines?

Because usually I would see them as we're going over them. Oh, man. I go, how does he do that? We're supposed to power lines. And I look up.

And they are right in front of us. Oh, my God. And I yell. I yell. I go, cables! Because the pilot doesn't see him. He's watching the monitor. What? He was watching the monitor in front of him. The DP, the cinematographer, is right next to him. And then he's, like, lining up in the monitor instead of watching his flight line.

And just forgot. But you did this. Just forgot. You did a practice. Oh, yeah. Right. But he just forgot. Yeah. You know, he just forgot. And then and so I yell cables and he looks up and he now I will say this for the one thing he did may have done wrong. I'm going to say that he may have done wrong. He did wrong. Sorry. He did a lot of things right because and he was a military pilot.

So he, boom, he put that stick down. He went down to try and go under them. And what happened is that they hit the rotors and ripped the rotors right off of the helicopter, which is, I find out later, is a blessing. Yeah. Because otherwise you hit and those rotors are just, they're flexing and spinning and you want those things away from you.

So at that point, so I just feel this giant jolt where it just like, and it pulls those rotors off of the helicopter. We're going 75 miles an hour, which is a blessing because we're moving forward and we're really only about 20 feet off of the ground because we're coming in behind this car. So we're not that high, but we're just going like a bandit this direction.

And no way to stay up in the air. So we hit the road behind him and it literally was just like,

an explosion of fuel that was all in the lines and everything, just catching fire. And it just, cause our stunt driver, she was just like, I thought you were dead immediately because it looked like you guys blew up in my rear view mirror, you know? But so we hit the ground, the skids do their job. They snap up and absorb a lot of it. But now we're just like a, we're just like a rock just sliding down.

And it's probably 200 yards. And then we go off the road. That's when it got hairy because when we go off the road, then it's catching, it's not sliding anymore. It's catching, it's flipping and turning. Oh my God. And then at that point it was just like, and for me, I'm sitting there and I'm just waiting. Like people are like, what were you thinking? What were you thinking? You know? And honestly it was like everything just kind of slowed down.

And I was just waiting. I was just waiting for that one last chance.

blow like I just felt like there was something was gonna just hit me or do me and it's gonna be lights out and it just didn't happen just didn't come but we so finally comes to a rest and then the pilot is first one out and he's just like he's like we have fire you got to get out you got to get out so if you see that picture you can see where the grass all burned and everything right there um and then um

You know, so he opened the door, which at that point felt like I was upside down, you know, and climbed out. And this with all the noises and everything that was going on, I still really didn't know if I was even going to make it out of there. So I climb out, I run across the street and I'm literally hands over my head like that's going to do something. Run across there, I turn back around and then it was just like this.

total out of body experience. Like I just felt like I was just looking back down at myself. It's like a shock thing, you know, where I'm just like, Whoa, what is going on? And then it was like, I was definitely in, in a, in a fog because I remember like walking after I knew everybody was okay. I'm like, Oh my God. You know? And I remember I started walking back in the, the,

That's when the stunt driver comes flying up and she's bawling. And I was just like, go back and tell Shannon and my producer, tell everybody back at base camp that we're okay. I assumed that they heard it. They were over the rise, so they couldn't see it, but I assumed they had heard something. So she's like, okay, okay. She takes off. And then I was walking back along the trail of all the wreckage

And I was picking up like that. Like we, back then we shot on film and we had a super 35 millimeter camera that was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the film was just, the spool of film was just

laid out along the road and I just remember picking pieces up I'm just wandering around picking pieces up like dude just trying to get grounded again but Shannon came flying up and she was just in hysterics I told you so she was just so emotional she was in hysterics are you okay she just kept looking at me are you okay are you okay are you okay and I was like I guess I am holy cow yeah it was life changing for sure

That'll do it. Yeah, that was 2003. But now you have a whole new story. Oh my God, I never knew that. So we went to the hospital, all three of us had to be taken to the hospital and sitting there and I called Kenny. Kenny wasn't there. We weren't shooting performance at this point. Again, we had come back to do this. I called Kenny and I said, hey, our helicopter crashed. He's like, what? I go, dude, I was just in a helicopter crash.

I bet everything's okay. Like we're okay. And he's like, did you get the shot? Hey, so I actually was going to ask that, but I thought, I don't know if that's a good one. Okay. I knew he was joking at that point and he knew I was okay. And then, but I, but I, I started laughing. I was just like, uh, no, we did not get the shot. Yeah.

I say, we may have got the shot, but it is destroyed with the camera and the film. It's a action movie. All that stuff. Did you get the shot? So anyway, yeah. That sounds like something he would say right after that. Yeah. I don't know where you're going. That's amazing there. I don't know. That's why I was going to try to take it light. I think the toughest part was getting on a plane flying home the next day. I was like, ah. I was in a daze. But I would say for probably, you know, I would say,

About three weeks. I just kind of floated. I was in a, you know, in a fog again. Just kind of, and then it was suddenly, I remember one day I was just like, dude, you survived. Let's go. Celebrate that. Move on. Let's go. Amen. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Back up there. Keep doing your thing. And we're, we're moving forward. So it wasn't, it wasn't your time.

When you mentioned your wife, Shannon Brown, who's an amazing singer, I met her, I think it was in 97, and I think she was on Arista Records. That's correct. They did a showcase, and it was Cherie Austin, Clint Danvers, and Brad Paisley. And they were trying to put everybody out and everything. And these guys know, because I went to school with Brad Paisley, we got to be buddies and everything. And so I was curious and just tried to look up, because I know you've worked with almost everybody. Have you done...

work with Brad Paisley? And have you had a couple of those? I have met Brad and over the years...

I mean, I know Brad. He knows who I am, but we've never worked together. So you dislike him then? Yeah, I don't care for him much. I understand. Go on. I know him. I don't care for him much. Okay, okay. No. This is Kalo's segment. No, but... No, go on. No, but... It's just us. No, please continue. It's just us. It's just us. Go on. Okay. No, Brad, similarly to...

You know, how I work with, you know, certain artists just want to work with me. And he had that, you know, with Peter Zavadil. They did a lot of work together back in the day. So, you know, that was kind of, I didn't really, but I knew Brad and Brad and his dad and everybody were all friends.

always very nice and accommodating and were great with Shannon. Yeah. Because like you said, they were label mates and they would go on radio tours and things together. Yeah, they were friends going through all the same stuff and everything. And like you say, artists, they, you know, just with writers and bandmates and everything else, you know, and directors, you have friendships and relationships. So you kind of, if something's working, you just kind of stick there. That's right. You know? Yep. I think so. You know, and it,

I don't know. It's...

It's common, but less common, I think, these days. Yeah. You know, but the labels don't always love it. I'll be honest. The labels haven't always loved it. But... What do they love? I don't know. It's a good question. I'll tell you what, they love taking credit. Yeah. For everything. We love our labels. Let's get to the juicy part. Are we going to edit that part? No. No.

Oh, yeah, this may be a good time. We ask all of our guests to sign just a simple, and we'll fill it in later. You'll fill in that? It's very efficient. We will edit it. Don't worry. It is very efficient. Don't worry. Well, Sean, as you can tell by our lighting. This looks like the contract the helicopter pilot gave us. It's fine. It's just a simple release.

It's just us. It's just us. It's just us. There you go. Hey, wait, here we go. We got it. That was easier than we thought it was going to be. That's amazing.

Hey, well, let's jump into the Aldine video. Oh, no. Should we? Yeah, which one? We can't not ask you. Well, you're right. Well, we were talking about earlier. I mean, it's like, you know, you guys had this nice little song. You guys were kind of flying under the radar, wasn't doing much with it. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, okay, so. But that was right, like for the first eight weeks. It was. It was my understanding that you were supposed to do your research about the courthouse in Columbia. Yeah.

Everything was going just fine until you decided to shoot a video in downtown Columbia. Along with all the other videos that I had shot in downtown Columbia, by the way. We did it at night, at least our part of it. I remember pulling up and it looked so good. It looked like it should. You did a great job with that. It was a

I remember when we were shooting that video in the middle of it. And like I said, you've always had a great eye for what we are or what I think we think we are. But I remember in the middle of that looking around thinking this is going to look exactly like Aldine envisioned it because it's

his vision and i know you know this was for the song and the video to come out together that was always the original thought right didn't end up happening but probably for the better looking back on it but it represented the song so well i remember i looked at kurt and i said i this feels like something you know and

So when he asked you to do the video, you guys obviously, or did you talk about, did he tell you what he was thinking or did you tell him what you were thinking? How did the concept come up? Well, I think it was clear that he wanted to use real world technology.

imagery right right stuff that was out there because I think at that time especially ah man there was just so much going on in the world right and especially the the big cities you know there was just a lot of things happening in the big cities and and and I'm not listen I'm

Bad things happen everywhere. Right. Okay. I'm from Chachilla. You know, we are famous for a bus being abducted full of kids and buried alive. Right. Bad things happen everywhere. So, but I think in the cities, it's kind of...

It's harder to manage just because of the scale. I mean, just because of the scale of it. Right. And I do think that when it comes to small towns, there is a little more sense of community. You know, I lived in L.A. for a long time and I'm not here to beat L.A. up or New York or any place like that. But I didn't really ever get to know my neighbors. Right.

You know? And I just think that in small towns, at least when I was a kid, and I know things have changed. I mean, you go back to Chowchill and it's a very different place than it once was. But, man, I knew everybody in that town. And I think a lot of us grew up that way. And I think that, you know, I mean, that's why that song was in your heart and why it came out the way it came out. And I don't know. It was...

it was important to, it seemed important to Jason to stick to just what was really happening in the world and for us not to make something up, you know? And that was really important to me, even when, so to speak, the shit started hitting the fan. It was like, well, do we go back and, you know, recreate this or recreate that? And it's like, man, I don't know, because the concept was always to just,

Not like who am I to say to recreate what I think is happening in the world when it's all right there. Hey, thank you everybody for listening. And we are so thankful for our sponsor. Original Brands is starting a new era in American domestic premium beer. American made, American owned. Original Glory. Original Glory not only tastes great, but it's under 90 calories and only two carbs. Easy drinker and perfect for the active lifestyle. Bring it.

Original Glory. It's a veteran found in company with a deep love of country. Original Glory. Freedom is worth drinking too. That's what I wanted to ask you. I wanted to ask you before you go any further, what you thought, what was going through your head when you, the first time you heard the song that he wanted you to make a video of it.

I mean, I just saw all the images that I that are that I was being faced with when I'd go home and watch the news on any channel. Yeah, it was just everywhere or on social media or whatever. I mean, it was it was that it was that right. I mean, I think we I think that what was really interesting about the reaction was.

to the video was that I always explain it like my career and what I do. I always explain it in a way that like I see music, right? So I hear, I listened to a song and I immediately see stories and I see things, right? And I didn't see anything that was make-believe when I listened to that song. I just saw what the state of the world, the state of our country, right? That's what I saw.

Um, and I, I can't help but be a little concerned, a little concerned, a lot concerned about what other people were seeing when they listened to the song, because I would hear people say, well, I'm listening to that lyric and I see this and I'm like, Oh my God. Right. Really? How? Like, yeah. How did your mind interpret that? Yeah.

Right. Like my mind didn't interpret that. Right. And yet, you know, I think we all have the ability to to see music. Right. Like I do. I just make a career of it. But I it's concerning when you hear people on TV that have a platform in which a lot of people are watching them.

And they're telling us what they see in their mind. And it is so heart-wrenching and tragic and not at all what I saw. Yeah. Well, because of what you did, and Kirk and Tully can tell you this, Kalo wasn't at the house. They showed me the first rough cut. And I was downstairs in my house. And I had one knee up. I'll never forget it. I had one knee up on the arm of the couch. And it started playing, and I was stunned.

And I got so emotional watching what you did. It was amazing what you did.

to that song i mean i don't know that i did it no no no i said he cried just to see it visually yeah it was just it was i was i was just i didn't know i was speechless you 100 did it yeah you did and it it it speaks to the power of videos and we've kind of lost this right you know and it's a world of lyric videos now which is probably another subject yeah but um

It's the power of what a music video can do. And that song did it. And we've, we've talked about this. The song was just living on radio. It was doing fine. And the video came out and the power that that had now, whether it was people hating on it or people, uh,

saying, oh my gosh. No, we had to go into hiding because of him. I mean, it's along with all my staff. Well, it was cool to kind of go back to the first video. I'm the greatest, the Kenny Rogers one. You're talking about CMT. I went number one there and then radio played it. CMT can make good things happen when they play things and when they don't play things. So that helped a lot when they pulled it off.

That helped a bunch too, because it fueled a lot of that stuff. The people that were behind the song and behind Aldine and video and everything else. Well, it started the press for sure. They really started supporting even more. I think Sean, I think without, sorry to interrupt. I think without realizing, I think you're one of the heroes behind the scene in this whole thing, because I think song comes out like we talked about and,

People are listening to it. It's connecting, I think, in a good way, how people want to hear it. But when they put the video out and your vision for it and you and Jason, what you did together, I think it was hard for people to accept that was reality. That wasn't scripted footage. It's a fact. That was real footage. And I think it's hard for people to say that's happening in our country or wherever they live. Yeah.

I'm not sure if you made it out to a show last year on that tour. I can't remember if you came out. What that video did and the song together and what you did really brought together a fan base. I mean, it was truly positive that whole summer. It was really fun to be out there and...

I don't underestimate the power of what that did. I think it's something that we're all really proud of. We know what was meant by it. We know you can't control how people want to twist things. They're going to find a way if they want. I think one thing, I'll share this with you guys. Honestly, I've had every news outlet

in the country that probably some that I, you know, have wanted to be on reaching out to me, asking for quotes, asking for interviews and stuff. And I just ignored all of them because I just didn't believe that they would actually listen to me and hear what I had to say without manipulating it in some way, shape or form. So I just ignored them.

you know, I'm just not going to say anything. Well, that's kind of like with us too. I mean, we all got reached out to, uh, because of the song and, you know, writers of the song, obviously. And it's like, I can't even think of how many times we got asked by every network to, to talk about it. But like that, I will give you credit for this. And we were kind of joking about the location thing. And I know Jason appreciates this, uh,

When that was brought up and it became a big deal, oh my God, there was a lynching there and all that. You came out publicly and you got his back publicly.

You stepped out and I know that he appreciates this a lot. He said, Hey, he didn't have a hand in this. Yeah. It was, you know, we picked this, like you said, there's Hannah Montana videos there. We shot other music videos there. There's Christmas movies there, but I know that was, that was a really standup thing he did. And I know that he appreciated that. For sure. Well,

Okay. I, yes, I did say, I did say those things to his publicist. I didn't know that there was going to be a quote and I've said this to Jason. I said, I didn't realize there was going to be a quote. I had a conversation with your publicist and then she did this and then she said, can I put this out? They did ask my permission. Can we put this out? And I said, okay, fine. Because I just didn't, I wasn't going to say anything, but I did tell her, I said, this is, this was,

not this is 10 minutes from his house this was a decision that we made geographically so i gotta stop you i gotta stop you and quite frankly is a beautiful location and i'm so sorry that that history exists i'm so sorry that that exists 100 i'm so sorry that exists anywhere

In this country or anywhere in the world, it shouldn't. And I'm sad that it does, but that had nothing to do nor, I mean, the thought that somebody would think that you would intentionally do something like that.

And for people to say, for people to say they knew exactly what, no, I'm sorry, but I did not. I didn't, I did not know that, you know, and it, and again, that town has been so accommodating to so many productions in Nashville and it's a beautiful town and you know, they, you know,

I mean, you know, they probably can't help the history either. I know. You know what I mean? Aldine was on here. There's good people there. He was on here and he was like, let me tell you, it was convenient. It's 10 minutes from my house. And I think he was leaving at like four in the morning or something. He was going to Bahamas or something. You were going somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. But one other thing I wanted to say too about that when we were talking about the concept of the video, I always felt

Really strongly about leaving the whole thing on a very positive note. And we were unable to do that for unknown reasons. I can't tell you why or why.

I have no idea the decision-making that goes into whatever, but the concept was to leave this video to make a turn to some very positive stories that existed within the press, within media, right? So same place that you have some really hard things to see and watch,

There are these really wonderful stories that are revealed that really had to do about communities coming together, neighbor helping neighbor, farmer on tough times and everybody harvesting his crops while he's dealing with cancer or dealing with it. We had some wonderful stories in there. And the local news organizations...

that we got those from were unallowed to release the footage to us because of the corporate structure that they were under. Whatever they be, I don't know, but every local news organization is typically under the thumb of some other big corporation. So some of them...

or most of them were asked us to take it out. Too positive. Interesting. Well, they didn't want, listen, they didn't want to be associated. Yeah. They didn't want to be associated with it, but what they didn't understand is that they were, they were just leaving us in confusion.

They weren't letting us finish this on a really positive note that, you know, we should all, we're at our best when we all come together and when we look out for one another, right? That's when we are at our best. That's when we are the United States of America, right? When we unite. And that was unfortunate.

That was a bummer to me. That actually hurt me because all of a sudden I'm like, man, you guys, for me, I always want to leave people in the most positive place I can, you know, with a story that we tell.

You know, so anyway, that's that, you know, there was some controversy or some big takes in it, but really it's a positive message, right? It's looking out for your neighbor. It's, it's sense of community. So I know that that's why that was important to get that part in there to you. It's always important. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's like, I always want people to be moved by the work that I do. And yeah,

moved positively right you know so i think that's yeah you're just not trying to move the needle no matter which way it goes you want to you want to listen there there are videos and there are people there are videos that get made just to cause controversy this wasn't one of them yeah that was never the intention that's a great set out to be like

you know that it just wasn't yeah you know what i mean so i mean there are those videos that people make that go okay well i'm gonna you know we're gonna show uh you know um spousal abuse and we're gonna really push it we're gonna you know what i mean yeah and people will and they'll do that or we're gonna put somebody an actor in the back of a car and then we're gonna

light it on fire and the car's going to blow up. You know what I mean? They're trying to be, right? But first of all, we weren't going to create anything. We were only going to use what existed in the world. And that's why even the positive stories, we weren't going to go reproduce them.

It was discouraging that we couldn't find more positive stories. What a great statement. It was really hard. Dude, that's moving. That is moving. And I think that's, we've done a lot of podcasts so far and that was an incredible way to put that. Like that sums up everything that we're talking about. That is disappointing. It's disappointing. Yeah.

Because there's so much out there that's just stuff that I wish my kids didn't see. Things like that. But it just seems to be readily available out there. And that, for whatever reason, wasn't hard to license. But boy, the positive stories sure were. Wow. That's amazing. That's...

That's hard to hear.

Yeah, it is. It's the truth. Hey, so, you know, before, or you got something, Kalo? Well, I know you have something great. I know that Neil wanted to get to, he had a question about, you know, obviously how easy it is to get, you know, a superstar like Jason Aldean to look right on camera and look good in film. He just shows up and kind of just to say, look great, here we go. You know, Neil was wondering, like, you know, for Curt and Telly, like how long does it take you to make them look good?

And I thought that was an interesting topic. And do you do special camera things? Filters. A lot of filters. Okay. They look good. We usually just use the whole, you know, the Insta filters. Real cheap stuff. You know, the real cheap stuff. Just the matte just flattens them all out. God bless you. We need them. 100%. I will say, Sean takes it easy on us the older we get.

You know, when it comes time for the band shots, and those always happen after Jason's done. Of course. Get the artist out. Jason is in band shots. There's two things that Aldine loves about Silva. Well, actually, way more. But, you know, we're talking about directing. He gets him, right? He gets Jason. He knows how to film him. And...

He's quick. He knows what you want to get and you get it. Like some shoot. We've been on videos, dude, where it's 10 hour shots like of the band. Like, what are you doing? Why are we here? Sean, man, he, he knows what he wants. He gets it. We're done. Yeah. I remember after one video we'd, we had shot. Oh my God. We, it was through the night started in the evening. Bro. We had to drive to Texas the next day.

we were there all night and the sun's coming up and aldine comes up he goes this is the last time you'll see this director which we won't name the song name the song or the name but it was the last time but if you see the sun creeping up on a band shot you'll know which one is no yeah no i know who it is yeah sean sean knows how to get what we need he's getting like

One of three poses from each of us. And yeah, we all have our power. And you got a great, you got a great team too. Those guys are, are total pros and great. But you got, I was the Michael Jackson thing. Oh, so we were talking off camera a little bit. We do need to know this story. Yeah. Well,

Well, you guys said don't look at Silva in the eyes. Don't make eye contact. Oh, yeah. Well, Caleb made that mistake earlier. I said, Caleb, don't look at Sean in the eye. This is not good for you. Yeah, no. Right away, I looked down. You'll get no filters on you this time. Joking, by the way. Joking. But I know I worked on a Michael Jackson video back in the day when I was in L.A. Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? It was the one with the – it was actually the one with his –

married Elvis's oh with Lisa Lisa oh yeah yeah I remember that video where they were in the theater yeah oh it was the theater I think Palladium or something in the theater anyway Ralph Sunset

And no, I mean, like legit, like don't look at him. Really? Yeah, don't look at him. Was it like a weird phobia thing he had? But there was a guy that he was on set and he was, I remember he turned to the AD and he goes, he's looking at me. He's looking at me. And I was like, what? I was like, oh my God. That's amazing.

i was like wow he really does he really doesn't want people like wow i mean and by the way i love michael jackson oh my gosh but that's an amazing story michael jackson i was thrilled to death to be there it was amazing but was he you know i mean as an artist is telling you were looking at him and no it wasn't me oh god but i just heard it i heard him he's looking at me he'd look at me i was just like did that dude get fired

I just told him, don't look at him. I had that happen one time. And of all the cool people we've ever met in our life. Yeah. It happened to me in like 2002 or something at the Wild Horse Saloon. Oh, it's funny you said that. I was going to bring this up. Of all people, Brian Setzer. Yeah. Brian Setzer. Look, I appreciate Brian Setzer, but I...

I could care less. Yeah. I mean, I was at that point. Well, he's not watching this podcast. No. And if he was, I still could care less. But, uh, we're at the wild horse and I would, I was with this band. We've been out for in Texas for like two months. Yeah. You know, and crawled back into Nashville. I hadn't slept in days and I'm standing in the hallway and this guy comes over and goes, Brian's coming through.

Okay. Mr. Setzer, they told me. And he came through and everybody looked down and wow. Yeah. I can't remember that show. Hey, real quick. I actually just remembered this. Do you remember the first video that Sean directed of us? Oh, I do. You do? I think. Which one? The one I'm thinking of? It was in 2004. I Can't Be Your Friend.

Rushlow. I don't even know if you remember this. Oh, I do remember this. And oddly enough, another Chris Parr connection, because that was a song that did get played on radio that Chris Parr wouldn't play. Now, y'all brought up Chris Parr's name twice now. Oh, we love Chris Parr. You got to tell everybody listening who Chris Parr is. Yeah, he's manager for Jason Aldean and McLaren Spalding, and he's been great friends to us. Yeah, amazing. But yeah, that was the band Rushlow. Rushlow.

i can't be your friend that was our only was that hit in the like it was it was in the lyric street building yeah that building or lyric street building the oldest level it's still there that building's still there i know remember like that was that was like the modern building in nashville yeah back in the day now it's like nothing compared to what's in nashville that's a great great memory though that was a big deal for us that was a huge deal for us yeah

But yeah, sounds like the video didn't do great. I think it did fine. Well, the band didn't do great, actually. Was our fault, of course. Did you guys ever play with Shannon? No. No? I don't think so. Did we? I've written with Shannon. It was way back in the day. But I haven't. No? Man, it's weird. It's like all of these female artists from back in the day coming out. I'm like, Shannon! Yeah.

Yeah. Dust off the leather pants, man. Let's go. It's time. I mean. Cornfields. Let's go. Cornfield. Let's go. Oh, my God. I mean, you know, we got the documentary, Planning America. Hey, real quick touch on that because you were telling Tony and I about this, and I think this is going to be awesome. Just real quickly tell people what this is about.

So it it's a documentary that we're making called Planting America, and it's basically just giving farmers a voice. There's so much negative kind of perspective or negative kind of stories about farming and what farmers do. And, you know, the technology is.

is advancing so rapidly. Um, and you know, I, I just, we, we had an opportunity to go out again, kind of close to my heart. Well, not kind of like very close to my heart because, you know, a lot of my friends are still in the San Joaquin Valley farming. That's, you know, it's like the bread basket of, you know, of, or the fruit basket bed bread basket of, of,

the country. So much of our produce comes from central California. It's unbelievable. And in the movie, we talk a lot about that, you know, the different regions and who grows what and why. And so we just literally took a chair around the country and let them sit in it and just let them kind of have a voice. And it, you know, they were, they were happy to do it because they

One thing we realized is, and some of them say this, is that, you know, we're not a real vocal group. We just kind of stick to our job and do our job and we're busy, you know, and we're, so we're not out there really kind of campaigning for ourselves. Yeah. They're not on Instagram, but yeah. But the reality is that we need food, you know, and they're out there, you know, growing it.

for us. And I think we, it's really important to this country that, um, that we continue to be, um, the top producers in the world. Um, because we don't want to, we don't want to let go of, of that because there's a, there's a lot of power in that and we don't want that power going to the wrong people.

Well said. You wanted to be a cowboy. I think that's incredibly interesting. And you did talk about your movie, which I think maybe we'll just jump right into it. The name of the movie is Ride. It is. And give us a little synopsis of it. So basically it's set in Stevensville, Texas, which is like cowboy towns, like where all the cowboys live because it was central to kind of the rodeo circuit in Texas. Yeah.

Um, but we, um, I had, I had just finished dear rodeo, the documentary for Cody Johnson and, um, kind of back to what I was saying about wanting to grow up and be a cowboy. It was interesting when I wrote the narration for that film, um, which is, you know, essentially me writing words that then Cody comes in and we work together on it, of course. But, um,

you know he comes in and then he speaks and then he he uses his voice on it you know he came back to me he goes I don't like how do you know how I feel about growing up wanting to be a cowboy how do you know like

how did you write this how did you know me so well like we just met right you know and i'm like you think you're the only person that's ever wanted to be a cowboy right you know what i mean it's like no it's like i i relate to your story and if you look at the sex the success that he's having obviously there's a lot of people in the world that relate to his story oh honey right

As you can imagine, we have a lot of people come in our door and have projects. But that project caught the eye of Jake Allen and his brother Connor Allen. And they're from Texas and they grew up in the film business. Their dad was in the film business and...

He they've been writing and directing movies since they were young. They're they're younger than me. But, you know, they they saw Dear Rodeo and then they reached out to my cinematographer and said, hey, we have this bull riding film. Love the look of Dear Rodeo. Would you be interested in being, you know, taking a look at the script? And he read the script.

And then they were going to film in Oklahoma and then they lost the incentive, the film incentive there. Again, independent film, right? So we don't have a big budget. So he said, hey, before we just call this film dead in the water-

"Go talk to Sean Silva." Like this is like spot on for what he loves and I think he could really get behind this and you guys just need to meet. So Connor and Jake came to Nashville. I sat down with them and, but these guys I loved. These guys I loved. I mean, immediately I respected the fact that they were working in the industry. Jake mostly as an actor, a working actor, and then Connor as a working director

for, you know, as contracted labor. I mean, not just on their own projects, but in the off time, they were developing scripts and developing stories and developing films and having success with this kind of million to four million, million to five million kind of independent film space. And I liked a couple of their movies that I watched and I

Thought they looked great. They weren't cheesy at all. They were well done. So, and I love the script.

So, you know, Keith was right. My cinematographer is like, man, this is going to be great. Let's get behind this. And it was a great opportunity for me. You know, I want to direct a film. I've never directed a scripted film. I've done lots of documentaries, sports docs, music docs. I mean, all kinds of documentaries, right, over the years. But

I wanted to understand the independent film, scripted film space. And so for me, it was really kind of an opportunity to learn how they're doing it, how they're getting things done. Because, yeah, I scratched my head. I'm like, how did they get that movie done? And some of them I like, some of them I don't like. And I'm like, how did they get that movie done? How did they get the funding for that? You know? Yeah.

So I just wanted to experience it and see it for myself. And we're learning a ton, but right now we're really learning because the film is just coming out and we're going to see kind of how the business side of it actually plays out. Because I do think that we have a good film.

And I think Jake, this was Jake's opportunity for his directorial debut. As I said, he was mainly an actor, but he acts in it.

So he was a writer, actor, and director. So you got to have a... It's kind of grassroots, right? We have C. Thomas Howell, who was an amazing actor. He was Ponyboy in The Outsiders. I mean, amazing actor, right? Absolutely. Hasn't done much recently, but in this film, he's fantastic. We have...

uh, Forrey Smith from Yellowstone plays Lloyd in Yellowstone. He's legit, right? Oh yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. So that to me, again, kind of legitimized the film. And the interesting thing about C Thomas Howell is that when I was a young man growing up, a little boy growing up in Chachilla and going to the stampede, guess who was roping there as a young, a young cowboy, uh,

No kidding. Really? C. Thomas Howe. C. Thomas Howe was- I didn't even know that he had that background. 100%. He's a legit cowboy. Wow. Legit. I mean, he's amazing. So, yeah, when I was a kid, I remember going and people talking about, oh, that's a kid that's in that movie. That's a kid that's in this movie, you know? And I remember watching and just being like,

dude, oh my God, that is, that's that guy, you know? And I told him that story and it was funny because, you know, um, his dad was a stunt man. A lot of, a lot of, uh, cowboys in California become stunt men in Hollywood. And, um, so that's how he kind of got in, into the film business was, was his dad. But yeah, they were, they were cowboys, legit cowboys, um, rodeo cowboys. Yeah.

Well, it's exciting, man. I think we're all excited to go see it or, you know, stream it and watch it. It's going to be exciting. This was great. Great. Thank you, Sean. Yeah, go see the movie Ride. Make sure you watch it. Yeah, rent it on Apple and Amazon Prime. There you go. And yeah, some exciting stuff, man. I'm really excited about, you know, the things that are going on.

Who would have thought that I'd still be making videos all these years later? Hey, you're good at what you do, brother. And telling stories, man. Just love telling stories. Thank you for bringing our song to life. Amen. Absolutely. Thank you. Sean, we appreciate you, my man. Cheers. Thank you, boys. Thank you, guys. Cheers.

Hey guys, thanks for listening. Don't forget to follow us on all the social platforms at Try That Podcast. And of course, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you like and subscribe and leave a comment. We love interacting with you. Thanks.