David Lee Murphy's Road Stories, "Dust on the Bottle" Origins, and Collaborations with Kenny Chesney :: Ep 17 Try That In a Small Town Podcast 58:31

I got what you need, son. Step down in the cellar. You reach through the cobwebs and you turn on the light. I say, might be a little dust on the bottom. Don't let it fool you about what's inside.

The Try That In A Small Town Podcast begins now. Try That In A Small Town

this is the try that in the small town podcast that was it yeah you guys don't need practice uh we have got tully kaylo neil and what david lee murphy let's go yes come on i don't know if you guys know but he's in the hall of fame for something i did know yeah not only that but the undisputed

coolest man in the country. Yep, 100%. Coolest man in this town. Those are big words. They really are. And he just spent 13 hours in an airport? Yeah. Orlando. I just get in today? I got in at 2 o'clock this morning. Oh.

I figured the Hall of Fame would send a jet so Hall of Famers wouldn't have to go to. I couldn't reach anybody. I was calling for a jet. I didn't think they let Hall of Famers do that. I called for the Hall of Fame jet. They weren't answering. Well, man, a couple weeks ago, were you flying a couple weeks ago during that software glitch? Because I got stuck in Salt Lake City for three extra nights. Oh, wow. Because of the software. What was it called? Microsoft. CrowdStrike. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Shut down. That was not fun. And they sent all the bags home so we didn't have anything. Next day, Rachel said, I'm going to order something from TJ Maxx. I said, do you need anything? She said, yeah, I need some underwear. You know, give me some underwear. And then she comes in, and she had her hair all up and the shirt she had on two days ago. She walks in. It's a really nice hotel. She goes, oh, hey, ma'am, deliveries are over there. And she goes, I'm a guest, thank you. Yeah.

Hold on, you wear underwear? Yes. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Anyway, David Lee Murphy, yeah. Where do we want to start, guys? Because this is, first of all, how many times have you sang Dust on the Bottle? A few. Yeah, a couple. You know what I love? Just messing around with that. Fun. Me and David, we always joke about this story. So 1996, I haven't been in town long at all. I could play that song in my sleep every,

Because I got called to audition for David Lee Murphy to play bass in his band. In what year? What year? 96. And I hadn't been here very long. We were blowing and going in 96, too. Oh, dude. I had been here maybe a few months. And a buddy of my uncle's named Blue Miller ended up getting the audition. And I was a huge fan. You have to play David's songs, bar bands, up home party crowd, dust in the bottle, all that stuff. So I found out I'd get the audition. This was a huge deal. I was 21. Yeah.

I played Dust in the Bottle a hundred times probably over and over in my uncle's apartment trying to make sure I had it down. Didn't get the gig. Was David at the audition? Oh, it was an amazing... Yeah, I was. It was an amazing... It was amazing. Doug Kazmus, who, you know, long time D.A. Lee manager and everything. He was there. For me, at that point, life-altering experience.

But it was fun. We played Party Crowd, played Dust in the Bottle, and it was the coolest. It was at SIR somewhere. It was at NCS. Do you remember NCS? Oh, yeah. And what they called the Jungle Room, the little jungle room. Astro Cardage. I love telling that story, though, because we've written together for years and played together and been a huge part of Al Dean's career and everything. But I actually love that story.

and how that, in Nashville, things always come back around. There were death stories. Yeah, and what was it about? What was it about Tony that? I wouldn't have hired me either at 21. I didn't know anything at that point. Probably thought I did, but I remember going in, and everybody was super cool, but at that point, being 21, it's like, okay. Did you lead the auditioning?

I don't think I did that. Yeah, he did a great job. I feel like I probably knew that I kind of... I was just too... Believe me, I would not have hired me at that point. We joke about this all the time. But what was it specifically, if you remember, that turned you off? He had jeans that had holes in his... He had holes all in his knees that were all...

But it wasn't because it was cool then. No, I'm teasing. I'm teasing. Actually, the guy that, I mean, I kind of knew that I was going to hire Tommy McDonald, who's been playing with me all these years. And the drummer, my drummer, Russ Cottle, got Tommy. So it was like one of those brother-in-law kind of deals come on in. So we kind of already knew we were going to. So I'd already asked a bunch of people to try it out.

So it had been like, but what a great experience though. Looking back on it, being 21 and coming into national. And that was the first time I've been in a room with like an established artist. So for me, that was a big, okay, so this is what it, this is what it's like, you know, but what a great, uh, what a great time. I love that story though. I do. Was dust on the bottle, your first single, or was there something before that came out? My first one was just once. Okay. So that was from the movie, right? That was from the movie.

The 8 Seconds movie, right? It was rocking, man. Whenever that came out, it was on the movie soundtrack. And the album, the MCA guys were going, man, this thing's selling records for us. So it was really exciting. And then my second one was Fish Ain't Bitein'.

Which was, that was the video you guys sent me the other night. You remember that. Yeah. We like to do that, by the way. We sit in our dressing room. We sent Neil videos, too. We just pull up old, old, old videos. We pulled up that one from David. We pulled up, which song did we pull of yours? Go on, go on, go on. 95. We love it. I haven't changed either.

What's that? You look exactly the same. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Now, David, if I remember, and tell me if I'm wrong, we've talked about this before, but

Dust in the Bottle, you wrote that the last minute, right? Like in the morning you were going to go into the studio? We had started the album, and I think we cut Party Crowd, Out With a Bang, and I can't remember the other song we cut. And I was like fired up, you know, because I thought Party Crowd, Party Crowd and Out With a Bang, I thought were going to be the ones. And we had already cut Just Once. We cut that.

We had cut that a few months before for that movie soundtrack. So when we cut Party Crowd, and that was the one that I remember Tony was going, we've got to beat the demo on this because the demo was really good. Well, the demo was good on. We didn't even have a demo for Dust on the Bottle. But the demos were all just like, sounded just like the records. I mean, they were all acoustic guitar demos.

But apparently that one fell out pretty quick, right? Just on the bottle from what I've read. That one you wrote fairly quick. Yeah, man, I was literally sitting at the table and the guitar was laying... I was living in Ashland City and the guitar was laying against my kitchen table just like that. And this little house, you know, it was...

800, 900 square feet where I lived for like 10 years and I was just really, I came in there, got a cup of coffee, I sat down and I was like really fired up because I was like, damn, we got to hit. Because you know, it's your first album and you want to feel like, well we had Party Crowd, we had cut Party Crowd and I was just like thinking to myself, I think we got to hit there but I really would like one other kind of thing and we had it all picked out and I would just sit there, I picked up the guitar and...

I started playing that, just jamming by myself. Infectious from the beginning. So I had a spiral notebook laying on the table. I mean, that's just where I would write, and I was flipping through the pages, and I saw Dust on the Bottle just on a blank page, just written at the top of the page. You'd had the title already. Yeah, I had the title. And I thought about this old guy that was...

From my hometown named Creole Williams. Was his name actually Creole? He was a real guy. So I wanted to ask that. Yeah. He was best friends with my cousin. And they were just a couple old redneck guys. And they would set a tent up out the lake and leave their tent set up. Grill all weekend long. Sit out there and drink the cheapest beer they could buy. And I had tried his wine.

I just, he popped into my head when I saw Dust on the Ball for some reason. And that song just fell out. When did he find out he was in your song? He was dead. Oh. That's a good way to not have to pay anybody. Yeah.

Yeah, you want to make sure before you release that, that he and his surviving family members. I'll rest in peace, Creole. But his mom and his sister heard it. But yeah, that's right. Down a dirt road. I'm sorry, Creole. He knows Creole. He lived down a dirt road. I'm not trying to make light, but had he passed at the time that you wrote this? Okay. Yeah.

Very interesting. That is cool, though. And it's just one of the best songs of all time. It's just, as people say, timeless. Bad is timeless, you know? And I know that your recurrence show that. Are you an ASCAP writer? Yeah. Okay. So for listeners, we talk about recurrence. Sometimes you'll write a song like...

like Tix for example that Tully likes to bring up and the recurrent income on that after it's peaked is not much but on a huge copyright like Dustin and Bottle it's just huge because they just play it and they'll always play that song it's one of my favorite songs ever and everybody tries to emulate that song recreate it over and over again so anyway just amazing you'd write it by yourself

I think it streams still over a million a week. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah, just on Spotify. Yeah, I don't know how this song goes about a million a week. If only that paid the song rights. You make 10 songs on Spotify. I hit Wendy's every week. I double up. I go biggie on everything. The Baconator. It's a testament to it, though. You write a song like that that is a gold recurrent. You know, it's...

the feel of it and the melody. It's just, it's infectious, you know? So I knew the first time I saw that video because we were doing, what year did that video come out? 95, 94, 94, 95. we started doing something. So it was like, I remember when I saw it and I was like, oh God, this guy's going to be freaking, I knew it. I mean, I was just like, he's going to be huge. So, step back just a couple steps. So,

How did you get signed? I know you had a band, the Blue Tickhounds, right? Right. How did you get signed and how did that come to be? Well, I mean, we played little dive bars. We played like the Blue Raiders. In Nashville? Yeah, we would play like the Blue Raider Lounge. Remember that? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, MTSU over there. Or we would play like just wherever we could. Remember Daddy Billy's down in Tullahoma? We played down there. I mean, we would just play...

Little bars wherever we could make 50 bucks. Yeah, oh yeah. And JT Cornfloss was my guitar player. Oh, I didn't know that. He's amazing. Yeah, he was my original guitar player. He played that light blue Telecaster, and it was new back in those days. Yeah, JT. But what happened was I had...

pitch songs to different people over the years, like Renee Bell and just different people in town just trying to... Doug, my manager, just trying to get something going. It was so tough back in those days because amazing artists out there. You think of all of the guys that were out there. And then you had...

Alan Jackson and Brooks and Dunn and Clint Black and Garth. And at that time period, it was just Randy Travis, Reba, George Strait, Vince Gill. I mean, you just go down the list. And it was amazing artists. And songs played faster. Songs would go eight weeks, nine weeks, ten weeks, and then they're done. And they come to the next single. So...

This is going off topic, but Party Crowd went 22 weeks at the time, and everybody was going, my God, when are they going to get off that song? We're getting sick of this song. It was the most played song in 95. Wow. Yeah. R&R. I don't think they have R&R anymore, but it was the R&R most played song of the year. Yeah, man. What happened was...

I had gone into a little bitty studio down on Music Row, and I just played these songs with, like, you know, programmed drums and keyboard bass, and I played, like, knucklehead lead guitar parts, you know, on it. And so we pitched that demo, that little demo tape that I had in Rene Bell studio,

called back and said, hey, come down here. I want to play this to Tony. So she played it to Tony Brown, and Tony offered me a deal, and so the rest was...

just hard work after that, you know. Yeah. They always say the hard part, they think the hard part's getting the deal. That's just the tip of the iceberg. But it was your writing that got you the record deal. That's what you were doing first. Right. Even though you got the record deal, were you seeking that or did you know? Were you just trying to write the best things you could write?

Yeah, I was trying to write the best things that I could write. I wanted to carve a little path. I wanted to be different. I wanted to have my own sound. So that's what I was shooting for. Well, you did that. Yeah. You've been such a huge... Not to skip too far forward, and I guess I'm all over the place, but...

Really fun to have you on because you've been such a part of our career with Jason. And for those who didn't know, wrote Big Green Tractor among tons of other cuts that we've had. But Big Green Tractor. And then for us, when we were producing the duo at Thompson Square, are you going to kiss me or not? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so there's lots of, for us, and that was our first number one as producers. So it always really meant a lot. Yeah.

You know, you kind of apart like just like Neil, you know and Kalo now like part of the career. We've had a connection. Yeah, it's Really really that's cool. I don't know y'all produce that. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that was a great Yeah, well that was one of those times when you know, Tonya and I and actually David Banning was producing that with us and rich Redmond, but when we heard the demo to that song

I forget that. Tina Crawford played it for us. We got through that first chorus and we went, oh shit, this is a hit. And first of all, I couldn't believe that it hadn't been cut yet. And then it's interesting because you think David Lee Murphy, huge songwriter, is he going to want to give this song to an unknown artist being produced by unknown producers? So when Doug told you that we wanted to put it on hold and cut it,

I mean, just being honest, were you like, man, I'd rather save that for a big artist? I mean, honestly, I was like, who? Yeah. Yeah, 100%, right? You know, but I knew you guys. Yeah. I knew you guys. But yeah, my first response was, well, who is it? What label are they on? You know, just like everybody does. Yeah, sure. But, you know, it was one of those things, it's like, sometimes it's cool to have a song that breaks somebody's career open.

And that's another one of those songs that still gets played. I hear that thing all the time. Do you remember Jimmy Iovine's review of that song? I do. It meant so much to us. So Jimmy Iovine said about that song, he goes, it takes me back to the old petty days.

He was on American Idol and he was like a guest judge or whatever. And somebody on Idol did that song. Yeah, exactly right. And that's what he said. That was Scotty McCreary. Was it really? Yeah, he did that. And then Iveen said that about the Thompson Square track. And it was like, wow, like, you know, Jimmy Iveen. That's pretty cool. Like referencing that as like the Tom Petty. And that's the kind of feel I had. But what a great song. And obviously, you know, but you have always been that way. I mean, you wrote with us.

so many years ago when you didn't have to you didn't have to write with us you know we were hit writers bandy strats we were players you know but um really full circle you know which i love that's why i do love that about this town like when that you know happens it's really neat but what happens is you start writing with people you really like to write with that's it you know and

The older I get, the more I just want to ride with guys that I like, guys that I can be creative with. And, you know, at the end of the day, we walk out and we're all going, hell yeah, that's a hit. Because it's like it's all salmon swimming upstream every day. Did you ever go through the same thing that I went through? Like, you know, do the artist thing. Come up here, do the artist thing. And your songs start getting cut by other people. Oh, yeah. I mean, I completely shut it down, though. I mean, I quit. I came off the road.

I didn't know, I couldn't remember and didn't know if you did that. No, I've quit and fired myself to a game. No, but I never, I mean, I've been out there playing the whole time. I mean, I've toured,

You know? Always. Regardless of what it was. You know, I've had, you know, it's just like this. You know? And it's like I tell young artists nowadays, it's like, hey, man, don't get too carried away right off the bat because there's a lot of hills and valleys. And you've got to ride it out. I mean, there's going to be times where you go, man, it's over. And then, you know, you wait a little bit and,

boom, something happens. We still do that. Yeah, right. Well, we talk about this a lot. Every day, I mean, every day, every week, every year. On this podcast, we talk about it a lot, how it feels like today, some young artists, they get taken straight to the top. Right. And then they go back, and then they find those bumps going the other way, versus, you know, they didn't start playing in clubs, they didn't have that, they didn't,

It's a little different now, the way something can go viral and they're on a tour all of a sudden. So sometimes it's harder that way. There's not a lot of woodshed and not a lot of cutting teeth anymore. We were talking about it the other day, how a lot of these artists don't even go through the radio tour phase. They don't go through the year of radio tour and the grind of that anymore.

playing all the bars and opening for people. They have a hit right off the bat. Yeah, they go viral and they go on tour. And they go on tour and they're up here and then when it's time to fall, that fall is hard, buddy. I mean, it's a tough deal for them. There's something about standing in the corner and getting your brains beat out to where...

When you've had your ass kicked by everybody in Nashville once, then you go, okay, now I know I can survive this and I can deal with whatever. I think that's the Aldine key to survival. We talk about it all. Like you just said, getting your ass kicked, being here years and fighting for it. And then I think every night we take the stage...

I know we all think it could end tonight. Yeah, you don't take it for granted. I think that little piece might be lost. And it's not the new artist's fault. It's just the way the business is now. You know what I mean? But I'll see a new artist for this first hit.

immediately go out and buy a brand new huge truck wait a minute give it a little bit I'm driving a 2011 F2 I think what's really cool about me a lot of cool things about David Lee Murphy just as a human just a person a Christian just a really good man and friend everything of all of us and

But what was really cool is the writing, because in Nashville, we say it all starts with a song. They always say that, and ultimately that's true. And so for you, your artist career, you got there because of your songwriting, and then you're a successful songwriter, then you're a successful artist, and while still being a hit singer,

And then later, you know, not drug back into being an artist because you're always an artist. But I found it kind of interesting that it wasn't only Kenny Chesney that was saying, hey, dude, you ought to do a record. It was also, I read that Waylon Jennings was telling you, said, hey, son, you might want to cut a record and everything. Could you talk about that just a little bit? Oh, I loved Waylon. In fact, my wife and I, our first date, we snuck in to see a Waylon.

in Du Quoin, Illinois. And I told Waylon about that story. It's like there's a big chain link fence and a big telephone pole and there's a gap about that far. I go, come on, let's sneak in here. He goes, baby, we can't do that. I go, just hang on to my hand. Come on. We snuck through that fence and boom, we were in. We were in to see Waylon. That's amazing. But I loved Waylon. And I mean, I grew up just...

I spent hours listening to his stuff just because I loved it. It's great stuff. But, yeah, we ended up writing three or four songs together. I didn't know that. That's awesome. I didn't either. We demoed them and I wanted him to sing all four of them. I ended up singing two and he sang two. And, uh,

And he would have sang all four of them. It's just like at that time he had diabetes. You know, he would just... We cut them in County Q. Yeah. And it was awesome. He walked in there and he goes, man, you know, this place used to be a Chinese restaurant. I didn't know that. He goes, we used to come in here and go to the Chinese restaurant all the time. I go, no kidding. But... That's funny. Yeah, we cut four songs and it was...

The guys that were in there on the session that day were like going, holy shit, this freaking Waylon. And when he sang, man, it's just like this freaking bulldozer of a voice came out. He wasn't even trying. What a cool sound to his album though too. I mean, Lonesome Honor and Mean. All that. Ain't Living Long. We used to cover that with Jason.

Still one of my favorite songs to play. It's great. Hey, guys, we're in the middle of an awesome conversation with David Lee Murphy. Hang with us. We've got a little word from our sponsor right now. We're 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.

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All right, y'all. Welcome back to the Try That in a Small Town podcast. We have David Lee Murphy with us. And if you didn't hear me before, Hall of Fame songwriter. That was pretty cool. Pretty cool, right? Super cool. Yeah. When you did that, since we're on it, when you did that speech, how long did it take you to prepare for it?

And were you nervous when you gave it? Yeah, I was nervous. Because the whole industry, all your peers, all your friends. But I didn't write anything. I was just going to wing it. I was about to say, David Lee Murphy strikes me as a guy that's like, I'm just going to rock it. I did. I was going to just wing it. I was going to go up there. And I wasn't going to.

get too carried away, you know, but, so then I was going, oh shit, maybe I better start scribbling some notes down. So I had, I had some notes tucked in my back pocket. So when I went up there, I opened up my, it was a piece of notebook paper, you know, and notes I had written down, hell, there's a light shine on it, I couldn't read it. So I got, I got,

So I kind of winged it anyway. Yeah. Who performed the songs? Kenny. Kenny did Living in Fast Forward. I think Living in Everything's Gonna Be Alright, I think. You know, and Kalo had touched on that. Anybody that doesn't know, you've written songs for

and every major artist that's been around, but one of your more fruitful, I guess, relationships is with Kenny Chesney. What was the first song you had with Kenny, and how did that relationship kind of evolve? Well, I knew Kenny going back to, you know, yeah, 90, the 90s, you know, we would cross paths on the road, you know, and so I knew Kenny, and then

He cut Just Not Today, which was a song, one of his albums. That was my first one, which I was thrilled. I was thrilled when he cut that. That was probably at 2002 or something like that, 2003. And then he cut Living in Fast Forward after that. That was the second song that he cut? Yeah. Oh, man, big hit. That's Rivers. Rivers. Rivers and him, good buddy of ours. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And we wrote that thing, too. I've heard Rivers' story of this before, and his story's totally different than mine. It may be a little longer. How do you think? It might be just a few minutes. But what happened was we were writing a song one day, and Rivers said right after, he goes, man, I got to leave at about 3 o'clock. He goes, I got a meeting with Buddy Cannon. And I go, all right, well, cool. So we got in there. We started writing this song. We just started writing it.

And I was like, well, when we were finishing up, I said, man, check out this little idea I got. And next time we get together, we'll start working on it. And it was basically the beginning of the course of living in fast forward. And Rivers was like, wait, hold on. He goes, do that again. And so I played it again. And Rivers just kind of like unleashed that.

I mean, he just said, I think he just single-handedly wrote the first verse in like five minutes. You know, he just, the body's a temple. That's what we're taught. I've treated this one like an old honky tonk. I go, damn, man, keep going. Dang, we're good. Yeah. Let's finish this. No I in team. Yeah, so then Rivers, so like we...

We recorded it on, I think we recorded it on like an iPad or something like that. Some sort of little Apple. He might have had like a little Apple laptop. And we recorded it on that. So he calls me about five o'clock. He goes, man, you're not going to believe what happened. I go, what? He goes, well, you know, I had that meeting with Buddy Cannon. I go, yeah. He goes, well, I went in there and played him two or three songs.

And he goes, and then I played him Living in Fast Forward. And he said, I'm going to put that on hold for Kenny. So he goes, and he knew we only had a verse and a chorus. And we had a couple of lines in there that I didn't think, I didn't know if Kenny was saying Kill Billy Rockstar out of control. We had that line. And there was another line, Greasy Cheeseburgers and Cheap Cigarettes. I didn't know if Kenny was saying that. But he did.

He did. So you guys only had a verse and a chorus to play for Buddy? And Rivers played it for Buddy, and Buddy goes, I'm putting it on a whole. I want it on a whole for Kenny. So we went down there the next day and finished the song, but we wrote the second verse and the bridge, and...

Just that. And then they cut it. So the record was... I mean, that was all Kenny and Buddy and the band. I mean, it was just... And when I heard it, I was playing at the Opry the night that I heard it. And Tom Baldrica was one of the regional promotion guys at the time for the label. And he goes, have you heard Living in Fast Forward? I go, no. I want to hear it. He goes, come on. I mean, it was...

It was right after I got done playing. I just walked off the stage of the Opry, and we were all getting our stuff together. He goes, come out in my car. I'll play it for you. And so he had a car. He had a badass stereo, you know, and he starts at a... You know, it was just... Holy shit. And I cranked it up. I cranked that thing up, and those poor speakers were like...

Those were the good old days. Yeah. Go in and play something live for somebody. Oh, God, man. Not even finished. It was awesome. When I heard their version of it, Kenny Greenberg's playing guitar. You know, living in fast forward at the time, it was just, it was freaking rocking. It was great. So, that was... That was a fun time. I remember...

Was it 2015 when we did the co-headline thing with Kenny? And you were out with Kenny. You were playing as well in those shows, I believe. And we did the encore. We went out with Kenny. Jason went out. And me and you and Rich went out. And you went out. And we did Only Way I Know. Yeah, that's right. And that was... God, man. That's right. It was so much fun. We did like...

Summer of 69, we did Only Way I Know. And I feel like there's another one. We did like three songs. And Kenny would run around. I got so many pictures of me playing and Kenny pouring Bacardi down my throat with a giant plastic cup. Yeah, he would do that. What a... I mean...

We learned a lot. I know Jason did too on how to tour and how to make it work on a big level. Kenny's a master at that. And just how to treat people. I'll say that, and I know Jason is good about this too, but just how to treat people. I mean, everybody on Kenny's tour loves him because of that very reason. He treats everybody with love and respect, and everybody just is happy to be there. I mean, I...

There's a couple of years there where I would just go out there and do dust on the bottle, maybe party crowd. He would have me come out and I'd do something. I mean, you're sitting there, 60,000 people.

you know, and, and it's like, come on. I mean, you got a race car sitting there. That's like, hells bells. I mean, Kenny would laugh his ass off too. Like we would kick in a dust on the ball and, you know, like Eddie goes, can you believe this shit? I mean, he wasn't as happy. He was as happy for me. Yeah. To be able to experience that. Well,

Yeah. And that, and that, that's cool. And, uh, I was watching a lot of that stuff on, I got caught up in it, you know, look at a lot of YouTube and, and going back and watching the new video or the old video of dust in the bottle and everything. And, uh, and just watching you and Kenny and that, that relationship and that respect from him and y'all just play in and jam it. I thought, man, that's so bad-ass and cool and, and very cool. But like, uh,

Neil said Aldine brought us out on the stage in Tuscaloosa right on when Try That in Small Town was you know starting to be hitting everything and we just thought that was so amazing you know for an artist it doesn't benefit them to for us you know for you at Diggs you're an artist and you've got that hit song to come out and play for us he's just introducing us and saying hey here's the guys brought us out with Curt and Telly they look real terrifying don't they laughter

But I was watching you today and just grinning, you know, watching y'all and the respect that Kenny has for you as an artist and a writer. And that has to feel great when you're out there on stage with him. It's amazing. It's amazing. But the same thing was like, Jason loved having you guys out there because you get to experience that feeling of being on that stage and, and, um,

all that positive energy from all the people that come to the shows, you know? And that's, that's really cool. It's really cool. Jason's been really good. And I know Kenny's the same way. Like he wants people to share in that moment because he feels like he genuinely feels like these guys are big part of why I'm able to do this. He wants you guys to share just like Kenny is. I think he's like that. And Kenny's a,

He's an amazing human being. He's a professional. People that don't know, he works his butt off. He's smart. He takes part in like every nuance of the tour, right? And we started to bring it up when... How did the album come to be that he produced or helped you record with Everything's Gonna Be Alright? Well, I... You know, over the years, I've been sending him songs, you know? Yeah. And...

living in fast forward pirate flag uh marked the end of the world live a little till it's gone it's a lot it got the new one too uh yeah i want to circle back to that too i want to make sure you get hurt but yeah i want to ask you about that one but what happened was uh it just uh

I forgot what we were talking about. The album that you did with Kenny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Kenny, I had sent him a couple of songs and he called me one night and he goes, hey man, we ought to just go.

cut 10 songs i mean he goes as many songs as you've sent me he goes i love them all because i think we ought to just basically go cut a record and so we did we went in i mean had a blast picking out all the songs and picking the players did you already have was one of them everything's gonna be all right no that was another dust on the bottle type situation no kidding wrote that last minute

Yeah, me and Jimmy. We might should write one tonight. Let's write this thing up. It was another one of those lucky deals. I mean, that's the thing is it's kind of like fishing. You just fish and fish and fish and fish and you miss more than you catch. But Everything's Gonna Be Alright was we had our songs picked out for the album. It was pretty much done, mastered, recorded.

everything. Wow. And, um, I was writing with Chris Stevens and Jimmy Urie and we were just goofing around and, and Chris had this like little groove going over there. And that story just fell out, you know, everything's going to be all right. So I was kind of, I sent it to Kenny kind of like, cause I had my stuff done and I was basically sending it to him. Like, you know, you want this, you want this song? Cause, uh,

Personally, if he would have cut it, I would have made more money. That's terrible to say. No, but it's the truth. But it's the truth. Terrible. Besides me. So Kenny goes, man, I love this song. And he goes, why don't we, let's do it together. I'll sing the second verse, you sing the first verse, and we'll put it on your record. Sure enough, that's what we did.

And then he ended up getting some sort of CMA award. I was going to say it. Won a CMA award, right? Yeah. You're right back on Radio Tour. Oh, yeah. That's great. Yeah. Well, yeah, because Kenny was nice enough to give me that opportunity. And he signed me to his label. And we went through Reviver Records, too. So...

They put up so much money to do that, I was not going to go out there and give it 100%. And it worked? I did. I went out there. For sure? I rode it hard for a couple years. Yeah.

Well, he had a number one, so that was probably the oldest guy ever to have a number one. Well, but I do know this. The entire industry was thinking, that is so badass and cool, and everybody was so happy for you, you know, because you're such a worker, so talented and everything, and just to, you know,

just all of a sudden just hey back on the radio again I can do it whenever I want to yeah every 10 years it's a lot of fun you know I'm about 4 years away I think I read it was 23 years between number ones is that right or do you I don't even know I don't I don't know what it was but that's yeah it was we need to look that up because that has to be that's got to be a record absolutely

What were you going to ask me about? I was going to ask you about that song, just to say we did, which is Chesney's new single. And I was, a couple weeks ago, did a writer's show with Brett James, and we were out there at Stock Ranch and had a lot of time to talk out there and everything. And we were talking, and I love looking at strip ads, like, you know, the strip ads that come on, like you said, the old R&R or Billboard or whatever, and you see those titles. And I like the way things look on paper.

I talked to Brett about it. I saw that like two days before and I thought, just to say we did. You know how you get mad? You're kind of like, damn it, it's been there for years. That idea has been there for years. We say that all the time. Hey boys, let's do it. Just say we did. We always did that. And then I saw that and I said, God, I can't believe you missed it. And I asked Brett about that and he goes, well, that's actually David Lee Murphy's idea. No, that was Kenny's idea. Okay, so one of you jumped in a pool.

or something we were sitting we were we were down at Kenny's place in the islands and uh we had stayed up the night before and uh carrying on we had like night and what night country night playing and we were we got into it pretty good and um

Not as good as that one. At the end of that story, we can't sell that. That's the song we went out last night. But Kenny had one of those ice tubs, and I had never gotten in an ice tub before. Oh, the ice plunge to do like a cold plunge? Yeah, I had never done that. And I was like, man, I'm not getting in that damn ice.

And so he goes, get in there. He goes, what's going to happen? He goes, and I've heard this said before but since, you're going to have the fight or flight reaction as soon as you hit that ice. You get up about neck deep in that ice. He goes, you're going to come out of there like a cat.

so I got in there and I sit for maybe 15 20 seconds I go alright I'm done with this and there was a sauna I got back in the sauna so we did that three times and it was me and Kenny and a couple of his buddies and we did that and we got done we were right in that morning it was me Brett Matt Dragstrom and Kenny and uh

So we were getting ready to go upstairs, get some coffee, and just because it's down, you know, walks right out to a pool. And Kenny goes, man, why don't we go jump in that pool just so we did? And I go, there's our song title. Money, money. Yeah. So, yeah, that's great. Great song. Great idea. That's great. Then the four of us,

We all got together there, and it was just like... Did y'all write that song, Sober? Yeah, we did. Really? Yeah. That's morning with coffee. That's a boring story, man. Yeah. No, but you got to give them time to reset. They were up all night, and so... But it didn't last. Right. When we finished, we...

We celebrate it. Spike the ball a little bit and something else. Well, all you guys know this too is when you feel like you wrote something that you really like, that feels great. You think we're all biased. We know there's some that kind of suck.

And then there's some good ones and you go, damn it, that could be a hit. So we live on positivity, y'all back home. I mean, we thrive on it. So, yeah. Yeah. The feeling, you know, when you wrote something good, it's like you can breathe at least for three hours.

Yeah, it's not even the fact that you're going to make money off something. It's the fact that you actually wrote something that excites you. And you're like, I want to hear that again. That sounds great. And somebody might record that. But that euphoria carries over to the next day. The next day is who you write positively until you've done that for several months and nothing's happened. Yeah.

and then you might get into a lull and then you get brought back up songwriting has always been that way and that's the thing you fall in love with songwriting and you stay in love with it for a while and then you think it's over and you're out of love again and that's been happening for 30 years for me me too I always tell people the couple hundred you never hear that you're right and they're just there and you worked as hard on those

As you did in the ones that get heard, you know, you look back and it's like, wow, just all these little songs that are just there. Yeah. You know, you bled over, but that's, yeah. It's like you nailed it. It's like fishing. Yeah. Yeah.

It is. I told Neil the other day, we had two acts. Actually, they recorded a song that Neil and I wrote, and we looked, and they got put out. I'm not sure how it works, but they released them through social media, right? So it's not on the radio, but they released them, and it sounds good, and you're listening to it. It's the first time you've heard it. You said, well, that sounds really good.

who knows if you're going to make money on it or whatever, but it was a good day for us. And I told Neil, I said, well, I guess we're not retired. I mean, people are still, they're recording stuff, you know, which that's good.

Thank God. Woo! Don't be so excited, man. Tamper it down. Hey, David, you said you just flew in. So what's happening in the touring world right now? Are you out with Kenny? No, I was with Brooks and Dunn. We did two months with Brooks and Dunn, and I toured with him in 95.

Wow. Which is crazy. We toured a whole year together. Almost 30 years. So I've been friends with Kix and Ronnie, just still great friends. Is that tour over or are you still in dates? Yeah, it's over. Okay. It's over. But we had a blast. And there was guys out there with us. Ernest was with us on the tour, and there were some guys in his group that are like

21, 22 years old. That put them born around 95. I was talking to one of the guys back there. We were somewhere like Fresno or Bakersfield. We were out west. Albuquerque.

And I said, you know, last time I played this place right here, I was with Brooks and Dunn in 95. And the kid was like, damn, I was born in 95. You know, that's what's crazy. Did you tell them how much money you used to make in 95 writing songs? We didn't get paid. That is weird. I'm talking about the number of songwriters. Some of these young guys, man, when they find out, it's like, you made how much on that album? Right. It wasn't even a single on the radio, and you made how much? They can't believe it.

And they would give anything if they could have come through that era with everybody in the 90s and the early 2000s. It was such a wonderful time. Yeah, different world now. It was fantastic. Yeah, it is weird, though, in living in this lifestyle. That bus is like a time capsule. And the years just... And I talk about this tonight, like I was 21 when I first met you.

you know, almost 50 and it doesn't feel like it's been that long. But that bus is a damn time machine. Yeah. And it speeds up life. It is living a fast forward. Mm-hmm.

But there's something about being on the road. There's something about the non-reality. You're not in reality. That's a great way to put it. No, it's a non-reality. Yeah. You go to the gig. Or if you're not playing a big show like that, I play festivals and fairs and stuff all over the place. We get to a little town. We go in there and have breakfast at Waffle House. Yeah.

Go work out a little bit. I don't even want to watch the news. It's a bad time to watch the news. Do you go,

And this is great. You get ready to sound check, go do your show, get back on the bus, party, ride down the road, eat some pizza. Yeah. It's great. Start all over again. What are you doing now? What are you doing now? Are you cutting a record? No, I'm just writing songs and playing music. Is that the plan? Yeah. How many shows? You're out quite a bit. Like every year or every time we see you, we're right, and we're never –

I just came in. You're playing a lot of shows, which is awesome. What are you doing? I'm playing every weekend in August. And then I'm playing a bunch of weekends in September. And then I played every weekend of May, June, most of July. I think I had a couple weekends off in July. But, man, I just love to go play. It's like this weekend we played in upstate New York. I was telling...

real small town. And it was, it was just amazing, man. It was a little bitty county fair and everybody came, you know, everybody in the town was there and it's just fun. And I love that stuff. Yeah. Do you, do you ever go like for a corporate show? Do you ever go just by yourself and play or do you always get a full band? Sometimes I do that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

that's cool so we got a chance to uh play with you a couple years ago at palm desert for saint jude thing that was the first time i ever was on stage with you at the same time seen you many times uh but just a whole new respect level yeah that was just fun really really fun and you've written with uh your sons like johnny and jesse y'all have written a little bit yeah right and uh

So Johnny liked it so much he decided to be like a therapist after that, right? Yeah. He needed therapy. He decided he didn't want to do it. Yeah. And he's a badass. He is a badass. Well, we wrote the song with Alexander. Mm-hmm.

Rough Around the Edges. Rough Around the Edges. Which is a great song. I love that song. Yeah. I mean, I've jammed that song many nights sitting in my backyard. Yeah. Good stuff. Good kids. And then Jesse...

Other son, he writes for Michael Knox. He writes for Peer. Of where you're at now. You just signed a deal not too long ago. I would like to ask on that, and you guys can ask other things. One thing that interests me, for listeners out there, sometimes songwriters will be at a company for three,

four or six years or whatever and we sell a catalog. We'll sell a piece of our publishing and we do that because it's a business and you can claim capital gains during the good capital gains years and save on tax and stuff like that and then kind of stick and move and then do it again. But to my knowledge, I don't think you've ever sold a full-on catalog like ever. Is that correct? No, I almost did. I'm not going to tell that story. And so, you know,

And that's okay. You don't have to tell that. I just find that interesting. I almost did. You've kept everything. That probably pissed some people off. But I was reading about that, and it's an admin deal and co-pub going forward, just like a regular straight-up writer, co-pub agreement going forward with the pier. Michael Knox, which brings it full circle and everything, which I think is great. Yeah, and I love Knox. Yeah. I love Knox.

He's been hugely, as we've talked about before, influential in our career. Me too. Yeah, me too. Oh, for sure. So I'm super excited to be working with Knox, just from a personal standpoint. And the thing was is there's so many guys in town, too, that I love that had –

asked me to come you know right right for them and it just it just worked out the way it worked out so and and i love nox and he's he's great and you you hadn't fired doug casmus yet i mean everything's no he's fired me a couple he's such a good guy i mean y'all been together forever he's your manager he's he's he's i've still got my original manager and my original agent

going all the way back. I tell you, Steve Lassiter, right? Steve Lassiter, who's at Reliant now, I was with him when he was at William Morris. Then he switched to APA and I was with him at APA. And then he went from APA to Reliant and I've been with him. He got me doing an acoustic opener for...

I think Lee Greenwood one time, he got me an acoustic opener for Sawyer Brown and Exile. I would go make like 25 bucks, get a motel room and a hamburger. Stay at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. Sounds pretty good in those days. Oh, man, I used to wait tables at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. I loved it. I loved it to go do those shows. But still, I mean, he gets me gigs and

I go. You love the music and that's important. And I think people like us and I think the people that have stood the test of time, that's the one thing we kind of all have in common. We really, at the heart of it, we love music.

uh you're an incredible songwriter even better human being can't tell you how much we thank you for being here thank you so so thankful david david lee murphy david lee murphy thank you let's raise one oh yeah original glory i got some glory there we go cheers

Guys, that was awesome. Like you said, that might be the coolest guy in the room. He's the coolest guy in town. Always. He's in my top five. I'd like to know your top five.

You don't have to say it tonight, but let's get to it on another episode. There's three right here. Only two spots left. That's easy. He's talking about putting me on the spot. That's easy. Don't worry about that. We know. We know we're okay. David Lee Murphy's definitely in my top five. He's in everybody's top five. Right? He is. Coolest dude ever. You hear his voice. That's another cool thing when he sings. It's like you, honestly, when you sing, it's like no doubt who it is.

Which, as an artist, it's like that's the special sauce. Well, it's like when we've written with him, and I think the last time we wrote, I came in late, and y'all already had a verse going. And you play me what you recorded, and it's him singing. And I'm going...

I'm not singing that. He's like, no, we're just trying to get it started so we can get you to sing the demo. And I'm like, I'm not singing that. He said it was fantastic. But you did it and it got cut. That's true. And I'm looking at David Lee going, why aren't you singing this? Why?

But what you guys have, I mean, you're not just amazing singers. You guys are artists. And we kind of talked about it tonight. Like he is an artist who's also a songwriter. You are the same way. You are an artist who is also a songwriter. And the way that you guys can deliver a song is not like just a singer. Yeah. It's amazing. It's as much to me, guys, like on a serious note, like guys like you and David, um,

In my book, it means as much as anything that we can write lyrically, that the way you twist a melody and make it feel, the way you say a word and make it sound, it's as much as anything. You can take a song and have someone else sing it, and it will never hit the same.

as having someone with a specific style to the voice. It's true. And not to just keep talking about Neil. Neil's nice. When it's David's episode. But seriously, we'll be in the office and Neil will be there singing. And he might sing something three times, a line three times, and he'll do it once and me and Tully look at each other. Oh, my God. Did you hear the way he said the? I mean, seriously, it could be a word that you just say and it's like,

Oh, I feel that. Yeah, that's what it is.

but the voice you know the artists they just love his voice so it's not just you know consumers and fans fall in love with the voice but artists do also and same as Nils and they listen to that demo and they're thinking well that sounds great

And the writers, like me, just a straight-on writer, I'm thinking, listen to the lyric. Listen to the lyric. But the artist is like, I love that guy's voice. That's what it is. And David, what's cool about David, I remember being in club bands back home playing his stuff. I remember when I heard Party Crab and Dust in the Bottle. The cool thing about David at that point...

was he gave an edge to country music that at that time was way slick you know and it had a country rock thing to it even party crowd it was cool just cool out with a bang and all that stuff but anyway that was a blast that was a

And you mentioned this, and I'm glad you did because I was thinking the same thing. He's had such an impact, and we were the beneficiary of a couple of his biggest songs. Big Green Tractor was a four-week number one with Jason. It was a massive song. That was one of those songs that when it came out and we played it, we could see the difference right away within the ticket sales. Because at that point, we were doing clubs and we were doing stuff.

smaller theaters and all of a sudden they were lined out the door. Yeah, and then on that song...

outing immediately didn't he he didn't i know he loved the song but he wasn't sure if that if that was the one so he kind of got talked into it a little bit right and you guys know side note on that and in addition to that i think that song went to jake owen first yeah jake owen passed on it and he passed on it uh but yes when i remember in the studio them playing that for us and i'm not gonna be too proud to admit i was like

oh, we're cutting that after she's country or Johnny Cash, you know, it's like tough rock. And I was like, Ooh, okay. I, I would, I didn't know. And Jason liked it, but I don't think he thought it was going to be the huge hit. I do remember when we got done tracking it though. I do very, that for some reason, I remember those moments of tracking those, those early albums like that. Cause I remember, you know, you know, that was the wide open album. And, um,

And you had the title track. Yes. And that whole album had a feel, had the truth on it, had some really cool... It wasn't our... When we got done playing, I remember thinking, that's got some sort of weird...

rootsy thing to it the green tractor you know thank god we did you know oh yeah so infectious it was a great song I love David Lee Murphy we're gonna have him back on too yeah oh yeah we need a part part two he didn't live too far down the road he's full of stories our listeners need to listen they need to hear some of these stories we gotta we gotta cut loose on a few of these things I know how far we can't go too far and tell it all yeah we gotta we gotta tell enough we gotta tell enough I agree yeah

It's a tell enough, not tell all. Oh, yeah. That's right. Anyway, we appreciate you guys listening. Hey, we always say this, but this means a lot to us. On YouTube, what are we going to do? We're going to like or we're going to get the love button. Is that what you said before? There is a love button somewhere. Okay.

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