Man Luke, you know, anybody who knows me and has listened to us speak or seen our interviews knows that I have a very soft spot for you as a person and I'm a fan of your music.
Thank you.
I'm so glad you're back with new shit.
Oh, man, I'm glad to be here.
You look good, man.
What's going on?
You seem healthy.
I mean, there's a lot going on in your life.
How are you keeping balance?
A lot going on, man.
Not a lot of free time.
Not a lot of free time.
That's how I'm keeping it balanced.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, man, just getting ready.
He's about to have another baby.
Congratulations.
Yeah, thank you, man.
It's crazy.
Yeah, man, takes a bow about to get a sibling.
They are, yeah.
That's number three.
And we don't know what it is.
I love that.
We didn't either, actually.
I mean, no disrespect.
Everyone can do it their own way.
Sure.
But we didn't find out either time.
And I think we thought we would.
And then when push came to shove, no pun intended.
Yeah, I was about to say.
Nice one.
I think we just thought there's a mystery to it.
Life's going to just do this, and maybe we don't need to know about it.
We found out on the first two.
I would have been fine with every one being a surprise, but...
Yeah, this one, my wife was finally like, I mean, what's it matter at this point?
It's a lot of work.
Whatever it is, it's a lot of work.
How about that?
It's a lot of work.
It's the best work you'll ever do, but it's a lot of work.
As the boys have started to sort of grow a little bit older, their identities are coming into play.
They're moving, they're shaking, they're answering, they're observing and having conversations with you to some degree.
I mean, has it kind of gotten into a little bit of a balance before number three now in terms of work, life nurturing?
Just in time to throw it right back into full-blown chaos, yeah.
It's like we've gotten to the point where it's I mean, still a tremendous amount of work, of course, but it's definitely like we're comfortable, like we know exactly how to handle every day in some way.
So this will be, you know, a big change to that.
Yeah.
Three is a lot more than two, it feels like.
It's a minivan.
Yeah.
It's a seven seater.
Changes the whole thing.
Changes the whole thing.
Changes the whole thing.
And no one's like, no one's in school yet.
Like, so we're...
Like if we're home, like we're home, like it's like a daycare at our house.
It's one of the things I think that people really love about you.
You know, in the moments that you do let people into your life and I always appreciate your transparency whenever we talk about real life is that you know you've worked really hard to find a great life with someone that you love deeply and you have a great partnership.
I've met your wife a couple of times and she seems like such a great human.
She's the best, man.
Are you kidding me?
She's awesome.
You know, it allows you to be the Luke Combs everybody else wants you to be.
It does, man.
Yeah, it really does.
It really does, man.
And it's special having that partnership, I think is just it's.
You know, I just can't imagine not, you know, having her by my side.
You know it'd be crazy.
You know, I mean, it would just, I mean, let alone the workload.
I mean, obviously, but just the emotional support.
And the companionship and friendship.
Yeah, that's, you know, it's a real deal.
That's just a real deal.
I mean, it's like you know.
I wish she was out here with me, you know, but it's like we're getting.
We're down to the nitty gritty on time.
We appreciate it, always being a part of that nitty gritty, Elsie.
I want to talk a little bit about the timeline of things, because when you're going to have a child, that's timeline.
It can be flexible either way, but you kind of got a pretty good window as to when that's going to happen.
How much of that was a motivating factor to wanting to get this record done now?
It's like we never plan music or anything around Just the way it worked out.
It was just kind of the way it worked out.
So we've always been good about, you know, hey, man, we just got to make the best of it.
You know what I mean?
It's like you can't change when the baby's coming or you can't change.
You know how any of that stuff goes really.
So worked the music around that.
We were lucky to, you know, have it turned in in the late, like mid-November.
It was kind of turned in and finished.
And it was like well, we've never, really I've never had time in my entire career to do an actual press tour of an album ever.
And it's weird that maybe the busiest time of my life is the first time I've actually ever had the luxury of being able to go out.
I don't know how I feel about it.
I was kind of getting used to not sharing it.
You know what I mean?
I was liking the fact that you'd come in here and see me, maybe one or two other people.
Maybe Rogan might get a look, a couple of other people.
I don't like the fact that, I don't like this.
I don't like Luke everywhere.
It makes me feel, I don't know, I feel a little heartbroken actually.
No, it's amazing, man.
Yeah.
And it's like, it's crazy.
It's crazy coming kind of back.
And I mean obviously I did Fathers and Sons, which we didn't was never supposed to be like a huge commercial success, or it was really just something I did for myself.
And I haven't really put out, you know, like a proper album in four years maybe.
But I love Fathers and Sons so much.
Me too.
We spoke about that record and it moves me, that album.
And I think there are albums that you make that are the perfect combination of what we're hoping to get from you, even just from an anticipation point of view, and what you wanna say.
And then we have to afford our favorite artists the space to do something that is for you.
And if people like it, it is what it is.
Is that really how you feel about Fathers and Sons?
Because it did resonate, but it really felt like it was yours.
It was.
Yeah, it was.
It was definitely there was like a calling to do that album.
You know, I mean obviously having two kids like that back to back and such a groundbreaking shift in like your entire existence, in your life.
And I just felt the need to have something that my kids could look back on once they're older and once they can understand that.
Even what I even do and how crucial of a time that record came out.
In my career, we could have easily been like, we don't have time to do Fathers and Sons.
We got to capitalize on success and do the big rollout and the big album.
I just wanted them to know that at the most critical times, they were the most important thing going on for me.
You know, and that was kind of my way to express that to them, even if they can't understand that now.
You know, it's something that I felt called to do and something that they can go back and listen to and go.
Well, this is what my dad was thinking at this time.
You know, when we were small, he was thinking about us.
He wasn't thinking about how do I find more success, or how do I, you know, keep my name out there, do this and do that, you know, even though I have kids now.
You know what I mean?
They were, you know, the number one priority.
I don't feel like the need to capitalize on anything has ever been much of a driving factor for you or Capi or anybody in your team.
You keep it small, you keep it family-based, and that allows you to make decisions with autonomy right.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, it gives you the freedom to operate in the ways that you want to operate, do the things that you want to do and have the freedom to say no to things that you don't want to do.
Are they hard no's sometimes?
Yeah.
Oh, for sure.
I mean, I feel like we've passed up a ton of things that people would probably say you know.
I mean, you're crazy for not doing that or not doing this.
Big paydays here or big brand deals there or big stuff like that.
Yeah, certainly.
But, I mean, my decisions have always come down to happiness.
You know what I mean?
It's like, I think obviously it's great to be successful and, you know, have money and have all these things, but what it really buys you is the ability to – you know, have this freedom and live the life that you want to live.
Enjoy it in the moment.
And make the decisions that you want to make and go okay.
Well yeah, we could go do this big ad campaign or whatever.
And it's like, well, this company would pay you X amount of dollars to come.
All you got to do is four hours of stuff at your, in LA or whatever.
And it's like, well, I don't, it's like, you know what I mean?
Like I'm not doing it for that.
That.
You know what I mean?
Again, I understand that it's easy for me to say that, because I have reached a level where I'm able to do that.
Yeah, by working really hard to get there as well.
It's not like it was given to you, and then you're looking at the face of opportunity being like I'm good.
It's like you tour relentlessly.
You play multiple nights in front of 80,000 people a night off the basis of your ability in song.
Sorry to do your Wikipedia for you, but this is the facts.
So, you know, when it comes to saying no, there's some people who have the right to say no.
Yeah.
And it's I think it's just for you know, it's to you know.
Make sure my kids know that I'm there for them.
And, you know what I mean?
It's like there's just some things you can't get back and there's some things you can't undo.
And there's.
You know you can't go back and you know lay around on the floor with your kids playing air tubes or whatever.
You know like whatever they want to be doing.
I can't buy those things back.
You know what I mean?
Like going and doing a big ad campaign or getting this big PR thing or whatever.
Like it doesn't get me that time with my kids or time with my wife, or time at home or time for myself.
Until you see, you know Tim McGraw doing a Ford ad, and then you're like God damn, I should have done that Ford ad.
I love Ford.
I have three Fords.
The fuck was I thinking?
God damn it.
Should have done it.
Yeah.
It makes total sense.
I'd love to hear it.
I'd love to hear when artists are in their era of no.
I think that to me it speaks that there's more goodwill going into the things that matter, which is making great albums like this, more space to create and not necessarily capitalize.
Yeah, for sure.
There's a lot of songs on this album, bro, and it is all stacked.
For me, it's the biggest album I've ever done.
Sounds like it.
I mean, I wanted to do...
I think we're at this day and age where it's like, the more songs, the better.
Do 30, do 35, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I just think that for me, this was a number I felt like was a lot bigger than anything I've done previously, but it also gave people a chance to digest everything.
It's enough to be digestible and it's enough to feel like okay well, you haven't made like a real quote unquote, real album, you know a proper, like mainstream release in four years.
So I didn't want to come with an album that had 10 songs on it.
And people were like well, we didn't hear anything for four years and we get you know eight songs or what like.
What is this?
That's an extra half an hour on the set.
What are we doing here?
What is this?
Yeah.
So I wanted it to be, you know, robust for sure, but I didn't want it to be overwhelming either.
It sounds like you were spoiled for choice too, in terms of songs because, like I said, when you go through this record as a Luke Combs fan, anyone's going to hear this album and be like wow, you and your collaborators set the bar very, very high right from the jump.
I hope so, yeah.
I mean, I think people will love it.
I hope they do.
But again, I can't control that.
So I'm at this point where you just have to believe in it and believe in the thing that you've worked hard on and believe in your team and everybody's done a killer job.
Everybody's worked so much harder than me on this thing.
You know what i mean.
Like that's the.
That's the thing too is it's not just i mean, it's me on there but, like you know, there could be 70 people on the front of that.
Yeah, on the front of that album too.
Everyone's invested, you know and um, i always thought that would be cool to do an album.
Everybody that's involved with the entire thing.
Cool, it'd be a fucking huge picture, dude.
Know what i mean.
Like there's a lot more that goes into it than that guy.
You know what i mean.
You know, in the day and age maybe we don't do these anymore in the day and age of streaming, because i mean, we have very effective essentials collections that change all the time but it would be a great greatest hits cover.
It would be like everyone that's written on everything, big christmas card photo, everybody lined up, everyone that mastered it and mixed it and played on the records and was in the.
You know, you just off to the side, just half your face off to the side like yeah, I could not even be on there.
I don't even think people would know.
I never think that was going to fly this time.
It needed to be this.
It's been four years and it needs to make a statement of who you are and who you are today.
You've always done that.
Every one of your albums has a title and a picture that says this is who I am today, or a piece of art.
What does this say to you when you look at it now?
It's like, man, you know what I mean?
It's just me, I think.
Ultimately, I think...
I don't even know that it has to have any meaning in the sense of there's a lot in it.
Though bro, i mean, if i was looking at that photo and you weren't here, and i mean it's a tough question to get you to analyze your own face.
But i mean, if i look at that photo and i think of what's going on in the eyes, it's not a standard promotional or album cover photo.
It's not staring down the barrel of the camera trying to make a connection, telling people i'm here, we're going to sing these songs together in the future.
You know you're staring off in the distance and there's real.
There's something really reflective going on in your eyes there And I mean who knows what was going on in your mind at that moment, but it's a powerful image.
Yeah, it's very contemplative, for sure.
Does that speak to who you are when we don't see you in the space or on stage?
Oh, definitely.
I'm always constantly analyzing, like, you know, what do I want out of, you know, of doing this?
And you know, I think you get to a point too where you're kind of like I found myself this morning.
You know, thinking about You, know I look up at you know, obviously I live central time right.
So you know, my eyes are like wide open at 630 here.
You know, which is like would be sleeping in at home.
Mm-hmm.
But I had a few hours just to myself in the hotel room, which is rare for me these days to have time to sit around and process stuff and think about things.
And, you know, because we travel with, you know, three, four people and there's always somebody.
We're in a car or in a plane.
The job is to stay busy.
Right.
We're always around.
So you don't get a lot of time to yourself.
So I flew here yesterday on the plane and.
It's four hours about here, and I don't think I said a word to anybody on the entire flight.
It's like everybody else is chatting.
People are talking and living life and laughing.
And I just kind of sat there and was thinking about having this kid coming up.
You know, I think I spent a lot of time like, well, why am I really doing this?
Now, that was a question I wanted to ask you today.
Yeah.
Because we've spoken at various points on the journey.
When we first spoke, it was happening.
You were in it.
Yeah.
And there was a sense of like trying to take stock of what that is.
Yeah.
Then it becomes this perpetual experience where you have enough big songs.
This is just how I see it.
Enough big songs, enough of a legacy building around you that these stadiums everyone's like.
Man, i'm gonna buy luke holmes ticket every time i'm ready to go.
So when you take a step back and you take a look at what you've built versus where you want to go next right, how does it reshape that for you, if at all?
And get to the answering that question of like, what am i doing?
Yeah, and i i like like, spent the last 24 hours really thinking about that and having the time to myself, and I don't know quite the answer yet, but I've been really trying to think about why have I been doing the things that I've been doing?
You know what I mean?
Why was it important for me to make this record?
You know what I mean?
Obviously, I want to give people the music that they want to hear, and I love doing it.
I love singing.
I love playing shows.
I do.
But then you're wondering like, man, is this like an egotistical pursuit?
Like am I doing this all to like satisfy some part of myself that needs validation?
Or, and I mean it's like not, I don't think that it's that.
Valid question though.
Yeah.
But, like you, just I'm always trying to take stock and like make sure I'm not doing things for the wrong reason.
I think that's it, right?
It's like, it's a valid question if only to find the purity of the answer.
Yeah, certainly.
And it's like I think it's good man to like take stock of yourself at times.
You know what I mean.
And just kind of go, what am I really doing here?
Like, we're going and doing all this press.
And it's like, well, it's like, why?
Why are we doing all the press?
I keep asking that question.
Why are you doing more press?
But it's like what are you obviously ultimately, if you boil it down?
It's like you want to sell albums and you want people to hear it and you want to give.
And the answer that I've come to is, It's almost a glass half full situation.
It's the way you look at it.
In my mind I'm going well, you could say well, I'm doing this because I want people to hear this and I deserve a shot at this thing, or whatever.
So there's all those things.
It could be that.
That could be the answer that you find.
But I'm also going to myself.
Well, it could also be.
I really want to give this record the best chance to be heard by people and i want people to hear it and i want people to like it, because i like it and i've spent so much time working on it and everyone on my team has spent so long you know, hours in the studio and the studio musicians and my songwriting buddies and Like, if this album has success, it's not just me that has success.
It's so many people that have success.
And not that you, I don't feel any pressure in that sense, but those people have worked hard, man really hard, harder than me.
Well, all of you are honoring the songs.
At the end of the day, you create the songs.
They didn't exist.
Now they do.
And they're going to belong to other people.
Yeah, and life is busy man, we're all distracted all the time from.
I think it's a beautiful thing that that you remind people that you have these songs you want to share, because we need reminding as human beings.
I think sometimes we assume everyone's just going to be locked in.
But man, it's pretty tough right now yeah, and we need music more than ever.
So yeah, i think so tell them about it.
Yeah, i just want people to get to hear it.
You know what i mean?
I i think that's the ultimate pr thing it's like.
Of course, you can boil it down to selling more and doing this and selling tickets and all this stuff.
And yes, that stuff is all happening.
But it's really when you spend so much time on something with something, and away from your kids, and away from your family and everyone else that works on this sacrifice and time away from their wives and kids and friends and family.
And like, I want to give this a shot, man.
Like I want people to get to hear this because there's so much work that's gone into it.
And it's such a you know labor of love and a passion project for everybody that's worked on it that you want it to be successful for that reason.
You know what I mean?
Like, I didn't make this record for nobody to hear it.
You know, it's like, I want people to hear it, man.
And I want people to give it a real shot.
And I think that's what ultimately, the conclusion I've kind of come to.
It's refreshingly humble man for someone who you know is about to go out, and I mean again, you're stepping into familiar rooms.
This isn't like you're walking into these stadiums for the first time.
You're going back and playing these places again two, three, four nights in a row.
We'll get to the touring side of it in a minute.
But you've got so much new music to play.
And you know what I love about this album as well is it starts with a bang.
It's got momentum and energy, and I'm back.
And don't worry about where I've been.
Don't worry about that.
I'm here now.
Let's get into it.
But it also does pick up a little bit from where Fathers and Sons left off.
A little bit.
You still stay reflective.
You're still thinking about things beyond what's going to make people bounce.
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
There's definitely, I wanted there to definitely be some moments on there of that.
You know I definitely wanted to kind of get back to you know, having some of the big uptempo fun stuff, but also wanted to not completely lose.
You know all the things that I've been doing in the last couple of years either.
You're a sensitive guy.
And I mean that as a compliment.
What, what song, if what's one of the songs on the on the lower tempo side of things really got you when you started to work with the writers and you and it really struck a chord with you.
I know they all do, but really got, really got your emotions going.
I mean, the way I am is the one that you know.
I would say if I had to pick a favorite and I didn't write that song.
It's a two-way that ended up in my inbox through a friend.
Where were you when you opened that up?
Let's really try to set the scene of what it's like to get a song like that and what it feels like to know that your life changed because you've just been gifted something so beautiful that speaks to you so much.
Yeah, it was uh, my buddy, rob snyder, who i wrote.
Uh, she got the best of me with years and years ago.
He sent it to me.
So you're answering that email, right?
I mean, that's it.
Yeah well, he sent it to me and i at the time, like i'm not, you know when i get, you know, sent these songs.
It's like i'm always i'm not always in the best situation to listen to them and i always want these songs, anything that's anybody sent to me.
You know, if I'm in the mode where I'm going to be making an album or working on stuff, like if songs are coming into me, I want to give them their respect to listen to them at a time when I'm open to hearing them.
Right.
So I spend a lot of time carving out an hour or two hours of my day.
You know, whether I'm like in the sauna or whatever, like somewhere where I can just sit and like listen.
And that's the only thing I have going on.
So I must have listened to 200 and something song starts or things that people sent me or ideas.
And that took me months to go through.
And I'm not doing it all by myself.
They're coming into my phone.
I'm putting them in different files stuff I haven't listened to, stuff I like, stuff I don't like, and just moving these things around.
So I'm spending a ton of time with these or ideas, or in the writing room coming up with my own stuff.
Because it must be changing shape too, as this one presents itself and suddenly becomes a real contender for your affection.
You must think like well, hang on.
That all of a sudden changes the shape of this one to some degree.
I mean, that song struck me in a way it was so old school sounding when I heard the demo of it.
And another thing that struck me about it is when I'm getting these songs and putting them in this folder.
It might be two, three weeks before I even put my ears on it.
So when I go back and look in this folder, I don't know who wrote it.
I don't know who sent it to me.
Unless I know whose voice is on the demo, then I can begin to have somewhat of an idea.
So I almost get the songs in a vacuum too where I'm going.
Okay well, I don't really know who wrote this.
So it doesn't, nothing gets an advantage in that sense because I'm just hearing it.
And this one particularly, it stumped me because I'm like, I don't know who's singing this.
I couldn't recognize the voice at all.
And I'm like, who is singing this?
I'm like, one, this song is insanely great.
And it's like.
I mean it sounds like something that you know Willie Nelson would have cut in the 60s or in the 50s or something.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's like such a slow, old sounding country song.
And I loved that because I'm like, who is even writing this stuff right now?
Like, it sounds, it's so great, you know?
And it took me forever to get to the bottom of the mystery.
I actually had to send it to my publisher and I was like, who is this?
Like, who sent me this?
Because you can't trace it back to the email, right?
Because it's in amongst them.
Well, they're texting me.
So I would go in.
What I would try to do is, if I really liked something, I'd be like who sent me this?
And I'd go in and I'd type in like the file name in my texts, but that doesn't always populate, for whatever reason.
It doesn't always populate back.
So I was having like a fit and I even played it for some of my songwriting buddies that I was like writing with on a couple of days.
I'm like, who is this?
Do you know who's singing this?
And they're like, bro, I got no idea who this is.
They're like, it's awesome.
But I got absolutely no idea who it is.
Then i found out it was my buddy rob, and i asked him about it and he's like yeah man, he's like i moved to, you know, i moved out of town a little bit and uh, there's a guy named chris galbuta, great writer in town.
It was him singing it and it was just the two of them.
He's like we've been getting together.
He's like we got kids the same age and he's like we would get.
We've been getting together like just at nights, like after our kids go to bed, like in the garage, So much as a whiskey and a song.
Let's go.
Yeah, and it's like writing stuff that maybe we didn't think that anybody would like, in the sense of stuff that we didn't think well, this guy or this guy or this guy is definitely going to cut this.
Let's just write some stuff for the love of the game kind of thing, without any ill intent of how do we get this to the right person, or whatever.
And this was one of those songs that came out of, you know, out of Rob's garage, him and Chris writing together
And I just fell in love with it.
And I was like, man, this song is perfect.
I don't need to I don't need to mess with it.
There's no way to make this any better.
You know, I'm just cut it the way it is.
You know what I mean?
Because it's I mean, you know, I'm jealous.
I wish I wrote it.
You know what I mean?
It's one of those things where you hear it and you're like.
I wish I could say I wrote that.
You know what I mean?
It's one of the best jealousies you can have is when you listen to something that someone else made and you're like, And you're like damn, it's perfect, you know.
I just, I couldn't have done it any better.
I probably would have made it worse.
To be honest.
That's the fact.
So let's talk about the mentality of the songwriter.
You're somebody who gets to work with great songwriters who love you, want to invest in your talents and ability, want to collaborate with you, want to hear how you want to contribute to the song.
I feel like there's always something very, noble about the songwriting and the songwriter process.
What have you learned about songwriters?
The kind of people who tuck themselves out of town and pick a guitar up or get behind an instrument and write a song with no fixed destination, just to breathe it into existence and the hope it finds a home.
What have you learned about these people?
I mean, I've learned that one.
They will never be appreciated enough, um by us artists, or by the fans, or by the industry, I think they are.
I think they end up at the bottom of the totem pole and I think that that's super wrong.
You know what I mean.
I mean those, those people, much like the session players, you know.
I mean none of these great records exist without these people.
You know what I mean?
Like they are quite literally the foundation of the music business, not just in Nashville, but in LA or in New York.
Like there are all these people that are, that you'll never hear about that are so incredibly talented, like just beyond measure talented, you know? and they're compensated it feels like pennies you know for all this massive effort and creativity and you know the amount of time they spend shaping you know your favorite artists I mean there's I mean, there's 10, 15 writers that if had never been born, we wouldn't be here talking.
It's so tough.
It's such an undeniable fact of life in the modern age.
And it's such a tough realization, especially like look at the two of us, right?
We've made music our life.
Sure.
And we're sitting in this beautiful room at a place that really cares but is ultimately a part of an unstoppable progression of industry that has minimized all of that.
And we're here for all the right reasons, but it's like the wrong side of history.
For the right reasons.
And it's so hard to acknowledge that, because it's so true.
And I got people who I love dearly who are writing and starting to write, starting to move out.
They know the realities of it, but it's not gonna stop them.
Yeah, I mean it's like back in the day you know you could get an album cut on somebody and make a living dude.
Like a nice, a very nice living getting an album cut.
You know when you think about someone like you know Shania Twain selling 25 million records on one record.
Yeah, yeah, you're good.
I mean, if you got an album cut on that record, you're getting 10 cents an album, dude.
I mean, that's a couple million bucks we're talking about to get a song that's not even on the radio.
And now you're...
You're barely making a living if you're getting one single a year, which is even that's so hard to even do that.
It's like you're barely, you know.
There's still crowds on Music Row queuing up to get in the room to do this.
Oh, there's people that would do unspeakable things just to get the chance.
And that's what I mean.
There's a nobility to this sort of desire, this process of going out and again finding yourself just breathing these songs.
How many songs does Rob have that Luke Holmes or no one else has cut?
That's just sitting there looking for a home.
I mean, I think about the ones that no one's even heard.
You know what I mean?
Like the ones that, you know, you're trusting your publisher to get these in people's hands.
And like, is that even happening sometimes?
You know what I mean?
And that's not at fault.
I mean, they're getting hundreds of songs a day.
But we're in this era now where it's like almost the songwriter kind of also has to do their own PR, like they have to go out it's.
So everything's kind of feels a little closed door, where it's like, hey man, if you ain't in the circle with Luke, then you're not getting anything.
You're not getting anything and nothing's getting in front of them.
And it's a special circle too, because you don't play the game that others have to or want to play.
It's not like If we want to work with Luke, we've got to join the Luke circus.
There's all of these things that have to be done, all these promotional beats you have to hit social media, all this stuff.
That's a reality of kids trying to market themselves into existence these days.
And somehow you've been able to create a beautiful foundation for yourself to do what you love to do.
And I don't think you've ever played that game, don't even know what your social media presence really even is.
I used to i mean, that was how i got my start, for sure was on vine and and doing all those different things and yeah, trying to be around, and but that wasn't the formula at that time either.
Yeah, that wasn't the industry standard.
It is now.
Now it is like if you're not marketing yourself and doing you, then you're falling behind.
Yeah yeah, and i feel that way myself.
You know what i mean?
You feel that pressure Oh, certainly.
I mean, there's always, you know, you could do more of this and you could do more of that.
And, for sure, there's times where I'm like.
Why am I not just you know?
Why did I not make a Instagram video of me walking in here today?
You know what I mean?
And it's like, I always think about it.
You can do it for everything.
That's the thing.
It's insatiable.
Right.
It's like, it's kind of, and then it becomes like, well, is that what I'm doing all the time?
Like, I almost feel like you don't get the opportunity to enjoy things anymore.
Isn't that what this is all about?
Because you want someone else to enjoy it.
You know what I mean?
It's like, damn, I want to enjoy my life.
I want to be excited and not go, well, I'll be getting a good... Let me re-walk in.
Because I didn't walk in good enough.
Or my shirt wasn't... I'm ready if you want to...
But I think it's funny.
I was talking to my wife the other day, you know, watching, seeing videos or sending things.
And I was telling her, the more I think about it, the more I watch stuff.
And again, there's nothing wrong with this, man.
People love doing this stuff.
They want to do it and I'm all for it.
But I remember going like now I watch stuff and I process things and I go think about how many videos this guy took to make this.
30 second time.
Like this guy is like oh, maybe he's made a video of him cooking dinner, or let's say that
And I'm like, there's 25 edits in this video and it's a minute and a half long.
How long did it take him to cook?
You're making a video called 30 minute meals.
It took you fucking two hours to make the dinner.
You didn't tell me the part about having to set the ring light tripod up over the top of the pan with garlic in it.
That is a method, too.
Let me do the BTS on the thing I just did.
So we now have BTS on the thing that I did.
It's endless, dude.
It's endless.
What's in your algorithm that you can tell?
What are you watching right now?
What's going to show up in your doom scroll?
There's always golf stuff in there.
Yeah.
There's always a goss.
It's so dead.
It's just barbecue videos.
It's like farts.
A lot of fart humor.
It's just the most boring video game stuff.
It's the most uninteresting algorithm.
But here's the thing I love about my algorithm is I have a tendency to love to comment on new artists' music.
And artists that don't have anything going on.
Sometimes kids sitting on their parents' back porch that are 18 years old playing guitar.
And I'm like, this person is an absolute genius and they have no idea.
Like this video could, as long as I get stuff come across and it's got two 300 likes on it and I'll fire a comment on it and I'm like hey man, you're unbelievably talented.
Like this is, like you need to hear this.
And not that my opinion really matters.
You do it as a fan.
I do it as a fan, but also as like.
I can't imagine if 10 years ago someone would have commented you know, if Eric Church were to comment on my video and said hey man, you're super good.
That cosine is everything at that moment.
The amount of the confidence that would bring you or could bring a kid that like.
Is that the difference between them going well?
Should I give up or not?
Even if it gets them another week of keeping going.
Dude, like I mean, in some ways it feels like a superpower, like to be able to just go in and like say hey man, I've done what you did and I've made it to where I've made it to.
And just keep going, dude.
Like you're good.
You're really good.
You're speaking my language, man.
I mean, this is a part of what is the driving mechanism for doing what I do, which is to just encourage the arts to keep going.
Yeah, man.
Like it's so hard out there.
There's so many reasons to doubt yourself.
We were just talking about this with the band this morning.
There's so many reasons that push back against your instinct that it seems like until you get through the other side of it and then look back on it, because in that moment you're just in it.
You look back on it, you're like, how did I do that?
How was that not insurmountable for me to just listen to that one voice at the wrong time and be like ah, you know, this is not for me.
And so many hurdles to jump through, so many obstacles to avoid along the way.
You know, that even one of those pats on the back from somebody.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, the recognition from somebody of you know that's made it down the road you know that you eventually want to be to is, I think, a super powerful thing.
I never stopped doing that.
I love doing it.
And it gives, you know, and I get to discover awesome music that I never would have discovered.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, can you open that up and maybe you already have you know to.
I mean, I know these are stadiums and some of these artists aren't ready to step out in front of 50, 60000 people.
But you know, are there times when you hear somebody and you're like man, I'm going to keep an eye on that person because at the opportunity to bring that person on the road, when that time arises, let me let Cappy know keep an eye on this.
Oh, for sure.
There's a band going out with me this year called Thelma and James and it's two artists in Nashville that are married and they wrote a song together and they're like we hadn't written a song together in seven years and we're married and we do very different kind of things.
And it came on my feed, and I commented on it, and now they're going on tour with me.
I love it.
It's not something that I don't, but also I'm not somebody that's like I don't ever want to do it in a predatory sense, where it's like Oh, let me sign you bro.
Or what?
Like, I don't do any of that stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like I don't have an imprint.
Like I'm not trying to sign you to a publishing deal.
Like, and not because I don't want to help you.
I just don't want to help people and them have the opportunity to feel like there's any caveats to me thinking they're good.
I don't want to take advantage of you being good.
You being good is great.
And I would love to help people.
And I want to do that.
But I haven't quite figured out a way.
And going on tour is the best way.
If you're ready for that, of course, you have to have the foundation to be able to do that.
Because they walk away with a real experience, right?
Even if it's a bad show, it's a real experience.
It's not like, hey, man, you're great.
Sign this publishing deal.
Listen, I mean, I've... I mean, that's to me is like, that's brutal.
You know what I mean?
I've had some experience in that, and no disrespect to the people who are successful in that world man.
I mean, I love good people in the industry that are keeping the wheels turning.
Somebody's got to do it.
Someone's got to do it.
But you have to have a certain mentality to be able to.
I mean, I probably do myself out of a job in the future maybe, but I struggle to get part If someone's really talented.
I just wanna help them out.
And maybe they're not mentally capable of doing that yet.
And the smart people I've noticed who run these things.
They bet on the person, even if the talent needs work.
They see what's behind the eyes.
And I'm like, if the music moves me, I'm ready to go.
Oh, yeah, dude.
And sometimes the person isn't ready and I'm like, oh my God, it's been six years, you know they're not going to put a record out.
But I love that, you know, it's such a fucking fine line there, man.
Right.
I think the thing that also kind of scares me about the social media stuff is, let's say, let's take me out of the equation, right?
Like there's a, let's say, there's one of these kids potentially that are great and they're on their parents porch and they're putting themselves out there and that's what they want to do and they have the opportunity to promote themselves and gain recognition on their own accord because they are good and people see them and they are good.
I love that that's happening.
I also get afraid of that.
It doesn't allow you to to fail in a private way at all.
You don't get the opportunity to go play shitty gigs and have a rough show.
From the inception of your I want to start an artist career, you're immediately scrutinized by strangers from around the world.
And people are going you're great, you're great, or you suck, or you're fat, or you're shitty, or you don't look the part.
Or it hasn't happened yet for you.
Right.
Or, you know, when's this going to be on Apple Music?
There's all this pressure of like, get me stuff now.
And it's like well then, you don't get the opportunity to explore your sound, to gain experience on stage?
And not that you have to have that.
There's plenty of people that have become successful out of that world now.
We're in the time now where there are arena acts that started that never played a bar gig.
And that's wild to me.
And it's okay.
But I think there's so much.
You have to find yourself as a person.
You're 22 years old.
You have to find yourself as an entertainer.
You have to find yourself as a writer, as a singer.
You have to fail in front of everyone.
And I didn't have to do that.
I feel like I was the last generation of artists that didn't have to fail in front of everyone.
I got to fail in the privacy of my own living room or in the privacy of my local bar, without it being constantly on the internet.
Now I was putting myself out.
There was also an expert level singer at the time that i started.
Yeah, i had done my 10 000 hours three times over.
By the time i even picked the guitar up.
Yeah, for me the real point of of self-consciousness was the guitar playing.
Yeah yeah, it still is ultimately.
But that's the thing that like.
I just wish that maybe they got a little bit of a.
I just hope young artists don't feel like you don't have to start putting yourself out there yet.
You're not missing your whole career by taking two or three years to hone your craft and write things.
And if you want to put yourself out there, you should.
That's a right that you have and an awesome advantage that no artist in history of music has had until now.
So it's something that if you want to take advantage of, you should, but also you shouldn't feel the pressure of well, the guy in the next town over, he's got 10000 followers and I don't have any.
Or he's got a hundred thousand followers and I've only got 10, and you're judging yourself and you're going yeah, but you may, you're not running a race against anybody else.
You may be on the same track, but the finish line is different.
The finish line is up to you.
It starts when you want it to start and it ends when you want it to end.
And you get to make the whole thing.
It's not like, well, someone else finishes before me, then I lose.
Wise words from a good man.
It's just not like that.
It's so refreshing again to hear you talk like this, because you could very easily and with no bad intention at all, with all the best intention, just cocoon yourself away and be like okay, I'm Luke.
I've built this beautiful, like I said, this wonderful relationship with a lot of people around the world.
I've got a great team around me and you know godspeed, you go figure out your pile.
I got my pile.
We're good to go man, i'll see you down the road if you make it, but it's so clear to me that you've never forgotten how it felt to be fresh.
Certainly certainly man, and it's.
There's no playbook man, like there's nobody telling you how to do it.
You know what i mean.
It feels like there's so many people that are out to like like I got to get to this guy first and make sure that you know I get him to sign this bad deal or whatever.
And you know there's so much of that out there.
You know, and also just want young artists to just have confidence man.
And like, you know, know that there's, people out there that do care.
And there's people out there that want you to succeed for the right, simply because they want you to succeed as a person.
And you know, the success and the money and the fame is all a byproduct of your love for what you do.
It should never be the reason that you do it.
You know what I mean?
It's like, yes, it's nice.
Everybody dreams about what if I'm playing these big shows and I make this money and I have nice cars and all these things?
Yeah that's, that's that.
It can be part of it for sure, but it's gotta come back to the love of the game.
And if you reach the levels that certain artists reach, like the level that I've been lucky to reach now, you have to give back to the game.
You gotta want it to get better.
You gotta want other artists to succeed.
I want everybody to succeed.
And most people do that by starting an imprint, but I love the fact that you are probably, by the way you're talking, the most well-suited person to start an artist-focused imprint, who never will.
The fact that you say you don't want to feel predatory or like there's a trade involved here is brilliant.
But man, you're speaking the kind of truth that I would love a label to speak to if I was a new artist at this point, to give me the space and grace to be able to grow and not throw me in the bear pit straight away.
Have I convinced you yet to start a record label?
I'm chipping away at it man, maybe at another time you know what I mean.
I mean, it's just, I don't know, like the the money stuff is so hard and you know because, if you are going to start a business or a label or an imprint like, ultimately the goal is it that you do want it to be profitable, you do want to make money and and that's where, like that's the hurdle I can never get over, Is it like, How do I do that and retain my integrity?
Yes.
And how do I have these artists fully trust me and not go?
Well, this guy, he's only wants to.
Well, it's hard to trust somebody that's making money off of you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And also It's hard to trust their opinion because it's like well yeah, we put another album out yeah.
Well, let's also be honest about artist imprints as well.
And I mean, there's some very successful ones and people who walk the line very well.
But for the most part it's hard when you're a new artist signing to a label that's ultimately helmed by an artist that's bigger than you.
On a good day, you're like, I'm benefiting from all of that.
On a bad day, I'm like, why am I not getting some of the resources that the boss has?
And it gets really tricky and really complicated.
And I've spoken to artists who have been signed to other artists labels and they've spoken honestly about it, about the psychology games that get in your head about like I just wanna get where they are, but am I ever gonna be allowed to get where they are?
Cause they are ultimately the number one in this business.
It's really hard.
Yeah, for sure.
Really hard.
For sure.
Man, this album for Luke Combs fans is such a fulfillment of anticipation and the hope that you were gonna come back and really swing for the fences.
You really have.
It leads you into a beautiful place in terms of touring.
Again, this is another stadium tour for you.
How do you feel about going back out to places that probably felt, you know, like a dream come true the first time?
How does it feel going back out to these places knowing okay, I know what the basement, what the always feel of this place?
I remember that place in Oslo.
Yeah, for sure, man.
It's like, it's exciting.
You know what I mean?
I mean we haven't done.
I mean, obviously last year we just we did some massive shows last year, but they were all festivals, you know, and they weren't our own shows and our own thing.
And you know not a hundred percent our own fans there.
Just If there's 80000 people out there last year it could have been 60000 was like Well, yeah.
Can I jump in there and talk about Lollapalooza, which to me?
I love that because clearly you've grown beyond the country music space and become your own thing.
Sure.
Lollapalooza is a festival that takes risks on that.
It was one of the first festivals to really lean into the K-pop space and be like nope, you're going to headline that.
And I love the fact that you went out and did a festival which historically, is rooted in the alternative music space.
How did it feel going out in front of that crowd?
Oh, it was awesome.
I mean, we did, we did Lala, we did Newport Folk.
It was a fun year, man.
It was an, it was a challenge.
You know, we had some great guests come out a lot of these shows.
Um, and I mean a lot of these shows.
You know we took a huge.
I mean there's multiple of these shows that I didn't make any money.
You know, like we took a loss.
Like playing Newport Folk, like I took a massive loss playing that.
I just want to go out like I want to challenge myself and you know I want to go well hey well, how do I play a broke down acoustic set in front of people that are at Newport Folk Festival and them have a level of respect for me when I leave and go?
Well, this guy you know.
This guy gets it, you know?
And not that I'm going out there and gonna be, you know, I'm never gonna be Bob Dylan.
I mean, no one's saying that.
I'm not saying that.
But I know that I have something to offer for anyone that listens to music.
You don't have to like beer never broke my heart.
You don't have to like when it rains, it pours, but i promise you there's something you like and it's not just i'm not doing that for myself, i feel like i wanted to do that for my genre.
Um, country music is as popular as it's ever been now and i feel like it.
It's in such a rare space and i feel like that was.
That was kind of me wanting to do my thing to try and capitalize on the momentum that that we have as a genre for the greater good of this genre in the future.
Right for someone at Newport Folk who would never have put one of my songs on ever in history.
And they're standing there and they're going.
God, this guy's got a couple things I did.
Yeah, maybe there's other country artists out there that also have stuff that I like and then maybe that person know loses their bias or their you know, subconscious kind of prejudice to country music.
They're like ah, there could never.
I could never like it.
It's never something i could like until you're standing there on the bay getting to the heart of it and you're listening to it going.
I, I believe this guy.
That's it.
I believe it.
And there's something out, there's some.
There's other artists out there who I will believe or who I will love.
Like I hoped to do that this past year.
Hopefully I did that.
You know, obviously you go and do the moment with Alex Warren at Lollapalooza, which was it would never thought would have turned out the way that it did, in the sense of I mean, I knew we would crush it, but I just didn't think that people would gravitate towards it the way that they did.
Um, always thankful for those moments, but never while we plan them.
I'm not planning that moment to like, how do I get this big viral thing?
It's great when it happens, and I'm very happy when it happens, but it's never the intent.
Because I think you're both outliers.
I think that's the thing.
You're such an interesting story Luke, because and we've talked about this a bit before, but it becomes more clear to me every time I see you and hear your music is like you're the most popular successful outsider, in a way.
Do you know what I mean?
I said this to Mumford & Sons the other day as well, and I'm gonna say it to you too.
It's kind of like a great unlikely success story in some ways.
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
I don't think I was ever the, I'm definitely not the lab-grown country singer look.
You know what I mean?
It's not even just about the look, though.
It's even just the kind of music you came out with originally and the journey you've been on and the kind of honesty you put.
And again, the era of no.
It feels like you are moving in the moment to your own cause.
And if that requires a hard no, it's a hard no.
That doesn't scream, I'm desperate for success here.
And yet it continues to grow in such a beautiful way.
I mean who can go out there and play not just Europe but Australasia, all these parts of the world, and play stadiums.
It's a global thing.
It speaks to that.
It is wild.
Yeah.
I mean, I had never guessed that we would get to the point that we're at now.
Do you have moments where you and your wife sit around and just kind of – do you allow yourself the opportunity to reflect a little bit on it, if nothing else, just to qualify the experience and form memories?
I think – yeah.
I mean, I think sometimes I kind of like intentionally – don't think about it, because I'm just like at some point it feels unhealthy to like try to process it or something.
I don't know.
It feels like you're kind of like sniffing your own farts a little bit.
If you're thinking about it all the time, you're like, God, man, it's like, look how good, man.
I really did it, man.
I'm awesome.
I'm the best.
How did I make it this far?
Of course I made it this far.
You know what I mean?
But that feels like a little bit of a slippery slope, like drinking the Kool-Aid a little bit too much about yourself.
I really do try to stay grounded in family and friends and try to not let the level of success be my identity in how I view myself as a person.
I'm a person that's trying to do the best I can as a dad, as a boss, as an artist, as a singer, as a performer all these different things as a friend, as a collaborator and try to be the best version of myself and give as much of myself as I can to everyone else and stay sane and not think of myself as better than anyone else or different than anyone else.
Like when I'm home, man, let's just go to the grocery store with my kids and just get groceries.
And like, that's what I do, man.
Like that's like, people are like, I can't believe you do that.
And I'm like, why not?
I mean, it's what I've always done.
You just, you know, if I want to go get something to eat, I'll just go get something to eat.
It's not, I don't know.
I just try to not operate in the vacuum of like celebrity, because I'm kind of uncomfortable with like that.
The attention of it all feels a little bit.
Well, you've literally built a world for yourself away from all that.
I mean, you know you've got this beautiful expansive, hard-earned parcel of land that probably allows you the space to be able to go and find some real solace at any given moment.
How was range life?
How was life?
I mean, how do you take advantage of that in order to just connect with nature and be a part of that experience and step away from all of this?
I mean, you know, the outdoors is a huge part of, you know, how I've gotten to stay so grounded.
I think you know, finding that you know someone who didn't grow up hunting or anything like that.
That was something that I found maybe 12 years ago.
And um, you know, I had friends that were songwriting, that were doing it, you know, and that's kind of sounds like drugs.
I had friends that were doing it, you know.
So I kind of.
But it became I was like well, I got to be curious.
I'm like, well, why do these guys love this so much?
Like, what's there to love about it?
You know what I mean?
How could you, how could you, you know, how could you do this and enjoy it or whatever?
And it's like, you go out and you do it.
It's like, it's like, it was the complete opposite of my life at the time.
When I started doing it it was like It was go, go go PR PR, radio radio this this, all the time.
It was gone all the time.
You know what I mean?
All the time.
Hundreds of days a year, for sure, away from home, not sleeping in my own bed.
And your life is just changing at like light speed.
You know what I mean.
All of a sudden, people recognize you everywhere you go and you're like well, how do i deal with?
You're trying to figure that out like, how do i deal with this?
Like, who am i going to be, who's this new version of myself going to be and how am i going to handle this and how am i going to cope with it?
And just this, you know, like whole magnetic pole shift of your entire life is like turned on its head almost instantly, you know, and he's a real kicker.
I asked for that.
That's the real yeah, yeah.
And then it's like you're also a young person too, so you're kind of like at the time, you know, i mean i was lucky to be 25 when it happened to me, but some people they're 16 or 17 years old.
I can't imagine.
You know, it doesn't end well often no, and so that was the place i would go.
That was just.
It was the polar opposite of everything else in my life.
It was complete quiet, complete solitude and peace with like, one goal in mind.
And so now, you know, obviously having the land and living on it is a lot of the things I do is, you know, me and my son like we'll go to the creek and they just sit there and throw rocks in the water, like we just stand on the edge of the creek and they're like dad, I want to throw rocks.
I'm like you can throw rocks, pal.
Go ahead.
At the end of the album, song 22, a man was born.
You know, it's important.
I think that we give some time to talk about that and why that was chosen to finish the record.
You know, every arc tells a story.
Why does the album end there?
You know, I think I'm constantly evolving, you know, as a person.
And I look back on all these moments where I was like, man, I got it all figured out.
You know, like life's good now, like this will be, this is the end, like now i've figured everything out.
Yeah, you know what i mean, and there's always like the next challenge or the next thing that reveals itself.
That goes well.
You didn't know, pal bro, i had yesterday and i had a sleepless night last night.
How's that?
From back to back, i was like what?
The today was great.
Why am i in my head?
What's going on?
Like it's crazy.
Yeah, i'm just learning.
You know what i mean.
It's like just constantly, But allowing those moments, you know I mean that song has, you know, it's a few kind of seminal moments in that song of it's like you get in the big car accident when you're a kid and it's like there's these foundational moments you kind of remember that changed who you are from that point on.
And that song just kind of it kind of just openly displays those like moments of vulnerability or ego death or whatever you want to call it.
That happened in a man's life, you know.
And those moments are still happening to me.
I was in my sad boy feels last night, man.
They still happen to me.
I'm not immune from it.
I'm not more of a man than anybody else.
I'm just a guy that's trying to be the best version of himself for his family, for himself, and yeah, I think that's what kind of what this record is and the work that went into it is.
You know that was my reasoning for doing it.
You know is is doing it for my kids and and showing them.
You know i want to.
You know like you fantasize a lot as an artist.
You're like well man, i'll just like you say you just pack it up and go home and just be done with it.
You know what i mean.
Like i'll just you know.
And then i'm like well, what is that gonna like?
What are my kids gonna think when they're seven years old?
And it's like dad's just booming around the house all day and he doesn't, you know, he doesn't do anything.
Well, that's not the great example either.
You know what I mean.
Like I want them to see me.
We have a short window where their experience is your experience.
Yeah.
And then you start to live vicariously through their experience.
Exactly.
And you've got to feel to some degree satisfied with your efforts or your journey in order to truly appreciate where they're going to go and be able to deal with it with some grace and wisdom.
Because otherwise... the trade gets all messed up.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
But you're in the window right now where they get to see the world through your eyes.
Both the biggest experiences, dad working in front, like whoa.
I mean, how old is Tex now?
He's three or three, he's almost.
He'll be four in june, so he's gonna he's gonna probably see a show around now and it's gonna stick in his memory one way and then at the end of this run, he's gonna see a show and in the level of development and speed of which that happens, it's gonna.
It's gonna stick in his memory a completely separate way.
So there's that side of it.
But then it's also like yeah, but i'm coming home, bro.
Yeah, like we like we were, like me and tex were on a ride yesterday On my property.
We're in the truck and I have my little iPhone mount where I have my music up or whatever.
And it's sitting there, and I leave the screen open so I can see what song's playing.
And then on my dash, I've got my GPS or whatever.
That's just always the way I do it.
So we're driving around the trails or whatever, and there was a song from Southeastern Jason Isbell on.
And I was like Hey.
I was like Hey buddy, he was sitting in the center console of my truck and I'm driving and he's sitting up on the console so he can see out, and my phone's right there in front of him.
And I was.
He was looking at my phone, cause there's just the album cover, you know, and the song and the songs playing and
He's kind of looking at it and I was like, Hey man, it's like, you see the, see that guy on there?
He was like, yeah.
He's like, what's he doing with his face?
And you know, I'm like, oh, he's doing this, you know?
And he's like, what's he doing with his eyes or whatever, you know?
And he's just little kid questions.
And I was like, well, you know why he's on there.
Right.
And he was like, well, hi.
And I was like, well he's, he's on, like he sings songs for a living for people and people listen to his songs and they like listening to his songs.
And he's kind of looked at me and I was like, well, you know, that's what Dada does.
That's what I do too.
That's what Dada does for work.
And he was kind of like I mean, obviously they hear me sing at home and- No, but that's a beautiful thing to describe it in such simple terms at a moment where it needs to be clear.
And it was like that ride lasted maybe 20 minutes.
Yeah.
And it was like, I had never seen him actively listening to music, right?
Like there's always music going on.
And like, it was like, he was old enough to understand.
And he kind of looked at me and was just kind of like, cause he was putting it together.
Like, oh, well, yeah, I've seen you sing and I've seen that on TV at these things.
And well, he's probably just thinks everybody's doing that thing.
You know he said well, everyone's dad's on TV.
Everybody's dad, you know, goes and sing songs for people.
That's just what dads do.
You know what I mean?
And so it was like, he's, so we listened, it was like Southeastern's on, we play one song from that.
I just had my phone on shuffle.
And then it was like, the next one's like, if you're gone, Matchbox 20, he was on.
And he's like just kind of like.
He's just sitting there like entranced, like looking at my phone, like hearing these songs.
And it truly, it was yesterday, it was literally yesterday.
And it was like the first time he had ever like understood, like heard music and like heard it for what it is and not just be on.
You're a real one man, you really are well, and we appreciate that yeah, as people on this planet.
Um congratulations man, on this album.
Thank you, appreciate that.
You've got an incredible couple of years ahead of you.
You did it, by the way, you could take, you could take your foot off the recording gas for just a minute.
Right, you did it, you know, you challenged yourself, you made a record.
22 songs fit us all.
Um, and to some degree, as we say goodbye right now, that must feel and i mean this is a good thing it must feel a sense of relief that you could climb that mountain once again, because when you take a break like that, come off of fathers and sons you must be thinking like to your point why am i doing this?
Do i have the energy and the commitment to go back in and do this again?
Yeah, and then you're ultimately, you're waiting to like, You know, will people still care to the same extent that they did before?
You know what I mean?
And then you're analyzing, well, why do I even care about that?
It's a whole dichotomy you need a therapist to talk through.
But it's all interesting stuff.
But I'm very excited for this record.
I love it, obviously, or it wouldn't be putting it out.
So I hope people like it.
You know what?
I just hope people listen to it.
How about that?
It's great to see you, brother.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me, man.
Anytime and every time, you know.
Yes, sir.
