Speaker 1 (00:06):
The song comes out Friday, right, it jumps up on
streams because this video is reacting. I don't have a manager,
I don't have a record label. It's just me and
this goes kaboom and I'm sitting here like what do
I do? I hope I get a record deal and
nobody calls.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Episode four fifty seven with Drew Baldridge.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
He has a song called She's Somebody's Daughter that's currently
Top twenty, and it's his first ever top twenty, which
I was surprised to hear. And it's his first ever
top forty, is what he said, right, yep. But his
whole story of how he got here, I did not
know it until I started to read about him and
talk about him, and I was kind of blown away
by this interview. I don't think I've ever met him
until he came over and we did this. As a

(00:45):
matter of fact, I didn't know what to expect, but
really I came away from this this has been one
of my favorites in a long time.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
His name is Drew Baldridge.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm just gonna shut up and let you hear it
because it's an awesome story. I'm not crazy, right, No,
It's an awesome story.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
I kind of just kind of waded into it not
knowing what to it was, and the whole time I
could have done.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Two hours with this guy. Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Drew Baldridge Follow him on Instagram Drew Baldridge Music. Check
out his music, go buy his merch He you know,
worked on a farm. It's a family farm of Potokio, Illinois.
And next thing you know, he's here. Next thing you know, well,
all this happens here. He is Drew Baldridge. True.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
How's it going?

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Buddy?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Good?

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Buddy, how are you good?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Are you a sports fan?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Huge sports fan?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Are you a former athlete?

Speaker 4 (01:30):
I am? Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
What is your thought on why? Because I have a thought?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
What is your thought on why there are so many
athletes that are also successful artists?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Oh man?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Or maybe there's no correlation at all.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I think I think it's also like the hard work
determination aspect. Maybe, you know, I know, growing up sports
was like everything. Like music really wasn't anything until I
was like sixteen seventeen. But just talking to a lot
of other athletes, know, I feel like, if you're an artist,
you want to be a baseball player a basketball player

(02:05):
and vice versa. You know, I know several other like
sports guys that would like love to sing.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
You know, it's super interesting.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I think that has a lot to do with the
culture of competition within yourself. I think if you grew
up an athlete, you know how to work. Yeah, you
know how to train, you know that you've got to
get better. You're comparing yourself against others, against what you've
done in the past yesterday. Hard work is a big

(02:35):
part of it. I mean, to be an elite athlete.
It's not like even if you're super talented, it's that
easy to still be an eleaite athlete.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think that's a lot to do with it.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
And only asked that because it got a lot of
d ms of people just asking me random questions, and
one of them was that it was why are there
so many athletes slash artists? And I think those cultures
mix well together.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, I do agree the challenge aspect of like competition,
you know, there's always I mean, as much as we
don't want to do it, and we always say we don't,
look at the friends around you. You know, some of
my friends have been uber successful and some of the
went home, you know, And but there's always that drive
of no matter if they're your friend or not, you

(03:19):
want to win.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
You know.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's like you got a pickle ball court, you know
you're talking about It's like, no matter who you have
on that court, you're gonna try to you're gonna try
to win.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, we'll kill you. Do you ever to play pickleball?

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I have?

Speaker 4 (03:29):
So we used to do it all time in high school,
which is interesting.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well that was before I even thought pickleball exists.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
I know.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
And so now it's like this whole new craze and
I'm like, man, everybody is talking about pickleball.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And we did in high school pickleball.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
In high school, we did yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, they had like tape on the gym floor and
we would play. We played in high school, like twelve
years ago.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Where'd you grow up?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Grew up in southern Illinois? Patka, Illinois, Boom in metropolis?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
What's that near? How far is away from somewhere that
I know?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Probably?

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Have you ever heard of Mount Vernon, Illinois? Or Saint
Louis eighty.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Miles east straight east now we're talking, or straight yeah,
straight east of Saint Louis, Saint Louis. We were in
Saint Louis two weeks ago, and what was annoying to
us was because we went to work out with the Cardinals,
which is super cool.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
They invited us up. We get to love that work
out with a huge Cardinals fan.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Are you the massive It's cool. I give you a
couple of stories then. But we were there and we
wanted to we wanted to bet. We couldn't because it's
not legal in Missouri and have a big deal with DraftKings,
and they were like, just drive over.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
The state line.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Not the Cardinals, by the way, it wasn't the Cardinals said.
We were doing a podcast there out in front of
the stadium before we went into work with the Cardinals,
and Eddie and I were so frustrated because we couldn't
bet inside Missouri because you Canton, Tennessee. Yeah you can
in Illinois. And they were like, they have like boats there.
I guess the boat the boats, Yeah, it makes the water.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Which is also the most ridiculous thing because growing up
in Arkansas, there was no gambling in Arkansas except for
the race track, the horse race track, but nothing else.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
You can only gamble on horse in this one spot.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
So we would drive to Louisiana, and even in Louisiana
you couldn't gamble unless.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
You were gambling on the water on a boat. But
it wasn't really a boat. It was a big, huge,
like old school. It looked like one of those old
civil wars.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Doesn't move, it just states it's not really a barely
floating Yeah, because it's on water, they allowed you to
gamble on it.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
That's funny. What was what was home like for you?
Parents together?

Speaker 4 (05:24):
Parents together? Yeah, I was very blessed man.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I had a great family, very Christian household.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
We were farm family. So my grandpa farmed and he
farmed corn and beans, and we uh had cattle a hundred.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Head of cattle or so. So we did a lot
of work on that.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
And it's you know, I always tell everybody a lot
of music, you know, kind of comes with that.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
We were not rich farmers. You know.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's old tractors and combine combine, Yeah, old white tractors,
and they would break down like every every year, you know,
like something would break and it would be like, well,
we're just gonna try to fix it, you know, and
see what we can move on That's how always fell
about music a little bit too kind of interesting, of
like something always breaks, you know, something doesn't go your way,
but you just hey, you got to get the crop in,

(06:11):
you know, you got to get it out.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Did you have a new combine? Oh? Did you ever
get to it?

Speaker 4 (06:14):
We had this old gleaner, all right, and it's called
a gleaner.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
And I'll never forget one time my grandpa was combined
in the field. It was wheat, and sparks were flying
out the top of this whole week of this old combine,
and I had one of my best friends with me
and caught the whole field on fire. The whole thing
was up because the sparks. Yeah, because sparks fell out.
And I run out there and I'm like waving my grandpa.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Now, I was like stop stopping. He's like what what.
I'm like, the whole look behind you. There's a trail
of fire.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
And I'm like running up to my uncle's house with
buckets out of the pool and like trying to put
this fire out.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
When I did a show on that GEO called Breaking
Bobby Bones, one of the deals that I did was
I went to a farm in Virginia, and they had
me use every version basically a combine, but I used
a hand and then that's tractor pulling, and then I
used a big, new, nice combine.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Those things are so nice, so nice. It's like a million.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Dollars drives itself GPS, it's air conditioned. You just sit
in and basically turn the corner. It's like an anesthesiologist.
You're trained for if something goes wrong. Otherwise you just
sit and chill and helped that. The day is what
the day brings.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
And we didn't have any of those new ones.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
And my brother is still farms back home, and I
think my brother and my cousins are getting newer. But
like when I was growing up, man, all they I
was the baby of the family, so it was like
got all the crap jobs, you know. It's like, hey
you haul the grain in, you know, or hey you
disked the field. There was nothing of me driving the
combine because they did not trust little baby Drew to
do that.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Who lived in the house, Your mom or dad? You?

Speaker 1 (07:50):
My mom, my dad? Me and my older brother how
much older. He was two and a half years older.
So when I when he was a senior, I was
a freshman and uh, you know they all still live
in little Patoka.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
If you wanted to go to a concert or too.
We had town if you wanted to go to town,
but there were no concerts in town. You have to
keep going to Littleron to get to town to a concert.
Where would concerts be or whe would you go grocery shopping?

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Well, like you know school, like if we go school
close shopping, we'd go to Saint Louis area, like Fairview.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Heights and half our and a half.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, their concerts Verizon Wireless, you know, Amphitheater, I don't
know if it's still called that or not. Out on
in Saint Louis area. That's where we would go to
like watch Tobe Heath, you know, and Tray Atkins. That
was like one of my first prominent concerts was watching them.
But you know you could drive up to We've gone
up to Springfield, Illinois, which is state capitol like state Fair,

(08:42):
you know, watched Aldan and Chris Young there like my
senior year high school, and that was like another place
like county fairs, you know, And they're starting to become
more shows than what they were when I was growing
up because it was just hard.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
It's just hard to get to a concert. You know,
you go to church.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
And you play music, and you watch people on CMT,
and you know you would just that's where you found
your music, was the radio.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Or that where was music in your house?

Speaker 1 (09:08):
My dad sang. My dad sang in church, and so
I just wanted to sing in church too. So I
started singing in church when I was I think first
time I sang was first grade Christmas program at my school,
and then that turned into anytime there was a talent
show in town or anytime there was, you know, a

(09:31):
church function, I would lead worship.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Did your dad want to be a singer or was
it just something he liked to do since he was
home He's like to do it at home.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, I just think he liked to do it.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
He liked to sing Southern gospel music, so lots of
old cassettes of the Cathedrals and Statesman Quartet, and he
just loved singing, you know, Southern gospel church music.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
So it was just something he was passionate about.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
So but when I started doing it, it's definitely made
like his passion. I think he sees a lot of
himself and probably what we're doing now of music, and
he never misses a show and we're up there. They
traveled down here a lot. He follows me to a
lot of places, and it's been really fun to kind
of share that hobby with my dad.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
What did he and or your mom think whenever you
wanted to get into this non traditional career.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Well, you know, I had a scholarship to go to
a little little college and next it's called Kaskaskia College
and went there for a year. And that whole year
I was coming here for like a week out of
a month and like trying to write, meet people, do
all thing. And then the next year I said, hey,

(10:38):
I'm gonna move to Nashville, but I'll still do the
junior I'll do it all online. And here they were,
you know, put so much time into me at sports.
And I had a chance for a scholarship and I
turned that down because I wanted to play music, and
I thought my mom was going to kill me. But
I will say like they supported it. You know, They're like, hey,
this is your dream, go do it. And I talked

(10:59):
to my mom and I was like, man, you let
me nineteen year old, like didn't know how to drive
in the city. Go down to Nashville, kid, and just
figure it out, and she goes.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
I thought always thought you'd come home. I always thought that.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
That would be like you go down for a little
bit and you'd get tired of that and you'd come home.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
What was your first time to Nashville.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Man, My first time to Nashville. I saw Josh Turner
in concert.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
At for that reason, you came to a show here.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Came to a show when I was for my eighteenth birthday.
My Mama brought me and I went downtown Broadway, bought
a hat, cowboy hat, just because it was the thing,
and I had meet and greets. I was front row
at what was.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
A Wildhorse Yeah me and great, that's funny.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh yeah, I got meet and greet to meet Josh Turner.
He signed my cowboy hat. And I still have the
picture that's awesome somewhere of me and Josh Turner.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
And you know the fast forward.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
The first time I played the Opry, I sang a
Josh song and he came out on stage and surprised me.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
And that was pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Dang, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
I cried.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
It was like I got a little chill you hearing that,
are me hearing that? Yeah, you came to a Josh
show and then your opry. I mean I I first
time I played the opera do and stand up? I
told my grandmother's favorite joke, because she is who I
watched the opry with.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
It's kind of like when you get to the opera.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
You know, obviously playing the oprey is cool, and it's
something that you wait to do, but you always want
to like do something that kind of.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Brought you to it, like to that that's interesting some
kind of respect.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
It could be something you wear, something you do, or
a song, but that was it for me too.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
I was like, man, I would only be here really
if it wasn't for.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
My grandma who made me when I was real young,
like listen to the opera or watch the opry on
TNN or CMT or wherever it was. And to you,
you played a Josh Turner song the first concert in Nashville.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
That's freaking cool.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, And I haven't really told anybody that story, you know,
about seeing Josh Turner first at the Wild Horse, but
it was just you know that's I always covered your
man at every karaoke thing there ever was that was
the go to song, and so I sang it, and
I'll never forget my guitar player stepping up on when
he was on the opp he started playing a solo
and everybody started cheering for my guitar player.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
But you didn't You for sure didn't know. You didn't
not know Josh Starner was coming.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Oh clue.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Okay, not even five minutes before, because that would still
been cool.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, not even five minutes before.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
He my guitar players playing a solo and the crowd
starts screaming. I'm like, what the freaking heck, you know,
they're all screaming from my guitar player. And I turned around,
looking's Josh standing behind me, and I was like, oh
my gosh, I'm literally crying tears on the opry stage
and he starts singing and I just quit and he
just kept singing, and I'm just like trying to do

(13:32):
little parts. And then I'm like lost in it, you know,
and he's like take it Drought, and I forget every word.
I'm like, uh, I say on the mic, I don't even.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Know where we're at. And the old man had like
take it to the end.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
But it was so special awesome story.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yeah, I'll never forget it.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
And no one tipped you off.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Nobody tip me, but.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
For them too, because I'm sure some people knew.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Oh yeah, I mean at that time, my manager was
rusty gassing.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
And he pulled it and that's all off.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
No idea. Nobody at the opera even even told me
you're hinted at it.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Did you ever hear Josh's stories about going to Willie
Nelson's or no, Johnny Cash's house.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
No, that's probably I.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Know we've talked about it like on my show, and
I don't want to like be wrong about it. But
he just drove up to his house.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
One day and like knocked on the door, and it's
like Johnny Cash live here, Oh, and like wanted to
ask him questions that he went in. Yeah, and I
And again, this only popped in my head because you
brought Josh up. But it seems to me and Mike,
you ma can help me with the memory of this,
But it seems to me like Johnny Cash was like,
what are you doing here?

Speaker 4 (14:30):
All right?

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Come on in.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, you opened the door and let him in, Oh
my gosh, and they had a conversation.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
And then yeah, that's what it feels a special. There's
a couple of really cool Johnny Cash stories. Ronnie Dunn
from Brooks and Done obviously, who's a family friend of ours.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
He said that he moved here and he had been
doing music.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
And in Oklahoma and Texas kind of the Arkansas region,
but really just there. His girlfriend then wife was really
good friends with June, and so he came and he
lived with Johnny Cash.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, Ronnie Done did.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, Wow, that's it, Ronnie Okay, yeah, Ronnie Done. And
so he there's like a little house on the property,
and so we've been living in that house. But he'd
go over to Johnny's house and he'd be like, Johnny's
watching CNN, just hanging out and Ronnie that was just
sitting on the couch with him. And ron I was like, yeah,
it was weird because that's Johnny Cash, but also that

(15:33):
was like my wife's friend, and that's who like, if
you're coming to Nashville, come stay with us.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
How wild is that? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (15:41):
I mean talking about your heroes. I mean, yeah, that's
pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
You and Josh. Do you guys ever become buddies at all? Anyway?

Speaker 4 (15:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
I mean, could you ever call him and just be like,
what we didn't I.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Don't have Josh's number.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
We've played several shows after that together, you know, we
played one this past year and just catching up.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
And I remember one time I was down.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
My producer was living in College Grove and this was
after I played the Opry and I'm pumping gas and
I look on the.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Other side Josh and I'm like, he's like, hey, hey, Drew. Yeah.
I was like, what are you doing.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Man?

Speaker 4 (16:14):
He was like, man, I'm just I did live out here,
you know, in his area.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
And he's like the normal guy, Josh. Yeah, Like it
was just normal.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
They say, don't meet your heroes, but he was so
cool to me, and you know, I know he was
also like I just saw, you know, Scotty McCreary got
inducted into the Grand Ole Opry as a member, and
I saw Josh came out for that. He's just a
really good dude. And I think that's what excited me
after I met him, was like, he's still a good dude.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, And he was Josh even more normal than you
think he's going to be, even when you know he's normal.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, because you just think this here, this big voice
out of him. You know, you see sons of hits,
respected by everybody and just like man, super normal dude,
family man, you know, loves his wife, got his kids,
you know, towards that way.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
And he must have so much testosterone his body to
have that voice, like to have that voice, I mean,
just dripping out.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
So you lived to Nashville at nineteen.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, when you say scholarship, was it a academic academic?

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Just smart kid was pretty good edictorian pretodol You were
a valedictorian, Yeah, VALDIETI I'm not surprised.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
I'm going to tell you of how many.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
But you know, my.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Graduating class was like, you know, fifty kids or so.
I went to a small school.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
Yeah, mine was twenty two.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Okay, that's listen. You're still talking about better than ninety
five percent. You're in the top four percent. Basically we'll
take it, you know. But it was, Yeah, I was valedictorian.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Always really proud of myself and learning and studying kind
of like with this business, you know, coming here and.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
And just really learning the business.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
And I just didn't want to be an artist that
just sang songs, you know, Like I looked at Toby Keith.
He learned the business, had a great business mind, and
that was something that I really wanted to dive in
and learn into.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
First concert was it the Toby concert?

Speaker 4 (17:58):
It was, yeah, it took you to that.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
My mom and dad took me to that, and Toby
was one and then another. Craig Morgan was like my
second concert. I think that there was this place in Effingham, Illinois.
I don't know if you've ever heard of that sound
watched Craig Morgan there. I'll never forget Craig forgot the
words to uh International Harvester, and that was my favorite
song at the time, and I just thought it was

(18:23):
hilarious how he handled it, you know, and just like
you couldn't get to put a flour and I was
just like, oh my gosh, people, they're human, you know,
I forgot the words.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, I love Craig Man. That guy's awesome.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
I was looking at the chart success of your current
song She's Somebody's Daughter. I did not know is this
what is your highest charting song?

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Is this this?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh? It is?

Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yeah, I've never had a top forty.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Oh I didn't. I did not know that.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
I just suspected you've had in the most complimentary way.
I'll say I suspected you had a couple.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Oh man, well, thank you for saying that. But in here forever.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Super congratulations, Thanks man. But what stuck out to me was,
and you can define what this means. I was reading
that you were a bit self funded.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
All of it. Yeah, real self.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Well, She's Somebody's Daughter came out in twenty nineteen. I
wrote it about my wife. It did nothing, It sit
there I wanted. I was part of a label called
Cold River Independent.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
So who owned that label? Guy named Peedle heron okay,
So do they have anybody else?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
They had Katie Arminger her name, yeah, okay, And so
we had a couple songs came out. A song called
Rebound did pretty well for us. Nothing ever top forty.
We got to forty two, I think was our highest song.
And you know, I did all the radio tour, I
met everybody, all the things. And that label closed down
in twenty nineteen, right around the sign I put this

(19:49):
song out and luckily Praise the Lord, like that was
gonna be my single. But I'll never forget I sang
the vocals of She's Somebody's Daughter. I go out and
sit in my car, I pull up my email and
on Country air Check, which is for everybody out there,
it's like a tells radio everything that's going on. There
was a girl named to Neil Towns that had a
song called Somebody's Daughter going for.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Ads Somebody is God, and I.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Was like, you gotta be freaking kidding me. You know,
this is my favorite song. So I just it just
sit there on It did nothing. And then me and
my wife got married in twenty one and I made
a wedding version so she could dance to it with
her dad.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Wait two years, it's set, nineteen to twenty.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
One, nineteen to twenty one, it's set. It did nothing,
and it was on Spotify, but it just no. I
didn't really talk about it, did nothing with it. And
then twenty one we got married. I on our honeymoon,
I posted TikTok and I just say, hey, if this
gets three thousand likes, i'll put it out on Friday,
you know, just trying to tease.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
It was Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
I woke up Thursday and I had almost ten million
views and the video had a million likes, and I
was like, oh my gosh, I'm crying, and me and
my wife are dancing in our little condo, and I'm thinking.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Rewind that for a second.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, you do your video saying I'm gonna put this
out now, being transparent is probably already gonna come out.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
For plan Yeah, yeah, the song is already coming out,
but you just hope, Yeah, reaction happens, you know.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
And so what day was this?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
When this was a Wednesday night?

Speaker 2 (21:16):
So Wednesday night you make the video?

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah in my rental car, like, not extravagant at all.
I said, my wife danced to this at our wedding
last week. If you guys like it, it's coming out Friday.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
And how was it positioned? Are you sitting in the
car and you turned the radio up and you played
over the top or are you singing.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
I'm lip singing it? Got it?

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
And then when did the ten million views happen? By
what day? Thursday?

Speaker 4 (21:40):
By the next day?

Speaker 1 (21:41):
That's crazy crazy, And mind you, I'm like, I don't
look all night because I haven't had a video do that,
you know. I'm just thinking, like I'm going to wake
up the next day. Obviously I'm with my wife. It's
our honeymoon. We're enjoying it, and I wake up and
I look at her and I'm like, wow, Katie, look
at this. And I pulled up and my followers jump
like one hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Did you think that something may be wrong with your
TikTok account? No, I was just like, holy freaking crap.
I didn't know what was going on. I've never seen
a video do.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Even Like I've had some pretty successful videos, like if
I get half a million a night, I'm like, this
is awesome. I would think that there was something with
all on my TikTok. If I had ten million in
the night.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
Yeah, it was just like, I've never seen it.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
And you know that was early on in TikTok Land
twenty one. You know, they were kind of I feel
like they were letting videos go more than they were now.
And dude, you know, I started getting calls from some
mind you every label in Nashville is shut down, it's COVID.
Pretty well, music ain't really happening. It's kind of starting
to come back. But I started getting calls from LA

(22:43):
labels every day like, hey man, we see your cause.
The song comes out Friday, right, it jumps up on
streams because this video is reacting and uh, I don't
have a manager, I don't have a record label, I
don't have a booking agent at this time.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
It's just me.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
And this goes kaboom and I'm sitting here like what
do I do? I hope I get a record deal
and nobody, nobody calls, Like all La LA would would
take the call and they're like, hey, we want to
get Universal Nashville involved, and then we come to Nashville,
they kabash it. They would be like, no calls from Nashville.
Be Warner LA Electra. They would call, they'd be excited.

(23:18):
It'd get to Warner Nashville, Warner Nashville, w do nothing
with it.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Why do you think that is?

Speaker 4 (23:23):
Man? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
The only thing that I can guess is I had
a shot, and I had three singles at radio and
none of them did anything. And I'm thinking, you know,
Nashville is kind of that town. If you get one shot.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, you gotta be shiny. You gotta take advantage of it.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
You gotta take time, you gotta take advantage of that
shiny time. And if you don't get that, then they're
going to find the next shiny kid.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
Hang tight, the Bobby cast will be right back and
we're back on the Bobby cast.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
That would have been my theory too. And also is
before TikTok had this history of having some making, having
some worth and yeah, and the making not the making,
but the highlighting and labels investing in artists and then
them having success.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I mean at the same time this was happening, Priscilla
Block was having her moment, you know, Bailey Zereman was
having his moment.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
Me and Bailey were real close.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
He was from my hometown area, and you know, we were
talking about it and he was at that time he's
getting calls from some of the same people that I
were in LA and making it. And I was just
like it would I would go have these label meetings
and it would be like, well, we want to see
you do a million streams a week, and it's like, oh,
it's been out four months and it's got sixteen million streams.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
That's a million a week. What else do you need
to see?

Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's like, well, if you come here, it's going to
be eight months before we take you to radio.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
They were looking for reasons to not do there were
binding reasons to not do it.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, and and mind you like. I love a lot
of these people. I think they're good people, but I
just wanted a chance. I wanted a shot. And so
twenty twenty one, I don't have anything. I decided to
post on socials and I say I'll play in anybody's
backyard that wants to have me because I don't.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
I'm broke. I'm broke.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, I feel you.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
And so I thought i'd get like five requests, and
so I get like twenty some thousand requests on TikTok.
For two years, I go play three hundred people's backyards,
just me and a guitar.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Show up. Hey, how's it gone. I'm drew, never knowing
what our setup was really and.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
No way they would just fly to their house and
play in their backyard.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Play in their backyard. Yeah, I did like three hundred,
and some of them.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Just take whatever money they gave you.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah. It started off that way.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
I'd be like, hey, whatever you could give me, and
then I was like, this is what I need. Because
there were some times I would lose on it, and
so I'd be like, this is what.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
I really need.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Two or three grand, pay for mym my tour manager,
and I will come play in your backyard for seventy
five minutes, play corn hole, eat barbecue.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
I thought what you did for two years people houses
just play in the backyard.

Speaker 4 (25:58):
Just play in their backyard.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Clip that clipped that we're gonna get ten million of
you tonight we post that.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Well, it was like there was a stint after I
got married. After our honeymoon, I fly home, my tour
manager picks me up in my sprinter van and we
go play twenty backyards in nineteen days.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
We went all around the country.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
There was a day we played two shows and somebody
in different in that same town, in different people's backyards.
But we played twenty backyards in nineteen days. And mind you,
I'm just playing. Everybody will have me. Hey, if this
is what I need to get there, They'd say yes,
I'd drive there, I'd fly there.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
I'd go play it.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
And you know, I would make little t shirts that
had their little hometown you know of you know, ma
scoot to Illinois instead of Saint Louis. It would put
that on the back of the shirt. I called it
the Baldridge and Bonfire Tour. And I just played three
hundred people's backyards.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Dang man, you are a winner.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
Nah, man, it was just that's what I had to do, survive.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
That's what winners do. That's what winners do. That is
one of the best stories that I have heard.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Man, Well, well, thank you for that.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
And then it got I was doing these backyards and
I play my first festival, you know. Back I texted
some friends that were promoters and I was like, hey,
I don't have an agent.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
I'll give you a good deal, like, please let me play.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
And they gave me a couple of fairs in twenty
three and I go play my first one and everybody
singing every word to She's Somebody's daughter. And I haven't
really like I knew it was having this moment, but
I haven't played for any people. I've been back. It's
been out since nineteen. It's been out since nineteen on
streaming platform.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
Just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
But then when I when I made these videos, what
happened was I put my video out, then this one
girl start in twenty twenty one. She posted the video
was like her in the mirror and it said listen
to these lyrics girls, and then acted out the verses.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
She's more than just a.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Pretty face in a late night bar to show her
in a bar. She's more than just a paratie jeans
sitting in her car, and she'd be sitting in her car. Well,
then the whole chorus is her growing up with her
dad pictures. And I would watch this video and I
had like, I don't know, five six million views brought
me to tear, so I just do edit it.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
I was like, check this out.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
And then it started this daughter trend and all these
girls from from Mexico to France to Norway to sweet
all these different languages.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Is bigger than the song. At that point, it was bigger.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Than the song. It was dad and it was dad
and daughter.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
And then that happened for about six months, and then
Father's Day ish or something came around where one girl
did a duet of her video with her dad's reaction
that got ten million views, and then all those videos
started doing their dad's reaction.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Would you see the effect on streaming from when TikTok
was blowing up with yours?

Speaker 2 (28:30):
And you would see it.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
But then when these new versions we'll call them, these
new viral yeah movements would happen.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
Every time you would see pops yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
And luckily I own that you know, like it was
my little song that could, and every time new virality happened,
I would see tick up and then you know, like
I said, fast forward twenty twenty three, here we are
playing the show.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
I get off stage.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
I'm kind of frustrated at this moment because I'm like,
what else do I got approved to Nashville that I
deserve to be on a record label that I want
to tour with people, I want to have an agent,
And I look.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
I start googling.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
I start not googling by going to my artist Spotify
because you could see back in.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
How many streams.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I start counting up as like, dude, this has a
song has one hundred million streams and it's done. There's
been no money involved, like pushing songs up. It's just
people finding it on TikTok and are Facebook or Instagram.
And I decided I got off. I got off the
stage and I just started calling radio. I said, hey,

(29:30):
I got this song. I think I'm going to try
to do it myself. Would you play it?

Speaker 4 (29:34):
Dude?

Speaker 1 (29:34):
I think you're going to miss out on a lot
of streams if you don't bring it to radio. Then
I woud ask radio. I'd be like who should I hire?
And they would tell me. So I just created my
own staff, paid for it on my own streams, with
my streams, and now we have a freaking top twenty.
Maybe this week might be top fifteen record.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Maybe my favorite story ever told. Oh my goodness, that
is that is that's the greatest. Like that is you grinding.
It didn't just happen for you, like you had to
do things for the fall in place, and then you
taking advantage of every little small opportunity that was fed
to you by the big amounts of work that you

(30:11):
were doing.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
The fact that you would go and playing people's yards.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Well what started that yards was Okay, twenty nineteen, lose
my record deal. I just came off a radio tour.
And radio tour for everybody out there is like.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's miserable.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
It's tough.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
You got to go into every freaking radio station and
act like every PD he's the coolest guy you ever
freaking met.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
It's hard. It's so hard. But I come off this
radio tour. The label closes, well, I have this song
that I put out at the same time as Daughter
was called Senior Year, and the hook of the song
said never thought it would disappear senior year. I just
meant live it up, kids, it's gonna go by fast. Well,
twenty twenty comes, all their senior years disappear, so it
starts having this TikTok thing. So what I do is

(30:55):
I get on TikTok and I'm like, hey, class of
twenty twenty, I'm doing zoom concerts. Anybody wants a zoom concert,
I'll do it. So it was turning like seven or
eight zoom concerts today from my living room. I play
for like one hundred and fifty kids at a time,
and then some schools were like, will you come play
our graduation drive through?

Speaker 4 (31:10):
And I was like, sit on my butt, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
So then I created a tour where there would be
like Florida would call and be like, hey, we want
you to come play our drive through graduation. So then
I would look around surrounding areas and I would cold
call front schools at their front office.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
And be like, Hey, I'm Drew Baldridge.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I see your graduation is on July seventeenth, and I'm
going to be in town on the eighteenth. Do you
want me to come play your graduation? And then it
would be like are you like no, you're a creep,
you know, and and be like somebody like I can't
believe we're talking to you.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Like, yeah, please come play the graduation.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
So I started playing graduations and then that's what gave
me the idea to play backyards. It's like, well, I'm
playing for schools. Why don't I just take it to
the people and see if that works?

Speaker 3 (31:53):
And yeah, it'd be so frustrating to not get that.
And it's not the most important thing. I say it too,
but it does matter, like that respect from like your
peers or like the town that you live in, like
you do want that. It's not the main it's why
we moved here, but it's nice to have people that
you work alongside acknowledge.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
That, hey, I'm doing pretty good too.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
That would be difficult that you are killing it, but
no one will even look at.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Oh my gosh, man, I can't.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
I can't tell you how frustrating, how much sleep I
lost over and my poor wife just supporting me through
all this. But like going home and seeing all my
friends and my peers being uber successful, and I'm so
happy for them because I want that for them. We
moved here at the same time and I want them
to be successful, but also being like, I got this
song that's doing just what their song is.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Why am and I think it's a.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Wedding version that really blew up, so they're thinking it
doesn't really fit our model. It's not radio, it's not
streaming because Spotify doesn't put me in one playlist until
last week.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
Really, that's it's the first playlist I ever got.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
That's the first time you're playlisted.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
On She's Somebody's daughter. Really, it's all been natural. And
then since we got top twenty on country radio, Spotify
put me in a playlist this last week, so radio
is driven playlisting to start playlisting us, And I'm just like,
thank you Lord, finally.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Are you ever like? Who out there is against me?

Speaker 4 (33:20):
That's what I feel like, man, I mean like I
feel like that.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Eddie and I would put out raging Eddiot's songs and
we get playlisted and I'd be like, I can't believe that,
and here you are killing it and you just now
got played. I mean, if I were you, I would
be like, Okay, who out there's who's running this shoke?

Speaker 1 (33:35):
That's what I feel like, you know, And that's when
I got to the point of like, screw it. If
nobody else believes in this like I do, why don't
I just try it myself?

Speaker 4 (33:43):
You know?

Speaker 1 (33:43):
And now it's been really fun to see that we're
top twenty, you know, maybe this week top fifteen, which
would be insane.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Never been here.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Before as a momentum. I know you're top twenty, but
it's still looking for soolid looks.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
Incredible, that's all. It's exciting radio.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
I think all these pds are excited for us because
we're kind of going against the machine a little bit,
and they're like, hey, we support that, we want to
go And I think what's been the most fun is
artist friends that have been where I've been, and I'm
not going to name any names, but artist friends that
have try to single at radio it didn't work, label
gave up on them.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
I get to talk to them and talk.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
About strategies of ways to get their music out and
help and you know, if we maybe we could take
a single Overlert.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
I don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
But it's just wild that that radio has supported this song.
I really think, man, I don't want to say it,
but I think we could get number one that would
be insane.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
It's not everything, but just like been here for thirteen
years and never had a number one record or anything,
that's that would be really cool.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
It's not everything, but it is a it is a
thing if you make that a goal. I mean, yeah,
it's not everything.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, but if it's a lot.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
If that's a goal of yours, If it was always
to come to town and have a number one, then yeah,
that's not the pretty significant If it was always to
move to town and run a record label.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, it's not everything if you don't, but if you do, that.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
Was a goal. That was a goal. Yeah, and I think, what.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Well, that wasn't your goal. I could have been anybody.
It's go.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
I'll miss using them separately. Yeah, I think the last
thing you want to do is run a record label.
And you're freaking late.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Hold, I don't know how old you are.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Thirty two yeah, ye.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Starting to label at twenty nine, thirty thirty one years old,
that's probably not the plan.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
And I was scared to death because there's you're putting
pumping money out right, because you got to radio, you
got to hire staff. I mean, for everybody out there,
I'm not trying to get two business on.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Everybody feel free too.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
But it's like, you know, to run a staff, and
you know radio, you have to do ad bys. You
have to figure out I got to go play free shows,
you have.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
To do ad byes. I don't know about that. I've
been out of the programming.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Part of radio forever, right, Yeah, So part of my
ignorance because I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Ask a couple questions I should Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
People would think I would know the answer to yeah,
But I've never been in programming. I get paid to
do compelling content and I just play a song or
two if I like it.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Occasionally.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
I have no real pro I program an a couple
of national shows, but that's it. So when you say
stuff like that, I don't even know what that means.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
So like an ad by, you know, let's say your
business and you know radio runs on advice, But why.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
Would you because I understand that, like people, I need
people to buy sponsorship on my radio show, but why
would you have to buy an add buy?

Speaker 1 (36:11):
So it just creates like I think also shows radio,
you're investing in radio, do.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
They make they don't make you buy an ad by?
Do they or is it something that's like, hey, if
you do this.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
I think it's a partnership.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
You know, like hey, we want to see you invest
in radio, and you know vice versa.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Like local markets, you'd buy ads.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
I would buy ads. Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
So it would be like a thirty second ad of
like hey, there's Drew Baldridge and this is my song
She's Somebody's daughter, okay, and it would play like thirty
seconds of my single and go stream it and download it.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Now, I'll read some of those sometimes the people buy.
If I like the artist, it'll pay me.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
But if I kind of have a policy where I
don't have to read this commercial for anything, I don't
want to, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
So like when Bailey or you just mentioned Bailey's aught
to say it like Bailey puts out something. I like
Bailey and so and I like Bailey's music, and I'd
be like.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Hey, check out they check out the new from Bailey's
and the record came out, go check it out.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
That type of thing. That's exactly what an ad by is.
And so his label had to pay.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, that ad buy for so that would be something
on me that I now have to invest in that
and that's not cheap.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
You're spending money on this, dude.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, but in return? You know what's different with labels
now and radio? Sorry, I'm probably getting way too you.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
No, I want to hear it because I'm learning too.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
But labels only make money when songstream.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Look at you, you know about the label and the
radio bits the stream because you've had to.

Speaker 4 (37:30):
I've had to learn it.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
You've had to learn it. I'm taking a lesson. I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Okay, let me break this down, please do So, labels
only make money when song stream and a song a
million streams on Spotify is about forty one hundred bucks.
A million streams on Apples about seventy five hundred bucks.
So let's say an artist.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
To do that again with between the two forty forty.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
One hundred bucks on Spotify and about seventy five hundred
on Apple.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Why are they different? Just?

Speaker 4 (37:55):
I have no idea. Apple supports master owners better.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
And so that's what's crazy is you know mind you
master ownership, you know, writers share is completely different. Master,
the person that owns the master makes the money. So
the labels are making printing money right now, and the
writers are.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Like making nothing, making nothing.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
But here's what I think.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
When what I've noticed is the big disjoint labels make
money when songstream Labels don't make money on radio because
the writer does, and so they only make money when
the song starts.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Streaming and from people hearing it on the radio.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
People hearing it on the radio, but you don't get airplay,
like I'm just now getting daytime airplay and seeing my
streams jump top freaking twenty. So like I'm just now
starting to see that. So when labels are coming right now,
labels are going less and less, you have to see it.
I'm sure you've heard this streaming story. We need to
have a streaming story before we go to radio because
they have to fund it. But when you sign a

(38:50):
record deal, you give my last record deal, eighty four
percent of my master was to the label.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
So previous you having you as an art Yeah, you're
talking about what with the cold River? Yeah, and that
was a Coldstone creamery yeah, Colt still Creamery.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
So it was like, okay, so I signed a record deal,
I'm a new artist. I give eighty four percent of
my music to my label. I get sixteen. I have
to give four of my sixteen to my producer, so
I have twelve. So everything that a label puts into you.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
You have to pay it back.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Right, So let's say I drop in one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars on a record they've put in me
and maybe some small radio tour. So I have to
make that label a million dollars to pay back the
one twenty because I only own twelve percent.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
And so what's really hard with that.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Is because it doesn't count if you're making them money
as part of their eighty six percent. That doesn't count, right,
It only counts if you're making them part of that
twelve percent.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yeah, that's what you that's how you can pay back.
That's crazy, that's freaking crazy. It would take forever to
pay it back.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
You won't, and that's why artists tore their brains out
because the only time you get money is when you're
on stage, and so you don't. There's lots of artists
maybe Taylor Swift now, but like lots of artists that
will never see a dime because they're still in the red,
you know, like they're not they're not refunded. And so
that's what's crazy right now, is I think that artists.

(40:14):
This shift in social media and this shift in artists
now being able to own that master has changed the
game drastically for labels, because hey, well I can put
a song out She's somebody's daughter and not have a
label and get a hundred million streams and I own that. Now,
I don't have to tour unless I want to and
pick the markets that I want to. And I think

(40:35):
artists are starting to see that, and I think the
business is going to start changing drastically, and it already
has of artists being like, oh man, you know, I
can put this song out and make this money and
streaming and see my watch my son play baseball in June,
you know. Like I just think there's a big shift
that's going to come, and it's already starting to happen

(40:55):
of labels not needing that eighty four percent anymore because
a it's really expensive to take songs to radio, so
I get why they need a big chunk of it.
But if they're not going to take artists to radio
and you're just be a streaming artist like some people
are doing, don't give that eighty four percent. If you're
an artist, like, there's no reason for them to just

(41:15):
pay for a record and you give all that to them.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
That's wild to me.

Speaker 6 (41:21):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
You're obviously a very intelligent guy. I can tell about.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
Sorry, I'm probably talking way too.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
I like it, and I can tell by listening to
you talk to you're a very intelligent guy. Do you
think you would have learned this had you not been
put in the situation to have to learn that?

Speaker 1 (41:44):
No way, no way, because I would have just I was.
I sit back and I let my team do everything.
You know, I had, the manager had everything, and then
just like normal artist fashion, I'd be like, where are
we at with that?

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Why am I not on?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
And you're focused on artisting? Yeah, to your moment. So
it's not like you don't want to know, but you've
got you know, when you're a artist signed a label,
you only have a one hundred percent capacity and that
capacities on being an artist.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
Be an artist, creating, trying to record, trying to create content.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
So you're not being lazy.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
So what I'm telling everybody listening, yeah, you're just putting
in all in one place. But you've had to learn
how to put in many different places to just get by.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
To get by, and it was like I had to
put on a manager hat and be like, Okay, how
do I get shows? How do I create income? And
then I had to run a promo staff. I'm doing
a calls every Monday, running a promo team. Hey, why
are you?

Speaker 2 (42:35):
My mind is blown by this?

Speaker 4 (42:38):
Why are we not being played in Philadelphia?

Speaker 1 (42:40):
You know, like having those conversations and breaking it down
and hey, how do we attack that? And how do
we go after that? And let's create a strategy. You're
going to talk to them. I'll talk to them too.
And so it's just been a really weird year and
a half of having to do and then like shows
coming in and booking that and booking it myself. And
you know what's most exciting, Bobby is like being on
this podcast with you man is a really big deal

(43:01):
and a dream of mine.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
I think I'm the biggest fan. I'm tell you, over
like the last twenty minutes, my mind is blown at
what didn't work turned into probably and possibly h the
greatest thing that ever happened to you in the most
difficult way.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
Yeah, and that's what I talk about all the time.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
A lot of people is like, Okay, what if what
if Tanil wouldn't have put out somebody's daughter? And I
thought my career was in him because I didn't get
to put out my song I loved. I wouldn't be
here being able to have this story with this song
five years later, and it's my own. I've had to
learn and I've had to you know, I always say, man,
sometimes in the lowest lows, you learn so much about

(43:39):
your business and your life around you and if you're
going to stay and hey, there's only one way but up.
And that was something for me some dark times where
I was like, do I just quit.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Those conversations with your wife? I'm assuming yeah you had.
What was she like when you're like, man, this is
very hard and I'm lost? Was her reaction and response.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
She was like, God wouldn't have given you this town
if you didn't you know, didn't deserve to be where
you're at, or didn't put a song in your heart
for you know, for a reason, like it's you're supposed
to be doing this. You know you're supposed to be
doing this. She always believed. When I didn't believe in myself,
she believed. And then I go to her and I say, hey,
I'm about to sync X amount of dollars into a

(44:23):
radio single.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
She's like, hey, go do it. You made you made
this money off your song. You believe in it. I
believe in it.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
And it's just I can't tell you how lucky I
am to have my wife and now playing radio shows
going on. We have a seventeen month old and so
she is rock star mom. And it's not easy.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
There's times I come home she's like, I've been here
for five days without you and I'm alone.

Speaker 4 (44:47):
It's a lot.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
And she's been my biggest support system, you know, she's
been my sounding board of Hey, what do you think
of this idea?

Speaker 5 (44:55):
Do?

Speaker 1 (44:55):
We almost like, you know, talking business things with her
that probably no wife could be happen to be a
part of.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
And she's just been there. Man who manages nobody? You
still don't have it, So you're managing yourself.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Still, I'm still managing myself. I don't have a booking agent.
It's just me and today, before I came I met
with the booking agent before I came here.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Today don't give them ten percent, and so I don't
have all the power.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
I don't have anything. I don't have an agent.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Except for everything. You have nothing except for everything. So
you are so base, you're so set now to have
every leverage, on every piece of leverage in every situation
for the next at least eighteen months. Wow, that's why
a booking agent, any agents, you know, I have agents.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
They take ten percent, right, Yeah, if I were you, yeah,
you can do it for six because I don't need
you don't need them. It would help, It would help
a little bit.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
Yeah, for sure, it would. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
And that's where I'm I'm at the point now where
you know, I'm tired of doing it all. I'm more
out and talk like conversations with fest and all that stuff.
Like I have literally had like opening opportunities for artists
and fairs, and the buyer comes to me and says, well,
they don't want you on it because they want through
William Morris act on it. And William Morris is a

(46:13):
big booking agent that I was with for five years.
They let me go, and I'd be like, dude, I
was with them, and they're like, yeah, but you can't
play it because they want their small act to play it.
So we're gonna have to put you on a side
free stage, and you're like, what the heck? So obviously
agents hold weight that I need to be a part
of that. But it's also like here, I've been alone

(46:34):
for five years and nobody is I've met tried to
be a part of agencies, and nobody wanted me, you know,
and I couldn't get any attention until I got top twenty.
And that's when sorry, I'm probably not at least in
so much dirty.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Launcher right, love it. And for everybody listening, there's Cia,
There's Well I was. I was with CAA for a
long time. Yeah, there's William Morris. There's Uta. I'm with Uta.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Now, that's who I just met with right before I
came over here.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Who'd you meet with?

Speaker 4 (47:00):
I met with all of them.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
I feel like Matthew Morgan, that was Zach Hartley had
to go went really well.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Yeah, they're great people.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
I feel like, and again we're just talking in the
weeds here. I was with CIA for twelve years. Wow,
And I was like, you know, my agent, who was
awesome at CIA had had risen in the rank so
much that she was like at the top of her genre.

(47:33):
Because when I met her, we're both kids.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I never had an agent.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
My radio thing was going pretty good here as a
national show, but I was starting to do a little
bit of TV, and I was taking a little bit
of a risk and an agent that never had anybody,
and she was taking a risk is who the heck
represents somebody in radio with like a bad podcast and
wants to do TV.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
So we kind of took a risk on each other.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
But she had blown up so much into in the
political world where she had all of these big political
commentations and gotcha and it got to the point where
that was our specialty. And then there was you, and
then there was me, almost like the one person and
had a very difficult conversation, even for me because I
loved her.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
We spent twelve You get very close.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
You do to conversations every week, yes, yeah, And I
was like, I we tried to supplement other people, but
unless it's your main person, it's tough.

Speaker 4 (48:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
And I was like, I have to open this up
and take meetings with people.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
And even if I was going to stay with Caa,
I couldn't stay with her because she was killing it
so much.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
She didn't she didn't have the capacity.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
Yeah, to take you on to do more things.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Yeah, to at least because she was so big in
living in the political space. So everybody comes to you
and I go and I meet with you Ta, And
I felt like those guys, guys and girls, but I
say guys about everybody. They were bold, like grinders. I
could feel that today, like they weren't the biggest, but
they were big enough to be in the top category.
Like they were big enough to be in that you know,
Cia William wore not the biggest, but not the biggest,

(48:59):
William Moore's biggest hea.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
But I felt like they were gonna go hard.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, And I think one thing I've learned in this
whole like journey is that sometimes it doesn't matter the biggest,
like it matters who believes in you the most.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Yeah, you can definitely get lost in the big. You
can get lost in the big, but you're exactly right.
It's who is so my agent at Uta, he he
goes hard, who is your agent? But his name is Jerry, Jerry,
but Jerry is basically he does It's kind of weird
that just talked about somebody, but he does a lot
of sports people.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
He has.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Cow heard and he has rich eyesen and yeah, all
these massive but he was a fan of the show
or would listen to the show. But he like puts
all of his effort. That's what you want, that's all,
that's all you can ask for, that's all.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
I'm so.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
I'm so happy that you've had to go through all
of this struggle because now you you have, you have
every weapon.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Man, Well thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
And wow, I'm I'm the biggest fan.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
I mean, thanks man.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
And like I said, this was always, you know how
dream of having number one when I moved here. I've
always dreamed of doing an.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
Interview with you.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Oh thanks man. Have we ever done anything together? Never didn't.
I didn't think so. But sometimes people feel like, come on, man,
been twenty fourteen, we stood six feet from each other.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
You're like on my stream Foregner, And I'm like, I'm
very sorry. No, I think nobody cares about me. So
I'm not like looking around being like, what's up everybody?

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Oh man, you're You're one of the most influential people
in Nashville, and so like just being here and talking
to you and just being able to tell my story.
This has been a dream of mine. And you know,
since I started this and started climbing the ranks. I
was like, man if I could just tell my story
to somebody and get it out, you know.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
So you're managing yourself.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
Yeah, you're booking myself.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Yourself. Yep, you're well labeling yourself. The good thing is
you probably have a three sixty deal with yourself.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
Yeah, get you get a little portion of your mirg
Yeah a little Porsche has this with all the money
that you've invested. I mean, like, are you doing all right?

Speaker 4 (51:07):
Yeah, I'm doing great, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Like I think what's interesting is, like I was telling
everybody earlier, of labels don't make money on radio, writers do.
I wrote daughter, So what I'm envisioning is, yes, it's
costing me to send this song to radio, but I'm
going to get that back because I own the writer's share,
so that that payment is always like six months behind,

(51:29):
seven eight months behind. And so I'm envisioning of Okay,
yes it cost me X, but I can make X back.
But also, you know, instead of going out and making
very little money, you know, with a number one record,
you can go out and be like, Okay, now I'm
worth a little a lot more, you know. And so
that's what I'm envisioning. Okay, yes, I had to invest
in myself, but now I'm going to get the agent.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
How many writers on that song?

Speaker 4 (51:51):
Three of us?

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Have you talked to any management or do you want
to management company?

Speaker 1 (51:55):
I do, yeah, and I have talked to some to
some managers and those conversations are starting to go.

Speaker 4 (52:01):
Really really well. That's a very delicate relationship.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
And for those listening again, let's just going and I'll
weed out on everybody. So here's the difference. Because I
did not know the difference till I had to start
getting agents and managers.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, I literally knew no difference.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
And when people would talk about them, I'd be like,
who cares? Yeah, Like when somebody i'd like to think
my manager will be like, what's it?

Speaker 4 (52:22):
What's that doing?

Speaker 2 (52:22):
I don't care? And what's the difference to that an
agent and I don't care? But so.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
An agent is the person who is basically booking out
looking for jobs to book for you. Now they're in
the development a bit as well, but they're out trying
to book you work. They're out putting your name in places,
getting you in front of.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
People, putting you on tour days.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, and they have.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Maybe ten twelve clients that they're agenting four on different levels.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
A manager is in most cases a much more personal thing.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
Yeah. They every aspect of your everything.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
I took my executive producer of my radio show, Morgan,
and I was like, hey, I want you to go
and leave the radio show and manage me because she
was doing she was awesome. I was doing radio, but
I wanted her and like I was writing books and
I was doing TV and I was doing you know, podcasts,
and so I took her out of that job and
I put herself as my manager. And so, but that's

(53:20):
a very personal relationship because we've been together for I mean,
I went and spoke at a college at MTSU.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
She emailed the address. She was my assistant. I know,
my intern.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Then like my fake assistant. She knows your whole business everything,
and she's as consistent and she's loyal to wanting the
best for me.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
She's not always loyal to my thoughts because she knows
sometimes I'm an idiot.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Yeah, so she'll definitely push back. But the management thing
is so every day and everything.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Everything, Yeah, and it's like so that's a very delicate thing.
And it's also like, you don't want to just find
somebody because now you're having success and they're just going
to jump in. You want somebody to that's gonna build
with you, you know. You want somebody that's gonna be like, hey,
when there's hard times, which everybody has hard times, they're
not just gonna ditch and run like they're in it
with you. You know, they're not gonna just be like, oh,

(54:12):
I have five other clients, Drew, you go do your thing,
and I wanna I'm gonna be good over here, you know.
And so it's a very that's a more delicate thing.
And I've had some really good conversations with some great people,
and I'm really excited about that because here's the deal.
Like I was telling you, I'm a I'm a father,
like I got a seventeen month old. So last thing
I want to be is on phone calls eight or
nine o'clock at night, trying to talk to shows or

(54:34):
trying to you know, send assets over to a venue
that needs it. Like all those things that managers can
be doing, I want them to be doing it. But
but like you said, you know, right now, we've been
very lucky that I own this stuff. And if you
start giving all those percentages away, it becomes a lot

(54:55):
harder to fund a label, It becomes harder to do
all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (54:58):
And so it's interesting, right Yet I had a.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Meeting probably seven months ago with them, and I haven't
who'd you meet with? That was a guy named Tom Lord.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
My manager?

Speaker 4 (55:08):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Really?

Speaker 4 (55:09):
That's amazing how they go. I like him, I like
him a lot.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
But so they didn't they call you back away? They'll
begin a call for me, don't you worry? Oh dude,
well please, they'll begin They'll be in a call for me, please.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Man.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
That would be huge.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Like Morgan and Tom are my direct managers, that would
be I mean, man, think it may not work out,
but I'm gonna call him ra after this and be like,
you're this guy's story.

Speaker 4 (55:31):
Man. That means the world to me.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
It doesn't even matter. It honestly doesn't even matter to me.
What you sound like, what your songs are hearing, how
you work.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I think that's inspiring because you're good at what you do. Right.
A lot of people are pretty good to goo to
what do they do? But a lot of people get
told no or this won't work, and you basically just
took that as a nott right.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Now, Yeah, well I think going I let the nose drive,
you know, like, well you know you're telling me no.
Now I'll show you like I want to get there.

Speaker 5 (56:03):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.
Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
What we should do.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
I should call Tom and be like, hey, you should
call Drew Baldridge back, like I really believe in this dude.
And then when he calls you big time, big time,
he'll be like I called him, man, and he never
called me back.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
And I'm like, uh, have you talked to him? Have
you talked to him before? I didn't know if you
guys ever talked Well yeah, like seven months ago. Well
you messed it up then, you dummy. That would be awesome,
that's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Well, like I said, I loved Tom. His hang is awesome.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
But it just, you know, there wasn't like kind of
how I felt with the labels, like hey, I met
with you and I like you a lot and everything's great,
and then just silence. Yeah, yeah, what's your label called
lyric Ridge? So bald Ridge obviously, and then my son's
name is Lyric, so Lyric Ridge Records. Got it.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
You have a song with Bailey, multiple songs of Bailey.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
I've written songs for Bailey, for Bailey. Yeah. So me
and Bailey grew up twenty minutes from each other. I
saw his TikTok.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Is he younger than you?

Speaker 4 (57:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Yeah, he's a lot. He's probably like third or nine
years yeah, thirteen years old. So so funny story about Bailey.
He grew up in Lewisville, down the road from me.
I saw, Well, I didn't see it. I got I
got a message from somebody back home was like, hey,
there's another kid trying to do it, And so I
watched his video and I was like, dude's got a
cool voice, you know. And so I was like, man,

(57:38):
I wish I would have had somebody that I could
have just really called on as an artist friend when
I first moved to town. So I just shot him
on Instagram and said, hey, Bud Drew, here's my number.
You ever need anything, you really want to do this,
call me. And it wasn't three minutes later.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Oh my gosh, Drew Bater talking to you. I can't
believe you're on here. Man, like, so cool, thanks for
sending me your number. So I'm talking. I was like, dude,
you really want to do this. He's like yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
I was like, come to Nashville. Let's write songs. I mean,
it's COVID. We'll just write in my house.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
So he came down. We started writing songs.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
He had a friend named Gavin Lucas who was also
in his in his h in his hometown, and we
started writing songs out of my out of my living room,
and uh, it was just wow, I've never seen anything
happen so fast for somebody. And you know, he was
calling me the next week. He's like, hey, man, Warner
wants me to have a meeting with him. And mind you,

(58:28):
at this time, I am like trying so hard and
I'm like, this kid's coming in here getting meeting with Warner.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
I'm like, and I'm so happy for you.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Got to be happy and sad at the same time.
That's okay because you can have two emotions about something.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah, I'm so pumped for him. And then he was like,
I got a dilemma. Man, there's a guy here and
he wants to manage me too. He's like, I can't
have a record label and a manager can I.

Speaker 4 (58:50):
It's like, yeah, dude, that's exactly what you need.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
And so he ended up signing with them and it's
just been history and it's just been so fun to
watch him go with from Braces and working on you know,
pipeline and.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
Trucks and trucks and trucks. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
He had a big following on social media because of
his trucks. Yeah, and he was like at that time
he came to my house, he was only singing for
four months. You know, he's never sang his whole life,
and he just started singing songs and it started working
for him. And then to watch here we are now
he's selling seven eight thousand tickets a night.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Like, what a great story.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
And I tell you what Bailey, for what he's had
to go through of fast stardom like that can wreck
a person. I've seen it since being here for thirteen years.
In a couple of weeks, I've been here for thirteen years.
He's handled it really well, you know, just like keeping
a level head and even when people have said nasty

(59:45):
things on social media about him and they don't even
know him, and he's just been the same, good dude.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
You know, positive through it all.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
I believe in Mike.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
You can fact check me. I believe we were the
first person. I don't say this in like a braggy way,
but we got bail, We got him really fresh. I
think we're the first.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
Interview ever first, it probably will ever.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
And I love the kid came out. I don't know.
There was something about him when he came in, and
I remember telling Mike I was like, I don't know,
I like even he was like, yeah, it's just this
is just happening. He wasn't like hiding from it or
like downplaying it. He knew yeah, and he would be like,
you know, I ran out on a catwalking. I never

(01:00:25):
realized you couldn't run and sing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
And he was like telling all these stories about how
he'd never performed before. And I like, I really liked
him and him and I've kept definitely kept a relationship
of and I would tell him, if you ever get
in trouble, like Bailey and I grew up very very similar. Yeah,
And I was like, if you ever get in trouble,
you can call me. It doesn't matter where you are.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
That's awesome because you're going to have people And first
of all, you're going to make bad decisions.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Yeah, and you're like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Young and rich now yeah, and that's just going to happen.
That's you're young, rich, good looking, you're talented. Yeah, so
you got to limit those bad decisions. You're going to
make some bad ones. And I just am like, do
not get anybody pregnant?

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
Yeah, and he hasn't and he had good Hey right,
good so far. Yeah. I love him though.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
That's that's you're right though. He has had a lot
come fast.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Faster than almost anybody in our business ever because he
was the TikTok all that stuff. But it really, I mean,
you go from just just put this out here in
people's minds right now wherever you're listening to this. You're
a small town first, maybe you're an artist, I don't know,
and you're thinking, man, I want to be a singer,
and then one year you're on tour with Morgan Wall

(01:01:39):
fifty thousand people. Can you imagine like going from singing
in your garage to fifty thousand people and just expecting
to be every note correct, every not to be nervous?

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
Yeah, that's a big thing for a while, because he
would perform and he would be right or he'd be
but it's like, dude, he's hype. You're you're watching and
you're also watching a kindergartener perform at college like call graduation.
As far as like the matura maturation process of being
the artist. Everybody else got to do it in bars
and got to do it slowly, getting better as they
and he didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
He didn't did the reps.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
He got thrown into the fu and it's like, hey, bro,
your first tour you ever do sold out every night
and you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Know he he came and he performed on our show
and no no effect. And I made a point to
say this, we're not putting any vocal effects on him.
Well you're getting about to hear Is Bailey perform and
he was really good. Yeah he's great, and so I think, But.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Who cares about the eight percent of people that are idiots?
I don't want to give them too much power. But yeah, yeah,
it's I want to talk about it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
I want to talk about you. Look, we spent an hour.
I just feel like I could talk to you for
another hour. I have to go obviously work out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Here, I got stay fit, me getting buff, like like
right now, it doesn't just come by doing no work.
I mean, I'm really rooting for you, I really am.
That is a that is a great story, that that
inspires me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Well, thanks man. And I was talking to somebody that
ran that like knows the chart really really well. There's
kind him Chris Owen, who knows the chart really well.
He's always tagging everybody in post and.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
I he, oh yeah, Chris, yeah, yeah, he like works
in New York. You used working a little radio station,
did hey.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeahs working in little I think. Now he's somewhere in
Nashville working for some year. Now yeah he's here now,
oh yeah. And so I shot him a message because
he said, you know, we're top twenty. It's Drew's every
first top twenty. And I say the message, like, dude,
has there ever been an artist is self fund independently
a number one record? He me right back, He's like,
there's been three, There's been Kenny Rogers, by her Rose,
there was Tracy Lawrence. Find out who your friends are,

(01:03:31):
and there's been uh Garth Brooks. Ask me how I
know because he had that Pearl label.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
And he hit me right back. He's like, you would
be the if you have a number one.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
You'd be the first artist in the history of country
music to self fund their first number one.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Yeah, And I was like, holy crap, have you met him?

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
Never met him?

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
I haven't met him either, just on Instagram, Like, we
should get him and Drew, or we should just do
a podcast like talking. I mean of this podcast like talking,
Like I'm so.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
Interested in this version and I feel like I can
learn a lot from hearing somebody who's gone through it,
and then somebody like him who has studied it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
For so long.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Yeah, and then somebody who's kind of like, I'm not
really in it, but I'm definitely around it and can
influence it or be influenced by it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
I think that'd be real fun to come back with.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Man, I think, like what you do and what your
show is for artists and things like that is such
a it matters so big, Like when Bobby bones your
name in this town, your name on, you support a single,
you do whatever, you change artist's.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Life like that, and I clip that rate. Yeah, I
mean it really is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
And you know, I know you're so humble, Bobby, just
talking this is like our first time ever meeting and
just hanging out with you or such. It seems like
a small town dude i'd hang out with back home,
And you know, I just want you to know that,
because you know it could be easily looked over. But
like you get behind an artist, you do whatever you
have them on your show. Even that amount of reach
for an artist's song or whatever, they probably ump up

(01:05:00):
in the iTunes chart the same day because you're reaching
what you're you know, in.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Fair the iTunes charts like ten downloads at this point.
Very true, who's even listening to that?

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Very true?

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
We can dominate the iTunes. But I bet I bet you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Could see whoever you have on your show, and Mike
probably see this, whoever you have on your show. I'd
be interested to go that day and check out their
streams and see if there's a bump.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
There's definitely situations. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, we have a
big audience audience.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Yeah. When I get to pick a wall court, you
still move around pretty good?

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
Yeah, yeah, I freaking come over and feature book.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
How far do you live from here?

Speaker 4 (01:05:34):
I live in Brentwood. I'm right down street.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Oh you are?

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):
Yeah, it took me like five minutes ago.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
All right, I'm bad.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
Yeah, I'd love that I mean, you're a veteran. You've
been playing since like thirty grade. Yeah, so who knew
it was like the national sport of pato. Yeah, and
I'll be I'll be paying a lot of attention to
this now. I again, I don't generally I like doing
this version because it's an hour long. This podcast is

(01:05:59):
really good. People like long form conversation. I can invest
in a person. I feel like a person that we're
sitting across can invest in the conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Oh, we can get into the weeds.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
But I rarely am just like lit up like I
am now during this conversation. And I did not expect
to be. I was like, oh, let's see what this
is about.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
You know. Yeah, generic person comes by for generic chat,
but this is this is real good.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
You guys.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Follow Drew on Instagram, Drew Baldridge Music, same thing on
TikTok or go to Drew Baldridge music dot com. And
I'm gonna make a call and it may not turn
into anything, but I'm gonna call my guy and be like, just.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
Talk to Drew dude.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
Thank you, yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
If it doesn't work out, great and maybe you don't
want anybody.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
Yeah, I mean, I'm to the point now where I'm like.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
You're fighting somebody.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Yeah, yeah, because it's just it's getting too much. And
I also want to make sure I'm a good husband
and a good you know, father, and so it's just
I gotta have time to do some of that. And
it's like, man, right now, I feel like my time
is being sucked pretty. I mean, you're you get it.
You're probably times crazy too, but it's just like, man,
it's good.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
It's a good problem.

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
Yeah, it's a good problem.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
I've never i haven't been here, so I'm just trying
to be like take advantage of where we're at and
get a really good team.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
And final question, would you ever quit being an artist
to run a late to run your own label if
it was like pop?

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
Would you ever go? Or do you have that you
just got to make.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
I've had so many people ask and I was like, man,
I would have to be My songs would just have
to just immediately suck and not work. Because I love playing,
I love being on stage. I love connecting connecting with people.
I love writing songs that mean a lot, like She's
Somebody's daughter, the stories that I get, the messages I
get about what this song means to the people.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
I want that, I want to connect.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
I've been writing song since I was sixteen and dreaming
of this moment of having a song that meant something.
It would have to be I'd have to be a
lot older and be like, hey, I'm not I'm not
doing music anymore. But I don't see that happen. I
love playing freaking the opry. I want to be on
a big tour. I've never played stadiums, I never played areenas,
and I want to do that, you know, so I

(01:08:00):
can't imagine, like right now, that's not in my head.
If I will work my own thing and maybe a
friend along the way if that happens.

Speaker 4 (01:08:08):
But right now, music, baby.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Mike, we should plan a round table. Get me, Eddie,
Drew and Chris It never met, Chris, never met Drew
until today. Meet and Chris after seven years, Me too,
same thing, Drew.

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Good to see Buddy, good to see man.

Speaker 6 (01:08:25):
Thank you, thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.