- 2 months ago
Cole Swindell is forever changed, thanks to his newest title, Dad. The singer stopped by for a talk with Katie Neal about his new single, “Girl Dad,” and what the first Father’s Day in his new role means to him.
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00:00Colson, thank you so much for coming to see us.
00:02How are you?
00:03Of course, I'm great.
00:03I'm great.
00:04Just amazing season in life.
00:08Had a lot of off time here.
00:10We're getting back to work, doing shows, new music.
00:12Everything feels good.
00:14So thanks for having me.
00:15It's always good to see you.
00:16I'm happy you're here.
00:16It's also your first Father's Day this weekend.
00:19Wow.
00:20I mean, every time somebody says that, honestly, I haven't thought about it.
00:24That's just something that you know comes around every year, but it's not like this.
00:28You're not the one celebrating, you know, so it's just a different feeling, but it's
00:32also exciting.
00:33Yeah.
00:34Because do you guys know last year that you were pregnant yet or no?
00:38Yeah, but we, yeah.
00:39So we were, you know, we didn't really get the, you know, Courtney, you know, wanted to
00:42do a little something just because it is, we, the baby wasn't here yet, but just that
00:47feeling was cool.
00:48But I wanted to kind of wait.
00:49I was like, let's just wait, you know, hopefully I'll have a few after this.
00:52So it's been cool to, you know, just watch her grow over the past 10, be 11 months here
00:59soon.
00:59And that's all you hear is how fast it goes.
01:02And I've, I've heard that too before, you know, becoming a dad, just, there's no measure
01:06of time, like a child, like watching how fast, you know, it goes by watching them grow.
01:12And I don't know.
01:13It just sounds like a bunch of cliche stuff that is the truth.
01:17Now that's kind of what it is.
01:18I mean, and I get it, you hear it for so long and then when you're, you know, experiencing
01:22it, it's like, there's a reason, you know, and it makes me think about back over life,
01:26just all the things you hear through life, like the people just, you hear over and over.
01:29It's like, those are usually.
01:31Every cliche is 100% spot on.
01:33Yeah, it's like 100%.
01:34And it's just, people get tired of hearing it.
01:36Everybody does.
01:37But then when you're the one in it, you're, you just feel the need, I think, to tell somebody
01:41else or to share that with them or want them to experience that too.
01:44So it's real.
01:44It's, it's real.
01:45I mean, and it is, uh, it's scary.
01:47I mean, it's just, there's so many, I feel like, you know, in this life, we're trying
01:51to find connection or feel something and, you know, whether it's chasing a dream and
01:55then it's one day you wake up, it's like, maybe this was the dream all along.
01:59You know, I didn't, I don't know that I, you just don't look at life the same.
02:03And now, uh, you know, having first Father's Day around the corner and a new chapter music,
02:08it's just, uh, feels, yeah, just, I don't know how I, I've never been comfortable with
02:15that because I don't, it just feels like, what did I ever do to, to get to this point
02:20and to, but I know that's, I think back and it's a lot of hard, you know, a lot of
02:23ups
02:23and downs, a lot of the downs that people never see.
02:26And, um, I think I'm more proud of just where I am personally than anything I've ever accomplished
02:32career-wise and not that I don't still love it.
02:34It's amazing.
02:35It's just, you know, knowing where I am now, I wish maybe, you know, this would have happened
02:40a little sooner.
02:41I feel like I've been missing out, but then to know it wouldn't have, I wasn't ready.
02:45I wouldn't have, you know, been in this spot.
02:47So it's just, just constant reminders that it all, you know, you know, your story is your
02:52own and it's gonna, you know, it's gonna happen how it's gonna happen.
02:54You just gotta keep showing up and keep, keep living.
02:57That's what, what I've learned.
02:59And, um, I don't know, just a cool, cool feeling.
03:01You mentioned that, you know, people always say to you, like, you know, time goes by so
03:04fast.
03:05And I was thinking about how you have those cliches and advice and stuff like that.
03:08Like having the job that you have is obviously very unique.
03:11Was there anybody in the industry who gave you like really good advice, whether it was
03:14like Luke or TR or a buddy about like being a dad and having the job that you have?
03:18Yeah.
03:18You know, obviously getting to tour with those guys and they were fathers before me and TR's
03:24a girl dad like myself.
03:26And just, I think it just ultimately, you know, spend the time with him.
03:30You can't, it goes by fast.
03:32And, um, I think anybody that knows, that's why I kind of try to look at other situations
03:36and find the good in this.
03:39Although I wish, you know, I discovered this kind of happiness sooner.
03:42I don't, you know, everybody's thing happens at different times.
03:46And I don't know that I would have had the time to spend with rainy over the past year
03:49if this would have been five, six years ago when I was in the middle of everything and,
03:54uh, gone all the time.
03:55So you just kind of have to, you know, find the good in it.
03:59And for me having this off time and this point in my career where I can kind of dictate that
04:03has just been, it's been a blessing.
04:06I've never even thought of that, you know, to get to spend as much time around her this
04:10early in her life.
04:11And I always say, I know she won't even remember these days, but I will, you know,
04:14and that's, uh, that's all that these are for me.
04:16Yeah.
04:16So it's, uh, I don't know.
04:18I just, but it's not easy.
04:19You, you tell yourself that you just, it's a lot of long nights and all this, but, uh,
04:24man, it's just, it's been a cool just experience to enter this chapter of life that, you know,
04:31is so unfamiliar.
04:32Is there anything that you feel like you learned about babies in this first year of life that
04:35you're like, wait, no one gave me advice about that?
04:37Like, what was the thing you're like, wait, they do that?
04:39Yeah.
04:40I mean, yeah, there's so many.
04:41I don't, I don't even know if I could name just one, I think, uh, you know, just the
04:46different phases that you look and you'll be like, well, what's going on?
04:49You look it up.
04:50It's like, oh, this is a sleep regression or just like all this kind of things.
04:53You, there's so much info out there, which I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.
04:57You really just figuring it out.
04:58And I think that's been my favorite thing, but to know, I tell you what, I've always knew
05:03my mom sacrificed and, and did a lot for me, but you really, it's, it's almost sad to
05:08know until you become, you can't really, you can't fathom how much you're loved.
05:14I don't think, you know, and it's, uh, to, to be that in that place now and know that,
05:20that Rainey, um, you know, but she wants her mom a lot, but she's starting to kind of want
05:25me.
05:25So I wasn't expecting that, I guess, to answer your question that, you know, obviously there's
05:29not a lot we can do, man.
05:31That's why women are superheroes.
05:33Cause it's, it really is, it's tough, but you want, you want to help out and it's just
05:38basically being there for support and knowing that, you know, why the Lord didn't give us
05:42that job.
05:43Cause it is being a mom is unreal, but getting to be a dad is just, it's something I'm, I
05:48don't know.
05:48It feels like it was scary.
05:49I think for the longest time and now it's just, this is all I want to be good at, you
05:54know,
05:54it's like, this is a new challenge and, and something that means more than anything I've
05:59ever, uh, you know, wanted to be.
06:01So pretty cool.
06:02Well, let's talk about this new song, Girl Dad.
06:05Tell me the story behind this.
06:06Yeah.
06:06You know, I'd heard that term just from having buddies, like you mentioned, T.R.
06:11Dierks, just people that have had daughters and you see Girl Dad and I don't know.
06:15I just, when I had that, uh, I'm like, man, I wonder if there's been a song like that,
06:19but obviously you look at the title and don't really know what to expect.
06:22I think it's a little misleading.
06:23Probably could have put a comma.
06:24In the title.
06:25So you got what we were saying, but that would have given away, you know, so we, it's just
06:30an update of, of life over the past three or four years to my dad, you know, me and Michael
06:35Tyler, uh, and Ben Stennis sat down.
06:37I had this title and idea and I told him, I was like, don't laugh at the title.
06:41I was like, I've got a different, you know, way I want to write it and kind of explain
06:44what I was thinking about going back and thinking the last time I was at, you know, one of the
06:49last times I was at my dad's grave was, you should be here.
06:52The video shoot and just how, what my, how different my life looks and how, what an emotional
06:57day that was, but how much I needed that.
06:59It was almost therapeutic, you know, and to man, to think back if I went now and got to
07:03update him, you know, what would I say?
07:05And that's literally the lyrics to the song.
07:07This, this is what I would say, you know, and a lot of people, you know, I hope they
07:11can find a little bit of their story in this if they, if they need it, you know, it's not,
07:15it may be titled girl dad, but it's really for anybody going through any life moment or
07:19anything.
07:20They just, you know, those moments where you wish you could just call that one person
07:23or a couple of people, whatever, and tell them.
07:25And so I hope, you know, that people know that this is a special song to me, but it's
07:31really just the power of music and also hope.
07:34I think there's this song, I hope people can, can find hope in it that, you know, anybody
07:38that knows my story and all the, and the loss and the stuff I've dealt with, that there is
07:43light at the end of the time.
07:44You just gotta, you know, I said it earlier, you just gotta keep living.
07:46You just don't know when it's all going to turn around and you, you don't know the things
07:50you're going through at the moment, why that doesn't make sense.
07:53And then to finally be able to look back and be like, Oh, even the things that were hard,
07:58it's like, I don't know that I'd be here if I, if I hadn't gone through that, it makes
08:01you, it shapes you.
08:02And, and the only thing that's ever helped me, I feel like was using what I've been through
08:06to help other people, or at least let them know.
08:08I don't know how to help other than to tell them, I know that how they're feeling.
08:11And sometimes that's all we need is to know that whatever that feeling is, there's somebody
08:15out there that's been through it.
08:16And you gotta, you know, anytime that, you know, I just think people have this, uh,
08:20misconception that we're, everything's all great and we're in the spotlight and get to
08:24live this.
08:24And I'm not complaining, but it is, there's a lot of things people don't see.
08:28And anytime I can let them know, Hey, I deal with a lot of the same things you do.
08:32That's all I've ever, I don't like that part of it of being in, I'm just a normal dude
08:36that, you know, gets to do what I love.
08:38But I hope people, you know, that are dealing with these same kind of emotions and on a day
08:43like father's day weekend, which is something that's kind of been bittersweet for years,
08:46but because I have friends that I want them to enjoy having that, uh, with their dads
08:50and I hope they know, you know, don't take that for granted.
08:53But now who, who'd have thought, you know, 13 years later, I'm celebrating father's day
08:59a different way.
08:59I mean, it just, it's, it's truly celebrating for the first time.
09:03Celebrate.
09:03Yeah.
09:04So you're, you're exactly right.
09:05I mean, and it just makes me, you know, there's no telling how many father's days I was in Nashville
09:09and my dad was in Georgia and I'd give anything to, to have just went to one of those, you
09:15know?
09:15And, uh, so I just hope people can, you know, learn from other people's stories and I've,
09:19you know, you, you tell your story, you think it's bad.
09:22And then there's somebody that's got one that just, you're like, it makes you thankful for,
09:25for yours, you know?
09:27And I think that's, I've experienced that anytime I've put out songs that were close to my heart
09:31and, you know, it's almost scary to put that out there and then people flood you with
09:36their stories and it's just that it's helping them.
09:39And it's like, do you know you're helping me by sharing that?
09:42And I really think the more, the more you think about it, it's just, that's why we love
09:46music.
09:46That's why we love country music.
09:47It's just connects.
09:49And I think going back to being a kid, even if I couldn't relate to any of some of those
09:54songs, but it just to know somebody else felt like that, or those kinds of emotions that
09:58a song can make you feel is, um, I think that's kind of, I knew early on that, you know,
10:03I love music a different way.
10:04It had been there for me and a lot of people, you know, I'm the guy that some people don't
10:09like that they're going through some as I can't listen to that.
10:11And I'm the guy that's like, play it again, like turn it up.
10:13It's just, it's that confirmation that man, somebody else out there feels this too.
10:18And that is, uh, that's just human, you know?
10:20Yeah.
10:20Well, and I think about like all the people that were impacted when you should be here
10:23first came out.
10:24And like, there's probably somebody that finds that song still every day that gets them through
10:28a tough time.
10:29And like all those people who are going to be able to like live through this updated version of
10:33this song with you, like, it's so beautiful.
10:35Well, thank you.
10:36That's, I mean, really what means the most to me is to know what, you know, especially
10:41when you're getting to do something you love that you can't believe is a job.
10:44I mean, anytime you can help folks, I think that's what we're here for in general.
10:48And, um, you know, it's just nice to, to be on this side of it and yeah, things aren't
10:54always easy and it's, it's, but it's hopeful.
10:57I feel like, uh, you know, life is working out different than I ever expected, but that's
11:02just, that's life.
11:02That's how it works.
11:04So you just can't, you know, there's a time I never saw any of this coming and I just,
11:08I hope people can hear this song and hear my story and know that, man, it, it's going
11:13to work out how it's supposed to just, uh, got to hang in there.
11:16Yeah, you do talk a little bit about like some of the main themes of the music video,
11:20like how you wanted to tie it back to the music video for you should be here.
11:23Well, that's, you know, when we were writing the song, it was just kind of eerie, similar
11:27to you should be here.
11:28Those feelings we didn't even, I hadn't even thought about the video.
11:30I just was getting those same emotions because the last time I'd been there was the, you
11:35should be here thing.
11:36And that was just a whole different scenario.
11:37So when, you know, people heard the song and I just had the idea of my, I feel like I
11:42have
11:42to, I don't want to really do that, but I feel like we have to go back and.
11:46You know, since it is like an update, we need to update a video with little, you know, shots
11:50here and there that are very reminiscent of you should be here.
11:53And we did that on purpose, but you know, some people believe it or not, I mean, I would
11:57like to think a lot of people have heard you should be here that are going to hear this,
11:59but there's still people that may be seeing this for the first time.
12:02So, uh, you can still watch the video and have never seen you should be here.
12:06But if you have seen it, um, I think you, you catch several little things that we did
12:10on purpose that, you know, talk about the measure of time.
12:13There's a shot at the end that just, I was not expecting to hit me like that, but it
12:17shows my nephews a shot from, you should be here running out of the house.
12:21And now, however many years later, how fast they've grown and they're just, you know,
12:26young men.
12:27It's crazy to see that.
12:29And just the flashback of, uh, you know, and I think just that little part of the video
12:33is what I hope people take from it.
12:35That man, it's, um, look how life changed.
12:37Yeah.
12:38You guys did such a good job with it.
12:39I thought that was really cool.
12:40I mean, like just like how almost like frame for frame, like when you're pulling up to
12:43the house and your family's running out and like, that was such a, yeah.
12:47And that's cool.
12:48That's part of the art of, you know, music videos.
12:50We, I've always loved those too.
12:52I remember knowing every music video that ever came on before the title came up just
12:57cause I watched the on repeat, you know, and, um, you know, it's powerful to have, sometimes
13:02you have different strategies.
13:03You wait, put the music video out later, but to have it ready to go when the song, I, I
13:08think
13:08we did, I'd love to think we did a good job putting people in that place from the very
13:12first line of the song.
13:14But man, when you see me living those lyrics right there in person, it's just, uh, I don't
13:20know, there's something powerful about it.
13:22So to Mike Monaco and he's been my buddy a long time.
13:25He did the, you should be here video.
13:26I just, it made perfect sense to have him and Keith, a lot of the guys that worked on that
13:30video to have them back and to see, you know, where they are in their lives.
13:34And it's just, it's wild when you, when you get to connect with people that, you know,
13:38has success with early on and to see just how you've all grown and where you are now.
13:44So it was just a special day to have my family out there again and not where you want to
13:48spend
13:48the day necessarily, but it just, I don't know.
13:51I think that kind of stuff, um, you know, you put that stuff off as scary to go back and
13:55revisit those feelings, but man, it's just, it's freeing.
13:58Like when you leave there, it's like, and I hope people know, you know, last time I was
14:01there, I was with my brothers and just, it was just heartbreaking, you know, now that's
14:06I go back and I'm almost like, I can't believe, you know, how much life has changed.
14:11And that's what we tried to do with the video is just, um, you know, make it represent the
14:16lyrics.
14:16And I think, uh, you know, Monaco and everybody that did it, Sam Ellis had never worked with
14:20him as a producer, but man, he made this thing.
14:22It just, it sounds exactly how I imagined between Ben and Michael Tyler.
14:27We just, we're very proud of it.
14:29And, and me and Ben and Michael Tyler, all girl dads, all lost our fathers.
14:32It's, that's not an accident either.
14:34I don't think I love, I wrote, I wanted to write with them because I love what they do.
14:38I love them as songwriters and as humans, but you know, you get in the room and you find
14:43out, Oh, that's the reason I told y'all that yard, y'all know exactly what it's like.
14:47And it's just, those things just happen.
14:50You know, songs find their way to the right writing room.
14:52They find their way when they're supposed to be released and no matter if you think you
14:56have a better plan for them, whatever, they just always seem to end up in the right spot
15:01and written with the right people.
15:02And I just, I don't know everything about this feels really good.
15:06You know, there's a, it's tough these days.
15:08There's a lot of music.
15:09There's a lot of artists and I've been thankful to do this as long as I have.
15:13It's just, you know, these are the moments you, you know, hope for that, that come and
15:17and I can just tell the buzz already I've heard and just the stories that, that people
15:22are, you know, this is, I hope it's going to be special to them and, and just getting
15:26to share my life through my music, you know, to still, you know, people, it seems like
15:30yes, I was singing about chilling it and ain't worth the whiskey.
15:33And it's like, that's, but that's okay that I was there then, you know, and I want people
15:37to know that, Hey, uh, just cause you're going through some of that stuff doesn't mean
15:41you're not going to end up in a totally different place.
15:43You just, uh, you got to see.
15:45Yeah, definitely.
15:46I made a note, a little birdie told me to ask you about something and it had something
15:50to do with like a picture of you and your dad and either like a truck or a Bronco in
15:54it that your brothers have found.
15:56Oh yeah.
15:56It's crazy.
15:57Um, I've, you know, I was sitting in a writing room, I'd had this title for a while and cause
16:02I've always talked about my dad's Bronco is something that, you know, I didn't know if
16:06I'd ever find it or if I'd ever, you know, locate that or I've always thought I'd get
16:11one like it and fix it up just so to have something to remember, you know, because that
16:15thing, that's all I ever remember him driving and how, uh, how cool I thought it was.
16:20And we wrote this song, uh, me and Lauren Hungate, Jameson Rogers and Seth Mosley.
16:25And I told him this, it's like for sale sign on the old Broncos is the title.
16:29That's a weird title, but you know, it was just about, you know, looking for that Bronco.
16:34And we wrote this song that day.
16:36We put my brother's names in the song.
16:38I'm like, man, if I'm ever going to find it, as I watch the power of me, I was like,
16:42somebody
16:42will help me find this thing if we, and I just teased a clip of, of the song.
16:46And, uh, yeah, I can't really spoil the rest of the story, but it's just all the information
16:52about where it may be started coming in and it's just, you know, we're in the middle of
16:56shooting the girl dad video and we get a call that, that we may have, may have found it.
17:00And, uh, it's just, I don't know.
17:03I don't think things that are happening.
17:04I feel like this new chapter of music are just, it's taking me back to, you know, always
17:09I'm from South Georgia, both sides of the state, but I always call, you know, around
17:13Albany, Georgia, Bromwood.
17:15That's where I grew up really.
17:16But my early childhood was in Glenville in Southeast Georgia.
17:19And when my parents were together and just as my earliest memories of playing ball and
17:24all that.
17:24So I didn't plan on this, but this feels like these songs are just taking me back to the
17:29very beginning.
17:30And I don't know if that's becoming a dad and just wanting to, you know, be able to
17:34explain to my daughter, my whole story.
17:36And just, you go back and you revisit things you may not want to.
17:39And man, I just feel like this chapter of music is, it wasn't planned like that, but it's
17:44taken me to a whole different part of my life that, you know, I hadn't really sang about.
17:48And it's, it's really cool.
17:50So the Bronco, yeah, I've got a song that I absolutely love it.
17:55You know, I got to think that we'll be putting it out at some point and just, just always
17:59been on the hunt for this Bronco.
18:01So I got a really cool, cool story about it.
18:03And I can't wait to share it with everybody.
18:05That'll be amazing.
18:06It's been almost a year since Spanish Moss came out, which is crazy to think.
18:10I mean, like you talk about all the things that have gone by so fast.
18:12I'm sure it feels at warped speed for you.
18:16What other songs do you feel like you've written right now that you're excited about,
18:19like this next chapter?
18:20I know you just, you know, touched on that a lot with, you know, where you're at in life.
18:23I think, yeah.
18:24And I think the Spanish Moss album, I was still, you know, I was just got married.
18:28We had our wedding song on that, but I really, I was expecting to be a father.
18:32I just didn't have the music, hadn't had all that.
18:35And I think a lot of people were maybe expecting to hear that side.
18:38I'm like, you got to wait.
18:38I still had a lot of songs that, but I love that album so much.
18:43And just, you know, it's about where I'd been.
18:45I think a lot of that, those songs are, I might not have been there currently,
18:48but I still want to be able to make music for people that have, are right where I used
18:52to be or in a hard place where I used to be.
18:54I think I just feel responsible that, you know, if I've been there, I still want to sing
18:58about it, but then finding that balance of it's hard for me to do that when that's not
19:02how I feel.
19:03So I've never been in this position, like making music, writing songs.
19:06And, um, for me, it is a lot of, you know, a few more love songs, definitely dad songs.
19:12I just told you about the Bronco song.
19:14That's a, but that's just a cool vibe song, but it still means a little something.
19:18I feel like even the songs that have tempo now, I just make a more of an effort that,
19:23Hey man, lyrics are powerful.
19:24And I just want to tell more about my story, but there's that one.
19:28We've got girl dad.
19:29There's another one called rock my world that I wrote with drew Parker and Jameson Rogers.
19:33That is, it's just amazing.
19:36Uh, just sitting there, rocking your daughter and wondering who she's going to be.
19:41And it's, uh, it's, it's very, very special.
19:43So we've got a few, uh, but they all can't be like, I can't make a dad album or can
19:48I?
19:48I don't know.
19:48You can, well, I mean, Luke Combs has been an entire dad album.
19:51Oh, he did actually.
19:52Why would I say that?
19:53You definitely can do that.
19:54Yeah.
19:54Well, he's Luke Combs, so I'm, uh, but no, it's, I think, you know, there will be,
19:58I think people are going to be able to hopefully, you know, tell that I'm in a different place
20:02now and I get to sing about that.
20:04And while knowing I hadn't always been here, I don't want to act like that, you know, this
20:08was always going to happen.
20:09Cause I, plenty of times I doubted that.
20:12And, um, I don't know.
20:13I just want to be honest with my lyrics and just being able to tell your story and people,
20:19you don't know if people are going to care who's going to relate to it, but I don't
20:22know, anytime you take a chance and do that, it's just, you find there's a lot of people
20:25out there just like you and vice versa.
20:28I think that's what they, they feel too.
20:29For sure.
20:30You've got a bunch of shows that you're playing over the summer touring and stuff.
20:33I want to talk about like show day rituals, if that's even changed at all for you.
20:37Like, did Courtney and the baby come out with you right now?
20:39Or is that just, you know, they came to the fan club party we did during CMA Fest.
20:44That was the first time Rainy had ever even seen me.
20:46It wasn't an actual stage.
20:47And so they haven't been to the, uh, like the big show, the big show.
20:51Yeah, but they're, they'll be there soon.
20:53And I, that's stuff I've, you know, I've watched my buddies bring their kids out on stage for
20:59years.
20:59And I just always wonder, you know, I was like, that's gotta be a, a crazy feeling.
21:02So I think we'll be, you know, I'll get to do that soon.
21:05Maybe get to sing girl dad with her in attendance will be, uh, just, I don't know.
21:11I just think like the goals and the moments that you look for are different these days.
21:16And as far as pre-show, um, not so much pre-show shot for me anymore.
21:21I was going to say, I cut that out of, yeah, I don't, I mean, I just, I'm cheers and
21:26whatever.
21:26I mean, we, you know, some people are taking shots.
21:28I usually have water in mind these days.
21:30I'm just, uh, you know, I got to get up there and sing and then, um, get in the bed.
21:35My hours are different these days.
21:36It's, uh, I don't know.
21:37It just feels like a completely different thing, but probably a place I needed to get
21:41to, you know, so we still have our pre-show toast and do that pre-show prayer and, uh,
21:48walk to the stage, but I think we've had a lot of off time.
21:51So yeah, we might have to mix it up this year.
21:53I need some, if anybody's got any suggestions out there, something we should start doing
21:57pre-show ritual, let me know, fill me in and I'll, I'll, uh, get back to you.
22:01Are you guys like, are you ever binging anything on the bus with the guys or you can go
22:05that's what I was talking to somebody earlier about just, you know, I'm a huge sports fan
22:10and I'm the worst sports fan in the world right now.
22:13I haven't seen anything.
22:14I'm so out of the loop.
22:15I just, I think I've heard the Knicks won the finals.
22:18It's like that.
22:19Just, I don't know.
22:20I've never been in this spot where I've been just so not interested.
22:24I'm not interested.
22:24I just, the time is different.
22:26You don't have the time.
22:27You don't.
22:27And like me and Courtney, I remember her sister used to tell us y'all better watch all the
22:31shows.
22:32Cause that's what we love to do.
22:33There's just, you know, lay around, watch shows, find a good documentary we love, whatever
22:38it is.
22:38And I'm like, what do you mean?
22:39I was like, we'll get to watch some shows.
22:41I hadn't, I couldn't tell you.
22:43I hadn't seen an episode of anything like screen time.
22:46It's just, yeah, it's just whatever these toys are that are singing these songs.
22:49That's all I hear these days.
22:50It's in heavy rotation.
22:51Just these kids songs.
22:53Oh my God.
22:53It's, uh, it's, it's hilarious how, how life changes.
22:57It really is.
22:57So we've got America's big birthday coming up.
23:00We're going to have you on the show around the 4th of July.
23:02Do you have any like fun memories of 4th of July growing up in South Georgia that stick
23:07out to you?
23:08Yeah.
23:08You know, we always, we spent a lot of my youth and around my birthday, my birthday is
23:14into June.
23:15So we'd be in Panama city.
23:16That was kind of our family trip.
23:18We'd usually stay through the 4th and just spend it down there with family.
23:21And, um, you know, probably just being on the beach and watching the fireworks.
23:26I mean, that was kind of where, you know, somebody would have a guitar on the beach and
23:30we'd all just be sitting around singing.
23:31I mean, those were some of my earliest memories of, of singing, you know, it was, it was probably
23:36a matchbox 20 song or something, just all kinds of different music that, that I was
23:41into.
23:41And, um, you know, so those memories are special and thinking about now, what, what traditions
23:46do I want to start?
23:47You know, I don't, I didn't really, we didn't have a certain thing we did.
23:51It was just, we were always at the beach and it's just, I don't know.
23:54It's a special time of year.
23:55I feel like it's, we get to celebrate this, the country we live in and it's, I don't take
24:00that for granted, man.
24:01We're, we're very, very lucky.
24:03And, um, I, I wondered if I'm going to start something.
24:06We take Rainy down to the beach somewhere.
24:07I don't know if talk Courtney into Panama city, but we'll see, uh, we might have to,
24:12yeah, that's probably where the rest of the town is.
24:15We may have to venture over there, but yeah, I'm, I'm just looking forward to, you know,
24:19all these different holidays that you never, you've experienced by yourself.
24:24And now to just, I don't know, I heard somebody say the other day, you get to experience it
24:27through, you know, your kid's eyes and how that, and I just, I can already tell just,
24:31you know, when I'm looking at Rainy and I'm just wondering what she's thinking, I watch
24:34her thought process to go pick something up.
24:36And it's just, I don't know, man, I can't wait to see, you know, life almost through
24:41again, through a whole different lens.
24:44And I just, you know, that's just a blessing that I don't even think I fully realize.
24:47I think I'm going to, um, I don't know.
24:50I'm just, I was already an emotional person.
24:52I feel like before now being a dad, I'm going to be a, yeah, it's going to be bad for
24:57me.
24:57Like, I don't know.
24:59I don't know.
24:59I don't even like to think in the future.
25:01You know what I mean?
25:01It's just, I'll, I'll go there and I'm like, all right, let's just enjoy this long night
25:04we're having here before we get to that.
25:07Cause it's going to hurt a lot worse when, when she, you know, wants to go off with her
25:10friends and all that.
25:11It's just, I can't imagine those feelings that parents, you know, they might not get to
25:14talk about all the time, but it's, I feel like it's in your soul like that.
25:18Just worry.
25:19And just the, you know, when you care, you worry, I feel like, and it's just a, you're
25:23not supposed to, but it's still hard.
25:25Yeah.
25:25I want to walk through a bunch of just a couple of like story songs behind things.
25:28I want to start with chilling it and because that was your first number one, a lot of times
25:34like, you know, artists, you guys are all here, like starving artists, literally.
25:38Did you make a memorable or big first number one purchase?
25:43I think the first, uh, actually memorable and it was big for me at the time.
25:48My mom, um, I got her a house in, in Dawson, Georgia.
25:52She, you know, in the neighborhood next to my aunt that she had been wanting.
25:56And then, so that was, to me, that was a big deal.
25:59That was what I, uh, what I got for her.
26:02And it just, I don't know.
26:03I think she, she gave up so much and now I'm seeing even more, you know, becoming a parent,
26:07like all the, she sacrificed for me and for, you know, she got to see me make it and achieve
26:14a goal and for me to get to kind of spoil her, uh, there for the few years after I,
26:19you
26:20know, had some success was just, I don't know, one of the highlights of my life.
26:23I think, you know, you get older and you realize how much people did for you.
26:27And I think that's why I just constantly want to try to, I don't know, tell them thanks
26:31somehow, you know?
26:32And, um, I think that's what you do.
26:34You just pass it on.
26:35And now, um, you know, I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to explain to Rainy
26:40how much I love her and knowing that she'll, she's not going to know until she becomes,
26:45that's just, that's a, I don't know, deep thoughts, but it's, um, that's just where,
26:49where I am these days.
26:50And it just makes you, the perspective has definitely shifted, but also in the best way
26:55for me, I think you, you know, you just makes you appreciate life more.
26:59So for sure.
26:59Could you talk about the story behind ain't worth the whiskey?
27:02Yeah.
27:03Ain't worth the whiskey.
27:04Um, yeah, that, that came from a real place.
27:06Me, Adam Sanders, Josh Martin, we were writing that day.
27:09And I think I'll never forget this.
27:12Josh Martin had thrown out, he threw out the title, you ain't worth the whiskey.
27:16And I didn't really say anything.
27:18Cause I'm thinking, I'm like, that's what is this?
27:20And then they're keep throwing out titles.
27:22I'm like, hold on.
27:23I was like, what'd you say?
27:23Like four titles ago, ain't worth the whiskey.
27:26We had all kind of recently been through a breakup and off we, off we went writing that.
27:31But that was one that, that just felt, I don't know that we could just tell in the room.
27:34It felt like a, you know, one of those anthems for right where we were in life.
27:38And, um, little did we not.
27:40I think the song got put on hold by a few, or I remember like Montgomery Gentry and some people
27:45put it in, I'm like, we were over the moon, you know, freaking out.
27:48And, you know, then you get let down, nobody records it.
27:51And then you're like, Oh, and then a couple of years later, I needed the song worse than
27:55anybody, you know?
27:56And it made my debut album and just crazy to think back on some of these.
28:01Yeah.
28:01Yeah.
28:01Wild.
28:02Uh, never say never, never say never.
28:05Yeah.
28:05Wrote that with Chase McGill, Jesse Alexander out on the road.
28:09Um, we, you know, thought of it as a duet from the second we started writing it, just the
28:14unique way, you know, we wanted to do the answering the, you know, male, female vocal, like kind
28:20of answering each other.
28:21I thought that was just unique.
28:22I'd never had a song like that.
28:24And, but the Laney thing, um, we knew it needed to be a duet, but finding that right person.
28:29I mean, I don't know if people understand how tough it is to, you know, sometimes it's organic
28:34and it happens, uh, you know, but Laney, I had known her and, but I had to send her the
28:38song.
28:38People were like, you just need, it needs to come from me.
28:40You need to text her.
28:41I'm like, I don't want to put her on the spot.
28:42I didn't even know she was on vacation.
28:44It comes to come to find out she was, but she listened to the song and I just told her,
28:48I was like, I cannot hear anybody else singing.
28:50I told my mom on the first line than you.
28:53And she loved the song and the rest is history.
28:56But that, that song wouldn't have been what it was without Laney and just moments like that,
29:00man, you get to, you know, see your friends go on and, and accomplished amazing things.
29:06And she just, just proud of, of everything she's doing, man.
29:09She's such a great, great person.
29:10And that was a huge to have her on that song.
29:12She is.
29:13All right.
29:13And then forever to me.
29:14Forever to me.
29:16Yep.
29:16That's wrote that one, um, in Texas before the national championship game, Michigan, Washington,
29:22we were almost late to the kickoff because I didn't really care about the football game.
29:26We, I didn't have a wedding song and Graylin James, um, we were sitting there talking in
29:31Rocky block and they're like, do you have a wedding song?
29:34I'm like, not really.
29:34I've written some love songs.
29:36I don't think any of them are good enough.
29:37I don't know if I can write one good enough.
29:39And they're like, well, what's, you know, when you think about Courtney, whatever, you
29:42know, what is that to you?
29:43And I said, she's forever to me.
29:45And they just looked at each other and they're like, well, there we go.
29:48And we, uh, we're off to the races, wrote that song.
29:51And, um, just to, as a songwriter and somebody that loves music, the pressure of, of that
29:57wondering, am I going to write my wedding song?
29:58Will we just pick something?
29:59You know, you don't know if it's ever going to be good enough, but for that to, you know,
30:03be our, be our wedding song and to have success at radio and just for people to share their
30:08stories and find theirs.
30:09And that was really, really cool.
30:10Yeah.
30:10And the last one, single Saturday night.
30:13Yes.
30:13I didn't know if that was ever coming either.
30:15I, when I sang that song, um, I loved it.
30:18It felt like everything I wanted to be like, Hey, I'm ready for that.
30:21But it's just, I hadn't had it yet.
30:23I hadn't had my last single Saturday night.
30:24And, um, that was a song that I got sent to me.
30:27Hardy wrote it.
30:28Um, and I just got back from losers at Red Akins had some big birthday bash and I get
30:33home and Hardy and Gourley both sent me the same song within five minutes of each other.
30:38I'm like, all right, I better listen to this.
30:39If these two guys are sending it and I heard it and it was just one of those things that
30:43was right around the pandemic.
30:44And I just remember whether it was, you know, on the golf course or whatever people were
30:50listening to music and over zoom or whatever, we were just, that was something we kept on
30:54repeat.
30:54And it just felt like, you know, we had to fight for it.
30:56I don't know that the, you know, everybody on the team thought that, or the label thought
31:00that should be the single, but we, uh, I remember me and Carrie and everybody saying,
31:04this is what we want to put out during this time.
31:07And it just, it happened to be a big hit for us.
31:10And it's just, I hope people are hearing that too, you know, I mean, there's a lot of
31:13people that it could be, you never know when you're going to meet that person.
31:16And, um, for me, I wasn't living that in the moment, but now to look back and say, I've
31:21had that is pretty cool.
31:22I get to sing it every night and always ask where the single folks are and everybody,
31:27you know, there's a lot of them in the crowd and just tell them this could be, this could
31:30be your last, last night.
31:31You never know.
31:32Yeah.
31:33Well, listen, it's so good to see you.
31:34So this song is like so precious and so sweet and wonderful.
31:37And it's really like so beautiful to see you in this like full circle.
31:41I always love talking to you.
31:42You're the best.
31:43You've known you for since the beginning and I appreciate you always being so good to us.
31:47Thank you, Cole.
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