On this episode of the BobbyCast, Bobby sits down with the legendary country duo, Brooks & Dunn. Bobby asks the duo if they still get along till this day, and Brooks & Dunn answer candidly when they explain how they have gone through many ups and downs over the years. Plus, the guys tell Bobby about the time Reba invited them to Las Vegas for a show and how that ultimately led them to getting back together. Bobby also talked to the guys about feeling like their run on top was over when they lost entertainer of the year after winning it back-to-back years. Plus, Bobby and Eddie talk about lesser-known stories from behind the music scene over the years!
Follow on Instagram: @TheBobbyCast
Follow on TikTok: @TheBobbyCast
Watch this Episode on Youtube
And just reminded us, damn, we got a hillbilly bam back there. Let's go bang that again, because that really was fun. You know, Let's get over our bs.
And we tried to blow it.
Welcome to episode five twenty one with Brooks and Dunn and then also some of the lesser known behind the scenes stories from the music industry that I think you might find surprising. So we're gonna spend some time with Brooks and Dunn and then we're gonna talk music after that. But let's get to Brooks and Done first. They've got twenty number ones stretching all the way back to nineteen ninety one. They have two Grammy Awards, dozens of ACMs and CMA honors. I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I took my family through it, and it was when they had the Brooks and Done exhibit with all of their ACMs and cmas. And it looked like you walked into Scrooge McDuck's gold mine, you know, hit the vault when he just jumps in and there's a.
Golt like a swimm. That's what it looked like.
It looked like he was in his vault with all that there was, There're so many and twenty nineteen they were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in the Modern Era Artist category. Their number one streaming song ever is Neon Moon number two, Boots Scooting Boogie, number three, Red Dirt Road, and here they are my friends, Brooks and Duns.
It still seems like you guys like each other in what way get along that? I don't know.
We're all just sitting or talking and everybody laughs. You've been together a long time. I got friends I work for like fifteen years. Sometimes we're like, we've done this long enough. At this point, you guys have been doing it for a long time.
I went through that stage, you know. But was it because that you know, we're just go ahead? How about liking oner brother?
What stick we like?
We do?
We do like one brother?
Did you getting along?
Did you have to learn that? Did you have to learn to like each other?
By?
Do you love each other? Then? How to like each other again?
Uh?
Just over time?
I mean to move or thrown together, you know, nineteen ninety and just told to go write songs. We don't know what we're doing for what project? And it was in this room a different form of this room, and we did it over a weekend and took a few of the songs back to a brand new man and an next spoken heart back to Tim dy Bough, who was starting to arist the records with Clive Davis at the time.
I had some and some boot scoog and boogie some of lost and found.
What I heard, though, was like an arranged marriage. It feels like a musically arranged marriage. But you didn't know it was, no, not a clue.
We were thinking if worst case scenario. We were thinking one thing would lead to another and we'd go out and find other jobs or get record deals or whatever. But it took off like immediately, you know, I don't I don't know what.
I don't know what that answer in ninety I mean thirty five years. Yeah, a lot of ebb and flow for sure.
And I went through that period of we've both been doing this a long time without a whole lot to show for it, honestly, and all of a sudden, number one, number one, number one, number one, Like what in the hell?
You know? It's just weird.
When you beat up bars and you work so hard and you feel like you're every bit is good, then as you are now.
But what just happened?
Well, what did happen? Because again you're both doing it individually.
Yeah, you get together.
So what's the difference, Like, what was the alchemy? What was the combination that you think.
Worked within the group? We don't know. We still wonder about that. Just put one foot in front of the other and do what we're told, are not told. But there was just a lot going on. I mean, there's that's such a such a broad reference to two different circumstances that are happening at the time. You know, timing has something to do with it. I'm sure politics on the record labels and the business, you know. I think the country singer thing to say is gosh, darm, we're just glad to be here, you know.
Three chords and the truth.
I think we did he hits. Yeah, we're not here now.
And I think we have some pretty good songs. But I think we had absolutely nothing in common. We had nothing in common on stage. We came from totally different backgrounds as far as performing went. And I think it was kind of a NASCAR race. It's like there's a wreck, there's a wreck on the way, you know, so let's watch this for a while and see how they hit the wall, you know, and we did plenty of times. But I think I think there was some nervous, nervous energy between the two of us.
Kind of always has been that we didn't know.
We didn't know that when you start at that level where you don't even know who's going to be the lead singer, I mean, or if there is going to be a lead singer.
That feels honestly awkward. I'm just saying it to you guys, and both of you guys are great singers. That feels awkward that you have to have that discussion.
I don't know that we ever had the discussion.
We just went, yeah, Ronnie was singing hits right off the bat. Even though we wrote next Broken Heart and Brand New Man, he grabbed on it. I couldn't have sung either one of those songs in here that well. It's easy for me to look back on it. I think we're both trying so hard with our egos involved, not knowing how it's gonna go, you know. But it shook out to me realizing really what a great singer he is. And I don't have any trouble saying that now after thirty five years.
We've been through freaking.
Miles of up and down and mud and running through the freaking Daisy's out there.
You know.
It's just it's crazy to look back on, even going through twenty ten when we quit minute, you know, but it didn't take but a couple of years and a couple of gigs showed up and we never really lost that whatever it is that happens on stage, and especially when Reba got involved.
You know, we'd done a couple of big tours with.
Her, and she drug us into Vegas and then we're doing a two and a half hour show just shooting the bull and singing the songs. We both had a pretty good handful of hits, and I'm like, damn, this is fun, and just reminded us this is great.
And we put this thing together with Riba, But damn, we got a hillbilly band back there.
That's a honkey tong Band's the truth and and let's go bang that again, because that really was fun.
You know, let's get over our bs.
And we tried to blow it real hard.
Who do you credit as to keeping it from being blown?
Uh? Our manager Clarence s. Yeah, especially with this sudden resurgence of things with the reboot projects and stuff. I can remember in bending Cancun, Ribbon Norble's place and we were we were all like like out facing the ocean in the pool, you know, there's rockstar Reba's house, and kick it back and going, you know, I don't I don't care, Norvel if I never seen again. I said, I'm good, I'm good, right right here, right now. He goes, well, just just be still for a minute, let things let things pan out. Well, it wasn't two weeks probably after that that he he and Clarence came to us and said, you don't want to do Vegas. I thought, well, sure, I don't care how much?
How much?
And it just, you know, it just everything snowball from there again. Kind of that was the catalyst.
So much of art is product you make, but also the timing when you make it.
And you had mentioned politics earlier, and I don't know the politics then on solo band duos.
Was there a lack of duos at the time? Is that was that part of the reason they put you guys together.
I think that was part of the formula, not lack of duos, but just part of the formula that Tim was putting the label with. I mean he had Alan Jackson, so.
Okay, so he needed one for his team a group.
He signed the boys singer.
He needed a point guard. He had a center in a forward so.
THEO had Pam Tills. He had one of everything.
But he needed to do And I think the juds were breaking up at that point, so for whatever reason.
We were aware of it. Yeah, on the way back to Oklahoma, I kind of heard the announcement on the road that the judge are breaking up, but that was no. Again, I never remembered thinking, hey, that's that's this is going to be the the catalyst or the you know, the big diving board into the deep water.
This is the truth.
Though.
I remember the first duo of the year that we won at the ACMs. We were leaving, had our families there and we were excited and whatever, and walking out the door and and uh one of the concierge came up and said, said, would you mind coming with me? Said Naomi Judd would like to have a word with you, And okay, i'd met Naomi. We didn't really know. He showed other so we go down. So when it was at Universal and she was down underneath the stands. There was like a you know, grand stand you would have like a temporary kind of stand set up at Universal, the way it was when in there she stood under there in her beautiful evening ground was gown. It was like this thing out of a movie and said, hey, hey, nailed me. She goes, I just wanted you to come down. I just want to let you know that we're passing the torch to you guys tonight. I'm like, okay, I don't know if we're really torch passing or anything.
That.
She was a pretty dramatic personality, you know, and that was.
That would be awesome and awkward at the same time.
It was I didn't really have a good response for her other than I appreciate you feeling that way. But you know, there's a lot of great duos out there, and.
She owned the torch. She gets to like, that's awesome if you get pass it to me.
Might have been a power power plug. I don't know. You come and walking up all the bus. We were hated for some bar I got all award. You do what you're gonna do, and you take coffin, you know, end up in Fresno tomorrow. But because I guess you don't believe just what happened, they told the story.
I haven't told that story a lot, but it was a very surreal moment, you know, just.
Under the bleachers and now we're just getting the torch path.
We're only a couple of years in.
This isn't like, you know, yeah, we're really comfortable in our skis here that first year.
I was my TikTok is.
Honestly, I watch a lot of seventies and eighties country music award shows. They it's just clips of them, right, and I want and if I'm right, that same year you won Best New Duo and Best Duo the same year.
Does that sound right that you won them most?
I think that maybe we had two?
Yeah, I think that was it.
Yeah, and we were new.
It wouldn't it kind of be weird if you won Best Duo but didn't win the Best New Duo, Like that's the kind of stuff.
That pops on my head, like there's a lot of room for awkwardness here.
But you win to that night, did you feel then like, hey, we got a few years now and not a career, But did it feel like we got a few years.
Now, not one time, as it fell that way.
I'll tell you when I failed it. It was the first show we had after that. That was when I realized the power of an award show because our fans, it was there was an energy that hadn't been there the show before the awards.
So they really they really got it, you.
Know, and a shelf life, which is interesting looking back.
And you saw it back then in the CD world.
You saw a fifteen to twenty percent bump in your sales too if you want an award.
So really from the immediate effects of the awards show? What about doing did you guys do any of the late night shows back in the day?
Yeah, Letterman, would you see effects from that back then as well?
Yeah, there'll be a bump not as not as not as deep when you.
Go to New York or LA to play these shows and they don't have a lot of country acts on Leno Letterman like Letterman is my heroes.
Yeah, that letter of them was the big fun way to get got the hot band all that stuff.
Freezing Cold Band's awesome fish forty degrees? How did it feel go taking what then became massive?
Because what you guys were a part of and lead in the nineties became pop culture. But how did that feel taking that to those places at the time didn't have it? New York LA and those crowds.
Well then, I don't know if that was really on our minds other than just you know, getting up there like it wouldn't be today and give me a good performance.
It's doing a TV show. Yeah, you didn't have what country music? Yeah, I mean, honestly, like you're going to do Letterman Lendl. They don't have a lot of country on there to begin with.
And you're in cities where the movement hadn't quite happened yet when you guys started, because you guys were the catalysts of it, And I wonder what it was like to play New York LA at a time when country music was kind of foreign to this.
We were flabbergasted and a lot of other ways I can remember.
And there, Yeah, honestly, like Ronnie said, great band, I mean, Paul, And then they light it up and they treat you like or somebody. You know, they weren't acting like We're just like, okay, how are we.
Going to do this?
I like that.
That's a cool dude, love that song.
You know.
It's just those guys to really give you a pat on the back and make you feel like, Okay, you don't have a hate bail here.
This feels good.
Were trying to get away from that.
You know, this is gonna be hopefully a beautifully odd question.
I like an answer for both of you. But when you think about the best picture that you guys have together, and I'd like a different answer for both of you. So I want to give you a few seconds. But somewhere in a house or warehouse, what's the best picture the picture that you can think of of a moment, of a place, of a show of YouTube together.
What is that picture?
Hm? Hmm, that runs deep. I guess there's two pictures.
So I was gonna let you pick. You you might pick the same one one of our album covers where I just got my I got a leg stretched out.
We're in a we're in an adobe, you know, doorway, and Ronnie's just standing there and I just got my boot heel up on the doorway and it's I think it's waiting on sundown, you know, but it's just a good you know, it's one of those long days when you just keep me and him standing together going yeah, yeah, you know, we don't really like that, but it was just I remember it was at the end of a long, tired one and I just threw my leg up went could God please take a picture and please let it be okay, you know, and and it was.
That was pretty cool. It was a pretty good one.
It's just finding those moments where you like exactly what you're describing, where you just here, your defenses are down, you just stand there and you're like, okay, we're not We're relaxed. That's that.
This is it.
Another one was another cover was the one in La under some Bridge and they had taken like Latino feed Ye had done the Billy Deluxe. Yeah yeah, that uh that cover. Same thing. It's kind of like long day, you know, stretch your foot out and you know, we were just comfortable together.
The one we used the most, shot all night long. Two photographers on stage, great photographers, shot a million freaking pictures, got nothing. We walked walked as the elevator door was closing, one of the guys walked up and shot us.
We've used that picture for like.
Eight years, just both of us up against the wall, in the elevator and it was just right. It's like we'd posed and shot at a thousand times. But yeah, that's the one that.
Workd You hear those stories with with Cash, like with you know, photographers coming in young guys want to come and go because you got to he's in the dressing room. You got to shot, and you walk in and go. You got two minutes minutes.
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
What's the most accidental, random part of all of this success when you go, holy Coop and can't believe that happened because this happened.
I think probably the fact that actually in two thousand, there was a real good chance we were sick of each other to the point that we were really talking about we've had enough. You know, we were using different producers whatever, sending files back and forth.
We kind of I don't think it was sick of which you might you might have to me for interrupting.
I'm glad to hear you say that.
No, it was all about about the music we were trying to find. We were trying to find it hit a wall, and we were trying to find something. It was a little different, had a little little more different twist or they could punch through. At the time, it wasn't the same old sambo and I think we just, you know, we're hard headed button his but nothing. I didn't feel any real tension.
No, I mean, other than you know, we never raised our voices to get each other in thirty five years.
It was just a search the rot music.
We'll turn our back on each other and come back when we're done poutin and Joe Glani came in at that point and said, guys, I just got back to town. Will you make one album for me? And we said okay, and made what we thought was a pretty good record. He had a song or I guess Ronnie said he might might have come to him first. I don't know, but whatever the song called, Nothing About You showed up and I finished Only in America the night before we were going to record, and we cut those two songs. Nothing about You was number one for six weeks after having an album that was basically didn't do anything, and Only in America was number one. And in the time it was a real dark time because of the towers coming down and both things.
Had nothing about you state, but I don't know, so it just kind of everything changed. We're back on back in the saddle. Here we go again, you know.
Which takes us back to it's all about the song. And you're right about timing. You know that you're guru. You've been around this. You've been around it.
Still waiting on the time. That's all doing and catch a break.
Probably probably one of the most miraculous things to come out of all this chaos along the way is that here we sit right now.
Why do you say that.
Because we get to do Bobby bone for your kidding all this time.
It's just, hey, here we are.
You know, your dream as young children was the worker with me. I get it.
We're all that a penacle.
It's like my grandma before she died, she said she my grandma said be careful on TikTok.
Yeah, and that hasn't been avantage your.
Grandma, my grandmothers is just going in there. There will there will come from the from the woods of Arkansas.
Young man, you will know him. Buy his glasses.
In Arkansas.
No, it's not Buddy, Allie. No, remember Bobby this, it's not Buddy, it's Bobby.
This room.
This space that's changed. The walls are a bit different, but there's a recording studio. What happened here with you guys, Brand new Man.
First song and a ton of stuff, so much freaking music history, from good God Almighty, from Roger Miller to you could Merle Haggard, everybody you can think of that's famous in country music, Carlen Howard and all, just the greatest guitar players, the greatest songwriter certainly you know Curly Putman, Green Green Grass a home all this.
This was the most single, most impactful, largest publishing company in the world.
And the studios where everybody demoed that stuff.
Was there a respect, a creative respect within yourselves when you're working in a place that has all that history.
Yeah. Yeah. June Carter, like before I even really came to town, was telling me. She said, well, Cook, you don't need a writing deal first. Well, here's how we can we build it. And she said, I'd already been to every publishing company in town, Donna Hilly at the time with Buddy Killing which owned us so many time, but Donna was running called uh and she was the last publisher that we had gone to call me in Oklahoma and said, uh, would you take what was it six hundred dollars a week or something, which is a lot of money?
Uh, to.
A retainer to write And he kicks him in here and it's like you just kind of solidified. Oh man, you know, do you come into the biggest, baddest professional song publish.
Yeah.
The three of us come from similar backgrounds, rural area, small towns. I'm gonna ask questions. Kind of weird to ask, but do you remember when you become a millionaire?
I remember asking kicks on the bus. We got royalty checks like the same day.
I only came in the mail with two commas on it and a number in front of it.
Like you had a paper check.
Yeah.
Nothing more fun than in the.
Mail, broke on your ass, your whole life, and walking paper check with two commas on it.
There, you know? Excuse me how you need to go talk to a manager?
Yeah?
I might want to go do that.
I guess.
I don't know what I was thinking my checking account, though, I got some ideas.
So we get we get these checks. I opened mine first, I don't know for whatever, I didn't know what it was and turn up and oh, I said, he kicks I just came a millionaire. And he's like, okay. He tears his his opening goes, yeah, me too.
So I'm scared. If I'm holding that paper, you know, sign the back of it, then get it to a bank.
I did it.
I did it in Brentwood. I said. It's the first time and probably last time I walked in the bank to do that. And I said, I just got to see what they do.
You know.
If I had the teller a million dollar check, I hand it to her and she's looking looking down doing something. She looked on and she goes, okay, she said, you need to sign the sign of back, sweetie. So I signed it and away it went. And then she hands me the receipt and I went home and told Janine, living right down the road. I told her, I said, I went in and put a million dollars in the back. It's like I was even there.
What you gotta do? Everybody does?
I guess build away. Sorrys has just been in there. Wh they keep breaking hard for twelve million or something. I don't know what fine I have.
This is the this is the original ACM. So is this the one you guys got first? This is the style bring back any memories at all?
Yeah, yeah, a lot of memories.
The fun thing was you got to take them with you, no way, Yeah, yeah, no.
We we had to worry about packing them in your bag, you know, to fly out with them from la.
It takes like eight weeks to get them in the mail. Now.
I remember waking up with a slide hangover after that night you're talking about when we won two of them, and going, god.
What happened?
Oh man? Are those things? Did I make it home with those things?
Sure enough?
They were sitting on a bedside table. No, thank god, because I didn't really remember a lot of.
What a few of them got back A little slight thing.
Yeah, some of them are kind of pretty much good.
Went to the country, to the Hall of Fame and saw all them together. I mean, it's like you're walking into freaking jewelry store. Where were they before you allowed them to hold them?
Like?
Where did you keep them all?
Just what I just sent home with Janie and half the time we get on the bus or playing and yours with Barbara?
Where are they stored?
I don't know. There's so many. Do you storm them? Do you put some on the toilet?
Do you put some like I got a home theater, you know, at home, and it's got it's kind of set up when I built it just kind of had, you know, shelves with lighting.
And stuff, all them all images there.
They're just kind of.
Studio. They kind of they were all over the place, but they're scattered all over over. That's that's that's the change.
That's the change.
Yeah, you know what I I don't mean, but I have a bunch of my self, you know, I just whatever for different reasons for being good.
Look, thank you.
It took me a minute to catch the cowboy hat.
Just a minute, though, that is art.
Did you know that was a cowboy hat? Okay, get it?
Back then, I thought, I like discovered something a few years ago and apparently everybody already knew that.
Was that was that?
Did you see that cowboy hat?
I thought it was a seagull. A couple a sum questions as we're getting into it.
When you get up and you win your award, do you have prepared who you're going to think and who's going to say who you're going to think?
Is that even No, it's one of one of my my biggest regrets. I think it's like I'll get up there and stumb around. You guys come on, well, like a good, good line, and I should just do what I'm an dude, get out of your way. Not true, and uh uh yeah, I never think about it. I just think it's it's superstitious, bad, don't expect it. You know, you're setting yourself up.
Did you feel that way with music though? Superstitious in what way?
I don't know.
Songs number three? Do you talk about it being number one? Oh?
Yeah, yeah. You radio guys were of course, calls a lot of don't you don't.
Can mine world. I don't get mine with any of that, Like, I have nothing to do with that.
No, that's the monthing. Finally, I just had to turn that off, you know, because the buddies jump up on the bus or you know, co riders or something and go, hey man, this songe's the top five right now. It's like, I don't know what it's like.
There's so many charts. If you look at the right one, it's number one somewhere. If it makes it to two or three, it's number one somewhere.
I want to ask you about Entertainer of the Year, because you got it three times.
Uh.
Now you don't see any non singular artist when entertainer of the year.
Uh.
You guys want it back to back years and then again like a few years later, and mostly want to talk about the first time in the last time. But let's do the first time they call your name as entertainer of the year.
What does that feel like, big, big boom, big Shot?
Was it a shock?
Yeah, big Shot?
I mean, you know, I don't remember who else, but I know Garth.
Was center sitting right there, you know, just gone out and romped.
On the world, and uh we and Alan was generally in there, and.
But I remember looking directly when I got up to the second I did and Garth were talking about it too. He said we made ee contact and I was like, I'm up there and with like an oath whatever that means. And I went, sorry, man, I'm sorry. We're gonna take it anyway.
Let's talk about the third time that you won, because there was a few gap years in between.
You go, bang bang, back to back years.
Me my brain, I would go, why I don't want the last few I'm kind of over That's what I would be thinking.
When it came to that. I wonder with you guys, you won, did you think your minute at that that part was over?
Yeah?
And I think that it's sort of like the one way one recently. It it's you feel like you kind of deserved it. Maybe you know, we never had I mean, we've always been scared and we've always.
I feel like we're really both pretty.
Damn humble at heart.
Though you've got to have some got to have some confidence about what you're doing. But entertainer, you know, it's like when you win it it's like, okay, that was that a pat on the back or what or what?
You know?
But then the third time, after a couple of years, it's like, maybe maybe that's the one. They're going, Okay, you're.
For real that I get out of here.
Yeah, that's just one song. Play them out, boys, entertain that's it.
You entertained.
Nowt's taken care of you. Let's talk about Riba. How did that relationship become so strong?
They were when we when we first started went out early nineties, ninety one, ninety two, whatever, there were only I think five major tours out there, so it would be straight Garth uh events Uhlan in Riba. Yeah, but we're all up in roll In Alabama. Yeah, and we got we got picked up by to open you be the first act of three, uh by by RIBA's Camp and uh you get what I think maybe twenty minutes.
In a small part of the stage.
That's it.
She even talked about it. She came back and said, you know, when I first started, I was opening for Charlie Daniels and he said, I wore high heels and there was grapes right there. I had to walk through my toes.
All the time.
But uh so, yeah, I mean she just kind of she and Norvel and that bunch, uh kind of you know, drag us, drug us along for a while.
I'll tell you what was cool though, when we started hitting a lick, you know, the first couple of songs took off and whatever, and we were out there and we were had a fairly extended deal with them and Norvel. We became the dressing room one night and said, guys, y'all are going to be around for a while and we don't want you to hate us.
And anyway, they doubled what they were paying us at the time. I won't say what that was.
But it was like what a million.
The record company gave us that one. But anyway, it was pretty cool that they said, you know, we just you know, you guys are legit and we definitely got a good deal, too good of a deal. So you know, here's a little kiss.
That's a class move.
What's the human riba like?
She's a she's she's a lot like what you see she is. That's pretty much. She's a cowgirl. She's never sit still. Her mother set calls for that. She bounce her. She just doesn't stop. She's relentless that what she does.
You know.
She's funny too, and loves to play board games.
I mean literally we're in Vegas, you know, to go on top of the stage waving at the crowd, goodbao on their feet whatever. As soon as that curtain comes together, he goes, y'all want to play Ruby cueb tonight? Okay, So because she knows, she plays it every night, So you can half ass play Ruby Cube unless you're something wrong.
With It's like Trivia Pursuit when you played fifty thousand times in you all the answers, Yeah, like a long day for the side of the table.
I want to ask you about two legacies, and I would wrap this up, the Brooks and Dunn legacy.
What's it going to be? What did you want it to be?
Uh? A series of good songs, lasting songs that are classics that you can listen to. You know, we all us it used to say that, use the word longevity, you know, but just that kind of the music. Let the music define you. You know, there's there's I mean, we work on image and stuff like that just as crazy as anybody.
You know.
We took everything west of Mississippi, went to the desert, you know, and chased all that that look. But at the at the end of the day, it's it's the songs blat out is Yeah.
The thing that's craziest to me at this point with sort of this here we go again, you know, and I've said it for lack of a better description, when people go, what do you think is happening with you guys right now? And you know you're selling everything out and that it really feels like because I didn't find Willie Nelson till I was in college, when he'd already had a really cool career in Nashville and written a lot of classic songs that are still there. I didn't know I hadn't really heard of Willie Nelson. I like Merle Haggard and George Jones, but I was real close to the Willie Picnics when him and Whalen came went and kicked the door down. I'm like, that was We're taking road trips down to Austin and getting in the middle of it with another forty thousand drunks, going this is the funnest stuff in the world, and that guy is so freaking cool.
Not to compare us or our.
Music to Willie and Whalen in any way other than I think a young group of music listeners found him and thought that was cool and started sharing that, you know, and I think it's.
Just it's really it feels great that I look.
Out in the audience and every night go how many auire at your first bricks and doune shows? And watching those hands go up?
Uh, not before last? Was it not for last? Yeah, we're at the Houston Rodeo seventy one and thirty six people. I know because we're all always competing to who has the biggest crowd of the rodeo, and so you ask them in the middle of the show. He goes, how many of you, is this your first Brooks and Done show and it's the Houston Rodeo. We've been there, like in the Hall of Fame there and I swear the whole place erupted.
It was like what what so?
And that's the legacy that you wanted, the legacy and you get to live it now, which is so rare it.
I think the legacy is what Ronnie was saying, because every year we did the craziest stuff we could think of on stage, you know, inspired by zz Top and a lot of rock bands that were doing you know, Garth picked up on that too, but man, a lot of a lot of things that we stole from rock bands that had done this, from the Stones to zz Top, stuff I had seen coming up, going oh we ought to do this something like and I won't even get into all that, but just we tore up stuff and just spent all this money just to see how freaking crazy we could be on stage in terms of sets and things we could do. Ronnie was always somewhat reserved, thank God, or you know, we'd lost completely lost our minds.
But I really enjoyed that part of it.
And at the same time, with all the stupid clothes I was wearing and coming up with, and all that. The fact that now I don't hear anybody talking about it. It's like we had these giant inflatable women that took four crew guys behind shaking them on stage because I'd seen the Stones do that.
It's it's the coolest thing I ever saw us. Probably not so much, but we did it well.
That was a result. All this crazy stuff was a result of, like you said earlier, County Country, like it got to that rock status level. We would play Friday night. Erolsmith would play near Chicago. We'd played right behind him next night. So you're coming in, you're gonna go. Uh, we need a few more trucks with stuff.
One more legacy question. What's Reba's legacy?
Oh gosh, you know, she has done everything. I think, just just to me, it's just an amazing entertainer. And I think what you see is what you get is probably why your TV shows are still back to back to back to back on some cable network somewhere.
You know.
I think it's just really as smart as she is. Smart she is, you know, but it's small time ranch girl.
Who knows no fear, no fear.
Own Broadway great singer, tons of records, tons of number ones I mean, and television icon from now the voice to shows she's made herself.
You know.
To end this will I want to indulge myself. It's talking for a second and giving my favorite version of each of you.
And you're not gonna remember this.
But at the Grand Ole Operate the door stay open unless you're like you're in your underwere the door stay open. And it was my first time performing doing stand up at the Opry and I was fanning you guys, but I had never met you guys and.
Kicks.
Walked in the room and was like hey, and like gave me a pep talk. I didn't even know. You probably knew how I was. You probably thought I was cleaning up the place, like hey, you do. But but but literally like you were like this is such a special place.
Congratulations, you're gonna do great, and like it makes it emotionally even thinking about that you would take thirty seconds to do that at that time, at that place, and like that'll be something that when I'm a hundred I remember like vividly, so like I appreciate that, and I tell that story underneath the microphone and camera so people can hear that you're not just a couple of funny guys that are acting nice on camera, that you do treat people the way that it seems like you treat people, and that's rare in this sense. Tree Uh with Ronnie, Uh, you sang at my wedding and we didn't eve know.
You were coming.
You didn't get invited, and you just still showed up and saying.
And that was awesome.
You wore me out, Yeah but you did. But I'm being excited. You did.
You did, you did sing and I will forever be grateful And it was AWESO loved both of you guys together and separately. And to conclude, my favorite favorite favorite moment, it's me and my wife and Ronnie and his wife were having dinner and someone comes up and wants a picture of court.
I mean, it's freaking oh oh, let me tell that.
You want to tell my story, go ahead, well and then you can tell, but I'll tell it together.
What happened? Of course I want to hear.
Of course it's it's a superstar. Someone comes up and wants a picture, and I'm like, I get it. I would want a picture.
Too, and and so they're like, they had me the camera take his picture.
Don't you hate it when they do.
Good ones? It was the top three greatest moments. And then Ronnie took the pictre the fan.
And uh more than once and somebody's could can we get a picture? I'm like, yeah, sure, and they hand me the camera and they put their arm around each other. That's happened to be several showbiz show minis. I love you guys, thank you for doing this. Congratulations on all your success, but I think the success that I hear from you is how your music has affected many people for many years.
That was the goal.
That was a dream, and you guys are living it still. Seventy thousand people still coming to shows. It's awesome to see. Congratulations and thank you for the time.
Yeah cool, Thanks Flobby lock Pok Pobby, thank you Mane.
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the Bobby Cast.
So here are some possibly lesser known, but while behind the scenes stories from the music industry that you may find surprising. And haven't gone over these with you, but I'll read you these.
Tell me how much you know? Okay Fleetwood.
Max Rumors was basically a musical soap opera because of everything happening in the band at the time it came out.
Oh no, I had no idea.
I think you will a little bit like, uh, gosh, what's the what's the guy's name?
Mick, Mick Fleetwood and the Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. A lot of drama there. Yeah, that's that's three of them. Okay, you know the other one one died. No clue.
The band members were breaking up with each other while they were recording the album. Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were ending their relationship because they were together John and Christina mcvii.
She was the keyboard player. I guess. Yeah, they were divorcing. Oh, I didn't know they were together.
And Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce of his own then later had an affair with Stevie Nicks.
Drama.
Despite all the chaos, they made it into one of the most successful albums of all time.
Wow. Crazy, that is crazy.
There was that much inner turmoil or just drama and they were still able to make such good music. What I hear is a great producer keeping them all together, like somebody that's not in the band. Who was producing that album was having to put bumpers like in bowling on the gun on the freaking band and like control them to focus on music because everybody was going through crap, and a lot of them were going through crap together.
Oh, that's the perfect recipe for a band to be like, we're done, We're not doing this.
You know, it's the perfect recipe to write a bunch of great songs if it's not about with people in the band.
You're going through.
Divorces and breakups and all music, great music comes from all that pain.
But when it's with people in the band, it's weird. They can make that good of music. Do you do you know offhand what's on that record? Like what songs?
Yeah, I mean most of their massive song really, Like I think if I were guessing based on just the rumor's lore, that's the album with him standing up and her sitting on a chair.
It's kind of in black and white. You know, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Dreams is on it, Okay, Jam their biggest song, right, and I say their biggest because I think it got refamous again on TikTok Massive Back in the seventies, but recool again to twenty and thirty year olds. Like ten years ago, it had kind of a queen Bohemian raps and renaissance.
Is that the one?
Yeah?
What's on it?
Go your own way, your your wrong way? Yep, never going back again.
The chain's awesome. What's never going back again? I don't know.
The chain is.
It's so hard to do multiple what else? Don't stop? Youngbird? You make loving fun?
Oh daddy, gold dust woman?
Oh okay, all right, there you go. You want to hear I listened to when I do do research, what is that low fi hip hop beats on YouTube?
And there's like some Asian girl that's doing her homework. It's like a cartoon.
I what's that same one? Yes?
Yeah, Where do you guys find this?
It was suggested like a live alive when I was on YouTube, and so when I when I prepare notes in the morning, that's what I listened to.
That's awesome. I mean, that's very well.
I I was wondering, why Mike is it this one specifically.
With anime girl?
Yep?
Card again yep?
What is having Mike? Do you do that while you're working too?
Yes?
You guys are the same person. The only reason this comes up is because I had it on before I came in and did this, and I guess I forgot to X out of it, and I was like, what's playing? Because I was gonna go track Fleetwood Mac. So who's producing that music? Do you know?
Or is it just kind of it's somebody?
Yeah?
And then just the screen is just an animation of a girl and.
It's all low fi hip hop.
It is always on and some yeah, and sometimes I'll just freestyle with it, like terribly uh, just to kind of.
Give him a mind going, yeah, that's pretty funny, all right. Number one, that's Umber one, By the way, I have.
I think eight of these.
Number two. Rick James kidnapped someone.
Oh no, what are you talking about?
In nineteen ninety one, funk Legend Rick James and his girlfriend were arrested for kidnapping and assaulting a woman during a week long drug binge.
Whoa.
He was eventually convicted and served two years in prison.
WHOA.
Wildly this did not kill his career. He even had a later resurgence on Chapelle Show.
That's a bigger Whoa. But you can do that and you still keep going. I don't know enough about this, as in I didn't live it because it was before US NAK eighty one.
But there's no social media. You got four channels. If you didn't catch it when it was on the news, you didn't catch it unless you saw in the newspaper. Then it was here and then gone. So there's like a brief period of time where all the bad craft that had happened. People got away with all kinds of stuff. Yeah, good, wild, yeah, and now no one can do anything right. If you do something mild, it stays up there. Forever you look at donut, everyone knows exactly exactly. For those who don't get the reference, Ariana Grand that's right, that's Eddy's favorite reference. In the past, like six months, Prince recorded a song.
Every day for years. I feel like I've heard that Prince's legendary vault is not just a myth.
Engineers who worked with him report he would often write, record, and produce a full song every single day, many of which which no one has still ever heard, because he would do it all by himself. He even had the whole albums created, he then would shelve them purely because he changed his mind. Not because he was doing it to put in a vault to have this library after he died. But he would finish it and go. Prince does not like that. Prince will put this away. Nobody gets to hear it. David Bowie and his Thin White Duke era was fueled by milk, peppers and cocaine.
Whoa, and he had different eras.
And I was never a big Bowie guy because I was born after Bowie and I never really got into Bowie same. I did have a Queen phase because they were such a freaking good band.
Oh and of course Wayne's World brought him back the resurgence we mentioned earlier. Sure for all of us to understand how good Queen was.
I think as I get older, I can appreciate David Bowie for what he was doing and for what he was attempting to do, and they can be seen together or separate. But he had these different eras, Like I can think of Ziggy Stardust, the makeup that was.
A specific era.
Yeah, I can think of like his eighties with Mick Jagger, flamboyant, tight col He just had different version yeah, as an artist, and Thin White Duke was a version in the seventies, He was in such a deep cocaine spiral that he reportedly lived on milk, red peppers, and cigarettes only. He was also so obsessed with the occult and feared witches were stealing his semen. But who doesn't. That's one of those we.
All kind of relate to, right, Yeah, all the time?
Are these girls that he'd hook up with and be like, that's a witch, She's stole my semen. He was on so many drugs.
Possibly he later claimed he barely remembered recording Station to Station, the very famous album because he was so messed up.
Wow, yeah, that's crazy.
Van Halen's Brown Eminem's claus was not deva behavior. Now you've heard the Eminem's.
Sure, this is for the writer. They're backstage writer. Yeah, what do you know about the story? Nothing? I mean, I don't know anything. I've heard that they requested brown Eminem's removed, oh, out of every so they would get a bunch of Eminems and remove the brown Eminems.
They demanded they'd be removed in their rider. And the writer is in the contract the list of things you need to have to do to the show backstage. Okay, some people do couches. Some people do food, you know, for us, I mostly requested you to have the local IPA correct and me to have limes, lemons and lime.
Yeah, just to suck on.
No cocaine and peppers for us.
Yeah, a long side ago, man, we don't do that anymore.
The band infamously demanded a bowl of Eminem's with all the brown ones removed. People thought it was just them being over the top rock star excess, but the real reason was to check to see if promoters read their contracts carefully. Wow, because if they read it, saw it, and then did it, they knew that the other technical agreements would be done right as well.
I'll be honest with you, I didn't think Van Healen would be a business savvy kind of check on the contract kind of people.
I don't know that Van Halen that they were, But you are if the people you hire are yeah, yeah, And I'm sure they had great management. And I know, I mean I know their management. Now who is their management then? Because they're here tell you?
Yeah? Really? Yeah, so they were their management like at the height of Van Healen. Wow, Yeah, that's crazy, it's pretty cool.
So for example, people will give Taylor Swift a hard time because she does all these really nice things and send all these notes and sends all these gifts, and people are like, well, that's her management. Your management is part of you. That's like if you were to pick up a piece of garbage, you go like, no, no, that's your arm that did that, not your brain. I No, your arm is an extension of all of you. And so Van Halen, they may not have been someone who demanded all those things, all the technical things be looked at, all the safety, but somebody in their team.
Was What happens more you telling the artists telling the management what to do, or management telling the artists what they should do. And I'm sure there's there's you know, give and take right, but like what happens more more likely?
So artists can fire managers at any time. That mean they don't have to pay them because you have what's called a sunset clause. So let's say my management company, which is Red Light Management, I have Morgan number one, who is my day to day manager, and I have Tom Lord who oversees me and some other artists. If I were to go to them and say hey, I want out, there are certain deals that we've already agreed to and are doing. They've already put their time in that I have to pay that out. However, anything beyond that, I don't, but I can fire them at any time. In the end, the artist holds really all the power. But if you use that power and you're kind of a dumb dumb you will lose any power to do anything. So the artist has to hire the right team and listen to the right team, and has to kind of have give them autonomy to make decisions, because you really don't see super successful artists without great managers slash agents, and some agents will do the manager role a bit as well, And there are two different roles. But like even bad even I see bad ones, even ones that seemed evil. Look at Elvis, Colonel Parker Colonel Yeah, he got a bad rap.
Well he also was like kind of shady, but he was a good manager and probably made him a lot of money, probably.
Made Elvis the star that he ended up being, making those strategic decisions, right, So the power is with the artist. However, the artist, if you're a good artist, you allow autonomy.
Within your team, and.
A lot of that decision making comes for management or agents def Leppard's drummer lost his arm and came back stronger.
I heard of that. Yeah, I think everyone's heard of that one.
Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident in nineteen eighty four. Instead of quitting, he had a custom electronic drum kit built and then he relearned how to play it using his feet in one arm. Amazing the band did not replace him. Also shout out to the band.
Yep, I'm sure they thought immediately, guess he's gonna suck, We're gonna have to replace him.
Well, they also had to wait for him, for him to get better. Yeah, yeah, because they're missing time touring. Sure, that's money, this was early though, that's still money. That's still I get it. But it was still momentum. More than more than money. It's momentum. Yeah, you're a young band trying to make it and you have to pull off the road when all you had was the road. Because there was no social media. It wasn't like they're getting to do Fallon or Kimmel. Those guys weren't even born yet. Yeah, maybe they were born.
But yeah, it's gonna sound twisted, but I mean and the marketing tool now after the fact like wait, what the drummer has one arm? I need to see this, you know, And like, really, I think I don't know that that was a thing, not not that they made it a thing, but I think a lot of people were like have you heard of the deaf Lopper drummer? I think it got a lot of attention to the band just because he had one arm. I know I felt like that as a kid.
I'm gonna say I don't think so really, okay, because there really wasn't avenues for those secondary type stories to exist unless you were a massive fan and you were on the def lepperd newsletter, like it was a passing story. David rig James kidnapped somebody was like a.
Minute, never heard of that. Maybe it was MTV time, I don't know.
Well later and Bloodhound Gang had the drummer from Developpers only got one arm. So I do think it was something, and I do think it when Behind the Music came out, it's when I learned about it, and like the nineties.
Really that's when you'd learned it. You didn't know before then that he had one arm? No, wow, okay, But.
I think also your brother was probably a death Leopard fan nailed it.
He's an eighties, eighties rock fan.
Yeah, says that happened in eighty four, and he came back within three months of the accident.
Wow, three months, that's quick.
Axl Rose delayed the concert because he was watching Ninja Turtles.
I think we're learning that that that dude is a mess.
That era is a mess, but we're also learning guns and roads. The show started hours late. In the early nineties, axel Rose refused to go on stage until he finished watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles two.
The Secret of the Us.
That's a good movie.
Was Vanilla Ice in that one?
Yeah?
Was that Ninja Rapp?
Thats Ninja Rapp?
Yeah, that's good.
Go Ninja Go, Ninja Go.
That was a good one.
Bob Dylan almost wrote an Elvis song Elvis Presley's team as I want to ask Bob Dylan to write a song for Elvis, and Bob Dylan wrote one and then he never sent it. He said later he was too intimidated by Elvis to follow through.
Intimidated. Wow, that's crazy. You wouldn't think Bob Dylan would be intimidated of anyone.
Yeah, But talking about Elvis and you may remember Dolly telling us this that, oh Colonel, Colonel Tom Parker. It's like, hey, Dolly, Elvis is going to record your song. I will, I will always love, but he's gonna take fifty percent ownership and he's gonna be fifty percent of a writer on it.
Yeah, And Dolly's like, I don't think so right, where most people would be like, Elvis take it.
Yeah, it could have been a situation like that too, and Bob Dylan just being nice and you know Elvis, he wanted me to write a song and I wrote it and I was intimidating. But the real version is, you know, Elvis wonted eighty percent of it after I wrote it in that and I wasn't gonna give him that. So those are some fun little stories.
That's cool. Thank you guys.
If you don't mind, go subscribe to the Bobby Cash channel. We appreciate you listening. You know, for the most part, we do music. I did it or to two episodes back, one episode back where I just answered a bunch of questions that I get asked all the time about music or about some of our old school career stuff too.
You know.
One of those stories involved me trying to convince Eddie to move to Nashville. One of those stories, which I haven't told in forever, was about me secretly going on the air in Little Rock while I also worked in Hot Springs under a fake name, so my boss wouldn't know that I was auditioning for.
The Little Rock job.
Man, I didn't forgot. I didn't remember that in forever I told that story. Yeah, it was the one time my name was Robert Johnson.
Okay, think Robert Johnson. Yeah, I blues player, No, because it was Bobby Bones and I was going to do Robert Jones and then I thought, well, that's two on the nose, and I ended up I'm pretty sure it being Robert Robert Johnson, Robert Jones.
Yeah, it was something, and it was a killed usen to the story.
I was such an idiot. I never I'd never heard that one. I thought you were going to tell the one where you broke into the other studio or you wrote that in a book. Yeah, I wrote that my first book, Bare Bones. Check it out.
You get it on Amazon for like one dollar around.
I've heard of that book.
This other one was I had to audition, which looking back, I'm kind of irritated that they would put me in that situation for a job in Little Rock that I ended up getting. But I was so close to Little Rock, being in Hot Springs an hour away.
You could hear both stations, oh wow.
And they wanted me to audition on like, I can't because I'll lose my other job if they hear me on your station whole different company. Yeah, and so I secretly, in the middle of the night went and audition under the name Robert Johnson.
That's great, and you got it. I don't want to tell you any of that. Okay, I'll go I'll go listen to the Bodycat or when the mics go off, I can tell you how to Oka check out the Bobbycast. Thank you guys.
Coming up, we have some big episodes. We have Dolly coming up. We have Mark Cuban coming up. We have Trisha Eearwood coming up, the Pope, and we have a Trump and Obama panel where they're both sitting here and we're only talking about things.
That we agree on, and that one that one gets heated up. It does, but it's all agreeance this all right? Thank you guys. We'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production