Get Real with Caroline HobbyADAM MAC: Getting Real About Flipping The Script on Country Music
Adam Mac is rewriting the rules of country music. As one of the genre’s most exciting and unapologetically gay voices, he’s taking the spotlight with hits like Dust Your Boots Off—a #1 smash on CMT—and That Ain’t Country, shaking up the traditional sound with fierce authenticity. His tracks like The One That Got Away and A Boy Like Me hit hard, blending raw emotion with a swagger that’s impossible to ignore.
Offstage, Adam’s life is just as captivating. Engaged to his partner Lee, whom he met at a Maren Morris concert, Adam’s love story is as real and unexpected as his music. With a mix of heart, grit, and undeniable style, Adam Mac isn’t just making country music—he’s reshaping it.
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Adam Carl Lone.
She's a queen of talking, and so she's getting not afraid to feel this episode of soul.
Just let it flow.
No one can do we quiet Cary Lone.
Is sound of carlund.
Okay, Adam Mack is here and he shows up ready, ready, like a muffin. Have you put that? Okay? And not just in the house, I mean you, Oh no, wait is it working? Look, I'm in charge of my own electronics. That's always interesting. You are awesome and you rolled up with Ford Fairchild, the greatest photographer in Nashville, Tennessee, the.
Goat of creative genius.
I agree, right, Yes, Ford has done all of my podcasts, cover shoots, He has done my husband's a couple or one or two of their album covers. A thousand horses. Yes, I mean that's just me personal. I also just love everything. And he's done your stuff all like the.
Last year of my life has been basically covered in Ford Fairchild's magic.
Good for you?
Yeah, lucky me.
Lucky you know what. That's what I love about Nashville. How cool is it to collaborate with creative people who you get in a room. Because I know this from Ford, and so I'm sure this is the way you guys are. You just start dreaming stuff up and then you actually turn it into reality. Yes, isn't that bananas?
Sometimes we go too far, you gotta go you gotta know your edges, we do. You gotta go far too far so that then you know where the limit is exactly. Yeah, that's how I mean, honestly. Yeah. So yeah, we kind of did that last year with my album cover.
We were just just go cowboy, yes, which is so beautiful.
Thank you. So that album cover was actually a I had a friend of mine who's a graphic designer, draw me as a tarrort card for like when the single Disco Cowboy came out. So then when we were planning the album shoot, Ford was like, could do you think you could just like make that outfit and recreate that outfit in like a week and a half.
And I was like, And that's another thing. It's always the last minute, right, Oh. Magic always happens in stressful moment.
Yes, you you've got you've got to put the pressure on for for something beautiful to come out. Right, diamonds right, treasure diamonds, something on your pants to linstones, you know, yeah, so and we did we we uh. The cover ended up being like a replica of like a real life what is it Dick's Disney Live action version of the Terror card was what we came up with, and it was freaking cool.
That's awesome, And for this is your first management position, right second time, just come up here for a second. We're gonna have just for one second, came here, just for one second, Come here, come here, come here. Just don't sit on Ruby though. Okay, so Ford Ford is the only uh well actually you're not the only other guy with son Michael who has seen me without clothes on. But like you took pictures of me nude when I was pre married because I wanted to do a bood wash shoot and never forget when I was feeling myself and Ford did it.
Yep, and yeah, and we were like we were doing the cover, the very first cover of this podcast, and then yeah, yeah, and of course I'm just trying to like make sure it's the most cinematic thing ever. I wanted to be so extra and so I was like, you know, I was in that mode and then Caroline hits me up and it's like, hey, so I'm never gonna look this hot ever again. And I want to do a boudoir shoot and give it to Michael for Christmas. Right was something and I was like, okay, cool and then off the shirt.
Case tits out, it's out, tit's off for sure.
But and we of course we did like haste fool old school playboy vibes, like like a lot of skin in like white sheets, and it was so sexy and so beautiful.
I mean, like look at her, you know it was. It was insane.
But then Ford thought that I was just such a natural this that he called me to do another shoot for like a brand to lay in sheets, and I almost did it again. Then I hated it off to someone who's actually really good at it. I can't remember you like that that. I just like love to do this so much that I should do it like in front of other people.
Oh my gosh, it was for it was for a lyric video for some crazy pop artists.
What that is so crazy? Like soft porn model. I don't know. I forgot all about that.
Oh, but I just love that you were like so confident in my ability to like do this publicly.
I'm like, no, for no, oh, this is supposed to be a Christmas present. I don't know. I forgot all about that.
I forgot all about that, and I think that that whole thing got scrapped anyways, so it wasn't meant to be.
But anyways, I'm gonna let you all go have fun.
We love you, Ford and Ruby's here. Ruby is she was born to love. Okay, so Adam, let's talk about your life. You grew up. Wait, it's either Arkansas Alabama.
Neitheruy, dang it.
Okay. I'm like, it's so funny that I interview people because I have the memory of a squirrel saying like, I can't remember anything. I have everything written down. And then I try to go off because oh I got this, and then I'm like, oh, yeah, you're from Hawaii.
How's your mom?
I did that. I did that. No, I did that on an interview. I am not kidding. I just did that recently on an interview. And I was like, oh, so you lived through some trauma your dad passed away, and she's like, nope, nope, Dad's not dead, very alive. I'm like, Jade, ept you were supposed to line of me?
Holy shit? Oh wait, can I cuss?
Will?
You just you can just cut Okay, great, love it because I do.
Okay, yeah, I mean maybe I try not to like cuss like every other work.
So I just it just will happen, Okay, totally.
Yeah, I mean, if you go. I mean, cussing is just a part of accentuating the conversation. Ruby is cussing in her own way right now. Somebody's outside anyway, Adam, So, welcome to the podcast.
Welcome to the podcast.
Very professional over here.
Hey, I love Hey, we love chaos. Yeah, the theme is we love chaos.
That's the theme. I didn't know that was our theme, but I'm glad to know of our new friendship. Okay, great, great, great, Yeah, I love it. You know, every time Ford rolls up, though, I immediately feel chaotic in a great way. And no surprise that you do too. But it makes me like excited.
It's like chaotic good whatever they call that.
Yeah, it's like chaos, like activating, like oh, let's go do something awesome. Yes, because you really activate creativity, for you're a creativity activator. When you are around, I'm like, oh, we're about to do something fun.
Yes, let's go right now. We'll be right back after this.
Well, and you know what I think that is. I just look back to being in this town and the creative town and all that. It is so cool to get to just like be with people and you never know what's going to happen, create stuff, push the limits, and then land where you want to land.
Yeah.
Well, like finding your people and you really find like your people who get you and see the same visions that you have and share. That's us. That was kind of like when we really started working together, we really clicked and we're like, oh my god, this is going to be freaking crazy, and it has been. Okay. So you're from Kentucky, from Kentucky, Russellville, Kentucky, small little town hour, you love your town.
You wrote your song wait what the song called the.
One that Got Away or that Ain't Country.
The One that Got Away and no, and that Ain't Country.
Yeah yeah, so That Ain't Country was kind of like a response to when I put the Disco Cowboy music video out. It premiered with CMT and was like my first CMT moment.
They you know, it went to like number one or two or something. Number one all the way, yeah, all the way.
I mean to start at the top and so obviously, look in this fabulous comes with its own set of challenges and hurdles. So that was my lesson on not reading comments. Have you ever had that lesson?
You know, I have played so neutral my whole life and been such a people pleaser that I have avoided a lot of harsh comments intentionally. And then I got into a life coach about two years ago, and I realized I am a high functioning, codependent people pleaser, and I've been working on that, and so I have probably gotten more negativity in the past few years than before. But also I'm just practicing being more comfortable with people not agreeing with everything I say. And I don't have to agree. I don't have to agree with everything anybody says. And I'm actually pushing myself, like with my interviews, to have realer conversations because everyone's so afraid to have real conversations. But like, we don't all have to agree on everything, but we can still like have a ball, love each other.
Right, or find a middle ground middle ground. We can we can coexist in a.
Way that nobody's You don't have to be best friends with everybody. We don't have time for that.
I want to be no new friends, honestly, like you're the last one. Thank you. I'm on it today. You're the last new friend.
God in there. I love it when I make the cut, like especially in the nick of time.
Yes, so so. A lot of the comments on that disco cowboy video were quite literally that ain't country. This this country music. So I just, like I said, let me just take that and I'm going to write a song about what is country, Like how people from the country act, who love each other and treat each other well, who respect their neighbor and love their neighbor, like all the things that I'm from, my hometown and my small town living, like the people in my town show up for me, they support me, they love me regardless of all. Love this, you know, and that song, really, that song really has been like a journey even to like put it out and to see the response and see people in other small towns who are queer or other or different and feel like, oh my gosh, I'm not so alone in this tiny town where I thought everyone hated me.
You know, why do you think it comes across as people hating you?
Well, I don't know if it's well, some of it is Some of it just point blank is hate, and it is people who don't who've never seen anything like me before, or challenge the traditional stereotype of what a man in country music looks and sounds like and sings about. So I know that I ruffle some feathers and that's cool. I'm not. I'm just here to exist and thrive and love myself and whoever wants to be on the journey with me, You're welcome if you don't.
How has the journey to getting to the spot been for you? Has it been a long yes? Have you always loved yourself?
No? Do we do a second?
You're so confident in it now?
Is anyone born loving their self? Because I'm so confused.
I'm trying to do that to my daughter.
Yeah exactly. We talked about that.
Yes, but we're probably gonna overcompensate and they're gonna have all sorts of problems that we can't foresee.
It's fine, Yeah, it's fine. You're doing the best you can. No, So, no, I haven't. I grew up very closeted, very religious, very much.
Do you always know you're gay?
Always?
Always?
Maybe? Since like five years old? Like, how did you because I just knew that the Red Power Ranger made me feel something different. You know what I mean?
Is the Red Power Okay, like you liked that one of the.
Best, Yes, and like wanted to be best friends with the pink Power Ranger. We're really going through this But no, no, I mean, like.
So Power Rangers were the first moment.
Yeah, my gay awakening. Okay, Okay, No, I mean, like I don't know. I just knew that I didn't really have like the same things that all of my guy friends liked, you know what I mean. But then very quickly learned through indoctrination that how I was feeling was not acceptable or permitted.
What does indoctrination mean?
Like the religion that I grew up in was just like this is the way that we are going to be and that's not okay.
So what age was that.
Oh, around the same age, you know what I mean? It was like around this same age five to eight when I started feeling like something isn't really clicking here. I also was being taught all of these things about like gay people and homosexuality being a sin and that you're gonna burn in hell and like that. So I went through like my whole childhood, very closeted, very insecure, very much like questioning how I was being presented to the world, constantly having that through high school, which you know, we don't need high schoolers don't need any extra reasons to feel insecure, am I right?
High school is really something.
Yeah, So it wasn't until after high school, after I moved to Nashville, which I moved to Nashville in twenty twelve. So I've been here, however, along that math.
Is how old are twelve?
Twenty two?
Twenty two?
Yeah?
Okay, so you moved here, right? Did you go to college or go straight to.
Big to college for one semester Western Kentucky University that well, because I did not pass.
Well, maybe you didn't need college.
You know, clearly clearly college could not teach me what I needed to know. No, I mean, like I did try. That was like the thing, the thing that was supposed to uh we were all supposed to do. Listen.
I get that. I had a timeline too, like a visible timeline. You go to high school, you graduate, you go to college, then you kind of like find it And it's not like anyone put this on me. It's just what the timeline was right, and then you graduate and then you should probably start finding someone to settle down with, get a career, get like some stability lined up, somehow, have some kids by the time you're definitely by the time you're thirty. I mean, if not thirty, then it's over.
It's over right. No, No, life is just begun.
I know. And I did it all out of order and not in any kind of particular. I loved it any of it, Yeah, but I get that, but it is hard to break out of that timeline when you feel like there is all this pressure.
Yeah. Well, and it took me leaving Russellville, like removing myself from it and experiencing a whole new world. I mean I had never.
Left, and that was the one that got away. Yes, that's small town because those lyrics are pretty profound, saying like what if I how does the course go?
So it's like I was the one that got away, the one that got out, left who I thought I ought to be back in that town. Basically, the idea, the concept, the concept for the song was like if I had stayed, if I had stayed in Russellville and not come out and not like chosen myself and to love myself. What would my life had looked like? And so it kind of just goes through that like what I've married a woman, would I have kids? Would I like still be trying to like fit into this mold that I thought I had to be put in in? So yeah, that song, that song is maybe one of the most special songs and.
The one A boy like me about your mom. Oh yeah, because your mom really it sounds like she really struggled with this and she didn't want you. She don't want you not to like for God's sake, it sounds like from the song.
Well, I think because she also born and raised in Russellville, never left never really even like been out of the country like this, hasn't traveled a lot. Like really, all she knows is what she was taught until I came along and taught her a whole new way of living.
But isn't that what our children do?
Yes? Yes, and yours well too? Yeah, like uh but it was. It's it's crazy because you know, the journey that she has had has been just the most beautiful, inspiring she I mean, when I came out to her, it was not pretty. There were lots of tears, there were lots of loud voices, and she said a lot of hurtful things that she regrets. And it was maybe two weeks after that that she like called me and apologized. Luckily, my sister had like talked some sense into her and let her know that, you know, I was the same person that she loved growing up. She just knows a little bit more about who I actually am. And since then, which that was probably eleven years ago, she is just like, oh my gosh, the most proud mom. She is like the mom for all queer kids, you know what I mean. She's like she wants to adopt every queer child whose parents have not accepted them. You know. So it's been really cool. And in writing that song, I just wanted to kind of like write her a love letter, a thank you for doing the work, going on the journey and loving her child regardless of anything else.
You know, what, do you think her fear was.
How people would treat me? For sure? She's told me that in hindsight, her fear, her fear came from how how the world would treat her son. She didn't want me to have to walk through this life as someone who was constantly a target for people to harass or hate or any of that, you know what I mean. I think there was some fear of like, oh, you're gonna burn in hell in the in the beginning, and now she's kind of in a place where like, no, my God loves everyone. I know that God made you just the way that you're supposed to be. I think the last line in Boy Like Me is God doesn't make mistakes or something something like that. I don't know, and that is that is kind of her mo now is like God made you exactly who you're supposed to be, and I'm gonna love you exactly the.
Way you are.
So how has she worked that into her faith? How has she balance?
She Well, she does not go to church like like an organized like in a in a church. She kind of just like practices her faith with herself, which like.
Is where faith is anyway, shouldn't it be?
Well, yeah, for sure, shouldn't it be? So yeah, that's really it.
She has a true personal relationship with God that she has cultivated for herself for her life, and that's totally what we all have to do.
And it's all love. Like her, her religion is love and that's what I say. My religion is too. My religion is love. Love everybody, treat people well, make people feel good. That's that's all that matters to me.
So it's so interesting. I love hearing perspectives like yours, where you've had to like really step into something that was super uncomfortable. It was hard, it wasn't necessarily accepted where you were. So but you talk so fondly of your town and that ain't kind of tree and I know you love those people, but yet they have such different views. So we're coming out of such a heated time in the world. Yeah, how do we bridge that gap? Because obviously everyone has love at their core, and obviously everyone is trying to do it they think is right, but we're just missing the point. And everyone's missing some point, you know, because we're not all connecting. What do we need to do?
I mean, I think we need to unravel all of the things that we have been told that we're supposed to think about one another, you know what I mean? And I mean I am truly a hillbilly at heart, Like truly I.
Am truly just like what do you like to do as a hillbilly?
I mean I grew up in field, going to field parties, riding four wheelers. I grew up on a farm, Like all of the all of the shit you would not see me doing today is how I grew up. Well, actually, I probably would actually still do all those yeah, exactly, So I think that also is kind of uh. I always kind of think of it as my superpower because like I grew up as as like a very country hill billy running barefoot out in the woods kid. So I think I still carry a lot of that and a lot of my best friends, Like I still am friends with so many people from my hometown, like my core friend group growing up. So I kind of see that as part of my superpower. Like I see those people who typically don't align with who I am, and like see who they are, and I am who they are, and so it's like it's this weird balance of like, yes.
I'm grace for people in other words.
Absolutely grace and love like I love you.
Someone probably but they probably have some traits that you adamantly disagree with absolutely and they probably feel the same way. But you can see the core of the.
Good soul you. I do tend to see the good in people. I tend to lead with love and I just want to have a good time, Like I don't know, I'm like, uh was my enneogram seven, which is just like let's have a good time. If you're bringing the negative, you gotta you gotta get out of here.
But normally sevens are avoiding something.
Well we'll get to that.
Like normally sevens are wunning out of the good times and don't have to deal with the ship.
Yeah well yeah a little bit.
Sevens are the best.
But the best, right, I mean I I am engaged to an eight, so it's.
Like, oh man, you really found a balance. Yeah right, my dad's an eight. Really, don't mess around with an eight. They will get it done.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which is honestly, he's also like my co manager with Ford, Oh.
Is he just like so efficient, so like when he gets it done, like don't get in his way, like he's going to make it happen. The Spreads Cats are great. Congratulations on this team. You needed him, yeah, I mean, but honestly, without him, none of this would actually come into existence because it would just be floating around in the stratgy.
Exactly wonderful, exactly, No, it's truly execut. We've been together like seven and a half years, and it really my career hadn't really gained momentum until the last like probably four years, which in large part is because he is the grounding the he is the Okay, you've got great ideas, but.
Let's feel that kite in just a little bit.
Let's figure out what a realistic way to execute this is. And I'm like, yes, God, job, that's great. So yeah, I mean what were we talking about.
So case in point and this is why we need eight yeah, uh huh. We were talking about how you've been with him for seven years?
Oh yeah, seven and a half. We're getting married in June. We are going to go to Sedona, Yes, and just find a mountain and seal the deal.
I love that. Sodona is such a cool place.
It's our favorite place on Earth, which it sounds so random.
But it is just like, is that nearly Joshua? I've been to Sedona? Is that near Joshua? Tweak? We really want to go to Joshua Tree.
Just went in September.
How was it? What happens there? Things happen at Joshua Tree that don't happen anywhere else. In the world. People have awakenings. Well, did you have one? ANSD your awakening?
We enhanced are awakening.
You're looking for a spiritual awakening? Okay, did you have one?
We did?
What did you How did you connect with the spirit?
I mean, well, there's something about the desert that, yeah, I think I was a cactus in a past life or something. I could see that, because like.
I just feel very cactousy. You know, honestly, I think cactus thistles are like the most beautiful plant ever, like the thistle on a cactus. I have actually written a self description about myself as a cactus thistle before, because I see you pring myself to that.
I see you.
Strong and beautiful, but don't come near because I'm just kidding.
So it's it's like, yeah, I don't know, there's something about the desert that is just so magnetic for both of us that we feel so like at peace. And I think we also just I'm sure you can relate like we've been together a long time and we just have gotten a little caught up in the chaos of life and we just needed like a little like reset, and so we went to the desert and opened up our minds and had the most beautiful week in the desert alone fire.
Did you like have a connection with God? Yeah, I mean like you spelt him.
Yeah, and maybe even more so just like felt closer together, you know what I mean, Like we really used that time to like disconnect and connect together, you know. So yeah, we did that in uh like September. It was so hot. Don't go in September.
In September it was like.
One hundred and twenty one to zero when we landed. I was melting wo to z one to zero. Wow, didn't even know that existed. Dum, Actually it does. In the desert.
Part of the cleansing was sweating.
Yes, we we just sweat out all of the demons.
And toxins and get that out. I mean, I go to hot Yoda all the time. I loved Yeah.
So yeah, so we uh we we just we love Sedona. It's something something magical is going on over there. So we're just gonna go and Elope and find a mountain top and get married.
And when do you win?
Uh June?
Okay, we all invite friends and family. No, okay, so why are you gonna wait till June?
Because well, because I don't want to get confused with an anniversary date. So I thought that I would just.
You're the details here, I think, Yeah, I thought.
We could just pick the same date that we started dating as the marriage day, and then there's just one date to remember.
You don't have to worry about your engagement date once you get your marriage date.
No, like are when we started dating.
Yeah, you're that's impressive that you're going to celebrate that one too, But.
Like, we just keep it on the same date and then But.
I'm saying that if you want to get married, you can convince me once you get married, you could drop the gate the dating date, like, unless you just want to celebrate, which, honestly, you should celebrate everything you can in this life, because life is worth celebrating. Yes, But I mean, like my husband and I we just celebrate our marriage date.
Right, But then when but then, like what if then you're like, oh, how long have we been together? Though I don't know? No who cares?
Who cares? Okay, because eventually you're just together forever, Okay.
Lee, We're probably just gonna go get married next week. It's settled.
So I'm kind of like, I'm whimsical with this stuff. We eloped on a beach, yeah, and decided the day before. Okay, so like I'm not really someone who's gonna plan it out.
I am not either. That's why I'm like, I don't really know how this is gonna go. It could just happen. I don't know.
That's what we were on vacation in the Bahamas, and literally we knew we were gonna get married, and we're like, we don't want to do a big wedding. That sounds very stressful and not fun and maybe a people pleaser. Having back then, before I did some life coaching and stuff, I was like, I'm gonna have to entertain this whole wedding, and what if people aren't having good time where something goes wrong, Like it's gonna be way too stressful, all the money spent just like stress, stress, stressress. Yes, let's just get her on the beach and swimsuit cover ups.
Yes, yes, okay, so you didn't do you didn't do anything. That's what that's me too.
And then we had a party when we got back.
That's exactly what we're doing.
It's the best.
Yeah, for people who are wired like that, it's really great.
Yeah, we don't want tradition. We don't want to pour sand in an hour glass and make people sit in silence for thirty minutes while they stare at us. I don't want any of that.
Have your vision.
I have my vision. It's going to be cute, and it's going to be spiritual, and it's going to be exactly what we need want it to be. You know, I love it.
I promote just eloping, yeah, and I feel like it more eloping.
You don't need to be eloping more.
Unless you just met, and you don't need to elope, like you know what.
No rules, whatever you rules, do it? Who cares?
One of my very best friends also eloped after like four months of knowing someone and they're married with two kids.
Doing been together a long time.
Yeah, okay, like probably like fifteen years at this point.
It okay. His sister, His sister and her uh now wife eloped on Sunday just two weeks decided we're gonna get alope, We're gonna go Elope next Sunday, and so yeah, can you can you believe his parents had two gay games?
I was trying to put that together. I'm like, did you say his sister and his so his his parents have a gay son and a gay daughter.
Yes they do.
That's really like that can't be that common.
And it's the they're the only two siblings, like they're they're the only two siblings.
But uh, okay, you know, did they like did they know they're gay? Was it a big thing coming up?
They?
I think Lee knew but didn't come out until high school and Ali didn't come out until college, like much later. But yeah, wild, isn't it wild?
For the parents? School journey, it's all been a journey. It's still a journey. Journey, still a journey. I mean, that's that's that's crazy to have too.
Yeah, well, they like they grew up and went to like Christian schools and Christian high private high schools and all the things. So yeah, a little different journey for them than my journey with my mom, but it has been so great.
There's always an opportunity to learn.
Yeah, for my mom and their mom and to have that like kind of I don't know, like perspective if you will, like for their mom to see my mom and that my mom somehow balances being religious and having a relationship with God and also unconditionally loving her child. It's been a really good thing.
Man. We are here just to learn some lessons.
Aren't weane?
Literally Yeah, I think about the all time. I have so many friends going through stuff right now, like losing people, divorce, like all sorts of situations, and I'm like, man, we are really here just to like learn. Yeah, And when you're in the middle of a growth phase? Was it for that we were talking about earlier? Like it's like, man, is this ever going to end? And it's like another level and then you have to go to another level as soon as you start like elevating your thoughts, then it's like.
Another hurdle, all right, which which is I guess? I guess the point for me is to find the balance in it all and find that like and just understanding that it's all teaching us what we need to know to be better in the next phase of life, right, And so that's kind of how I have centered myself in the chaos a little bit.
You know who I love is mel Robbins And she's this awesome author podcaster, and she has this new book called Let Them. It's called the let Them Theory, and it's basically like let them do like leave you out of inviting you to a party, Let them think this way about whatever. Let them like have a decision that you don't agree with, like, let them let you have weird badst Let you not be fully excited about everything that's ever happened in your childhood and these people did that or whatever, this, that and the other. Let people don't worry about it, don't hang on to it, like, just let them.
And isn't that all we all are really asking for.
Too, is like everybody to understand my mind. If you got up in this mind, I couldn't even I couldn't.
Even for you. I'm scared for you, okay, and.
Constantly learning and rewiring and getting new information, and like nobody's setting stone right. Just let people evolve, let people live, Let them live.
What is it?
What is it doing to you to let somebody else.
And keep yourself create the life that you want.
Surround yourself with the people that you align with, and fuck everybody else.
And just do you ultimately, if we all could, just like literally like you said, just stay centered on love, focus on the betterment of ourselves.
Yeah, I love that.
Let us have a therapy for this therapy lesson today. Welcome to my therapy. Couch. You cannot sit down without spilling your entire life.
Much is this gonna cost?
Well, you know, just your entire soul.
My two French bulldogs? Will that work?
Pearl? And who are they?
Priscilla and Pearl? My little pigs.
They're so cute, ye, the cutest. We sit around and talk about how much we love our dogs all the time, all the time, like how much they add to our life?
What is this obsession?
Like they add so much?
I love it. I live in a zoo and I love it.
Okay, so you have two dogs any other thing?
Well, actually have We have three dogs, but two of them. Mini is No, she's just senior citizen. She's she's literally knocking on the Rainbow bridges door like, hey, y'all got space for me. No, We've got her like set up in what we call hospice care. We've got like a corner of our living room where we've like barricaded her from being trampled by wild pigs. And that's she's like a fifteen year old chihuahua.
So you know, maybe she's getting the best with worlds because she's in on all the action. Yes, she sees everything, she hears those rascals. Yes, but yet she's like, I.
Am locked off not getting murdered. Okay, that's not how we wanted.
To get We don't want that for many many Yeah.
So three dogs, two cats, and then a stray cat just showed up outside. I don't know, I'm like snow white or some shit. Like the animals just hear me calling, and they're like the birds land on your arms, literally birds, eagles landing on my arm. I don't know how they got here. I'm like bringing them all in and Lee comes home and he's like fucking pissed.
Just there's another one.
There's another one. We now have three cats and three dogs.
But listen, I love to collect animals do I can't help it. I love it.
I relate to animals more than I relate to people sometimes, especially in my home space, because I'm such a like wild, kooky, crazy person when it comes to like being social with people. When I get home, I'm like a calm, haveurbal refreshment.
So you like introvert extrovert when you get home, you need to introvert hard yep.
With just my dogs piled on top of me.
And just kind of like let your body calm down, literally, yeah, because you go use all your energy and then you have to.
Just like get it back. And I get that from my wild pigs. They like feed me my energy back.
They can't wait to give it to you because they love you so much, so much, so much. Yeah, okay, So are you touring this year? Are you on the road? You just don't want it for mar and Morris a lot recently?
Right, Well, so we we did stumble upon opening for Maren Morris last year.
That's so fun.
It was so fun.
Are you all friends?
I mean no, but.
You had a great time.
No, but we had a great time. And she was such a grand so sweet, and she was just magnificent.
And I remember when she came out, I was like, man, Maren has such a great boy.
That voice is like no other. Like, yeah, the best part about opening for her was that then I got to like sit as close as I've ever set to like witness her show and experience all that she is. It was unreal. I mean, just like vocals down like the tiniest, tiniest little person just with the biggest voice you've ever heard.
Isn't it cool to get to see people that you admire their talent and you see them in action, like we were actually talking about Raina, our friend who does Jey for Landy Wilson. Yes, amazing.
No, she does wardrobe. She does the wardrobe, she does the whole wardrobe.
No, she does not where she takes all of her clothes.
Yes, Rainda Girr stylist extraordinary, but she like.
Sews all of Lanny's clothes. So they just come up with this, don't talk about the creatives. They just come up with vision.
Yes she does, and then make them. Well after that, well I'll show you some of the things that she's made. You're gonna be totally freaking.
She probably has all her measurements so she can just whip anything up. Oh yeah anytime, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
So now she's been doing it for long enough that exactly that she just has these wild crazy ass ideas. It just makes and just makes it just.
Gives them to Lanny and she just loves them. Yes, that is what is so cool when a creative community comes together, because to get the full picture you need so many different elements. You need someone to catch the visuals in photography like a Ford Fair child, We love you so much. You need a Raina to understand the clothing aspect. You need someone to help you co write. Ruby says he you need a Ruby, you need a movie to give you love. But like, no, it's not that an artist can't be all of that, but you need to be able to collaborate with people who have that same kind of creative energy and who have an expertise.
In something different than you. Yes, you know, because that's where the magic happens. Yes, that's even with like even with like my style journey that I have been on.
How would you call your style?
No, it's like it's like western glam um, Yeah, like western he'll billy glam. I don't know. It's uh. I love a Rynstone. I love uh. I love to pay homage to like days past, like the sixties when men weren't afraid to wear ls.
You were heels. Hello, I know, h John Travolta and Disco Fever were heels all the time.
Yes, So like for me, that is where a lot of my inspo comes. Raina actually got me a this like West, how the West was worn, And it's like this old book of just like all all of the things you can even imagine of, like western wear and so we'll just like be flipping through this book and like find inspiration from a suit from nineteen sixty that we want to like recreate in a different.
Way and it can do it. So y'all can come up with it and she can do it. How fun?
Is that? So fun? I've learned so much from her.
Like these so fun.
These sparkly pants.
Are custom made me. You made those me, so you like cut one up and then put another one in.
I just like smoke a little stone, a little you know, And that's that is how I also work through like my own neuroses.
Is like, oh yeah, I process at all.
Yep. Remember we talked about like going home and sitting in silence. For me, that is like ron stoning a pair of pants and stone and stony and.
Thinking about everything that you've gone through. Yes, I've known some healers in my life and they say, that's what that is actually used for. People use like you know, natural medicines for all sorts of stuff. But really, ultimately, if you use it wisely and correctly, it does help you process your life in a spiritual way totally, you know, totally. I do that in yoga. I will literally cry in the back of the yoga class because I will just be sitting there going through my entire life. And I did that. I did it. I probably did it for two years straight. I had a bunch of miscarriages and then just lunch a bunch of life stuff, and just like I was so overwhelmed with all of my like sorrow that I would go to yoga and just get in the back of the class, and I would feel the pain in my body like where it was locked and then all of a sudden, like a memory would come flooding in and I would just weep and weep and weep and weep, and then.
It would just go away, right.
And I just did that until I didn't have any more tears.
To cry, no tears left to cry.
You gotta get them out. If you keep them all locked in, they stay stuck, literally get stuck in your body.
Of your body, and then you have like I don't know, some weird yeah.
And we're not doctors, so by the way, we are not diagnosing. But I do believe that, like trauma, pain gets stuck in your body, you have to get it out.
And I'm not a doctor, but that's the truth.
I am not a doctor. That's my own experience, and I am here to live the tale that I feel so like I used to I could cry on demand all the time because I had so much like just store trauma.
And you can't anymore.
No, I mean, I could get crying, but I'm not. They're not ready hears aren't just like they're not like actively, they're not just waiting for a moment to trigger them.
Okay, you know, I kind of feel like I am a little bit like, Okay, well you're.
Still in it though. That's good, but you're in the process of healing and getting them out truly. Yeah, I'm just because now I feel a little hardened and I'm like whoa. But I'm like thank you.
Yeah, yeah, really.
So happy because for so long I was like literally available to cry at any given moment. Yeah, the world is too much.
Yeah. No, and and and we're all on the journey of you know whatever. The radical self love is what we like to say, I love that.
Tell me what you love about music, why you love country music, what you want your audience to feel from your show.
I mean, I I have only ever known country.
Music, being from Arkansas and Alabama. Yeah, in Kentucky.
Yeah, like spending so much time in Arkansas growing up as a child. Did you know there is a Russellville, Arkansas? Okay, and that I'm from Russellville, Kentucky.
Oh it's like on the line. It's like text Arcana. It's in Arkansas and in Texas Arkansas.
I don't know. I don't know much you know about geography? Okay, but Kentucky and Arkansas do not touch.
Okay? Are you being mean to me right now?
Never?
Did you trick me?
No? No, no, no, no no wait no, I'm just saying that there is a Russellville, Arkansas, and there's also a Russellville, Kentucky.
Oh they're two different ones.
Very different, very very much like hundreds of miles apart.
I said, I did the Amazing Race two times and we ended up in all these countries, and JIN would be like, Caroline, where are we going to be?
Like?
I have no idea, Like I have geography here?
Did you love it? Yes? Can I just ask you a couple of things?
Yeah? Sure?
Can I turn the titles here really quick? Yeah? Yeah, go for it? What what?
What?
What were you on the show for a long time?
Yes?
We made it with two seasons. We were season twenty two. We made it to the season finale, me and Jen Wayne who's in Runaway June, who Ford also knows has done pictures for her. We made it to the finale, got to the season foul finale where we were putting light bulbs in that letter I on the Mirage skyscraper in Vegas, and then I skydived into the Vegas Motor Speedway with an electric light suit on that was like lighting up and like the sky sky dived in and was like raising for the finale and almost one we lost by like basically twenty seconds. No, and then we got invited back to All Stars with all the favorite like cast and had another world of Mitcher and we we got fourth the first time and we got second on All Stars.
Shut.
Yeah, it was epic it went. I'm so I got so lucky with how that played out because it was just the most.
Fun was it Not really hard?
Though it's so hard. But Jen Partner and I were perfect partners because we were both single. We were both boy crazy. We love it. We're in our late twenties. We were best friends. We had been in a band together for like seven years, so we had learned how to live in the most strenuous situations, learned how to fight, We learned how to We knew each other's strengths, we knew each other's weaknesses, and we also knew that the only way to win would for us to be fully teammates and not tearing each other down. And so we never tore each other down. We would always try to do the challenge that would be the best fit for the person. But sometimes you draw one and like Jin had a swim and she can't swim that she had to because she it was her time to do it. It just worked out where she had to do that challenge. So sometimes that happens. You know, she didn't drown, She didn't drown. We ended up that's what we got out. We'd made it to the finale. But like so sometimes and then like I had like she was so good at memory stuff, so like when we thought there was a memory challenge, she could take either one of us, right, God, yes, But then like if it was skydiving, I was like, give it to me all day because I want that.
I don't know what my strength would be because I watched this show and I think, God, I would I would kill it on this show, and then now we're talking about it, like, but I'm not gonna do heights. I'm definitely not gonna be good at puzzles, and my stamina for cardio is not very high.
I mean you might have a hard time.
So that's actually everything that this show.
You have to be a physical is no joke running all the time. You are stressed out all the time, and you are constantly at a tin like it took us like two months to.
Calm down, and you're in other countries.
In other countries you can't speak the language or you can't speak the language. You're like, I don't know, I'm like having these breakdowns. Thank god, Jin. It's cool under pressure, and she's so good at communicating and the puzzles and thanking and being smart because I was.
Like, I don't know, nobody, nobody knows what I'm saying.
Jin was like the cool call here, like you're yes, yeah, but also she's created anyway, we were just a great match.
We did a great job.
It was fun. I'm obsessed with Some people do terrible because they rip each other apart.
Oh, I've seen a couple of those. I've seen a couple of those couples who maybe aren't couples.
You fight really hard on the amazing race. You're shooting yourself in the foot because it's already hard enough. Yeah, isn't that in life?
Yeah?
And we realized that, like just being positive and uplifting and being a team player helping other people.
You probably took that took so much from that experience into your life.
After trusting the process, doing the very best you can every single time, and then you can't worry about the outcome.
Yeah, you know.
And I did it a perfect time in life. I wasn't married, I was single, our band had just kind of fallen apart. It was like epic.
Oh my gosh, well I am gonna go Binge four twenty four. I'll watch both. I'm not even I'm not even the great.
I just watched them with my daughter, and because she like found she saw the I was on it, She's like, Mom, can we watch it? And I was like, I hadn't seen it in ten years. And I just watched him again and I was like, I'm so proud of myself because I feel like we were such good, Like I feel proud of the person I am on the show too, because we were positive, we were kind, we worked hard, we showed up for each other. Yeah, Like, I'm so glad that I can show you.
This was such a little like nostalgic moment to share with your daughter, to be like, oh my gosh, this was before you and I did that. I did all this.
It's cool.
That's really cool.
I love that, Adam, thanks for that walked on memory lane.
Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing, Thank you for caring. No, I'm gonna I'm seriously I'm going to go bingj it and then I'll text you and be like, oh my god, you're literally a superhero.
Yes exactly, thanks for noticing. Yeah, so what do you want people to feel wh they're at your shows?
Well, gosh, yeah, I'm sorry. I got on that tangent.
I love you. We're already been talking an out hour, so we'll probably up up here. But I literally love it. I love just chatting.
Yeah, this is shooting the breeze. I love that. No, I mean, basically, to sum it all up, I grew up loving country music. It's all I ever knew. I struggled when I first moved to town twelve years ago or however long it was trying to figure out how someone like me fits into a space where I didn't see anybody that looked like me or told stories like me, or told stories that I could relate to. And I struggled with trying to fit into the box that was set before me that I thought, this is the only way that it works. And so I did that for a long time, a very many years. I did that, try to try to just like do what's on the radio. Just try to write songs that are on the radio, and that's how you'll be successful.
Which is not authentic.
It's not at all.
And like it's not real, so like, yeah, I know.
And so it wasn't until really, I mean, I think the pandemic really kind of shook everyone and was like, hey, figure out what matters to you, okay, really really yeah, And for me that was like figuring out that I'm just truthfully going to write songs that are my experience, write the stories that I wish that I had been able to hear growing up. And it wasn't until that point that I kind of found and connected to my people, like the people who get me.
You know what, Funny, we run so hard thinking that like, if we actually let people know it was on the inside, they would hate us. But then when you actually show people what's on the inside, then people are like, oh.
Wait, I feel that too, that's me too, for everyone, that's for anyone.
You've got to show you and the people who you resonate with are looking for you.
Yes, yes, that's how you find How how are your people supposed to find you if you're not gonna let them know who you are? You know what I mean? Oh that was like profound on a pillow. But truthfully, that's truthfully what happened to me. It wasn't until I started putting myself out there and not being afraid to like be all of this and all like incorporate all the things that I love and that make me who I am. It wasn't until that moment that it all clicked for me, and I was like.
Oh my gosh, And now you probably don't have like distress about it because you're just doing you.
I'm just and I'm an independent artist. I get to make all of my own decisions as long as Ford says I candly, no, I yeah, yeah no, But but really I think there's power in that too. I think being in this town for so long, I was constantly running towards what I thought would would make me successful, a record deal, a publishing deal, whatever those things are. And it wasn't until the last few years where I realized the power in my independence and like that that meant that I am in control. I get to make all of the decisions. I get to tell my story on my terms, exactly how I want to do it, exactly what I wanted to look like. And that has been the most inspiring I have felt, so I don't know, like lifted from all of the weight of what I thought I needed to be, you know what I mean. And I'm just having more fun. I'm just literally having fun, which is crazy. This is this is our job.
Hey just go Calbo, Cowbo, Just go Cowboy. Y'all go check it out. And if you're doing some shows, I'm are you on the road?
Not right now, but we are. We've got a new album coming out in the new year.
Are we talking about it?
We can?
Okay, tell me about it. I did not even realize that. I'm sorry, did you? You probably told me that And I just want to listen to is that while we're here to talk about the new album?
Wait is wait? Are we here to promote a new album?
I know, we just wanted to chat.
What the hell?
Oh god, thank god we got to.
This where am I? Yeah, No, we're we're we're talking about it, but we're also not talking about all the details. Basically post post well we didn't really talk about you know, the whole like festival thing where I like canceled a festival gig that I had in my hometown, which was a whole thing, but it's what led to me opening for Marion, And it was truly a time where I chose myself, even though I was kind of scared to like be a canceler, you know what I mean, like to cancel a big gig, especially like in my hometown I was so excited for. But there was just like some people who were talking about protesting and showing up and picketing in front of my set and like not allowing me to put on my show and causing problems with like the board, and then the board was like also the lady who booked me called him, was like, yeah, they're just concerned that you're gonna be like promoting homosexuality, and I was like, look at me, I'm a walking billboard for homosexuality. So just existing, I guess, is promoting homosexuality. But like with all of that, all the things that that were that kind of unfolded, I chose to not do the show.
That was a big decision.
It was I felt like I was letting a lot of people down in the moment. It was a really tough thing for me to do, and in doing so, oh it ended up Oh, I mean, I posted a video because I also had never canceled a show. I was like, I want people to know, like what's going on. I don't want them to think that I'm just like I'm not doing that. And so I posted a video and and basically by Ford.
Okay, by Ford, I know for this is to leave thirty minutes ago, thanks for saying.
And so I posted a video online and just explained what was going on. And it was like a matter of hours that it had like gone viral, and our country queens like Kelsey Ballerini and Maren Morris and Brandy Clark and a bunch of these divas were just like in my comments, like showing up for me and supporting me. And next thing that I knew Maren's team was reaching out to me to open for her Lunatics show in Chicago, and it was so this album that's coming out is really everything post that moment.
That a life changing moment for you.
Yep, it was a moment where I chose myself and stood stood up for myself and it was scary. But then everything that has came from that year, this past year has been so life altering, and the songs that I've been writing are just like from that space, from that place of like choosing myself, choosing my family, my chosen family, the people who show up for me. It's really just it's been the most beautiful project I've ever worked on. Really a lot of therapy, a lot of healing.
Music is healing.
Yeah we did, I haven't told.
Want to do? Is it still under wrapped? Okay? Okay, Okay? When is it coming out?
It is coming out in the summer, and I.
Mean we can tell what it is, no, don't. I don't know.
Remember when I talked about being independent, I can do whatever I want.
Okay, Then what is it?
It's called Southern Spectacle.
Okay, and it's.
Which kind of just encompasses everything you see everything that I am. It is uh, it's audacious, and it is campy, and it's funny, and it's silly and it's heartfelt. It's like all of the things that make me who I am wrapped up in an album.
Hey, congrats on your most authentic album. That has to feel so good, so good, so good. I have loved getting to know you, Adam, sister for life. I can't wait to follow your journey. I always wrap up with leave your Light, and it's super open ended. What do you want people to know? Just drop some inspo?
I feel like I have dropped some inspo here. Let me just see leave your light, well, leave your light wherever you go, right, take your light with you. Spread joy, spread love, positivity, be kind to people, and have a good damn time.
Preach right, Adam, thank you so much for joining. This was so fun, Adam Mac. Check out your music and follow along on your journey. And congrats. I'm getting married next year.
Gosh, thanks sister.
Okay, bye bye
