This week out in God's Country Reid and Dan host the #1 "My Place" artist, Ashley Cooke! They all deep dive in on Ashley's journey to Nashville, what it was like growing up around child actors, and how she took control of her own destiny when COVID shook the music scene in 2020. Ashley goes into a thorough description of "Jeep Life" and what it has been like creating music around the TikTok artist stigma. The episode ends with the best rendition of Rascal Flatts's you have heard from Reid, Dan, and Ashley!
Catch Dan and Reid playing live as The Brothers Hunt @ Chiefs in Nashville on July 19th: Get Tickets
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What's up, y'all. You're off in God's Country with Reed and is also known as The Brother's Hunt, where we take a weekly drive to the intersection of country music and my great old outdoors, two things that go together, like ponds with alligators in them and skinny dipping, which don't go together.
Or the app TikTok and covid produce My meat Eater. In our Heart podcast, We're.
Gonna sit down with a new face in town, Ashley Cook. She's got a song in the top ten. She's crushing it on the road with Jordan Davison, Mitchell Tenpenny.
Just want to see him.
She's a pro. She's a pro at a young age. And you can tell.
I'm gonna say something. Great singer, great writer. I mean, she put some respect on her name, dude.
Yeah, she knows what she wants to say, she knows what she wants to sing about, and she does it in her new album Shot in the Dark, which is out everywhere. Now, go listen to it, go spin it, go support her. She's great, super cool chick.
Song should be in the top five.
It will be. It will be on the Verge Artist. I heart on the Verge Artist. A God's Country podcast artist will watch in twenty twenty four. Ashley Cook, y'all go check it out. Thanks for hanging out in God's Country and we'll check.
It next time.
Sticks boom Bow Hot Take coming at you with an update. It's actually been a few weeks since we recorded with Ashley Uh here at the studio, and at the time that we recorded with her, her song had just broken into the top ten Your Place. Now it's now it's the biggest song in the country. We're gonna give her a round of applause, so when you hear the podcast, it's gonna be you know. Her song was just coming to the top ten, but now it's at number one. Your Place, giant hit. So proud of you, Ashley. You're a superstar, powerhouse vocalist. Thanks for hanging out with us and uh and maybe we can write some songs down the road sometime. Congratulations, congrats on all the success. Keep rocking you you got you got nothing to lose, man, you're crushing it. We have the a c M New Female nominee on the couch ac miss Ashley Cook. Let's get around.
Cook with a thank you guys, thanks for having me, Thanks for coming in. What a vibe in here? Yeah? I really love it.
What do you think it would spruce the place up a little bit?
Maybe a candle I feel like a good like woody candle vibe would feel.
Like cabin like What would what would a candle scent be for?
Like like like cedar and rainy?
Are gonna ride? Yeah?
What's up?
You know?
How you doing?
I'm really good.
It's been a minute.
It has been a minute. We've written a couple of times. We've actually never met before.
You too, Thanks for coming hanging out with Thanks for having me. Uh.
We we were a little late this morning, got backed up in traffic, so actually got here before us. We had a we had a maneuver around her giant jacked up jeep outside.
I'm sorry, I took up like four space.
No, look look at this guy just popping popping up over the stop, popping on my knee.
Oh my goodness, this is so cute.
I think that's the thing. It is you jep driver.
She was.
I mean when I met Jordan's she had a Tudor Wrangler with the hard top.
Get rid of it. So I had checks out.
Yeah, we needed our mama. We got a niece on our mama, now that's what we call it. But at the place where I lived when I met her, had this like lean to uh carport. So I looked up online because it was such a to like go out there and do the jeep and like do it with the doors.
You need to pull it up in the little screws.
Yeah.
Yeah, So we found a DIY. I bolted a wench to the top of this car port so and just left a ratchet strap on it. So then when we were going to take it off, and when that like you could just pull it down, put it around the thing, lift the winch up. The whole thing would just stowed it.
I need to do that, Yes, you do, because I've yet to take the doors or the roof off of his sheep. I've had a jep since I was sixteen, and I used to take it off all the time in Florida. But here it's hard because you just don't know about weather and so if you take the doors off and then it just like rains, you're like, well yeah.
In this process, yeah, but I will say like never being a jeep driver or owner doing that, like taking the top off, taking the doors off, that's a that's a that's a vibe.
Oh, it's such a vibe.
Yeah, it's so crazy. That'll put you in a good mood immediately.
Also, I love I always take just the front part of it off, like you know, like the jeep they have like the hardtop, you have the hard top, so yeah, like the back of it, it's like the whole unit, and the front is just easy to pop off and put in your trunk. So I've actually never taken like the full like top off of any of the jeeps I've ever had, So I really want to. We should do it.
We should do it.
Let's build a let's build a winch situation.
You guys, build a winch.
I'll you'll come hang after.
You can pick me up with the top of the jeep. Life is a great life.
It's built different it really, Honestly, I wish I knew like how it started, but it's gotten to the point now where people will come to shows and like bring me ducks with like the show name on it and like dat and stuff. It's become like a whole thing. I've debated making merch with ducks because people it's such a big deal and I'm such a Jeep girl.
So they're like custom paint something on a duck and like throw it on stage. We'll not throw me and greet or something.
Actually be kind of epic if they did throw ducks on stage.
Give me not too hard, not too hard at the head, belting ducks in me.
If you can, that would that would suck black eye for sure, But if you worth it, you know that was actually really close to his eyes shot we try to gain, Yeah, but it's pretty dope. I feel like jeep culture is just like different the jeep the the jeep wave, the jeep wave. It's like your hands on the steering wheel. So when you see wait what and that what they do?
I thought that.
I was like, that's actually epic if that's what things, that's the jeep I mean, honestly, that's kind of epic. I think it's more because you're driving and so you can't like off the steering wheel. You have to like just do the two thinger wave. But it's okay, hot take. I'm curious y'all's opinion. Do you think it's only to I think it's only to wranglers, like wrangler to wrangler. It can't be like a Cherokee or like, and it's like Jeep has a lot of different kinds of cars, and I think it's that's only the ducks and the waves are only like.
A wagon exactly Jeep wagon.
Yes, I think the grand Wagon airs a Jeep bad dog.
So so late, let's see it so like a Wrangler a rubicon.
No wait, because the rubicon is still like it feels.
Like a jeepish legit. Jeeps got the top, it's got the thing I think. I think it's got to be the square old yeah, the box, whether.
It's a CJ seven, c J five Wrangler, but.
The Cherokee is not.
The top off a chair. This is a great segue to a really funny story that we have. So motorcycles, which we had for a while, don't don't do it, don't ever buy want your kids don't know what your kids do it such your dad's or your moms. Do you throw up to? Right?
You throw up to?
No?
You put them down?
Put them down? Yeah, yeah, and it means to that, but only only motorcycles. Only people on motorcycles can wave each other with this. If you're not on a motorcycle and you throw all the two down they won't do it back right. So one day when we used to mow yards and Savannah.
And it's it's when you're passing each other and it can be like.
It means was on the ground, which means.
Even like even like a young you know, cocky cat on a on a Ninja one thousand Kawasaki whatever that's going down and an old old Harley monkey bars, they'll do it. It's just like a motorcycle thing. So my like my thing in high school was I was like I wanted a motorcycle real bad. My parents, of course, would never let me get one. Thank you, and.
Trying to get people to do it. Every time we passed somebody on like a four wheeler or something, we be.
Like, we just need something.
I would be in like a truck or like a car. Every time I see it, I would just throw down and they would look at me like, come on, bro. So we used to we called it the grind is what we called it. But we used to mow yards in the summer. And this one spot that we mode was like an insurance building or something, and you had to go up this big bank on the and get on the shoulder of the road to cut the top.
Of the From my point of view, so I was weedy. One of us was weedy. We were so dumb. Was a sophomore high school. Other would be on the ride more right, So Red was on the ride more. He got forty dollars total for this yard. We split twenty bucks apiece forty.
How big were these yards?
I mean this one was. It was It's about an hour work. Okay, wait two hours?
Yeah, back then it was. It was a two hour job. It was a two hour job. Then I would mow damn with weedy.
So I see Red go up this the incline and turn right, and now he's on the on the highway right, the main main road that goes through Savannah. So I'm weed eating. I just happened to look up and see a motorcyclist coming down and reads on the lawnmower and he goes. I was like, he's going to do it, and he went like this, and the guy was like, he went I was all the vehicles we could have been on where we got that. It was a It was a john.
That's a pretty iconic moment that I've ridden motorcycles.
Yeah, I've ridden motorcycles now and I've never been able to do it because I've never passed another one. But that's the only time I've ever got the two two wheels on the ground.
Are you the one that like, would you go to like all of like the meetups and stuff?
No?
No, No, it's like that's like one of my bucket list items is to like be on a motorcycle and go to one of the meetups.
I saw one at McDonald's just a few days ago.
Is it by Golch?
No, this one was downtown. This was the one by Broadway.
Right there in the Golch. They always have those meetups. I used to live right there in the Golch and they literally have like these meetups like right there that there's.
Like motorcycle meet up.
Scared?
Am I scared of those guys? I'm scared of I get that they're way cooler.
I feel like I just want to walk up and be like, step guys, I'm joining you guys.
Talking motorcycle over here like tos the ground.
Dude, I know what that means. Now, I'm joining.
It's pretty fun.
When you get them to but it just it just makes you feel cool. But in reality, they're probably like like.
Get away from us. I feel like I would totally I hate the color pink, but I feel like I would be the person to like get like a pink out motorcycle just to be like the girl in the gang, you know what I mean, like.
Do the thing if you could like pop a wheel at a red light on a pink motorcycle.
That's like, that's like wife highlight right there.
Right.
Tell us about playing and we knew this was going to be fun when we when we found this out. But tell us about playing hooky with your mom to go fishing? Did you fish in Florida?
Growing up?
Kind of we lived on like ponds and stuff, Like I lived in like golf courses and we would be on the ponds and stuff. Actually, funny enough, we always went swimming in the lakes in Florida.
In Florida.
We would know that there are gators around, like I would see them on the banks, but we just would do it anyways. And it now looking back, like I don't think i'd do it now, but being what like sixteen seventeen in South Florida, like that's just what you did, like you just bit exactly, and like thinking about how many times we went skinny dipping in the pond in my backyard, like with gators just around. I'm like, why did we do that?
I don't know why you should have done the matter to the gator though, that's my thing. Oh wait, that one's naked.
Let's eat first. What you have to deal with the split the clothes?
You would like send out emails saying like, hey, don't let your small dogs around the pond because like gators will eat them, and you're just like.
Yeah, We're like, let's just jump in, just push your nine year old.
It was crazy, but yeah, we'd go fishing a good bit back there, and I feel like it was mainly just like bass and stuff, but I fell in love with it.
What part of Florida? Where are you from?
What do you know where Coral Springs is? It's kind of by like Fort Water deal, so.
Like where's Fort Just go from Paramount City.
Every knows Whereasy is? Okay, so it's south, think like an hour north of Miami.
So well or Atlantic depending Atlantic Atlantic.
So I'm like, I don't know which ocean is which they're all one big today.
I don't know where Nebraska is so same.
To be honest, I'm like, very good at geology. You try touring when I don't know where I am half the time, I don't know where the hell I am the time.
That is That's that's reality.
My my mom always tells this story because she's like, just loves to make fun of me. But they moved to d C not like a couple of years ago, and there was a hurricane coming through Louisiana and I called her and I was like, are you okay? She was like, what do you mean. I'm like, well, there's a hurricane. She's like, yeah in Louisiana. Like yeah, are you okay? She's like, we're in d C. Like what's wrong with you?
I was like shelter, Like.
Are you okay?
Get to the basement.
I'm like nope, that's just you. Okay, you might But that tour game, man, it's like what you fall into is that it doesn't matter.
Where you are.
So it's like, why should I even waste I'm exhausted anyway, Why should I waste energy to find out where we are?
That's what Like, we just recently gotten a bus, which is a really exciting moment for.
Our camp because were you in I'm more interested we were.
Heard it out in like a minivan. Like first tour was in a minivan. Second tour was in like a like church van.
Yeah.
When I was like with the you know, bench seats breaking down every two seconds.
I gave you a really good deal.
Yeah.
And then the most recent tour, before the bus, we were in like a really dope like sprinter van. But it was tough because obviously you know with with with routing, like you're on tours with people in buses, and so you're driving through the night like just to get to the next show, which was fun, but those times I feel like I never knew where I was, especially because I was like you literally pull up to the venue, walk in the venue, play the show, get back in the van.
Drive.
But now we're in a bus, so we get there like you know, seven eight in the morning. So I had the whole day to go explore, which is nice. I get to actually see cities and say that I've been there, so now I know a little more of like where I'm at.
But and you're actually like rested and you feel you feel good, which is a huge.
I would say though, this whether you're on the MYS bus or sprinter van, like it's still on the road, man, and it still wears you down. That's one thing I realized is like, bro, eighteen wheels is a little bit better than four, but it's still it still wears you out. Man.
I don't think tor buses have eighteen wheels.
I could see.
I could see maybe it's like that's.
Like a two four, six seven.
Now they have six because they got two in the back, they got two on the back side. I'm thinking transport trucks.
Six to ten wheels two to four x.
Okay, usually they're pulling a trailer. Maybe that has a couple of wheels.
That's a good point in total.
I'm not a mathemagician in total, but yeah, I mean, honestly, it was weird to get used to, like the rocking while we sleep. Our driver is awesome, but it was weird to like, I mean, you hit a you hit a curb or like a what is it called a rumble strip and you're you're away. Bus driver is just like curbing it.
We need to do some interviews.
Do you feel weird falling asleep in there knowing that some guys in charge of like you and your bands.
I try to just not think about it. I mean, obviously you know of like the horror stories like the Hardy situation and stuff like that we've heard. So I think, you know, first couple of nights in the bus, it was hard to sleep because I was like, I could be dead asleep and all of a sudden, you know, something happens. Like Greg art Driver, He's amazing, but I'm like, what if you have some kind of health problem on the road, Like you never know what's going to go down. And it's definitely sketch, but I think it's also like, if you want to do it, you gotta exactly what I'm saying. So I feel like if we've if I, you know, lingered on the thoughts of what could happen, I would just never leave the house because there's so much stuff that could happen.
Absolutely, But those guys are pro man, We're fine.
The Gators. Have you ever eaten a Gator?
No? And I'm scared to I feel like it would taste like chicken, and I think I would like it. I think that would freak me out even more.
It's a little chickeny, but it's actually good.
Yeah, it's real good.
Is it like, is it like a like a slimy kind of thing.
No, No, they got scales.
They live in water.
You don't eat a dinosaurs. Yeah, but it's not like it's not like it's it's more like chicken, like tender Florida.
You have to at least try gator at some point.
I feel like that's the reason I shouldn't try gator, right, because I'm like from there. So I feel like that's like.
Solid point, you know, like me. I mean, I'm from arguably the caffish capital of the world, and I don't really like, do you eat caffish? It's not that I want, but if I have, if there's like other fish instead, right? Yes?
Is it because you feel like we're loyalty to caffish because you're from somewhere the caffish.
Is from this pology? No, I'm in So is it?
I don't know how.
I think.
I just genuinely don't. I think I had so much of.
It, Okay, so it's over exposed. Yeah, So it's less so loyalty and more so like sick of it.
Yeah, I think so.
I think.
So, Look, we have a fish for I like every we're fish for every week.
You don't do cafish. Now now you do like salmon.
I mean, I don't love caffish.
I love catfish.
But it bro how much catfish do we eat? It?
Well, we don't care. We don't really catch them anymore.
I'm saying how much did we eat? From five to thirty?
There was a there's a spot in close to our hometown called Hagey Shutout and it was it's called it's like the catfish cabin. Pretty much.
When you catch a catfish, do you have to like put your finger in his mouth? You have to because I've seen this girl on TikTok where she goes like fishing for cap yes, and she like straight up just like she's them and holds them and it's like this monstrosity, And I'm like, what is happening?
This is an entire that's called so that's called that's I've never done it, but that's called noodling. Why why is it called that? You know, well.
They take a noodle. They take a noodle down there and they dangle it and when the fish comes out, is it actually they grab the they put their fish in there and pull it out.
You just pulled that out of your ass? Or was that real. That's a complete lit Okay, cool, like I thought it was a great that's a great explanation.
But they put these boxes.
I'm sorry, I'm a professional art.
They make these boxes and they put them, you know, in the river wherever catfish are and uh and when they go check the boxes, they will. That's how you check to see if they're in there. You go around there and you feel if they're in there, and you come out you're like, all right, they're in there. So you put your arm and I don't know if they've got bait or something in their fists, but they just stick their arm in the in the box that it's in and they let the catfish bite them and then that's when they grab. And then they they grab you see gills.
Well there's a yeah, there's an opening here. So when the you know what, we should actually probably just have hand and baron on the list how that works.
Yeah, I mean it's impressive. And then they get they got scarred up, and it's the whole thing.
I remember having a scar on my thumb from bass like for like fishing over the summer. Morn even pull them up.
And that's not good. That's a good I might have that right. Yeah, I don't have it right now.
My account of have like ripped up bloody fingers for it.
Now.
Dad called about thirty two days ago we were we fished, and you know, man, what's crazy is you catch a fish, you're like, oh, man, four pounder. Then you take a picture of it and you look at the picture and you're like, that pound looks like that fish looks like half a pound. Like you have to stretch the fish or for you to understand how big it is. Not the real big ones, dude. You ain't got to stretch a nine to ten pounds. I ain't get caught one, but the big ones are big.
It's like, compared to your body, it looks big, or it's.
Like you just call me fat compared to my body looks small.
Technically I was looking that way.
Damn.
I'm working on double cheeseberg yesterday. That's the last one in a while.
What's your go to what's your go to?
Uh?
What's your go to.
Road to food?
Yeah?
Probably Chick Flair Chipotlet, like Chick fil A. The nugs hard to hard to hard, hard to compete with.
I just can't get tired of them. Yeah, there's stuff I get tired of.
Catfish, catfish, catfish.
Great example. Thanks for circling back.
Yeah, well you can get tired of Chick fil a or not.
Can't You can't. I don't get tired chick.
You can't.
I don't get chick. I don't get tired chickl okay, do you dife breaks? I could not.
I could live there only.
Because when we were in the van like that was like every meal like it was breakfast, launch center, Chick fil a, which, like I still love a good twelve count nug you know, like weelve count Oh yeah, you put him down. My guitar player does, like the like the what is like the tray they'll have like a tray to himself for like a meal, a tray like to go tray to himself.
They did start doing thirty pieces. I saw that day.
I was like thirty Yeah, they're probably a million dollars probably. See, I'm a redneck. I this is hot.
Take.
I like McDonald's nuggets better than Chick fil at nuggets.
Really yeah, but.
Is the McDonald's McDonald Is it even chicken?
Probably not. It's more nostalgic for me, Like you don't want that I've.
Seen the the McDonald's is not a real nugget like videos. But I'm telling you, once you've like processed your own food, if you were doing it commercially, I think it looks a little weird. But I do think.
Okay, I saw that video a long time ago. I don't know why. I have like a very specific it's like the actual baby chicks ground up into a pink paste and then they just like squirt them onto a thing and cook it.
Yeah, Okay, I missed. I didn't have to say baby.
I don't even know what movie it was or what it was. It was like a documentary of some kind, and it was straight up. They just put like cute little chirping baby chicks and ground They were cute. That's why I have a thing in my brain about it.
Yeah, I'm chipping down.
I'm telling you. That's why I can't do McDonald's chicken nuggets.
You can't do them at all.
No, because I think about the baby chicks. Yeah, it like stuck with me.
Okay, okay, got it. I problems. We'll talk about something that matters eventually.
But this does matter.
Chicks. Come on, Well, that's why I don't like one of those is why I don't like Ketchup. Ketch Up because when I was young, I saw a video it was like Discovery Channel or something and they were like, hey, they only use the bad tomatoes for Ketchup. It checks out, and then they use the real I'm not sure that it does, because here's the thing. I could just make up the noodle in story about a noodle and it could get posted and then before you know it, people are going, yeah, they dangle the noodle in front of it.
So you that's the problem with our world.
There's the problem the Internet.
Things just pick up and they catch fire, and you don't know what's actually real.
Internet is facture, it wasn't Internet.
So this was like Discovery Jump or something.
So okay, well that's pretty.
So they go, oh tomato, the pretty tomatoes go to like Kroger and they get in the back in the seal thing and then gross ones getting turned into ketchup. So every time I saw Ketchup, saw that grosst tomato with the fly and the thing, and I was like, I can't So to this day, dude, bro, you can't catch up. I can't smell it. I can't look at it. I can't hear it square out of the bottle of it thing.
You know what? It like peas before it does actual ketchup.
I don't know because I don't eat that ship.
That's true. The good point you probably.
You got to shake it up.
I've shaken it up and it's still peed on me.
So I feel like, y'all, you got's discussing?
Do you do? The ketchup is like majority sugar anyways? Like it's like there's like not even like real tomatoes in ketchup.
Let's be real.
I don't think flies eating.
Baby chicks and flies guys. Okay, the American diet.
Okay, y'all lived in l a.
First, right, did you kind of? Okay?
I moved around a lot growing up, so it's always hard to say where I'm from. Be born was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Michigan, Michigan. What I was like, No, we.
Played a show there. It goes back to us not knowing where we were. I thought we were in Michigan.
I thought, you say, what's up Michigan.
I was like, Michigan's awesome. I was joking. But we gotta get we gotta because we have talked.
About Okay, yeah, but so born in Milwaukee, moved to I've lived a WHI I was seven, think seven or eight, moved to California. So it was one sister, one older sister. She's the greatest. Yeah, the Lockets. Yeah, that was like our first band name. Actually, Jenny and Ashley was the first band name. But then anyway, it's moving on.
Who is Jennie Ashley?
My sister and I that was like our first name, like back when we were younger.
But read Dan.
What a terrible name that would dan r D R D. No you did. There was no an in your name. It was just Jenny Ashley was Jenny and Ashley.
Oh, I just talked fast. I just rambled through it.
But I listened slow. So that worked.
Milwaukee to l A, Milwaukee to la actually Milwaukee to a town in northern California called Pleasanton, California.
Is this because your dad's job or.
Yeah, dad's job. And also my sister and I got into acting and music really young, so she actually was the one that got into acting first. She did like a pageant in Wisconsin and one Miss Wisconsin kid teen princess. I don't know what it's called like the kid version of Miss Wisconsin, and so she like fell in love with like stage and acting and the kind of entertainment of it all from Pageant World. Son. She was like, all right, Mom and dad, I want to get into acting. And my dad's job moved us to Northern California, where in Northern California he's working there. I'm just like tomboy little sister, just hanging out like I had nothing to do with entertainment at all. And my sister was like, I want to go to LA. I want to get an agent, and I want to do acting and do commercials and all this stuff. And so my mom and my sister went to LA without me. Me and my dad stayed in Northern California for like six months. Really, she was like, I'm just going to give it a shot, like just try the dreams, see what happens.
And how was she at this point?
How are you at this point?
Gosh? Probably nine.
So you remember like northern California.
Oh yeah, that's cool.
That's beautiful. Oh my gosh, I've never been up there.
It is one of the most beautiful places. It's insane, no doubt, all of Northern California. Is like just iconic. It's so beautiful, Like going there now when I was when I was a kid, like you moved there and you're like, oh, this is so pretty, but you don't really realize like how beautiful it is until you grow up and move other places and then you go back and you're like, this is just insane.
It's the it's the closest thing to We went to Maui for our honeymoon. It's the closest thing to Maui. Yeah, stage in North America it is beautiful, man.
Beacher, and it's insane, crazy, it's nuts. Buts We lived there for a couple of years and then my sister was getting really successful in acting down in LA and so my mom was like, all right, we're going to do this thing. My parents are also like they're like high school sweethearts from Indiana, Like they're not remotely in entertainment at all, never wanted me, never really had the itch for it, but they are just supportive.
Parents, and so yeah, sounds like it.
Yeah, my mom and my dad were like, you know what, we're just going to give us a shot go down to LA from my sister jin like to kind of do it. And I was just kind of like taken along as the little sister.
Did you get like commercials at Disney Show?
Yeah? She did commercials and a bunch of short films, and she was like in every Nickelodeon Disney audition. And it was weird too, because when you're in LA at that time, like all of my really good friends were the kids that were on Disney Channel, so like they were all people that I grew up with, and back then I wasn't even doing entertainment. I was just there as like a little sisters hanging out. So it's weird that I like kind of grew up around all of it before I even knew I wanted to be in it.
Who grow up around?
I mean like Hudgens family, like Stella Hudgeons and Vanessa and the Cyrus family, like Noah was one of my best friends growing up, and like all of that kind of world.
So your sister's having some success acting, getting some commercials, she's in some Disney stuff. Where where does the music thing come in?
Yeah?
It honestly, So we both have always loved it. Like I I would do like karaoke machines in our house and we always just like, oh man, okay, so there's a video. Don't look it up.
You know it, look at it if you know what.
I'm on the play and you're gonna do it again if I know it.
Okay, there's I don't even know if I know the song anymore, but there's a video. Okay, you know, take a bow, Rihanna.
I can't blame that anyway.
Okay, good because I think there was like a there's like a YouTube video of me in our house in La like seeing that, like karaoke machine, like the how about around the plus it's such a Jama was huge. He was huge, but also my go to was always like complicated Avrolene or like man, I feel like a woman? Yeah I remember, Yeah, it was always my go too. It's like, oh but yeah, so I me and my sister both she was super into acting and then I kind of got into music just a little by little. A lot of it was too, like I said, growing up with people in that world, Like you know when you're a kid in elementary school and your friends are playing soccer and you just like join the soccer team because you're like I just want to have my friends. All of my friends were in like performance classes and acting coaches and all that stuff, and so I was like, well, I'm in LA. I'm like a ten year old kid, Like what else am I going to do? And so I just and I always loved it, Like I always loved music and writing and singing and stuff. I just kind of naturally did it without even knowing that I did it. And then I started taking lessons when I was young and just kind of like ended up in it.
So who's the Is there any like mega pop stars that you were hanging out with it you didn't know besides Molly Cyrus.
Yeah, I'm like, I mean that's pretty big. That's probably the biggest.
Actually it's so it's I'm like thinking back of my brain because it was like a different world.
Yeah.
Weirdly enough, there was this girl named do you know p and Mea? You ever heard of her? She's like a really big pop star.
And she was like Pia Mea yeah.
Or there was a place called The Rage, which was like a dance studio that we used to go to, and Ross Lynch was one of our good friends that went there. He's another like he was a Disney kid and now he's like a huge pop star. It's weird, Like there's so many people and it's it's weird to me too, because like I was good friends with them back in LA. Social media wasn't a thing, and so we like didn't really speak for like ten years, and then now I find them on social media and we're all like, wait, I need you, and we're all like in this industry as adults. So it's very strange. It's cool to reconnect, like and weird at random events, yeah, and be like wait.
But I went what they did, and.
Yeah, it's really cool to see, like I.
Was introduced to you buy social media. I feel like you you really like harnessed that thing and just just whooped it. I mean, is that wash? Just? Did you see that as like a job as work? Were you like, this is how I'm going to make my way into this thing? Was it something that came naturally? Did you enjoy it? I mean, what what was that thing?
Great question? Honestly, it was like for somebody who had like myself, who had been in this world since I was like ten or eleven years old, this was totally unexpected. Like I feel like it was the most unexpected way to have everything come to like fruition in a career. Does that make sense? Yeah, Like I had been working at music and songwriting and performing and I went to Belmont and like I was in the world for so long and like wanting to pursue this career, but like COVID happening.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying, everything locked it up. There was there was no way to go play, there was no way to go meet people. It was almost the only avenue there was exactly, and a lot of people were trying it, but it didn't stick. I feel like, Okay, sometimes you got to do some things in order to get to a place where you can be yourself. And I feel like you presented this image that people kind of fell in love with, and then the meet that came out and they were like, because that's what I did. When I heard the music, I was like, oh, snap, this is a real This is not she's not just trying this, you know what I mean? So I respect I respect the hustle first off, and also congratulations on breaking through at a megal weird time.
Thank you. It was a super weird time. And that's like when you're asking about if it was like a job or if it was my plan. Hell no, it was one of those things.
Really.
Yeah. My family lived down in South Florida at the time in the pandemic, and I was like, okay, oh, Michigan, Yeah, Louisiana, DC, but totally so my parents lived down there at the time, and so when the pandemic happened. I graduated from Belmont in twenty nineteen, and so winner of the Belmont Showcase Thank You so.
Much, which is like what Tyler Hubbards won that.
Brad Paisley, Kassie Ashton. Yeah, I mean it's really.
Coolver to see yeah killers, I didn't know, Yeah.
Which is really sick. And that's I think I might be wrong on the stat but I think I was the first non music major to win that showcase, which was really cool. So that's what I'm saying. Like, I graduated in twenty nineteen from Belmont, and I wasn't like I was kind of at a place in twenty nineteen of Okay, I could either use my marketing corporate communications degree and go into like a desk job, let's go, or go where'd you go to school?
Go?
Yeah?
I love that.
Sorry, I'm no, I love that. But I was kind of in this what we do.
No, it's everything and what we do, which is why I'm so weirdly like I didn't. I didn't plan on taking that degree and going into what we do, but it like just worked out because yeah, you just end up using it. But I was at this weird spot in twenty nineteen where I was like, Okay, either I take that degree and I go work at a marketing firm or work at you know, in some kind of company as a marketing person. Safe. Yeah, I'm like, which you know, I spend money for a degree on this exactly. But I was like, okay, Like that's an avenue that I could go down. I'm like, or I could go do the showcase thing and just like dabble it and see what happens, right, because I'm like, what, so I do the showcase. I win the showcase. And the people that were a part of judging the showcase were like, you should just give this a year, Like, just give it a shot, give it a year. You have your degree, you've graduated with it, you always have that, but like you're only gonna be what twenty one, twenty.
Two, Nothing's gonna happen.
Covid that's exactly and so they're like.
What's the worst gonna happen? The world can shut down, Yes.
Happen, here you go.
But I feel like I don't know if y'all are people of faith. I'm such a believer in God and his plan and.
My dad's a badest preacher. We know the name of this podcast God's Country.
But whatever. Okay, you're right, I should have thought that went through.
Look at our son. Did you see our grim and sign? Yeah?
That's so cute.
Okay, so do it.
We're all people of faith here, we all love God. This is God's country. But I feel like it was too weirdly, perfectly orchestrated for it to be anything other than God's plan, like straight up because all of this, Like you know, my plan was to graduate, go into music because of the showcase like thing, and give it a shot, work for publishing, deal, give it the ten year town mentality, like just put in the time, put in the work, do whatever I needed to do and get there. And then COVID happens and social media happens and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna post a video because why not? Right, And I'm like I remember the first video that I posted that like went viral. It was the first video that I ever posted.
It was.
This challenge called the lay Me Down Challenge, and it was like it was in my parents a guest room and you're so close, but we were I was down in Florida and I was like hanging out like out of the pool and my actual Funny enough, my ex boyfriend at the time was the one who was like, you should just post a video online.
So he's success, Let's not go there.
But he was a great guy anyways, moving on, but he was like, Hey, I think you should just like this TikTok thing. I've seen a lot of this stuff, like you have such a great voice, you should just like post this online. And I was like, I don't know, it's like who knows. And I was like, you know what, why not? Screw it? So I left the pool my parents' backyard, had like braids in my hair, no makeup on, just like was like, you know what, let's just on board, it's COVID, why not? And I went in my parents guest room and set up the phone and did this challenge. The next thing, you know, it was like what two million.
Views, like just like did you sing something or what you say something?
Yeah?
It was you know that Sam Smith song that's like me, is it that song?
It's the only one I know.
I just know the bridge. It's like the lay Me Down and that like lay me down read and so get what the I forget what the actual song is. I might be called lay me Down, but it's like the bridge of a song. And it was like a trend that basically you started like the low octave and you go up an octave. And I just like saying it and posted it, and my whole family was again during COVID, we would like actually, I didn't even know that it was going viral. I had no idea. I just posted and then went out back to the pool and just was hanging out with my family, and my sister comes out and is like, I think you have like one hundred thousand views on this video, like immediately, like pretty much like an hour later.
So you literally just posted this thing and then all of a sudden they just blew up.
That's crazy TikTok.
Yeah, crazy like insane, And I was like, wait what And the next thing you know, it is two hundred thousand views and two hundred fifty thousand views and three hundred thouand views, and it just kept going, and so we would have like little mini celebrations for every time it hit like another million views.
Or whatever it was in the pool.
Yeah, it would just like be chilling, and I remember we were like, yeah, yeah, it was so wild. And I feel like, you know, from that moment, just because of marketing and pr and common stuff, like just having that kind of brain and fascination with that world. I spent the majority of the next couple of months in covid, like studying TikTok and how to when to post, how to post, what to say, what not to say, how to do this, the colors you should use, everything, and then I just kind of like zoned in on it.
There's literally like a science to it.
There was, I don't know if there is. I feel like the platforms ever changing, and because of all of the like craziness that blew up on it. Now, I feel like everybody's on it, which changes the platform, which is a great problem to have, you know, like it's people now care. I feel like back when I was a part of it, and like when I first started getting on TikTok. It was like almost like a Nashville was kind of like what TikTok? You know what I mean? Definitely yeah, part which is okay, Like I think, you know everybody, people.
Always get weird about stuff they don't understand exactly, especially when there's.
A change like a new like a new.
YouTube we had Instagram. Yeah, like what what you know?
National?
Because national community is real. It's very traditional. It feels like country music, you know, and we're trying to we're starting I think we're starting to get out of that. But yeah, I think it fell into that category where we were like, m yeah, Well.
That's why it means a lot for y'all to say that the music hits you guys, and you guys kind of were like, damn, this is a real thing. Because that was my biggest goal with all of that is when I was getting kind of that like this TikTok artist whatever stuff, I was like, wait a minute, I've been doing this since I was eleven. Yea, I know that it looks like that because all of a sudden, all of these eyes kind of came on me from social media. But I was like, okay, instead of like trying to just like scream to the rooftops that I'm not just a TikTok artist, whatever it was, I'm going to make music that can translate past what ever platform it would be that people found it on. And that's kind of like what my goal was. So I'm glad that you think that.
I mean, shot in the dark guy me.
Man.
I was like, man, this is this is an extremely well written, well performed and that's the thing. As I was going through the record, I was like and I remember hearing that. I remember there being like this, let's be honest, there was a bit of a swath, if you will, of artists that just randomly started popping up on calendars that were from TikTok that nobody understood or knew why. And then they were there were the little rumors, They're like, oh what about this guy, Well he got famous from pulling a nasal strip off of his nose and there's got a record deal, you know, and so naturally there was like this uh oh but you yeah, but you always stuck out. There was but have you read with this actually cook chick? And I'm like no, I haven't. There Like, man, she's a really she's like real deal, like, so there was a few that kind of popped through that that little rose from the mold. Yeah, and uh and I knew I knew that. But man, put some respect on your name day, Like this is the music is great, you sound great. You're a real live singer, and I mean, I think you should be proud of where you're at and where you're headed for real.
Thank you.
Yeah, I really am.
And I think that again, like I was saying, just about God's timing and all this such a big reason, Like I was just thinking about it walking into every single room. Doesn't matter what they might think or not think or whatever it is about the TikTok stuff.
I'm like, you might say anything about it anybody, anybody.
Sometimes people would say, you know, random stuff like even if they didn't say it, you just could tell they just didn't care and they were like all this TikTok person. But my goal was always like you know what, I don't care. It is what it is, people talk, It is what it is, Like I want to leave this room with them thinking that I'm a damn good writer. Yeah, and I'm a damn good artist and I know I know how to write a song and that I've been writing since I was eleven on music row and all this stuff. I'm like, I know that about myself. And even though this is a new notch to who I am as a human being and my story, like, I'm still the same person I was when I was eighteen writing songs and and dying to do this career and you know all that. So I think that it's such a gods timing thing. And I feel like all of the the years leading up to where I am now were so important in the in the you know, development of who I'm as a person and as an artist.
You know, absolutely.
Tell us about rotten in your place?
Man?
Currently, what top eight?
I think it's number nine?
Is it number nine?
Really?
Top ten?
Yes, it's crazy, my first top ten, which is just like insane. Thank you so much, thank you. I really appreciate it. It's crazy to me. So it's easy, you know what's funny to me too. I don't know if y'all get in this with writing rooms too, but I for a long time was so obsessed with like cleverness, y'alls like be clever, be smart, flip a hook, do a thing, like care about the.
Words, say something nobody's ever said before.
Yeah.
And I think it's because like growing up going to Listening Room and Belcourt Taps and all these places, like the songs that would rock me to Mike or were the ones that had like the cleverness that I was like, why did I think of that? Right? And so I think being in Nashville, growing up in like the you know, songwriting community, I'm like, I was so obsessed with that that I almost got too clever sometimes and like did it to it? I feel like you guys don't exactly what thought about it? Yeah, And so I think like your Place is something I'm really proud of because it does have the cleverness in it to where I feel like proud to put my stamp of like this is my name, and if you read the lyric, you're like, damn, this is really cool.
But it's going on with it.
No, that's the thing. It's it doesn't have the like ha ha gotchaye, but it feels like a gym even if you don't understand the hook, Like you don't understand this, you know. That's why I was proud of it, because I'm like, people are like, I love this song. It means like this, and I'm like, well, actually it doesn't, but I love that.
I think, what what you do really well and you kind of see the trend through the album Shot in the Dark is even even that, Like you can take a title like that like shot in the Dark or your Place and you don't have to be so clever with it, but there is is that double entendre at the end that you just kind of boom.
I'm so obsessed with that no doubt idea.
Yeah, absolutely nobody, And there's right mind with a left no I know, I know, And look we get wrapped up in that. I feel like I heard somebody say this one time. You have to like you have to in order to be a great rider, you have to work hard enough to figure that thing out and then you have to completely forget it correct and then you have to slide by it every now and then. Right, So it's not like such a good way to put it. I know we're talking in metaphors here, but it's almost like, because I remember I went through a phase I was like, if it doesn't hook and switch arough, then it's yeah, and so everything you come up with has to have that that thing.
But it was frustrating when I was like going into an our meetings and meetings about like projects and album and stuff, and I was turning in these songs and I'm like, this is brilliant. How do you guys don't think this is brilliant? They were like, I mean, like it's fine, but like it's not like I wouldn't really care on it. It's not like and I'm like, what and so I think that.
Makes me feel the thing, But they're.
Like, we don't care about the thing. We don't feel anything, you know what I mean. And it's like it's like, how do you make people feel something and also be clever with the lyric? And that's I think what hit songs are made of.
What I have I have recognized here lately is that that sometimes we put way too much emphasis on it, to the point that these listeners don't even know that it's happening. They don't care the thing. And we did that.
But I think it's like, at some point I had to sit there and think to myself, am I writing for people listening on the radio or people listening in the room and listening room in Nashville. Absolutely, And I'm like, and I want to write to both, which is I think why I'm again proud of songs like Your Place because I think it kind of did that thing, which is like both audiences can hear it and relate to it and think it's cool. But like, I think it's so hard walking in rooms and being like, Okay, I want to impress Shade McNally, you know, like how do I do that? And like now I've met Shane, and Shane's just like we've written together, and he's he's such a like whatever feels right kind of thing. So I'm like, even if he walked in the listening room and listened to me playing a song that I was like so clever, would he feel something because it's the flipp or what do you feel it? Because I feel it? You know what I mean?
No, I know exactly I mean? Or you singing that because you mean it? Or are you singing that because you think? Yeah?
Gotcha?
Yeah, you think and you think before like meeting Shane or or Casey Bethard or Tom Douglas, whoever it is that these guys have this thing which they're all incredible Hall of Fame writers, yes, and they do have, you know, great tricks and all that kind of stuff. But when you walk in, when you walk into those rooms, all you're trying to do is write a great idea, correct and just and and do the thing that you're trying to do. And we can all do that as professional songwriters. And the way we can do that is by, like you said, you've been writing songs since you were eleven. You've written tons and tons and tons of songs and crafted your craft to a point where you know how to to get by to make a hard make a I did do.
It, though, absolutely, because I can remember.
It's a muscle man, I mean it.
I can remember going into riots and like it being, oh my gosh, I've got it. Was Tony yeah, tone Oh, I got Tony Lane coming up. I'm gonna dan throw up before that. I'm gonna literally I'm gonna I'm gonna get all these great ideas and impress them with how tricky Ricky I am, you know. And then I go in and I say the thing. I'm looking at his face and he's like what and I'm like, yeah, brilliant, So like, oh, but I got another one, and I lay it out there.
And he's like, somethingeling right.
And then he says some thing that we've all said a million times, and this beautiful thing comes out and you start recognizing that it does have to do with the hook, but it has more to do with the communication bring it back of how how do you lay that idea yeah out there, whether or not it hits the heart.
I think you said so right, And I wish I could just like replicate exactly what you said, Well, this is recorded, pull it back, but when you were like figure out how to do the thing and then skirt around that thing, forget the thing, but like still sprinkled and every once in a while, That's what I learned. Even I was writing with with you know, Shane and Ross Copperman a couple days ago, and I was like, this is like a dream right for me? And I came in with the same thing, all the ideas, like wanting to impress them, and I don't even get to mention a single idea because we were just talking about something like my relationship, things going on, whatever, and I was like, yeah, it could be this like flip of a hook, and they were like, no, no, no, no, no, it's what you just said. It's not there's no flip needed.
It's the real. It's the real, and what you're talking.
About rips my heart out every single time. And I'm like, that wouldn't have done that if we would have like done the flip of the hook to make it cool.
And it's hard coming up in the time. Well, you came up in a different time than we came up, but in the ninnies everything was flippy everything do So the songs that we built are like, you know, yeah, love for music on where all those kind of hooky things. And as time changes and moves on, it's like songs are different, listeners are different, you know, And I think you from the record we listened to, I feel like you did a really good job of meeting your listeners where you're at and probably where a lot of them are at too, you know.
I think also to a lot of which comes with being honest. Thank you, that's the goal, right, But I think a lot of too. Why we as songwriters do that thing where we're like, how do we get the best song? It's because there really isn't a way to identify what a hit is in that point. It's like sometimes there are songs that come out that are like absolute smashes that I'm like, huh, like I would you know, I wouldn't have known that that's a hit. And so I think it's you almost want to like calculate and like control what a hit is, and if it's something clever, you're like, well, this has to be a hit because it's smart, you know what I mean? And it's like, but it does it feel the way that it needs to feel, And it's like, you know, creativity is you can't really put it on a scale.
Which is part of all the all of that is part of the learning process on how to write a great song or is sometimes you just got to write a song and and let the people decide or whoever if it's great.
Or not exactly.
You've been on tour with Jordan Davis been. How how's that been?
Oh my god, it's been so much fun.
It's been He is Davis bros. That's that's our dudes.
I mean they're just both incredible and Mitchell Timpani's on the on the roads too, and it's it's been We've only been at it for what like a month. I think me and Jordan did a European leg two together, just me and Jordan without Mitchell on it yet and that was super fun.
What places did you play over there?
Oslo? Literally like there was like twenty cities I could just yeah, I'm like, help, I don't even know because there.
Was it just rains a lot, Yeah, it was, but.
It was so beautiful. It was crazy. We did like we did London, and we did Stockholm, we did Copenhagen, we did like Weed Sweet. Yeah, we just did like a ton of different cities.
And the one thing that stood out about being over there, besides being here.
The crowds.
Really Yeah.
I think also I love the fact that I grew up in this country and then I've you know, played in this country my whole life. I love this country more than anything in the world. Disclaimer, no, but no, seriously, but I think when you're a young artist in the States, you're playing a lot of bar crowds that just don't really care a lot of the times, Like they're very like when you're first coming up and you have, you know, no songs, no album and you're just kind of you're just somebody playing. They're just drinking their beer, they're talking, it's loud, nobody's even looking at you. Yeah, that is not the case over there. If you are on a stage, they are listening and they are caring, and they show up and they learn your music and they really care. Like the first time on over there was for c to see and it was like before my album came out. I had a couple songs out on my first EP, but it was like I still is very much a new artist, and they studied every single song before they showed up. There was people singing along. They're attentive if you ask them a single, and they will if you ask and be quiet, they will. Like they're just so zoned in and respectful of the artists up on stage, which I think was a very unique experience for me to have.
You know, wow, are they singing? Are they singing? Your place? Oh my gosh, back at you as hard as they can.
It was insane. Like that's kind of been like the consensus though, even like here in the States, I mean, it's just been.
It's a hit, Thank you. How does it feel? How does it feel just literally a hit? How does it feel to have crowds sing You're tune back to you words you pinned?
It's wild?
Is wild?
I think I I have this problem where I feel like I don't really let things sink in until after the moment doesn't make sense. Like I really try on stage to be like you're here, be present, be present, be present, And I think like those moments forced me to be a little more like in the moment with it. But it just feels it feels like insane. I feel like it. I'm just like a I don't know. I think it's one of those things that I'm like just trying to feel along the way.
I read when you played the when Gary la Vox introduced you to the opry that you you wouldn't even even like going and sound checking, You wouldn't step in the circle until the moment. And there was like a really cool sentence in that article. It said that you could almost and says this, and this is not verbatim, but it is like you could almost see Ashley take a picture in her brain of the moment that was happening in front of her, like and like living in that moment, just what you were talking about. Yeah, And that really stood out to me because like those there's only one of there's only a first time that you get to play the operation and step into that circle and the experience, you know, kind of a mountaintop climatic moment one time that you've been dreaming of your whole life and just and living in that and being present and taking that in. It's pretty special.
Well, that's the one thing, you know, the good thing about country music, the most amazing thing about country music and the genre is that you get to talk to people that have come before you, Like Yea, you know, I'm now goot friends with Tricia Yearwood and like Maranda Lambert and I were together at Stagecoach and it's like talking to them, I feel like consistently, even Laney, who you know, a couple of years ahead of me in this and we're great friends too. The one thing that they always tell me consistently is don't forget to like look around. And they're like, we were told that too coming up, but we didn't really listen to it. We just like nodded our heads and smiled. But like make sure you dig in and you understand and you feel it and you remember these moments because they're gonna go by so fast. And I feel like that's such a cliche thing, but also that's why I like make myself like shake myself and like even it's funny, like you know, like Mike Packs obviously, like when you're on stage, like I'll trick my brain into remembering to be in the moment by like literally ad auditory like fixing stuff. So like this is I'm trying to explain this the best I can. When I'm on stage, if I'm like in a kind of rut of like same same thing, different day, same same different day, whatever, like I'll move my pack all the way down towards almost like I can't hear anything, so I'm like I like check myself back into like okay, wait now things.
Are differently playing singing the song.
It's almost like a yeah.
Ten thousand people and they're screaming it back at mess.
So you have to like metaphorically hit yourself in the head, but you have to do something that like shocks your brain a little bit into being back into it. And for me, that's like my pack I just turned it up or turn it down or the blast my hearing out and I'm like, whoa, Okay, I'm back here. Like yeah, it's a pretty nice.
Little reset button. Yeah. I had my first episode with Packs. We were Luke was playing at Nissan Stadium here and he I mean sixty thousand people and I'm responsible for that pack, right.
Yeah.
Well, when I put the new battery in, it was just barely sitting on the receiver or whatever. So when this is one of the first sound check shows you did, sound checked people ate, everything was fine. He comes out introduced to nine hours later or whatever. I take the guitar out there, and apparently the pack had bombed a little bit, and he's like, how's am I doing out there? He's and he was like, uh, Monday on and no sound. Oh no, And everybody's like, it's the pack, and dude, you know it's not just like you just run from here to the bathroom and turn the pack on. I mean, it's a good he's out on the thrust, dude, it's fifty, it's forty.
I was talking to Dan and I don't know what we were talking about when like, but he was are you there? He went he had one he had one ear out, and we were like talking and and I just saw Dan's face because I didn't have I didn't have ears in that that show. And I was like yeah, man, and Dan.
Was like like, gone, just just I mean like off the line, out the gate, from sprinting down the stage, just going on.
People don't like obviously, our goal is to like make sure that nobody knows that's happening, like you want to like seem.
He wanted to make sure the entire stadium stadium knew I was missed that I messed that up. It's pretty funny.
It's rough. I mean, now we don't we have like a still pretty small camp and like whenever anything goes wrong on stage, like we just were kind of screwed because like we don't have somebody to run stuff out.
Oh man, that gets crazy.
I was losing my mind because you don't Number one, I don't know what I'm doing out there. He knew I didn't know. Okay, he just wanted his homie out there for a year to play golf and shoot turkeys, which is exactly what we did. But in that situation, oh well, the crew is like what he doesn't care.
Crew's like fired you already fired.
Yeah, they're firing me on the first week, you know.
But he he doesn't care. He just left it all.
He's like, guys, this is Dan Is when he messes stuff up and he's you know, like sixty thousand people are.
You like pissing yourself, like running out.
There losing my mom losing. So I'm like and somebody's like press the battery in and I was like, damn and it lit up Monday and I was like.
Drugs, Oh it was.
But the rest of the night, you're like everything tune, everything is. I mean, they don't get it, dude, y'all don't get it. Y'all stars don't get it. There's a pressure on the boys behind the stage.
Dude, I do.
I love them so much, you know what.
I'm talking about. You just your brain goes through like every possible thing that can be going you try to just fixing six thousand people. I'm messing this up.
It's funny because my day to day manager is sitting right here. She's kind of like our stage hand right now, Like but she doesn't know anything about anything when it comes to the stuff, and so like she'll have ears in and like my friend of house tour manager Tom, He'll be like, Yo, we needed this this one pedal move. She's like, what is happening? She has no idea?
One left in the middle of the song.
I'm just like, no, no.
You're yeah, yeah, I think there was.
There's a couple of crew that listen to this show and they always bust me out, they know, but I think there was probably a good solid three mess ups. I'm gonna go three. They're gonna yeah, they're gonna say there was like ten, no for the for the year that I was three.
That's it. It's actually really impressive.
I'm coming from this guy. Do you ever take five or eight? You know, then I'm not thinking definitely.
I think it's like, oh man, that's not where the cap is supposed to be. Oh man, the batter is not connected. I think there's about three or four, but we'll get the clarification on that two days after.
There is kind of like a beauty in the mess up, so shocking yourself.
That's a message for life too though, that're like, well, what a great message for there there. Yeah, there's there's beauty in the.
Mess But that's what I'm saying, like, I'm sure.
I feel real.
That's why Luke says that, I'm sure because especially as an artist being out there, like when it's so perfect, you almost get like whoa, it's like weird. Everything's perfectly in its placed can like our band. We always show around. Our band plays the best shows when our sound checks are the shittiest by far, like if the sound check sucked, and we're like yeah, when our sound checks sucked, we're like, well everything sounded horrible. We don't know what to do. We had like two minutes to sound check because we're the first of three on a tour and we don't know what to do. It's like we always are like here we go, like we were so much more like in it because we're like survival mode.
You know what I mean?
And are friends.
Yeah weird, right, she in the best way, but it's cool. We actually met first time backstage at a CMA Fest event this past year and she we I walked up to her and I was like hi, Like I'm actually it's nice to meet you, and she was like it's so nice to meet you too, Like I I really you know, I love what you're doing whatever, and we just became friends like off the bat. And then I saw her at the opera because we both played the Belmont take Over at the Opry a couple of weeks ago, and she was like, can I her number? We just need to be friends and I was like, you're asking me for my number? Yes, miss Year would please? Like I'm like yes please. So now we really are. She's just incredible. And that is the thing about Country that's different than I think most genres is like she like wants to be friends, like Miranda wants to be friends. They want to be like, hey, we've been through what you've been through, Like let me help you and mentor and kind of be like a friend.
Cool you look up.
She's in love the boy Katie sitting on from watching the chickens peck the ground. There ain't a whole lot going on to night in this one horse town under coming up the road?
Is that right?
And truck.
Both for time the home stashing through the mud and.
Mud Wait.
Wait wait her daddy says he ain't worth the lick when it comes up. Brazy got the short in the stick the katie when she don't care you get she don't tell me anywhere?
She allow the boar? Where is this? Shello with the ball, Like, where the heck is it?
She allow with the boar?
An even they have to run away?
Right?
She don't marry that boy some day Gil, that's iconic, absolutely iconic.
I but you walk away, Joe was just to walk away Joe. That's great.
Remember she's just she's like, im shoot that first part that you can't say, but it's stiff in the shoe.
Gotta way.
We do the thing called the One that Got Away. Yeah, when we're trying, we're starting to wrap up the.
Amazing. That was beautiful. You should like do that for a career.
Definitely, sorry, definitely the best interpretation of that song. But uh, it could be a fish, it could be a deer, it could be a cheeseburger. Dan likes to say, uh, got away? Were you prepped on this or is this yeah?
Okay, good good, Yeah, but that's kind of shocked when I was like, she doesn't.
Know actually cooked, what's uh, what's your one that got away?
Okay? So I would say so this year is the was the first year that I was like, damn, I'm gonna buy a house, Like it's gonna happen. This is the year I'm going to buy house. And of course, in the Nashville real estate industry, it's just insane and it's.
Nuts, it's impossible.
But I was really excited and you know, pumped that I you know, I was like Okay, this is the year my first house is going to be it. So I went and looked at a million different houses, and I fell in love with this one house that was like perfect. It was like an ay Gerland, like just absolute perfection and putting off for down. Then somebody came in and snipped it. So to me, it's the one that got away. Forever, we always we literally were calling it the one that got away with my realtor friend and because we were like, that's the one that got away, like you know, there's a better one out there, but there was, because I actually ended up finding one, and now I'm in a beautiful It was the one that got away no more, because now I'm in the house that I really love. But I'll always think about the house. It will always halt me.
Yeah, I feel it's perfect.
All right, Now we do. Favorite country song of all.
Time doesn't have to be like the world shocking song. It's just a song to you, man, Grave greatest slash favorite has nothing to do with Graves.
There's so many songs I could choose, for.
Real, how about choosing the one that I can play?
Yeah, okay, all right, let's let's do Let's do fast cars in Freedom Rascal Flats is that song iconic song.
Staring you come on, Neil Thrasher's.
Taking off you make wondering why you leave it.
Listen to this record so I know you.
Thank you dude, A baby, you don't mean where's that? You could see what I see?
Anybo is gone?
Here you go.
Becauseating that strail, following over and over, Baby Blue your head on my shoulder, Wait, baby, move right?
Berry is tee shirt hanging off the dog brench the beavers cold, but we gave you a chance and.
You look deal the fast cars and freedom, the sun set, the bank first tipy oh oh, I'll smile and shaking up.
A sibby. Don't believe me?
I had to say, Raggy, take me back.
All on that gravel road. What a.
Oh my way to think you up sitting on the farm first the gager, the line I was going to ches night, I see yours a straight father and Norman normal, Baby.
Boo on my shoulder, Wait, baby hanging on the branch.
That was Calie Gay.
You don't look at deal the fast cars and freedom less sunsider, the first stiff.
Whoa like taking again?
Yeah?
What have you got coming? Up where you're gonna be playing, You're great, where you be going You're.
I'm not a great player because I ended both of those courses in two different courts.
Still interpretation, Man, this is like the craziest you're ever straight up, Like it's insane. Mount with Jordan and Mitchell for most of the year. I think we're out till like October together. We started in February, so it's like crazy the year. And then we're routing my second headline tour right now, which would be fun and we said over that headliner, yeah, and then writing my second album, So that's like finding the time to like write in a second album in between all of this stuff is insane, but it's also fun because I feel like I'm in a very different headspace than I was in the first album in the best way.
So we know what will help you with that time? Yeah? What Yeah, delegate some of those ideas to professional writers, like reading.
A couple of guys have that maybe and maybe we do will cancel other things.
To this podcast in order to help you achieve your goal.
The best second second hang out will be writing for We'll write a problem too.
Yep, all right, I'm gonna hold you to it for real. Cook, Thanks for coming.
Hey we got It. Was named Opry's Next Stage Class of twenty twenty three Music Rose Discovery Artists of the Year, Next Big Thing in twenty twenty four. Currently currently Yeah Song in the top ten. Currently Iheart's on the Verge artist and the third God's Country Podcast as artist to Watch in twenty twenty four. Miss Ashley Cook, everybody, that was so much gray. You're great, much great, so much great, so much great. We talked about chicken nuggets a lot too much.
I'm sending you that video.
I don't seem in that video because I'll never eat them.
Hey, y'all, go check out Love, Go check out our record Shot in the Dark. Get to know her because she's gonna be all over the place. Ashley Cook, thanks for hanging out in God's Country. We'll see you next time.