Ep. 42: Brantley Gilbert Talks New Music and How his Wife is the One That Got Away

Published Oct 1, 2024, 9:00 AM

This week Reid and Dan host Mr. BG Nation himself out in God/s Country. Brantley Gilbert dives in head first with what he's mad at and turns out, it's little league baseball parents. He shares his journey of music, sobriety, being a landowner, and becoming a dad. The guys share their tattoo stories, including how one of Reid's is completely upside down, but he didn't realize it until it was too late. The episode ends with a Jamey Johnson cover and Brantley's One That Got Away, which had all three of them in tears to end the show.

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I was like, we can't put whiskey back in.

The ball, dude, what's up?

You're off in God's Country with Reed and dan Is Boy, also known as The Brother Something, where we take a weekly drive to the intersection of country music and the great outdoors, two things that go together like Little League baseball and sports and rival dads.

Or motorcycles and tattoos. Produced by Meat Eater and iHeart Podcasts.

We sat down with b G Nation himself, mister Brandley Gilbert, and that dude is awesome man.

You know, I met him a long time ago, and completely different dude today.

He talks about it, man.

He talks about the transformation that he went through becoming a husband and a dad and two things that he never thought he was he was gonna be.

Getting sober and great singer, man, inspirational dude, great storyteller. I mean, he's just he was great.

Every It was great.

I love when a guy like that, like when you look at him and and his tattoos and and and the roughness of who Brandley Gilbert is to talk about his faith and to talk about being a husband and a dad and like.

Being his kids a lot man.

Yeah and yeah, well, I mean you can tell that's the most important thing in his life now and for a long time.

Other things were and.

Alcohol and yeah, man, tons of still we get into some of it pretty fun.

It's a great one.

Thank you Brandley for coming on and hanging out with us, and thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to God count Smash, Subscribe, follow the follow and follow like things t talking, follow us, ticktocking.

We love you all things were hanging out back at it. We have done had an awesome podcast before the camera's.

Even turned home with my guy dude. We thanks for coming out hanging with us. We got a big deer hunting tattooed dadding about to have another one come on. Racking up more than eight point three billion career streams with the b B, back to back platinum albums and seven number one hits, including r I A, a seven time platinum certified bottoms up country must be country wide.

You don't know where like I do. One hell of a name, man, What Happens in a Small Town with Lindsay l penned the watershed hit Jason Alden's four time platinum country rap game Changer, Dirt Road Anthem, We've got mister b g nation himself out in God's Let's Go. You might feel like I need a baseball card that intro of you gave me your bunks. Yeah, we had everything but the Stone Coach, the Smashing Beers. Were you a wrestling guy? Did you? Did you grow up watching that stuff? When he was done, I was done a little bit. But you know, the wrest romania not long ago were saying America the beautiful and it was awful. It was terrible. We butchered it. Twitter's alive, spit out the ball. My guy was Goldberg. That was That was my dude.

You know he has a he has a son playing college football. Dude, he played in the His last name is I mean the dude guy like Goldberg on this jersey and I was like, Goldberg played in the league. I know he's like a fullback.

And he wore the collar like the Mike allstart. Yeah, collar man. That call was cool. Must seen the year award that role played quarterback had man, You were a quarterback. I had to my senior year with nobody else though intimidating nast quarterback.

I was a linebacker or a defensive van so it kind of made sense, but I've never seen the quarterback wearing that.

You see the guy run out the tunnel and then you see the guy with the horse and like, oh, that's had some bitter things and then he goes over.

We didn't throw the ball, we didn't have a line bro. It was like there was no three step dropping offense. It was like snap, run straight backwards and see if you can make something happen. Yeah, I feel that we played both sides ball. I graduated with sixty six people, so it was tiny. Gotcha.

Do you regret playing football?

Hell? No, I don't know. I'd lace them up one more time, really, yeah, but that'd be about it. I wouldn't be again. I wouldn't be able to lace my boots.

I don't even know if I could bend over the lace and nothing. At this time, I get somebody.

Else for me.

Let me ask you, because because most guys that played football don't regret playing football, but some of them are hesitant to let their boy play football.

Yeah, or how do you feel about that? Man? Uh? With both my kids, I mean, I'm careful about putting too much pressure on them to do something. I don't want to push him away from it. If he comes to me and he says he wants to play football and he's got to finish the season, you know what I mean. And as long as we make him away with that. You know, hey, dude, if you start something, you're gonna finish it. So you get out there and you get whipped on a little bit and you ain't feeling it, you just gonna have to push through. So he he opted for eight. You baseball, dude. He had his first scorekeeper game the other day with an umpire and he went two for three. We had some things to work on in the field.

Two for three back.

And he scored both times got on base and they won twelve eleven. I was the happiest daddy day of play. If I didn't even know they're keeping score. I just thought we was gonna watch him herd cats like we have the last year. And dude, I mean before the game started, other teams warming up and the parents from the other side were hollering and screaming. I was ready to fight everybody.

I keep thinking about how I'm going to be in that scenario because my my little guys too. So I got my girls four, but she played t ball and I was, and I was getting mad at the coaches. I was like, man, y'all at teaching them, you know, just kind of like walking them through the thumb like man, teacher how to get down on the ball, Like, yeah, what are we doing here? This wast money and time playing? Yeah, dude, I mean that's how our dad was. He was he coached all of our teams, man, and and and we didn't play around, dude.

There ain't no doubt. Man.

We was in the I mean Saturday morning, some before the crack of dawn, we was in that sideyard taking BP you know with the middle golf ball balls. He'd be pitching them things and we'd be learning how to hit those.

Yeah, he's try football. And man, there was a boy from another big old ward from another team that went to block him a couple of times and knock him down, and he got right back up and went after him and knocked out again. I was proud of that. Yeah, dude, he got knocked down one time in the life aft and I try my best to hold it. And we got about maybe an eighth of a mile up the road from the field, and I stopped the truck and pulled it over and we had to come to Jesus. I was like, hey, they're never in your life. You don't get down, knocked down and laugh about it, laughing matter it means you lost and you're vulnerable and bad things happen on the ground. Sure, get your asked up.

That's true, man, it's true.

You gotta get mad when you get and I feel like that's.

Kind of a parallel for life, you know what I mean, Like even in in Nashville or pursuing a dream or trying to chase anything down, Like, bro, you can't be You got to get back up.

Absolutely.

You gotta know what's going to happen, and it's going to continue to happen, but you just gotta it's it's what you do after the fact.

Get up with it, don't just get up. That's that's a little bit of the battle. Get up with a purpose, I mean, and that purpose may be, Hey, I ran into that brick wall four times, and maybe I need to work around that brick wall. Boy's way.

You know, why did not expect you to say that. I thought you're gonna say, yeah, so you might knock it down on the fifth time.

I said, no, man, you might need a circle, man, it's just climb that throw a leg over and over. You know you can get away to get around that watch or whatever you gotta do. Don't get knocked over by that wall again. Hit him in the names.

That's I'm supposed to play what you're mad at?

That's right, I forgot. We had this ge. We do a little thing called what you're mad at? We may have a little diddy do how much time you got? What you mad Just tell us what it is? What you're mad? Is it? In the lost? Kids? Might be your boss man, all your neighbors can just tell us what you mad you know, just a little thing do we do? If you want to put that on hold, you can? You know what? I got a couple of holes on his neck? Okay, okay, well, speaking of cats, you mad at? Cant no? But what do you sell?

All that stuff about them eating cats?

Yeah?

I ain't seen it, but I did watch that, bro. I'll tell you what I saw. I'll tell you what I saw.

It was something. Is that real?

I'll tell you what I saw. It was not a cat, but it was a seagull that somebody caught and was holding it, and the bottom of it said, no bird soup for you, buddy, And it was a girl when it's like, what are you doing with that bird?

Bird soup for I?

Swell, are we talking about like bashalts eating hats? What's happening here?

When we're talking about people come across the border and eating weird, I'm talking about eating our pets, eating our ponducts.

Our conducts.

You come out from my white tail, bro. No, they started, why would you if you went into some new country, would you eat pon ducts or a big fat dough on the side of the road.

I don want to know how he caught a seagull. My kids what the woman too, But she said, it's not your bird. She said, I know how to hold the bird. And she obviously didn't get to the beach she's talking about. I know you're probably scared too.

She's like, pet the bird.

I was like, you know, I don't really talk to him all that much either. I'm glad she rescued that the same man.

That's how I felt. I was like, good on the bird man, and that.

Dude was pissed too.

Yes, he didn't want to give. He didn't want to give the bird like he was holding by I mean that's what I saw.

And I saw one where they pulled up on this woman he said, sweating a cat. Yeah, while she was eating the cat's. Yeah, somebody sent me because I don't have social media. I don't have none of my passwords love, I'm a liability and I've never seen a well we'll get that, but ship me video will opening. Is this cop asking this lady's did you eat that cat? I was like, what I was rolling. There was no shock factors, that's that's a question. She just looked at me and said your mouth no, what let me see she did like that? He said, maybe you have hair in your mouth? What's happening, brod?

I was rolling, I mean Trump said, he said, did say it?

Oh? And they jumped all over him for it. They jumped all over him for it.

I know, man Trump, there wasn't No, we don't have They said, we've confirmed, Yeah, we've confirmed with Springfield, Ohio that there has not been any pet eating. And he was like, he said, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see, you know, TikTok.

Apparently I guess we will.

I did see, and I didn't seen any of that until the next.

Day that cat there.

He goes and talk quarter.

He was like, man, she cat, he said, this is like she ate a cat, cat up.

Eating the car out of all the gas station chicken and Chinese buffets. And we've eaten in our life. Do you think there's any chance that we've eaten something we didn't know what it is?

Yeah?

Yeah, because bro, we've been eating.

We've eaten chick I've been eating chicken on a stick my whole lot. I knew. I've been different, different every time. Yeah, yeah, lab on a stick or something that probably probably happened now. On one of the times we went on a Mexican restaurant that there trying to buy our goats. Mm. We ain't got many left. It didn't do too well this year in the winter. I'm a new goat form out. I don't really know what to do with them. It was so bad that they'll eat everything. Oh god, yeah, okay, oh gosh. They all got pregnant. And as we guys there where we're building a house and my builder called and he said, hey, man, there's a there's a goat out here laying on the ground hollering. And I had my son with me, so I was like it's probably not something he needs to see that. Maybe it is. We pulled over there, the goat's laying on the ground crying, just hollered. That's why I get out. And the first I think is maybe she's breached. So I go in there trying to put me in glove on there, trying to reach around, you know, and ended up calling the VET. If we took the goat to the vet's office, because I gave my son a choice to listen, man, this this goat's really sick. I'm sorry that was that. The VET showed up forth and she tells me that the goat just got cold and went in the shop. I've been digging around.

This coat's like what are you doing? I was like, I just need a blanket.

Get out mane. Yeah, it was bad. So the VET was like, she's probably not gonna make it. Like we can take her and try to but thence she gets cold again. You know, she's in bad shape. I tell my son that. I was like, this is gonna be your first choice. I said, now, you know, we don't want animals to suffer. True, you know what I mean. So she's the chances are she's not going to recover, and we're gonna spend a little money keeping her three or four nights, I said. Or you know the other way is, you know, we make sure she doesn't suffer anymore and and we take do our best take care of the rest of you, which is a great lesson. That's a learning thing right there. For for the sun. Yeah, and you saw my son's a bleeding heart. Like he's such a sweet kid. He was like, let's take it to the vet. God. Yeah, exactly exactly, been there, done that. Got to spend three nights, uh at the I guess the goat ritz And and then the first day got back, we had one looked just like it. Everybody, that's the goat. I say, every goat he sees, he thinks is the one he saved you. That reminds me of the story across the bridge on down the road. You know, we were young, my.

Daddy, we we rabbit hunting. That's kind of like our introduction to the outdoors was rabbit hunting. And my I mean big white tailed family and all that stuff. But we did a ton of rabbit hunts. So we had rabbit dogs, and uh, when they would get older, we just kind of take the older ones that were couldn't keep up with the pack, and we would just like make them pets. And so we had one called his name was Bosco, and uh at night he'd run out into the bottoms and chase rabbits like old times, you know, and he'd come back in the morning, just sweating and time of his life. Well, one time he got caught up in some barb wire down there and we had to we had to take him to the vet and he got a leg amputated. So he was a three legged beagle that just hung out around our house. So me and my sister and my daddy wouldn't I don't think Mama was there but me and.

This is we got.

There's there's Courtney, who's our older sister, and then Dan and then me and then Lindsey.

We're all four years apart.

So me and my younger sister were at home and I'm inside and she's outside playing and she just, I mean she all sudden.

Must through the door, just run, just running right right. I was like, what what what? What? She was like. I was outside and I was throwing the tennis ball with Bosco and somehow he swallowed it and I was like what I was like, swallowed the tennis. Ball was like the whole thing.

Story y'all. Y'allre pretty young.

I mean yeah, I was probably ten, so she's probably six. I might have been a little bit older. I was like, swallowed the tennis.

She was like, he swallowed the whole thing. I don't know what to do.

So I was like, oh my gosh, we gotta make this dog thrower. That's my first thought. We got to make this dog throw up.

So I run. I don't know who I called or got hold of. Somebody was like, hey, I got to make this dog throw up because he swallowed. There was a dude that went to our church that was a vet. That's right.

I can't remember his name, that's.

Right, Jody. Yeah. So he was like I called That's why I called mister Jody. And I was like, hey, man, who's our name?

How do I get He was like, poor, if you got some like hydrid peroxide, just get you some py dron rocks. I'd pour down the dog's throat and he'll up chuck anything that throw up anything that's in his throat.

So I was like, all right, what Bostes like?

Yeah, So so we I get Bosco. He's out there, just do He's already and he don't due.

I go out there, boscles like this, like he's looking like and I was like, all right, man, I gotta pour this hydrogen procks. I have done your throat. You gotta throw this this tennis ball. So I get him and hold him up, and he's got his mouth over and I'm pouring hard of your dry right down stairs.

I'm freaking and he's gonna choke.

And that's that dogs all over the yard throwing up. And I'm like, lindsay, where's this where's this tennis ball. She's like, it's in there, and keep pouring it. So we keep pouring it down his throat. He keeps throwing. He throws up everything, and I'm like, lindsay, where where where are you playing? She was like in the bushes. She was like, right there is where Oh, there's a tennis ball, and Bosco's over here, just going from I was sitting there, man, for the next two hours. I sat there, just pat his bagrowing up. I'm like, that's my bad man, my dog put doctor hell for nothing, pile through hell. All right, let me tell you what I'm mad at all right.

Oh jeez, yeah, I forgot.

I'm mad at people who talk on the phone in public really loud, yes, or like or like the one somebody back here do that?

Did you get? Well, let me tell you.

We sat we were flying back from Mexico the day and sat in front of somebody that was talking madge, and.

They were and they were like wanted.

People to hear them talk stand out and it absolutely flew all over me and Jordan and just like talking like saying stuff about their sex life and on the plane, dude.

And then like it's tight.

Quarters, you know, on a plane and just like blatantly loud so you can hear them and have the shock factory. Yeah, it drew It drove me crazy. I couldn't stand it.

So down south of town where we live, there's a farm called Lucky Lad and they get they got like giants. You tell your kids pay twenty bucks, your big slides and all this stuff, a little pet zoo and stuff. Yeah that's cool. Just take kids there. It's like like a fall, like a farm. You can kind of hide out there, honestly, yeah, you can kind of hide out. So anyway, we take we took our all our whole plan there and just let them play for a day. And uh, actually, I'm gonna have to pick you about that story because I saw Jordan Davis there when a really funny thing happened. But anyway, so this guy has got one of those earpieces in but he had long hair, so I didn't see the earpiece. So everybody's standing around like watching their kids play, you know, and he's like, what's up, man? And I was like, what's up, dude? He's like, good man, how are you? I was like, I'm fine, man, you just got your kids out.

He was like, so what do you sell it for? And I was like, this is what?

Ain't talking to me?

And he was not. He had an earpieces and I couldn't even he was just having a conversation.

He was looking like if you're me, he was looking like this, like just just like here ish not just in my eyes. Yeah, So fast forward they got this huge corn bind right. I don't think Jordan would get mad at me telling you this. So I saw Jordan David's there.

What's up to? Good? See? Yeah?

Ah man, kids are crazy, holler at me. Let's get together, Let's go do a hunting ballah. Real fast, yeah, because we but he has I think he's got three kids.

We have three kids.

They were i mean just chunking food at goats and it's a it's a it's nuts, right, So we didn't have time to talk. So anyway, both of our kids simultaneously end up in this giant literally the size of this room with like a canopy top over it, probably mid maybe a little bit hiring ankle full of horn. They're all playing in the corner. They're throwing all these there's.

Like like a cor pit, it's like a sand pit, but a thirty kids. And they got dump trucks in there and shovels and stuff like that. So my, it's country. It's super cool.

Yeah, my son and Jordan's son are by the same age, like he might actually even his little boy might be a little younger.

So they're all just like toddling around in there, you know.

Well, I see his son walk from the designated corner that Jordan had told him to stay in and go straight to a kid that had a little little like trumpet truck.

Yeah, and so the.

Kids has his hand on it, but he stopped playing with it. So Jordan's boy just reaches down and gives the thing. And as soon as he does, dude, this dad comes out of the back that we didn't even see.

It was like his son son.

He was playing with that son. Give that back to him. You you did nothing wrong with Jonah.

You did nothing wrong.

Super And so as soon as it happened, I'm like, you know, I'm like the pop corner, like, how's this gonna be? I know, Jordan, Jordan, He's got his hat on it, and I can see him like like I can see the shift happened, you know. So I'm like, what we gonna do it?

You know what I'm saying.

So he walks over. He's like, hey, you know, he's talking to his son. I don't want to say his son's name. He might not want me to be He's like, hey, you.

Know, like he was playing with that. Let's let's treade out.

And and the dad was like he was playing with that first. And Jordan's like, I got it.

I got it.

And so I saw it get under his skin a little bit, you know, and this is my favorite thing to do. Was like provoked stuff, you know. And so I walk around the corn pit as we're leaving, and I was like amen. I was like, Pop's a little aggressive, wasn't he.

He was like I thought the same thing.

I was like, hey, let him know we thicker than any things, with any things you are out here today.

You know. He's like, am I do that? Man?

I was like, that's the greatest That'd be the greatest headline I.

Ever like Davis Jordan Davis. Whoops, I'm around the National thirty kids. He was crying.

Here's what I'm trying. I guess the point I'm trying to make, because I guess I need to wrap that up. It's like, dude, kids are gonna be kids, but they don't know what they're doing. Bro, they don't know what they're doing. Like, you ain't got to be rival dad. You can be cool that and just be like it's all good man.

Let him have the thing. Because the kid wasn't even crying, He wasn't even making a scene. It was just the rival dad.

It was really funny. I sent a picture to Jacob of Jake of Jordan, and I said, man, you need to come get your boy. He felt a lucky lad. A lifetime band where you mad at you mad anything?

I'm mad at everybody.

Yeah, man, everything everybody.

I'm thirty nine, about to turn forty, and I think I'm just into the crush of the old man face like beautiful. I feel like I'm a year away from screaming at kids driving too fast.

I'm already doing it, you are, because I'm forty in that and I'm already I'm doing it. I mean, I live a quarter mile off the road. Every time somebody flies by there, I'm like.

Hear me back in there.

You know we're gonna fight like he the straight You do it again, that's right up there.

I'm mad at that. And you know what was crazy? I told you my son had his first eight U game where they kept scoring and had an umpire and man, the other team's parents like, while they were warming up, we're already getting gassed up, chipping and everything. Oh bo, I'm telling you. At one point, our team hit a ball that hit third base fair ball times, no matter what, they got arguing and fussing at the umbire. And this kid that I went to school with goes to the umpire and a six to eight year old ball game and six to eight hell, and I finally walked up to the fence. I said, hey, buy these kids sixty eight years old. This, this ain't necessarily putting on a good example. So how about you don't make me double down on that because you don't go take your ass to the dug Yeah, man, I'm gonna d t you ass on. Amen was referenced. The umpire looked at me and kind of smile. What he tell you? We can't do that. You can't say that, loud. I's the problem. It was funny. I tried to I thought I was being funny and umpire walked in. I said how much for the win? And he looked at me like serious as hell? A six eight year old game? Like, dude, I had no idea ship was that serious?

He's like sixty bucks to get it?

Yeah, and he was joking around. He finally got to worry. He jump around with me. But dude, I had no idea six eight year old ball. It was like that. It was just gonna sit there and watch him play ball. You know, it's twenty twenty four, man, them them parents is them parents? Is wild?

Now? I guess I guess the consensus of parents that did he calm down? Calming down down a little bit, dude.

Yeah, man, now we're now if they're playing in college ball and they're going for a national championship or something, get riled up. Yeah the benches, yeah, and stands and fight on the picture.

That's right, that's where your kids do. They fight each other. Yeah, okay, min This just started happening in my life because I got a four year old little girl two year old little boy through. My boy like, he will pull her hair and punch her in the mouth, dude, And she's like, daddy. I'm like, hey, man, knock him out, dude, knock him out and shot. My wife's like, hey, he's too. I was like, yeah, great time to learn. And so she finally the other day, yesterday we were on the porch.

He snatched something out of her hand. She looked at me. I was like, she was like, he was like, Liza di yeah, got mad. Hit her back, I said. She looked at me. I was like, get it, fire him up.

One hurt him a little bit, and he was like.

And he swapped it.

Again, and she was like, I mean, I was like, is he the younger one, yeah, little pump. The boys are different, man. I got a one year old boy and a two year old little girl, and and my boy is just now to the point where he's trying, like he's walking a little bit, like he's figuring it out, and you can see him like, go on, Jordan, I guess it was yesterday. We we were sitting there and we have like these glass things on the which is probably not smartest parents, We should probably move them. But we got some glass things up on the fireplace, and he likes to open the door of them and shut it, and you know he can pull that thing over. So Jordan kept going no oak, no, sir, no, sir, and he would he like, reach for it, and she'd say no, and he'd look at her like this, and I know, he start reaching again, and then you you tell Griffin at that age, she would just go do something else, but he would look at her like what.

He's like, let's see, and he go reach for it. She go no, And dude, she did that three or four times, and he sat back one time ah and hit her on the leg. And I was like, man, that's he's like one baby.

That's the first time we've ever seen like that male aggression takeover.

No, I want to do this. It's a different deal. Man. I don't know where my son got it, but he is hard on his sleeve, like I know he's my boy, but really when I say both sides of both sides of his family are pretty rough, you know what I mean, like getting on pretty mean. You know, there's much rattlesnakes, and it used to be. I feel like you were a meaner when I met you. You were mean. Now you're like my god, softy dad.

I love him now. Dude, I met you back in the day. We played kind of the same circuit. I had a band called Soul Gravy and we were playing the song Southeastern Circuit down there in Missippi State and Old miss Athens and all that stuff. Man, I I've seen you not be nice.

It was different. It was different things before I quit drinking. It was and it wasn't just me. It was Yeah, it was a bad deal. That was a bad deal. We turned over some leaves. Yeah. Yeah. So he's got it. He's got it. You know, he does have some grit, like if he gets mad, and I'm glad he's got that gear. But it's serve his predominant, like by nature go to Yeah, you just got to you got to maintain that gear. You can't let it get out of control. You want him to have it. Yeah.

I love that my boys getting mad and has a fight in him. I just want him to be able to control it and turn it down when he needs to. I'm just saying, he's literally the rest of his life.

That was what I'm absolutely man. I tell you too. I mean it's early, but you know, the society these days is telling boys opposite you don't need to do that, you know, And I get that violence is bad as that another bit. No, man, the capacity to do violence at some point in his life is necessary to protect his wife and his kids. I want to instill that in him. So I wish she had a little bit more of it. But my daughter was the younger one.

She's a g bro.

She plots on him when dude. I remember one time I walked into the bonus room and her little you know, there's a little flight of stairs that goes four or five stairs goes down of their room, and he's just sitting there playing, just being sweet as he can be, minding his own business. And I see her little bobble head coming up the stairs. So I just stepped back. Yeah, I just stepped back, And I was like, I won't see what my kids do in the wall, you know, just just that little deserve them in the national environment.

Bro.

She walked upstairs and when she saw it, she stopped that on net got stuff like that. And he was facing this way. She starts walking around behind him, walks up behind the cock's back and hits him as hard as she can in the faith okay, out of nowhere, and he just put his head in his hands like this started. And I said, bray. And when I did, like, she looked over at me, and you would think that she would be like, you know, I no, she pulled that thing Bernie MaTx was talking about, don't you love me? Down to my toes up to my head, like what we're gonna do? What you about? What you better? What did you do? I'm curious, bro, I mean, I was like, no, ma'am, we don't do that. And she literally raised her eyebrow and turned them all off. I do think she was like two or three when this happens. She's wild. She's going to start a criminal organization. By middle we're trying to hire my eye. I need you to do some work.

They are wild, man, the kids are.

I mean, it's just like, oh, they're the best, man.

It's the best and the hardest and the worst and the almost awesome rewarding thing in the world.

For we're talking about o kids every time on here, man, just because it's everybody that's got kids in the same general vicinity of age or older kids that have been there the same thing. Yeah, we're all like, hey, you du and especially the people that you know, you're demographics watching this and think we got to keep each other in check. Man. There's side of the world that are raising these kids to be sheep and the victims and for sure, dude, and we can't be a part of that.

And it's so easy to fall into that too, to get to wake up in the morning and go, god, man, everything's against me.

I'm oh, it's it ain't ever gonna work. I'm never gonna be able to do it. Blah blah. You know.

And if you if you convey that onder your kids, you're you're teaching them to live like.

That, man.

And I don't want my kids to feel like that. I want them to be strong.

Yeah, being a good parents hard, like it really is, he said all the time, Like you have to work at it and it but but but it ain't just for it ain't just it ain't just saying no to Oak for that glass thing right there. That's when he's eighteen and he's and he's trying to make a decision about something he should do this or shouldn't do this, And I want him to think back, not twenty's one, but do those times.

To that one time years old and the man. I want him to know right and wrong, you know. And I just don't think an.

Cut it off like you have to. And that's why I think at eight thirty at night, I feel like I've just been doing two a days back in high school. I'm I'm worn out because I care right like being I always we say this with lukehle Lot. It's like, dude, were parents, this would be so much easier, you know what I mean, Like you would just you wouldn't feel like you had to be a good husband or be a good dad. You could just go do whatever you wanted to do, which would be fishing and hunting for us.

You know.

No, I say that to Shane all the time. I'm like, you know, there's a lot of people out there doing cocaine and chasing horrors. Man, all I do is dear hunt. That's the only thing you can get mad at. It could be a lot worse, so true. All right, all right, enough enough, dad, and we're good.

We're good.

On dad, Let's talk about how you got into When did you decide like music is my thing, it's what I want to do. I've got something to say. Did it start at a young age or did you kind of come into it.

Or from early life was really hazy? So I'm real careful not to talk out of her, But here my mama tell it. I used to put on shows for an audience a woman. I had a little plastic guitar and the plastic microphone, and she shit was pretty bad, so I believe her. Yeah, but you know, I started in church Man around the time of my long story short fourteen to fifteen. Found this cover band. It played holding the wall bars and you know, biker joints, biker club houses, you name it, and uh, when they take a break, I'd get up and do some of my songs.

And were you writing your songs?

Because we always well, for whatever reason growing up, the only reason I'd want to learn somebody else's songs just get core progression see if I could turn it into something more. I started at an early age for whatever reason. I think I had one guitar lesson and came home and told my mom I was creepy and I didn't have to go back nice. I don't think he was real creepy. I just.

Poyeah.

He had my mom. His eyes looked like you wanted to touch me and stuff. I was ready to get out of it. You walked around that corner. If you get a loss suit, that's terrible. I almost said something real bad. Okay. So uh after that, I met a guy around the age of seventeen, nmed Court Smith, and I'm sure y'all know we're from Saint Hometown.

Oh wow, he was in that same circuit. Oh yeah, he had just blown up?

Had that? Is he a little bit older? He is? And to be completely honest, man, he uh it was the first time I saw Seeah. I was under the notion that to make the music you had to move to Nashville and have some of my tea how to dress and want to say what you could and couldn't do. And I obviously knew that wasn't ever gonna work for me. Is I'm just having an issue with authority. Yeah, it's the problem I can't tell you know, Yeah it was. It was pretty neat. I was around, and his goal was to sell out the Georgia Theater and to be able to do music for a living independently. And I had never heard that as a possibility. And did he I remember him being able to quit his teaching job and do music full time. Wow, Like I remember, it was a big deal. And then he came back he super stocked. He was like, man, I was, I was able to walk away from my job to concentrate on music. And I told you this seventeen eighteen.

That's cool to have a have somebody, you know, to have like somebody kind of especially guy like.

That, that's like grassroots in it. Like he was doing it the right way radio.

He was building, building a fan base the right way, So playing the circuit and the shows and growing here that Yeah, yeah, for sure.

That college moil. Actually then I think he was you know, he was in his late twenties, but it was you know, he keyed into that market and they were loving it. Man. And we kind of piggybacked off him for a minute. We followed him around to a bunch of College March Southeast and if you played the same circuit. You know we're talking about ricks and start. Oh, absolutly man, Yeah, I know about that. I was probably there. God, I still get dude, it makes me nervous this day. It was awful ricks. But I mean, and you know, immediately in Georgia it was De Laonaga and then we had Statesboro and you had, uh, you go up to Carrollton and play the college I think it was off campus. Born grew up there. And then you know, go to valdostin him melon mushroom and bounce all the way down to Jacksonville. And I remember him watching doing that, yeah, and open him for him and then just kind of watching what he was doing. So his goal kind of became out. I was like, man, if I could sell out Georgia Theater, that's a long shot for me. That would be awesome. If I ever could get to a place where I could just play music for a living, I ain't got to worry about doing nothing illegal, you know, So that that'd be really cool. And that became my goal. And in early in my twenties we did that. And to be completely honest, man, it was never a thing where I sat down and I was like, man, I want to be super rich. Don't everybody to know my name? That just wasn't my thing. I wanted to write songs and play them, but on you know, under my terms, and you know, on a smaller scale, sure is what my ambition was. Not you know where we are. But dude, God bless me with an incredible group of dudes. Man, just throughout my whole career, moving people in and out of my life. That made a huge difference and actually gave us about what we were doing. And man, twenty years later, it was just crazy to say, but twenty years since I released my first album the first time, and I, man, I'd be honest with you, like, if you'd have told me then that we'd be sitting here having this conversation that I told you you're crazy.

Absolutely, where does your like where does that Southern rock inspiration come from?

It? So, man, my mom and dad had like a box of taps right I'm dating myself right now, like Cassette, Absolutely, and there was everything in there from like praising worse music to uh like a C d C. And man, I remember I found a cooling the Gang record one time, and I beat that tape to death. Had one of them walkmans that you can hit and it may skip a little bit, but it come right back, you know, hit to rewind and pop at some of the skinning and uh, dude, I think I jumped the pad slap off a trampolinet that. But listen to a little bit of everything. So I always, always, it's been so hard for to answer the influence question my entire career because it was, like, dude, I feel like I've been influenced by everything I've ever heard, you know, some good, some bad. But man, in there I found a Skinner record and I remember listening to it and thinking about man like this dude saying things that I understand. Yeah, like at a young age, really absolutely, you know. And like I said, my memory is really hazy, but I do remember gravitating towards that. And then I heard simple Man. It reminded me of my mama and it just hit home. And that was when the first times a song outside of a church song, Yeah, like I spoke to me, man, it made me feel something in my whole career, dude, more than more than anything, you know, if if a song doesn't make me. I've chased songs and tried to write songs that raise your hair, that makes you want to do, something that motivates you, that that make you feel. Sure you know what I mean, because it's it's cool to be clever and be entertained, but I want you to feel something. So I never get away with the release of the song that makes you feel something. That's That's always been my goal. And uh man, you know, just when we kept our head down the only time I ever stopped to smell the roses, so to speak in my career, when country Wide with number one was my first number one and we were having.

A that song took over. Do you remember when that came out? I was I think I wasn't calls when that popped, and it was like it.

Was a giant, huge It was not my favorite song on that album. Yeah, most of the singles I've ever released have been Matt label hate. So when I say this, but had been my least favorite songs or projects.

Absolutely, so you can't tell me you didn't like she Don't you don't know?

I love that one. That was That's my favorite song of yours. And I went up on Hell of Amen bad. That's one. We did like six radio tours for that one. But I remember when Country I went number one, it was like I was going to go to the back and kind of smell the roast, give giving myself a chance to kind of soak in the moment. And instead I got back there and got my head and ended out calling my manager and telling him I needed to go to rehab. The one time I stopped smelling roases changed up in rehab. We don't be doing that no more, you know what I mean, No smell of roads, not going back. I ain't going back. You take me, you never take me alive. I feel like even songwriters or artists in their own right, you know, and yeah, and artists of songwriters and and and all that thing, but like I feel like in every at every core, if you break it down, man, all we're trying to do is make somebody, like you said, like feel something like like those tunes did for us back in the day. Like our our end goal is to move somebody with with our thoughts and and and and putting them to words and a guitar or whatever, a piano and making making somebody feel something like those tunes made us. Feel something back in the day. That's I think about. Man.

One of the boy one of my moments happened in college for me, and it was Alison Kraus and Union Station. They were live at the Kentucky Kentucky Theater and it was The Boy who Wouldn't Hold Corn and Jerry Douglas was playing that that dough bro lick in the in the front of it man and bro. I sat there and listened to that song for probably three hours straight, just because I had no clue what was going on inside me, but something musically was inspiring something inside me to want to make somebody else feel like that like I was feeling that night.

You mentioned Skinner. That was that was a heavy influence on me too, just just in the in the way that everything I had listened to up to that point, like nothing sounded like that, and those guys sounded like people from my hometown, you know. And I was like, Man, I even though I was fourteen and never even tasted, you know, whiskey or any of that stuff. Man, I felt like, I'm out.

Ooh that smell.

I don't know, I didn't know what we were smelling, you know, but I knew I knew what what what simple man? And Tuesday's Gone Man, and those I know what they made me feel. And even the last eight minutes of free Bird, Dude, I was like, I want to I want to know how to do that. Man, those and I know that's everybody jokes about that tune, but I mean when you're young and those songs were they were new to they were new to me. You know maybe at that point, probably twenty years, you know, but there's some of them, I guess something come out in the eighties, so it's probably ten fifteen years. But man, it's it's it's it's cool to have those those give Me three Steps.

Man, that was one of my man. I love that tune. It was just imperfectly perfect. Yeah right, there's still string slides in there. It wasn't you know, polished to the point where there were you know, you don't find mu big mistakes, but you found little imperfections. And to me, that's it's imperfectly perfect. Beautiful humanizes them, you know. It was just dude, I could totally get into it. Felt like you're in the room with them and you got it. Yeah, let's talk about what what record is this? What what record is Tattoos for You seven number seven, number number seven, Lucky number seven. Let's go. I want to read a quote from you and I let's say it's you said this.

People people get them for a lot of reasons, but for most of us, tattoos talk about our victories and our losses, our struggles and the whole nine. I was one of those kids who had to learn the hard way. But if I would have listened to the advice of others, I don't know if I'd have ended up where I am.

What is this record? What does it entail for you? What do you want?

What do you want this record to say to to b G Nation which has been with you this whole time, and you've built this incredible following, Like, what do you want them to get out of this thing?

Man? You know, early in my career, once once you know, we got little label and things started picking up, I realized that songs I tried to write to be super commercials were not as relatable as songs that were really close to the chest. I had a different writing method. I have a different method in the studio way back in the day. And you know, you been around for a lot of the stuff in the beginning, you'll appreciate this like this. This album is different for several reasons. One, every album I've ever released, first six had a title or the title track based on my faith. It was something them about Christianity, something something about church su and uh, this was different obviously being called tattoos. But the reason I'm topless at forty on man Titty Tuesday on the cover is good. We didn't We didn't photo Tuesday. Yeah, man titty Tuesday or Monday, whatever day you feel like you got the more of the tea with the cigaretlleo and it was, uh, it was call it a cigarette. Yeah, they tried to. They tried to photoshop a cigarette, you know, instead of a joint. And I was like, just let the some bitch be in a world that we can identify whatever we want to. Just let that one be what it is.

You're looking at that back, which one of them you're looking at.

I'm just making sure you don't give me any like I'm running off from the bad waters, you know what I mean. There's a reason I don't do any of these things, man, because sometimes I get to talking to joking around. I will clean it all Jane's got no filter. I'll just say some dumb kidding yeah, and then people like he really thinking. I love that you are who you are, man, and that's that's what we try to be. I get every time we get done with one of these.

I immediately get in the truck and I'm like, oh my god, Yeah what I called Jordan be like, hey, do we need to cut out?

Like you know, all those things I said about the music businesses? Yeah, because I'm still in it last night because they were laughing at me. Apparently I said something bad. I had a husband yesterday and I was tught we were talking about my man.

He thought that was really funny.

Yeah, they got jack, they got weird, and I was wondering what I was looking at. I got back and I was like, and he said, you said at one point you had a husband, but yeah you did. I was, Hell, maybe that had a way in new demographic.

It is twenty twenty four.

I mean, whatever gods would bid anything ever happened in my marriage, you know. I mean the thought of being able to come home and be like, hey, what's up, dare You're gonna go hunting? You'll go fish with bro?

Give me Donald about a couple of them things.

Man, it wouldn't be a bad deal. Yeah, I don't imagine to just hanging out. Give us a there's a couple of things that want to look you know this record style. This records called tattoos. Give us your best tattoo story.

Uh best, He's got like five hundred.

They all kind of turned into one. Yeah, this one I did, uh and on the title before I forget. The first six records also detailed You're good, detailed a chapter of my life. So if you weren't listening to them chronologically, you have a good idea who I was, I was feeling, what I was going through life. That's great with this one. You know, dudes, you get married and you have kids, and to be honest, we have always been one to write songs about my life in that chapter. And as much as I want to do that on every song, most people, you know, you can't fill a record one A long started that year's great great album Radio rented on the ground. I always memember I was working at a boot store at one point and if I heard mister mom one more time, one more kicking the door but lost door short. So you know this record. We wanted to do a little different and you know, as opposed to chronologically telling the chatter of life, you know, with with the rules changing and stream of being King, I really wanted to have a format where we could do a little bit of everything. We've had ten songs. We got to cover a lot of ground sure stylistically and you know, uh, you know, just theme wise in ten songs. So we really put some stuff in there that was nostalgic because some of our old stuff, my tattoos are you know, some of them are old, but they do what all my records before this one did. They tell my story. So the title track of the album, you know, kind of plays the role of doing what all the fulfilling the purpose that all the six records before it did. And we were able to outside of that, go back and you know, kind of recapture some of that old style. You know, we went back to writing with a guitar, and we got in the studio, did away with a lot of the digital stuff. Uh. It was it was really cool process, man, especially for me, and I felt like kind of got back to through our roots and we still got outside of the box. Did some new studia. Yeah, you can hear that too. When you listen to this this record, man, you can hear like it's like new old Brandley Gilbert.

You know, like I say, Man, God did in Country Hot got me.

Dude, that's God. Man, he got me.

Look, we got the record last night, so we haven't really want to sit and act like I know every song on it.

But I got to that one. I was like, well that was awesome about that is nobody had me and Gary Levox.

I thought when he popped, no doubt, I'm be honest, don't tell him I said this. But when I first heard that, look that thing happened, I was like, damn, what female he got on this?

And then Gary came in. I was like, dude, he's freaking killed. Oh he's a killer. Yeah, nobody's go card, you know what I mean. Nobody expects me and the lead singer, Rascal Flats to do nothing together. We've been friends for years and we always said if we did a song together, we're both Mama's boys. And uh, my mom sent me some stuff. I was in some trouble at one point and my mom sent me some stuff, and one of the songs on there was my wish and there were a couple other ones that were there, and I remember telling that story and and he ended up calling my mom. And now all together we both call each other's moms, and which is dangerous because last time we did it, we were with Kid Rock and I don't want to know. Just the minute you mentioned somebody's mom, Like every sentence after that, it's like, yeah, dude, I'll get on it tomorrow as soon as we leave your mom's house. Yeah, come on, kid, that of these nuts, you know jokes, So talents of that truck work. So, you know, we always said I did a song together, it'd be one of our moms could be proud of and could listen to without having to skip over the cuss words and that kind of thing. So I wrote this one. Man, it's like, hey, I think I got it. Yeah, so we got to a banger. Yeah, what did he put the law? He put the large mouths in the ponds and the white tail in the woods. Yeah, that's great. That was written at like four or five in the morning. We were doing a retreat for a Jelly Roll, a project Jelly Roll and I were doing together Lee Brice's studio, and dude, we pretty much called Who's Who in Nashville and said, hey, if you've got any ideas that you can't right bring them. You know, there are no rules. We just we want the nitty gritty, you know. And dude, they everybody showed up and drove. That's awesome. It's why at all times of the night. It was probably one of the funnest that's cool writing weeks of my life? You did week? Oh yeah, Bud And anyway, anytime you can get Jaelly Roll tied down for a week, you know, you take it. I was sick as a dog, bro uh, getting ivs every day. I had all kinds of stuff going on. It lasted about five months, but it was worth it. We got a bunch of good songs. This current radio single bill one of them nice.

Yeah, that's it's kill That song is killing.

You. Got any you got any you regret? Any tattoos on you you regret. I'm kind of the opposite on that end, because I got tattoos later in life that I wanted earlier and have the money or the time to get sure. A lot of them I watch not a fan of like I kind of weaponized Bible verses to make it you know to be badass like song one four four one, when got my hands is the Lord, my God, prepare my hands for battling, my fingers for warfare, which I thoughts changed, you know, in context, those that context my verse, my verse.

Yeah, exactly.

It's always gonna say what I wanted to say. The Bible's personal, and did I have. So my kids have Guardian Angels, both of them, and uh, the third one will have you know, another clock, But I have clocks for them. Mind me. You know my time when I was limited. Uh, you know, it's just like dude, I didn't live for longevity. I wasn't planning on being anybody's dad or anybody's husband. You know, we're trying to make up for some lost time. But so I got the clocks, and then they their names, and then Guardian Angels. But the Guardian Angels were wearing bandanas and carrying a cave. My wife hate side issues. Angels don't carry his thoughts, you know, and.

Angels do what they want to do.

Was gonna carry's modern warfare. They're not if there were swords anymore, no swords to a gunfight.

I't wait tiller than Halo's.

Yeah. The new the new Angel might be shooting the mining machine gun out riding the tank. Have a bear. I have a bear of fifty cow out there. You might be going along right, you might never see that. Angels burst up heaven sniper angels. Did we just come up with a brilliant man?

I've got, I've got, I've got a few tattoos. This is the best story I've got on this one. So yeah, this is that's it right there.

You can't tell.

But so me and Dan started this brand called The Brother's Hunt a while back, and our first logo, I just I just designed it on the computer was the Brother's Hunt and the E we the th H caught the E and the brothers and the hunt was coming down from the H.

And we get it. We get it. So we went me and joying with the Colorado and I always wanted to get something.

We were changing our logo, but I always wanted to get something that represented our brothership, you know, and the closeness of the of us. And we went out to Colorado and Jordan found this, uh, this guy that did the poke the poke tattoos and literally just sticking something on you, drilling with a hammer like this so we was in Colorado, you know, and uh Colorado in yeah, Colorado went a little bit uh huh. And so we were up in this room and yeah, and the guy, the guy put the he put it on my arm and I was laying there and he took it off. He's like, hows that look? I don't even look at it. I was like, man, looks great, dude, let's go. So he starts poking on me. So and that hurts that. That hurts right there. That's that over, just pinching at that stand right there. And he gets done and he's like, go check it out, man. I go to the bathroom. I roll in the bathroom and I'm like, yeah, man, I got me at touch and I held it up and I was.

Like, oh no, and I was like, that's the way it's supposed to be.

It's upside down. So I just thought, Jesus is right on, got.

Had and that's what that's.

I'm glad I got the line because if I got the brother's hunt, it would be upside down.

So if you was to flip that over, that's the way it's supposed to be. But thank the good Lord, you can't tell. But but yeah, I don't regret it, but I wish it was. I wish I could just Yeah, I wish i'd just leave it. Yeah, do you have your back? I do. Took a bunch of heat for it. I got a I was really tired of answering the question, you know, about where I stood on the Second Amendment. So I just tattooed across the entire tired in my back amendment. And then I have two nineteen eleven kimbers that I that I have at the house. I got king baby pandles once. They're the ones from the Bottoms Up video, so we had them dressed up. I captain they're tough. That was so funny. The woman that was on set there and that's I guess. The safety lady was like, we can't have real guns. I was like, I'm running these guns in that video. Ye Faith, you get like I'm running these guns. No, you can't. We can't do it. They can't be real. So I hired a gunsmith to come pull the fire and pins out of them. Yeah, and took them turning. I said, you know they're real. It was not a real gun. We used them for the videos. It's awesome. And I kept it, but I tattooed those on my back under amendment, so it's amendment too. And then it rights out at the bottom of what it is, and the explanation for it ended up being it's a tramp stamp. But you know, yeah, you know it's part of the bigger picture. You're married, it doesn't matter anymore. There you go. I mean, so yeah it uh my back that I've only got a couple of little places left back there. And I think for this new baby, you know, it's gonna have to have a clock and an angel and angel g yeah machine angel. Yeah.

We started the Gangster Angels, so tough next to it.

Great. I know I didn't get the memo to wear black. I should have.

I thought today I was like, what's on the way.

I know, whatever I'm wearing's gonna match. Everything's everything. Why where's your deer brain at where's where are you att in that? Because I know you? Now do I know you killed some big old iur deer. I know you. I know you chased them big deer man. Well, last few years, my dear has kind of been been shot, uh you know, and this year it's gonna happen again. It looks like this this baby, they slow it down on thing. And my oldest boy, he goes he loves hunting, like he'll go with me and do That's that's probably the funnest thing right now in my life.

Sure, man, Okay, I'm gonna cut you off because I gotta know because I got one coming.

That's good, dude, cut our artists.

I'm sorry, I just got to get this feels more important. What he's talking about taking his son, what you're talking about. I know what he's going to talk about when I ask him the question. So when you look back, I'm sure you had your non child hunting days where you were locked in bro like chasing big deer, doing the thing, the sign, the food plots, the whole all in right. Well, obviously I know now having three kids, it's like they pull the emergency brake on all that.

Dude, for sure.

So do you value I know, I know you going with your son is probably like it feels better to you. But do you when you look at those the two days that going with your son and the and the chasing big deer, Because it's kind of hard to really give it your awe on the chasing big deer thing when you're taking your kids, man, right, do you what's the value? And is it even comparable?

To be honest, and uh, there were a few times last year I went by myself and I felt like I was kind of screwing him over. You know, we were chasing this deer to get out of the target buck, and man, I ended up going I only had like three more days to get after him before uh the nickelback to or picked back up. So we were in the woods every day, man, and he got up early, and he's women to stand in the morning and at night and grinding. Man, I ain't up. You know. The wind was bad all three days, and we ended up pushing him on to the neighbor. And so I went to the northwest corner of our property trying to catch him coming off the bad cutting that corner onto the neighbor's ridge by myself. And Dude, I was just sitting there, like, you know, and I'd made my mind up. If I see this deer, I'm not gonna shoot him. You had already made your and it was terrible when I got down. Uh, I'm a deer, no, no, never heard a gunshot. And then the neighbor sent me a picture of him on the ground that was big G. And dude, we had tiktoks going back where I will do TikTok and I'll do videos that center the marriage, the posting, and we had tiktoks out to y ain't Barrett, where we going? We're going hunting? Who were going out? Big g? You know what I mean? That was our deer and the neighbor brought his brother and that was his brother's first deer. And he didn't even mount him. We just go and he was fifty inch northeast Georgia deer, which is hard to find. Yeah, it's hard to find. See. Yeah, man, I dude, if I can, if my son can be with me, you take that over. Absolutely, it is mine. Yet you know like that they're just too young. I'm not there yet. That being said, now there's uh, We've got a bunch of four year olds on our farm. There's one five year old baby two uh and the one's one eight. He's old man. That's when I'm trying to get them on this. Your dog, yeah, for his first And here's the thing. So up until this year, you know, i'd carry a gun, so a buddy of mine when we go to the beach in Florida. I'm not a real big fan of the beach. So I go about forty five minutes up the road from Dustin and there's a Precision Tactical Oh yeah place up there, and it's it's all veteran on They're awesome, dude, and I get stuff. Sarah coated there well. One of the guys there's really good at long distance stuff. And he also has kids the same age as mine. And I saw his daughter shooting and I was like, man, I said, I really want to get Barrett shooting this year, but I'm really nervous about pushing him towards something that you know, I don't want him get scope bitch, sure gets carried off the back. Yeah, he had a twenty he's got a twenty two. Little pistols shoots good with. He's got a twenty two, uh you know, single round bolt that he's got. But I put a reflex sad on that just so he didn't have to worry about focus, and he just put the dot on the target and hit it. Well. I was worried about putting the regular scope on and having him try to get too close and knocking it. And he had an idea, dude, So Jenius the pulsar makes a pull sar thermion that most of them are thermal scopes in there. I mean, I've spent four times as much money on thermals that I like a lot less. I mean, it's my favorite. But they have one that's a daytime digital in the night vision. So what's awesome. You can bluetooth your phone to it so I can sit in the stand with him. This is what wrong my buddy Rong did for his daughter, And so we built the same thing for Barrett. We built a six or five grendel, so don't knock your shoulder off. And then that that uh pulsar on top. I can keep my phone up and when he's looking, I can one make sure he's on the right here. Sure, make sure his holds right. If it's not, let's don't. Yeah, he's up when he gets it on the right spot, all right, go time. But man, that's awesome. And he went and shot, and dude finding the target hisself. He had his first shot at a hundred two hundred and three hundred yards and then started plinking. He was really having fun at three hundred because there was a car out there. So you know, then he goes, Daddy, yours you want? Of course, absolutely, you know what I mean on the moon, you should mean let's go. Yes, dude, I stepped up. The barl was hot and the can was hot. It was like I got it though, ain't no way I missed three hundred yard Yeah, whift Brome. I mean we didn't even see the trail. We don't know where we missed it, you know, And my son looked confused, like visibly confused. He's like, Dad, that was a miss Yeah. Yeah, that's what happens sometimes parallel. Yeah, he doesn't burn the barrel up. But no, it was super cool. So I'm excited about that. But that being said, so what I bought farm in Alabama. The first thing we did was went to Auburn in Troy Universities and saw what kind of data they had on deer, you know, in their outdoor problem. So I did the same thing at home. I finally found I've been looking for fifteen years for a farm, finally found it. So I went to u G A you know, look through to find out who to contact was to get some data on you know, EHD numbers, you know that kind of another history tool content. Absolutely so. Uh. I see a picture of a dude that I went to high school with. He's got a doctor and wildlife management. His name's J. T. Johnson. Wow, And I called him and do we reconnected? Hadn't spoken since high school? That's awesome? And he I said, Man, I got a farm over here. If you mineus, come take a look at it, kind of see what what you think? He said, yea, I may't stopped by it one day this week. Do he stop by the next day? And I think, I don't think here's been a date that he had really loving place that I did. But his family farm is man, we hunted it when we were kids, and this Saturday, so as soon as the our album released show is over, I'm hauling ass back to Georgia. There there's one hundred and sixty inch six to seven year old giant on his farm and he wanted me to get on it. He wants to film it and shoot it. So we're going after him. We had him sixty days daylight and sixty days, and he disappeared for five and he just came back there from the whole day gosh, that's all.

So I feel like there's something going on because because our deer kind of the same thing, were about to leave to go on a hunt, and I've been kind of nervous about it because our deer kind of disappeared.

But they're all showing back up. They all show back up a couple of days ago.

And I don't know if it's this weather system that's coming through right now or something, but but it feels like big deer.

Old deer are back on their feet and roaming a little bit. Well. We noticed that both forms we had our bachelor groups, and our bachelor groups kind of broke intos and we still had some that came off and de bucks running together. What we saw we had like at our forum, I had a four year old Drop and that five year old that's on there, he dropped, you know, he still had velvet before and Drop. He disappeared for a few days, came back hard horn was pushing everybody around. The only other thing we've seen is we had one daylighted for several days ago last year and uh and this happened to JT two years before. There was a big buck that ran with this one. When this one was a little younger the one I'm after, and he disappeared for about two weeks and he came back was tongue out, so I think he got a x D. He went laid somewhere and got over it came back in cover. So it was like, you know, who knows where they go? Yeah, you know it's crazy, dude on three hundred and sixty five acres, It's one of things we see new deer all the time. But dude, I'm telling you, I had a high fence that we built for veterans in kids, you know, in Alabama, four running thirty three acres. And when I tell you that we had cameras on every feeder and still saw deer that we didn't see real camera on that form. Absolutely and that's wow. These things are. I mean they can hide. Man. We had one pop out. I love chocolate horn deer. Sam and I had a dude come in. We had a vet come in and his son was with him, and that we were aft for a specific buck and you know he's out in the field. We're just waiting on him. Get a little closer, and dude out of the bottom walks about a two hundred and fifty something minch just chocolate horned giant I've never seen on camera, never seen in the stand, never ever. The dude, well, these dude walking with his head crooked. Hey, I don't know what that is. If you won't kill it, you know, go feed him. Yeah. So there was that one, and then Michael Lee went when me same year and dude, a big frame deer came out, but he was old. You know, we didn't really pay much attention because you're looking at two fifty you know, tow hundred fifty inch deer. Yeah, one sixty, you know, it's really framing comes out and man, it's easy to look over him. But she walked in and out and frame and me and Michael we both looked at each other and we're like, why did we pass that? Why did we pass that deer? Yeah, so he came back on his way back to the bed and Michael Lee shot him. There's no tag. It was uh wild deer really in Michae Lee's defence. This was uh, this was right before we fenced it. So we had two vdis and stuff on the closed fence side. Michael Lee's not gonna hunt no fence farm. Ye, We're on the open side, but you could hunt the high fence on this side faced outside. We had plots planting around the outside of the property line. Ye, wild deer is nuts for the south buddy in Alabama.

I'm telling you what y'all aging. How old you through the deer was?

He had to be six, I mean five ship Yeah, big old gut is back with salt down, shoulders high. All the rest of the chin and shoulders was all one thing. You.

Yeah, my guy knows.

Yeah, I know, I know that old knows like he was. He was one of those where you didn't have to guess, like you just thought, oh that's old deer. Yeah. Man, that seems to be more and more.

Uh what I'm after?

Man, I mean there was a time where I we hunted score, but man, I just like an old man. Now, do you feel like he's done something? Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, I guess as you progress as a hunter, there's we talk about the stages you go through all the time and and uh, I mean we have friends that ask us all the time, like, man, how long has it been since you've killed it here in Tennessee? And it may be we may go three or four years. No easy, you know, because we're trying to get to that age class and there's there may be a four and a half stud walk across, but man, we don't. We just don't really get into the score anymore.

I want that old you know, I want that Cat and Mouse man with the with the dude, you know. I want to five year jump bro where they just turned into freaking trash. Yeah, yeah, I want to sometimes is it six again, you know, maybe Saturday and then they start down.

Sure, I want to go toe to toe with the bat of some bitching the woods. And usually I get beat, you know, be a lunch, but sometimes you don't. And that's you know, that that feeling is what I chase him.

I think this is in tune. I tried real hard Brownley. We do this thing called the One that got Away, and it could.

Be a I'm sure that blessed part, that thing you had to say.

But it's the time of show for the one that got away. Feeling himself today, the one that got away? All right, Sorry, I let that dog over here. I ain't gonna get off the porch with the big ones.

We did the bulldog. They just said that for sure, that's of Georgia.

We do.

We do a segment called the one that Got Away, and we say it could be a fish, it could be a deer, it could be a song, it could be you know whatever.

When when the one that got away comes up to you, what do you what do you think about? Man? My one that got away came back and it was the best thing ever happened to me. And and that was my wife. Wow, you know, I mean, come on, we had some history of her. I met her. I was working some community shepherds hours off at a church. What is every story start with either big in jail or service or in like some dark places in the Chatter chapter, you know, before the age of twenty six. Man, I don't think I got to listen to anything but jelly roll. I feel that, Yeah, yeah, you were, but yeah, So I had my cousin, Well he's a Christian counselor and therapist, incredible guy. But he was helping out with the youth group there. They were in between youth pastors and he was helping so Man, he would help me up and sign out for some hours and it helped me a lot. Her family went to that church, and I remember the day she walked in and seeing her for the first time and just being blown away, and dude, I I ain't you know it benefited me to lie about this if it wasn't true. But if I'm lying, I'm dying. Man. It was one of those things, right. I didn't know if it was like I saw her like I'm gonna marry her, that's the one. But I knew it was something. Wow, And very soon after that, I knew I wanted to marry you. And we had everything, dude, our daughter Brailen. We came up with her name back then, no wa then Wow. We got a lot of history, man. But you know I was involved in some things I shouldn't have been with, some people that I shouldn't have been around. And she was always a church girl, man, and I was also raised in church. I want you guys, you know, I don't ever want to be that guy that says I came up rough is that and didn't It didn't come up rough, man. I came up playing ball. You know that I did that I shouldn't have was just self destructive and by choice. You for being honest about that, you know, I mean it was it wasn't my situation. You know, my my parents got divorced, but I had zero excuse us to do the things I did, and and man, that was I was kind of living against my nature for for many, many years, and part of that was was getting to the point where her where. Man, my drinking was really bad. I remember I wouldn't drink when I got to spend time with her, but I dropped her off, and man, by the time I dropped her off, I was shaking like relief. And before I got to the end of her driveway, I had a quarter bottle of Jaeger Drop And by the time I got to Athens, I was well into it. And then i'd get to the house and you know, set up shop. But you know, we got to a point where we had a conversation one night, I was involved as things and there was a specific situation going down where I was kind of looking over my shoulder a little bit and I didn't ever want to, you know, have something happen where she was with me, and something happened to her, and I had brought that up, and she said, yeah, you know, she had made mention to the fact I guess she was looking around in my truck and she found my whole bag. In that bag had a pistol and two leaders of liquor. You know, most time it's vodka and then either jag or bourbon or you know, guilm but always you know, had two. Yeah, and they were gone every twenty four hours. A joke, and she said, you know, she said that it just makes me nervous to talk about forever with somebody that has that in the console and is doing the things that some people say you're doing. And I went a lot to her, like I caught to a lot of it, and a lot of it. I just stay quiet on you. But her mom and daddy knew. Hell, her uncle was one of the ones I was running with. They didn't want to see each other, you know, so we we split. We we didn't see each other for seven years, didn't to speak to each other for seven years. And I got a call on one night from the same my cousin got. It was the youth passion. This man, Uh there's somebody you know back in the day that's just going through things and and uh, you know said she heard you were sober and mine saying hello, you know, if you've had the time this week, she'll be around the house all week, and uh did we We'd both gone our separate way. She had moved on to this dude. It was kind of supposed to be like a like a youth pastor type like you know in church all the time, just solid and ended up being a real peace Uh. And everybody in my town, dude kept it secret because they knew. I mean, nobody said her name around me. They knew if I heard what was going on, bad for him. But you know, and I kind of thought in the back of my mind that's what they were calling me for, was to handle that.

City something.

Like that. It was just going at all. It wasn't that at all. And I remember sitting in the driveway going, man, no matter what she looks like at this chapter of my life, dude, really what I wanted this was after I was sober, what I really wanted I to do that I was hanging around. I wanted to be one percenter biker and and I wanted to sing music kind of on the side at this point, you know, I was really feeling biker culture, man, And uh, no one planning on being anybody's dad, anybody's husband. And I just remember sitting in Doug's driveway going single for life, Single for life, no matter what, no matter what she looks like, no matter what she's going through, it don't get sucked in. We're just you know. And dude, she walked around the corner and all that just like man, was it was. It was done. Dude. I remember like she walked up and she she she really was going through some a really tough time in her life. And dude, I remember seeing her and everyone no handshake or didn't we really didn't say anything. She just kind of, you know, I just OpEd my rs and she kind of just fell in and I kissed her on the forehead. And after seven years of not spec I got you that real stuff. And dude, we've been inseparable set come on, yeah, it'll be next June will be ten years Marie. Wow, good for you. It blows my mind, brother, Dave, I'm telling you that that wasn't on the Beano card.

Well there's somebody, there's somebody upstairs orchestrating the way beyond our imagination.

Man. Well you guys have kids. I mean, dude, I don't know how somebody could ever have a child and watched that belief.

I agree it closed. You know, I'll be honest about this reading. And I went through sometimes where we were raised Christian. Our dad's Baptist preacher, so we were in church every I mean all the time, and and honestly, it just kind of beat us up for a what. We just got so used to it. It just you know, and you just get used to it, and.

We kind of started blocking out whatever.

Plus it was our dad and we hear him scream all the time, so it was like, you know, just going through the motions kind of thing. And man, we got to a place where we would even have a conversation of Man, is this is this really really?

Do we believe? Why don't we believe? Is this all made up?

What about all these other religions that kind of look like that. I mean, we were doing all the things right. Yeah, my daughter, my daughter was born and she had the doctor came in.

I back up.

So when the doctor came in and said, hey, we've been in labor for like nineteen hours. And the doctor came in and said, hey, this baby is telling something we hadn't been listening. We're going to start listening right now. And so we're like, Wow, what's going on? Well, her Biza's blood our heartbeat was going down every time my wife would start to push. Well, it turns out she had a pretzeln in her cord and it was wrapped around her neck.

So every time my.

Wife would push, it would cut it would cut the oxygen off to So she didn't really explain that, but I could tell something was up. Like when the doctor came in heart so were and that was in the middle of me and read kind of just being waffully about all that we believed and said and read I've been straight my whole life.

One kind of.

Yeah, right, I'm in I'm about to walk into the operating room for this emergency se section. Hands to the lord like in the because I called read while we're standing out, I was hey. I was like, hey, man, everything I love, everything I love is about to be fillayed on this table in here, like we hit your knees right now and send and send it up. This is I ain't I am not playing dude.

He's like, I got you.

I was driving, I was driving to the hospital and pulled over on the side of the road and got out the truck and it was just like, man, you know, because it was it was.

That serious and and and they had the procedure. Thank thankful for the people at Williamson over there, and uh, she was everybody's fine, Mom's fine, baby's fine, everybody's fine. But I the next day I had to go check on the dogs and the cats and everything, the chickens at the time, everything at the house. And I called Read and I was like, hey, bro, I'm done, Like I'm done even having the conversation that that what that that this isn't real, that God's love isn't real, and that my salvation, your salvation and.

What we believe isn't real.

I don't even want it to come into like I'm making the decision every single day of my life that that's what I believe and that's what I'm gonna live.

And it's and and and when I have and you're right, man, I was like welcome back and like having a Well.

I'll be honest, dude, I'll be okay if you don't want to take ownership, and I will take ownership and say, you know, man, I was mid their late twenties trying to figure out, you know, what it was that I actually believed. And man, some of those cornerstone moments like that when you see, when you see your life come out on that table and hold your hand. You know, it changes changes everything, absolutely changes everything.

My wife got me back in church. I feel like I've been going by a year now. You know. God got out of it too, for a bunch of different reasons. It's like, you know, you show up the church and everybody's more turned about you walking in and what the preacher said, and dude, I'm not. I walked in one Sunday morning. It was to a church that Amer and her mama went to. So to be honest with you, isaare for wrong raising. I was there to be seen by them, and I rode my motorcycle and parked it under them the front door, and you know, the thing walked them on my cut And the minute I sat down to preach, went from preaching about something completely different. He's like, Lord, Lord, doesn't put it on my heart. I need to need to talk about something. And he went into you know, society and how music it was was a big part and what was leading people astraight. We got people in this room and he looked dead at me and then I'm not. You know, this was in a more troubled time of life. But I stood up. I shot him two birds and I walked out the double doors, you know, and I go back for literally dud, just just I'm out and out and everybody I knew. Mom that was like you're just you're lost. It was that was absolutely just excuse me. I was like, there was no extrange.

Kimmy Bend would throw the pastor two birds in double flips.

You know the park a lot of this day. I'm in here trying to look good, but my business in the street. I remember the dude. It was Oh, I was hot and bothered, but but she she got me going, and really it was on the premise of man. It was important for me that my kids see me go to church. And you know, the main part of our job right is, you know, I watched the thing. There's a platform called the Worst Post Society, and there's a thing and they're called the Order of Man and the guys like dude, we have three jobs as a husband and the followers to protect, provide, and preside and on the preside of the preside of things. It's not just about you know, reigning over the kingdom that is your home or the castle is your home, right. It's like to be the core of your family's faith, like you know, And dude, if I tried to take credit for that, I would be telling a major lie. My my wife is at in our house like without a doubt, she is the center and the core of our faith. And thank god she has been. I'm telling you, man, my wife is is. She is a soldier. She's a soldier of faith. She's she's just a soldier in general. But she really pushed for for years and finally, you know, it is important to me that they see their dad go. But man, almost immediately, you know, when I finally got over the cynical part. I mean like not wanting to be in there. And you know, as a musician, the first thing I'm looking at the music, bro.

It still messes me up. Yeah, it still messes me up. If I see some dude up there shredding, I'm like, man, come on, you.

Know what got me over it what I started hanging out with him, and you know, they were looking for any years and you know, try to help with that. They did a thing at the football stadium one day and I went out there and that was my way of really trying to kind of you know what I mean. So hanging out with them, you know, and having a conversation with him and the guitar player was one and just the way they were speak it was like, you know, man, I don't you know, kind of stay shy, of stay in the back. I don't really want anybody to see me. And you know this, that and the other. And in the back of my mind, like I appreciated that. It was the first time I came to terms with the fact that, hey, dude, like to an extent, they are entertaining and they have to have to you know what I'm saying. If everybody stands up there in mud, I don't really want to see that either. Now there's a balance obviously, but you know what, man, God gave them that talent, sure, you know, and it have fun in faith, right, Like if we're walking by faith, right, that's supposed to be our our lifestyle, right, So if we're not having fun with that, what's the point, you know what I mean? So everything changed in the moment. I was like, you know what, like, lose the damn drum screen, correct these summitches up, run them from smoking. Let's want and I bring some firow from the truck and want along some fire in this bit. You know, let's get it on.

Get some people saved.

It really has life changing and I tell you, the coolest thing I've seen in years. We got in the truck one Sunday and my son mad to be careful. Dude, I couldn't tell you the last time I cried until I had kids right down the road. And my son said, I think I want to be babitized, and you know me and my wife, you know, and he had said it a couple of times before. I remember the first time he said, I missed it, miss everything. But you know, she had told me about it on the phone. That was the first time i'd heard him say it. And I was like, all right, well buddy, you know, let's let's talk to Pastor Nick and see what's up. Man. I'm really proud of you for wanting that, you know, wanting Jesus come live in your heart. And sorry I didn't say that. He said, I want to be babitized. I won't. I want Jesus to live in my heart, and dude, it was. It was incredible. So the next Sunday I reached out to the pastor. I said, hey, man, my little man's talking about so I used to get baptized, but I want to make sure it's not just you know, he's absolutely bringing my office. After the sermon, we went to his office and dude, he asked Barytt some serious questions. And my son knew what he was talking about, you know what I mean, And he was like, he told me an amber. At the end of he said, y'all and dude, I was tearing up the whole time. And and he said, uh, guys, he said, he knows what he's talking about. He understands it. And I think this boy wants to be baptized. Dude, Baptism Sunday. They usually do a pretty good job of trying to keep us saved and where we can enjoy church. But when we got in the line and and you know, they let him go first, and man, they're just seeing him hopping that there's a little metal tough. Yes. I don't ever post things like that was online, but dude, it was so powerful when he got in the water and and and he started talking and man, just my my heart just kind of cramped up and I just remember putting my head mans like this as I'm in front of God and everybody, and this is you know, I still live in Georgia where I grew up, and you know, I know a bunch of people in there, and I'm like, God, I'm in here like a big almighty But dude, I don't know how to explain it. It fixed every for a few moments. Man, it fixed everything in me that was broken. It was just it was a whole I don't I don't know how to explain it. Just the one moment in my life and I knew I was you know, I felt like I'd done something right. And then I came to terms with it. Damn, I realized I didn't do a whole lot. My wife kind of led that charge, and you know, it also kind of showed me that, hey man, I'm I'm I'm busy and I'm providing and I'm damn sure protecting. True, you know, but in my presided right, when my wife loved that charge, I need to step my game up, you know. I mean I cussed like a sailor. Dude. To this day, I hang with a rough crowd. I will to the day I died as my people. Yeah, Hey, God knows your heart. Bro. You know what I'm saying, I do believe that.

But you know what, that's that's what he was hanging out with. That's who Jesus was saying that with.

We had this conversation with Jelly Roll. He was like, hell on, his first miracle was turning water into wine. Jesus was a party and get the party, okay.

Us, Oh man, that's great. Thanks for sharing that. That's that's great, that's great.

All right. I could do this forever.

Let's let's do uh, let's do favorite song, greatest slash, favorite tune for you man for me.

So there's a lot of old songs that I think, obviously for you know, reasons that they've they've earned their strips for the years and they're trying true. But dude, I really uh, I feel like, well, there's an honorable mention. We talked about it earlier. The song that Josh Phillips wrote by hisself one hundred percent Cody Johnson cut Dirt Cheat.

Very Long Time just went number one last week.

Beautiful absolute was so freaking proud of him, and dude, you don't get away with songs like that anymore, dude, I mean, hats off to Kojo too for for not really taking a chance on that one, but being willing to go with a song like that. Yeah. Absolutely, he's a real one man. He changed changed Josh's life with it, and I'm sure to changed his career Rember better. He's a solid dude, by the way. I didn't know what to think of at first. Cody Johnson.

Oh, yeah, because you don't know.

We never know, you never know. We went over to his but we parked next to each other by the hotel one night and ended up going going over there to hanging And dude, I'm a fan of that guy, I really do. He's one of the new guys that I can I can really with. But that being said, I feel like the greatest country song our generation. And I'm a fan of this dude too. But I feel like it's in color by Jamie Johnson.

Nobody said that one.

Yeah, that's so, that's a new one, all right.

Is it too early to get a verse course in or no?

I mean that's up to y'all. I mean we run it and y'all cut it back. I mean, I don't know if i'd channel my hand or Jamie Johnson this early zied Grahampa on his picture here it's all black and white. It ain't really hears that you there, shit, yeah, I was eleven. There's a singer man some times for two back in thirty five. It's meeting Uncle Joel, just trying to survive a cotton farm, the Great Depression. It looks like we was scared and like a couple of kids just trying to save the chure. Shoot a scene it could. I got up my whole body be shoes worth a thousands. You can't see those shades of great keep covered. Shoot a scene it and right now, come on, what a killer? Let's go. What a song? When you think about what we're trying to what we try to call country music, right, if you want to tell a story like that's that's trademark cultures way back definitely tells the story. We want to paint a picture. There is no better picture. I remember hearing that song and being like I did too. You know that's the song. I feel like every songwriter in this town was like, man.

Shot, why did I right?

Man opinion?

She's worth a thousand words, But you can't see what those great shade's gray keep cover.

Man should have seen it. In color. That's killer, bro, that's a good you know. I don't know either. Looking he's a killer dude. I mean to this day, he's got some story to this day.

Vocally, dame.

They ain't nobody who messed with Jamie Johnson. He's a dog too. I love James. And what you see is what you get. I've heard he's got a shout.

That's right, James.

That's okay, man, that's a good one that I do feel like. Man, if I think about all this song the country Solis, our generation, that one just stands in the league of its own. Yeah, for sure, dude, you're cools hell man, you really are. Now you are.

I wasn't gonna say I didn't say.

That, man.

Thanks for hanging out with us today, and god's your b G. Thanks for coming on man, Thank y'all for making this happen. Back there be on the camera. Hey, we love y'all, appreciate you'll hanging out.

Let me just get a real quick thing, man, I I'm just being I'm being honest with you. I know I know your walk, and I know your decision to be sober and and to be a dad and to be a husband and I've seen it, I've watched it, and uh man, thank you, thank you for for being honest about it and even just coming in here and and you know him, hang with that. I mean, we're not serious cats, and you're not either. But I'm gonna tell you something, man, you have an inspiring story and you can. You're an inspirational human. You're gonna change They've already changed lives. You're gonna continue to change lives. And thank you for being open about that.

Absolutely.

I mean that seriously, y'all too.

Man. I appreciate y'all having me. This was this was a lot of fun. Cool man. We do it again. We love y'all. Thanks man, God's couchry. We'll check it next time. Peace. Name

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God's Country

“God’s Country” with brothers Dan and Reid Isbell is a rollicking weekly podcast that sits at the in 
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