Chris Young joins Katie Neal at our new studios at the Hard Rock in the heart of Nashville!
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Chris Young back to keep us company you've had a very eventful like we're
00:04almost halfway through 2025 but very eventful for you already with this new
00:08record deal it's it's so wild to think that we're almost halfway through the
00:12year well I thought that the end of this year was gonna be you know my my deal
00:21with Sony was at an end and I got to be a free agent you know I sort of got to
00:27I'm a huge sports nut so I've told everybody I was like I got to play free
00:31agent for the first time and I totally ruined it by going and meeting with
00:35people that I immediately fell in love with and I signed and had to cancel all
00:39the other interviews no I didn't do that I didn't do the lap I just I met with
00:45Black River and fell in love with everybody that's there a lot of them I
00:49know some of them from Sony previously that I've worked with over the years
00:54and it was just the right fit and I immediately was like this is where I'm
01:01supposed to land yeah and I said that walking out of the meeting we took a
01:05three-hour meeting and I don't do three-hour meetings no I don't I just saw your
01:10eyes roll in the back of your head you're like no meeting like is there alcohol
01:13being served oh no no there was not there was a lot of songs played and a lot of
01:18business discussed but it it was very very cool and honestly they care and
01:28everybody that I've worked with over the years has has cared but you know when
01:35it's time for you to make a move or make a decision where you change a lot of
01:39things that you've done in the past sometimes it's difficult and then
01:44sometimes you like trip and fall into a great situation like I'm in we ended up
01:48setting a record for my first week with stations that added the song and started
01:54playing the song and I've been around for quite a while you know I signed my
01:59record deal when I was 20 if you are on a label that long and then you can have a
02:07bunch of number ones and then break a record on week one how many people are
02:12playing your new song it's it's a really good sign and I that's a testament to
02:16Black River I will absolutely put that on on their shoulders and Bill Mackey
02:21everybody over there is just absolutely incredible they're a phenomenal team we
02:25love everybody over there and it's funny I was talking to Blake Shelton about this
02:29recently who had a record yeah will change and he just talked about like how
02:32good it feels and how like re-energized he feels about his music and his art like
02:38going into everything like he said it kind of like lit a new fire under him do you
02:41feel like that um I don't know if it's a new fire I think it's same fire uh maybe
02:48we just poured some gasoline on it uh it's definitely exciting and um you know the
02:58new song uh till the last one dies is just an absolutely beautiful love song I
03:03personally I don't want to be like you know reaching I don't want to be like over
03:07ambitious but like 99% of the people that are getting married this year should use
03:11it as their first dance song at their wedding I don't want to say 100% because
03:15you don't want to be greedy yeah but I I just love this love song it's such a good
03:20song I was really excited to see you cut it so Jordan Walker is a good friend of
03:24mine yeah wife Annie who inspired the song somebody said you were cutting it I was so
03:28excited talk about what you thought the first time you heard the song and why you
03:30fell in love with it honestly I I heard it and I got really mad because um all three
03:36of the writers on it uh have have written songs with me including Jordan who has another one
03:42on the record you're welcome Jordan butthole um he uh he he didn't even play with the song
03:51I I heard this song from someone else because I asked them uh Rusty Gaston who's over Sony
03:58publishing not Sony the record label they're separate but uh Rusty played me the song it
04:05was just like I think this is a hit and I listened to it and I was like y'all couldn't wait for
04:09me to write this title like come on man but it is an absolutely beautiful song great melody
04:14and uh yeah I fell in love with the love song and just was like this is this is going to be
04:22the first single and we were going back and forth at one point um between this song and like a big
04:29party fun song that is still going to be a single at some point no doubt uh
04:34but my manager who's actually sitting in the room behind us right now uh she walked in she goes you
04:44know how long it's been since you released just like a straight up wedding love song I was trying
04:50to think the same thing because you've had some real bangers the last few years it's been a lot
04:54of tempo and I started looking I was like no it ain't been that long there's no way like I a lot of
04:59people go you're playing have your sets love songs and I started looking and I was like never mind I'm
05:06wrong it has been a long time what was the last one uh maybe who I am with you yeah which I mean
05:14wow that's crazy it's a it's a long time ago so very exciting for me and and a fun departure from
05:21what I guess most people would expect you to put out like a really big up tempo rocking song as like
05:28your first single and especially when you change labels and I I really believe that part of what I
05:37love so much about being there is they trusted me to put out a love song that's a ballad first
05:45yeah and it's great it's such a good song I'm so excited for you you mentioned the album and I saw
05:50that you posted about this on Instagram like you're wrapping up the back half like where are you how
05:55close to that it's almost done oh wow yeah um we were in the studio actually uh friday thursday and
06:05friday so uh i mean you know a couple days ago and um got a whole bunch of stuff tracked ready to go
06:15i'm singing vocals today actually before i sat down with you i was just booking the vocal sessions with
06:21my co-producer andy sheridan who's awesome and um yeah just really really excited uh you know i totally
06:32screwed the beginning of my year we were talking about how it's almost the middle of the year
06:36and it seems just unreal to say that but what do you mean you screwed the beginning of the year
06:42well i was supposed to be off i was like i'm gonna take like december and november and january and just
06:49like relax i didn't do that i never do that i'm very add and uh when this fell in my lap they were like
06:57well we should get to work on this right away so we've been basically in the studio me and andy
07:02since the end of last year wow getting this stuff done so that we can put new music out for everybody
07:10so what can you go ahead no go ahead i was gonna say what can you say about this next collection of
07:15songs like as far as like does is there a cohesive message is there where you are in your life right
07:21now is it a collection of everything well i think um something that another artist told me one time i
07:29think is is very um encapsulating of of like every single album that you will ever make if you make
07:38one if you get to make a hundred i don't know who that is willie nelson yeah but it's a snapshot of
07:47where you are in time as an artist what you feel what resonates with you what you've written what you find
07:55um what are those things for you i i don't know i think this is really just about uh having a whole lot
08:06of freedom and the ability to if i want to do a song where i've just got steel guitar all over it
08:17that's totally fine if i want to do something where i'm standing in the studio with two of my good
08:23friends which we did three days ago uh from the time we were recording this uh me stomping
08:30with the mic set up next to our feet to get part of a track that we want like a stomp clap thing
08:39and all of us just like laughing telling jokes and goofing off that's totally okay yeah you get to
08:48just make art it's never perfect it's always abandoned um but you work as hard on it as you
08:55possibly can that's exciting i feel like you're like in such a good place with this album and i
09:00was thinking about how it'll be you mentioned you know if you make a hundred albums this will be your
09:0310th studio album right so technically the christmas album is probably or something right
09:10yeah i think if you use the christmas album i think that then it makes it nine and this will be 10 yeah
09:15okay yeah i i think that's the that's where everybody's got the math on that is different
09:19for everyone but if you go on the if you go on the internet it depending on where you look at it it
09:24says i've got 12 number ones or 16 i i've got 14 but again exactly it's just one of those things
09:31right well it also never gets old by the way it also never gets old having songs that people love
09:38and that i get to hear just randomly places playing that's the that's the most exciting part
09:45is when you'll be on the lake and there's like a boat going by you and they're playing something
09:50that you're on and you just kind of sit there and like geek out for a second so this being 10th
09:57studio album and also like talking about how you signed your record deal when you were 20 like what
10:01you think you at 20 thinks about you getting ready to put out your 10th album like i can't say the
10:08word but uh full of it that's the polite way to put it uh i i don't think i would have believed that
10:16i would have been able to accomplish half the things that i've been lucky enough to
10:20to do and that's you know 100 due to everybody that's chosen to listen to my music and and chosen to
10:27love it and chosen to go to shows so um pretty pretty grateful for sure you mentioned 14 number
10:35ones i was like two decades in this industry like you're still in the middle of like very successful
10:39career and you talk about all the things you've accomplished like what's the next thing for you
10:42that you're like milestone wise just one more step forward i think for me that's the biggest thing
10:51um i believe you can sort of will things into existence but you can't ever pick your timing
11:00that's for sure so um sometimes when you try to force something to exist like that in the next six
11:07months i'm gonna do blank maybe it happens a year and a half from then you never know so uh just one
11:16foot in front of the other and continuing to work hard in the studio with friends and i'll uh i'll
11:21take what i can get for sure you're celebrating a big birthday in june i am you're 40th do you have
11:27any big plans like that's usually everybody you know sets something up so i i actually told a lot
11:35of people i was like i just sort of want to go hang with my friends uh so we're i'm going to go
11:41somewhere for my birthday this year but it's not going to be like a huge deal it's just going to be
11:47something fun and get some hang time with my friends um i've actually got like a group of my
11:54friends there's about 10 of us and we nicknamed ourselves ohana because ohana means family it's
12:01from lilo and stitch yes uh like it's a whole thing um and all of us are very different we all live
12:09like all over the country i'm the godfather to a buddy of mine's kid who lives in california and
12:17he's a part of this group and i was talking to him last night on the phone um about playing video
12:23games like all of us have like completely different things but we've all sort of come
12:28together and that's my really close group of friends i think chosen family is just as important
12:33as the family yeah so i'm probably going to take as many of them as i can and just go somewhere
12:38and do some fun that's going to be awesome well happy early birthday thank you um tons of shows
12:43on the calendar this summer feels fairs festivals amphitheaters all the stuff the week after my
12:48birthday exactly yeah like you talk about you want some time off you definitely don't have any i don't
12:52have any no um what does day of show look like for you like everybody's got like some people are
12:57like religious with their routines some people it's something different every day do you have stuff
13:00you do with a band before you go on stage like oh man uh i would say for me day of show is like
13:09obviously sound check like maybe get out and see something local uh try and find a gym or in the
13:19unfortunate case where there's not one there are kettlebells under the bus so we decide if we want to
13:25do that or not day of um and then hopefully you know barring anything like crazy happening uh get
13:33out there and and give the best show that we can not too long ago when i say like anything crazy
13:39happening i was uh on a festival with thomas red and i got to my very last song and he was closing the
13:49festival right after me and me and him had to go like run back and jump on my bus because this huge
13:55windstorm came through and it was blowing stuff across the deck and i was like well i almost got
13:59my whole show in right uh and he had to wait until it was done so he i don't think he got done until
14:05like one in the morning you know what like a rain delay like that or a wind delay something always
14:11kind of sucks but some of my favorite memories are like a garth brooks concert at yankee stadium that
14:15didn't end until 3 a.m because of the rain okay well now you just hang on now you just unlocked like
14:20one of my worst memories which was i i was doing a show with garth here in town and i had talked with
14:29him i was opening for obviously him and i was like i'd i'd normally play like as far as a cover i play
14:37one of your songs i played paul of mama and he goes what if i just come out and sing it with you
14:42and i was like what i was like uh okay and um so i had played three songs or four songs and i was
14:53getting ready to play that and he was going to run out on stage and join me and i just see behind the
14:59crowd uh on the video wall where it's like a very serious like security message and it rained so hard
15:08that it like flooded the stadium and they had to we went backstage and we're trying to stay
15:14so that the show could still go on and didn't happen i'm like great now i'm never going to get
15:19to do that with garth and he invited me back for the next like the reschedule and so i got to i got
15:28to do it with him but yeah that was just like the most deflating moment of all time i'm sure it's
15:34like oh yeah country music legend i get to sing one of his songs with him in front of a stadium full of
15:41people and then weather everyone's like please exit immediately yeah what about embarrassing things
15:46like what's the most embarrassing or nerve-wracking thing that's happened on stage uh i i ripped my
15:51pants on stage one time it seems like somebody should come out with a line of jeans for male
15:55country artists because the number of you that have ripped your pants on stage like i don't think
15:59anybody's look luckily it was the back of the pants um but i couldn't tell how bad it was yeah
16:09and so i was like well i'm not going to turn around yeah i was like i don't even know what color
16:14underwear i have on right now like i and so i sort of like walked sideways over to my bass player who
16:21was on stage right and i was like hey i think i split my pants and we're like smiling talking to
16:28each other like we're having a good time just trying to fake my way through it and he looks down
16:34and just starts laughing hysterically so i'm like okay it's bad i don't know how bad but just judging
16:42by his reaction i think it's very bad so i never turned around for the entire show stop i i walked
16:48back and i mean this is a long time ago but uh it was like a really big festival for me at the time
16:56like i'd never played one of these and so i was really excited to be there and wanted it to be a
17:02good show and i'm like now i look awkward because every time i go to put my guitar down i didn't have a
17:07guitar tech so i had him on stands behind me i'm yeah i just backed up and the crowd's probably
17:13looking at me like what is wrong with this guy i'm sure no one noticed but definitely like we'll
17:18take your head like out of the moment for sure into the show i told them that i'd ripped my pants
17:24and then i got back to the bus i took the pants off
17:27so mad at my bass player at the time because it was a rip maybe like the size of the apple logo on
17:36the back of it so it wasn't even that yeah i i was like dude you were acting like dropped it low and
17:41maybe nobody even noticed i you i could have yeah but that was next time like tell me when to stop like
17:48that that was embarrassing um i i have to say knock on wood um which
17:56i don't even know where's it yeah that the floor is oh lord but yeah that's fake wood we're gonna
18:03pretend knock on wood yep uh i haven't fallen off stage i haven't pulled the luke bryan yet
18:08i think i think he holds the record for numbers of times that he is times goes to luke most epic
18:14goes to earnest have you seen that fall at fenway oh my god i first of all i i was terrified for earn
18:22is he all right um if you want to go back in the file a little bit a really fantastic just
18:31trip and fall was uh paisley oh where did he uh he was running across his set and he was going from
18:40one side of the stage to the other and he just you know if you trip and then you realize you're
18:46going to fall but you're trying not to fall and so it looks like someone's falling in slow motion
18:50forever uh he did that fell down and just absolutely like he stood up he was like i'm okay
18:57but he goes yeah i bruised myself pretty good oh god that's awful did you see thomas rett fell and
19:02like sprained his ankle real bad yeah that's that's the thing is like the worst thing that could happen
19:06is that you fall and get hurt i'm like i don't know about you but if i fall down i'm probably
19:11not getting back if you ever come see me at a show if i'm walking down like the thrust like the
19:17the end of the stage towards like a festival crowd or anything if you notice that i'm like trying to
19:25lean over and like grab things and sign them for fans and then i stop it's because i think i might fall
19:31because it's a little too far so it's like is a cowboy hat worth me just taking a dive off of
19:40the side of the stage but too funny well i'm glad that hasn't fingers crossed stay on two feet keep
19:47your pants together thank you so much for coming to see us i love this new song so excited for more
19:53new music i love that we end the interview with stay on two feet don't split your pants beautiful love
20:01song exactly thanks so much for coming to see us thank you