Josh Ross at Windy City Smokeout

Audacy Country

Josh Ross joins Scotty Kay after his performance at Windy City Smokeout in Chicago.

Transcript

00:00Josh Ross is here. Josh, you filled Smokeout early today, man.

00:06Very cool.

00:06It was very, very cool.

00:07Very cool. I was heard, yeah, it was the busiest 2 o'clock, which was just lucky.

00:12It wasn't lucky. Why did you say that?

00:14I said, I'm very lucky. I'm just very grateful. I love Chicago.

00:17It's the thing of, like, we did the Headline Tour last year and did Joe's on Weed,

00:21and just kind of seeing things continue to grow is really, really cool.

00:24Yeah, it's cool. Well, it's cool to see how some of the success translate,

00:27because, and I'll ask your opinion on this, on how that feels,

00:30but, I mean, you have all these awards. You have the CCMAs.

00:33What, did you have five of them you took home this last time?

00:35Yeah, I think something that's crazy.

00:36Yeah, no, it's just, you know, the awards are awesome,

00:39and for me that's like recognition for all the people that have put so much work in,

00:43you know, whether it be label management, that kind of stuff.

00:46But now it's, you know, my goal has always been I just want to travel the world

00:50and play music and to, you know, kind of be able to go to random spots

00:53and see the crowds growing and knowing songs is very rewarding.

00:56Yeah, I mean, you'll just have to have, you know,

00:58shelves built into whatever bus you're traveling the world in for all your awards,

01:01but it's fine.

01:02Well, yeah, no, the awards are cool.

01:03I'm very grateful. I'm just, you know, the fans, that's awesome.

01:06But it's cool because you've had so much success,

01:08and you did your headlining tour.

01:09Well, first, you were on tour with people, you know, Jelly Roll, all of them,

01:13and then you go on your headlining tour,

01:16but then you come back to America,

01:17and you do your tours with support for Bailey and all those guys.

01:21Is it weird to feel like in one place you went way up here,

01:25and then you've got to come,

01:26and do you feel like you have to start over again,

01:29or is that kind of like, okay, just another challenge?

01:32Yeah, it's always an interesting, like, process.

01:34Because, you know, yeah, like you said, I can go headline,

01:37you know, recently a show in Canada for 30,000 people.

01:40Right.

01:40And then, you know, come down here and sell 2,500 tickets, or try to, you know.

01:44Which is good here, by the way.

01:462,500 tickets is pretty good.

01:47But I think what really, you know, for me matters is it's really cool to see where it can go,

01:53and I've been so blessed that, you know, very early on it started off actually faster in Nashville,

01:59and then Canada caught up very quick, and Canada got, you know, obviously very large,

02:02and I'm very grateful to Canada, and I'm very proud to be, you know, from there.

02:06But my goal, again, has always been be an international artist,

02:09and to watch, you know, it really growing here in the U.S.,

02:11and where I place I call home now, I'm just, you know, it's awesome.

02:14It's cool. It's interesting to see, too, those big artists come to where you're from and go,

02:19oh, we need this guy with us for this, too.

02:22And it gives you cool exposure then to, I'm assuming, the American artists, and that helps.

02:25Yeah, I mean, I've been very lucky.

02:26We did Nickelback Tour in 2023 and Bailey Zimmerman last year.

02:31You know, just a lot of random dates and festivals like this that, you know,

02:35I feel like I leave and I get to, you know, meet a lot of new fans, which is really great.

02:38Yeah, so there was Jelly, there was Parker, right, Bailey, Dylan Scott.

02:42But backstage, how different are those tours?

02:45Oh, my gosh.

02:47Luke Bryan, too.

02:48I always feel like I've got to put Luke Bryan in there because he's one of my favorites.

02:51But, no, everybody's just got a different vibe.

02:52I mean, you know, it's just like meeting anybody.

02:55Everybody's got a different personality.

02:56You know, Bailey's really outgoing and fun.

02:58Luke Bryan, I feel like I really learn of what a long career means.

03:01And for me, that's the one thing I really look for is I don't want to be an artist

03:04that, you know, is here today with a couple songs and then, you know, is gone.

03:08And watching Luke get on stage and move around and you see why he's had such a long career.

03:13And I think, you know, that's a big thing for me.

03:15And then Jelly's, you know, the example of, you know, going through so much

03:19and turning that into something good.

03:21Well, I love that you brought that up, too, because Luke is a guy that he knows how to be an entertainer, right?

03:26And that seems like something you're doing out there, too, when you're doing your medleys.

03:30You understand that the best entertainers make the audience a star.

03:33Yeah.

03:33And you kind of give them that back to them.

03:35And so the 2000s medley is incredible.

03:39Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

03:40Yeah, I think it's, you know, sure, I'm the guy that's there, but I'm here to make people feel something.

03:45And that's, you know, my job.

03:47And music has done that for me.

03:49So the fact I get to do that for other people is really cool.

03:51If you're going to pick three songs from the 2000s that you are going to have this, like, just car sing-along party to.

03:59Oh, my gosh.

04:00Those early 2000s.

04:01Probably some of that medley today is probably, like, Lips of an Angel.

04:03Okay.

04:04Probably some, I guess Steve Earle will be phased out by the 2000s.

04:08I was a huge Steve Earle fan.

04:10And then some, probably, like, classic rock, too.

04:12I'm a huge rock fan, so whether it be, like, the Nickelback and, yeah, just, I'm influenced by so much music.

04:18Yeah, we just had, like, a 2000 dance party.

04:20I think we had, like, Soul Decision in there.

04:22Oh, my gosh.

04:23It's a PB Mac.

04:24I haven't even thought of that stuff.

04:25It's crazy, too.

04:26You get so caught up, like, country music, country music, and you, like, you forget about all these bands that, like, you know, my parents, you know, introduced me to really young, and, yeah, it's really cool.

04:34Well, and the genres are so blurred right now.

04:35People listen to a little bit of everything, and it's about the emotion of those moments, because when you, they're not hearing that 2000s song going, oh, that's my 2000s pop song.

04:43They're going, this is where I was in that moment.

04:44I mean, I just put out a song with Akon, which is, like, super random.

04:47I was going to say, so how did the Akon thing, because I know he's doing, like, country stuff.

04:51Did he come to you?

04:52Because you kind of said, I love this song.

04:54I don't want to say too much about, like, how it's all happened, but, like, I feel like I grew up, my brother and sister are older than me.

04:59I listened to Akon way before I even understood the lyrics and what they probably meant.

05:03We shouldn't have been singing those lyrics.

05:04I should have not been, yeah, singing them at that age.

05:07And I just wanted to rewrite one of his songs, and Right Now is a song that I thought doing the Drunk Right Now thing would be fun.

05:13I had wrote the entire song myself.

05:14I was going to put it on my own.

05:16We sent it to his team.

05:17He sent it back saying he wanted to be on it.

05:18Next thing you know, he wrote a verse.

05:20Very grateful.

05:21He's now doing a whole country project, which is really cool.

05:23But talk about full circle moments.

05:25Now I have a song with Akon.

05:26So very, very cool.

05:27Yeah, add that to the 2000s car dancing song.

05:29There we go.

05:30And you also have a song that, one, I've been a fan of for a long time, but which could be a number one song.

05:37Are we talking a number one song for you here?

05:39My first one.

05:40Let's go.

05:40The single again with Josh Ross.

05:42Yeah, let's go.

05:42A number one song.

05:43What does that mean to you to get that here?

05:45Oh, I won't even, I can't, I won't get into it too much because I'll probably get emotional about it.

05:50It's been a marathon.

05:51And again, it's been all the people that, you know, have worked so hard.

05:54And I wouldn't want it any other way.

05:56I think we might set the record for the longest, you know, that it's taken.

05:59But it's been the coolest to watch that crowd grow, watch the song grow.

06:03And I'm very grateful for Country Radio and all the people that have been involved.

06:06So I'll tell you, everyone behind you believes in you and I keep hearing it and your fans are out there.

06:12And so congratulations.

06:13Thank you very much.

06:14And you crushed it.

06:14Windy City Smokeout.

06:15Josh Ross.

06:16Thank you guys.

06:16We'll see you.

06:16With the number one song.

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