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Exclusive Interview with Baylee Littrell
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Jun 26, 2025
We talk to Baylee Littrell about his new song, "Hey Jesus," his time on American Idol, album plans and more.
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0:01
hey guys it's Gail with Everything Nash
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here with the fantabulous Bailey Literal
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i'm so excited we have never talked
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before I don't think anyway I'm glad we
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get to talk about the things we get to
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talk about
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and I'm excited i'm really excited okay
0:17
the first thing we have to talk about we
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have a lot to talk about uh Hey Jesus
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what a great song give me the story
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behind it
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so Hey Jesus I wrote about three years
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ago um going through tough times with my
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faith in life um kind of doubting a lot
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you know I experienced a lot of loss
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that year um in my life from people um
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to relationships to everything in
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between and it really made me question
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um my faith for the first time in my
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life i feel like um a lot of people get
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hit with that you know you're raised in
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faith if you are um and at certain point
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it's your decision as an adult to to
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keep going and and put that trust in for
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yourself to keep going in faith and not
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having someone else there to guide you
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and that was kind of like that first
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point in my life where I was really
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questioning what I was going to do i
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didn't feel like
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um
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I didn't feel guided you know in my
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faith so it was really hard to figure it
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out um and I ended up writing this song
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and it just again reminded me of
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putting my trust in Jesus it was like
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this moment where I thought "Wow all the
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mistakes all the imperfections all the
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moments of uh doubt all the moments of
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pain and anger and all this stuff goes
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into this song." And afterwards I felt
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so rejuvenated it helped my faith it
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helped my journey um it made me again
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feel so much confliction in my life and
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change a lot of things that I was doing
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or going through um but that's just a
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part of it and it was a big slap in the
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face in the best way possible like
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writing that song was was me coming back
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to God and finding him and realizing he
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had never left i was the one that left
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so it was it was one of the coolest
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things um and I never I never knew I was
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going to have the chance to release this
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you know I that wasn't really in the
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cards um then I started playing it at
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shows just locally around town and then
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all of a sudden it was uh it just came
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about and it was it was time so I mean
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thank goodness for that second round of
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American Idol because otherwise I never
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know if it would have you know really
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come out so it's it's a crazy day okay
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so let's talk about American Idol which
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I want to talk about that specifically
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but you performed this song on American
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Idol talk about that decision
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that decision was also kind of
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unexpected um I got to that second round
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and previously on the you know the first
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like initial episode I had sang um an
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original song and so I was going to keep
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that train going as long as I could for
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you know exposure and promoting just my
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songwriting ability stuff like that and
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um
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my mom came to me and she said "Why
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don't you you know sing Hey Jesus?" And
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I was like
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I was afraid to ruffle feathers i you
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know was going through all this stuff
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and she's like "Now's the time to ruffle
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some feathers if you want to." She's
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like "This is one of those opportunities
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where like this is a song that people
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need to hear." You know we weren't sure
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i wasn't sure I was even getting through
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that next round so I had this thing
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where I was like "Well if I'm going out
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I'm going to go out with a bang." Like I
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want people to hear this song and I want
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it to be spread and so then
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um it just kind of happened that way
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like I was terrified i haven't been
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terrified in a long time um up on a
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stage and I was absolutely petrified and
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I got up there and I sang that song and
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I was calm and it was the most high
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pressure situation everybody judging you
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and
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in that moment I was at peace and it was
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probably one of the most spectacular
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feelings i knew then I was like even if
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this doesn't make the episode doesn't
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air I knew I was at that point at peace
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with it and I just had a good moment and
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uh I looked around the room and
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everybody was we're all just kind of
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worshiping together and it was this
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moment where I was like "Wow." you know
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in a room full of a lot of pride this
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past week a lot of egos a lot of stress
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like all of it just was out of the air
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for a minute and it was we all
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remembered who we belong to and that's
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like that's the one cool thing that I
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want people to keep remembering so it's
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it's uh it was so impactful and I was at
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that point and I was like "All right
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this is coming out we got to release
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this." And so we've been just dying to
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release this for the last two months and
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then now finally here's the time so
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again I'm like I'm blown away um I love
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that and I love that American Idol was
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so welcoming of Christian faith this
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season maybe more than other seasons i
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didn't watch it as much other seasons
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but it just felt like it was such a
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great platform for artists like yourself
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i agree um I was shocked too because you
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know I had a lot of fellow contestants
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too that they got up there and sing
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worship songs and it was such a shocker
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because you know you go into it um and
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you're in Hollywood you're in California
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it's like the last place you would think
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you would find light and and Christian
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music like in a moment like that and
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then we kind of like we kind of brought
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it and so that's what I loved they said
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you know a lot of people even like
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behind the scenes our producers and um
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even our crew they say "Guys this season
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is different." And they just said "This
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is something we haven't seen in a long
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time." Um and it was like a relief to a
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lot of people um and they loved seeing
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just a moment of faith being shown um
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and the voices that were used too like
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Brianna um they were just powerful and
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and it sent a message and it was I mean
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everybody just had this moment of of
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faith and I felt like we all had
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strength in that and that was the best
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part of the show by far can you take me
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to I'm always fascinated by the audition
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process and what an artist feels like i
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mean I've never auditioned for anything
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like American Idol take me to that
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moment when you went out there and you
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auditioned and you're putting yourself
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out there to the world
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sorry this alarm um
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the audition process is crazy it's from
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what we were told during Hollywood week
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over 120,000 people auditioned
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and it's an audition process that just
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starts with like a a Zoom interview or
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an audition over the phone um or it's
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inerson auditions
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just to get on the first episode of the
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show to audition again so it's I mean
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it's a lot and it's not like kind of
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shown that way so it was like you know
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they told us when we got to the round of
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40 it was like "We want you guys to know
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how you know amazing it is to get here."
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And everyone rolled their eyes and they
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were like "And we knew you would do
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that." And Lionel's like "120,000
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of you tried out for this season." He's
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like "So if you're bummed about you know
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if we let you go today or next week or
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whenever," he's like "You should not be
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upset." And that like lifted everyone's
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spirits in the room cuz everyone was
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getting burned out around this time
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because everyone was so tired um and
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then when you keep going it just puts it
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into perspective even more you're like
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"Wow." Um but the audition process is is
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kind of scary you get on a Zoom and you
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have a billion producers on the phone
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and everyone's just kind of like you
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know you've got that big window of
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people and you sing a song and then
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they're like "All right sing us another
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song." and then you sing another song
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and then they're like they either say
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yes or no and so they were like okay
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we'll see you in Nashville and they just
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assign you the place that you go to so
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it was like New York Nashville or um
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LA and so it was funny cuz I would meet
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some people that were sent to New York
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and they were as close to Nashville as I
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was or you know the same with LA and we
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would just all come together and we're
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like where did you audition you know and
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it was uh it was it was so cool um that
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was one of my favorite things too was
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like the random assignments getting
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there and then you kind of had like your
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own class and it was like the Nashville
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class the New York class and the LA
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class and really we were just
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transplants from everywhere but it was
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where they sent us and uh so when we
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came in like we all just kind of like
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meshed off of that which was really cool
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and I love about a show like American
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Idol people know your last name but that
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last name isn't going to do you anything
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yeah it it hurt me a lot it it
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definitely helped from the production
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side because I really didn't want it to
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be monopolized and it still like really
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was um but on the opposite side of
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things I mean it was so tough to find
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people to talk to because you get there
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and everyone rolls their eyes and
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they're like "Oh it's you." And I'm like
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"Y I'm here just like you guys trying to
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make it and there's so many comments and
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it's "Why doesn't your dad get you a
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record deal?" Or "Why don't you have a
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record deal?" Or "Why don't you?" And
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I'm like why do you think like it's it
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works opposite of how people think so
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I'm like you know a lot of my responses
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to people are like I'm here just like
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you trying to get the same opportunity
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because it's equally as hard for me and
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so it's like it was tough um some doors
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obviously open but they close a lot
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faster so it's um it's tough it's been
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really tough so that's another reason
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that this was a desperation to to keep
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going and I was finding myself just kind
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of stuck in a rut um and stagnant it was
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it's been since you know like
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COVID year pretty much since I've had
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you know remote commercial success so
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it's been a it's been a big fight to get
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back now with with this with Hey Jesus
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are you putting your flag in as a
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Christian artist or what what's your
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future in music my friend
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um I wouldn't officially say I'm putting
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like
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that stamp down i would say that this is
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the first step but there's probably
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another worship song or two that I will
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will release which I'm excited about um
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but at the same time I'm still just you
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know writing
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um singer songwriter stuff a little bit
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of indie stuff um a lot of acoustic
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music with kind of like some folk
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elements to it but I kind of still want
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to show people um again the imperfect
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side so I want to I want to be able to
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come in and and release songs that I I
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love about Jesus but not just strictly
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do Christian music because to tell you
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the truth those songs writing those come
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few and far between and when they do
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they're special and it's just kind of
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like
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I mean I don't write a whole lot of
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Christian songs and when that comes you
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know I don't take it lightly so it's
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just kind of like okay I think you want
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me to release this so I'm going to do
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that and um we've got one more that I
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wrote right before the election um that
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I'm thinking about releasing too just
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with all the division in the world i was
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like all right at least for our country
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we need to hear this so I've got another
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one that we'll probably cut and record
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pretty soon but you know Hey Jesus was
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first and it's the exciting one i just I
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told my uh my mom today on the phone I
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called her and we were talking about
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just the release and I just said you
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know it's so crazy that out of all this
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time doing music or even the American
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Idol stuff for Broadway when I was
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younger like the biggest accomplishment
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today was waking up knowing that I had a
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Christian song out and my dad has a
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Christian album out and it was just it
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was one of the coolest things so it was
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just I don't know it's like legacy right
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there to me like that's the real legacy
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so I love it it's not the legacy people
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would expect but I love it um last
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question i have to let you go where are
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we with an album coming out
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so we're about halfway through that
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process right now and I'm trying to cut
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some more songs get some more like full
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production stuff because I have a lot of
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intimate acoustic songs that um have a
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lot of the same production elements as
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Hey Jesus it's very raw and just
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unfiltered um and like our take of Hey
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Jesus was two takes and it was just that
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and we kind of ran with it so it's like
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a lot of raw stuff that I'm excited for
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people to hear um but now the process is
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getting those full production songs in
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um this summer to try to get that
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stretch for the fall so I'm excited so
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I'm still shooting for this year to have
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a record out at least by the end of it
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but there'll definitely be more songs
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this year okay well when you're ready to
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release more we'll talk again i love
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that good to see you my friend thank you
13:55
Bailey of course
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