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Exclusive Interview with Rodney Atkins
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Jul 1, 2025
Rodney Atkins speaks to Everything Nash about releasing "Watching You 2.0" with his son Elijah, new music and more
View Video Transcript
0:00
hey guys it's Gail with Everything Nash
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here with one of my favorite people
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Rodney Atkins we haven't talked in a
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long time so it's good to see you again
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it has It's been too long it's great to
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see you great and we have things to talk
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about um watching you okay go back to
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the beginning of that song because it
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started when Elijah was I think four
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right yes ma'am he was four he was four
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and um I went to pick him so it really
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started the night before I had done my
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first album on Curb and it didn't sell
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many records at all maybe six copies and
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I didn't know if I was going to get to
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go back into studio after that and I
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decided I was going to figure out how to
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record at home so I got on eBay and I
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bought like a a old a refurbished laptop
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or something a cheap microphone i set it
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up in the pantry at at the house and
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started trying to record and while I'm
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trying to figure that stuff out and I'd
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got this gadget for Pro Tools i was just
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learning all of it well Eli was my
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shadow he was in the room just coloring
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in the floor behind me while daddy's
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trying to figure this stuff out and um
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didn't think he was paying attention to
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me till the next day I went to pick him
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up from school and the first song I was
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working on is what he heard me singing
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and I walked in his teacher Miss Sarah
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said "I got to talk to you about your
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boy." I said "Oh no what you done?" She
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said "No it was it was cute it was
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funny." We got a routine where I turn
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the lights on and off every day and then
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all the kids line up and that's their
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signal uh when they see the lights flash
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that we go to lunch once they're quiet
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we started to walk to the cafeteria and
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then I heard him singing a song i said
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"A song?" She said "Yeah it was
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something like if you're going through
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hell keep on going." And I said "Oh man
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i'm sorry that's just a tune I'm working
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on." And she said "Well it was kind of
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funny it was really funny." And he got
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embarrassed
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and so we talked about it i said "No you
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you got to be quiet the teacher says be
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quiet." I mean he said "But why can't I
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sing the song?" I said "You can sing the
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song." So we got this whole thing of how
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come I could sing it and he couldn't
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and talked about it and that evening I
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got him to bed
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and I was just thinking my four-year-old
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said a four-letter word i wonder if
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there's a song in that and I had a
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writing appointment with two two friends
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Steve Dean and Brian White talked about
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it and that song kind of just fell out
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it was just a story and a day of our
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life you know um aren't those the best
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songs though it it just to come from a
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real place and just tell a story and the
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song's a weird song the way it's written
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if you look at the structure of it and
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how it rhymes and it's just a different
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thing and I never intended any human on
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earth to hear it but him so it was crazy
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that it connected with folks and uh I
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remember the head of ANR at the time
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even said
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look
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I don't really get it i don't know if
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people really want to hear you sing
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about your four-year-old saying ain't a
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four-letter word it's a cute song though
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don't get me wrong but you know I don't
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know but Mike Curb says he just he wants
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to get it out he wants to put it out
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before somebody else hears this idea
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steals it and then they do it so we're
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going to put it out there we'll see what
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happens and that was how the song became
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a single really okay so then fast
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forward to a few months ago you
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performed that song with Elijah i'm
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guessing you had no idea what was going
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to happen no not at all i kept
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encouraging him you can do it you can do
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it i had a show at the Ryman and the
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word rhyming makes me nervous it just
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it's like it just it's like few places
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make me nerv I get nervous every show
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but really nervous the the rhyming
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playing the Aubrey um singing in church
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always makes me nervous um and I said
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you can do it just come out i'm going to
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tell people about the duet but I'm not
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going to introduce you and you just come
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out and start singing it and he came out
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at the Ryman and he kind of froze and he
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looked at me and I started mouthing the
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words and then he started singing that
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was his first time ever in front of a
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crowd i couldn't believe it at the Ryman
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at the Ryman and he he killed it and
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then we uh Nissan Stadium CMA Fest last
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night he came out and uh we made it the
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last song at the end of our set and sang
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it in front of all those people it was
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surreal it was So does this make him
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want to be a musician
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so a couple years ago
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um all through him growing up he's been
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a good song guy like uh Take a Back Road
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was a tune that I love but I wasn't
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really getting that response from the
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label on that song well as I was going
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to work working on songs coming home
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getting him and as we're driving to
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baseball practice and stuff I would play
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him what I songs I was working on and he
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kept asking for take a back road they
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actually said "Play that Skannard
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Daddy." He thought it was a Lane
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Skannard song and he would pick songs
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like that he was just a good song guy so
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he would send me songs sometimes and say
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"You should sing this Dad." So he sent
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me a song a year and a half ago i know
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I'm making a long story longer and uh I
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said "This is cool." I said "You're
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crazy if you think I can sing it." I
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stay in my lane whoever this is it's a
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great singer it's really cool i I don't
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recognize it though who is this he said
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"That's me Dad." And I was just blown
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away blown away and he had started
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writing songs and um he started learning
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to record stuff and uh now he's
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finishing school uh audio engineer in
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school and um he's just very smart he's
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kind of taking his time he's not country
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and I told him you don't have to be
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country just be you just do what you do
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and it's really interesting the stuff
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he's coming off with it's it's it's
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really cool i don't even know what
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format you would call it um but yeah
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he's he's kind of started making music
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and I totally you know with social media
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now you can kind of put stuff out there
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and try it out and see what happens yeah
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it's a much different ball game than
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when I started 20 years ago same for you
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I'm sure oh Lord 30 years ago so what
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does this do for you with new music
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moving forward because it's been a few
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years I think since you've released an
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album so what is coming from you now u
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just finished the whole new album
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watching YouTube is going to go on this
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record the album is called True South
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and so True South is out there now on
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DSPs um
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and it's just a fun record there's a
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couple of ballads um but it's mostly
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just like I love we songs we're in Us
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Together inclusive Things not Us Against
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You and this album is just a whole lot
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of that it's different forms of these
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are my people i think that singing songs
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together um there's some anthems in
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there just a lot of fun songs man and
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it's been a blast playing these songs
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live and so the whole album will be out
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this fall i'm not even sure what the
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date is okay and uh it's just it's just
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a great record i love this record it's
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the most fun record I think I've ever
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made so I have to let you go soon
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because I know you have a lot of people
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to talk to today but I'm really curious
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what did this do for you like I would
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imagine I'm not an artist but you get a
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little frustrated when you don't see big
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surges because of the Tik Tok and the
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Facebook what did this do for you Rodney
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Atkins
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the like the response from So like
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I've dabbled with Tik Tok i dabbled with
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social media um and last year as new
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music was coming I was like we got to we
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got to up this game somehow tik Tok
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seemed like the most mysterious thing
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ever to
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to get in there and let it kind of work
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for you the way it and I I didn't
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understand it my wife pays a lot of
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attention she studies a lot of stuff and
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um
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I'd even worked with some people to do
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social media stuff and to help me figure
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it out and nothing ever worked
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and she pretty much said "All you got to
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do is be you just be you." She said
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"Stand there." She said "Sing this
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song." And I think it was Farmer's
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Daughter put it up there
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and the response blew me up she said
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"You got to read the comments look at
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it." So I started looking at that and
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the comments that it truly changed my
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perspective on how I see myself as an
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artist because people talked about how
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important these songs we released some
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acoustic versions of songs um how much
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these songs meant to them how Farmer's
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Daughter might not have been number one
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radio but it was number one in the back
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of my grandpa's car stuff like that but
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I mean sincere uplifting
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the engagement was unbelievable and it
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changes your
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changes everything really on how you
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view these songs mean to people and
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going out and you could start as the
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social media numbers kept coming up and
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every post almost is going viral in some
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way and it's just the people it's the
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connecting with the people and the live
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shows you can feel that whole thing
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happening it's it lifts you up it it's
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it fires you up it's cool because
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technically where I am I shouldn't be
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really going up in social media but but
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it is and it's so amazing to witness it
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to be a to I'm sit back being a part of
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it and it's fun i have a blast doing Tik
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Tok stuff i'll do silly stuff but it's
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it's so much fun well I'm really about
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the people i'm really happy for you i'm
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I'm so happy to talk to you and can we
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not go this long without talking again
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please really that's it always good to
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see you congrats and best of luck to you
10:04
my friend
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