Tracy Lawrence Admits His Favorite Songs Of His & Shares George Jones Stories

C we're talking about you before you came in obviously as a person I really like you but then we're fans of forever what what what is your best song what's your what's the such a vague question what's your best song you know there's a lot of ways to look at that I'd say personally for me I see it now is one of my favorite songs to sing but Tai Marches On is the best Written song that I have but paint me in Birmingham might have been the most impacting song that I had all those are wrong it's aliis in case you're wondering the answer it's Alibi um no all those are great songs but and I were talking because we were talking about you coming in and we were playing some clips of stuff and when that hook and Alibi hits oh what a good record that was it just had such a great L to it too just the movement of it was very special you know a lot of people don't realize that Tracy bird cut that on his debut record and it got bumped from the album he had been singing that song at the club uh he was like it playing at Cutters for years and uh they had been playing that song in the club for a long time and so his fans were mad at me because they thought I stole his song the people that knew him from back home in Bowmont so when that song came out but they didn't hook it I mean we St just got a great record on that thing did you ever hear his version of it like the studio version I never heard it but but he's actually got on stage and sang it with me a few times oh that's cool yeah it's cool back in the day how did fans get mad at you if there wasn't social media to yell oh they they just uh you know they're very protective of their artists that they attached to especially people that had been following him uh when he was before he got to Nashville and he cut that first record that fans that were that went went with him way back but how would you know cuz they couldn't like send you a comment on Instagram they okay like the Paul back then I did meet and greets every night and people would say that to you oh yeah yeah I can't believe you stole his song that's funny yeah um okay let's do Time Marches On then you say best Written song I think that song is like a work of art if you really look at the message of that song it's it's talking about multiple generations of a family to paint that picture and really get all of that imagery across in three and a half minutes Bobby bradock wrote that by itself I mean it's a masterful piece of work still kind of holds up you know how sometimes you watch a TV show and it doesn't hold up or or there'll be one from like the late 90s you're like man this would still be good today that song still kind of holds up and makes you feel the way you felt even back then as well without a doubt um where does that go on your set Last Time Marches on uh almost right at the end right before Birmingham they're my last two numbers man if your voice is tired you got to do that key change a Birmingham you know it's weird though I can I can have problems with other songs that are in lower Keys I never have a problem with Birmingham you're going out doing the headline stuff now you just finished some Riley green shows right how was that awesome Riley's great and and I didn't realize how massive his career is he's drawing huge crowds right now he's killing it he's killing it how were his fans with you were they super were they awesome they were great absolutely I don't have the ABS he does but you know your headline tours Tracy lawrence.com if you guys want to get tickets tonight you're in Louisville um what did you start the show with uh there's a song uh called made in America that I wrote a few years ago that I'm kind of kicking things off with I like to kind of set the tone for you know just what I feel about this country and and just kind of get everybody excited about what the night holds I don't do a whole lot of patriotic stuff but I like to start my show with it out here in it is the new EP that's out now and so you have six songs on this you know when you make new music and you've had so many massive songs you're kind of competing with yourself and I think about that when I'm going into cut stuff I look for things I can plug into the show that are a little bit different that don't stay on top of things I already have because the hardest thing about uh you know when you're not really work in radio like what we used to do back in the 90s when you're just using social media to to prop a song up is is feeling how well it impacts some things do impact still uh so I'm moving things through my set list all the time so I try to been put them in spots where they don't kind of step on anything else that I have but I do think about all that stuff when I cut a new record when you make a set list do you think about I don't need to put too slow songs Back toback because then the crowd will fall asleep it depends on what those songs are some songs can you can put anything around them and they'll hold up anytime but I don't like to do too many new songs back toback I like to scatter them through so I can just a lot of times I won't even tell the crowd they're a new song I just kind of play them and let them pass and then move on to something else but I don't like to leave them laying around I would not I would not go in and do three songs off a new project that nobody knows I wouldn't do all those back yeah good for you for caring about the the fans because I've been to shows with major acts and when they they play like three or four new ones and listen I understand as a Creator we want to do the new stuff we've done as well without a doubt however people have paid good money to come and hear the songs they love as well and I I've told this St I went to a concert once one of my favorite bands they never played a hit they played their entire new record and I was like I feel jipped yeah and I and I look at that from the fans perspective too I don't want to be that artist uh and I'm blessed that I always had creative control over the things that I cut so I don't feel like I have to go back and say God I wish I hadn't have cut that song no real stories about the record label making you cut songs the only song that that uh and I had to negotiate for it I didn't really love Texas tornado oh I know it's crazy now but but I didn't really love it uh but I negotiated a deal with Rick Blackburn at the time I said I'll cut Texas tornado but I wanted to start producing my own stuff I said if if uh if this works out well so it let it opened the door for me to do Renegades Rebels and Rogues which opened the door on the next project for me to do co-production stuff on my record which kind of got me in the studio more hey Mr Savvy Mr Shark Tank over here making deals got leverage when you can baby yeah I know you're right uh your hometown do you consider Foreman Arkansas your hometown I do uh tell everybody what Foreman's like if they were to drive into Foreman well living in Arkansas you know there's not a lot there Foreman when I grew up there it was there was 1,00 people on the census we used to play for minut in sports did you really something from Mountain Pine we had 700 people and so equal size very small towns but I I know Foreman well so what was you drive in is there a you don't have a Walmart do you oh no we have we we do have a Dollar General now we do have a Dollar General too but we don't even have a we don't have even have a red light we have a four-way stop we have the same no red light and a four-way stop we're the same nothing there's nothing there what was Foreman like for you as a kid you know uh it was great it was great growing up in a small town uh we were the Forman alligators so our mascot was the gator so we had this little cafe called the gator in and you would when you went downtown the weekends everybody meet at the gator in and say where are we going to gather up tonight so we had three gravel pits we had the Ricefield we had the Catholic Cemetery so we'd go to these places and build a fire and just kind of hang out and do our thing so we always picked a different place every every weekend where everybody go hang out but there was really nothing else to do bad enough we we all started drinking very early I mean well there's nothing else to do that's part of the culture it is and people that come from big cities that I know now that always lived around a big city they don't understand going to a field no it's because that's all they're was there's nothing else to do going to a field and we didn't have enough money to ride around all night I mean that was gas that was gas money I mean I might get $5 a weekend of course $5 lasted a lot longer back then too what kind of jobs you have back then uh I worked pretty much all through high school at a construction company um and so when we didn't have jobs going on I'd mow the yards of the owner mow the owner's yard or take up keep up stuff at the shop but we did everything I mean remodel houses work you know commercial projects and different things build houses and stuff so I worked there for like four years all the way through could you build a house right now I don't think I could I can I can do little projects but I don't you know there's a lot about that stuff that I don't really want to do what's your specialty as far as uh non-m music specialty my non- music specialty I like doing wood work uh I've done a little welding I've done a little bit of electrical work what kind of welding do you do you like TIG welding or did you do like MIG welding stuff just wire welding and stuff I I burn myself a lot yeah but I haven't done it in so long you really got to step on top of that stuff to run through beads I mean that's that's it'd be it I'd have to practice to get my skill set back it's been a long time you fish much uh I do I actually fishing just a few weeks ago I just got back off a snapper trip my face is a little burnt right now yeah looks good got a little color I got a little color on my face yeah but my nose was PE my nose is peeling how about a tan on your body what do you got you got like a I got a dad tan I try to keep these shirts on most of the time these days the long sleeve so it doesn't do that absolutely yeah I don't want to get burnt my face got a little bit too much when you put this record out this this EP that came out and there are six songs like how many songs do you go through and select of the six like do you have 12 13 or do you just find the best six and go on and cut them my my system is different now than what it used to be I used to spend months and months I would go through thousands of songs looking for stuff and then write a lot and try to I had a call process where I would be making mixtapes and and Co things down and see what I burned out on and I would remove it this time I mean I I found really good songs early on but but I have such a great well of writers and I know a lot of the younger writers too I cut one Ernest songs I got to the point that I was I i' found my first song is uh I could use one that was one of the first demos I mean I think it literally was the first thing that I played that I got in I'm like this is going to be easy it was great and then then I kind of hit a dull spot and so I I called Bobby penson and I called Earnest and I called people that I knew and said send me the best song that you got that you think will be for me and that was basically what I did so that that project came out in June about a month or so ago have you and you've played some of these do you once you go out and playing for the first time does it kind of reset you on which songs oh wow I think people like this one the best because you can actually play them in front of people yeah but it's so hard you know sometimes a really good deep lyric that you really have to listen to a few times it it's hard to gauge what people feel about it when they just hear it in passing for the first time sometimes songs you need to sit with them for a little bit a good party song that you can get the crowd roaring those are all great but sometimes they don't impact the same uh so it's really hard for me to gauge uh but I what I we I think we were dropping a single every six weeks through this process so I would plug the new one in into the slot in my sex because I only got 45 minutes with Raleigh so I didn't have a lot of time to play around so I did a couple of medallies of of songs in my set and then I had one spot that I would plug the new one in as we were going through the release process of everything that we're doing and then I I really don't know how to gauge that with the crowd we just kind of have to take feedback that we get from socials and kind of feel what people like when did you feel like you were good at singing was it in church and getting the feedback from but again I would singing church I was terrible so I was also getting the positive feedback but I knew I couldn't be a singer yeah but you a lot of church playing and singing right uh early early on yeah I I didn't really like uh church music that much it it didn't land in the right key for me there were things about church music that the literal key like the singing key it was often times it was a little painful so I would just do it in a lower register or something but it was never something i' have cared about now when I was in kindergarten I remember this in my little kindergarten class I remember for the holidays they had the teacher had done four or five boards and and she broke the class up into little groups where there four five and each one and we were we had the parents come in for parents day and we were singing holiday songs and all this well they put me on every board in kindergarten Aller and and so I knew I I could I could hear pitch and I could sing in tune when I was very young but about 12 or 13 I really started getting into Merl Haggard and George Strait was just coming out so that was really when I started connecting with it on a true level where I really started saying I think I might want to do this for a living this might be what I want out of life could your parents sing or they play instruments no I didn't grow up in that kind of family I mean uh really there was not a lot lot of music in in her house daddy never even listen to the radio in the car I mean it just it it was just something that was inside of me how does a guy from for and Arkansas ever think he can make it as a national recording artist I have no idea because everybody thought I was absolutely insane and I didn't know I mean nobody nobody gets out of Foreman Arkansas I mean especially back then you don't even know what exist in the world I uh I I just dreamed it I wanted it so bad what did you see that made you dream it like what was it where you're like I want that like was it you're watching TNN was it you're you know what was it just the radio yeah the radio and and uh when I learned to play a few chords on the guitar the girls like the way I sounded you know that always has a lot to do with it I just I just wanted it so bad it just seemed to give me an identity uh I wasn't a great athlete I played a little baseball in high school but I wasn't very big so I I couldn't take the hits in football uh and and so it gave me something that was different than everybody else had when you moved to town who were your musical Heroes at that age when you moved to Nashville you got tattooed on you George Straight George Jones Keith Whitley Merl Haggard and how many of them did you get to spend time with every one of them but Keith Keith died the year before I came to town so like did you get to know Lori at all oh yeah Lori and I are very close and and her kids Lori Morgan by the way sorry um um so kind you know as close as you could have oh absolutely yeah uh you know and Keith was a big inspiration for me but I I spent the most time with Jones uh I was a bigger Haggard fan that I was with Jones but Jones was the first tour that I was on 92 when I went out with Jones for a couple of years and I got very close to George um was he crazy was he wild and crazy then or it calmed down no he wasn't uh George kind of you know when when I was around him I think he still took a nip every now and then but George wasn't drinking the way that he used to he kind of got it all under control Nancy had kind of put the the tight grip on him a little bit but I mean he was a sweet old grandfather to me I spent a lot of time of George one of my favorite memories it was about three years before George passed and uh uh we had gone to Fireside the studio I don't I think fireside's gone now but Nancy had put some uh charity project together and she wanted me and George to do a duet together and I'd gone in and done my part of the song and George was there and he came in and and George was having trouble he couldn't see he couldn't see the lyric and he couldn't hear the pitch anymore and he asked me to come in the booth with him and I and I would sing the line for him and help him go through the whole thing and and I look back at that is such a fond thing because I got to share something very special with Jones at a time when he was fra and he was struggling that I don't think anybody else got a chance to do I got to do something with him that nobody ever got to do and the fact that he would be vulnerable enough to trust you absolutely because he could have asked anybody to do that it was very special for me yeah that's really cool you know what was the jam that I feel like sometimes isn't brought up when it's like this song was great the old the older George Jones I don't need your rocking chair oh yeah your jaral or your Medicare still got neon in my veins D that song was awesome it was awesome and you got to think too Jo and and this inspires me a lot as I've had the ups and downs in my career you know George at that time in the early 90s when everything was taken off the young country movement was hitting radio stations were Chang in formats you had in ' 89 you had all you know G and Chestnut and Allan Jackson trit in Vince Gill and you had that whole barrage and it was new everything was changed I came to town right after that and so you had all these guys like whan and and Merl and all they were angry that all of a sudden they had been on the CHS for 30 or 40 years and now they weren't getting the records played and they were mad and they were mad at us I mean they blamed all of us for it and uh I saw George take a different perspective I saw George cut rocking chair and I saw him take me on tour and Mark Chestnut on tour and I I got to spend time with him and he looked at it from a completely different perspective and he had a whole another career at that time that none of the rest of them really did and it made me realize that sometimes you just got to get out of your own way and realize that things change uh you can either grab a hold and be a part of it or you can just get out of the way and what's amazing about what you just said and it's not exactly the same because George was older than you are now but you're talking about Earnest and these guy AB you're doing the same thing absolutely the podcasts and the things that I do to build relationships with all of these younger artists I'm putting myself in a situation where I can I can have relationships with this generation of artists that I wouldn't have any other way and I treasure it I love I made a lot of friends that way I'm not put off by it and I'm not jealous of it I'm proud for their success and they're having success that we never had I mean it's amazing how big our format is now uh I'm G show you a picture here this is you and a very very very young Jason Aline oh yeah what the heck is this picture he looks 12 do you you probably don't remember the pick taking it but I mean what what was this even doing do you know what what he was doing I know he was a huge fan of mine he's told me me greet probably that's crazy and he's told me uh that uh he had my poster on his wall when he was in high school I was like dude I had faah faucet on my wall I know was wrong with you here's a picture you and George that it pulled off what what is do you know what when this was cuz it could have been at any point you know that was that jacket right there is from the tour because it's got the Red Man tobacco logo on it so that would have been 92 somewhere and I used to give it excuse my hell about that jacket he always wore those jackets all that Fringe on them and I love to give him a hard time about his wardrobe selections so everybody go to a Tracy show Tracy lawrence.com and he's got I mean I have your whole tour Scout you're on the road doing a bunch of shows yeah we work a lot yeah I listen I know you work a lot like do you enjoy it do you like I do I I've learned over the years I've taken a lot more time off this year than I have in the past I mean I I took several weeks I I I'll try to take a week off every month or six weeks I don't I don't do what uh go to the beach house go on vacation with the fans we've been we I mean with my wife with the fans go yeah let's not do that uh but i' I've started traveling more I mean we've we've taken a couple of trips to Italy with the kids and I'm trying to spend more time in Europe and and we just doing I'm taking time for my family cuz I neglected a lot when they were younger I missed a lot of birthdays a lot of dance recital a lot of te- ball I missed a lot of that I'm trying to trying to spend more time slowing the pace down a little bit and I and I really don't want to run that hard like I used to isn't traveling odd in that we grew up very similarly you didn't go out of the state much less out of the country I was always scared to death by what i' see on TV oh yeah and now that I've gotten older and have had a pretty successful career I've gone to a few places and it is like bizarre and amazing but I was never in that Let's Travel have vacations culture which I am now and like I'm kind of jealous I didn't get to do it but I'm also like a 12-year-old when I go places now when I'm like this is crazy like we went to Italy I was like I can't believe I'm in another country I love it isn't it isn't it wild awesome yeah and I I thought it was like that's like places you go in movies like traveling is weird and People Are Awesome People Are Awesome everywhere you get what you give that's true if if you're gracious and you don't if you bring your American ideology with you and you're really bastic and loud and obnoxious you you're offputting to people and so I try to teach my kids when we travel to be very gracious and respect and appreciate other cultures uh you know you might not like it but at least try try the food try the cuisine be nice to people and and it comes back to you will you tell me the the bluebird story you're playing the bluebird and you get seen by somebody cool no no that so it was the bluebird is in the mix but that's so misconstrued when I first got to town I started doing every every little music uh competition that I could do all the little clubs had little jams and stuff where you could get up and I'd win a 100 bucks here and there well I met some people and wound up over in Kentucky at a thing called live at libes which was a u a supper club kind of a opery style music hall that broadcast every Saturday night back from Kentucky into Nashville and so they would have their first hour where you would do a couple songs with the house band and then they had their headliner and they had a George Jones impersonator and a Johnny Cass impersonator you know the do well I started performing on that show in December of 90 when I got to town I got down in September and some folks had come over from uh Atlantic some management guys with some Executives from Atlantic Records that came to see somebody usse on that show and they like me better and in January we I wound up hooking up with these guys they became my managers I did a showcase at The Bluebird in January Rick Blackburn from Atlantic agreed to sign me in January I got hooked up with James stad in May of 91 we cut Sticks and Stones so it all happened in about a seven Monon window it was very fast for me that would have happened so fast and looking back it was wonderful but I wouldn't have trusted it it would happen so fast i' been like there's no way this can be real it was it was I've never heard of it happening faster for anybody cuz I didn't know anybody when I got there I never knocked on a door I didn't go to labels I didn't pitch demo I never did any of that stuff and I guess probably to you it was just normal because it's all you knew you didn't really know yeah you know I'd always believe that was Destiny you know it's like it was supposed to happen I really believed it was I just kind of went with it what's up with the podcast podcast is doing great uh uh I've had to take a couple of months off because I was touring so heavy but we're getting back in the groove with it right now what uh what's the name of it uh TL's Roadhouse T TL TL wait no wait T TL's TL's that's what I thought I thought you said t I was like no different Terell ow it's it's at twang I TL's Road House so TL's Road House you guys can search that and what do you what do you do on on the podcast like you know it it's basically I've I've had a lot of ticktockers I've had a few actors some comedians a lot of younger artists in the business and my whole premise is really just to find the common ground that we share you know even though we all are are very passionate we have a lot of the same likes but there's a lot of difference between all of us and every journey is different for everybody that comes to town we all take a different path so it's just it's just a conversation about trying to find the things that we have in common and the things that make us different but but uh it's it's been very good it's been very entertaining for me I enjoy I enjoy talking to new people where do you record it I've been doing it in the front Lounge in my bus that's cool and I've done some of I've done some of it on the road but it's easier when I I have a bus pad where I park all my coaches and all my stuff there at the house so it's easier when I can set everything up and do two days at a time and I'll do four or five artists in two days because I have to pack everything back up when we do a podcast I have to set everything up every time you enjoy that I do that's cool like it a lot make any money on that yet no not we we did talk Tracy we did talk yeah um so check out the podcast the music's been out for a month or so and then Tracy lawrence.com and go watch Tracy do a show please yeah Tracy's awesome um okay are you're a razor bike fan I am yeah baseball season was hard this year I know you I'm just setting it up here I'm also a massive Razer baseball that sucked it was terrible it's all it's been a rough year all the way around it's rough all the way around so I have a few friends that are Razer back fans um and so I have this helmet here and I'm going to have a bunch of us Razer backers sign this helmet cool and then I'm going to auction off for I so we can have better players okay so you you sign up we're done here absolutely cuz we're going to pay for better players legally it's worth it and then we will yes that's right uh Tracy really appreciate you you guys go to Tracy's Instagram the real Tracy Lawrence do not follow the fake Tracy Lawrence there's a bunch of them he or even at the fake Tracy Lawrence that's a fraud uh the new EP is out it's called out here in it and check out the podcast and go watch Tracy live Tracy lawrence.com Tracy as a person I'm a fan and as a fan I'm a fan thank you my friend there he is C Lawrence everybody nice job thank you much