Eric Church (Double Down Tour) 2 OC: …fun for us. :45
“Some people may be surprised to learn that there’s only about five songs from our back catalog that are gonna be both nights. I’m going to play most of the Desperate Man over the two nights; probably six a night for those, but they’re not gonna be what they think. So, we’ll play ‘Smoke a Little Smoke’ one night, but you won’t get it the next. You’ll get ‘Drink in My Hand’ the next, but you won’t get it the first one. So, we’re gonna make this a little bit where they’ll be those songs in there, but they won’t be both nights unless you go to both nights. It’s just the way we’re gonna do it. I think we can do it. I think our catalog will let us do it. If you come, you’re gonna hear ‘Sinners Like Me’ one night, but not both nights. And I think that it’ll make it interesting for the people that are coming, and it’ll make the show fun for us.”

Eric Church (Monsters) OC: …me on that. 1:15
“I think monsters, after Vegas, became just more real to me.  More, I don’t know. There was a specific night I can remember going into my oldest son, Boone’s, room, and his closet light, or the bathroom light, the dimmer wasn’t right. It wasn’t bright enough and he wanted it brighter. And when I went in and made it a little brighter, he said, ‘That’s good. That’s good. That’s perfect.’ And it wasn’t much but that stuck with me — this was pre-writing the song — but that stuck with me that’s kind of all he needed was a little more light. And I think that when I wrote that song, there was that subconscious thing that was there the entire time, and then Vegas happened and right after Vegas, we got together with Jeff and we started talking about all this stuff and the song, it happened so fast; the way songs are supposed to happen when they’re that kind of song. It just happened. And it will always be a song that I think about where I was at that time in my life, where my kids were, and how just that little bit of light, is what made the difference. That’s the key, that’s where the second verse goes to and the overall theme of monsters is it’s just that much, you know? It’s not ‘this much.’ It’s not a big blinding light. It’s this much light that made the difference and that little nugget is what I carry with me on that.”

Adam Hambrick (Labor Day-jobs) OC: …that summer. :41
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a bad job. I don’t think I had a bad job, ‘cause I actually enjoyed this job ‘cause I was actually sitting in the air conditioning all day over the summer in Arkansas. It was very monotonous, because I was spending every summer day repairing old fallen-apart medical charts in a heart clinic in Little Rock. I would take all these photos of all these records and re-sort them page-by-page and put ‘em back in the manila folder and re-alphabetize ‘em. But I did bring my computer and watch movies while I did it, so I drank a lot of soda and watched a lot of movies that summer.”

AJ (working people songs) OC: … appreciate that. :28
“I’ve always written songs and recorded songs, other people’s songs, about workin’ people, and workin’, the workin’ life ’cause I mean, that’s where I’m from. I mean, I worked…I’d already had jobs and worked as a grown person before I ever even thought about bein’ in the music business, so I come from that background, and…although I hadn’t had a job in a long time (laughs), I still remember a lot about it, you know, and I remember what the lifestyle is, and I still appreciate that.”

Billy Currington (Labor Day) OC: …record deal. :40
“I started working like at [age] 12, landscaping. This was summer, every summers, and roofing. I started when I was about 16 roofing houses, and that was probably one of my toughest jobs because down there in South Georgia, it gets hot, so doing that every day all summer long. The pawn shop when I moved to Nashville was one of my favorites, even though it was one of my least favorites. The concrete job was my least favorite of all – six years of that, and I couldn’t take it no more. After that job, that was my turning point. Either I’m going to do something else for a living [laughs] or quit and try to really focus on music and get this record deal.”

Brandon Lay (Labor Day) OC: …a good one. :13
“You know, I can’t complain too much about Labor Day, ‘cause usually doing landscaping and it had slowed down a little, but the water’s still warm enough to hit the river. I’ve gotten to spend some time out on the lake for Labor Day, so Labor Day’s a good one.”

Carrie Underwood (Labor Day) OC: …born to do. :59
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad job. I’ve had hard jobs. I’ve had jobs that worked random hours. My first job was at a gas station, and that was a lot of fun actually. While I was working at the gas station, I took another job at a hotel down the street. There was nobody else working there. I had one day of training and then the next day I came in, and the lady that had worked there the longest and was training me just didn’t show. So, the second day at work I was now in charge ‘cause I was now the senior member that was working at the hotel. So, I feel like that one was really challenging to figure my way through it, but I did. My best job is definitely what I do now. I really like being on stage. I really like performing for people and just having fun and singing, because that’s what I feel like I was born to do.”

Caylee Hammack (Labor Day-worst job) OC: …worst job. (laughs) :38
“My worst job was working in a nursery, actually. I love kids so I thought I’d be really good at it, but wen you’re the new person coming in, you have to change all the diapers first. So, I was changing 45 diapers a day and it got to the point where everything smelled like baby poop. It literally drove me crazy. I would walk my dog and I would have to go to pick up her poop, and it would smell like baby poop, and I just couldn’t handle it, honestly. The smell of poop warded me away. The children were lovely, but the smell of poop lingered, and I couldn’t handle that job. That was my worst job.” (laughs)

Clare Dunn (Labor Day) OC: …had to do. 1:05
“I was coming for school. I remember I was two weeks late for school [at Belmont], because I had stayed in Texas longer to drive a silage truck for harvest. Harvest was still going on and I needed the money, so I stayed down there. I called all my professors. I explained what I was doing. I said, ‘I’m not going to be there for the first two weeks.’ They all were very, I told them why, and they were all very accepting of that. So, I got home. I was worn out from driving this truck in Texas, and I remember getting home in like the morning or the night before and I left the next day. I literally just chucked as much stuff in a U-haul as I could, and my family was helping me get it all ready while I was on the truck. I remember, everybody cried. I’m probably gonna cry just talking about it, because it was so many unknowns, and I just drove myself out to Tennessee. It was very emotional for me, obviously, just seeing that Tennessee state line sign and being scared to death, but knowing that’s what I had to do.”

Darius Rucker (Labor Day) OC: …pizza. :15
“I was fifteen, and I worked at a pizza place, and the guy decided that at fifteen, that I could not only clean the floors and wash the dishes, but I also had to make pizza. So, for two months, he taught me how to make pizza.”

Dierks Bentley (Labor Day) OC: …generosity. :26
“Personally, the fans give me amazement. That’s the only word to really sum it up. I look out in the crowd, you know, usually see a lot of faces and fans are cheering. I know each one of these like from the road-the signs are from California…Michelle and Kayla live up in the Ohio area. They’re all, I just see them, and I’m like, ‘Wow!,’ they’re all from different regions. You know when you’re in a different region of the country and you just see certain fans. These people are way more hard core than I am, and I’m just amazed by their generosity.”

Eric Church (Labor Day-odd jobs) OC: …bought at 2am. 1:27
“I had an awful job. I’ve had a lot of awful jobs…my worst one was when I first came to Nashville. I got a job at the Shop at Home Network. I worked midnight, graveyard, midnight to eight. That was bad enough but then I would work all night, go home, shower and then I had writing appointments all day because I was trying to get a career started. I’d go write songs and get meetings just trying to get signed. And end up getting done at 3 of 4 with all of that, I’d go home, take a shower or sleep for a little bit and then I had to be at work again at midnight. So the schedule was bad enough, however, what I had to do at the job…I sold knives from midnight to 7 or 8am. And, anytime somebody calls you at 3 or 4am and needs 200 knives for $19.95, it’s automatically an alarming situation. And I just, I was young and I’d been in a lot of these people’s shoes, I had done this…I knew they were drunk. I knew what they had done. They’d just come home from the bar, flipped on Shop at Home and said, ‘You know what? I need that.’ So the reason the job didn’t last long for me is that I was maybe the worst salesmen in history because I ended up talking a lot of these people out of it, I’d say, ‘I’ll tell you what man, go to bed, call me, I’ll be here in the morning. If you get up in the morning and want these knives you call me back.’ Because I knew what was going to happen, you know. They bought 200 knives for $19.95…first of all some of these people you didn’t know whether you should call the cops. What do you need 200 knives for? Even though I’m selling them…what do you need them for? So, it was awful doing that job. And then they got rid of me because, they were like, ‘You’re the worst. I can’t believe you’re talking people out of it.’ I was like, ‘Man I know…I’ve been there.’ [laughs] I’d want some to talk me out of buying some of the stuff I’ve bought at 2am.”

Jon Langston (Labor Day) OC: …is the bomb. :45
“The worst job – it wasn’t bad – I could just say growing up and stuff and in high school, I was working for my dad. It was a great job, working at the shop. One day I got tired of working for my dad. I thought it’d be smart to go work for somebody else and so I went to work at Chik-fil-a for a family friend, and I’m just not made for cooking chicken. But, I told my dad, ‘Hey, can I come back to work?’ (laughs) So, yeah, I mean, Chik-fil-a a great place to work if you’re into that kind of thing, but not me. But Chik-fil-a is m favorite fast food restaurant of all time. I mean, I will go to war for Chik-fil-a. I eat there probably three or four times a week. Chik-fil-a is the bomb.”

Jon Pardi (Labor Day) OC: …so bored! :17
“The worst job I ever had was at Hometown Grocery Store. I didn’t want to work, I was 15, and I did not want to work at the grocery store. Bagging was fun, but they sent me down the aisles to pull up cans and turn ‘em around and face ‘em, and I would just get so bored!”

Jordan Davis (Labor Day) OC: …worst job. :41
“[My] worst job was probably whenever I got out of school I started working for an environmental group in Baton Rouge, and I was doing actual environmental work at first. I went to my boss probably about four months in and told him that I was going to move to Nashville and write songs. Luckily enough, he let me stay on, but I became the weedeater guy for the landscaping side of the business. I seriously weedeated eight hours a day. The only break I would get would be in-between yard to yard. So, like we would be in the car and I would try to doze off for like 10 minutes. I was covered in grass in the middle of the summer in Baton Rouge. It was awful. That was definitely the worst job.”

Keith Urban (Labor Day) OC: …amazing. :22
“Seeing people connect to the music is absolutely, hands-down the biggest reward for me, especially when you go to a place you’ve never been to before and it’s all these people, I mean lots of people out there. You’ve never met a single one of ‘em and they’re singing every word, and you realize that it’s not just a pretty melody and everything, but they get the songs. It’s amazing.”

Kip Moore (Labor Day-worst job) OC: …than that. :21
“I’d have to say my worst job ever was laying sod in the south Georgia heat. There’s nothing than that, especially when somebody would think that you’re waiting for the next sod patch to be thrown to you and you got your back turned, and all of a sudden, that big ole piece of sod hits you right on the back. You got nowhere to clean up, and you’re just stuck with dirt on your back for the rest of the day. It doesn’t get any worse than that.”

Luke Bryan (Labor Day-jobs) OC: …Nashville… 1:07
“At age 12 thru 13, I worked at Rubos IGA Supermarket in Leesburg, GA. I worked during the summers on Monday and Tuesday. I stocked and cleaned up the produce.  They paid me under the table…I peeled off all of the brown lettuce. Let’s see, when I was 15, I was a cashier at K-Mart for two months. I worked at K-Mart for two months, and then I reverted back to Rubos because it didn’t really make sense for me to drive all the way into Albany and work for K-Mart. The benefits were great though-you’d get an hour-long on the blue light special. So I started back at Rubos, and then I quit Rubos and worked for my Dad-just awful just driving tractors through cotton all day, and spraying pesticides that eventually would turn your hair green. And then at some point, I started playing guitar. And well, after college I went back and worked for my dad and continued to spray and haul fertilizer around. And then I moved to Nashville…”

Travis Denning (Labor Day) OC: …right for it. :13
“I’ve always played music. I mean, my first gig was when I was 16-years-old. That was what I did. And as soon as I found out I could make money doing it, I thought I’d much rather make money doing this than anything else, so I went right for it.”

Eric Church (Double Down Tour reflection) 1 OC: …see again. 1:03
“You had your Friday night set and your Saturday night set, but then you have people that came to both nights. I feel like from now on, I hope that we can focus on those people that come one night of the year that they’ve traveled however many miles, they want to hear ‘Round Here Buzz,’ they get to hear ‘Round Here Buzz,’ and I still want it to be unique. I want it to be different, but I don’t know if I did another tour like this. I think that the Double Down Tour was as far as I want to go from a challenge point. I love that we did it. I love that it was a success. I love that there were people that came to both nights and go it. There were people that came to one of the two nights and got it, but at the same time, it’s not something I would do again. I think that’s good. I think that if you’re a fan, you got to see something that – we stretched and you’re not gonna get to see it again. I’ve been to some of those shows before, a fan of artists, and I knew that I was not gonna see this again. For the Double Down Tour, they saw something they’re never gonna see again.”

Eric Church (Some of It) OC: …on there. 1:16
“I was playing the album for a dear friend of ours, and my wife was with me and it was just the three of us playing the album and as we listened to the album. This person loved the album, but my wife said, ‘But let me play you what didn’t make it.’ The first thing she played was ‘Some of It.’ And I hadn’t listened to it in a while, and it was always a favorite song of mine. It’s why it was the first one we took in, and I listened to it that night and I’m like…I’m gonna regret if I don’t record this song. I called my manager that night and said that we gotta talk. The recording was done, the record was essentially done, but, um, I said, ‘I gotta do this. I gotta cut this song.’ I think my hesitation was because, initially, all the stuff that I thought was gonna be the pillars for this album just bombed…so I was scared of that song. I thought this is another song that was in that group that I’m gonna bump and I’m gonna go a different way. But I think it’s really interesting that the album took on an identity that allowed some of it to make it from where it started to where it is now. And it just fit in the dialogue, it fit into what the entire album’s talking about and, it really made it uh, to me it made the album. I loved the album before it was on there, but it might be my favorite album now that it’s on there.”

Eric Church (Some of It coming of age) OC: …figure it out. :56
“That’s a song, a coming-of-age song, it’s an adult song. It’s adult music. If you listen to the thematics in that and what it’s about, it’s about being older and having some wisdom about you. I think that’s something that I appreciate in my fan base now that early on probably wasn’t there. We were young and drunk and fighting and stupid. But I think now to see them grow – to see the fan base grow – it’s just one of those songs that came along at the right time. And again, it was such a blessing that happened. It wasn’t going to be on the album. It was just one of those freak things that I put it on the album, the last song on the album. The album was done, and all of a sudden it becomes the pillar, one of the pillars on the album. I think again, you go back to it’s one of the great things about music, is you just never know what’s going to happen until it’s all said and done. You can try to plan all you want to, but you’ll probably not going to figure it out.”

Eric Church (Sinners Like Me album) OC: …about it. :18
“I think throughout the whole record, you’re gonna get songs that tell it like it is and are very much who I am, what I think, what I believe. It’s okay if you believe it. It’s okay if you don’t. I think the main thing is we try to put it out there and give people a chance to see what they think about it.”

Eric Church (We Were-Keith) OC: …becomes a hit.
“That was the coolest thing for me is I didn’t send Keith the song and say, ‘Here’s a song I wrote.’ He found it, and honestly, it fits him more than it fits me. There’s a line in there about “two heartbeats in the moonlight in leather jackets on a back of a Harley.’ I don’t ride a Harley. That’s a line, call it ‘poetic license.’ That’s where it came from. He and Nicole used to do that when they first started dating, and they were touring, they would jump on his Harley and they would put on their leather jackets and they’d go ride up in the countryside before the show. I did not know that until after he cut that song, I truly believe songs find the path that they’re supposed to find, and that one was supposed to be with him. Now, as it goes No. 1 in a few weeks, um (laughs) I’m gonna rethink that a little. Naw, it was perfect that he’s the guy that did that and did it better than I could’ve done it. I love hearing it on the radio. It’s fun for me. I came to this town to be a songwriter, so for me, I’m not sure if that’s not as proud as I’ve been as when you get a song cut by somebody else and then it becomes a hit.”