Eric Church (Smoke a Little Smoke) OC: …that song. :36
“I think subject-matter wise, it’s another situation where everybody told me…you’re nuts to release that song, there are other things that’ll be easier to get up the chart. I saw the crowd though, I followed the crowd. They’d go crazy on that, and they still do. I mean, I think it’s one of those songs. In our set, what they do during that song, when they tear those walls down and they tear it down, is very, very hard to recover from, show-wise. So, I just followed the crowd on it. And I said, ‘You know, this is what some people think we shouldn’t release, but I’ve seen how people respond to it. Let’s put it out.’ And, it took off. Then the digital part, the sales part, was just huge for that song. I owe a lot to that song.”

Eric Church (performing energy) OC: …type of crowd. :40
“Well, I think for me every night I try to empty the tank. There’s always that energy floating around. It’s a palpable thing, and it’s up to me to start that exchange and get the crowd to give it back to me and then watch it build on itself and just to have that experience. We have one night here in whatever city we’re in, you know, we’ve got this night. I’m not gonna see you for a while you’re not gonna see me for a while, you know? And I love being able to capitalize on that moment and trying to live in that moment and get as much energy exchange between myself and the crowd as we can. I love that. That’s my favorite part of what we do. I love being around people, I’m very passionate about my music, and I love people who are passionate about the music too and I love playing a show for that type of crowd.”

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.”

Carrie Underwood (Entertainer nod 2019) OC: …sorry boys! (laughs) :28
“I personally feel like entertainer. It’s everything, right? So, I feel like people kind of narrow it down to tours, but I feel like there’s so many more components to it. And, you know, I’m blessed and lucky to be nominated, obviously, and fantastic company. It would be amazing, but of course, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want it. (laughs) Sorry boys.” (laughs)

Luke Bryan (Entertainer wins) OC: …got it right. :49
“The title is what it is, you know? I mean, my focus in life when I’m on stage is entertaining these fans. If it’s my smile and my demeanor, if it’s my song that does it, if it’s me picking up a child out of the audience and letting them sing, it’s not being so premeditated that you can see it from a mile away. I mean, my main thing is be a fan up there that just gets to sing. That’s kind of how I’ve always approached it, and being called the Entertainer of the Year makes me want to do that to the best of my ability every night for the rest of my life as long as I’m on stage. I want people to leave my shows and go, ‘You know what? Whoever’s voting him Entertainer of the Year, they got it right.’”

Jordan Davis (ACM nomination) OC: …in Vegas. :18
“Hey! This is Jordan Davis, and I just want to say thank you to the ACMs (and) to all my supporters in country music for making me a nominee for the New (Male) Artist of the Year at the 55th ACM Awards. I grew up watching this and to be on it now is a dream come true. So, thank y’all so much. Looking forward to an awesome weekend in Vegas.”

Caylee Hammack (ACM nominations) OC: …Thank you. (laughs) :47
“I am blown away and just completely in awe in this situation to wake up and realize that I have two nominations for the ACMs. It’s, this is the biggest blessing in my life, I feel like right now, and I’m just so excited to be included in such a great group of women in the first place with Miranda Lambert pulling us all together to do that cover. It is amazing to see that it was nominated for Music Event of the Year and also as a young female artist in this industry, it is such a validating moment for me to be nominated as a New Female Artist of the Year nominee. Just thank you. Anybody, whoever it was, who had to kill somebody to get me there. Thank you!”(laughs)

“Hey! This is Billy Currington. Hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey, this is T.J., and I’m John, and we’re Brothers Osborne. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hi! I’m Carrie Underwood, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day. Send me some chocolate.”

“Hey y’all! This is Caylee Hammack, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“What’s up y’all? This is Darius Rucker, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey, it’s Dierks Bentley, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey! This is Eric Church, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey, this is Gary Allan, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“This is George Strait, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hi! It’s Jon Pardi, and I hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey! It’s Jordan Davis, hoping you have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey! This is Josh Turner, and I want to wish you and your sweetheart a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hi, this is Kacey Musgraves, and I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. This is Keith Urban. Make the day special for your ‘Once in a Lifetime’ love.”

“Hey! What’s happening, everybody? This is Kip Moore. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey! We’re Little Big Town. Happy Valentine’s Day!”

“Hey y’all, it’s Luke Bryan. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hey everybody. I’m Parker McCollum, wishing all the lovers out there a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hi! This is Sam Hunt, wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Hi, this is Shania Twain. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Brothers Osborne (I Don’t Remember Me (Before You) 1:05
“There was a bit of the song that was a little on the nose. I don’t – it started the first tag (sings) which was an idea Shane had. He showed up that day and goes ‘I don’t remember my life before I had my babies.’ He said, ‘I literally can’t think of who I was. I don’t remember who I was before [my] husband Michael.’ And we thought man, that is a really interesting thing. An incredible idea. I’m sure it’s been done to some extent, but I can’t really recall that subject being said that way. And so, we were all about it. We loved the idea and the concept, but when Jay [Joyce] heard it, he goes, ‘Man, I think it would be really cool to save the ‘before you’ till the end of the song and I instantly was like, ‘Man, I think that’s a killer idea.’ John and I were all about it. And so, it ends now (sings) it kind of goes in a turn around. You don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. ‘I don’t remember me,’ you keep hearing this, and then at the end is the reveal ‘I don’t remember me before you,’ which I think is great. It also made it problematic [for] the title of the song.”

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 (creative process in the studio) OC: …the creativity. :57
“It was an interesting creative process. This record was made in the studio, from writing to completion, then any record we have ever made. It was really there, ‘cause I wrote songs there, we change things there. I played parts there, I never played, never thought of. I think maybe it was the first album in our career that there was more creative energy in the studio than any other, because it was written, made, conceived, it was all there. I mean, on ‘The Snake,’ for example, that background part was myself, Jeff Hyde and Joanna, and we tried to sound the old blues kind of sound. We were doing that creatively in the studio, and it made a really interesting thing. A lot of people will say, ‘Who sang that? who is that?’ Well it was us! We were feeling the creativity.”

Vince Gill (I Don’t Wanna Ride the Rails No More) OC: …down the road. (laughs) 1:15
“I don’t think that I intended it to be so verbatim about trains. I think it’s about – it could very well be the bus for me. I don’t want to ride the bus no more. I’ve been riding this bus for 40 something years. But it’s just a song of reflection. My brother struggled in his life and probably a good chance he hopped a few trains in his life. And it just has such a – such a great history of Grapes of Wrath and just old school people hopping freight trains and struggling and riding them out. Maybe Dust Bowl folks riding them out, copping a ride on a train somewhere. I just think that that whole image of riding a train has just this great beauty to it. So, it’s really just a song of reflection, of a life that at times is lonely but ‘I don’t want to ride the rails no more. I want to find a woman’s love worth dying for.’ That’s yearning. It’s hopeful. Even, once again, you can get an element of some sense of hope in something then you just don’t depress the crap out of somebody and send them on down the road. (laughs)”

LBT (Grammys 2020) OC: …speaking about. 1:28
“We put it out as a moment to kind of kick off the record Nightfall, and we just love the song so much and we’ve had so many opportunities to share it on television and lots of radio opportunities. For it to just get nominated for Country Song of the Year by a Duo or Group, that’s an incredible category to be in because that’s any collaboration that’s been done on any country record plus by any duo or group. It encompasses so many incredible performances, that it really, it’s an absolute honor for that song to have gone all the way to the Grammys. Just so cool. It speaks to the message too. It speaks to how important that message is. We’re still talking about it all the time – equal play, equal play. We’re talking about it in just the way women are treated, and we need the champions out there for the daughters and that’s the heart of the song. Luckily, we’re in a band with two guys that believe in that, but there’s a lot of people out there that need that reminder that it’s not an equal playing field. It still isn’t. It’s time for us to change it so that the next generation doesn’t know what we’re speaking about.”

Brothers Osborne (New Year) OC: (TJ) …next month. :44
JOHN: “I think it’s kind of funny how we spend literally the last moment and the very first moment of every year being extremely intoxicated, extremely, because you don’t want to wait until like 12:30 to get your buzz on. You’ve got to do it before midnight, and then once midnight happens, you’re like, ‘Omigod! Now it’s time to celebrate even more.’ Debauchery is the literally bookending your entire year.” TJ: “I love how everyone starts the year off with diets and then we end the year with like excessive amounts of food. And then you get to the end of the year, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m going to start a diet on the 1st, so I’m going to eat everything that’s in front of me.’ I love it.” JOHN: “And come February 1st, ‘what diet?’” [laughs] TJ: “What diet? I’ll start it next month.” [laughs]

Brothers Osborne (hangover cure) OC: …of the year. :07
“Usually drinking more. I mean, a little hair of the dog never hurt anybody. Plus, it’s the first of the year.”

Clare Dunn (hangover cure) OC: …hangover cure. :10
“Greasy food is always kind of a, you can let it go for one day before you start all your resolutions [laughs] after that. So, that’s probably my best hangover cure.”

Dierks (NYE) OC: …for that. :10
“I think January first is universally accepted as a dog. So, I mean, a little hair of the dog, I guess. But just…water and stay on the couch, I guess. There’s no real sure-fire cure for that.”

Dierks Bentley (New Year’s) OC: …in stride. 1:07
“New Year’s is rough. New Year’s hurts no matter what’s going on. I’ve played a lot of New Year’s shows, you know, but I’ve honestly found that it’s not my favorite night to throw down. Look, for a living, that’s what I do. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, I host a big party; not only on stage, but I’ve got friends backstage. It starts before the concert sometimes, [and] it goes long after the concert, so a lot of times on New Year’s, I’m looking for a really mellow hang – a good party, good friends, pretty chill. Some of my best New Year’s – it doesn’t make for great radio – but some of my best New Year’s have been just like actually hearing fireworks go off while I’m in bed, [laughs] and know I’m gonna wake up the next morning for the first day of the New Year feeling great, feeling recharged and I’m ready to go and go into the New Year feeling good as opposed to going into it with a giant Jagerbomb hangover, which I’ve done many, many times. So, the goal this year is to go into it feeling pretty good and the kids help with that, because you really just don’t want to be hungover with children. It’s not a good feeling. You would probably admit to any crime to get them, just feel better, and get them leave you alone.”

Eric Church (hangover cure) OC: …every time. :17
“The best hangover cure – I’ve got two. One is 5-hour Energy [bottles], because of all the B-vitamins that are in it. You can start pounding those, and it’s either gonna work, or it’s gonna keep you up and prolong your misery. But the other one I have is just take two Advil and a beer in the morning. Hair of the dog, man – that works every time.”

Jon Pardi (hangover cure) OC: …deal with it. :20
“My hangover cure is Bloody Marys, but be careful – because once you have a couple, don’t go to beer, because if you go to beer, you’re gonna start drinking again and you’ll end up a morning drunk. OR if you want to go the non-alcoholic route, there’s nothing you can do for hangovers. [laughs] You just go deal with it.”

Kacey Musgraves (hangover cure) OC: …water. Yup! :32
“Coconut water is a major help with hangovers and also, a lot of times we go and eat Vietnamese fuh. It’s a soup, and it’s got this awesome broth. You can get different things in it or whatever, but for some reason, it’s just like…it’s almost like a chicken noodle soup kind of an idea, you know, but it’s good. That’s good for hangovers too. That, sleep, Tylenol, coconut water and just water, in general. And when you’re drinking, have your alcohol, drink a little bit of water, drink some more alcohol, drink some water. Yup!”

Keith Urban (playing Nashville 2019) OC: …getting to do it. :
“I love it. I love playing in Nashville. I’ve lived here now 27 years. I’ve lived here longer than I lived in Australia, which is crazy, you now? Playing New Year’s Eve is awesome because you never know what to expect from year to year. This’ll be our fourth year doing it. We have Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires this year and a bunch of other people. There’s a whole bunch of people at this show. It’s free and the town gets behind it in a big way. It just feels like a, I don’t know, it just feels like a big Nash love fest really for me. I love it. I love getting to do it.”

Kip Moore (avoiding hangovers on NYE) OC: …yourself. :03
“Pace yourself on New Year’s – that’s the remedy. Pace yourself.”

Luke Bryan (New Years-best) OC: …great night. :17
“My best New Year’s Eve is definitely when my wife and I started back dating. We started back dating right before Christmas, and we went on a trip down to Florida and met some friends. And her birthday is New Year’s Eve. We celebrated it that night. It was just a great night.”

Travis Denning (favorite New Year’s Eve party) OC: …it was good. :41
“I think my favorite New Year’s Eve party ever was when my sister got married, and my sister’s party got done at 10:30, 10:45 and she got married right behind a little club that I played a lot in Macon, Georgia called the Crazy Bull and love the owner. We’re boys, you know? So, we just literally walked right over and burned the house down. That was one of my favorite New Year’s Eve memories, ‘cause I got to see my sister and brother-in-law get married and that was such a great, great time, and then me and my older cousin and best friend, we ended up at Waffle House that night, so it was good.”

Travis Denning (hangover cure) OC: …me better. :17
“You know, I think my hangover cure is just sitting on my butt, [laughs] not doing anything. Drink some water, a cup of coffee, but usually anything greasy or just some big ole Mexican food that’ll get me at least to a nap, which will get me better.”

Travis Denning (wants to get dressed up for New Year’s Eve) OC: …good for it. :13
“No matter what I do for New Year’s Eve, I want to get dressed up. I want to wear a suit. I want to get real snazzied up, and I don’t care if I’m just going to a bar. Like, it’s New Year’s Eve, let’s look good for it.”

“Hey Everybody! I’m Adam Hambrick, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“What’s up everybody? This is Brandon Lay, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey! This is TJ, and I’m John, and we are Brothers Osborne. Happy New Year.”

“Hi! I’m Carrie Underwood, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey y’all! This is Caylee Hammack, wishing you a very Happy New Year.”

“Hey! I’m Clare Dunn, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey y’all! What’s up? This is Darius Rucker, wishing you a Happy New Year!

“Hey, it’s Dierks Bentley. Happy New Year!”

“Hey! It’s Eric Church, hoping you have a Happy New Year.”

“Hey everybody! I’m Gary Allan. Happy New Year!”

“Hey y’all! I’m Jon Langston, wishing you a very Happy New Year.”

“Hi! I’m Jon Pardi, wishing you a Happy New Year!”

“Hey! I’m Jordan Davis, wishing you a Happy New Year!”

“Hey! I’m Josh Turner. Happy New Year!”

“Hey! It’s Kacey Musgraves, hoping you have a safe and Happy New Year!”

“Hey everyone! This is Keith Urban. Have a safe and happy New Year.”

“It’s Kip Moore, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“This is Lauren Alaina, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey! We’re Little Big Town. Happy New Year!”

“Hey! This is Luke Bryan, hoping you have a Happy New Year.”

“Hi! We’re Maddie & Tae, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey! This is Mickey Guyton, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey everybody! I’m Parker McCollum, wishing you a Happy New Year.”

“Hey everybody! I’m Sam Hunt. Happy New Year!”

“Hi! This is Shania Twain. Happy New Year!”

“Hey y’all, this is Travis Denning, wishing you a Happy New Year.”