התמלול המלא של Getting Real with Mark Wills: 30 Years of Country Music, a Happy Marriage & Why He Didn’t Want to Be Garth Brooks

Yeah. 00:02:31 Speaker 2: I mean, that's a great airport. You can kind of get everywhere. 00:02:33 Speaker 3: I can go everywhere that I want to go just about with one jump. And I'm a Delta guy. 00:02:39 Speaker 2: Delta guy. I always heard it doesn't leave the airport. D-E-L-T-A. 00:02:41 Speaker 3: Well, you know what? 00:02:43 Speaker 2: Doesn't even leave the airport. 00:02:44 Speaker 3: It doesn't ever leave the air. 00:02:45 Speaker 2: Have you heard that one? 00:02:46 Speaker 3: Well, I have. 00:02:47 Speaker 2: But you don't care. 00:02:48 Speaker 3: But I'm here to tell you. At least. I'm here to tell you that in over 2 million miles, I've only really missed one show. And that was because of, and it actually happened this year. We were at the airport getting ready to fly to Idaho to play a show at a casino. And they had a hailstorm. And the hailstorm hit the airport. And they had to pull every plane that was on the tarmac. And to to like check them out, make sure there was nothing wrong. And I appreciate that from, you know, I don't really want to get on a plane and it fall apart at, you know, 30,000 feet. 00:03:25 Speaker 2: So although which, by the way, I was listening to your song the way in and I was like. Segway to Wish. 00:03:32 Speaker 3: You Were Here. 00:03:33 Speaker 2: I'm super annoyed with you, actually, because now I am 43 years old. I'm a grown adult. I can listen to songs differently. Wish You Were Here came out when I was probably in high school. 00:03:44 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:03:46 Speaker 2: I didn't know the depth of that song. I did not realize how intense that song was. I was just singing away with that song my whole life. No wonder I've had all these traumatic wounds that I've had to recover from. 00:03:56 Speaker 3: Well, I'm that guy. 00:03:59 Speaker 2: But it's such a good song. But I'm like, Mark, this is awful. This is like Titanic. 00:04:04 Speaker 3: Yeah. It kind of was. It kind of was. But I'm here to tell you. But it's so good. It's about going to heaven. 00:04:10 Speaker 2: I know. But Break Our Hearts. Well, you know. 00:04:13 Speaker 3: Would you? 00:04:14 Speaker 2: How was that singing that song? Did that get a big? That was a huge one for you. 00:04:17 Speaker 3: It was the number one record. 00:04:18 Speaker 2: So people love A Broken Heart with Redemption. 00:04:20 Speaker 3: Well, you know what? If you follow my career, if you've followed my career, you know that I've had a lot of those. 00:04:26 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:04:27 Speaker 3: I always loved great story songs. 00:04:29 Speaker 2: You feel called to that? 00:04:30 Speaker 3: I do. I felt like the songs that I grew up listening to as a kid were great George Jones, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty songs, Ronnie Millsap, Alabama, all that stuff from my early adolescence, like 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years old up until when I was starting to record. I just always loved great story songs. And that's why I wish you were here. And that's why she's in love. And

that's why Jacob's Ladder. 00:05:05 Speaker 2: Jacob's Ladder is written so well, too. Yeah. That's such a good song. I was also re-listening to that. And I'm like, dang, this is such a good written song. 00:05:13 Speaker 3: You know what's funny for me, though? So for me, when I go back and listen to those songs, I'm like, Lord, would you listen to that kid? Because I was 21 years. 00:05:25 Speaker 2: Old when I was recording that. Can you believe your career has carried you all this time? 00:05:29 Speaker 3: It's been such a huge blessing. 00:05:32 Speaker 2: That's a blessing. 00:05:33 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:05:33 Speaker 2: And I feel like it's been a great career, too. You came on strong in the 90s. 00:05:38 Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, our first record that we released was a top five record. 00:05:43 Speaker 2: And to be a part of that 90s crew, I mean, that was a moment. 00:05:47 Speaker 3: It was. That was a moment. I look back at my career when it was myself you know, Leanne Womack and I released, she released Blue and I released Jacob's Ladder the same day in 96. 00:06:08 Speaker 2: So y'all's careers kind of like walked with each other. 00:06:11 Speaker 3: Yeah. Myself, Leanne, Trace Adkins. We were all kind of right there in that vein together. And, you know, and then I look back and I'm like, man, you know, you know, Tracy Lawrence and Tracy Bird and Clay Walker. You know, I mean, we could go on and on. Neil McCoy. Yes. 00:06:34 Speaker 2: Patti Loveless. 00:06:35 Speaker 3: Patti Loveless. 00:06:36 Speaker 2: Trisha Yearwood, you say her? 00:06:38 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:06:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, Trisha. I mean, it was just like a moment. 00:06:41 Speaker 3: I've got the greatest picture of Trisha Yearwood and I in like 1993 or 4. And I had this god-awful brush popper. shirt. I was at a Travis Tritt concert. 00:06:56 Speaker 2: Travis Tritt. 00:06:57 Speaker 3: Yeah. Travis Tritt. It was Travis Tritt, George Jones and, uh, and Tricia Yearwood. 00:07:01 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:07:01 Speaker 3: And I, and it was, it's the most God awful, uh, look for me that, that, that I've ever had. 00:07:08 Speaker 2: So aren't you glad it's documented? 00:07:10 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:07:10 Speaker 2: You can remember that. 00:07:11 Speaker 3: Wouldn't trade, wouldn't trade anything for all of those memories. Uh, all of the, all the time that we've, that we've had and all the success and, You know what? And people always talk about their successes. I'm just as grateful for my failures. 00:07:25 Speaker 2: Have you had some failures? 00:07:26 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:07:27 Speaker 2: What's the one that's knocked you down? I love a good failure story. It gives us hope out there. 00:07:31 Speaker 3: You know, I don't know that I can pinpoint it, but I can say that like, you know, that 2004, 5, 6 era when everything was changing. 00:07:44 Speaker 2: What was it changing from to? 00:07:48 Speaker 3: Well, I would consider it changing from what we knew as

country music as to what we are calling country music now. 00:07:56 Speaker 2: But don't you think it's even changed again since then? 00:07:58 Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah. But that was kind of the first phase of the change. 00:08:02 Speaker 2: Uh-huh. 00:08:03 Speaker 3: And, you know, and I had left Mercury and I was over at a little small independent called Equity. 00:08:11 Speaker 2: I remember that. I feel like Little Big Town was there. 00:08:14 Speaker 3: Little Big Town, exactly. 00:08:15 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:08:15 Speaker 3: Yeah. We were all there together. And, you know, and, and things started transitioning. They started changing, going in different directions. And, and, and like anything else, when you're, when you're right in the middle of it, you feel like you have to chase it. You have to continue to, to transition. When, when you're watching it transition in front of you, you have to feel, you feel like, okay, well, I started my career here and now it's over here and now it's here and And we've had success all along the way. And so I'm watching it and I'm watching it transition. I'm watching the business transition. And I'm like, yeah, I guess I have to transition in this direction. 00:08:55 Speaker 2: How do you even know how to transition? 00:08:57 Speaker 3: Well, and it didn't work for me. 00:08:58 Speaker 2: Okay, so what was the transition you were trying to do? 00:09:01 Speaker 3: I was just trying to go with whatever the theme of the moment was. And I'm so glad that I didn't. You didn't? I'm so glad that it didn't work for me. 00:09:10 Speaker 2: It didn't work. 00:09:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, it didn't work for me. Okay. And it allowed me to continue to, you know, I think a lot of times as artists, we look at, okay, we look at our career and we go, okay, this part of my career was huge, you know? And I had a manager at the time and he was like, you need to stop singing this song in the show. And I'm like, why? I'm like, you know, that was a big hit record. Yeah, but it dates you. And I'm like, okay. And so I thought about that for a little while and I'm so glad that, Mm-hmm. That's not who I am. That's not the direction I'm going to go. I'm going to continue to make the music that I want to make. I'm going to continue to sing the songs that brought me to the dance. And here we are 30 years later, and I'm still getting to do what I love to do. And I feel like I'm in a place where psychologically I can look myself in the mirror and go, yeah, thanks for not selling out. 00:10:14 Speaker 2: Well, that's the biggest win of all. 00:10:16 Speaker 3: Absolutely. And that's what I mean. 00:10:18 Speaker 2: Having your mental health intact at the end of it all, and you're a prime example to have great success, but feel like it's actually honoring who you are. Yeah. And then your fans actually just love you. You don't have to put on a show. You can actually be the person you want to be. You're in Call the Shots. You get to live to your own moral code. 00:10:36 Speaker 3: Isn't it a great thing? 00:10:37 Speaker 2: It's a hard thing to navigate in the music business. It can steal your soul right out from under you. 00:10:41 Speaker 3: My wife and I were talking, and I don't want to... I'm not... I'm not making fun of the situation, but I will say this. A lot of people in our industry over the last year have stepped away from touring because of needing a mental break or whatever. And I'm like, man, we're musicians. We get to live the greatest life because, like myself, I play golf. All day long. 00:11:13 Speaker 2: I love that for you. 00:11:14 Speaker 3: And then I go get a shower on the bus and I walk on stage and I sing hits. 00:11:20 Speaker 2: And then meanwhile, it seems like you have a really happy family too. Yeah. So I'm like, you're just kind of out there living your best life. I mean, you kind of just beat the system a little bit. 00:11:29 Speaker 3: Pretty freaking grateful. Ain't gonna lie to you. 00:11:32 Speaker 2: I can see it. At this age, when you've raised your two kids, you've got grown daughters. 00:11:36 Speaker 3: I've got grandbabies. 00:11:37 Speaker 2: You've got grandbabies. You're still married. It seems like y'all are having a good time. You're still doing your career. You're playing golf every day. I'm like, Mark Wills, what can be better than that? 00:11:46 Speaker 3: Not a lot. 00:11:46 Speaker 2: That's pretty good. I mean, I've seen a lot of people. And you can tell when someone's kind of figured out what matters. 00:11:51 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:11:52 Speaker 2: And keep that the focus. 00:11:53 Speaker 3: And that's exactly what I mean. You know, it bumfuzzles me. That's an old word for you. It bumfuzzles me sometimes when I see... You know, and it's got to be hard to be young and be trying to navigate all of this in such a ever changing platform. And I've just been able to sit back here in my house in Georgia with my feet up going, y'all enjoy that. I'm going to stay over here and do my thing. 00:12:27 Speaker 2: That's really lucky. That's blessed. 00:12:30 Speaker 3: Amen. 00:12:30 Speaker 2: How would you say that you've gotten there? What have you done intentionally to get yourself there? 00:12:34 Speaker 3: I don't know that I did anything intentionally. I think from the very beginning, I knew where I wanted to go. 00:12:42 Speaker 2: Where'd you want to go? 00:12:43 Speaker 3: I just wanted to have hits on the radio and sing songs for people. I did not overthink this business. 00:12:49 Speaker 2: You weren't trying to be the greatest, most famous, legendary singer that ever lived? 00:12:53 Speaker 3: Okay. With all due respect, and I mean this, I never wanted to be Garth Brooks. I never wanted to be Eric Church. I never wanted to be, in our time, Tim McGraw. 00:13:05 Speaker 2: Why not? 00:13:06 Speaker 3: Because there was a level of pressure that came along with that that I didn't want. 00:13:13 Speaker 2: I totally relate to that.

Totally, yes. And some people are built for it. Absolutely. But this is knowing yourself. You have to feel yourself out and know where you want to be. 00:13:24 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:13:24 Speaker 2: And where you energetically want to be and what you can handle. Correct. 00:13:28 Speaker 3: And, you know, and I love Tim and I love Garth. 00:13:32 Speaker 2: And that's what they're built for. 00:13:33 Speaker 3: Absolutely. And they were the guys that plugged away and they knew, you know, they had their strategies as to where they were wanting to go and what they wanted to achieve and what they wanted to acquire. And for me, man, I just wanted to travel and get on the bus and go sing songs and record records and make people smile and love what I do and not. 00:13:58 Speaker 3: Be the guy that was continuously beating my head against the wall, trying to figure out what was going to be next. Songwriters have been making this town the greatest music town, in my opinion, in the world for decades. And if you'll just let the songwriters do their job and write the big hits and be smart enough to pick songs that, you know, George Strait, in the beginning of his career, wrote nothing. Yeah. You know? And there was a lot of artists that never wrote any of their songs. 00:14:40 Speaker 2: Do you prefer to get songs pitched to you and cut other people's songs that resonate? 00:14:44 Speaker 3: Well, see, as a songwriter, as somebody that wrote songs, I always felt like I wrote decent songs, but I always felt like there were much better songs out there. And so there are artists in town that feel like, well, nobody can say what I want to say better than me. 00:15:01 Speaker 2: Right. 00:15:01 Speaker 3: And more power to you. 00:15:02 Speaker 2: This is also again, knowing yourself. 00:15:04 Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah. 00:15:05 Speaker 2: That is, that is, that is. 00:15:09 Speaker 3: Knowing yourself, knowing what your strengths are, knowing what your weaknesses are and. 00:15:13 Speaker 2: What you're trying to do and what you're trying to convey. 00:15:15 Speaker 3: Absolutely. and so you know for me as as a as a young artist as a new artist as a you know somebody freshly coming to town and i would and i would drive to town once a month and sing demos for songwriters here in town back you know back before there was uh all the computer stuff that would demo for you and you know Before Pro Tools, we actually used pros. 00:15:50 Speaker 2: And they were demo singers. Trisha Yard was one also. You would be paid to be a demo singer. 00:15:55 Speaker 3: I'll give you my lineage. My lineage when I came to town was Joe Diffie was the guy that sang the original demos. And then when Joe got his record deal, there was a guy named Jeff Carson. Jeff Carson sang all the demos for Tony and those guys. Tony Brown? No, Tony Martin. Okay. I'm sorry. And then When Jeff Carson got his record deal, Brian White stepped in and he sang demos. And then when Brian White signed his record deal, Mark Wills came along and I sang demos for those guys. Did that lead. 00:16:29 Speaker 2: To the record deal? 00:16:31 Speaker 3: Probably. 00:16:31 Speaker 2: It feels like you kind of funnel your, it's like one of the steps in getting a record deal. 00:16:34 Speaker 3: Well, for me, how it worked out. You got it fast. 00:16:37 Speaker 2: You were young. 00:16:38 Speaker 3: Yeah, I was 20, 21 years old when I signed the record deal. 00:16:41 Speaker 2: When you got it and you're single, Jacob's Ladder out when you were 22? 00:16:44 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:16:44 Speaker 2: Okay, so how'd you get How'd you get it? 00:16:46 Speaker 3: I came to town. 00:16:48 Speaker 2: This is like, people don't do this anymore. No, this is not how you get it. 00:16:51 Speaker 3: This is antiquated. This is antiquated music business. 00:16:53 Speaker 2: This is back in the day. Yeah. 00:16:53 Speaker 3: This is like, this is like writing on stone tablets for, uh, for you kids out there. 00:16:58 Speaker 2: Sit down and let grandpa tell you a story. 00:17:00 Speaker 3: Exactly. 00:17:01 Speaker 2: Exactly. I'm right there. 00:17:03 Speaker 3: Like when I was doing it, you know, actually recorded on tape. Um, but no, I mean like, you know, I would come to town and sing demos, and then those demos would go back to the publishing companies, and the publishing companies would pitch it to the A & R staffs at the record companies. 00:17:19 Speaker 2: And they were always looking for new voices. 00:17:21 Speaker 3: Well, they were always looking for great songs because all of the record labels had their established acts. 00:17:27 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:17:28 Speaker 3: But they were also looking for that next voice to come along. 00:17:32 Speaker 2: Right. 00:17:32 Speaker 3: And here I am. 00:17:34 Speaker 2: So they just heard your voice a lot, and were they finally like, I want to sign him? 00:17:37 Speaker 3: Well, so the way that it went down for me was that a song that I had sang the demo on got pitched to Carson Chamberlain over at Mercury Records. And Carson was like, I like the song, but who's the kid singing? And they were like, well, he's a boy that sings down in Georgia. And he was like, okay. And so they reached out through the publishing company and called the guy that owned the buckboard, which is where I was singing. And they were like, hey, you know, how old is this guy? You know, well, he's... 19 years old. 00:18:08 Speaker 2: Really? 00:18:09 Speaker 3: Yeah. He's not ready for a record deal yet. Give him a year. 00:18:12 Speaker 2: Why would they say you're not ready? 00:18:14 Speaker 3: Because I wasn't. 00:18:15 Speaker 2: What needed to get ready? 00:18:17 Speaker 3: Me. How? Psychologically, physically, emotionally. 00:18:22 Speaker 2: Did you do all that in a year? No. You have to do that on the road. You'd be broken like a horse. 00:18:26 Speaker 3: I'm 53 and I'm still an idiot. 00:18:28 Speaker 2: I'm an idiot too. I've been saying

that lately. Do you realize you're an idiot when you hit in your 40s? Because all of a sudden I'm like, am I stupid? Like, I might be. 00:18:36 Speaker 3: Well, I hate to break it to you, but yes, we all are. We're all still stupid. We all still do dumb things. But yeah, that was where the whole thing, you know, I wouldn't take... Let me rephrase that. There are very few 18 and 19-year-olds that I would say, you are ready. You are ready to step outside of what you think is your normal and have... this kind of success. What, okay. 00:19:07 Speaker 2: So people always hear about success and they're like, I want success, but what is like the other side of success? Cause there's a, there's a, there's a other side of the coin. 00:19:16 Speaker 3: They have no idea. And I don't even, I don't even know what success is in today's market because when I was, you know, when, when, when myself and Trace and Leanne, cause that's, that's just who we were talking about. But when, when we were, when we were getting started, it was all about radio airplay. It was radio airplay, it was touring, and it was having your record sold in Walmart and Target. 00:19:46 Speaker 2: You have arrived. 00:19:47 Speaker 3: Yeah. When you walk into Walmart, and you see your stand up in the corner with the new with the new album coming how does that feel oh it feels like a million bucks. 00:19:59 Speaker 2: And people are buying it absolutely. 00:20:01 Speaker 3: You know there's nothing in the world like you know 23 year old me standing in salt lake city walking into a Walmart to buy something because we're playing the Westerner, a private club for members only, and seeing somebody, two people in front of you buying your CD. And you just step around and you go, hey, we're playing the Westerner tonight. Would you like to come to the show? And they would be like, oh, my God, you know, I'm just buying your CD. I heard Jacob's Ladder on the radio. you know, or, or, or whatever. I mean, that was just the greatest feeling in the world, you know? 00:20:40 Speaker 2: Did you feel a life shift for you instantly? 00:20:44 Speaker 3: No, I mean, you're so caught up in the whirlwind of it that you, you don't, you don't, I don't think you feel it. I think you can sense it to a certain degree when, you know, people are starting to treat you a little different, uh, you know, or, or, um, whatever. you know, they're sending a limo to pick you up now, as opposed to, hey, throw your crap in the back of the truck here and jump in. You know, I mean, that was, you know, that was nice, but it didn't define who I was and it didn't define me. And, you know, and like I said, here we are 30 years later. 00:21:18 Speaker 2: And, an accomplishment 30 years later. 00:21:21 Speaker 3: 30 well i guess coming up on 31 are. 00:21:24 Speaker 2: You loving playing still just as much. 00:21:26 Speaker 3: I love my job okay. 00:21:28 Speaker 2: Tell me what you love about playing what's it like now because you know your audience like who is your audience what is a show what is a mark wills show like mark the mark. 00:21:36 Speaker 3: Will show as i speak about myself as a third person um it's very much it's i mean it's very much a walk down memory lane for a lot of people you know i i think a lot of What we've discovered over the last few years is that, you know, people that are my age now have grown kids. 00:21:56 Speaker 2: Like yourself. 00:21:56 Speaker 3: Yeah, like me. In their 20s, right? Like me. Yeah, I have a 23-year-old daughter and a 28-year-old daughter. And so, like, for me, they have kids that are my age and they'll come to the show and they'll be like, oh, you don't have any idea, man. We used to listen to you in the car all the time. And that's a great feeling. I don't understand why people don't like that. 00:22:20 Speaker 2: Same. 00:22:21 Speaker 3: Why would you not like to know that your music or what you do for a living was the soundtrack to someone's life? Agreed. 00:22:30 Speaker 2: And also, let's just not forget about all this whole generation of people that grew up on it, like myself, too. Because I just interviewed Clint Black the other day, and I was like, I get giddy when I get to talk to people like you guys because I'm like, this is what I grew up on. So it's like fun. To get to have a conversation with someone who imprinted your upbringing. 00:22:48 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:22:49 Speaker 2: And that imprint is always there. No matter how life progresses, you can always go back to your song, 1970-something. 00:22:56 Speaker 3: There you go. 00:22:57 Speaker 2: Go right back to this phase of your life. I was talking to a friend today who I haven't talked to in years, and we kind of had a falling out. But I'm like, we had this great season, and I will always remember it. And it was an imprint. And so it's like, why do we try to erase it? 00:23:08 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:23:09 Speaker 2: Times change but like that season always exists absolutely and it's awesome and it's great to be able to go hear it and tap into that feeling. 00:23:15 Speaker 3: Again absolutely 100% and I think that's what you know I think that's what music does for anybody you know I if you, if you follow us on Instagram or, or Mark Wills, Mark Wills music. 00:23:26 Speaker 2: Some fun, fun fact Friday, get ready for some fun. 00:23:28 Speaker 3: Look at you. 00:23:30 Speaker 2: I was watching some fun fact Fridays. I was like, dang, I learned a lot here with Mark Wills playing some golf. 00:23:34 Speaker 3: Well, so that's exactly what I was going to say. Like for, for my wife and I, you know, a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago, we went to, uh, The Mountain Music Festival over in Gatlinburg. And it was just 80s rock. It was like Warrant and Sebastian Bach and Night Ranger and all this great rock. And the one thing that my wife and I walked away from that was like, this is just a great time in our lives. 00:24:02 Speaker 2: You're not empty nesters. Is that

weird? Are you used to it? 00:24:04 Speaker 3: No, we're not empty nesters. Well, yeah, our kids are gone, but now we got grandbabies. 00:24:09 Speaker 2: Okay, so they're still around? 00:24:11 Speaker 3: Yes, they're at our house all the time. 00:24:14 Speaker 2: Do you all live near? Yes. And you live near your other family too? 00:24:17 Speaker 3: Yes. 00:24:18 Speaker 2: You got a good bingo card. Yes. You really did. I'm not complaining. To have your family all nearby, because these are the things that really matter. It's awesome. Starting point, great that you have this awesome career. Better for you, though, You have a great family that you all love to be together. Yeah. And you play golf all the time. I just feel like you're really doing a good job. 00:24:40 Speaker 3: It's not a bad gig. 00:24:41 Speaker 2: I know. 00:24:41 Speaker 3: So where I live, my wife's— I'm. 00:24:44 Speaker 2: Jealous about these kids. I want my daughter to be near me always. 00:24:47 Speaker 3: There you go. My wife's mom lives about seven minutes from us. Her sister lives about 10 minutes from us. Her brother lives about 12 minutes from us. Um, my parents moved back to my hometown. So they're, they're about an hour from us, but you know, but we're all still right there together. 00:25:07 Speaker 2: I do a lot of family dinners. 00:25:09 Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, absolutely. And then my kids, my, my oldest daughter lives one exit North of me and my youngest daughter lives one exit South of me. 00:25:18 Speaker 2: So your family likes each other. Tell me how you can make so many people in a family like each other. 00:25:24 Speaker 3: Well, I really don't give them a choice. I'm first of all, I'm dad. So you don't have, you don't have to like me. 00:25:29 Speaker 2: But they're all still here. 00:25:29 Speaker 3: But they're all still here. 00:25:30 Speaker 2: So I'm saying, how do you get people to stay near, even like your parents and extended family? What's the secret to all staying near? 00:25:36 Speaker 3: Well, I think it's just, you know, we're all close-knit. We all love each other. We all support each other. You know, I mean, if my dad, if my mom and dad called me right now and said, hey, I need you to come home, I'm in the truck and I'm leaving. You know, I mean, that's just, that's the way I was brought up. I was brought up that You know, that you take care of your own, you take care of your family. And I treat my band and crew the same way. I mean, you know, the people that work for me, I don't have a huge turnover in my world. The newest guy in my band has been in my band for 13 years now. Nice. You know, that's a long time for musicians to stick around and be, you know, be a part of the family. Yeah. 00:26:25 Speaker 2: How often do you like to play a year? If you could have it perfect, what's the amount of shows, being on the road to being home, that you like? 00:26:31 Speaker 3: I would do, you know, we probably right now do 50 to 60. I would probably say 70, 75. It's a perfect number because what you can do with 75 shows is you can base it out. You can say, okay, from this time to this time, I'm taking off. And from... you know, March through October, we're going to work every weekend. 00:26:55 Speaker 2: Great. 00:26:56 Speaker 3: You know, or, and, and, and like anything else, you can also say, okay, this, you know, like this year, this year, mine and Kelly were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. 00:27:07 Speaker 2: 30th year. So y'all started dating the same time your career blew up. 00:27:11 Speaker 3: So, so we were dating actually before I had my record deal, before I was, before anything was going on. I mean, I was, I was singing in Atlanta and, But we didn't have, you know, I didn't have a record deal. I just signed my publishing deal. And I was driving to Nashville once a month, staying at the Shoney's Inn over on Dumumbrian. 00:27:32 Speaker 2: That is no longer there. 00:27:33 Speaker 3: Which is now the Comfort Inn. 00:27:34 Speaker 2: I know. 00:27:35 Speaker 3: Yeah. But I would stay over there. How'd y'all meet? We met at a Braves World Series party. 00:27:41 Speaker 2: How did y'all maintain your relationship through all that rise to fame in all these years? Because that's like amazing. 00:27:46 Speaker 3: Well, I mean, we lived right there together. We were right there in the same area. 00:27:49 Speaker 2: Most people don't. stick it out that long? 00:27:52 Speaker 3: Well, we were either just really dumb or really smart. 00:27:56 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:27:57 Speaker 2: Tell me, tell me how that played out though. How was your thinking? How did y'all stick together? 00:28:01 Speaker 3: I think when you find somebody that, that you, uh, that you gel with, you know, that you can, you know, that you can be stupid and mess it up. And you know what? You probably, you still do stupid things and you could mess it up. But at the same time, you also Kind of, you know, we went into it. We went into it for the long haul. I didn't go into it. You know, I didn't go into it to have kids and then get divorced and go our separate ways and have a separate family and and all that. Neither did she. you know? And so, um, I think that, and we're at different, you know, we're completely different stages of life now. 00:28:42 Speaker 2: I mean, we're different versions of each other. 00:28:45 Speaker 3: And we don't necessarily love each other all the time. 00:28:47 Speaker 2: I think if you've been married for any kind of time, like if you or someone's saying I've been in love the whole time, you're not in a real marriage. No, that's what I'm saying. You have to like get to the nitty gritty. 00:28:56 Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying. And so, so like there, there are times when, but I, but I think that, but I think being a musician, I think it's been perfect because we don't have to live under the same roof every day and, and, and like drive each other crazy with our little, because

everybody has their own idiosyncrasies, you know? So I go to work and, and she stays home and, and I try to not mess up her schedule and, uh, and, and, and, and she makes her schedule to match my schedule. And like, if I'm like last week, we were, We played a show with Hank Jr. up in Cincinnati, and we flew up to that, and then we left from there and went to California for me to play a golf tournament for four days. And then we flew home from that, I came and I left and went directly to New York City with my youngest daughter to have a daddy daughter date in New York City. 00:29:43 Speaker 1: No. 00:29:44 Speaker 3: And then. 00:29:44 Speaker 2: Wait, what was daddy daughter date? 00:29:46 Speaker 3: That was it. That was just we went to a Broadway show. We saw Hadestown. 00:29:51 Speaker 2: Is this normal for you to do this kind of thing with your daughters? 00:29:53 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:29:54 Speaker 2: You go on little trips? Absolutely. Really? 00:29:56 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:29:57 Speaker 2: How like every year? 00:29:59 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:29:59 Speaker 2: And you take one at a time? 00:30:01 Speaker 3: Not necessarily. Sometimes I'll take all of them. Sometimes, you know, like my, so my oldest daughter loves New York, but she loves Disney. So there are many times where I will take, you know, there have been many times in the past where I would just the night before call Delta and book a book, you know, two tickets and we would fly to Disney and go to Disney and be there the first thing in the morning and And stay all day and take the last flight home. 00:30:30 Speaker 2: Okay, so you're fun. You like to do fun, spontaneous things. 00:30:33 Speaker 3: I'm very spontaneous. 00:30:35 Speaker 2: You're making dreams come true. That's great. Well, that's a dad's job. And I can tell that you're not, like, it's not too complicated. Like, that feels like a big thing. But really, it doesn't have to be. 00:30:44 Speaker 3: It's not a big thing. 00:30:45 Speaker 2: No, but it could be. You know, on a lot of levels. 00:30:47 Speaker 3: You can make anything as big of an issue or as small of an issue as you want to. It's how you choose to deal with it. 00:31:05 Speaker 2: Okay so how could that how do you deal with it so it's just easy what's your mindset i. 00:31:10 Speaker 3: I mean i was i got home i got home uh from california at 10 30 and uh when i was leaving the airport i ordered a pizza so that it was waiting on me when i got to the house And I got home about 11 o'clock. We left the airport at like 10 o'clock, got home at 11 o'clock. And my daughter, my youngest daughter and I left to go back to the airport at 2.30 in the morning. So I was home like four hours. 00:31:40 Speaker 2: And you're fine with it? 00:31:41 Speaker 3: I'm fine. And I got to New York City and we landed and we went to the hotel and dropped our stuff off and immediately hit the town. And we did. I let her. I was like, hey, you decide what you want to do today.

00:31:54 Speaker 2: This is so fun. 00:31:55 Speaker 3: And she decided what she wanted to do. 00:31:56 Speaker 2: And guess what? 00:31:57 Speaker 3: We did everything. We went to the, we went to, no, we went to, we went to Tiffany's, uh, and we had things. 00:32:03 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. We, we, we're buying nice. 00:32:05 Speaker 3: Things, do a shopping, but also had lunch there at the blue box. 00:32:09 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:32:10 Speaker 3: And, uh, and then I don't know about, uh, we did, we did that. And then we, um, went back and, and, and just run around and did whatever she wanted to do. She wanted to, go to a couple of different places, went to a couple of different places. And then we stopped by and saw a friend of mine that I had just met on the golf trip who lives in New York City, stopped and talked to him for a few minutes, went to his office, checked out the view from his office, and then went to the hotel, got changed, and went to the show, got done from that, went to Junior's and had some cheesecake. She wanted to have a martini overlooking the city. We went and had a martini overlooking the city and went to bed and got up the next morning and played Uncasville, Connecticut the next day. 00:32:52 Speaker 2: And she went home? 00:32:52 Speaker 3: No, she stayed with me. 00:32:53 Speaker 2: She came with you? Yeah. Oh. 00:32:56 Speaker 3: So it was like a little three-day daddy-daughter trip. And we came back to Nashville and I put her on a plane last night and sent her home. 00:33:02 Speaker 2: So everybody can just kind of be themselves. 00:33:05 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:33:05 Speaker 2: Like, cause she's, that's so fun. As an adult, do you feel like growing from like a little girl into an adult? Cause like you're still maintaining this relationship. Yeah. How has it evolved? Because that's really beautiful. That's really sweet. 00:33:17 Speaker 3: I love that. It's evolved, but I'm still their daddy. You know, I mean, that's just the that's just the way life is for us. It may not be that way for everybody there. There may be people out there that are like, well, I'm an adult and I don't, you know, whatever. That's fine. If that works for you, that works for you. And I and my kids don't necessarily always listen to me, but I will always give them my opinion and I will always, you know, share with them the. the wisdom that I have gathered over, over my life. And, uh, you know, and, and, but I always try to make, you know, time for them and I try to have special time and, and, you know, and, and my wife and I, we get to go do special things and, um, you know, and, and I, but I try to do that with, with all my girls. And when the boys get a little bit older, uh, absolutely. We'll do the same thing. 00:34:08 Speaker 2: That's so sweet. 00:34:09 Speaker 3: I take my grand, I take my oldest grandson who, loves to go to the driving range, but he don't hit golf balls. He likes to roll in the grass. But that's what he likes to do. He likes to

play in the sand trap and roll in the grass. So I take him and I putt a little bit while he rolls in the sand and rolls down the hill, and then we go home. 00:34:28 Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm gathering some data here, and I'm kind of piecing together that you're a quality time guy, it feels like, But you want whoever you're with to be enjoying themselves and you really don't care what it is. You don't really have a big agenda. 00:34:42 Speaker 3: If I'm at work, it's my world. Yeah. 00:34:46 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:34:47 Speaker 3: So don't come into my world and upset my apple cart when I'm at work. 00:34:51 Speaker 2: You know how you want that to go. 00:34:52 Speaker 3: Absolutely. Okay. 00:34:53 Speaker 2: And it's very clear. But other things, you're like, who cares? Who cares? Who cares? 00:34:58 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:35:00 Speaker 3: There's much bigger things in this world. If something that you want to do makes you happy and I have zero interest in it, that doesn't mean that I can't be happy for you. Right. 00:35:10 Speaker 2: So you're just like focused on where you need to be focused and the rest, you're just like, whatever, let's just live our best life. 00:35:14 Speaker 3: Let's go. 00:35:15 Speaker 2: That's great. 00:35:16 Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know, you can be 53 and miserable or you can be 53 and happy. 00:35:22 Speaker 2: So being happy is important. 00:35:24 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:35:24 Speaker 2: Do you think having others, your surrounding people happy impacts your happiness? 00:35:30 Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. 00:35:31 Speaker 2: So like having your ecosystem happy is important. 00:35:33 Speaker 3: Absolutely. 00:35:34 Speaker 2: How did you learn that? 00:35:35 Speaker 3: I don't have any idea. I think that's, I think that was just ingrained into me. Uh, you know, I have a, my four-year-old grandson's autistic. Okay. 00:35:42 Speaker 2: Cause that's important to you. I've seen you talk about this. 00:35:45 Speaker 3: And, and so, you know, with him being autistic, um, I've had to, to, to learn different things. I actually, It's become sort of a family joke and it's not funny, but the more I learn about autism, I know that I'm autistic. You think so? I think every musician out there is on the spectrum. Really? Every single one of us. In which way? Different ways. But we all have our things. Every musician out there has their own things that put them kind of... on the spectrum. 00:36:15 Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure. 00:36:15 Speaker 3: And so, so I have, I have learned, you know, I've learned what the little things that, that, uh, you know, that make him happy. And, uh, you know, and, and then my youngest grandson, he's just, we just have to keep him alive every day. Cause he's a wild man. 00:36:30 Speaker 2: Boys are wild. 00:36:31 Speaker 3: Oh, do you have, do you have boys? 00:36:34 Speaker 2: I have only a little girl who's seven and she's my best friend and she's an angel. And I was, I was talking to my other best friend My very best friend, Caroline Squires, and I'm Caroline Hobby. We've been best friends since we were two. She's got two boys. 00:36:44 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:36:45 Speaker 2: And I'm like, your parenting experience is so different than mine. 00:36:49 Speaker 3: Completely different. 00:36:50 Speaker 2: Like, I'm living in an angelic heaven, and you are living in, like, just a, I don't even know what it is. What are they like? Just beating each other down all the time. Just fighting, but it's all for fun. 00:37:01 Speaker 3: I called my daughter this morning on the way into town, and I'm like, what are you doing? She goes, well, I'm, she goes, I'm refereeing right now. She goes, my four-year-old and my one-and-a-half-year-old are wrestling. And I'm like, okay. I said, never thought you'd. I, you know, like when my girls were little, my oldest daughter was the sweet. And it's the firstborn syndrome. And the second is always the bull in the china shop. 00:37:26 Speaker 2: Which you need them both, I guess. But, man, that second one's an abrupt awakening, isn't it? 00:37:30 Speaker 3: It absolutely is, you know. So here we are. So I'm like, welcome to our world, you know. Even though they're both boys, you know, you have one that's just the sweetest, sweetest he can be. And, and then, you know, and, and then they, they wrestle and, and, you know, one cries and they scream and they holler and all that kind of stuff. 00:37:50 Speaker 2: It's crazy. Okay. You have a new album out. 00:37:52 Speaker 3: Oh, are we going to talk about that? 00:37:53 Speaker 2: We are finally going to get to actually what you have out. You have an album out. 00:37:56 Speaker 3: I do. Well, it's, it's coming out. It's coming out November 6th. 00:37:59 Speaker 2: It's locked and loaded with some serious star power. 00:38:02 Speaker 3: Well, you know, I, it's my first gospel record and I, and, and, And Ben Isaacs and I were at the Opry one night and, uh, we were talking about gospel music and he goes, man, why don't you do a gospel record? And I said, well, I've, I just didn't feel like my career path had ever set me up to do a gospel record. And, uh, he goes, he goes, man, he goes, I see your heart. He goes, and I know how you love that music. And I, and, and we talked about it and I mean, I grew up in, grew up in a church and, You know, the first music that I ever learned in my life was gospel music. And so we started talking about it and sort of, you know, kind of planning out the, you know, the walking out, walking through the process of putting it all together. And then we decided that it was going to be kind of a guest album. So we were going to go in and record the record and we recorded it. We did something that has never been done in the history of in the 100-year history of the Grand Ole Opry. We took over the Opry stage. We recorded the record live. 00:39:08 Speaker 2: The whole album's live. 00:39:09 Speaker 3: Because you are an Opry member. 00:39:11 Speaker 2:

Let's not forget that. What's your number? 218. 00:39:13 Speaker 3: Number 218. 00:39:14 Speaker 2: 218th member of the Grand Ole Opry. Oh, congratulations. 00:39:17 Speaker 3: Thank you. 00:39:17 Speaker 2: I mean, big deal. 00:39:18 Speaker 3: But we went in and we recorded the record. So my vocal was recorded live on stage. The band was recorded live on stage. And then we took the live record into the studio and all of my friends joined us. And so we didn't necessarily know, like when I recorded... you know, when I recorded I'll Fly Away, I didn't know that it was going to be Rhonda Vinson. 00:39:47 Speaker 2: You didn't know who your duet partner was going to be. Yeah. That came later. 00:39:50 Speaker 3: So it was kind of one of those things where we selected the songs and then we put and we recorded the tracks. I recorded the live vocal and then I reached out to my friends. I reached out to Jamie. I reached out to Cody. I reached out to. 00:40:06 Speaker 2: Cody Johnson, Jamie Johnson. 00:40:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, Cody Johnson, Jamie Johnson. 00:40:08 Speaker 2: And Jamie Johnson's on your current single. What's the current single? 00:40:11 Speaker 3: Baptism of Jesse Taylor. Okay. So Jamie and I were talking about it, and I was like, hey, man, I just feel like this is the song that you would be great on. He's like, yeah, man. And so I drove up here, and we went to the studio, and he recorded his part, and then we ended up putting the Gaither Vocal Band on. the same song, doing some of the background vocals. And we put Hall of Fame, you know, Country Music Hall of Fame, Charlie McCoy playing harmonica and all that kind of stuff on it. So, I mean, it was just, that's the way the whole project went down. Was it a blast? Oh, it's the most fun I've ever had making a record. 00:40:47 Speaker 2: Okay, why? 00:40:48 Speaker 3: Because it was live. It was like the live performance. So when you go to a concert and you're watching the person on stage and And they're enjoying what they're doing. Yes. Like there's nothing better than that. It's true. I got to put all of that on tape and then go in and have my friends come in and join me. 00:41:12 Speaker 2: And isn't it with the Grand Ole Opry? 00:41:13 Speaker 3: Yeah. And we recorded it on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. When you see the footage, I'm standing in the circle on stage with my back to what would be the crowd. 00:41:26 Speaker 2: Wow. 00:41:26 Speaker 3: There's nobody in the building. We've turned the Grand Ole Opry house into a recording studio. 00:41:32 Speaker 2: With no one there. Oh, it was just y'all. It was just us. Did you do multiple takes or did you just do one take? 00:41:38 Speaker 3: So a couple of the songs we would do, like take one and we'd get familiar with the song and then go back and do it again. 00:41:47 Speaker 2: But like you take the full take. 00:41:48 Speaker 3: The full take. There's no editing. There's no editing. There's no going back and taking a piece of this

one and a piece of that one. 00:41:55 Speaker 2: You can redo it, but you're only going to get the take. Oh, that's like back in the day. 00:41:58 Speaker 3: It was back in the day. 00:42:00 Speaker 2: Absolutely. 00:42:00 Speaker 3: It's exactly what it was. So it allowed us to be true musicians and true singers. 00:42:08 Speaker 2: And put a little pressure on it because you've got to get it. You really can't go back and edit it. You've got to get it. 00:42:13 Speaker 3: Well, so, so there's one song on the record that I had to re-sing. And the reason I had to re-sing it was because when they were initially setting, like setting all the parameters, setting the EQs and all that kind of stuff, I was, my vocal was overdriving the microphone. So like when I would hit the high notes or when I would hit loud notes, it would kind of like fuzz out. So they were like, Hey, we're going to have to go back and record this, this vocal again. 00:42:41 Speaker 2: I was like, But overall, what a fun time. 00:42:45 Speaker 3: It was the most, like I said, it was the most fun I've ever had making a record because it was like live performances. 00:42:50 Speaker 2: At the Grand Ole Opry. And then all your legendary friends. Okay, so what's it called? 00:42:54 Speaker 3: It's called Grand Ole Revival. Yes. And it will be out. Actually, you can stream a couple of the songs now. We have the Jamie Johnson song, Baptism of Jesse Taylor. And then we also just released I'll Fly Away. which was myself and Rhonda Vinson and Ricky Skaggs. Awesome. 00:43:15 Speaker 2: And Grand Ole Opry is also selling it? 00:43:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:43:17 Speaker 2: That's amazing. 00:43:18 Speaker 3: Well, they will. 00:43:18 Speaker 2: I'm sure they will. 00:43:19 Speaker 3: That's awesome. I mean, why would they not? 00:43:20 Speaker 2: I'm sure it'll be in Cracker Barrel. You know it's bound to be. If it's in Grand Ole Opry and country music. 00:43:24 Speaker 3: Here's what I can tell you. I'll be in Cracker Barrel. 00:43:26 Speaker 2: Me too. 00:43:27 Speaker 3: You don't get this body by not eating Cracker Barrel. So this body will be in Cracker Barrel. And while I'm there, I will sign some LPs and some CDs that are there. 00:43:38 Speaker 2: I love that. Okay, Mark, where can everyone find you? Are you going on the road anytime soon? 00:43:42 Speaker 3: We're always on the road. 00:43:43 Speaker 2: Okay, so just go to? Always on the road. 00:43:44 Speaker 3: Go to markwills.com. That's the official site. And you can follow me. My Instagram is markwillsmusic. 00:43:53 Speaker 2: I think your Instagram is really entertaining as well. 00:43:55 Speaker 3: It's fun. 00:43:55 Speaker 2: It's a good Instagram. 00:43:56 Speaker 3: I want to have fun with it. 00:43:57 Speaker 2: I can tell you like to have fun. 00:43:59 Speaker 3: I don't take anything too serious. 00:44:01 Speaker 2: That's great. 00:44:01 Speaker 3: I take my golf game serious. 00:44:02 Speaker 2: That's also great. 00:44:03 Speaker 3: And that's about it. 00:44:05 Speaker 2: I just started playing golf. 00:44:07 Speaker 3: Did you? Yeah. Are you enjoying it? 00:44:09 Speaker 2: Joined a ladies group. 00:44:10 Speaker 3: Come on. 00:44:10 Speaker 2: You know you're 43 when you play Mahjong and join a ladies group. 00:44:13 Speaker 3: Come on. 00:44:15 Speaker 2: I was like, who is this? 00:44:17 Speaker 3: Who am I? 00:44:18 Speaker 2: I always thought golf was so tedious and so boring. And I would like ride in the golf cart with my dad or my husband. But I was like, this is just tedious. And then I started playing. I was like, playing with girlfriends though was fun. 00:44:29 Speaker 3: Well, you know the great thing about golf? So if you go, if you want to go play tennis, can you play by yourself? 00:44:36 Speaker 2: No, you have to be good. 00:44:37 Speaker 3: No, you don't. 00:44:37 Speaker 2: Kind of. 00:44:38 Speaker 3: You don't have to be good. Kind of. But you can't play by yourself. No. You can't play baseball by yourself. You can't play football by yourself. You can't, you know, you can't play cards. I mean, you can play solitaire. 00:44:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:44:47 Speaker 3: But golf is one of those things that you can go out and you can play with a group, but it's you. Right. It's nothing else that's going on in that group. Yeah. You can have your gossip time and you can do all that kind of stuff. 00:45:01 Speaker 2: Right. 00:45:02 Speaker 3: But when it's your turn to hit the shot, nothing affects that. It's you. And I think that's the thing for me that I have always loved about golf is that if I need a day by myself, Yeah. I can go to the golf course. I can play by myself. 00:45:16 Speaker 2: Just kind of empty out your brain. 00:45:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. 00:45:19 Speaker 2: Let your body relax. 00:45:21 Speaker 3: It's a good way to relax. 00:45:22 Speaker 2: It's like a moving meditation. Absolutely. I just interviewed this woman, and she was talking about activations. And she has this whole thing about activations. But it's kind of like that. You're activating yourself. You're just getting in a new mindset. You're not thinking about all the worries, and you're just thinking about golf. Yeah. For hours. And then you kind of forget about your worries. 00:45:39 Speaker 3: And you're re-centered. It is a great way to just step away and have some time to yourself that nothing else is affected by. 00:45:49 Speaker 2: I love that. 00:45:50 Speaker 3: It's you. 00:45:51 Speaker 2: And you're outside, which is great. Amen. Well, Mark Wills, thank you so much for joining me. New album out. Follow your Instagram and just keep living the dream. 00:46:00 Speaker 3: Come on. 00:46:01 Speaker 2: I mean, good for you. It's the way to do it. I'm happy for you. This was so fun talking to you. Thanks for coming. 00:46:05 Speaker 3: Thank you.