00:00:10
Speaker 1: Carl Line.
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Speaker 2: She's a queen and talking and a song.
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Speaker 3: She's getting really.
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Speaker 2: Not afraid to feel its episode or soul.
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Speaker 3: Just let it flow.
00:00:21
Speaker 2: No one can do we quiet Cary Line is time, Carolne happy to be here. I oh, you're red my hat. This is my friend Dedie Rad's hat. I gotta give her a shout out because she is awesome and you know, love love some good merch. I am so excited to be here with Clint Black. Hey, does everyone freak out when they meet you? Uh?
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Speaker 1: Sometimes in a mall or something. But it's lots just different here in Nashville or LA or New York because people used to seeing famous people.
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Speaker 2: Do you walk around in a cowboy hat or do you have cognito what you're every day at times?
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Speaker 1: Just a ball cap? Sneakers, yeah, okay, cargo pants you can yeah? And and and here. You know, it's different when I'm out on the road. You know, if I go to the store or something, and you know, I've had people following me thinking maybe and then they'll show up over in the frozen foods or something, and.
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Speaker 3: Do they say hi and say hi?
00:01:24
Speaker 2: And do you like to tell me?
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Speaker 1: Tell me things about you know what they loved and music wise, or you know, where's Lisa and stuff like that, So you just.
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Speaker 2: Like get into conversation with him.
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Speaker 1: Uh. Yeah, yeah, I try to just be a normal person, you know.
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Speaker 2: It's uh, it is fascinating though, that someone will just walk up to you and just go straight into a conversation. Well do they know everything about you?
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Speaker 1: Yeah? It's uh, it's usually are you are you him? You know that sort of thing, and then uh, and then there's a little bit of the uh, the small talk of I can't believe you're here. And I always remember George Harrison's line somebody said what are you doing here? And he said, well, I have to be somewhere, you know, go Yeah, especially grocery stores. I have to hit grocery stores on the road. How's that you It's great.
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Speaker 2: That's where you meet a lot of people.
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Speaker 1: Meet a lot of people in grocery stores. Yeah, try to stay out of the malls, but uh, you know, or I have to go get some take out.
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Speaker 2: What's your gatu takeout.
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Speaker 1: A roasted chicken from the best place that has it around me.
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Speaker 2: Okay, roast you're a pretty healthy guy.
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Speaker 1: A little roasted chicken yet not always. No, it's just it's a safe bet. You know, like a roasted half chicken's got a lot of dark meat, and no matter how if they overcook it, the dark meat, it's just hard to ruin. So it's a safe bet.
00:02:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're eating in a lot of different places all the time. You've been on the road for how many years? You Killing Time came out thirty seven years ago. Yeah, so that was legendary.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I did ten years in the bars and then before then, Yeah, and then you know, started touring right in like February of eighty nine.
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Speaker 2: How old are you when you started.
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Speaker 1: Singing in bars? Yeah, well you had to be eighteen to get into bars back then in Texas, So I was eighteen. We would play chili cookoffs and stuff. Before that was in a band with my brother.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: Oh and why did that band break up?
00:03:25
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:03:26
Speaker 1: Well, the lead guitarist decided, Gevin Van decided he couldn't be a part of helping friends and family destroy themselves every night and watch it because when you're on stage, you know, you can sort of see the lean begin you can see how far people are leaning by the end of the night. And he had enough of that. So he just quit one night, and my brother Kevin and I played a few gigs as a duo, but but he went back to construction work. I did some construction work for a while and then finally went started playing solo in the bars, and it was it was a slog.
00:04:16
Speaker 2: What was that like? Because I feel like this day and age, people aren't like slogging it out in the bars like they did before, because now they just get on TikTok.
00:04:25
Speaker 1: But they are on Broadway. You know, there's a lot of bars in Texas. I don't know about all the other regions, but you know, in Texas you can you can play somewhere every night and never leave the state.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: Do you think people are still making it by coming up through the bars like they were? Oh yeah, you think so?
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there are guys coming up in Texas making millions of dollars a year playing the bars selling their merch. You know, for me it was fifty dollars a night. I hadn't been able to make a better business of it than that. And you know, it just I was a soloist, so that helped. Yeah, I didn't have a band to feed.
00:05:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, when did it really start? To catch on for you. What was the moment?
00:05:17
Speaker 1: Well, I needed a band for one gig at a country club. I wanted the solo gig, which you know, paid twice what I was getting anywhere else. But in order to get the solo gig, I had to play this one party, and they demanded a band. So I found a band. Hayden Nicholas was playing lead guitar in the band brand New and in the band, and so he and I hit it off. He had an eight track machine, and I've been trying to get demos made, and so we made a deal one hundred and fifty bucks a song to cut demos. The first demo we finished was Nobody's Home.
00:06:01
Speaker 2: That was the first.
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Speaker 1: That was the first one.
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Speaker 2: Was you started off with that?
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Speaker 1: Yeah and Yeah by myself and Nothing's News. I wrote half of that album by myself, in the other half with Hayden and Yeah.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: I was really young, insight.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: I don't know when I was eighteen? I uh, I wrote I wrote some big hits when I was eighteen?
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Speaker 2: Where did that come?
00:06:27
Speaker 1: I stayed of mind and loving blind?
00:06:31
Speaker 2: How did you have that at eighteen?
00:06:33
Speaker 1: It was I really in high school. I had to recite a poem in English class or drama class, and I really took to it, and I think I was kind of romantic anyway, but you know, I saw the meaning, I felt the rhythms of it, and uh and I was a huge fan of great songwriters and so so it really I think set me up as a poet. And then the musicality would evolve as I got, you know, better at playing and learn more chords. We got that song Demode. I was looking for a manager. First found a manager. He brought me to Nashville and RCA signed me. So that was pretty quickly. Yeah, that was nineteen eighty seven, and it wasn't until February of eighty nine when the music video for A Better Man came out and the single it took off, but the video had more of an impact. We were able to get some good bookings and draw crowds just based on CMT and TNN and then and then it took about five months something like that for A Better Man to climb to number one. They pushed up the release of the album, which would follow just I think a month later, and then Killing Time came out. By the time Killing Time came out, the single it was you know, we were out there opening for the Jugs and Alabama and stuff like that. It was got big fast.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: Is it wild now to look back and realize that you you're an icon and when you were in that time, you were surrounded by icons in the making, like the Juds and like who else were you coming up with? Who was in your like class?
00:08:39
Speaker 1: That was like, well, Dwight Yoakum was ahead of me. Yeah, so we did a month on the road.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: Dwight time to be alive and an icon.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Dwight, Alan Jackson, Alan Jackson, Garth, Travis Tritt.
00:08:56
Speaker 2: Heat of country music.
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, nineteen eighty nine was a it was a huge year. That's huge for me and for that small group of us. Yeah, and the the record sales exploded so quickly. I remember when when I broke there were six major labels on music, Row and H and by the time it was like, you know, two three years later there were twenty six.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: WHOA, So you' all just broke it wide open.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really did it? Uh? And uh what was it? It was just hundreds of millions of records being sold at that point in the country.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: What was it like though, being a nineties country star because to me, that is the best of the best. It doesn't get anything better. What was that like? Did you feel like it was the best of the best?
00:09:53
Speaker 1: What it was? What it was like? And I wrote about it in my.
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Speaker 2: Book, which is okay, So it's called Killing Time, Life and Music. It's coming on May nineteenth. Oh we got one years. Okay, I'm so let's look at this.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: We have one for you for the cheap price of Okay.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: So, Clinton Black, killing Time my life in music. I'm sorry. And I am a happily married woman. And I know you're too. But you were so handsome. I mean you really are. You were just like classic cowboy country handsome. Is it hard to be that handsome?
00:10:26
Speaker 1: It's so so terrible.
00:10:28
Speaker 2: It's terrible. It must be hard on you it.
00:10:32
Speaker 1: You know, my looks were talked about when all that was going on, everyone, especially Travis and Alan and all those guys, you know, and it and it felt, you know, for me, it was it was like, you know, okay, but the music, you know, so okay, sorry, it has.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: My dashing looks the music.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and and what was happening with this explosion uh my career. It was like, you know, I said, it was like NASA must have felt putting a man on the moon. It happened, It's big. And then from then it was just one big thing after another. I was going from event to event. And one of the big things is is that it's hard to keep your head above water vocally as a singer. It's hard to do everything that you're called upon to do and then sing at night. And so it was a tightrope walk of doing and enjoying and then also being good enough to do what brought you there. So singing in the bars four and seven hours a night was tough, but at least that's all I was doing. Yeah, And so with this it was interviews, interviews, photo shoots, TV appearances and uh, we were doing like this. One run was nine shows on one day off, eight shows on one day off, twenty one shows.
00:12:10
Speaker 2: On no no, no, no, no, two days off. That's not possible. Yeah, shows in a row. Yeah, that's not humanly possible.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: It's not wise.
00:12:18
Speaker 2: Did you lose your voice or get sick? Oh?
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a it was a big concern. It's a big part.
00:12:25
Speaker 2: I mean, every allow hard.
00:12:27
Speaker 1: Uh well, I I cried uncle and I finally, you know, got my arms around it all. But it took a while, and I've been looking for a vocal coach and this is this is a big thing for uh anyone trying to get into this business. Not to you know, shamelessly plug my book you got with, but I really go go through what that was like and how much pressure it was. And by the way, it was a lot of fun. It was. It was fun, and there were things happening to me, you know, like you know, doing a movie with James Garner and Mel Gibson and Jody Foster and James Cobnover Maverick.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that amazing.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: It was amazing going on Wings and all this great stuff, all these great people I was meeting, you know, going I went on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was still there, and Bob Hope Specials and and and you know, going to lunch with Waylon Jennings. You know, it's just it was just this crazy whirlwind of the greatest stuff. And while that's happening, you know, trying to be a good singer through it all, and you'd go into CMA week and it's just everything they can do to beat your vocal cords down, and now you're standing up there in front of Reba and straight and you know, uh, I mean you name it, Haggard Jones. You know everyone's everyone's right in front of you, and you've got no voice. It's it's really it was really true. I finally found a great voice coach.
00:14:05
Speaker 2: So you had that.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: It helped that, Yeah, that grip that really helped. Well. I was losing it daily, but I was I was tough enough from the four and seven hour gigs and the bars. You know, my vocal cords were pretty tough, right, and so I was able to to get by. But there was always that feeling, I'm not at my best, and this is my big moment. I'm not at my best. And so it became a battle of how much you're going to work me before a show. You know, we have to we have to harm wrestle over it.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: What's your sweet spot? How many days on can you do?
00:14:49
Speaker 1: Oh? I can do a lot of days on, but I have to be disciplined about resting my voice during the day on show days. So four or five shows in a row is it's doable. I can be I can be better on the fifth day if I'm really disciplined on those other days.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: Do you feel have you always toured this much? Because we were talking in the lobby and I toured more. You've always heard more. But you took time off to raise your daughter. And that was like a huge decision. Was that kind of in the height of everything or like, how did you make that choice?
00:15:29
Speaker 1: That's a way. Yeah. I read a book. I read this book about parenting and one of the things that stuck out to me was and I'd seen a Billy Joel interview before we ever thought about having a child, and and uh, he talked about being gone too much and coming home and feeling like uncle daddy, and so that stuck with me. So when I read this thing in the book, uh, they use the term secure attachment, and if you want to be a secure attachment, you earned that in the first three years of the child's life.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: So you really wanted to be a dad?
00:16:07
Speaker 1: Yeah? I wanted to be a good dad.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: Where did that? A lot of artists don't prioritize that. How did we well?
00:16:13
Speaker 1: Family was just my marriage was already the most important thing to me. So yeah, so uh so by extension, the family we create is most important and uh and just you know the idea of you know, we're we're raising you know, this, this person to be an adult that we want to be around and who wants to be around us. So what kind of person you raise?
00:16:44
Speaker 3: It's it's all up to you.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: What's your parenting style? How do you how would you say? Because I'm in the throes of parenting, I have a six and a half year old and she's just my whole world. She's an only child life as well as you guys, which I love seeing other only child families in the wild. But what is your parenting approach? Because there's a lot of parenting styles and I'm witnessing them. I have my personal style, but I see my friends parenting all sorts of ways, and I just see you have such a healthy relationship with your wife and your daughter. What was y'all style? How did you guys parent and how did you stay together as a unitch? Because I know y'all tour now as a unit, which is amazing, But how did you do that?
00:17:38
Speaker 1: I I think I'm very strict and that you know, I'm like my dad, my mom. We could pester my mom long enough she would give in My Dad would say no, and then if you asked again, he'd say, I said no. If you asked me again, you're going to get a whooping. Okay, yeah, yeah, and uh and so so for me, the line, it's a hard line. You know that, you know this is a no least as much softer. But she's strict and in other ways. But but for me it was, uh, it was no and no and you know no means no. And by the way, you're welcome. And I would joke with her. So so I would find ways to turn this strictness into humor with us.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: You're humorous too, that's a personality.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: I tell her, you know, the reason I'm doing this is because of this and because I love you. And then uh and so sometimes she would get really upset about a no and uh and she's walking away. I'd say you're welcome, and she would she would soften a little bit and uh and and I think recognize the love behind that, and I think, uh, I think that probably sums me up. But you know, we just pick on each other and laugh and and have a ball.
00:19:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: We're very close. And uh. So all that strictness, you know, the kids know if you teach them that this is this is because I love you. I want you to Yeah, I want you to grow up to be a nice person. You know, so, Uh, it helps to explain it. I got that from my brother Brian. My two other brothers, Mark and Kevin, were a little more bullish about their lessons, but my brother Brian would explain, you know, this is why you can't do that, and uh, that stuck with me. He's a little kid.
00:19:52
Speaker 2: Everybody wants to know why. You know, you don't just going to be told not to do something. You want to know why. I feel like it makes it make more sense.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there's the debate that follows.
00:20:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, they're learning to use their voice. You know, I appreciate that. When you decided to come off the road and raise Lily, was that a big decision for you?
00:20:13
Speaker 1: It's huge? It was not great for my career.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Why not?
00:20:17
Speaker 1: Well, you know you kind of disappear to some degree. Were people mad at you? No? I didn't get that. I just got that, you know the way it affected me. No, not really, not not my management and all that. But maybe the record company cared most. I don't know really, but you know, when you're when you're going along promoting, releasing, promoting releasing, there there have to be gaps in it. But the gap that I took was was more than recommended.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: Okay, so you were already on a gap, like you had put on an album, you had done all the press and the touring, and it was like, probably time start writing another album.
00:21:01
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, it would have probably, you know, two years between releases would have been fine, but I don't remember. It's it's become five years just because it's it's so hard to make an album, not like construction, but it's but it's hard, and I have to be uh further and further removed from it to forget how hard it was, and it's it's torture. I mean, I produced my own records, I write my own songs, and I'm there for every second that the tape is rolling. In particular, I hear, yeah, I hear all of the the playback and and all of that full.
00:21:46
Speaker 2: Vision of how you wanted to sound, and you are well.
00:21:48
Speaker 1: No, not always. I mean, sometimes I know what I exactly what I want. Sometimes I'm experimenting, but I have to decide it has to be my music, and I can't turn it over to someone to do for me. But by the time, yeah, I'm finished, I calculated that I hear a song or some part of the song each song about a thousand times, so it doesn't do anything for me mojo wise at that point. At that point, it's it's a science project where you're making sure that every instrument has its place to be and that it can be heard and not this one's not too loud and that one's not too loud, and it's it's just it's just a science and it and it plays in my head when I sleep. So once I've been asleep for five hours, not long enough, but long enough for the music to start going in my head, then it starts playing over and over and I just have to get up and go back out there and work. Yeah, it's like it's like somebody turns the radio on it at you know, five o'clock in the morning, and you can't turn it off, so you have to just get up.
00:23:01
Speaker 2: That's how you are making the album.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: That's by the end of it. Yeah, by the the last weeks, it's it's exhausting because I can't get enough sleep before my brain starts solving solving my problems. You know, our brain, a lot of the neural pathways are created while we sleep. If you're trying to solve a problem, then your brain is working on those neural pathways while you sleep. Do some kind of a test when you go to sleep and wake up in the morning and see how much better you are at that test. And so it's doing that with the music. And I guess when it solves the problem, it says, wake up and go fix this.
00:23:47
Speaker 2: Don't forget this.
00:23:48
Speaker 1: It's torture by the end of me because you.
00:23:50
Speaker 2: Can't forget it because if you don't go do it right then, or get up and like record it. Yeah, with music, you have to record it. You can't like write it down. You have to record what you hear in your brain before it vanishes.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:24:01
Speaker 2: Oh so you are.
00:24:02
Speaker 1: Like so yeah, so it so it. It becomes just a mentally exhaustive process by the end of it, and so it takes a few years before you want to go through it again. And uh, you're decompressed. I'm about there.
00:24:17
Speaker 2: How do you decompress? Because you put your last album was twenty twenty, right, which that was like in the middle of when everyone was insane.
00:24:26
Speaker 1: So you're trying to say, here's here's what I did during the COVID pandemic. I finished an album, Okay. I started an online coffee business. What's it called, Clint Black Cowboy Coffee. Okay, it's the best coffee you'll ever buy it my website.
00:24:46
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's online. Great, it's on my cons.
00:24:49
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you love it. I love it.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Okay, I want to hear about these beans later.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: The other thing was, Uh, I pitched an idea for a TV show to the Circle Network and they audit What in the Circle Talking in circles.
00:25:04
Speaker 2: Talking in circles and it was like your own late night show.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is what I was doing when we couldn't do anything were you just.
00:25:13
Speaker 2: Needed to talk to people? And like, get how did that happen?
00:25:17
Speaker 1: Exploding my manager? Uh? And I? Uh, Brinson Strickland and I were at thing over the heat don't look. He and I had, you know, come out of rooms so many times hanging out doing something and and the Isaacs starts singing background vocals with me, and you know, backstage or something, and and uh and we walk out of there going, you know, I wish I wish people could see that, and uh, and the conversations we had, So that's that's really where the idea came from. Was, Uh, what if I'm having a conversation with fellow artists and go wherever I would go?
00:26:01
Speaker 2: What'd you like to talk about? Where'd you go? Where was some time? Was there anywhere you went with someone that kind of surprised you that you went there? Or did you learn something that was like wow.
00:26:10
Speaker 1: Oh, probably I did. We did sixty episodes, so yeah, so it was, uh, who was your first?
00:26:16
Speaker 2: Who are some of your favorite guests that you can't want?
00:26:18
Speaker 1: I know you loved My wife was on I her made her cry?
00:26:22
Speaker 2: You did about that?
00:26:23
Speaker 1: Yeah? I uh, just taking her back through her career.
00:26:27
Speaker 2: Such a beautiful romance and love story. Yeah, that's really beautiful and rare.
00:26:31
Speaker 1: Terry Bradshaw, Okay, Terry Bradshaw. I didn't realize I was wrapping the show and he kept talking, so we let him and we ended up with two episodes as we went, like twice as long as we normally do. Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton, Oh man, there's so many sixty episodes, so yeah, five seasons.
00:26:59
Speaker 2: Was it just that it was that just such a fun pivot in your career because it all fits together.
00:27:03
Speaker 1: But it was fun. It was a lot of pressure. I took the job seriously, so I did my research and uh and then the best part about it was the new friends I made. People who did the show I never met, like Bonamasa, Patricia heat and uh, so many the people that that That was the connection that we made.
00:27:31
Speaker 2: Because you really get to know someone all the way to the bottom of their soul when you have that sit down. I feel like you did to see so much.
00:27:37
Speaker 1: And it was in front of a live audience, so it was an intimate conversation. But no, no audiences make things.
00:27:45
Speaker 2: Better, Okay, So as a true performer.
00:27:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was part of my is what I insisted on, Yeah, that we have a live audience. Well, if we had an audience here, I wouldn't just be answering your questions. I would try to entertain them and then I would know when I did. If you hear uh some response, a laugh or whatever it is, you can you can feel that you're you're just accumulating energy from them and they're giving You're giving it to them, They're giving it back to you and all of that that's going on. One, you still get that, but when you have a bunch of people over here, it's just it does something.
00:28:34
Speaker 2: I don't know, what is that feeling like when you get all the energy going and it's all like.
00:28:39
Speaker 1: Well, it's it's energizing.
00:28:41
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
00:28:42
Speaker 1: You know, you can be worn out and an audience will like a fellow runner who takes you past your your wall. That's what it is.
00:28:52
Speaker 2: So you love the live performance?
00:28:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love a good audience.
00:28:58
Speaker 2: Okay, So how was when you did acting? How did you get into acting? And you could have pursued to be a major movie star? Like why did you not keep going? Yes? It is one thing everyone se Maverick, because you have I.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: Hadn't developed the skills to do that, and I didn't have the passion for it. Okay, you know you have to you have to put in I can put in all that time recording, but I don't think I could do it for acting.
00:29:25
Speaker 2: Why not?
00:29:26
Speaker 1: I can do it every now and then, but uh, to go somewhere for three months or six months some of these films, you know, I suppose they'd wanted me to be you know, one of the leads in you know, Lord of the Rings. That's six years of your life. I could have been a wizard, you could so U missed your calling.
00:29:49
Speaker 2: Really, it's not too late.
00:29:51
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's not too late. It's too late.
00:29:53
Speaker 2: No, it's not, it's not. It's still wide open.
00:29:57
Speaker 1: The old Cowboy Wizard.
00:29:58
Speaker 2: The Cowboy Wizard.
00:30:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, there's a movie idea. You take the wizardry of the Lord of the Rings and you put it in the Old West.
00:30:07
Speaker 2: Do you tinker in your brain on thoughts like that? Oh?
00:30:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do.
00:30:11
Speaker 2: Like would you go off on that tangent and just envision the whole thing.
00:30:14
Speaker 1: If I had a development deal?
00:30:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you're a very creative person.
00:30:18
Speaker 1: I like the creative side of things, and I'll do all of the other stuff just to get to do that.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I get that. So your wife, Lisa, y'all have one of the most epic love stories of all time. How did y'all meet? And was it just like y'are just so in love, like you just have stayed in love? Or do you work on that.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to read my book if we tell them everything, by the way, it's going to.
00:30:42
Speaker 2: Be a hint though, because y'all have one of the best.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: We had matchmakers independent of each other, telling each of us like the other for friends friends. Okay, well one was her manager's partner.
00:30:57
Speaker 2: She's an actress though, Okay, she has to think a great singer, right, but her main thing was acting.
00:31:03
Speaker 1: By that point, she had left the singing career behind, except that one of her character's own outs landing sing.
00:31:12
Speaker 2: And uh.
00:31:14
Speaker 1: She made three albums with some of the greatest musicians and songwriters and pers.
00:31:19
Speaker 2: Guys made album right, a love song album.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: We uh we we we recorded some songs wrote for us and and uh, I think that's it. Not enough for an hour. Yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker 2: When I said I do, I told my neighbor I was interviewing you last night, and we busted into that song together in my front yard. I'm just letting you know. I mean that song we.
00:31:39
Speaker 1: Need a video of that.
00:31:41
Speaker 2: I was like in my head, I was like, why do we not record this? I mean, here's just two moms sitting there at the end of the day on Mothers Day singing. When I said I do, I was like, love you, Clint.
00:31:51
Speaker 1: A special song for us, that is.
00:31:54
Speaker 2: That was a big moment when that came out, Yeah, how did you decide to do that?
00:32:00
Speaker 1: I was, uh, there was. I did an album called Electrified, and uh. Part of the theme of that album was that there were no electric instruments, but you couldn't tell. That was my goal and yeah, well I agreed to do an unplugged album when Clapton did his, and my record company said, as part of my new deal renewed deal, we want you to do an unplugged album, and so I agreed. And then by the time they called for it, everyone had done one. Now I didn't want to do one. Yeah, So so I did that. And the other part of it was influences. So I did four cover songs and h and I had guests on the album who had influenced me, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Hornsby, of course my buddy Steve Warner, and Marty Stewart, whalan sing a verse on his song I covered, and and the my biggest influence my wife. She's not on there. So I had to start writing a song around the kitchen, teaching her to sing it with me like she would other songs, just in the kitchen, and when I finished it, I told her this is for us, and you have to do it and she said, no, I'm not doing that, and it and it went round and round until she find she's just, you know, you need to get a real singer. She considered her singing days behind her and uh, but I you know, I gilted her into it. And so.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: Is that a big moment for you guys always?
00:33:38
Speaker 1: You know, because I turned the record in, uh and didn't tell them who that was singing with me and and they couldn't guess, and they said, but either way, it needs to be the first single. So it became the first singles. So I directed a music video for us.
00:33:55
Speaker 2: I remember y'all walk out together. It's like you or you walk out, and then she walks.
00:33:59
Speaker 1: Out and it's like we did the Tonight Show. We did fun. Yeah. She she came on stage in Dallas in front of twenty thousand people and they went crazy and made her feel welcome. We won the ACM. Was it due Out of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year and so yeah, and I think we were nominated for a Grammy on that one man. Yes, So it was huge, it was it was big. Yeah.
00:34:28
Speaker 2: Did she enjoy it?
00:34:29
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I had told her. My fans loved her, but she just thought I was being sweet.
00:34:34
Speaker 2: So she found out. Yeah, man, that's so special. Your life feels special does And I'm glad you wrote this book because I feel like you have really wanted it to be special too, like you've made choices to make sure it's special.
00:34:50
Speaker 1: Well, you know, Uh, I think I've I've tried to make choices that were authentic and and if the byproduct of that brings special things to me, then I did a good job of it, you know. And uh I had to fight for it. It wasn't uh, it wasn't encouraged. Back in that day. The record companies didn't love it if you wrote all your own songs, and they they told me why, I'll let you read It was a devastating moment in the book when the head of RCA and I asked him why he you know, because I insisted on I wrote all my own songs and that's just that. And we're having great success, you know, so why is it so important that I record somebody else's song? And the response wasn't It surprised me, But uh, nowadays, you know, a record company really wants that singer songwriter but it wasn't like that, so it cost you know, some and but I that's what I wanted to be. Whatever happens, you know, if if this all has to go away for that reason, then I'm not supposed to have this.
00:36:25
Speaker 2: How do you get to that place, though, because that takes a lot of confidence and a lot of knowingness in yourself beyond just like who the world precedes you. I mean, that's like you know yourself to be able to stand that kind of ground. How did you get there?
00:36:38
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:36:39
Speaker 2: Have you always been that way?
00:36:41
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've I've always been. I was the youngest of four boys, so so I have this downward pressure on me my whole life.
00:36:51
Speaker 2: So you always had three brothers that were you trying to live up to them?
00:36:54
Speaker 1: I was trying to keep up with them, and in some cases, you know, I had to be you know, abstinate and and uh bullheaded myself so get heard just to get hurt or you know, get out into the world doing what I was doing. I tried to keep up with Kevin. Uh you know, he didn't want me a long little brother, you know, and uh, and then I you know, I did a job for six days a week for four years for the Houston Post. After school, I went around neighborhoods all over Houston, knocking on doors, selling newspaper subscriptions and trying to get them to pay for the first three months in advance, which I got paid the most for. And I did a good job. I was one year in the in the uh citywide contest uh two hundred solicitors, I took second place, so I was doing pretty good. They were going to give me my own crew. I used to train other other guys uh uh, and they were ready to give me my own crew, but I didn't. I didn't have a van, and I needed a van, and I couldn't afford one. So I knew I wasn't going to get my own crew, and so I quit and went into construction work. Okay, yeah, so I mean I was. I was always out there pushing and pushing and trying to convince.
00:38:24
Speaker 2: That's the energy from birth. It's like I'm going to push my way into this because you had so much already in front of you, Like you had a whole big family already, like in full force and action. You just like pop in. It's already moving the ship. The train is rolling.
00:38:38
Speaker 1: I got on board a moving train.
00:38:40
Speaker 2: You did. So that is kind of fun, though maybe in retrosect to have an only child, because has it been fun to see her not have a train to jump on me? She had your try.
00:38:52
Speaker 1: I knew the differences. And uh, when Lisa and I would talk about situations, I would I would go through that, you know, things would be happening with her friends, and uh, and it was bad. You know, whenever things were bad, we we'd have to look real closely at him and and try to talk Lily through him. And uh, one of the things I recognized was that, uh, this was to me, this was the hand of God in her life, putting these things in there to create the adversity and the challenges that I was given in another way, absolutely, and Lisa and uh and so this to me was God's blessing that she's going to learn these lessons no matter what. And and and so you know, as long as as long as it wasn't injurious you know, then then then I looked at it as, yeah, this is this is heartache right now. Now she's going to learn something from that. And and that's how it went.
00:40:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that is interesting with you growing up the youngest of four though, just to be on a moving train. Have you ever felt like you've gotten off the train? Has it always been moving?
00:40:14
Speaker 1: My train stopped? No, and I I can't stop. I can lay on the couch for a couple of days and that's it.
00:40:26
Speaker 2: How do you relax?
00:40:28
Speaker 1: Don't you don't relax?
00:40:30
Speaker 2: You hobbies?
00:40:31
Speaker 1: I can relax. My hobbies are editing videos for my stage, video screens, writing a song, practicing my guitar. I still practice my guitar on average two three hours a day.
00:40:49
Speaker 2: Just who are you working machine?
00:40:52
Speaker 1: My hands hurt? I'm determined. I'm just determined to get better on guitar, just.
00:40:58
Speaker 2: For you, because you're a legend. I mean, don't need to get better? Do you just want to get better?
00:41:03
Speaker 1: The legend thing doesn't do anything for me.
00:41:05
Speaker 2: It doesn't not for my heart. It's just are one. You know a few people are legends like that, Like I know it.
00:41:14
Speaker 1: I don't think that way though. Well, it's like if you if you want to put that on me, and other people want to put that on me, that's great. But I've spent my life telling myself I'm not what other people think I am, I'm what I know I am?
00:41:27
Speaker 2: What do you know you are?
00:41:29
Speaker 1: I'm a very flawed, hard working musician, and I'm I'm I'm I'm a lot of the I'm a lot of the things that produce the things that you see the TV show, the songs, the videos, the you know, the the jokes, the all of that stuff. In my heart, I'm just a lazy guy who's willing to work hard where he has to to get to do these things that are fun. It's fun to be on stage playing well, it's not fun to be on stage and be rusty and not nail the lick I'm trying to play. That's that's not fun. So I do the hard work so that I can do that and it'll be fun.
00:42:24
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense. A lot of people don't get that, though, the people who've never done this mentality who do the other who try to just like skate by, They don't know the payoff though, because it is a different payoff.
00:42:37
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, this is a lesson. I was teaching Lily about practicing on her instruments because she's a songwriter now, and yeah, she's got and she has an amazing songwriting talent that is just now showing itself. And what I tried to tell her is, you know, you can learn to strum guitar and play to sing and even play strumming guitar in a band. But that imagine you're in a conversation with some brilliant people and you have a vocabulary of two hundred words, that's it. Your contribution to that conversation is not going to be as great and you're not going to have as much fun mixing thoughts and ideas with the brilliant minds. So I'm surrounded by brilliant musicians and I want to be a part of that conversation. I want to be a bigger part of it, bigger and bigger part of it. It's a lot more fun just to have more to say in that conversation.
00:43:52
Speaker 2: So how and we're going to wrap out up. I know you have a heart out here at noon, which I'm so sad because this is the best thing in my life. Back, what do you do to expand your brilliance? Like? What do you do? You practice?
00:44:05
Speaker 1: What I think about every day? How do I expand my brilliance? It reminds me of a Steve Martin a joke, which is my humility is one of the greatest things about me.
00:44:19
Speaker 3: For real?
00:44:20
Speaker 1: How do you how do I become smarter? Uh? And smarter? It's uh it's reading, learning, practicing, reading, learning, practicing, but not just the music. You know, you need to read other things. So I gotta tell Lily. You know, read a book, you enter another world, You enter another person's thoughts. Uh. You you get to hear where they're coming from. Every writer reveals themselves, you know, in their in their writing. So reading these things, reading history books, studying history, learning history, science, all of this stuff.
00:45:00
Speaker 3: You know.
00:45:00
Speaker 1: I covered a money python song Eric Idol wrote called the Galaxy Song, and his love of astronomy produced this amazing song for the movie and the meaning of life. You never know when you put stuff in the memory bank when you're going to be able to write a check on it.
00:45:22
Speaker 2: Oh good point, Okay, I'm gonna wrap up. I have just like a couple more questions because I'm obsessed with your death experiences, because all I try to do is like spiritually grow and heal my inner self and like connect to the divine. So you had a near death experience, did you go to the other side.
00:45:37
Speaker 1: Oh No, it wasn't that near.
00:45:38
Speaker 2: Okay, I just didn't know if you like saw the light.
00:45:40
Speaker 1: No, I wasn't that, I wasn't unconscious, Okay, it was it was. It was a pretty very near drowning.
00:45:49
Speaker 2: That's terrifying. Yeah that was when you were young.
00:45:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was thirteen. Yeah. And uh, that's what starts.
00:45:55
Speaker 2: Off the book, that starts the whole thing.
00:45:57
Speaker 1: My friends and I did something really stupid and I nearly paid the ultimate price. Yeah, it was. And and and the struggle I went through to get out of that, Like, what do.
00:46:09
Speaker 2: You mean the actual situation.
00:46:11
Speaker 1: Struggle, physical struggle to keep from.
00:46:14
Speaker 2: Drowning, anyone helping you or you all alone.
00:46:16
Speaker 1: Well, somebody helped in the end, but not to get me out. They they got something out of the way so that I could get out of it. And uh, and they took a big risk doing that. And uh. And so my publisher said to me, you need to put something in the book that you know towards the end that explains why you are that guy in the book. And I had never thought of that. I'd never thought of that until I was telling you about the selling newspaper subscriptions. And then when you took me back to that first story in the book, I I realized, you know, that was a that was a pretty hard struggle. And there's a there's a thing about Uh you know why why is the rabbit so calm Because he's evaded the fox before, Right, So when the rabbit gets away from the fox, he doesn't worry about the fox. Right, He's evaded that fox before, So maybe that that was a part of it. I've been to the edge. I fought my way out of it and.
00:47:28
Speaker 2: Kind of got that all the way. Then everything else is like downhill from there. Right.
00:47:34
Speaker 1: There were two other near drownings in my life drowning again, Uh, they were before that.
00:47:40
Speaker 2: Wait, you almost drowned three times? Yeah.
00:47:42
Speaker 1: I didn't put the other two in there because this one, at least to the first time, I may not have been that that close to the danger, but I could have been. And uh the second time I was unconscious in the water.
00:47:59
Speaker 2: And and uh, do you have a fear of water?
00:48:03
Speaker 1: I did I talk about that? You like this part because you're so you know, self analytical. Yes, and that's me. So I did. I did have a problem, and I finally figured it out.
00:48:18
Speaker 2: You did yeah, what made you figure it out? Some sort of therapy? Are just on your own?
00:48:22
Speaker 1: My own?
00:48:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, life therapy. You just uncovered it.
00:48:26
Speaker 1: I just I just figured it out. Why this problem?
00:48:30
Speaker 2: And that's in the book. I'm so excited, Clint Black. This has been amazing, fantastic. Well, it's just like I'm just on me floating all day. This is like, you know, I almost say this. I just interviewed Amy Grant recently too, and she is someone who I hard in Motion was my first album ever, got same with like Killing Time. So I'm like, I'm cool. I'm cool, Like I love talking to great, smart, amazing people who are really successful. But every now and then you have a Clint Black come along and it just like rocks you to your core because you are like Clint Black.
00:49:03
Speaker 1: You know it's not scary though, right interviews you? Yeah, because I thought normal.
00:49:07
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm not nervous.
00:49:09
Speaker 1: I haven't I haven't bitten anyone all year, and the word gets around if you do.
00:49:14
Speaker 2: You know, you can't hide it for long, especially these days of social media. It's gonna be everywhere, and then you know that's a whole.
00:49:20
Speaker 1: Pr marks by marks see.
00:49:22
Speaker 2: Them Okay, but also, you have a movie coming out. When I said I do, that's huge. I mean, now it's turning into a movie. The song that just lives and lives and lives forever, it's the ultimate love song.
00:49:33
Speaker 1: Lifetime approached me a couple of times on that, and I didn't understand what they what they wanted to do, and I just didn't like the idea that song's too special to us, and so I said no. And then my guys all ganged up on me and said, you're taking a meeting. And I took a meeting, and I understood what they wanted to do, and uh, I just had to say yes. And it turned into another creative outlet, which I think is what I love the most about it. Yeah, executive produced with Adam Reid and and got to be involved in the development of the values and the principles and the things that you know, I see in so many movies where you know they've they've written this for the couple and excuse me, and and so I was most particular about how they would be portraying this journey there on, and I got to come up with the way we appear in the film, who we are, and how that's done. So it was it was really a collaboration and we feel like it's it's it was special enough to lend that song to it.
00:50:57
Speaker 2: Well, I think this is really exciting. I think it's so cool the way you've lived life, your journey, with your career, with your family. I love that you have a family first mindset. I think that's incredible. Obviously, you're one of the most legendary artists of all times, and so it's incredible to get to hear your stories. I'm so excited about this book, Clint Black, My Life and Music Killing Time. It's coming out and then the movie's coming right out. It's like back to back.
00:51:19
Speaker 1: It's back to back. A lot going on in pre order. I autographed like five thousand copies. Do you get those pre order so you can order those. Go to Clint Black dot com and uh and you'll see the ones that have the autograph copies. But you can get it on Amazon or anywhere. The greatest books in the world written by legends and so I mean, and it's got a popular title.
00:51:43
Speaker 2: Clint Black Killing Top Oh. I mean, Clint. If you didn't know I was a fan, you know by now. The secrets out.
00:51:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to sign this copy for you.
00:51:53
Speaker 2: Yes, living my best life. Okay, So are you going on tour? Also? Is that happening?
00:51:58
Speaker 1: You touring the eighty cities this year?
00:52:00
Speaker 2: Lisa and Lily not this year?
00:52:02
Speaker 1: Ye okay, but uh yeah we'll we'll be out there doing some shows with Cody Johnson and heck yeah mostly uh mostly evening with for me and and the other tour combo. Can I talk about that?
00:52:20
Speaker 2: Not yet? More surprises.
00:52:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna be touring with somebody else. That's gonna be fun.
00:52:25
Speaker 2: So many Cliffingers. So now I got to just like stay on pins and needles, like checking your website.
00:52:29
Speaker 1: Well, you just need to follow me on Instagram, which actually and on t tack. I'm on tik tak and I'm on Twitter being a.
00:52:38
Speaker 2: No, you're funny and you're you're you got good, you got good tiktoks.
00:52:43
Speaker 1: I'm on the MySpace book okay.
00:52:48
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Clint, thank you so much for joining me. I always wrop up with one question, which is leave your light. It's super open ended. What do you want people to know? Drop some inspiration?
00:52:59
Speaker 1: Leave your light? Uh what?
00:53:04
Speaker 2: Uh?
00:53:04
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:53:05
Speaker 2: Inspiration?
00:53:06
Speaker 1: Inspiration for people.
00:53:07
Speaker 2: It is some good life advice.
00:53:14
Speaker 1: This is a tough question. Well, I got nothing. Just go out there and you know, deal with it.
00:53:27
Speaker 2: Now, just handle what you're getting to.
00:53:30
Speaker 1: Just go deal with it people, you know.
00:53:33
Speaker 2: Uh, that's not bad advice.
00:53:35
Speaker 1: Honestly, love isn't something that we have. It's something that we do and and and and treat everybody kindly. You never know what they're battling. And when you're in traffic and somebody cuts you off, consider that they could be on their way to the hospital.
00:53:54
Speaker 2: That's such a great way to live.
00:53:56
Speaker 1: Probably the butcher shop, but could be the hospital.
00:53:58
Speaker 2: Are you pretty good at keeping yourself under control?
00:54:01
Speaker 1: No?
00:54:01
Speaker 2: Oh do you can? You?
00:54:03
Speaker 1: No, I'm better at it. You know, it's it's like a wine mellowing with age.
00:54:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:54:09
Speaker 1: Practice and uh, I think just being conscious of the idea that everybody's everybody's wrestling, you know, uh, with life, wrestling with God, you know, like I think Israel means wrestles people who wrestle with God or something like that. We're all we're all in a fight. And uh, so be kind and uh be patient, you'll be happier and leave the house twenty or thirty minutes early, and then you won't care what's happening in traffic. You'll just be Oh, traffic is slowing me down. That's that's okay, because I'm early.
00:54:55
Speaker 2: You like to set yourself up for success.
00:54:58
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying in Yeah.
00:55:00
Speaker 2: Set yourself up for success, even like practicing three hours a day so you get on stage and you're great, and you don't you can have fun. You don't want to not have fun. You want to enjoy it.
00:55:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything we do, think of, think of wiring your house for where you want your electrical outlets and your light switch is to be. And everything we do creates a set of wiring in our brain. So what are you wiring yours for?
00:55:26
Speaker 2: Drop the mic? Clint Black, thank you so much for joining me. It's not his album My Life of Music Killing Time. My Life of Music is gonna be out May twin no May nineteenth.
00:55:38
Speaker 1: You can pre order an outlet sixteen page photo.
00:55:41
Speaker 2: Insert Oh a little.
00:55:43
Speaker 1: Rock in the bow tie cute? Yeah, some people go in for the botox bow tie for me.
00:55:54
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me. This is really a thrill of my lifetime. I appreciate it so much. Clint. Bye from maintaining to maintain,
Speaker 1: Carl Line.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: She's a queen and talking and a song.
00:00:16
Speaker 3: She's getting really.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: Not afraid to feel its episode or soul.
00:00:20
Speaker 3: Just let it flow.
00:00:21
Speaker 2: No one can do we quiet Cary Line is time, Carolne happy to be here. I oh, you're red my hat. This is my friend Dedie Rad's hat. I gotta give her a shout out because she is awesome and you know, love love some good merch. I am so excited to be here with Clint Black. Hey, does everyone freak out when they meet you? Uh?
00:00:46
Speaker 1: Sometimes in a mall or something. But it's lots just different here in Nashville or LA or New York because people used to seeing famous people.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: Do you walk around in a cowboy hat or do you have cognito what you're every day at times?
00:01:01
Speaker 1: Just a ball cap? Sneakers, yeah, okay, cargo pants you can yeah? And and and here. You know, it's different when I'm out on the road. You know, if I go to the store or something, and you know, I've had people following me thinking maybe and then they'll show up over in the frozen foods or something, and.
00:01:22
Speaker 3: Do they say hi and say hi?
00:01:24
Speaker 2: And do you like to tell me?
00:01:25
Speaker 1: Tell me things about you know what they loved and music wise, or you know, where's Lisa and stuff like that, So you just.
00:01:34
Speaker 2: Like get into conversation with him.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: Uh. Yeah, yeah, I try to just be a normal person, you know.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: It's uh, it is fascinating though, that someone will just walk up to you and just go straight into a conversation. Well do they know everything about you?
00:01:50
Speaker 1: Yeah? It's uh, it's usually are you are you him? You know that sort of thing, and then uh, and then there's a little bit of the uh, the small talk of I can't believe you're here. And I always remember George Harrison's line somebody said what are you doing here? And he said, well, I have to be somewhere, you know, go Yeah, especially grocery stores. I have to hit grocery stores on the road. How's that you It's great.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: That's where you meet a lot of people.
00:02:17
Speaker 1: Meet a lot of people in grocery stores. Yeah, try to stay out of the malls, but uh, you know, or I have to go get some take out.
00:02:25
Speaker 2: What's your gatu takeout.
00:02:28
Speaker 1: A roasted chicken from the best place that has it around me.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: Okay, roast you're a pretty healthy guy.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: A little roasted chicken yet not always. No, it's just it's a safe bet. You know, like a roasted half chicken's got a lot of dark meat, and no matter how if they overcook it, the dark meat, it's just hard to ruin. So it's a safe bet.
00:02:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're eating in a lot of different places all the time. You've been on the road for how many years? You Killing Time came out thirty seven years ago. Yeah, so that was legendary.
00:02:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. I did ten years in the bars and then before then, Yeah, and then you know, started touring right in like February of eighty nine.
00:03:08
Speaker 2: How old are you when you started.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Singing in bars? Yeah, well you had to be eighteen to get into bars back then in Texas, So I was eighteen. We would play chili cookoffs and stuff. Before that was in a band with my brother.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: Oh and why did that band break up?
00:03:25
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:03:26
Speaker 1: Well, the lead guitarist decided, Gevin Van decided he couldn't be a part of helping friends and family destroy themselves every night and watch it because when you're on stage, you know, you can sort of see the lean begin you can see how far people are leaning by the end of the night. And he had enough of that. So he just quit one night, and my brother Kevin and I played a few gigs as a duo, but but he went back to construction work. I did some construction work for a while and then finally went started playing solo in the bars, and it was it was a slog.
00:04:16
Speaker 2: What was that like? Because I feel like this day and age, people aren't like slogging it out in the bars like they did before, because now they just get on TikTok.
00:04:25
Speaker 1: But they are on Broadway. You know, there's a lot of bars in Texas. I don't know about all the other regions, but you know, in Texas you can you can play somewhere every night and never leave the state.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: Do you think people are still making it by coming up through the bars like they were? Oh yeah, you think so?
00:04:44
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there are guys coming up in Texas making millions of dollars a year playing the bars selling their merch. You know, for me it was fifty dollars a night. I hadn't been able to make a better business of it than that. And you know, it just I was a soloist, so that helped. Yeah, I didn't have a band to feed.
00:05:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, when did it really start? To catch on for you. What was the moment?
00:05:17
Speaker 1: Well, I needed a band for one gig at a country club. I wanted the solo gig, which you know, paid twice what I was getting anywhere else. But in order to get the solo gig, I had to play this one party, and they demanded a band. So I found a band. Hayden Nicholas was playing lead guitar in the band brand New and in the band, and so he and I hit it off. He had an eight track machine, and I've been trying to get demos made, and so we made a deal one hundred and fifty bucks a song to cut demos. The first demo we finished was Nobody's Home.
00:06:01
Speaker 2: That was the first.
00:06:02
Speaker 1: That was the first one.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: Was you started off with that?
00:06:06
Speaker 1: Yeah and Yeah by myself and Nothing's News. I wrote half of that album by myself, in the other half with Hayden and Yeah.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: I was really young, insight.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: I don't know when I was eighteen? I uh, I wrote I wrote some big hits when I was eighteen?
00:06:27
Speaker 2: Where did that come?
00:06:27
Speaker 1: I stayed of mind and loving blind?
00:06:31
Speaker 2: How did you have that at eighteen?
00:06:33
Speaker 1: It was I really in high school. I had to recite a poem in English class or drama class, and I really took to it, and I think I was kind of romantic anyway, but you know, I saw the meaning, I felt the rhythms of it, and uh and I was a huge fan of great songwriters and so so it really I think set me up as a poet. And then the musicality would evolve as I got, you know, better at playing and learn more chords. We got that song Demode. I was looking for a manager. First found a manager. He brought me to Nashville and RCA signed me. So that was pretty quickly. Yeah, that was nineteen eighty seven, and it wasn't until February of eighty nine when the music video for A Better Man came out and the single it took off, but the video had more of an impact. We were able to get some good bookings and draw crowds just based on CMT and TNN and then and then it took about five months something like that for A Better Man to climb to number one. They pushed up the release of the album, which would follow just I think a month later, and then Killing Time came out. By the time Killing Time came out, the single it was you know, we were out there opening for the Jugs and Alabama and stuff like that. It was got big fast.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: Is it wild now to look back and realize that you you're an icon and when you were in that time, you were surrounded by icons in the making, like the Juds and like who else were you coming up with? Who was in your like class?
00:08:39
Speaker 1: That was like, well, Dwight Yoakum was ahead of me. Yeah, so we did a month on the road.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: Dwight time to be alive and an icon.
00:08:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dwight, Alan Jackson, Alan Jackson, Garth, Travis Tritt.
00:08:56
Speaker 2: Heat of country music.
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, nineteen eighty nine was a it was a huge year. That's huge for me and for that small group of us. Yeah, and the the record sales exploded so quickly. I remember when when I broke there were six major labels on music, Row and H and by the time it was like, you know, two three years later there were twenty six.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: WHOA, So you' all just broke it wide open.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really did it? Uh? And uh what was it? It was just hundreds of millions of records being sold at that point in the country.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: What was it like though, being a nineties country star because to me, that is the best of the best. It doesn't get anything better. What was that like? Did you feel like it was the best of the best?
00:09:53
Speaker 1: What it was? What it was like? And I wrote about it in my.
00:09:57
Speaker 2: Book, which is okay, So it's called Killing Time, Life and Music. It's coming on May nineteenth. Oh we got one years. Okay, I'm so let's look at this.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: We have one for you for the cheap price of Okay.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: So, Clinton Black, killing Time my life in music. I'm sorry. And I am a happily married woman. And I know you're too. But you were so handsome. I mean you really are. You were just like classic cowboy country handsome. Is it hard to be that handsome?
00:10:26
Speaker 1: It's so so terrible.
00:10:28
Speaker 2: It's terrible. It must be hard on you it.
00:10:32
Speaker 1: You know, my looks were talked about when all that was going on, everyone, especially Travis and Alan and all those guys, you know, and it and it felt, you know, for me, it was it was like, you know, okay, but the music, you know, so okay, sorry, it has.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: My dashing looks the music.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and and what was happening with this explosion uh my career. It was like, you know, I said, it was like NASA must have felt putting a man on the moon. It happened, It's big. And then from then it was just one big thing after another. I was going from event to event. And one of the big things is is that it's hard to keep your head above water vocally as a singer. It's hard to do everything that you're called upon to do and then sing at night. And so it was a tightrope walk of doing and enjoying and then also being good enough to do what brought you there. So singing in the bars four and seven hours a night was tough, but at least that's all I was doing. Yeah, And so with this it was interviews, interviews, photo shoots, TV appearances and uh, we were doing like this. One run was nine shows on one day off, eight shows on one day off, twenty one shows.
00:12:10
Speaker 2: On no no, no, no, no, two days off. That's not possible. Yeah, shows in a row. Yeah, that's not humanly possible.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: It's not wise.
00:12:18
Speaker 2: Did you lose your voice or get sick? Oh?
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a it was a big concern. It's a big part.
00:12:25
Speaker 2: I mean, every allow hard.
00:12:27
Speaker 1: Uh well, I I cried uncle and I finally, you know, got my arms around it all. But it took a while, and I've been looking for a vocal coach and this is this is a big thing for uh anyone trying to get into this business. Not to you know, shamelessly plug my book you got with, but I really go go through what that was like and how much pressure it was. And by the way, it was a lot of fun. It was. It was fun, and there were things happening to me, you know, like you know, doing a movie with James Garner and Mel Gibson and Jody Foster and James Cobnover Maverick.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that amazing.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: It was amazing going on Wings and all this great stuff, all these great people I was meeting, you know, going I went on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was still there, and Bob Hope Specials and and and you know, going to lunch with Waylon Jennings. You know, it's just it was just this crazy whirlwind of the greatest stuff. And while that's happening, you know, trying to be a good singer through it all, and you'd go into CMA week and it's just everything they can do to beat your vocal cords down, and now you're standing up there in front of Reba and straight and you know, uh, I mean you name it, Haggard Jones. You know everyone's everyone's right in front of you, and you've got no voice. It's it's really it was really true. I finally found a great voice coach.
00:14:05
Speaker 2: So you had that.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: It helped that, Yeah, that grip that really helped. Well. I was losing it daily, but I was I was tough enough from the four and seven hour gigs and the bars. You know, my vocal cords were pretty tough, right, and so I was able to to get by. But there was always that feeling, I'm not at my best, and this is my big moment. I'm not at my best. And so it became a battle of how much you're going to work me before a show. You know, we have to we have to harm wrestle over it.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: What's your sweet spot? How many days on can you do?
00:14:49
Speaker 1: Oh? I can do a lot of days on, but I have to be disciplined about resting my voice during the day on show days. So four or five shows in a row is it's doable. I can be I can be better on the fifth day if I'm really disciplined on those other days.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: Do you feel have you always toured this much? Because we were talking in the lobby and I toured more. You've always heard more. But you took time off to raise your daughter. And that was like a huge decision. Was that kind of in the height of everything or like, how did you make that choice?
00:15:29
Speaker 1: That's a way. Yeah. I read a book. I read this book about parenting and one of the things that stuck out to me was and I'd seen a Billy Joel interview before we ever thought about having a child, and and uh, he talked about being gone too much and coming home and feeling like uncle daddy, and so that stuck with me. So when I read this thing in the book, uh, they use the term secure attachment, and if you want to be a secure attachment, you earned that in the first three years of the child's life.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: So you really wanted to be a dad?
00:16:07
Speaker 1: Yeah? I wanted to be a good dad.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: Where did that? A lot of artists don't prioritize that. How did we well?
00:16:13
Speaker 1: Family was just my marriage was already the most important thing to me. So yeah, so uh so by extension, the family we create is most important and uh and just you know the idea of you know, we're we're raising you know, this, this person to be an adult that we want to be around and who wants to be around us. So what kind of person you raise?
00:16:44
Speaker 3: It's it's all up to you.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: What's your parenting style? How do you how would you say? Because I'm in the throes of parenting, I have a six and a half year old and she's just my whole world. She's an only child life as well as you guys, which I love seeing other only child families in the wild. But what is your parenting approach? Because there's a lot of parenting styles and I'm witnessing them. I have my personal style, but I see my friends parenting all sorts of ways, and I just see you have such a healthy relationship with your wife and your daughter. What was y'all style? How did you guys parent and how did you stay together as a unitch? Because I know y'all tour now as a unit, which is amazing, But how did you do that?
00:17:38
Speaker 1: I I think I'm very strict and that you know, I'm like my dad, my mom. We could pester my mom long enough she would give in My Dad would say no, and then if you asked again, he'd say, I said no. If you asked me again, you're going to get a whooping. Okay, yeah, yeah, and uh and so so for me, the line, it's a hard line. You know that, you know this is a no least as much softer. But she's strict and in other ways. But but for me it was, uh, it was no and no and you know no means no. And by the way, you're welcome. And I would joke with her. So so I would find ways to turn this strictness into humor with us.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: You're humorous too, that's a personality.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: I tell her, you know, the reason I'm doing this is because of this and because I love you. And then uh and so sometimes she would get really upset about a no and uh and she's walking away. I'd say you're welcome, and she would she would soften a little bit and uh and and I think recognize the love behind that, and I think, uh, I think that probably sums me up. But you know, we just pick on each other and laugh and and have a ball.
00:19:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:19:16
Speaker 1: We're very close. And uh. So all that strictness, you know, the kids know if you teach them that this is this is because I love you. I want you to Yeah, I want you to grow up to be a nice person. You know, so, Uh, it helps to explain it. I got that from my brother Brian. My two other brothers, Mark and Kevin, were a little more bullish about their lessons, but my brother Brian would explain, you know, this is why you can't do that, and uh, that stuck with me. He's a little kid.
00:19:52
Speaker 2: Everybody wants to know why. You know, you don't just going to be told not to do something. You want to know why. I feel like it makes it make more sense.
00:19:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there's the debate that follows.
00:20:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, they're learning to use their voice. You know, I appreciate that. When you decided to come off the road and raise Lily, was that a big decision for you?
00:20:13
Speaker 1: It's huge? It was not great for my career.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Why not?
00:20:17
Speaker 1: Well, you know you kind of disappear to some degree. Were people mad at you? No? I didn't get that. I just got that, you know the way it affected me. No, not really, not not my management and all that. But maybe the record company cared most. I don't know really, but you know, when you're when you're going along promoting, releasing, promoting releasing, there there have to be gaps in it. But the gap that I took was was more than recommended.
00:20:54
Speaker 2: Okay, so you were already on a gap, like you had put on an album, you had done all the press and the touring, and it was like, probably time start writing another album.
00:21:01
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, it would have probably, you know, two years between releases would have been fine, but I don't remember. It's it's become five years just because it's it's so hard to make an album, not like construction, but it's but it's hard, and I have to be uh further and further removed from it to forget how hard it was, and it's it's torture. I mean, I produced my own records, I write my own songs, and I'm there for every second that the tape is rolling. In particular, I hear, yeah, I hear all of the the playback and and all of that full.
00:21:46
Speaker 2: Vision of how you wanted to sound, and you are well.
00:21:48
Speaker 1: No, not always. I mean, sometimes I know what I exactly what I want. Sometimes I'm experimenting, but I have to decide it has to be my music, and I can't turn it over to someone to do for me. But by the time, yeah, I'm finished, I calculated that I hear a song or some part of the song each song about a thousand times, so it doesn't do anything for me mojo wise at that point. At that point, it's it's a science project where you're making sure that every instrument has its place to be and that it can be heard and not this one's not too loud and that one's not too loud, and it's it's just it's just a science and it and it plays in my head when I sleep. So once I've been asleep for five hours, not long enough, but long enough for the music to start going in my head, then it starts playing over and over and I just have to get up and go back out there and work. Yeah, it's like it's like somebody turns the radio on it at you know, five o'clock in the morning, and you can't turn it off, so you have to just get up.
00:23:01
Speaker 2: That's how you are making the album.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: That's by the end of it. Yeah, by the the last weeks, it's it's exhausting because I can't get enough sleep before my brain starts solving solving my problems. You know, our brain, a lot of the neural pathways are created while we sleep. If you're trying to solve a problem, then your brain is working on those neural pathways while you sleep. Do some kind of a test when you go to sleep and wake up in the morning and see how much better you are at that test. And so it's doing that with the music. And I guess when it solves the problem, it says, wake up and go fix this.
00:23:47
Speaker 2: Don't forget this.
00:23:48
Speaker 1: It's torture by the end of me because you.
00:23:50
Speaker 2: Can't forget it because if you don't go do it right then, or get up and like record it. Yeah, with music, you have to record it. You can't like write it down. You have to record what you hear in your brain before it vanishes.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:24:01
Speaker 2: Oh so you are.
00:24:02
Speaker 1: Like so yeah, so it so it. It becomes just a mentally exhaustive process by the end of it, and so it takes a few years before you want to go through it again. And uh, you're decompressed. I'm about there.
00:24:17
Speaker 2: How do you decompress? Because you put your last album was twenty twenty, right, which that was like in the middle of when everyone was insane.
00:24:26
Speaker 1: So you're trying to say, here's here's what I did during the COVID pandemic. I finished an album, Okay. I started an online coffee business. What's it called, Clint Black Cowboy Coffee. Okay, it's the best coffee you'll ever buy it my website.
00:24:46
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's online. Great, it's on my cons.
00:24:49
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you love it. I love it.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Okay, I want to hear about these beans later.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: The other thing was, Uh, I pitched an idea for a TV show to the Circle Network and they audit What in the Circle Talking in circles.
00:25:04
Speaker 2: Talking in circles and it was like your own late night show.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is what I was doing when we couldn't do anything were you just.
00:25:13
Speaker 2: Needed to talk to people? And like, get how did that happen?
00:25:17
Speaker 1: Exploding my manager? Uh? And I? Uh, Brinson Strickland and I were at thing over the heat don't look. He and I had, you know, come out of rooms so many times hanging out doing something and and the Isaacs starts singing background vocals with me, and you know, backstage or something, and and uh and we walk out of there going, you know, I wish I wish people could see that, and uh, and the conversations we had, So that's that's really where the idea came from. Was, Uh, what if I'm having a conversation with fellow artists and go wherever I would go?
00:26:01
Speaker 2: What'd you like to talk about? Where'd you go? Where was some time? Was there anywhere you went with someone that kind of surprised you that you went there? Or did you learn something that was like wow.
00:26:10
Speaker 1: Oh, probably I did. We did sixty episodes, so yeah, so it was, uh, who was your first?
00:26:16
Speaker 2: Who are some of your favorite guests that you can't want?
00:26:18
Speaker 1: I know you loved My wife was on I her made her cry?
00:26:22
Speaker 2: You did about that?
00:26:23
Speaker 1: Yeah? I uh, just taking her back through her career.
00:26:27
Speaker 2: Such a beautiful romance and love story. Yeah, that's really beautiful and rare.
00:26:31
Speaker 1: Terry Bradshaw, Okay, Terry Bradshaw. I didn't realize I was wrapping the show and he kept talking, so we let him and we ended up with two episodes as we went, like twice as long as we normally do. Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton, Oh man, there's so many sixty episodes, so yeah, five seasons.
00:26:59
Speaker 2: Was it just that it was that just such a fun pivot in your career because it all fits together.
00:27:03
Speaker 1: But it was fun. It was a lot of pressure. I took the job seriously, so I did my research and uh and then the best part about it was the new friends I made. People who did the show I never met, like Bonamasa, Patricia heat and uh, so many the people that that That was the connection that we made.
00:27:31
Speaker 2: Because you really get to know someone all the way to the bottom of their soul when you have that sit down. I feel like you did to see so much.
00:27:37
Speaker 1: And it was in front of a live audience, so it was an intimate conversation. But no, no audiences make things.
00:27:45
Speaker 2: Better, Okay, So as a true performer.
00:27:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was part of my is what I insisted on, Yeah, that we have a live audience. Well, if we had an audience here, I wouldn't just be answering your questions. I would try to entertain them and then I would know when I did. If you hear uh some response, a laugh or whatever it is, you can you can feel that you're you're just accumulating energy from them and they're giving You're giving it to them, They're giving it back to you and all of that that's going on. One, you still get that, but when you have a bunch of people over here, it's just it does something.
00:28:34
Speaker 2: I don't know, what is that feeling like when you get all the energy going and it's all like.
00:28:39
Speaker 1: Well, it's it's energizing.
00:28:41
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
00:28:42
Speaker 1: You know, you can be worn out and an audience will like a fellow runner who takes you past your your wall. That's what it is.
00:28:52
Speaker 2: So you love the live performance?
00:28:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love a good audience.
00:28:58
Speaker 2: Okay, So how was when you did acting? How did you get into acting? And you could have pursued to be a major movie star? Like why did you not keep going? Yes? It is one thing everyone se Maverick, because you have I.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: Hadn't developed the skills to do that, and I didn't have the passion for it. Okay, you know you have to you have to put in I can put in all that time recording, but I don't think I could do it for acting.
00:29:25
Speaker 2: Why not?
00:29:26
Speaker 1: I can do it every now and then, but uh, to go somewhere for three months or six months some of these films, you know, I suppose they'd wanted me to be you know, one of the leads in you know, Lord of the Rings. That's six years of your life. I could have been a wizard, you could so U missed your calling.
00:29:49
Speaker 2: Really, it's not too late.
00:29:51
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's not too late. It's too late.
00:29:53
Speaker 2: No, it's not, it's not. It's still wide open.
00:29:57
Speaker 1: The old Cowboy Wizard.
00:29:58
Speaker 2: The Cowboy Wizard.
00:30:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, there's a movie idea. You take the wizardry of the Lord of the Rings and you put it in the Old West.
00:30:07
Speaker 2: Do you tinker in your brain on thoughts like that? Oh?
00:30:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do.
00:30:11
Speaker 2: Like would you go off on that tangent and just envision the whole thing.
00:30:14
Speaker 1: If I had a development deal?
00:30:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you're a very creative person.
00:30:18
Speaker 1: I like the creative side of things, and I'll do all of the other stuff just to get to do that.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I get that. So your wife, Lisa, y'all have one of the most epic love stories of all time. How did y'all meet? And was it just like y'are just so in love, like you just have stayed in love? Or do you work on that.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to read my book if we tell them everything, by the way, it's going to.
00:30:42
Speaker 2: Be a hint though, because y'all have one of the best.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: We had matchmakers independent of each other, telling each of us like the other for friends friends. Okay, well one was her manager's partner.
00:30:57
Speaker 2: She's an actress though, Okay, she has to think a great singer, right, but her main thing was acting.
00:31:03
Speaker 1: By that point, she had left the singing career behind, except that one of her character's own outs landing sing.
00:31:12
Speaker 2: And uh.
00:31:14
Speaker 1: She made three albums with some of the greatest musicians and songwriters and pers.
00:31:19
Speaker 2: Guys made album right, a love song album.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: We uh we we we recorded some songs wrote for us and and uh, I think that's it. Not enough for an hour. Yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker 2: When I said I do, I told my neighbor I was interviewing you last night, and we busted into that song together in my front yard. I'm just letting you know. I mean that song we.
00:31:39
Speaker 1: Need a video of that.
00:31:41
Speaker 2: I was like in my head, I was like, why do we not record this? I mean, here's just two moms sitting there at the end of the day on Mothers Day singing. When I said I do, I was like, love you, Clint.
00:31:51
Speaker 1: A special song for us, that is.
00:31:54
Speaker 2: That was a big moment when that came out, Yeah, how did you decide to do that?
00:32:00
Speaker 1: I was, uh, there was. I did an album called Electrified, and uh. Part of the theme of that album was that there were no electric instruments, but you couldn't tell. That was my goal and yeah, well I agreed to do an unplugged album when Clapton did his, and my record company said, as part of my new deal renewed deal, we want you to do an unplugged album, and so I agreed. And then by the time they called for it, everyone had done one. Now I didn't want to do one. Yeah, So so I did that. And the other part of it was influences. So I did four cover songs and h and I had guests on the album who had influenced me, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Hornsby, of course my buddy Steve Warner, and Marty Stewart, whalan sing a verse on his song I covered, and and the my biggest influence my wife. She's not on there. So I had to start writing a song around the kitchen, teaching her to sing it with me like she would other songs, just in the kitchen, and when I finished it, I told her this is for us, and you have to do it and she said, no, I'm not doing that, and it and it went round and round until she find she's just, you know, you need to get a real singer. She considered her singing days behind her and uh, but I you know, I gilted her into it. And so.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: Is that a big moment for you guys always?
00:33:38
Speaker 1: You know, because I turned the record in, uh and didn't tell them who that was singing with me and and they couldn't guess, and they said, but either way, it needs to be the first single. So it became the first singles. So I directed a music video for us.
00:33:55
Speaker 2: I remember y'all walk out together. It's like you or you walk out, and then she walks.
00:33:59
Speaker 1: Out and it's like we did the Tonight Show. We did fun. Yeah. She she came on stage in Dallas in front of twenty thousand people and they went crazy and made her feel welcome. We won the ACM. Was it due Out of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year and so yeah, and I think we were nominated for a Grammy on that one man. Yes, So it was huge, it was it was big. Yeah.
00:34:28
Speaker 2: Did she enjoy it?
00:34:29
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I had told her. My fans loved her, but she just thought I was being sweet.
00:34:34
Speaker 2: So she found out. Yeah, man, that's so special. Your life feels special does And I'm glad you wrote this book because I feel like you have really wanted it to be special too, like you've made choices to make sure it's special.
00:34:50
Speaker 1: Well, you know, Uh, I think I've I've tried to make choices that were authentic and and if the byproduct of that brings special things to me, then I did a good job of it, you know. And uh I had to fight for it. It wasn't uh, it wasn't encouraged. Back in that day. The record companies didn't love it if you wrote all your own songs, and they they told me why, I'll let you read It was a devastating moment in the book when the head of RCA and I asked him why he you know, because I insisted on I wrote all my own songs and that's just that. And we're having great success, you know, so why is it so important that I record somebody else's song? And the response wasn't It surprised me, But uh, nowadays, you know, a record company really wants that singer songwriter but it wasn't like that, so it cost you know, some and but I that's what I wanted to be. Whatever happens, you know, if if this all has to go away for that reason, then I'm not supposed to have this.
00:36:25
Speaker 2: How do you get to that place, though, because that takes a lot of confidence and a lot of knowingness in yourself beyond just like who the world precedes you. I mean, that's like you know yourself to be able to stand that kind of ground. How did you get there?
00:36:38
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:36:39
Speaker 2: Have you always been that way?
00:36:41
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've I've always been. I was the youngest of four boys, so so I have this downward pressure on me my whole life.
00:36:51
Speaker 2: So you always had three brothers that were you trying to live up to them?
00:36:54
Speaker 1: I was trying to keep up with them, and in some cases, you know, I had to be you know, abstinate and and uh bullheaded myself so get heard just to get hurt or you know, get out into the world doing what I was doing. I tried to keep up with Kevin. Uh you know, he didn't want me a long little brother, you know, and uh, and then I you know, I did a job for six days a week for four years for the Houston Post. After school, I went around neighborhoods all over Houston, knocking on doors, selling newspaper subscriptions and trying to get them to pay for the first three months in advance, which I got paid the most for. And I did a good job. I was one year in the in the uh citywide contest uh two hundred solicitors, I took second place, so I was doing pretty good. They were going to give me my own crew. I used to train other other guys uh uh, and they were ready to give me my own crew, but I didn't. I didn't have a van, and I needed a van, and I couldn't afford one. So I knew I wasn't going to get my own crew, and so I quit and went into construction work. Okay, yeah, so I mean I was. I was always out there pushing and pushing and trying to convince.
00:38:24
Speaker 2: That's the energy from birth. It's like I'm going to push my way into this because you had so much already in front of you, Like you had a whole big family already, like in full force and action. You just like pop in. It's already moving the ship. The train is rolling.
00:38:38
Speaker 1: I got on board a moving train.
00:38:40
Speaker 2: You did. So that is kind of fun, though maybe in retrosect to have an only child, because has it been fun to see her not have a train to jump on me? She had your try.
00:38:52
Speaker 1: I knew the differences. And uh, when Lisa and I would talk about situations, I would I would go through that, you know, things would be happening with her friends, and uh, and it was bad. You know, whenever things were bad, we we'd have to look real closely at him and and try to talk Lily through him. And uh, one of the things I recognized was that, uh, this was to me, this was the hand of God in her life, putting these things in there to create the adversity and the challenges that I was given in another way, absolutely, and Lisa and uh and so this to me was God's blessing that she's going to learn these lessons no matter what. And and and so you know, as long as as long as it wasn't injurious you know, then then then I looked at it as, yeah, this is this is heartache right now. Now she's going to learn something from that. And and that's how it went.
00:40:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that is interesting with you growing up the youngest of four though, just to be on a moving train. Have you ever felt like you've gotten off the train? Has it always been moving?
00:40:14
Speaker 1: My train stopped? No, and I I can't stop. I can lay on the couch for a couple of days and that's it.
00:40:26
Speaker 2: How do you relax?
00:40:28
Speaker 1: Don't you don't relax?
00:40:30
Speaker 2: You hobbies?
00:40:31
Speaker 1: I can relax. My hobbies are editing videos for my stage, video screens, writing a song, practicing my guitar. I still practice my guitar on average two three hours a day.
00:40:49
Speaker 2: Just who are you working machine?
00:40:52
Speaker 1: My hands hurt? I'm determined. I'm just determined to get better on guitar, just.
00:40:58
Speaker 2: For you, because you're a legend. I mean, don't need to get better? Do you just want to get better?
00:41:03
Speaker 1: The legend thing doesn't do anything for me.
00:41:05
Speaker 2: It doesn't not for my heart. It's just are one. You know a few people are legends like that, Like I know it.
00:41:14
Speaker 1: I don't think that way though. Well, it's like if you if you want to put that on me, and other people want to put that on me, that's great. But I've spent my life telling myself I'm not what other people think I am, I'm what I know I am?
00:41:27
Speaker 2: What do you know you are?
00:41:29
Speaker 1: I'm a very flawed, hard working musician, and I'm I'm I'm I'm a lot of the I'm a lot of the things that produce the things that you see the TV show, the songs, the videos, the you know, the the jokes, the all of that stuff. In my heart, I'm just a lazy guy who's willing to work hard where he has to to get to do these things that are fun. It's fun to be on stage playing well, it's not fun to be on stage and be rusty and not nail the lick I'm trying to play. That's that's not fun. So I do the hard work so that I can do that and it'll be fun.
00:42:24
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense. A lot of people don't get that, though, the people who've never done this mentality who do the other who try to just like skate by, They don't know the payoff though, because it is a different payoff.
00:42:37
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, this is a lesson. I was teaching Lily about practicing on her instruments because she's a songwriter now, and yeah, she's got and she has an amazing songwriting talent that is just now showing itself. And what I tried to tell her is, you know, you can learn to strum guitar and play to sing and even play strumming guitar in a band. But that imagine you're in a conversation with some brilliant people and you have a vocabulary of two hundred words, that's it. Your contribution to that conversation is not going to be as great and you're not going to have as much fun mixing thoughts and ideas with the brilliant minds. So I'm surrounded by brilliant musicians and I want to be a part of that conversation. I want to be a bigger part of it, bigger and bigger part of it. It's a lot more fun just to have more to say in that conversation.
00:43:52
Speaker 2: So how and we're going to wrap out up. I know you have a heart out here at noon, which I'm so sad because this is the best thing in my life. Back, what do you do to expand your brilliance? Like? What do you do? You practice?
00:44:05
Speaker 1: What I think about every day? How do I expand my brilliance? It reminds me of a Steve Martin a joke, which is my humility is one of the greatest things about me.
00:44:19
Speaker 3: For real?
00:44:20
Speaker 1: How do you how do I become smarter? Uh? And smarter? It's uh it's reading, learning, practicing, reading, learning, practicing, but not just the music. You know, you need to read other things. So I gotta tell Lily. You know, read a book, you enter another world, You enter another person's thoughts. Uh. You you get to hear where they're coming from. Every writer reveals themselves, you know, in their in their writing. So reading these things, reading history books, studying history, learning history, science, all of this stuff.
00:45:00
Speaker 3: You know.
00:45:00
Speaker 1: I covered a money python song Eric Idol wrote called the Galaxy Song, and his love of astronomy produced this amazing song for the movie and the meaning of life. You never know when you put stuff in the memory bank when you're going to be able to write a check on it.
00:45:22
Speaker 2: Oh good point, Okay, I'm gonna wrap up. I have just like a couple more questions because I'm obsessed with your death experiences, because all I try to do is like spiritually grow and heal my inner self and like connect to the divine. So you had a near death experience, did you go to the other side.
00:45:37
Speaker 1: Oh No, it wasn't that near.
00:45:38
Speaker 2: Okay, I just didn't know if you like saw the light.
00:45:40
Speaker 1: No, I wasn't that, I wasn't unconscious, Okay, it was it was. It was a pretty very near drowning.
00:45:49
Speaker 2: That's terrifying. Yeah that was when you were young.
00:45:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was thirteen. Yeah. And uh, that's what starts.
00:45:55
Speaker 2: Off the book, that starts the whole thing.
00:45:57
Speaker 1: My friends and I did something really stupid and I nearly paid the ultimate price. Yeah, it was. And and and the struggle I went through to get out of that, Like, what do.
00:46:09
Speaker 2: You mean the actual situation.
00:46:11
Speaker 1: Struggle, physical struggle to keep from.
00:46:14
Speaker 2: Drowning, anyone helping you or you all alone.
00:46:16
Speaker 1: Well, somebody helped in the end, but not to get me out. They they got something out of the way so that I could get out of it. And uh, and they took a big risk doing that. And uh. And so my publisher said to me, you need to put something in the book that you know towards the end that explains why you are that guy in the book. And I had never thought of that. I'd never thought of that until I was telling you about the selling newspaper subscriptions. And then when you took me back to that first story in the book, I I realized, you know, that was a that was a pretty hard struggle. And there's a there's a thing about Uh you know why why is the rabbit so calm Because he's evaded the fox before, Right, So when the rabbit gets away from the fox, he doesn't worry about the fox. Right, He's evaded that fox before, So maybe that that was a part of it. I've been to the edge. I fought my way out of it and.
00:47:28
Speaker 2: Kind of got that all the way. Then everything else is like downhill from there. Right.
00:47:34
Speaker 1: There were two other near drownings in my life drowning again, Uh, they were before that.
00:47:40
Speaker 2: Wait, you almost drowned three times? Yeah.
00:47:42
Speaker 1: I didn't put the other two in there because this one, at least to the first time, I may not have been that that close to the danger, but I could have been. And uh the second time I was unconscious in the water.
00:47:59
Speaker 2: And and uh, do you have a fear of water?
00:48:03
Speaker 1: I did I talk about that? You like this part because you're so you know, self analytical. Yes, and that's me. So I did. I did have a problem, and I finally figured it out.
00:48:18
Speaker 2: You did yeah, what made you figure it out? Some sort of therapy? Are just on your own?
00:48:22
Speaker 1: My own?
00:48:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, life therapy. You just uncovered it.
00:48:26
Speaker 1: I just I just figured it out. Why this problem?
00:48:30
Speaker 2: And that's in the book. I'm so excited, Clint Black. This has been amazing, fantastic. Well, it's just like I'm just on me floating all day. This is like, you know, I almost say this. I just interviewed Amy Grant recently too, and she is someone who I hard in Motion was my first album ever, got same with like Killing Time. So I'm like, I'm cool. I'm cool, Like I love talking to great, smart, amazing people who are really successful. But every now and then you have a Clint Black come along and it just like rocks you to your core because you are like Clint Black.
00:49:03
Speaker 1: You know it's not scary though, right interviews you? Yeah, because I thought normal.
00:49:07
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm not nervous.
00:49:09
Speaker 1: I haven't I haven't bitten anyone all year, and the word gets around if you do.
00:49:14
Speaker 2: You know, you can't hide it for long, especially these days of social media. It's gonna be everywhere, and then you know that's a whole.
00:49:20
Speaker 1: Pr marks by marks see.
00:49:22
Speaker 2: Them Okay, but also, you have a movie coming out. When I said I do, that's huge. I mean, now it's turning into a movie. The song that just lives and lives and lives forever, it's the ultimate love song.
00:49:33
Speaker 1: Lifetime approached me a couple of times on that, and I didn't understand what they what they wanted to do, and I just didn't like the idea that song's too special to us, and so I said no. And then my guys all ganged up on me and said, you're taking a meeting. And I took a meeting, and I understood what they wanted to do, and uh, I just had to say yes. And it turned into another creative outlet, which I think is what I love the most about it. Yeah, executive produced with Adam Reid and and got to be involved in the development of the values and the principles and the things that you know, I see in so many movies where you know they've they've written this for the couple and excuse me, and and so I was most particular about how they would be portraying this journey there on, and I got to come up with the way we appear in the film, who we are, and how that's done. So it was it was really a collaboration and we feel like it's it's it was special enough to lend that song to it.
00:50:57
Speaker 2: Well, I think this is really exciting. I think it's so cool the way you've lived life, your journey, with your career, with your family. I love that you have a family first mindset. I think that's incredible. Obviously, you're one of the most legendary artists of all times, and so it's incredible to get to hear your stories. I'm so excited about this book, Clint Black, My Life and Music Killing Time. It's coming out and then the movie's coming right out. It's like back to back.
00:51:19
Speaker 1: It's back to back. A lot going on in pre order. I autographed like five thousand copies. Do you get those pre order so you can order those. Go to Clint Black dot com and uh and you'll see the ones that have the autograph copies. But you can get it on Amazon or anywhere. The greatest books in the world written by legends and so I mean, and it's got a popular title.
00:51:43
Speaker 2: Clint Black Killing Top Oh. I mean, Clint. If you didn't know I was a fan, you know by now. The secrets out.
00:51:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to sign this copy for you.
00:51:53
Speaker 2: Yes, living my best life. Okay, So are you going on tour? Also? Is that happening?
00:51:58
Speaker 1: You touring the eighty cities this year?
00:52:00
Speaker 2: Lisa and Lily not this year?
00:52:02
Speaker 1: Ye okay, but uh yeah we'll we'll be out there doing some shows with Cody Johnson and heck yeah mostly uh mostly evening with for me and and the other tour combo. Can I talk about that?
00:52:20
Speaker 2: Not yet? More surprises.
00:52:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna be touring with somebody else. That's gonna be fun.
00:52:25
Speaker 2: So many Cliffingers. So now I got to just like stay on pins and needles, like checking your website.
00:52:29
Speaker 1: Well, you just need to follow me on Instagram, which actually and on t tack. I'm on tik tak and I'm on Twitter being a.
00:52:38
Speaker 2: No, you're funny and you're you're you got good, you got good tiktoks.
00:52:43
Speaker 1: I'm on the MySpace book okay.
00:52:48
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Clint, thank you so much for joining me. I always wrop up with one question, which is leave your light. It's super open ended. What do you want people to know? Drop some inspiration?
00:52:59
Speaker 1: Leave your light? Uh what?
00:53:04
Speaker 2: Uh?
00:53:04
Speaker 1: Oh?
00:53:05
Speaker 2: Inspiration?
00:53:06
Speaker 1: Inspiration for people.
00:53:07
Speaker 2: It is some good life advice.
00:53:14
Speaker 1: This is a tough question. Well, I got nothing. Just go out there and you know, deal with it.
00:53:27
Speaker 2: Now, just handle what you're getting to.
00:53:30
Speaker 1: Just go deal with it people, you know.
00:53:33
Speaker 2: Uh, that's not bad advice.
00:53:35
Speaker 1: Honestly, love isn't something that we have. It's something that we do and and and and treat everybody kindly. You never know what they're battling. And when you're in traffic and somebody cuts you off, consider that they could be on their way to the hospital.
00:53:54
Speaker 2: That's such a great way to live.
00:53:56
Speaker 1: Probably the butcher shop, but could be the hospital.
00:53:58
Speaker 2: Are you pretty good at keeping yourself under control?
00:54:01
Speaker 1: No?
00:54:01
Speaker 2: Oh do you can? You?
00:54:03
Speaker 1: No, I'm better at it. You know, it's it's like a wine mellowing with age.
00:54:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:54:09
Speaker 1: Practice and uh, I think just being conscious of the idea that everybody's everybody's wrestling, you know, uh, with life, wrestling with God, you know, like I think Israel means wrestles people who wrestle with God or something like that. We're all we're all in a fight. And uh, so be kind and uh be patient, you'll be happier and leave the house twenty or thirty minutes early, and then you won't care what's happening in traffic. You'll just be Oh, traffic is slowing me down. That's that's okay, because I'm early.
00:54:55
Speaker 2: You like to set yourself up for success.
00:54:58
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying in Yeah.
00:55:00
Speaker 2: Set yourself up for success, even like practicing three hours a day so you get on stage and you're great, and you don't you can have fun. You don't want to not have fun. You want to enjoy it.
00:55:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything we do, think of, think of wiring your house for where you want your electrical outlets and your light switch is to be. And everything we do creates a set of wiring in our brain. So what are you wiring yours for?
00:55:26
Speaker 2: Drop the mic? Clint Black, thank you so much for joining me. It's not his album My Life of Music Killing Time. My Life of Music is gonna be out May twin no May nineteenth.
00:55:38
Speaker 1: You can pre order an outlet sixteen page photo.
00:55:41
Speaker 2: Insert Oh a little.
00:55:43
Speaker 1: Rock in the bow tie cute? Yeah, some people go in for the botox bow tie for me.
00:55:54
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me. This is really a thrill of my lifetime. I appreciate it so much. Clint. Bye from maintaining to maintain,
