Yeah.

You know, quit being ridiculous.

Um, and then I come across this river, and I see this, this, uh, little fishing lodge.

I'm like, oh, this is nice.

So I call the number and ask if they have rooms.

They kinda laugh at me.

I think it was kinda, like, this, like, you know, adventure spot.

Mm

how does that happen though like because you have to meet the right people you have to someone because if you say i'm sick if you're 16 and sammy's like 16 he's she's like oh yeah i write something all the time like you're we're gonna be like oh well you're 16 like call me when you're 21 or something sure how so how did that happened

um so funny story i was at a uh i'll tell you the long version uh but i was at a zoe's kitchen r.i.p um and i was 15. ashley gorley was in there and i saw ashley and like for me like seeing songwriters was as big as seeing like like seeing ashley glory was the same to me as seeing kenny chesney yeah like i was just i i idolized these songwriters i remember seeing tom douglas at a chick-fil-a when i was 13 and being like he wrote house to build me you know like that was kind of my that was my education in country and i saw ashley i'm like dude he's the goat and i like i like wanted to like go say hey to him and and like i had like a cd in my mom's car like some and wanted to give it to him and i didn't a year later i signed a publishing deal to ashley gorely um but how it happened was i was at i was at dinner my family and i were on a trip in montana and um uh that night at dinner i said to my family to my parents and my brother i said of all all people in nashville i'd love to work with this is in 2016. uh zach crowe producer he just they were just coming off the montevallo record with sam hunt and like zach had just kind of blown up on his production and i was just like fascinated by this this production and i was like of all people in nashville i'd love to work with uh zach crowe would be one of the top guys the next day the very next day i get an email that zach had seen a video of me singing cop car on instagram and would love to meet seven days later after saying that out loud seven days later i'm in zach's studio and we started working together so zach signs me to a publishing deal at 16.

And we get going, obviously signed a record deal.

Zach produces all my stuff up to my first record.

We do the whole first record together.

And so, man, just crazy God time and God thing.

Right door, you know, right time.

Explain what that is and.

What, what has been that wake up for you?

Yeah.

I mean, in that I, I, um, I preached my first sermon last week, so I got to, yeah, I, um, I got to, uh, there was a country radio seminar conference.

It's in Nashville.

The whole country industry comes around it for a week.

And, um, Um, and every year for the last 10 years, I've done this morning called believers and, and, um, they have someone in the industry just share a testimony or, or share a word.

And then they have, you know, worship and, uh, and it's just slowly grown throughout the years.

And I'm curious if you feel like that early intervention and getting therapeutic support and spiritual support for you helped you stay grounded in navigating this thing, or have you had long-term impact from it? Have you had any classic traumatic symptoms like flashbacks or nightmares or anything like that?

But man, th- when I think about how strong and prepared you were in your faith, and then of course it's grown exponentially in this last year, but talk a little bit about the difference maker that, that that was for you, and how you approached perspective in this.

To not, to not walk in faith or the hope of Christ, I struggle to, I struggle to understand how anyone could make it through a day.

It just do- it doesn't even make sense to me how anyone could find purpose or meaning or joy or fulfillment or contentment outside of the joy of Christ and the hope of Christ.

Just the kindness of the Father, of who Jesus was, and I remember sitting out here with Dad, and this was maybe a week after, and I said, um, something along the lines of, "Where does that rank for you?" You know? "Where does last Sunday rank for you as, on the worst days of your life?" You know, 'cause it was definitely mine.

And, uh, he said, "That'd be hard to find something else that's at the top," you know? So I think about my suffering, and I think about y'all's suffering as parents, you know, that probably is, in its own way, worse, you know, and think about Dad's heart as a father.

And then you see God's heart as a father for you in those moments to go, man, like, He meets, He keeps true to every promise, and He meets those who are broken-hearted in those moments in a way that is too grand for words, and that a God of all creation, in all of His glory and splendor and majesty, would care so much and enough that He would come in a moment of brokenness and just sit with me.

And those moments with the Lord were the most intimate moments that I had ever felt, and my prayer before that happened was, I was praying consistently that God would take all of the information that was in my head, and that He would place it in my heart, that all the things that I, I knew about God, all the things that I believed about God, that they would become...

Mm-hmm.