You had to.

And I, and now there's no way.

Like, I think if we were starting at this point, it would just be like a, I don't know if that's worth it, dude.

Like, to, we... 'Cause you'd have to lose this part of you, and I'm thankful, like, that we were kind of at that place in our lives when we first started and, you know, living on no money and just hopes and dreams, and, like, it was so fun.

And it is, uh, I don't know, I'm thankful for those times.

But now it's like, all right, what are we putting weight into? Where it's like I love what we do, and trying to find that, like, that balance is very difficult.

I don't know if there ever is, like, a real work-life balance.

Like, "Oh, what's gonna happen?" [laughs]

Yeah.

When we hear an artist put something out that's, like, y- you know means something to them, it reacts and it connects.

And we were just like, "We need to dig a little deeper." And at the end of the day, like you said about the Bigger Houses album, like, even though it wasn't our biggest album, there were hits on there and we're grateful for it, and ball keeps rolling.

But I feel like we learned to enjoy the process a little bit more, and if everyone is just in this rush ...

I heard John Bellion talk about it.

He was like, "Man, everything is automated now.

I could click a button and order my groceries, and it gets delivered to my house." It's like so much of our life experience is, like, going to the grocery store, running into a friend, going through and Trying to pick the right avocado [laughs]

Mm-hmm

[laughs]

But I don't know.

I just feel like we wanted to go back to the drawing board.

The songs were cool, but they weren't, like, moving us emotionally, and if we would try to break it down and play them on an acoustic guitar, I feel like it would just be like, "Well, you're missing, like, the crazy track, so it means nothing." And I think the songs that stand the test of time, you can sit down on an acoustic guitar and sing with no production or no, not hide behind anything.

And I think one of the biggest jumping off points for this album was not our last album as a whole.

I, I, I, I still love that album, but I feel like where we really connected and where we really found it was on the song Bigger Houses, which was the title track.

That song kinda seemed like the true north for what the Young album ca- became.

Mm-hmm

Bring everyone up to speed about this single that you've been with for a while now, but it's still, I wanted to introduce it to more and

more people.

Thank you, man.

Appreciate you checking that out and not being offended by my random out of blue text there.

But no, it's a special song.

I know we came in here goofing off, but it's a song that I feel like at this point in our career, something we haven't done.

And we were hanging out, we were writing a bunch of songs in this kind of creative inspiration couple weeks where we were just, the whole album was pouring out of us.

yeah let's go yeah yeah come on

introduce

it to more and more people thank you man appreciate you checking that out and not uh being offended by my random out of blue text there but no it's a special song it's um i know we came in here goofing off but it's a song that like i feel like this point in our career something we haven't done and we were hanging out we were writing a bunch of songs in this kind of creative inspiration a couple weeks where we were just the whole album was pouring out of us and we were sharing stories about our friend ben vaughn who we lost uh, a little over a year ago.

And, um, man, he just meant a lot to us, like personally, professionally, he was a mentor to us.

He signed us.

He was like the first guy to believe in us as songwriters.

Um, you know, before we were even Dan and Shay at duo, he's the guy who introduced us to our record label that we're still with to this day.

And, uh, he was just on our hearts and we were sharing stories about him talking about how much we miss him.

on

I'm nervous every

time.

100%.

I feel like this album, I mean, every artist comes in and says, like, this is our most personal.

It really is, like, such a personal...

We said that about this one.

Yeah, this is, like, if you listen to it, it feels very autobiographical, and it feels like we're standing where our feet are.

And it threw us off when we were signing the vinyls

Honestly, we're

three quarters of the way doing this thing.

Like we're kind of nervous.

It's a big moment for us.

There's like 90,000 people in this stadium and I'm like looking around just taking in this moment.

And I look up and see Tom Cruise and David Beckham.

I was like, I almost forgot the words.

We've got something good.

So tell us a little about the song.

Dude, I, I sent you a text before it even came out, so gave you a little, uh, leak on that.

You heard it before the world.

I just, I remember when we were on The Voice just talking to you about mental health, you know.

Obviously, it's been a big part of our lives, and I've been open to our fans and, and everybody around me about going to therapy.

You know, for a long time, I, I swore it off.

I was like, "I'm a tough guy.

When's it come out?

What's up with it?

Yeah, man, it's, uh, this, I, I feel like is a very pers- it's a different concept than we've ever done before.

I feel like we're kinda known as, like, they're the wedding guys.

They sing songs about our wives, and, you know, we'll always do that.

But this song we wrote, uh, and we weren't sure if it was ever gonna come out.

We sat down and write with our buddies Jimmy Robbins and David Hodges one day.

We were kinda just having a great, great week of creativity.

Little?

That is fair.

Like you might not like her, but you definitely like you, if a Taylor Swift song comes on you're bopping to it.

... your guy's like go to boppin' Taylor Swift song besides Back To December which is amazing Go check it out.

Oh, there's so many I ...

Hmm.

The 1989 albums probably like goaded for me.

Blank Space goes crazy.

Um, trying to think some more throwbacks.

And the one who was not was wrong because it was successful.

I wouldn't say I wasn't an advocate, but I, after tequila, right? biggest song of our career trying to figure out what we go with next and we had a song on that record called keeping score that was streaming like crazy kelly clarkson was on it you know one of the most famous most incredible vocalists of all time like the biggest get we could get as a feature getting to hear her sing a duet with shea was unbelievable that was kind of my vote for the next single i was like it could Go number one at country, cross over to hot AC, do the thing.

Because Tequila was crossing over at that time.

And Shea was like, Speechless, I think, is the one.

I think it's amazing.

I love singing it.

That was always his thing.

No,

about you know historical or georgia or whomever uh give me the story of bigger houses like tell me something personal about it and then we'll play and come back Well, pre-Sourdough

obsession.

I love my wife.

I love you, Abby.

She's probably listening right now.

The Sourdough is amazing, by the way.

Okay, so this song came about, we had kind of finished up this album, you know, we were super proud of it.

And the one who was not was wrong because it was successful.

Tell me something personal about it and then we'll play it and come back.

well pre-sourdough obsession I love my wife I love you Abby she's probably listening right now the sourdough is amazing by the way okay so this song came about we had kind of finished up this album you know we were super proud of it we were writing we were trying to figure out what the title of the album was always say this this is how Speechless came about at the 11th hour you think you're done you turn it in it's like well we still don't have a title so we kept you know we kept writing songs we went in to write that day and our buddy Andy Albert I gotta give a shout out to Andy Albert we've probably shouted him out on the show a million times I moved to Nashville with Andy in 2010.

We were struggling, camping out behind Little Caesars, eating the pizza out of the dumpster, doing the thing, sneaking into the Continental Breakfast at the Hampton Inn on West End.

Got all the stories.

But he's just a great songwriter, a great friend.

He was in my wedding.

And we were writing that day, and he had just bought a new house, right? He's had a little bit of success, had a few number ones on country radio.

And the one who was not was wrong because it was successful.